Books by Eric Douglas

Thriller fiction and Non-fiction

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Spring is in the air

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I’m sitting outside enjoying the sun as I write this. It’s not all that warm, but the sun feels good and I’m tired of being in the house. I’m already planning projects for the spring and summer—a few of which will never happen and a couple others will change dramatically from my first idea. That’s the very nature of the creative process.

I left West Virginia in early 1998 and lived away for nearly 14 years before I moved back about a year ago. I have a greater appreciation for my home now because of that time away. Not that I think everything is perfect here, but I see potential or beauty that I overlooked before. I was always hurrying someplace or trying to accomplish something else and didn’t take the time to just “be” and appreciate my surroundings. A lot of us live that way and it takes an effort to slow down.

One thing I missed while I was away was the river. I lived a few minutes away from the Pacific Ocean for a while and spent a lot of time visiting the Atlantic and Caribbean, but there is just something about that river that I find fascinating. I love the way it moves, reflecting lights in an ever-changing pattern. Rivers in West Virginia have been as been as important to the development of the state as any of the other natural resources.

The West Virginia Land Trust is running a photography contest encouraging photographers to seek out special places in the mountain state. I have no affiliation with the group, but I like the idea behind the contest. They define a special place as:
“A special place is more than land and water. A special place takes you to a time and to a memory, it brings you peace, and leaves you open to life. It is a place where you feel connected to your own life and to the life around you. A farmer’s special place may be his field, a wildlife watcher’s a forest, a sportsman’s may be a remote stretch of woods, a hiker’s an entire expanse of mountains, a child’s may be a field of green where she can run and play or a creek bed to fish.”
The deadline for submitting photographs is April 15. Even if you don’t enter anything in the contest, now that Spring is in the air, get outside and enjoy the special places that we call home. Most of the time, they aren’t even that far away. And don’t forget to take your camera along with you. You never know what you might see.
I’ll be down by the river.

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But for a few moments

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In my life I think I’ve written a total of four poems (not counting school assignments) and there is a reason for it. But, sometimes it is fun to just throw things out there.

The following was inspired by a little time taking a break from my desk, today.
 

But for a few moments

All is still, save the wind in the trees

The bite of winter signals more to come

Winter is still upon us

But for a few moments, everything is holding its breath.

 

Thoughts of sea in winter

Facing into the wind, making way

A leaden sky overhead; the illusion of movement

But for a few moments, transported elsewhere.

 

Gusts twist and turn, swirling

Strips everything bare. No veneer, no pretense

Left too long, nothing would be left

But for a few moments, it feels clean.

 

A single ray of sunlight breaks; no warmth but hope

The dull buzz of civilization stays in the distance

Tiny birds know it’s time to forage before seeking shelter

But for a few moments everything is simple.

 

Tree tops dance in the wind

The tiniest buds already showing

Fingers stiff and unbending; nose cold

But for a few moments refreshed, feeling more alive.

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Evolving nature of Valentine’s Day

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My younger daughter just finished making Valentine’s Day cards for her classmates at Weberwood Elementary. She diligently assembled the pieces, addressed the envelopes and checked off the list of the kids in her class—more girls than boys in this case.

I remember doing the same thing as a young boy at Cross Lanes Elementary. I probably wasn’t as diligent about it and I’m sure I wasn’t as neat. There’s no doubt in my mind that my mom had to make me sit down and do it; probably the night before the school party. I also remember not wanting to give a card to one of the girls in my class. I’m fairly certain I ended up making a Valentine’s Day card for her, but I probably had to be made to do that, too.
When I was at Marshall writing for The Parthenon, I wrote a fairly cynical column about Valentine’s Day in which I suggested it was a manufactured holiday created by the card and flower stores to drum up business. I also wrote some about the history of the day, noting that the saint the holiday is named for was killed. (It’s highly probable I wasn’t dating anyone at the time.)  Historically, three Saint Valentines are recognized on February 14. All three were martyred. One Saint Valentine was killed because he performed wedding ceremonies for soldiers who were forbidden to marry.
The author C.S. Lewis described four types of love in the book The Four Loves: Storge is fondness through familiarity or family. Philia is the love between friends with a common bond…and also the root of the name Philadelphia (and why the city is called the City of Brotherly Love). Eros is love in the sense of “being in love” or loving someone. Agape is unconditional love, often referred to as Godly love.

Now that life has brought me full circle and I’m watching my daughters do things my parents had to make me do more than 30 years ago, I’m happy my daughter never hesitated to make a card for anyone in her class—not even any of the boys. In fact, the idea never occurred to her. I don’t get the feeling she did it out of sense of obligation, either. She wanted to do it and enjoyed the process.

In spite of everything going on around us – from war to anger to violence – and all the conflicting messages bombarding children today, maybe they are learning to love others simply for the sake of brotherly love. Music, movies and television try to tell us that Eros love is the ultimate goal. It seems like Philia love is what we need most today. Maybe the lesson is coming through.

Happy Valentine’s Day!.

Charleston’s co-working space making it happen

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One of the best parts about working for yourself is the flexibility to take on projects you’re interested in; self assigned or for someone else. The hardest part of working for yourself is having the proper equipment and office space. The second hardest part is feeling like you’re working in a vacuum. You don’t have other creative people to talk to and share ideas.

For the last year, I’ve been working on a new documentary project called Voices of War. So far, I’ve recorded more than 48 hours of interviews with West Virginia war veterans. I have photographs of each veteran and have scanned copies of some historical images as well. While working digitally makes it much easier to collect the material and have it at my finger tips, the act of editing all together makes the project a bit more daunting. The file sizes for the recordings alone vary anywhere from a half a gigabyte up to a gigabyte and a half. My two year old laptop struggles to handle the files. And that is where West Virginia State University’s Economic Development Center and DigiSo come in.
DigiSo (short for digital and social) provides a shared work space for digital entrepreneurs to come together and produce, capture and edit their projects. There is a video/photography capture studio with green screen, an audio studio and an editing suite. There are also offices and conference rooms you can rent for meetings and such. It makes it all really convenient.
While the West Virginia economy will rely on natural resources (for the foreseeable future anyway) there is a growing digital economy. Entrepreneurs can create digital products to sell around the world. Local people are making books and graphic novels, videos, software applications and everything else imaginable…and many of them are using the facilities at DigiSo to do it. One of the greatest pluses to a place like DigiSo is the ability to work together with other creative people and share ideas. (Talking to a couple other people at the facility has already led me to add a new project to my calendar.)
There are a number of special programs running at DigiSo as well. One, called the Creators Program, is an effort to teach some of the skills these budding entrepreneurs will need to create their own programs.  Author, filmmaker and professor Daniel Boyd is one of the driving forces behind the program. Check out the DigiSo website to learn more. Do you have a great idea for a new project, but just aren’t sure how to make it happen? The Creators Program is a great place to start.
For the next couple months, I’ll be at DigiSo a couple days a week, editing the long recordings into smaller pieces and then joining the many different voices together to make one coherent and compelling story. When I began this project, I knew what I expected the outcome to be. But without the facilities at DigiSo, I’m not sure I would have been able to make it happen.

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Looking forward – a year at a glance

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“A goal without a plan is just a wish.” Antoine de Saint-ExuperyFrench writer (1900 – 1944)

I’ve never been a big one for making resolutions for the New Year. I don’t know why. It could be that it always seems so forced to me. You can “resolve” to do just about anything but if you don’t have a plan in place to make it happen, you’re sure to fail. Wishing on a star isn’t going to make it a reality—regardless of what the fairy tales tell you.
Curmudgeonly grousing aside, I do get excited about the idea of a new year. It’s a fresh start and a new set of 12 months to succeed, start new projects, finish others and discover new things.
In the last year, I’ve released a new novel, a new children’s book and a short story. I’ve promoted the documentary project on lobster divers and appeared on national television for it. I’ve undertaken a new documentary project on West Virginia war veterans and conducted dozens of interviews for it. And that doesn’t include the projects I’ve done for others as a freelancer. All that’s kept me very busy, but for some reason I’ve been feeling as if I was missing something. I was having trouble keeping my plans straight and looking ahead.
I’m very visual person.  For many years, in jobs I’ve held for other people, I’ve used a year-at-a-glance calendar to keep things straight. I would find myself staring at the calendar to think through the steps necessary to make something happen and avoid conflicts. Now that I’m working fulltime as a writer, I kept thinking I was missing something in my office, but I couldn’t quite figure out what it was. Until now.
A few days ago, I bought a 2013 vertical year-at-a-glance calendar for the wall in my office. I already have things on it as far out as July. That may be a little extreme for most people. Still, it never ceases to amaze me how soon St. Patrick’s Day comes after Christmas. Sometimes it seems like the two holidays are only a week or two apart. And right after that, it’s the Fourth of July. Just a few days after that, we’re looking at Christmas trees in department stores (unfortunately, that last one is often true as retailers keep making Christmas preparations earlier and earlier.)
The quote at the beginning is something I live by. We can all hope and dream all we want, but making a plan to make it happen is the key to everything. I talk to people all the time who tell me they want to do something or they have this great idea…but they don’t have a plan to actually get where they want to go. Without that, it will never happen.
Happy New Year!
Now go make a plan to do something and see how much faster it happens.

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