Books by Eric Douglas

Thriller fiction and Non-fiction

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Mystery and intrigue in Italy

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Much of my fiction is rooted in history and nonfiction. I’m not the kind of writer who spends a lot of time “world-building.” No disrespect to that at all. I cut my teeth as a reader on the Dune series, everything by Asimov and of course Tolkien and high fantasy. 

For me, the history of shipwrecks and ancient civilizations brought forward to today makes a great backdrop for the Mike Scott stories. One of my favorites in that regard is Guardians’ Keep. I was working in Italy along the Adriatic Coast when a friend told me a story about some archeological research Dr. Allesandro Marroni performed on a city that had sunk just off the coast. That sparked my imagination, of course. 

And in a twist, I was able to work in ancient Jewish history and the still-missing Breastplate of Judgment from the Old Testament. It was looted by Roman soldiers during the fall of the temple in about 70 A.D. 

I like to think it is the first book where I blended real history and modern day into one entertaining story. You’ll have to be the judge of that, of course.

Until March 26, Guardians’ Keep is on sale in both the Amazon and Amazon UK stores. The price will go up slowly between now and Tuesday so get it now!

Amazon

Amazon UK

A nonfiction book I co-authored with friend and former coworker Dan Orr is called Scuba Diving Safety. The book was originally intended as an update on an even earlier book on the subject. Ultimately, we completely rewrote it. That was 17 years ago. Just a few months ago, we got the rights to the book back from the original publisher and have been updating the chapters and reorganizing it some as well. I hope to bring you the good news soon that a new publisher has picked it up. We hope to have it ready this fall. 

Audiobooks

Most of my books are now available on Audible Plus where you can listen to as many books as you want. For some reason, Audible is dragging their feet on five of my audiobooks, though. They are still available to download directly, however. You can check them out here. 

The mystery of a shipwreck

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I love diving on a beautiful coral reef, enjoying the circus of colors and fish in front of me. It is warm, relaxing and exciting at the same time. Of course, the topside atmosphere in places with those reefs is just as fun. Warm sand, sun and boat drinks. 

But, what really fires my imagination underwater are shipwrecks. A good artificial reef is fun, too, but I do prefer to dive on true shipwrecks. The ship may’ve been lost in a storm, accident or during war time. When I am diving on a wreck, with nothing but the sound of my own bubbles in my ears, my thoughts always go to the question of what was going through the minds of the passengers and crew at the time. Were they fighting and angry? Were they afraid? 

I’ve dived on shipwrecks from the Carolinas to the Caribbean to California and they are all mysterious and intriguing. My fiction author’s brain immediately goes into high gear and I’ve been known to literally start writing stories in my head during a dive. 

One of my favorite books around a shipwreck is Wreck of the Huron. It went down right off the Outer Banks of North Carolina. 

That’s what makes this story I read a few days ago in the Washington Post so intriguing. The headline teases it really well. 

A 1940 shipwreck was discovered in Lake Superior. Its mystery endures.

(This is a gift link so it’s free to read.)

The short version is, the captain went down with his ship. But he didn’t have to. The captain should be the last person to leave, but when the crew was safe, he could’ve gotten off, too. It’s easy to speculate what his motivations might’ve been but we will never know. 

Audiobooks 

I sent out a quick note at the beginning of the month about the complete Mike Scott series now being in audiobook format. 

This is an AI reading, and it’s not perfect, but it’s pretty good. I’d love to hear back from listeners to see what you think.

You can check out the links on my website. The list starts with Cayman Cowboys and there is a link to the audiobook from each one.

Also, most of them are on Audible Plus so you can listen to all you want. The remaining few have been accepted into the program and should be there soon. 

30 free thriller books

I don’t do a lot of these, but I have joined a multi-author promotion full of free thriller novels. It’s a short one, though. When February ends, so does the promotion so download them now!

You can now listen to the entire Mike Scott series!

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I’m taking a big chance on technology using Amazon’s new Virtual Voice to create audiobooks for seven Mike Scott novels. 

Four of the Mike Scott stories were already in audiobook format, read by professional voice actor CJ Goodearl. But for various reasons, mostly time and money, we weren’t able to produce the rest of the series. 

I’ve had a couple over-the-road truckers reach out and ask about the rest of the series. They said they enjoyed the books, but didn’t have time to read. I am hopeful this will help them out. 

This is an AI reading, and it’s not perfect, but it’s pretty good. I’d love to hear back from listeners to see what they think.

You can find direct links on my Amazon Author page here. But they aren’t necessarily in order. 

Or check out the links on my website above. That’s the order they were written from Cayman Cowboys going up. 

Podcast appearance and a special price to keep you warm!

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If you’re like me, you’re burrowing in and trying to stay warm right now. Much of North America is dealing with snow and ice. 

But I have two things I want to tell you about and hopefully the second one will keep you warm.

I was asked to be a guest on the Off Gassing Scuba Podcast this week. It was a fun interview and I had a great time speaking with Nick Hogle about my early diving career and making diving writing believable. Nick is an American but is currently based in Malaysia so it made time zones interesting. He caught me first thing in the morning, but at the end of his day. 

Check it out!

Let me know what surprised you most about my early career. I guarantee I never expected to end up where I am today. 

 

Tales from Withrow Key

Through the end of the month, my short story collection Tales from Withrow Key is on sale for just $0.99. It includes eight stories set on a fictional island in the Florida Keys. As I wrote these, I imagined them being television shows and I still believe Withrow Key would be a great serial program for a streaming service. Let me know what you think. 

This book happens to be in “wide” distribution so you can pick up the ebook on Kindle, Barnes and Noble and Apple Books — probably a couple others as well. 

Kindle

Apple Books

Barnes and Noble

Using stories about the ocean as teaching opportunities

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(This week’s substack article is below. Follow this link for previous essays.)

I’ve been fortunate to have a career that has involved telling stories and working around the ocean. I’ve gotten to write about the things I’ve seen above and below the waves. 

One of my goals when I started writing novels was to expose readers to the magic of the ocean. Coming from the recreational dive industry, I hoped divers would enjoy my books so I attempted to make the diving as realistic as possible. 

But, I have written with nondivers in mind as well. I want those readers to be excited about my stories. I want some of them to decide to learn to scuba dive and explore the ocean. And I want everyone to learn a few things about the ocean itself. 

Recently, I read an essay called Why We Need New Stories About the Ocean: Natalie Hart on the Urgency of Literature That Brings the Ocean into the Climate Story

One thing Hart discussed was the difference between literature about the climate versus the ocean. With climate-based stories, the reader is likely predisposed to have an interest in the overall topic. But with the ocean, it is typically just a setting for a love story, adventure story or even a story of personal reflection like a memoir. 

“People can come to books that feature the sea, with no motivation to understand the ocean at all, but they can learn or feel something about the sea through the process of reading. And perhaps these people that we don’t normally reach are the most important of all.”

I don’t write science fiction, but I’ve always understood the genre as taking what is known and extrapolating it into the future. Think about concepts like Warp Speed and digital tablets from Star Trek or Isaac Asimov’s Three Rules of Robotics. 

With my books, there is always something readers can take away when it comes to oceans, water, the environment, or reef systems. 

An example of that is the 10th novel in the Mike Scott series. It’s all about the shortage of fresh water and the international upheaval that causes. 

Recently I saw a story that drought conditions and sea level rise had allowed more salt water intrusion into the Mississippi River causing problems for municipal water supply systems. So many things I extrapolated in Water Crisis are coming true and causing problems. 

There are times, as a fiction writer, I question whether I am doing any good. I want to influence people to love and respect the ocean while being in awe of everything we don’t know about it. But it’s easy to get frustrated and wonder if anyone is listening. 

And then I shake that feeling off and go back to writing. I continue to tell my fiction stories with truth as the background to help people learn whether they want to or not. 

 

Dreaming of a White Christmas: Advent Ghosts

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Each year at this time, my friend Loren Eaton organizes Advent Ghosts. It’s simply an opportunity for writers to have a little fun and continue the very old tradition of telling “scary ghost stories” around the yule log during the Christmas season. 

There are no prizes, and it isn’t a contest. The catch is this is flash fiction. As Loren says, “100 words, no more, no less.” The challenge is telling a complete story using a word count novelists would consider their opening paragraph. 

On the free short fiction page on my website, you can read previous efforts. (I took a couple years off during COVID.) Below are my stories from this year. 

 

White Christmas

“I’m dreaming of a white Christmas…” plays on the radio. 

“I don’t know why they play that silly song here. It’s not like it’s ever going to snow.”

Announcer interrupts the music. 

“The first nuclear missiles have already exploded in the now white-hot war between nuclear powers India and Pakistan. It’s unknown if other countries will get involved, but fallout from the blasts is expected to cover the globe.” 

“That’s on the other side of the world. It doesn’t matter to us,” Momma says. 

Momma come to the window! It’s snowing outside!

How can that be? We live in Miami!

 

Krampus goes up town

Ted sat at the bar dejected. All of his investments and real estate deals collapsed. He lost everything. 

They wouldn’t stop playing Christmas music. 

“Who cares if it’s Christmas eve? The markets are closed and I can’t fix things,” he slurred at the bar. 

A distinguished man entered and sat beside Ted. 

“Why so glum?” 

Ted laid out his tale of woe. 

“Ted, were you honest in your dealings?”

“I might have cut corners. Everything was only going up and then it just collapsed today!”

“Have you ever heard of Krampus?” The man’s smile didn’t reach his dark, cold eyes.

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