River Town

by Eric Douglas, Shawna Christos (With), G. Cameron Fuller (With)

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. 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 first making its way through the mountains. The river was the center of everything.

152 pages, Paperback

First published August 6, 2013

About the author

Eric Douglas spent his childhood Sunday nights watching “The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau” and dreamed of diving alongside the Captain. He became a diver, and then a dive instructor, meeting his goals and pursuing a life of adventure and travel.

Through his fictional works, Eric take readers on adventures of their own. His stories have everything thriller junkies crave; action, adventure and intrigue, set against a backdrop beautiful locations, the ocean and the environment, and scuba diving. The fast-paced stories are exciting, but Eric also hopes to inspire future generations of explorers and adventurers like Cousteau did for him.

After completing a program at the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University, Eric jumped into documentary work, creating nonfiction works on lobster divers, war veterans, and cancer survivors.

Eric received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the W Page Pitt School of Journalism at Marshall University. After working in local newspapers, honing his skills as a story teller, and following a stint as a freelance journalist in the former Soviet Union, he became a dive instructor while working as a technical writer for Diving Science and Technology (DSAT) and as the Associate Editor for The Undersea Journal. About the same time he developed an interest in diving medicine becoming a Diving Medical Technician (DMT).

For 11 years, Eric worked for Divers Alert Network (DAN) as the Director of Education, contributing numerous articles to Alert Diver magazine. In 2007, he co-authored the diving reference text Scuba Diving Safety with DAN President Dan Orr.

In 2008, Eric returned to Russia and photographed many of the people and places he knew from the 1990s. In 2010, he had solo photographic exhibitions of his work in Russia, France and the United States. He now serves on the Board of Directors for the Russia and West Virginia Foundation.

Combining his interest in storytelling and documentary photojournalism, Eric recently completed a photodocumentary project on Harvesting Divers; a project that earned him a Certificate in Documentary Arts from the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University.

Eric also writes the regular Lessons for Life column for Scuba Diving Magazine, analyzing the circumstances behind dive accidents and helping other divers learn from those mistakes.