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.
Read a Flash Fiction prequel to River Town called Blue Moon.
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 before the railroad came through the mountains. The river was the center of everything.
Created by Eric Douglas, River Town features the work of Shawna Christos, G. Cameron Fuller, Elizabeth Gaucher, Katharine Herndon and Jane Siers Wright.
Buy the print edition of any of Eric’s books from Amazon and get a Kindle copy for FREE! (Give one as a gift and keep the other for yourself. We won’t tell…)
**This book was accepted for sale by a jury of writing peers at the exclusive Tamarack bookstore.
Check out some views of the actual River Town
Or imagine yourself heading down river on a sternwheeler
Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars An Impressive Collaboration
It is very refreshing to read an engaging period work that steeps you completely into the cultural setting o f the times, especially stories that include a child’s perspective. Eric Douglas, Elizabeth Damewood Gaucher and the rest of the talented writing group really caught my attention as each character’s story intertwined with another in a very authentic way. You are left wondering what happened next.
By Shawn Elmore
“How best to describe it? Imagine a television drama that unfolds in a single season with each episode being written and directed by someone new. Some of the episodes present an overarching mythology, a macro-story that becomes clearer over a longer period of narrative time. Indeed, a retrospective look reveals intricate connections between the various stories. Editor Eric Douglas deserves kudos for his steady hand at the narrative till. Yes, the changes in style and pacing are a problem, and a handful of inconsistencies appear between accounts. But read as a single tale told by multiple people, River Town makes waves.”
By Loren Eaton of I Saw Lightning Fall.
“Rather than the eight stand-alone stories from different writers united around common characters in the same (historic) place and time that I expected, RIVER TOWN, in its whole is more like a progressive dinner where we travel to each writer’s home for each portion of a delightful collective meal. Every course is delicious on its own, but the true treat is finishing the last bite and appreciating the beauty of the sum of its parts.”
– Daniel Boyd, Filmmaker, Author
“Douglas and his group do a good job of weaving historical fiction and mysticism into a unique Appalachian story. The writers use Point of View storytelling to effectively engage the readers and slowly evolve and reveal the shared characters about which they write in interesting and unexpected ways.”
– Bill Woodrum
“Douglas and company have created an authentic vision of Post-Civil War Appalachia – full of bravado, mystery, and magic. Readers need only open the pages to find themselves instantly transported aboard a sternwheeler, headed up river for adventure.”
– Frank Larnerd editor of Hills of Fire: Bare-Knuckle Yarns of Appalachia
What follows is a witch hunt, a steamboat race, a love story, and a coal mine mystery. River Town is a great layered story and I hope that there’s a sequel written.
– Kristy Feltenberger Gillespie.