Blog Posts - Books by Eric Douglas

Great Reviews for River Town

August 22, 2013 By Eric Douglas

While it is inevitable that someone won’t like River Town and there will be bad reviews, we haven’t seen any yet. We’ve been getting fantastic reviews so far.

River Town is a collection of short stories set in 1890s West Virginia. The combined work of six different authors, the tales range from adventure to romance, from intrigue to fantasy. Each story stands alone, yet together they take readers to a time along the Kanawha River just after the Civil War when families were still struggling to recover and as the railroad was just coming through the mountains. The river was the center of everything.

The book has been as high as #4 on the Hot New Releases list in its category on Amazon as well.

Get your copy today and see what everyone is talking about!

Here are the reviews for River Town on Amazon so far:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful., August 12, 2013

By Joel L. Watts “Joel Watts” – See all my reviews (VINE VOICE) (REAL NAME) �

This review is from: River Town (Paperback)

Eric Douglas edits an anthology project where few have dared to tread. He assembles a group of friends, fellow authors and West Virginians, to write the stories of a town — River Town — but to do so almost independent of one another. This allows the writers, the characters, and West Virginia to remain independent of one another, but like the life in these hills, interconnected.The stories — the story — moves along at a pace sure to keep you reading until the very, shocking, end.

As someone not from around here — the real River Town, WV — I can appreciate scenery. It is just real enough to create the emotional attached in the reader, but yet serves as the authors’ creation. Even the time period has that odd mix of fantasy and reality. It is that moment right before West Virginia changed to the coal madam she is today.

A fantastic read!

4.0 out of 5 stars A Visit to River Town, August 12, 2013

By Steve Barnett – See all my reviews

This review is from: River Town (Kindle Edition)

The authors provide the reader with a view into a brief period of time when coal was king and the river was the central artery for all things into and out of River Town. Formatted as short stories, the reader views a series of interconnected events through the eyes of a cast of characters. And while each story/chapter can stand alone (each one could be the basis for a novel on their own), be sure to read them in order to capture the entire story. This was a fantastic, fun read. I am already hoping there are more stories to come from River Town.

5.0 out of 5 stars Gripping, August 12, 2013

By Leanne – See all my reviews

This review is from: River Town (Paperback)

The authors of River Town pen a page turner. The collection of stories takes place in 1890 Charleston, West Virginia and transports the reader on a journey when the river was the source of livelihood, as well as coal and the cut-throat goings-on of the coal companies. It’s stories of intrigue and adventure; including a possible murder and magic leave the reader wanting more. Each story is uniquely intertwined with the others and the characters are well-crafted, real and engrossing. I cheered for Capitan Dawson, I wanted to learn more about Hayden and Lillian. I grew increasing curious about Clinton, Julia, Miss Roxie, and the Wilson family. A job well done.

4.0 out of 5 stars Appalachian Intrigue and Mysticism in River Town, August 9, 2013

By BWoodrum – See all my reviews

This review is from: River Town (Kindle Edition)

Douglas and his group of assembled writers do a good job of weaving historical fiction and mysticism into a unique Appalachian story. The story is set in the fictional village of River Town, a coal camp in the hills of West Virginia. Drawing on aspects and figures of the state history, the story weaves a fictional tale of redemption, greed, bravery, betrayal and other human vices/virtues set upon a backdrop of the impoverished coal mining towns of the late 19th century. From the prodigal son returning home to the coal barons seeking to expand their empires, the writers use Point of View story telling to effectively engage the readers and slowly evolve and reveal the shared characters about which they write in interesting and unexpected ways.The various writing styles evident complement each other and weave a rich story. I hope this entry is just the beginning of stories we hear from and about River Town and its residents. The story definitely left me wanting to know some more of the back stories and where the characters were headed.

Overall a job well done.

4.0 out of 5 stars Take me home…Country Roads, August 22, 2013

By DoctorDaddy – See all my reviews

This review is from: River Town (Kindle Edition)

The best books take you to a place you can see and feel.This puts a heavy burden on the author. Not only must you write in a style that you feel comfortable with, but you need to see the things and hear the things and feel the things that you reader needs to see and hear and feel.

Eric Douglas and his gang of authors share that burden to great effect. Every story has a unique feel that collectively weaves a tapestry of richness that carries the reader along with them.

Read River Town, hear it, see it and occasionally smell it.

But no matter what, you cannot help but feel it.

5.0 out of 5 stars LOVED IT!, August 13, 2013

By Cathie Jo Bias – See all my reviews

This review is from: River Town (Paperback)

What a great book! From the first word to the last, I enjoyed every aspect of this book! And growing up in Charleston, WV made it even more special. I highly recommend this for all who enjoy reading, young or old!

5.0 out of 5 stars All things CharleyWest, August 12, 2013

By Kat – See all my reviews

This review is from: River Town (Kindle Edition)

Being a lover of WV,this read was simply a joy. Entertaining and beautiful I could see the wonder of the growth of our capital city via the current of the great waterway. If you are a lover of WV and her greatest gifts of coal and the river …..the stories..story Rivertown will not let you down.

5.0 out of 5 stars River Town, August 11, 2013

By Laura M – See all my reviews

This review is from: River Town (Paperback)

River Town is very special…a fabulous mix of history, strength, sadness, and love. The characters were rich. There were details in just the right places and subtleties in others. I never wanted to put it down! What a great concept to get many authors involved!

River Town Flash Fiction: Blue Moon

August 21, 2013 By Eric Douglas

The smoke from Captain JD Dawson’s cigar curled toward the full moon. This moon, a blue moon, was bright enough to keep the Miss Jayne Marie running through the night. He wanted to get back to River Town by morning. There were some strange things going on there and he wanted to get back.

The moon was full another night JD didn’t remember so fondly—the night his beloved Jayne Marie, mother of his two daughters, died from the fever. Afterward he told his girls to look for her face in the moon and he talked to the moon like he was talking to his wife. He could hear her talking to him, too. Well, not talking, but he knew she was there watching out for him.

A brief flash of, well, it wasn’t exactly a light, but something brought JD’s attention back to the river. He had a lookout on the barge they were pushing, but Jack hadn’t signaled anything was wrong. Then he saw why. Jack was asleep.

On instinct, JD turned the Miss Jayne Marie sharply to port. Seconds later he heard the sound of a submerged tree scraping down the right side of the barge and then the sternwheeler. The wooden hull of the steamboat probably could have handled the collision, but he doubted the barge would have made it. Even if it had, the sternwheel would have been torn apart and they would have been dead in the water.

“Captain! We just had a close call!” the Miss Jayne Marie’s chief engineer shouted through the brass tube from the boiler room to the pilot house.

“I heard it,” JD growled back. “The lookout fell asleep. Send one of your men to wake up Cline and get him up here to take the wheel. Back off to one third. I want to look around and make sure everything is all right.”

JD reached up and pulled the cord to the steam whistle. A piercing scream shattered the night. He watched the lookout jerk awake and stand up. JD decided to deal with Jack later.

When First Officer Cline showed up, JD nodded to the man and pointed to the pot of coffee and then stepped out on the upper deck. He was about to walk around when he paused to look up at the moon again.

“Thanks honey. I know that was you lookin’ out for me.”

He smiled for the first time in a while. He thought for a moment he could see her face in the blue moon hanging over his head.

As he stepped toward the stairs, he heard the sounds of a scuffle and then a splash. It was going to be a long night. He knew he wasn’t going to get any sleep but he was glad it was a full moon—Jayne Marie was going to be with him through whatever lay ahead in River Town.

If you want to find out more about River Town, check out the full book!.

River Town is a character itself

August 19, 2013 By Eric Douglas

The following is the foreword of the new book River Town. It explains how I created the book and corralled five other writers in the effort to put this unique book together.

I’ve been dreaming about putting together an anthology like this since I was a kid. Mom let me join a book-of-the-month club when I was 12 or 13 and I looked forward to what would arrive by mail each month. One day I received a book edited by Robert Lynn Aspirin and I was immediately fascinated. The book was Thieves World. Aspirin and a group of friends came up with a set of shared characters in a single location. It was the coolest thing I’d ever read. What made it so interesting was seeing the same characters offered up by different authors.

Every storyteller has his own style, her own approach, and a unique way of operating a character. To see the same characters driven by different people was like seeing the same person from other perspectives. The characters’ personalities were fuller and better developed. I got to know them better than I could have if they were all written by one author. I was hooked.

Flash forward 30 years. I returned to my hometown after being away for nearly 14 years and I decided it was time to write about “home.” I’ve written several books and short stories, but none about where I grew up. Through a friend-of-a-friend meeting, I met one of my fellow authors on this project. I immediately saw the possibility of combining a shared anthology with home and a new friend. Elizabeth Gaucher and I started emailing, and slowly it expanded to a few others in the mutual network. We talked to a few other writers beyond the ones included here. A few declined, saying they were too busy or not interested. A few others didn’t manage to respond to the emails. That’s the nature of the game.

There were some fits and starts, too; the occasional “discussion” about whether a character would or would not do something one writer included in her story. I kept telling the writers that that was the fun part of this process. I’m not sure if they believed me or not, but I’m very proud of what we accomplished.

What you have in your hand is a West Virginia story. It’s about a place that may’ve/sort’ve existed just before the turn of the last century. West Virginia is known for coal mining today, but just after the Civil War it was all about the river. West Virginia’s mountains were much too rugged for easy transportation. The only way to get natural resources to market was the river. Any coal dug from the ground, timber felled, or salt pumped out of wells had to float down the river to make it to market. By 1875, a series of locks and dams made the Kanawha River navigable year-round, and those locks spawned towns up and down the river. Steam-powered, sternwheel-driven river boats plied their trade, bringing people and supplies in and coal and natural resources out.

Although River Town is imagined where Charleston is today and some historic references are made, there is a lot of fiction in the stories you are about to read as well. This isn’t the gold rush or the Wild West, but some of those same stories were played out right here along the banks of the Kanawha River. You can still see an occasional sternwheeler heading up the river around Charleston from time to time, although most of them are now privately-owned pleasure boats. Charleston is still a center of commerce for the state, as well as the state capital. But if you let your eyes lose focus when you watch the river, and allow yourself to daydream for a minute, you might just see the same River Town that my fellow writers and I saw as we wrote our individual stories for this project.

Think of River Town itself as one more character in a fascinating cast. Now, sit back and enjoy these tales of romance, friendship, danger, magic, loyalty, mystery, and courage!

Get your copy today!

Views of the real River Town

August 14, 2013 By Eric Douglas

River Town, a set on Flickr.

Views from the real River Town

(Images from the Kanawha and Elk rivers around Charleston, WV)

One thing I really missed when I lived away from West Virginia was the river. There were lakes close by, and for a while I lived less than 10 minutes from the Pacific Ocean, so it wasn’t like I never saw bodies of water, but there is just something cool about the river, the way it constantly changes and the way lights reflect off of it.

The Kanawha River was the inspiration and basis for the book River Town that just came out this week. The book is set at a time when everything revolved around the river; rivers were the lifeblood of everything west of the Appalachian Mountains and they were the driving force behind the westward expansion of the United States.

River Town isn’t an historical book, it is pure fiction. But with all great period fiction, there’s enough truth and history in it to make it seem very, very real. And who knows…maybe it is.

River Town: Now Available

August 12, 2013 By Eric Douglas

River Town is a collection of short stories set in 1890s West Virginia. The combined work of six different authors, the tales range from adventure to romance, from intrigue to fantasy. Each story stands alone, yet together they take readers to a time along the Kanawha River just after the Civil War when families were still struggling to recover and before the railroad came through the mountains. The river was the center of everything.

The book was featured in Sunday’s Charleston (WV) Sunday Gazette-Mail book section.

And a story in the Charleston Daily Mail Entertainment Section .

Here’s a quick teaser:

Hayden Lowe may or may not have killed a man out west. No one seems to know why he’s back in River Town, though his friend, Lillian Conley, is keeping a private journal full of clues. Will Captain JD Dawson lose his beloved sternwheeler, the Miss Jayne Marie, in a winner-takes-all bet? Julia Hubbard has a secret project, Andrew Wilson is plotting on the dusty streets of River Town, and what about that strange Dame Roxalana? There is more to Roxie than anyone is willing to say. The men in the coal mines around River Town seem to be developing a mysterious condition that no one can explain, yet everyone is whispering about it.

Before all is said and done, each of these characters will intersect in unexpected ways. The resolutions are as suspenseful as they are satisfying.

The book features the work of Shawna Christos, G. Cameron Fuller, Elizabeth Gaucher, Katharine Herndon and Jane Siers Wright.

Get your copy on Kindle or in Paperback today!

Get your copy today!

Imagining life on a sternwheeler heading down river

August 7, 2013 By Eric Douglas

I’ve always been fascinated by the river, river boats and the age of steam in West Virginia. It doesn’t hurt that one of my closest friends, JD Pauley, owns the sternwheeler, Hobby III, so I’ve spent an undo amount of time watching the wheel throw water in the air and imagining life 100 years ago.

Yesterday, Jerry Sutphin gave a presentation at the Archives and History Library in the West Virginia Culture Center on The Great Kanawha River and River Transportation in West Virginia. When JD emailed me about the lecture, I immediately knew I was going. I was particularly interested since my new book River Townwill be available on August 12. River Town is a collection of short stories set in West Virginia, on the river, in 1890 when the river was the center of everything. One story in the book features a riverboat captain and his steamboat, the Miss Jayne Marie.

Sutphin explained that any river west of the Appalachian mountain chain is considered to be a western river. When that term came into use, there were only the original 13 colonies in the United States. For settlers heading west, rivers were the natural highways and the easiest way to get natural resources back to the cities. That commerce to bring salt, coal and timber out of the mountains spurred the development of steam boats and barges carrying everything from apothecaries to zoos and everything in between.

The only problem with riverine commerce was the rivers were seasonal; you couldn’t rely on them to be deep enough to run on year round. In 1884, the federal government began a lock and dam system that maintained the river level at nine feet deep, deep enough for any river boat.

The Great Kanawha River is the only river totally within the boundaries of West Virginia. It is 99 miles long with only 91 miles of that navigable. In spite of its diminutive nature, the commerce that has floated through those locks, and still does, is almost unimaginable. Salt, coal, oil and gas and timber have all moved down the river, through those locks and off to markets around the world.

Originally, there were 10 locks on the river. Eleven were planned, numbered and mapped out, but only 10 were built. In a fit of government logic, #1 was planned for a section of the river above Montgomery, but it was never constructed. Many people are confused about how many locks were on the Kanawha since #11 was built near Point Pleasant. People naturally assume there were 11 locks, according to Sutphin. Later, that number was reduced to three larger dams and two of those were expanded in a third series of changes in the last 20 years.

I kept listening to Sutphin’s lecture, hoping I didn’t hear anything that would make me think “Oh No! I got that wrong” but that moment never came. River Town isn’t a historical work. Rather, it is a collection of fictional stories about the river. Hopefully, though, readers will escape to a time on the river when river boats were king and the only way to get anywhere was by booking passage. And then they will see the river as I see it from the back of a sternwheeler.