Blog Posts - Books by Eric Douglas

Queen Conch short story features Mike Scott

October 14, 2013 By Eric Douglas

The fifth story in the Withrow Key series of short story adventures has two guest characters and sets the stage, in terms of character development, for the novel Wreck of the Huron.

Mike Scott, the hero of all four of my dive adventure novels is passing through Withrow Key and decides to drop in on his old friend Jackson Pauley. Everything is going fine until Sarah shows up. She is an environmentalist with a story that both men have trouble believing, but something about her convinces Mike to help her out and check out the story she is telling. From there, things really get interesting.

Without spoiling the story, Sarah shows up in Wreck of the Huron as a researcher on board a university research vessel with mysteries of its own.

Queen Conch

Queen Conch is a protected species in the United States, but smugglers are catching them close to Withrow Key for restaurants in Miami. In the process, they are tearing up the coral reefs and creating an environmental disaster. It is up to Jackson Pauley and Randy Littlebear to determine if this is simply an illegal fishing operation or if there is something bigger going on. Is someone making a land grab to build condos on Withrow Key?

This is the fifth Withrow Key adventure short story. Set on a bypassed key in the Florida Keys, life moves a little slower and a little weirder.

Each story in the Withrow Key adventure short story series features scuba diving, adventure, boats, the ocean and mystery along with beautiful locations and scenery. Jackson Pauley and Randy Littlebear get a visit from Mike Scott, international news photographer and the main character from the Mike Scott adventure series.

Queen Conch is available as a FREE Kindle download October 14 and 15. Get your copy today while the offer lasts!.

Breast Cancer: Living Out Loud

October 9, 2013 By Eric Douglas

Note: The interviews and the columns in this series became the basis for a book: Keep on, Keepin’ on. It was published last spring and is available through Amazon.

Living through a bout with breast cancer, much less a return of the disease, can feel like riding out a hurricane. For Jean Hanna Davis, going through breast cancer for the second time in 10 years isn’t something to keep quiet about. She doesn’t seek attention, but she knows people want to know what’s going on with her, and they care about her; it makes sense for her to talk about it publicly.

“The big difference between this time and the last time, pre-Facebook and post-Facebook, you don’t have to work very hard to get that sort of encouragement. I need that feedback.”

The following is a series of Facebook posts when Jean was diagnosed this year.

May 1: Bone scan & sternum xrays over….waiting for results!
May 3: The bone scan showed “activity” at the sternum…could be that pesky costochondritis healing & scaring everyone, but no way to tell until the next test is done. Pet scan scheduled for Thursday.
May 9: Hospitals should be fined for making a person fast all day, then putting the cafeteria just inside the main doors. Seriously. PET scan done — results sometime soon. Feeling good!
May 13: Have I mentioned lately that cancer really IS the gift that keeps on giving? PET scan showed “hyper-metabolic activity” on sternum. Likely treatment is radiation (don’t know how many) & a bone stabilizer – like Zometa – once a month forever. Probably no chemo. Will let you know as I have more info.
May 15: Looking for the gifts….as I was grocery shopping today, having a really hard time holding it together & getting ready to walk out, a kid walked up to me & said he was an enemy droid. He went on to describe the droid and the gun attached to his arm. When I thanked him for keeping us safe, he told me that he was from the dark side and was evil. I told him he could change & we could re-program him – like when Picard was ALMOST but not quite assimilated by the Borg….he said he’d think about it. Cancer Volume 2, Gift 1.
May 20: Cancer round 2, gift 2 – being reminded of the community of people, near & far, who seem to love me…even a little. Thank you for all of your kind words and prayers for healing. Will post an update after my appointment with the oncologist tomorrow.
May 22: In a nutshell — Cancer in sternum appears to measure 8.5 cc’s – that’s about the size of my index finger (although the cancer isn’t shaped like that!). Oncologist wants to biopsy to make sure it’s mets & not a new flavor of cancer…As always, thank you for your prayers & support & cards….I am surrounded by a remarkable community of beings, both near & far.
May 23: There. That one is better! Very “sacred heart-y'” don’tcha think? See the glow? The lit up sternum is the cancer. The second pic is a slice from the ct. I am on my back. The glowing bit above the blob that is my heart is the cancer. Rad onc thinks it may be recurrence…NOT mets…due to location. But no way to know for sure. He plans for 5 radiations starting ASAP. Biopsy tomorrow. Results Tues or Wed. Will check in after I get home. Love you all!

Facing a life-threatening illness and enduring treatment that makes you feel worse than you ever could have possibly imagined, while still trying to maintain some normalcy in your life: work, family, entertainment isn’t for the faint of heart. It takes a lot of support to keep the energy up and keep moving forward. Any cancer patient will tell you that.

“When the cancer came back in the spring of this year, I really looked hard to find the gifts. It is hard to find the gifts some days. But one of the gifts is to get in touch with people. You don’t see the private messages I get. Every day there are at least five messages. ‘Do you need anything? I’m passing through. What can I get you?’ I’ve seen more people and talked to people more in the last five months than I have talked to in the last 20 years.”

The point of talking about cancer online and publicly isn’t about gaining attention, although anyone who has struggled with something will tell you they need that support; it is to reach out to others and help them through their own struggle.

“I think I’ve always been a performer. It is a genetic abnormality to be the person who wants to be in front of people and make them feel good. You give me an audience and I animate. The last time I did this (chemotherapy), I got to the end of the treatment and I thought ‘There is something else I am supposed to do. Public speaking or something as a side gig.’ I am helping with a fundraiser in October that is going to benefit Komen. I’ve thought about ways to work music in and be the presenter. I’ve done that a time or two.”

For Jean’s mother, Arlene, it’s not surprising Jean is using her fight with cancer to support others.

Arlene: “As she gets older, I can see more strength in her. As a child, she was always the first one with the confidence and the strength. And positiveness. She has always brought that out in other people. People see her and talk to her and say, ‘I can do that.’ She brings that out in other people.”

Jean knows she might just inspire or encourage other cancer patients, or people with their own struggles, to “Keep on, keeping on.”

This is the second of a series of blogs for Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Jean Hanna Davis has given me access to each of her chemotherapy treatments while she works to rid her body of cancer for a second time.

I’m not sick, I just have cancer will be the topic for the next post. The other topics will be:

Family
Faith

Previous posts are:

You can see the entire series on the Breast Cancer Page in the non-fiction section of my website.

This series is dedicated to Jean and her family, along with all the women who have fought breast cancer—patients and families alike. Follow this link to find out more about Breast Cancer Awareness Month. It is a clearing house of information with links and connections to many of the major players in the fight against breast cancer..

Woody Williams dedicates memorial for Gold Star families

October 4, 2013 By Eric Douglas

IMG_9268 web — Woody Williams, Governor Earl Ray Tomblin and Rick Givens dedicate a new memorial for Gold Star Families, families of those who have lost a loved one in war.

John 15:13: Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.

Hershel “Woody” Williams would add “or his country” to those words from the New Testament, he said. With that, the Medal of Honor recipient unveiled a new memorial at the Donel C. Kinnard Memorial State Veterans Cemetery in Dunbar, West Virginia on October 2, in honor of the Gold Star Mothers to remember the families of those in uniform who made the ultimate sacrifice.

It also happened to be Williams’ 90^th birthday, but the retired Marine doesn’t seem to have lost a step. Williams is in constant motion and is highly revered throughout the state and country. He is the last surviving Medal of Honor recipient from the Battle of Iwo Jima in World War II. There were 27 Medals of Honor awarded from that battle. He is also the only surviving recipient of the nation’s highest award in West Virginia.

At Williams’ birthday party in Charleston the night before, he told a story of speaking to a crowd of veterans, as he does often. When he was done, one man hung back and Williams assumed the man wanted to ask him a question. When the man came forward finally, Williams said tears were streaming down his face. All he said was “Gold Star fathers cry, too.” At that moment, Williams said, he decided to get to work.

IMG_9214 web — Before the dedication ceremony, Governor Tomblin named Woody Williams a Distinguished West Virginian.

I had the honor of interviewing Williams for the West Virginia Voices of War documentary project. He is in the documentary and a longer version of his story is in the book Common Valor. Williams talks about his action on Iwo Jima for which he received his Medal of Honor, taking out seven enemy pill boxes with a flamethrower, but he also talks about what it is like to be a veteran and how his own experiences changed his life. Since returning to West Virginia, he has worked tirelessly for veteran’s issues.

Using the occasion of his birthday, Williams officially launched the Hershel “Woody” Williams Medal of Honor Foundation. Number one on his priority list is to create Gold Star Families Memorial Monuments throughout the country. A second monument is planned for Marietta, Georgia. Others are also in the works. Williams’ foundation is also supporting two of the Congressional Medal of Honor Foundation’s programs.

The Character Development Program: mentoring students of all ages in schools and universities across the country. Woody strives to continually engage with students and express the importance of having good role models and “doing the right things in life”.
The Citizen Honors program: Each year, Recipients of the Congressional Medal of Honor – our nation’s highest award for wartime acts of valor – reach out across the nation to find unsung citizen heroes. The Recipients believe Americans need not serve in the military, nor be in combat against the Nation’s en emies, to demonstrate the traits embodied in the Medal of Honor; courage, sacrifice, selflessness, and patriotism.

If you are interested in supporting these efforts, or learning more about Williams, visit his foundation’s website..

Talking about cancer

October 2, 2013 By Eric Douglas

Note: The interviews and the columns became the basis for a book: Keep on, Keepin’ on. It was published last spring and is available through Amazon.

Jean Hanna Davis is a wife, a daughter, a mother, a musician and a teacher. She is also a breast cancer survivor and a cancer patient.

In April 2003, Jean was diagnosed with cancer while pregnant with her second daughter. She was faced with taking chemo while pregnant. She survived that process and gave birth to Juliana who is now growing up, bright and happy.

Nearly 10 years later, the cancer is back. Over the regular beeping of the device hanging beside her bed, she takes a series of chemicals designed to kill the cancer. In the process, it tears her body down; something familiar to every cancer patient and every family member. Not unusual for cancer patients, she knows the formulaic name for each of her medications and what they do. She knows which drugs will upset her stomach, make her nauseous and all the other side effects that come with letting toxic chemicals into your body. (The nurses and technicians have to use special gloves so they don’t get chemicals on their hands and get burned.)

Throughout the process, though, is laughter. She makes jokes, entertains, talks and knows the first name of everyone involved in her care. During a recent chemotherapy, she coached the patient in the bed beside her, reassuring the woman who was going through chemo for the first time.

“I’m nervous about this. I’ve already done this once. How could I not be nervous? I’m not happy to be doing this again. People have said “You are so lucky you found it early.” I’m pretty sure I’m a lot of things, but I don’t know if I would call it lucky,” she said.

John Hanna photographs his daughter Jean with the machine that administers her chemotherapy.

Jean is a native of Charleston, but now lives in Princeton and teaches for Mercer County schools. She was diagnosed with cancer in May just before the end of the school year.

“At school in the spring, teachers would stop me and ask 1000 questions in front of the kids. So one day, a half dozen kids asked me at lunch what was going on. So, I got everyone quiet and told them. I told them I wouldn’t be doing any lunch duty next year, or coming out of my classroom much, but that I am gonna be okay. I had several parents stop me over the summer to check on me. I’m not sure that all the parents appreciated that I told the entire fourth grade class, but the parents I spoke to were fine with it. I just think knowing is better than not knowing.”

For Jean, while cancer is something to deal with and work through, it isn’t something to hide or to be depressed about.

“I ran into someone this morning that I haven’t seen for a while. I used to teach with her. When I told her the cancer was back, her face just fell. I tell everyone this and I told her this morning, my take on this is it’s been 10 years. If I get nine good years and one crappy year, those are pretty good odds. The last nine years have been really good. If I get nine more good years out of this, that’s pretty good,” she said. “I really want people to know that cancer is not, in many cases, a death sentence. Even the chemo as you’re going through it, it’s not fun, but I’ve always said my chemo days are my spa days. They take my blood, but they bring me blankets, they bring me breakfast and lunch. They take care of me. There is power in taking control of your situation. For me it has always been important to put a positive spin on it.”

Her motto, that you hear whenever you talk to her, is “Keep on keeping on.” She is not about to let cancer get the best of her, even on the bad days.

This is the first of a series of blogs for Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Jean Hanna Davis has given me access to each of her chemotherapy treatments while she works to rid her body of cancer for a second time.

Jean lets her friends and family know what is going on with her life on Facebook. That will be the topic for the next post: Living Out Loud. The other topics will be:

Follow this link to find out more about Breast Cancer Awareness Month. It is a clearing house of information with links and connections to many of the major players in the fight against breast cancer.

This series is dedicated to Jean and her family, along with all the women who have fought breast cancer—patients and families alike..

Harvesting divers still dying all over the world

September 27, 2013 By Eric Douglas

In spite of efforts from various organizations over the last several years, men (and yes, they are almost exclusively men) use scuba equipment to harvest lobster, conch and sea cucumbers among other things from the ocean floor. They do this with little regard for themselves or the environment, often overfishing the area. In the process, nearly all of them have injured their bodies so completely only a few of them are even fit to dive at all. They all have various levels of paralysis and nerve damage.

When I’ve written about this before, I’ve had people comment that the divers should just stop diving and do something else. Or, people have said, it isn’t our fault, we don’t make them dive.

In a sense, we do make them dive. We insist on cheap seafood so we can “all-you-can-eat” ourselves into obesity. As long as we are willing to buy these products, without insisting on sustainable sources for them, we are responsible. There is no difference between this and sweat shops or child labor being used to create the cheap goods we use and throw away when we are done with them. Yet, the moral outrage that is directed at sweatshop labor is nonexistent for harvesting divers.

Nearly two years ago, I traveled to Honduras for the fourth time (There were additional trips to Brazil and Mexico to meet with other groups of divers as well) to meet with and talk to Miskito Indians who dive for lobster; this time it was with a crew from the NBC show Rock Center. In January of 2012, they aired a two part segment (with additional online footage) called Lobster Trap. They used articles I had written on the subject as background material and I was interviewed on the show as well. I just learned yesterday that Lobster Trap won the 2013 RFK Book & Journalism Award for International Television. The segment’s producer Catherine Olian and the reporter Natalie Morales were specifically honored.

The RFK Journalism Awards recognize outstanding reporting on issues that reflect Robert Kennedy’s dedication to human rights and social justice, and his belief in the power of individual action. Winning entries provide insights into the causes, conditions, and remedies of human rights violations and injustice, and critical analyses of the movements that foster positive global change.

I am proud to have a small part in this story and hope that this award will continue to draw attention to the problem of harvesting divers throughout the world.

If you want to read more about this problem, view a short film I put together on three groups of harvesting divers, or watch the NBC show Lobster Trap, you can find the links on the For Cheap Lobster Page..

Telling the stories that need to be told

September 25, 2013 By Eric Douglas

Last month my mom moved out of the house she lived in for 49 years. That meant I had to clean out the last of the “stuff” I left there over the years including a rather large box from my days at Marshall. Sorting through it, I discovered my clip book from my days on The Parthenon.

2013-09-25 09.27.01 — My Marshall University School of Journalism clip book showing the two page spread on the ROTC.

In the School of Journalism, we were required to work on The Parthenon (the student newspaper) for at least one semester. We had to cut out our stories and keep them in a binder for a grade. I really don’t remember how it all came about, but for one story I went out in the field with the ROTC on weekend maneuvers. It ended up running as a two-page spread (called a “double truck”) in the paper. The next semester, I was covering the medical school and a group of med students decided to go to a working coal mine and see where some of their potential patients worked. I went along and that turned into another two-page spread. For someone who didn’t originally plan to specialize in journalism, I decided I liked telling “bigger” stories.

In today’s world, journalism is often about sound bites and telling stories as quickly as possible. It is much rarer to get the opportunity to tell big stories. (Every so often, you see an exception. Doug Imbrogno’s feature series Elizabeth and George is a great example.) On the other hand, blogs and specialized websites have rekindled an interest in “long form journalism”. The beauty of telling these stories online is you can integrate all sorts of media into the process. You can interweave video, still images, audio clips and text into one package that offers a much deeper experience than print alone. The West Virginia Voices of War project is another example of this.

Jean Hanna Davis playing at my wedding in 2012. The haircut had nothing to do with cancer…

In early August, Jean Hanna Davis offered me tremendous access to a period in her life when most people would insist on privacy. In the spring she was diagnosed with cancer for the second time. After a second mastectomy and radiation, she began chemotherapy, a month shy of 10 years after the first time. I’ve sat with her through the first three chemo sessions (out of six scheduled), recording her thoughts on the process and plan to attend as many as I can. Jean is a fighter. She is not about to take this lying down. Most of her friends refer to her as Wonder Woman for her attitude when it comes to cancer. She wants to talk about cancer because she hopes her experiences will help someone going through cancer for the first time will learn from what she has been through.

So many of us complain and whine (myself included) about things that have little or no consequence. These are often referred to as first-world problems. And then I run across someone who isn’t whining. Or complaining. Just fighting. Like Jean.

Jean playing and singing with her daughter Hanna in 2011.

I would guess Jean would say that when you don’t have a choice, it makes you tough and you fight. The alternative isn’t an alternative at all. When your family and friends depend on you and you have lots of life left to live, you fight. It is the medical equivalent of being backed into a corner.

I will be posting a story to my website each Wednesday in October for Breast Cancer Awareness Month about Jean and what she is going through and her thoughts on the process. I hope you follow along. Please feel free to include your own stories in the comments below each post. That’s the beauty of today’s long-form journalism–it’s interactive.

The plan:

This series of blogs is dedicated to Jean and her family, along with all the women who have fought breast cancer—patients and families alike..