Books by Eric Douglas

Thriller fiction and Non-fiction

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    • Dive-abled: The Leo Morales Story
    • Keep on, Keepin’ On: A Breast Cancer Story
    • WV Voices of War / Common Valor
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    • Sea Turtle Rescue and Other Stories
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Christmas lights and December 22

December 12, 2012 By Eric Douglas

Everyone who knows me knows that December 22 is my least favorite day of the year… it’s the day with the shortest amount of daylight. The sun sort of bottoms out for three days around December 22 before beginning its climb higher into the sky (by one degree) on or about December 25.

As a kid growing up, I remember going outside in mid-December to watch my dad string Christmas lights along the front of the house. These were the big colored bulbs the size of your thumb. We probably had one of the more ornate displays in the neighborhood at the time. It included a series of life-size cut outs of Santa, Mrs. Claus and the elves (shellacked to wood and mounted to metal bases), all illuminated with flood lights.

I never really thought about it, but those two things have something in common.

Christmas lights came about as people decorated their Christmas trees with candles. It was also a way to add light to the house during the shortest days of the year and survive the darkness. Obviously, the idea of placing a flaming, smoking candle, dripping hot wax all over dried out tree branches in your home was not the smartest idea. People would literally light the candles and sit close by to watch the tree with buckets of sand and water on hand to put out the inevitable fires.

One hundred and thirty years ago this year, on December 22, Edward Hibberd Johnson changed everything and ushered in an era of tacky lights and over the top Christmas displays. Johnson, who was vice president of Edison Electric Light Company, created the first display of electric lights in his home for Christmas. Thomas Edison created the first practical electric lights three years before so as a publicity stunt Johnson added 80 electric lights to his Christmas tree. Not content to simply put lights on a tree and flip the switch, though, Johnson mounted a rather pathetic looking tree on an electric turntable that spun the tree around. As it turned, the lights blinked on and off, alternating colors from white to blue to red.

In 1900, General Electric, who bought the patent to Edison’s lights, published the first advertisement for Christmas lights. They were so expensive; strings of lights could be bought or rented. Mass production quickly changed everything and by 1915 companies sold lighted figurines and ornaments for trees. As soon as electric lights were sealed to be used outside, electric Christmas lights moved outside the house. And so began the era of attempting to outdo our neighbors with outsized displays and power-sucking lights. All in an attempt chase away the darkness and bring light to our homes.

And now I think I need to go to the store. There’s this one spot on the side of the house that isn’t lit up…Dad would be so proud.

For more information on Christmas lighting, read the six part series on Christmas lights at http://www.jimonlight.com/

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Being Thankful

November 20, 2012 By Eric Douglas

When I was a kid, Thanksgiving was “Turkey Day”. For me, the whole purpose of the day was eating turkey and mashed potatoes. I knew (or thought I knew) the story of the first pilgrims and the feast they had at the end of the harvest, inviting their “Indian” friends over for a big party. At school every year we made construction paper hats and headdresses to play our parts for the day.

Today it seems Thanksgiving is more significant to some people for what comes after—Black Friday. Now Black Friday is encroaching on Thanksgiving itself. I hear people complain about the expanded offerings for “sales” saying how awful they think it is that those who work in the stores won’t be able to spend time with their families. There are even petitions about it. As long as people are standing outside waiting for stores to open so they can get that moment’s big deal, the stores will keep edging their sales earlier and earlier. The most effective protest is to stay home.
On the other hand, I see more and more people stopping to be thankful, often for the little things that we take for granted. A Facebook trend this month is people posting about things they’re thankful for over 30 days; naming something each day. It’s pretty tough to do. In the press of life and busy schedules, it can be difficult to remember to take a moment to be thankful for something. Of course, there are some days thinking of something to be thankful for can be pretty difficult. Typically, it starts out with people being thankful for a warm, dry place to live, food to eat and other material things. As they move through the month, if they are dedicated to the effort, they take time to be thankful for things that aren’t things at all. They are thankful for people; friends and family, and good things they see in the world around them.
As an adult, Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. While I enjoy Christmas, and believe in the Christ story behind the holiday, I get frustrated with the feeling that you “have to” do things—gifts, parties, activities that aren’t related to the meaning of Christmas at all. To me that isn’t a holiday. And that’s what makes Thanksgiving so great. So far, no one has been able to find a way to commercialize Thanksgiving, other than the aforementioned expansion of Christmas shopping.
Thanksgiving is still about family and friends. It is about the intangible things in our lives. It is about slowing down to remember the people who aren’t with us anymore and being grateful for what we have: a warm home, a bed, food to eat. For many people, it’s also a great time to remember the people around us who don’t have those things and then attempting to help; people helping people.
I am thankful to be with my family this Thanksgiving. I am thankful for the comforts I have and I am thankful for the opportunities I have as a writer and a storyteller to use my God-given talents to entertain.
Take a few moments to be thankful for what you have.
And then pass me the turkey… 
Happy Thanksgiving!

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We are…Marshall!

November 14, 2012 By Eric Douglas

12690_10151337226665522_943217010_n.jpgForty two years ago today, 75 Marshall University football players, coaches and supporters died in a plane crash on the way home from a game against East Carolina University (Marshall lost 17-14). The crash and the aftermath were the subject of the movie “We are…Marshall”. For more information, visit this link.

I was three-years-old when it happened. I didn’t have a connection to anyone on the plane and didn’t know much about it until my freshman year at Marshall in the fall of 1985. On campus, it was a different story. The story of the crash permeated everything. The Memorial Student Center was the focus of the campus and the Memorial Student Center Fountain was one of the most picturesque sites on campus. One of the first assignments in my first photography class was to take night photographs. Of course, I headed right for the fountain.

Variously, you hear the phrases Always Remember and Never Forget in reference to the crash and those we lost that day. The crash didn’t just traumatize the school, but the entire city of Huntington. That isn’t to say that we dwell on the past or feel somehow victimized by the tragedy. I think the feeling is exactly the opposite. We will never forget the friends and families we lost that day, but at the same time we take our strength and perseverance from that event.

293494_10150420323234018_3107912_n.jpgThe education I received at Marshall put me on the path to a career that I could only dream of growing up. I’ve been on six of the seven continents (still working on Antarctica) and have friends on each of them. I’ve dived and hiked and explored. I’ve photographed and written about them. Some of the most intense friendships of my life are from my days at Marshall. I am honored to still be in touch with many of them. Of course, I’ve lost friends from those days, too. I was a senior at Marshall when one of my best friends, Mike Burnsworth (a friend since high school), died of cancer. I remember him in each of my novels.

I think my time at Marshall taught me something even more important than how to use a camera or string words together. It taught me how to learn, how to wonder and to never give up. I know if I keep working, I will reach my goals. Maybe not always on my own time table, but it will happen.

The tragedy of the plane crash forged in Marshall a special identity. It made the Marshall community even more determined to succeed and to thrive. We will always remember those who died that day and we learned to never take a day for granted.

May God bless the families of the men and women we lost that day.

I’m proud to be a son of Marshall.

Go Herd!.

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Voting: Use it or lose it

November 5, 2012 By Eric Douglas

I am so sick of this political season, I can barely stand it. The negative, false ads with misleading and inaccurate claims (offered by everyone, no one is above the fray). The endless overanalysis of nothing and talking head “pundits” giving their opinions and spin on everything; just sick and tired of it.

At this point, I’m more than happy to sit quietly with my favorite television shows on pause for 10 minutes while we build up credit on the DVR and can fast forward past the commercials.
A week or so ago, I realized that the 20thanniversary of my first trip to Russia was coming up soon and decided to put together an ebook of my blog posts and notes from my travels there (I hope to have it ready by the middle of December). It’s been interesting to review the articles and a book manuscript I wrote in 1995 to see what was going on and what I was discovering.
At the time, Russia was still reeling from the breakup of the Soviet Union. They were holding their first elections that didn’t have a predetermined outcome. The following is an excerpt of what I wrote in 1995/1996.
Alexei Cheremnykh…said he thinks Russian voter apathy is rooted in expectations.
“Americans have always been told they can influence their government by voting. Most Russians are disconnected from their government,” he said. “They don’t think they can change anything by voting so why bother.”
A teacher…Alla Feldman, tried to explain some of the apathy by drawing another comparison to the United States.

“Many times in America, the better educated the voter, the more likely they are to vote,” Feldman said. “In Russia, it is just the opposite. The intelligentsia votes less in elections because they feel they can accomplish less.”

It will take a long time for the inertia of Russian history to be overcome. Only now, in this fledgling democracy, can voters do anything about their government. Most of the voters don’t realize their opportunity and therefore are not using it. The biggest problem with that is if they don’t use their influence, they truly may lose it.
Unfortunately, voters in the United States sound a lot like voters in Russia 20 years ago.
This morning, I scanned through a daily email I get from author Seth Godinon topics like marketing, selling, quitting and leadership. He had some really interesting things to say about voting.
“If you don’t vote because you’re disappointed with your choices, disgusted by tactics like lying and spin, or merely turned off by the process, you’ve opted out of the marketplace.
The goal of political marketers isn’t to get you to vote. Their goal is to get more votes than the other guy. So they obsess about pleasing those that vote. Everyone else is invisible.
Steakhouses do nothing to please vegetarians who don’t visit them, and politicians and their handlers don’t care at all about non-voters.”
His suggestion? “If you don’t like negative ads, for example, then vote for the candidate who ran even 1% fewer negative ads. Magically, within a cycle or two, the number of negative ads begins to go down. If enough smart people start voting again, things will improve, because billions of dollars in political marketing will suddenly be trying to please you.”

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Showing up is “all” the battle

October 16, 2012 By Eric Douglas

“Do not by any means destroy yourself, for if you live you may yet have good fortune, but all the dead are dead alike.”
~ The Horse and His Boy– C.S. Lewis

I spent this past weekend at the West Virginia Book Festival hawking my books and talking to browsers who walked through. I learn more about myself every time I talk to someone about my books, or answer a question about what would make my stories interesting for them. When I wasn’t talking to potential buyers, I spent a lot of time talking to some of the other authors who were at the show.

Afterward, I spent a lot of time thinking about perseverance and what it takes to “make it” as an author and a writer. Granted, part of that “thinking” time was on the patio with a glass of red wine, but it all counts. Oprah isn’t calling me, but I’ve finished four novels and co-authored a nonfiction book (along with a host of other things) so I have a clue or two on what it takes to finish a book. It probably sounds cliché, but the secret to finishing a book is showing up. Taking the time to write and actually writing.

A friend and fellow writer, Elizabeth Damewood Gaucher, interviewed me about writing and a new project called River Town for the BooksWide Open blog. She also writes her own blog called Esse Diem, that I highly recommend. In the interview, we talked about what it takes to be a writer. I said you need to own it. You need to shout from the roof tops that you are a writer. Don’t qualify it.

Just as importantly, you have to keep showing up, you have to keep smiling and you have to keep working it. Even when no one is coming to your table and no one seems interested in what you have to say. In the “life lessons” category, this is true about anything, but especially creative projects whether they be writing or painting or dancing or anything else.

As I was running these thoughts around in my mind, I stumbled across the quote at the top from CS Lewis. Destroying yourself can mean a lot of things, not just death. It can mean quitting, giving up or failing to try. It also means having the nerve to fail and to fail spectacularly.

As a writer I have been knocked down and pushed away and have received so many rejection letters I’ve lost count.

The information revolution has given every writer—every person who thinks they have something to say—a chance to say it. You don’t have to wait on someone to give you permission.

This weekend, I’m offering a class at the WVSU Economic Development Center/Digiso on Self Publishing. I’ll be mainly talking about how to publish book-length projects, but we’ll talk about blogs and social media as well. Those are tremendous ways to get your voice heard and build a following.

If you have something to say and are tired of waiting on someone to give you permission, join me Friday night to get started.  

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Filed Under: Uncategorized

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Real Thugs: A Cult of Murder — Small groups of travelers have disappeared all over the mid-Atlantic without a trace. When bodies turn up with what appear to be ritual markings, FBI Agent AJ West is on the hunt for what might be a serial killer. Or something even more sinister. It’s a race against […]

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