Books by Eric Douglas

Thriller fiction and Non-fiction

  • Home
  • Mike Scott Thrillers
    • Held Hostage: Search for the Juncal
    • Water Crisis: Day Zero
    • Turks and Chaos: Hostile Waters
    • The 3rd Key: Sharks in the Water
    • Oil and Water: Crash in Curacao
    • Return to Cayman: Paradise Held Hostage
    • Heart of the Maya: Murder for the Gods
    • Wreck of the Huron: Cuban Secrets
    • Guardians’ Keep: Mystery below the Adriatic
    • Flooding Hollywood: Fanatics at the Dam
    • Cayman Cowboys: Reefs Under Pressure
  • Withrow Key
    • Lyin’ Fish
    • Tales from Withrow Key
  • Agent AJ West
  • About the Author
    • Publicity and Interviews
  • Nonfiction
    • For Cheap Lobster
    • Heart Survivor: Recovery After Heart Surgery
    • Oral History
      • Batter Up!
      • Memories of the Valley
      • WV Voices of War / Common Valor
      • Capturing Memories: How to Record Oral Histories
    • Dive-abled: The Leo Morales Story
    • Keep on, Keepin’ On: A Breast Cancer Story
    • WV Voices of War / Common Valor
    • Russia: The New Age
    • Scuba Diving Safety
  • Free Short Fiction
  • Other Fiction
    • Sea Turtle Rescue and Other Stories
    • River Town
You are here: Home / Archives for New Releases

Oil and Water novella latest installment in Mike Scott series

August 10, 2016 By Eric Douglas

oil and water 6 lowOil and Water is a story that’s been on my mind for a while. It brings together a beautiful, unique island in the western Caribbean and puts it right in the middle of the current oil market and situation. It’s a fun story with twists and turns.

It’s also in novella length, great for a day at the pool or the beach, or a surface interval between dives.

Listen to me talking to Greg Holt from ScubaRadio during the pre-release of the novella Oil and Water. We discuss the book, the pre-release specials and other chances to go diving.

https://www.booksbyeric.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/SR_8-6-16-complete.mp3

You can also read a news story about Oil and Water in the Curacao Chronicle, the primary newspaper on the island where the story takes place.

Learn more about the book and read the first reviews here.

Filed Under: Adventure, Books, Diving, New Releases

The Cicadas Droned On

May 27, 2016 By Eric Douglas

The following is a short story that, I hope, serves as a reminder to thank a veteran for his or her service and to remember those who paid the ultimate price for our freedom. It was originally written for Memorial Day, but it applies to Veterans Day as well.  If you want to hear the stories of veterans in their own words, listen to the West Virginia Voices of War project.

 

IMG_3335.jpgThe cicadas roared in the sky, giving out their once-every-17-years mating call. The sound was a distant memory for most people. It had been too long since the last one. But when it started back up, everyone knew exactly what it meant. A month or so of a droning, overpowering noise that would make life uncomfortable. And then things would go back to normal.

The old man sitting on the bench in the shade of the tree didn’t seem to notice the sound, however. He was lost in thought reflecting on different spring times in his life and other times the cicadas were there.

The first time he remembered the cicadas in the trees was the spring of 1965. He had volunteered for the Army, just like his dad and his uncle. They had served in World War II and he planned to follow in their footsteps. The three of them stood on the front steps of the house his father built with help from the GI Bill. The two older men told him how proud they were of him. Things were starting to heat up in southeast Asia and he was sure he was headed for Vietnam. He knew he was going to live up to the family legacy of being a warrior and a hero. It seemed like the noise never stopped the entire time he was gone.

Two years later, when he came home, things were strangely silent. The cicadas were gone and so were the handshakes and claps on the back. The streets were quiet, too. There were no parades or victory parties for a returning hero. He didn’t feel like much of a hero, anyway.

The next time he recalled the sound of the cicadas was a day like today, although it was a sadder occasion. It was 1982 and the only sound that cut through the oppressive insect drone was the bugler playing Taps and then the crack of the 21-gun salute from the US Army honor guard. The funeral ended and the men present made their way to the local bar to have a drink or four in Tom’s honor. Tom had done his best in Vietnam, but he wasn’t able to put it behind him once he got home. He struggled and lost sleep. He drank. Too much. Finally, Tom put the barrel of his gun to his temple and pulled the trigger. No one was surprised. They all knew he hadn’t really been living since he came home 10 years before.

The next time the man recalled the sound of the cicadas in the air was a Memorial Day. He had gone to the cemetery to visit the graves of buddies he lost during the war and afterward. That included Tom. His vision suddenly clouded up until he wiped the tears away. There were flags on the graves. Not just a few graves, placed there by family members, but on all of them. A small, plastic flag flapped in the gentle spring breeze from every headstone in the field, as far as he could see. He and his friends weren’t forgotten. People were proud of them, again. It took too long, but he felt the pride his dad and uncle must have felt coming home from their war.

“Grampa, are you all right?” the voice broke him out of his thoughts and brought him back to the present. It took him a moment to gather himself and see the strong young woman in front of him. She was wearing US Army fatigues like he had worn, only different. They had a different pattern on them, but they were still the uniform of a soldier.

“Yes, honey, I’m fine. Just thinking about the old days.”

The old man’s eyes focused past his granddaughter to the young girl running between the gravemarkers in the distance. She was laughing at the breeze and the sight of the flags showing their red, white and blue. His great-granddaughter. How things had changed.

“Thanks for coming out here with me,” he said.

“Of course, grampa. I know how much it means to you, but we need to get home. Grandma just sent me a text that dinner is ready and I need to finish getting my things together. I deploy back to Afghanistan tomorrow. You know the army never sleeps.”

“Have I told lately that I’m proud of you?”

“You’ve told me dozens of times, but I never get tired of hearing it. You know I’m proud of you, too, right?”

“Yes, I do, sweetheart. Okay, come on, we need to get home. The last thing I want to do is miss our Memorial Day cookout and make your grandmother mad.”

Still, the cicadas droned on.

Filed Under: Books, New Releases

FestivALL 2015 oral histories subject of multimedia display

May 22, 2016 By Eric Douglas

memvalley logoby Douglas Imbrogno, Assistant Lifestyles Editor

Eric Douglas was the guy behind the microphone as he collected oral histories last June from local folks during FestivALL Charleston, the citywide arts and culture festival.

People talked, he listened and recorded — and learned.

One woman recounted how she’d come to Charleston to join the nursing staff at St. Francis Hospital in 1951.

“Just a few weeks after she arrived in Charleston, most of the nurses at St. Francis walked out,” Douglas said.

To be specific, 23 white nurses walked out when the hospital refused to fire three recently hired black nurses.

The woman recounted for Douglas how she and other area nurses were quickly recruited hither and yon to “work the floor” when nurses who walked out were fired or quit.

“I grew up in Charleston — this is a story I’d never heard about in my life,” said Douglas, who continued to learn more about the area as he collected more oral histories.

“It was really eye-opening and interesting for me to hear some of these stories,” he said.

Douglas will share excerpts from 29 oral histories collected last June at “Memories of the Valley: FestivALL Oral Histories,” from 7 to 9 p.m. Thursday at the West Virginia State University Economic Development Center, 1506 Kanawha Blvd. West, on Charleston’s West Side.

The compilation of excerpts is 30 minutes long, but will run in a loop during the event on video screens at the EDC, along with snapshots Douglas took of each person he interviewed. Because the histories are on a loop, spectators can show up anytime between 7 and 9 p.m. to hear them, he said.

Read the rest of the story: http://www.wvgazettemail.com/ae-arts/20160522/festivall-2015-oral-histories-subject-of-multimedia-display#sthash.MhXQBkcf.dpuf

Filed Under: Books, Documentary, New Releases

Learn how to capture memories

March 29, 2016 By Eric Douglas

ss 03Earlier this year I released a book called Capturing Memories: How to Record Oral Histories. Collecting oral histories is very important to me. Oral histories are how we capture our family stories. They aren’t about important events, necessarily. They are about daily life.

oral histories book webI’ve now created three classes on the learning platform Skillshare based on the book. The first class is free. Simply for registering using the link, you will get one FREE month of access to everything on Skillshare. This is a fantastic resource for people who like to create.  There are thousands of interesting classes to choose from.

If you are even vaguely interested in finding out more, please follow the link to the first class and sign up. If you like what you see, please leave a review. That is important for me to get more students.

The first class is all about interview techniques I learned from years of conducting interviews. The second class discusses the technical aspects of making the recording. The third class is a discussion about what to leave in and what to take out when you are editing a story into a finished product.

Check them out!

Skillshare classes:

Oral History: How to get anyone to talk about themselves

Oral History: How to Record an Interview

Oral History: Editing your recording into a story

 

Filed Under: Books, Documentary, New Releases

New book teaches “How To” record oral histories

March 2, 2016 By Eric Douglas

oral histories book webOral histories are recordings from every day people about life. They are the day-to-day events that don’t fill up our history books, but are just as important. The new book by Eric Douglas Capturing Memories: How to Record Oral Histories is now available in softcover and on Kindle to help readers record oral histories with their own families.

“As a journalist and author, I’ve conducted hundreds of interviews. Most of it was trial and error. I learned how to approach the interview and what questions to ask by doing it,” Douglas said. “After recording nearly 100 oral histories, I realized the interview is probably the hardest part of the process, so I decided to let readers benefit from all the mistakes I’ve made.”

The book covers: Research, Interviewing, Getting Releases, Recording the Interview, Telling a Story and Editing. It also includes a foreword on the importance of collecting oral histories by the Editor of Goldenseal and West Virginia State Folklife Director Stan Bumgardner.

Capturing Memories: How to Record Oral Histories will guide you through the process from choosing your goals, writing advance questions and making the recording using your smartphone, a recorder or your computer. It is available in softcover through all major online retailers for $9.99 and in Kindle format through Amazon for $5.99.

Eric Douglas has a degree in Journalism from Marshall University and has worked for newspapers and magazines for more than 25 years. He created international documentary projects on the changes in Russia and the Lobster Divers of Honduras. In 2013, he produced the oral history documentary West Virginia Voices of War. In 2015, he joined forces with FestivALL to record oral histories of Charleston-area residents. On April 14, he will present the Creators Talk: Capturing Memories: How to Record Family Histories and on May 26, he will show a collection of excerpts from the FestivALL recordings called Creators Present: Memories of the Valley: FestivALL Oral Histories. Both presentations will be at the West Virginia State University Economic Development Center.

You can find more information on the book Capturing Memories: How to Record Oral Histories on the book page. 

For more information on the Creators Series at WVSU Economic Development Center, visit the website at www.wvsuedc.org and click on the Creators tab. All workshops are held at the WVSU EDC located at 1506 Kanawha Blvd. West in Charleston. You can also call at 304 720-1401 or email Jaime at jrinehart@wvstateu.edu.

Filed Under: Books, Documentary, New Releases

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