Blog Posts - Books by Eric Douglas

Oil and Water novella is now an audiobook!

November 7, 2016 By Eric Douglas

oil-and-water-audiobook cover — Audiobooks require a slightly different cover than a standard book.

Oil and Water is now available in audiobook format through Audible, Amazon and iTunes.

The Story

Mike Scott is nearly killed when a private jet crashes into the ocean near him in the waters off Curacao. The cause of the crash is mysterious, but when men try to kidnap the plane’s pilot, who Mike helped save, he realizes there is something even bigger going on.

Evidence on the downed plane points to terrorism, but Mike suspects an ulterior motive. To unravel the mystery, he has to stay alive and stop the kidnappers at the same time.

The exciting Mike Scott novella Oil and Water is now available in softcover, Kindle ebook and audiobook. You can enjoy a fast-paced thriller wherever you go.

There is a 3:28 minute audio sample on all three of the audiobook retail pages if you want to get a taste for the story.

You can also read some early reviews and get the book in softcover or on Kindle here.

Hear Eric join Greg Holt, along with the story’s narrator CJ Goodearl, on ScubaRadio to talk about the story and listen to a couple short clips from the book. From 11-5-16.

Eric, Greg and CJ discussed the Oil and Water audiobook again on 11-12-16. CJ, the narrator, talked about what it was like to delve into the story and bring it to life using multiple voices.

Stingy Jack-o-lantern and the will-o-the-wisp

October 31, 2016 By Eric Douglas

Research into the origins of the jack-o-lantern for my weekly newspaper column inspired the following pieces of Halloween flash fiction. It brought me to tales of the original Jack-o-lantern and the will-o-the-wisp. Both stories are conversations. The first involves medieval man encountering the will-o-the-wisp. The second speaks to the legend of the Jack-o-lantern itself.

If you want to read the column, you can find it here.

A light in the distance

Is that a traveler ahead? I can’t quite make him out.

It must be. I see his light. It keeps moving.

I don’t know why anyone is out on a dark night like this.

We’re out.

Yes, but not by our choice.

Call to him. Maybe he will guide us.

I did, but he doesn’t answer. He seems to keep moving away from us.

Hurry along. We’ll catch up to him. We’ll be safer traveling together. We don’t know these roads and our light is failing.

The road ahead is getting soft.

The traveler made it this way, didn’t he?

Stingy Jack

You’ve tricked me, Jack. Not many men can say that.

Don’t be embarrassed, Devil. Not many men are like me.

In spite of those you’ve cheated, for releasing me, I promise I won’t take you to Hell when you die.

Then it’s to heaven for me?

Well, no. I promise I won’t take you to Hell. But He didn’t say He would take you in, either.

What’s to become of me?

You’ll walk the earth for eternity. As a boon, I’ll give you a burning ember to light your way.

How will I carry it?

In a pumpkin, of course.

This is the fourth year for Halloween fiction and flash fiction. You can read the previous years, and stories from other writers who participated in my annual call for stories, on the Free Fiction page.

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2016 Halloween Flash Fiction Collection

October 31, 2016 By Eric Douglas

A few of my writer friends agreed to submit their own 100 word Halloween Flash Fiction stories for your entertainment. The challenge of writing flash fiction is to tell a story, to illicit a reaction, while using exactly 100 words. It’s a fun and interesting writing challenge. What is not said is just as important as what you do say. Probably even more so.

Follow the links and read the various submissions. Every writer goes about this a different way. You’ll like some, hate others and be totally creeped out by at least one, if you let your imagination take over.

If you want to read previous collections of Halloween stories, or longer scary stories, visit my Free Fiction page.

Check back throughout the day as more stories come in.

My two stories are

A light in the distance

Stingy Jack

Patrick Newman

Stu’s Halloween Dive

JD Byrne

“All the Wishes” – Another Very Short Story

Loren Eaton: I Saw Lightning Fall

The Everlasting Arms

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First-person breast cancer book FREE through Oct. 31

October 27, 2016 By Eric Douglas

A few years ago, my friend Jean Hanna Davis invited me to sit with her while she took chemotherapy for breast cancer. It was her second go-round, almost exactly 10 years after her first.

She didn’t want me to hold her hand or anything like that. She wanted my help writing a book. We recorded our conversations and, along with her notes and journal entries, those interviews became Keep on, Keepin’ on: A Breast Cancer Survivor Story.

Jean is a strong, optimistic person, but the book isn’t all sunshine and roses. Jean gets tired, feels sick and struggles. It is a raw, mostly unfiltered look at the process. Anyone, especially people who have just gotten a diagnosis of breast cancer, should read Jean’s story.

Jean has a love/hate relationship with Breast Cancer Awareness Month. She talks about that in the book. And that’s okay. To close out the October, we have decided to make the Kindle version of Keep on, Keepin’ on FREE to download. You don’t have to do anything special. Just go to Amazon and get your copy.

I don’t like “awareness” games or Facebook posts that don’t do anything for women who are struggling with breast cancer. If you want to do something that takes only a minimum of effort, share this post with the world. Help us give away thousands of copies of the book and help women who have breast cancer to gain some strength and understanding from Jean’s experiences.

Call for Halloween Flash Fiction

October 18, 2016 By Eric Douglas

Think you can make someone’s skin crawl in 100 words? No more, no less? It’s that time again. Get working on your Halloween flash fiction for the 2016 Halloween Flash Fiction Collection.

The rules are simple: Write a flash fiction piece, about Halloween, and post it to your own website/blog by October 31. When you do, send me the link. On All Hallows Eve I will post the links to all of the stories I receive on my website.

No payment, this is just for fun. And I won’t be approving or editing the stories. That’s why it goes on your own site/blog. You take responsibility for it.

If you want to see the previous three years’ worth of collections, you can find them on my Free Fiction page.

Now, get to work and have fun with this writing challenge.

(Share this with anyone who you think might be interested.)

Get out and Walk: For your health

September 7, 2016 By Eric Douglas

For the last seven months I’ve talked a lot about my personal battle with heart disease and my recovery from open-heart surgery. The reason for that is two-fold.

First, I wanted anyone else with heart disease to know what I learned (as I learned it) and to know that there is life afterward.

Second, and the more important part, I wanted to help educate everyone else that while heart disease is the #1 killer of both men and women in the United States (according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), a lot of it is preventable.

There are things like family history and other factors that are out of our control, but a lot of what causes heart disease is up to us. Quitting smoking, eating more fruits and vegetables and exercising regularly are all really simple things we can do to avoid the pain of open-heart surgery.

And I promise you, the surgery hurts.

This weekend is the Charleston Heart Walk, the main fundraising event in support of the American Heart Association (AHA) of West Virginia. The money raised for the AHA goes to research to help find ways to improve our odds against those risk factors we can’t control, but it also goes to support educational programs to help us all avoid having a talk with a cardiologist. And a surgeon. (They also work to stamp out Stroke as well, the #5 killer in the US.)

I’ll be walking this Saturday. I’m going to try to jog the 5K distance, but we’ll see how that goes. Regardless, I’ll be out there and I think you should, too. If you can’t make the walk, please consider donating to the AHA, either directly or through a walk team. My team is Team Second Chance, so named because I feel like I have a second chance at life now. You can search the Charleston Heart Walk site for my team and donate that way, if you want. I don’t get anything from it. All the money goes to the AHA.

The link for my team on the the Charleston Heart Walk is: www.heart.org/charlestonwvwalk

If you want to join me on the walk/run, please join my team and come on out. I’m getting excited!