Eric Douglas, Author at West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Christy Smith's Debut Novel ‘Killed It’ Comes With Surprises

Christy Smith’s debut novel “Killed It” is a thriller with a twist. Smith explained that the book is both a thriller and a dark comedy. It’s set in New York City and the protagonist is a young, failed female comedian who is working as a paralegal.

Pushed too far, the young woman goes on a vigilante spree. When someone finds out and blackmails her, she has to get herself out of trouble. The story is intended for younger women, but Smith discovered some older men like it, too.

“She’s young, she’s a millennial, and she has a foul mouth. I was thinking it would be mostly a female audience, but I have had a strange reaction from men over 50. They are like ‘I love this book,’” she said.

Smith, who writes under the pen name Lulu Smith, is a full-time lawyer. She said after she finished the first book, she took a break because work got in the way, but a new story is emerging.

“I work in opioid litigation space representing plaintiffs in the counties and cities. And so my world got completely shut up with work, but now she’s talking to me again,” Smith said.

She said the only issue is living up to the standard of the first story.

“Can I do this a second time? I mean, I have the idea. But the pressure, especially in a sequel is high, so that’s stressful.”

“I am in the outlining stage. I’m kind of an anal-retentive outliner, or just because of my background as a legal writer, because I write on the geek that writes the legal briefs, and I’ve gone back to the law,” Smith said.

This interview is part of a series of discussions with authors from the region.

Coal and Natural Gas Similarities: An Interview With Ken Ward Jr.

The recent rise of oil and gas drilling across West Virginia has raised questions about industry regulation and taxation. Many bear a striking resemblance to similar questions raised about the coal industry in years past.

Ken Ward Jr. is a reporter for the Charleston Gazette-Mail. He’s been writing about the coal industry his entire career. He sees a number of similarities between the coal and natural gas industries and how those industries are regulated.

In the 1950s, then Gov. William C. Marland proposed taxing coal with a 10 cent per ton severance tax. “Let’s use this equitable source of revenue, because whether we like it or not, West Virginia’s hills will be stripped, the bowels of the earth will be mined and the refuse strewn across our valleys and our mountains in the form of burning slate dumps,” he said. The move was considered political suicide.

“I think we see that now,” Ward said. “We see places where coal jobs have vanished were greatly diminished. We see that a lot of these places still don’t have good roads. They don’t have good schools. A series that Caity Coyne from the Gazette-Mail worked on last year, a lot of these places don’t have clean drinking water. Jessica Lilly from [West Virginia] Public Broadcasting has reported tons of stories about those issues in southern West Virginia.”

Academics often discuss the concept of a “resource curse” where places with large amounts of natural resources do not attempt to diversify and then are stuck when those resources run dry. Ward said he doesn’t think it’s inevitable, but in West Virginia we have to work hard to fight it.

Ward recalled one public hearing he attended about mountaintop removal coal mining in which a young man from eastern Kentucky testified against a proposed regulation from the U.S. EPA.

“And you know, he’s a young man, he’s like a kid, really, and he said, ‘If you shut down this mining, there’s nothing for me. That’s the only future I possibly have,'” Ward said. “What a sad sort of thing. I mean, who doesn’t want for their kids any possible future they could imagine?”

Ward said there are other states that have large amounts of natural resources, but they have also planned for downtimes with a “future fund” where money is set aside from the sale of those resources. Alaska is the primary example where everyone in the state gets a check. Most places use the money for infrastructure projects and schools.

The Legislature passed a bill establishing a future fund in West Virginia, but they never funded it.

“They set up all of these little requirements. Well, if the state rainy day fund exceeds this, and if tax collections are XX percentage above this, then we’ll put some money into it, but they’ve never actually put any money in. We have this future fund with no funds,” Ward explained.

Ward said one of the biggest mistakes West Virginia is making right now is attempting to carry out new projects and new developments with the natural gas industry in secret.

“I think it’s really difficult to know if it’s the direction West Virginia should go, when anybody — whether it’s a newspaper reporter, or an environmental activist or a housewife —anybody who tries to just say, ‘Hey, wait a second, let me ask some questions about that’ immediately the reaction [is] ‘Oh, you’re just against jobs’ or “You’re just negative. You’re driving people from West Virginia,'” he said. “I mean, if all of these things are so fantastic for West Virginia, then they will withstand scrutiny.”

What’s in a Name: The Definition of a ‘Boom’ Town

There’s a town in Kanawha County, West Virginia where some locals say living there is a “blast.”

As part of our occasional series, “What’s in a Name,” we take a look at the history and folklore of the names of Appalachian places. The town in question, Nitro, West Virginia, grew out of the explosives industry and was home to a factory that helped supply the U.S. Army with gun powder during World War I. Ken Thompson volunteers at the World War I museum in the city of Nitro.

According to Thompson, Nitro was established in 1917 by the federal government to manufacture nitrocellulose, a highly flammable compound formed by bringing cellulose from trees or plants into contact with it to nitric acid. It is also known as “guncotton,” because of its explosive characteristics.

“It was to support the war effort for WWI,” he explained. “A lot of people were under the impression it was nitroglycerin. It was not. It was nitrocellulose. That was added to the other components to make the gunpowder smokeless.”

Area S Bungalow Section. August 19, 1918.

It took the federal government about 11 months to build the town from 1917 to 1918, and approximately 100,000 people representing 41 nations participated.

Nitro’s construction coincided with one of the coldest winters in recorded history, Thompson said.

One of the town’s builders would go on to become famous: Clark Gable.

“His dad told him ‘son go get a job,'” Thompson said. “Well, he was one of those 100,000 came through Nitro. He worked as an electrician helping to build some of the Nitro bungalows.”

You can learn more about the town and the former manufacturing facilities there — as well as see artifacts from WWI on display at the museum.

Pinch Reunion Brings W.Va. Community Together

Pinch, West Virginia is home to about 3,500 people and the longest running community reunion in the country. Since 1902, the reunion has brought current residents together as well as many who moved away.

The Herbert Hoover High School Marching Band makes it way through Pinch for the annual reunion.

The founders of the reunion hoped to raise “the civic, religious and educational standards of the community.”

This year’s event, held August 10-11, featured pageant queens, a car show, music concerts and a parade. The reunion committee also provided Science Technology Engineering and Math, or STEM, activites. The reunion finished up on Sunday with a church service.

Joe Hoover said he’s been to about 30 Pinch reunions since 1956 when he was in the first grade.

“It means people getting together that maybe you haven’t seen in a long time,” he said.

Kaitlin Jordan grew up in Pinch. She said she hates to miss a parade.

“Everyone lines up on the road in their lawn chairs and sits around and waits and enjoys the show. We love the Pinch Reunion,” she said.

In recent years, attendance at the reunion has has waned, but Hoover is optimistic about the future.

“It’s maybe lost some of its luster over the past few years, but there’s some new people coming in, and I think they’re going to do a good job of getting some things turned around,” he said.

Author Cicero Fain Discusses 'Black Huntington: An Appalachian Story'

When Cicero Fain began working on his Ph.D., he took a deep look at the black community in Huntington, West Virginia. He wanted to understand where it began and what helped i to thrive. That research ultimately became his new book “Black Huntington: An Appalachian Story.”

One major factor that boosted growth in Huntington was the Chesapeake and Ohio railroad. When Collis P. Huntington decided to build a depot in Huntington, he needed workers.

Many of the men who came were African Americans leaving the deep South. They worked for the railroad in the trainyard as well as laying track and digging tunnels in the mountains.

Fain said one thing that surprised him is what he called the “Grapevine Telegraph.” Leading up to the Civil War, it was an informal network that allowed free and enslaved blacks to communicate and discuss their situations.

The grapevine telegraph was most prevalent in places like White Sulphur Springs. Many of the men and women worked in resorts where they also met travelers and even earned additional money through tips.

For Fain, one takeaway from the book is that it is important for people to recognize the contributions of the black community to the development of Huntington, the region and the state.

“They assisted Huntington into becoming the economic and cultural powerhouse that it became,” Fain said. “I think there are real lessons embedded within that story that speaks to the ability of a people to move forward.”

The book is available through the University of Illinois Press.

New Charleston Bills Move to Remove Abandoned Building

The mayor of West Virginia’s capital city wants to try out new ways to deal with vacant and abandoned properties that have drawn the ire of residents.

Charleston Mayor Amy Shuler Goodwin on Monday announced the introduction of two bills will help clean up abandoned buildings in the city. She says residents complain to her office every day about the vacant properties.

The Mayor delivered two bills to City Council yesterday – one increasing fines on vacant properties and one establishing a Land Reuse Agency (LRA). The LRA would help manage blighted properties throughout Charleston. While demolitions will continue, the LRA would also encourage the rehabilitation of dilapidated buildings.

City Council referred the bills to committees in the meeting.