Queen Conch

Withrow Key #5

by Eric Douglas

Queen Conch is a protected species in the United States, but smugglers are catching them close to Withrow Key for restaurants in Miami. In the process, they are tearing up the coral reefs and creating an environmental disaster. It is up to Jackson Pauley and Randy Littlebear to determine if this is simply an illegal fishing operation or if there is something bigger going on. Is someone making a land grab to build condos on Withrow Key?

This is the fifth Withrow Key adventure short story. Set on a bypassed key in the Florida Keys, life moves a little slower and a little weirder.

Each story in the Withrow Key adventure short story series features scuba diving, adventure, boats, the ocean and mystery along with beautiful locations and scenery. Jackson Pauley and Randy Littlebear get a visit from Mike Scott, international news photographer and the main character from the Mike Scott adventure series. This story also introduces a character featured in the Mike Scott novel Wreck of the Huron.

40 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 10, 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.