Books by Eric Douglas

Thriller fiction and Non-fiction

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River Town: Now Available

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river+town+cover+2.jpgRiver 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!

Other blog posts about River Town

Early Reviews for River Town

“Rather than the eight stand-alone stories from different writers united around common characters in the same (historic) place and time that I expected, RIVER TOWN, in its whole is more like a progressive dinner where we travel to each writer’s home for each portion of a delightful collective meal. Every course is delicious on its own, but the true treat is finishing the last bite and appreciating the beauty of the sum of its parts.”

– Daniel Boyd, Filmmaker, Author 

“Douglas and his group do a good job of weaving historical fiction and mysticism into a unique Appalachian story. The writers use Point of View storytelling to effectively engage the readers and slowly evolve and reveal the shared characters about which they write in interesting and unexpected ways.”

– Bill Woodrum

“Douglas and company have created an authentic vision of Post-Civil War Appalachia – full of bravado, mystery, and magic. Readers need only open the pages to find themselves instantly transported aboard a sternwheeler, headed up river for adventure.”

– Frank Larnerd editor of Hills of Fire: Bare-Knuckle Yarns of Appalachia 

What follows is a witch hunt, a steamboat race, a love story, and a coal mine mystery. River Town is a great layered story and I hope that there’s a sequel written.

– Kristy Feltenberger Gillespie

 Get your copy today!

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Imagining life on a sternwheeler heading down river

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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.

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River Town: Writing about home

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I’ve always been intrigued by the history of the river that runs through my home town of Charleston, West Virginia. The Kanawha River is slightly less than 100 miles long, from the headwaters where the New and Gauley rivers meet to where it spills into the Ohio River at Point Pleasant, but an amazing amount has happened along that 100 miles. There have been Adena and Native American settlements, forts and battles, discoveries of salt, timber, coal, oil and natural gas, boom towns and busts.

 

From the time I wrote my first novel in 2005, I started dreaming about a collaborative fiction project where a group of writers would join together to write a series of stories all set in the same location. I read Thieves World in my formative years and thought that was the coolest thing ever. When I returned home to Charleston after living away for nearly 15 years, everything fell together and River Town was born.

 

The book is six stories (with a couple narrative pieces at the beginning and end) set in River Town in 1890. The location is effectively Charleston, but it could be just about anywhere on the river at that time. We created characters for the time and location and then shared them, weaving each other’s characters into our own stories. It was a lot of fun, although it did come with the unique challenges of sharing. Most writers are fairly solitary in their work and sharing early drafts with each other was a bit nerve-wracking.
I’ve shared the book with a few close friends. This is one of my favorite early reviews:
“Rather than the six stand-alone stories from different writers united around common characters in the same (historic) place and time that I expected, RIVER TOWN, in its whole is more like a progressive dinner where we travel to each writer’s home for each portion of a delightful collective meal. Every course is delicious on its own, but the true treat is finishing the last bite and appreciating the beauty of the sum of its parts.” 

– Daniel Boyd, Filmmaker, Author
The following is the book jacket description of the book:

“Hayden Lowe may or may not have killed a man out west, and no one seems to know for sure why he’s back in River Town; his friend, Lillian Conley, is keeping secrets of her own in her journal. 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 her than anyone is willing to say.  The men in the coal mines around River Town are showing strange symptoms no one can explain, yet everyone is whispering about them.

Before all is said and done, each of these characters will intersect in unexpected ways. The resolutions are as suspenseful as they are satisfying.
River Town is a collection of short stories set in 1890s West Virginia by six different authors. The tales range from adventure to romance to intrigue and 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.
This project was created by Eric Douglas and features the work of Shawna Christos, G. Cameron Fuller, Elizabeth Gaucher, Katharine Herndon and Jane Siers Wright.”
River Town will be available in print and on Kindle next week. Stay tuned!

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Sea Turtle Rescue: In four languages and counting

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Sea Turtle Rescue was the first children’s book I wrote for my daughters. Sea Turtles have become a special thing for us as well. When we are out, especially at the beach, we will buy sea turtle jewelry (for them, not me) or other mementoes that include sea turtles…because of that story.

 

Sea Turtle Rescue is now available in four languages: English, Spanish, Portuguese and Russian. Russian is only available in paperback as Kindle does not support the Cyrillic alphabet. The other three languages are available for both Kindle and paperback. 

In many ways, sea turtles are the “canary in a coal mine” for the oceans. If sea turtles are healthy and thriving, the oceans are too. And if the oceans are thriving, we are all thriving. What I really like about this story is it includes information on protecting sea turtles, while presenting two young girls as strong and passionate characters.

 

I hope this story inspires your family like it has mine. 

Below you will find descriptions of the book in all four languages, with links to the book on Amazon. You can read previous blog posts about the story:

Sea Turtle Rescue

When an injured sea turtle shows up near their home on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, Jayne and Marie, along with their friends Javier and Monique, search the beach to find the turtle’s nest and protect it from danger. They know the time is getting short and if they don’t find it soon, the eggs might not get a chance to hatch.

 

Sea Turtle Rescue is written for children 6-9-years-old with illustrations drawn by elementary school students. The story is exciting but also includes information on how to protect sea turtles and their nests.

 

O Resgate da Tartaruga Marinha (Portuguese Edition)

Kindle and Paperback

 

Quando uma tartaruga ferida aparece perto de sua casa nos Outer Banks, na Carolina do Norte, Jayne e Marie, junto com seus amigos Javier e Monique, vão à praia em busca do ninho que ela deixou para trás, para tentar ajudar a proteger os ovos do perigo. Eles sabem que o tempo é curto e que se não encontrarem o ninho logo, pode ser tarde demais.

O Resgate da Tartaruga Marinha é um livro para crianças entre 6 e 9 anos de idade, com ilustrações feitas por alunos que cursam o ensino fundamental e estão nesta faixa etária. A história é uma envolvente aventura que traz também informações sobre como proteger as tartarugas e seus ninhos.

 

Спасение морской черепашки

Russian: Paperback (Cyrillic Alphabet not yet supported on Kindle.)

Когда раненая морская черепашка появилась около дома Джейн и Мари в местечке Аутер Бэнкс Северной Каролины, девочки со своими друзьями Джайвером и Моникой, отправились на пляж, чтобы найти черепашье гнездо и спасти его от опасности. Ребята знали, что времени совсем мало и, если они не смогут вовремя найти гнездо, то дети черепашки никогла не появятся на свет.

История «Спасти морскую черепашку» написана для детей от 6 до 9 лет. Иллюстрации созданы детьми начальной школы. Увлекательная история содежит полeзную информацию о защите морских черепашек и их гнезд.

 

El Rescate de la Tortuga Marina (Spanish Edition)

Kindle

and Paperback

Al aparecer una tortuga marina cerca de su casa en los Outer Banks en Carolina del Norte, Jayne y Marie, junto con sus amigos Javier y Monique comenzaron a buscar el nido de la tortuga para ponerlo a salvo de los peligros. Sabían que tenían poco tiempo y que si no lo encontraban pronto las tortugas no tendrían ninguna posibilidad de romper el cascarón.

 

El Rescate de la tortuga marina está escrito para niños entre los 6 y 9 años y ha sido ilustrado por alumnos de escuela primaria. Es una historia fascinante que además brinda información sobre cómo proteger a las tortugas marinas y sus nidos.

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Early reviews for Sea Turtle Rescue

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A few reviews of Sea Turtle Rescue have come in and everyone so far has loved it! (I’m sure at some point there will be a negative review or two. You can’t please everyone…)

 

Regardless, it is gratifying that these parents and readers have enjoyed Sea Turtle Rescue so much right beside their children. 

See what they have to say!
5.0 out of 5 stars

Turtles’ Hurdles July 3, 2013

 

This book, The Sea Turtle Rescue, is an affirmation of the good we as parents, teachers and mentors of young people can do, with a little knowledge and a lot of heart, to demonstrate empathy and a willingness to do the right thing.

The father of two, Eric Douglas has penned a children’s book with a message for adults as well: Turtles, like so many animals, face manmade dangers as well as a shrinking habitat. It is up to us humans, as stewards of the planet, to do our best to help where we can to remove hurdles to a better world.

In teaching our children to save the turtles we in turn save a little bit of ourselves.

 

5.0 out of 5 stars

Daddy… we need to save some Sea Turtles. July 1, 2013

 

It’s easy to be an adult fan of Eric Douglas’ work, especially if you’re a diver and James Bond fan. But how well does that translate to his children’s fiction, especially this title?

Douglas is always building a dense world, but when he writes for children he doesn’t just tell us about the stilt houses along the barrier islands, he tells us why.

“But WHY, Daddy?”

If your children are like mine, that question will always be there and it is a pleasure to be able to point to the words on the page when I answer.

Sea Turtle Rescue is a great story that includes so many details about the lives of the children in the story that I am pretty sure I’ve met them and you will too.

Share this fun read with your early readers and you will get to experience the delight of knowledge AND the exuberance of a new passion.

I would tell you more about this very enjoyable book, but unfortunately Eliza needs me to help save some Sea Turtles…RIGHT NOW Daddy !

 

5.0 out of 5 stars

Ideal and educational June 30, 2013

 

When I was a little girl, I had the rare experience of going out on the beach at night at Ocean Isle, NC, and seeing baby sea turtles emerge from their nest and make haste to the sea by moonlight. I still remember my amazement at their tiny forms, their persistence, and the odd almost primordial beauty of their quest for the sea.

Now I am the mother of a young child, and I do not think she will ever experience, firsthand, this connection with sea turtles as I did; but I can read her “Sea Turtle Rescue,” and I can talk about my memories.

Eric Douglas has done a terrific job of capturing all the things about sea turtles that fascinated me then, and his approach to storytelling is spot-on for capturing a young person’s attention now. His characters, the setting, the dynamics and dialogue, all ring true and make a child want to engage. I highly recommend this book, especially for young people who have a love of biology, wild creatures, and the sea.

 

The second book in the Jayne and Marie adventure series on the Outer Banks is Swimming with Sharks. Through July 6, 2013, it is a FREE Kindle download.
Here are a couple reviews for Swimming with Sharks as well.
5.0 out of 5 stars

Appreciation and respect for predators in nature June 17, 2013

 

This is a story for children and grownups too. Eric Douglas dispels a few misconceptions and replaces them with respect for these predators along the way….following a storyline that anyone should like…!!!!

 

5.0 out of 5 stars
Another easy to read story from a great scuba diving novel author: it’s entertaining and also interesting! In fact, although it is listed as a story for kids… You’ll find it fun to read as well!
Sea Turtle Rescue is available in English and Portuguese. Russian is coming soon. Swimming with Sharks is only in English.
Get your very own copies:
Sea Turtle Rescue – English: Kindle and Paperback
Sea Turtle Rescue – Portuguese: Kindle and Paperback
Swimming with Sharks: Kindle and Paperback

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