Books by Eric Douglas

Thriller fiction and Non-fiction

  • Home
  • Mike Scott Thrillers
    • Held Hostage: Search for the Juncal
    • Water Crisis: Day Zero
    • Turks and Chaos: Hostile Waters
    • The 3rd Key: Sharks in the Water
    • Oil and Water: Crash in Curacao
    • Return to Cayman: Paradise Held Hostage
    • Heart of the Maya: Murder for the Gods
    • Wreck of the Huron: Cuban Secrets
    • Guardians’ Keep: Mystery below the Adriatic
    • Flooding Hollywood: Fanatics at the Dam
    • Cayman Cowboys: Reefs Under Pressure
  • Withrow Key
    • Lyin’ Fish
    • Tales from Withrow Key
  • Agent AJ West
  • About the Author
    • Publicity and Interviews
  • Nonfiction
    • For Cheap Lobster
    • Heart Survivor: Recovery After Heart Surgery
    • Oral History
      • Batter Up!
      • Memories of the Valley
      • WV Voices of War / Common Valor
      • Capturing Memories: How to Record Oral Histories
    • Dive-abled: The Leo Morales Story
    • Keep on, Keepin’ On: A Breast Cancer Story
    • WV Voices of War / Common Valor
    • Russia: The New Age
    • Scuba Diving Safety
  • Free Short Fiction
  • Other Fiction
    • Sea Turtle Rescue and Other Stories
    • River Town
You are here: Home / Archives for Diving

Diving flash fiction

August 30, 2016 By Eric Douglas

There are times when writing a book makes a writer lazy. When you have 80,000 to 100,000 words to tell a story, you can take your time. A bigger challenge is writing a story that has characters, plot and suspense in 1000, 500 or even 100 words. It becomes just as important what you leave out as what you put in. You leave it up to the readers to use their imagination to fill in the blanks and decide what happened.

The following flash fiction pieces were written for another project, but they never got used. Rather than rot in a metaphorical drawer, I’m sharing them here. Just because.

The first piece is a flash fiction detail from my novel Cayman Cowboys, set on Grand Cayman. The second is an original Flash Fiction piece. Both are 200 words.

From Cayman Cowboys

Groggy from the blow to his head, Kelly took stock of his surroundings. Waking up on the cold metal bench, he guessed he was in a chamber. He couldn’t see much through the portholes in the steel compartment, but he knew he was underwater. How did he get here? How was he going to get out?

Kelly didn’t know if anyone was coming for him so he decided to swim for the surface and pray he could make it. The diving bell’s air supply was off so he didn’t have a choice. He could suffocate where he was. He could drown in the water. Or, he could make it. He had one in three chances, but he had to give it a shot.

The sun was rising outside and he could see just a bit more through the portholes. The vague morning light didn’t tell him much. He could just make out the reef below him, but he could be in 20 feet of water or 90.

Kelly stilled himself, and did his best to slow his heart rate. He could tell the air in the bell was getting stale. It was time to go. He had nothing to lose.

Watery grave

IMG_2850.jpg“Shipwrecks creep me out a little bit,” Rick said as he assembled his dive gear.

“Why?”

“It feels like someone’s watching me. I get the feeling that there are ghosts.”

“You don’t have anything to worry about,” Greg lied to his new dive buddy. They had just met and Greg didn’t want to miss the dive for some silly superstition. “This is an artificial reef. No one died on board. It was completely empty when it went down.”

Satisfied, Rick followed Greg to the swim step. Descending along the anchor chain to the bow of the wreck, Rick felt uneasy. The water was warm and visibility was good, but he felt a chill. He could clearly see the hole in the hull of the cargo ship in front of him. It had been torpedoed.

Rick was mad at Greg for lying, but he knew his new friend was right. There were no ghosts on board the ship. He was just being silly. He followed Greg through the pilot house and then they turned toward an interior corridor. Rick hesitated, but decided to stay with his buddy.

It was the last decision he would ever make. Neither body was ever recovered.

Filed Under: Adventure, Books, Diving, New Releases

Locations from the novella ‘Oil and Water’

August 15, 2016 By Eric Douglas

oil and water 6 lowAll of the Mike Scott novels and novella are set in real locations, places you can find on a map. With one exception, they are also places I have visited and spent time exploring. (A section of Wreck of the Huron takes place in Cuba on the Isle of Pines and I haven’t been there. Yet.)

Each of the following photos represents a scene in the latest Mike Scott novella Oil and Water. It is set on the beautiful western Caribbean island of Curacao. Read the story and then check out the photos to imagine yourself there!

DSC_0001
Page 9

 

IMG_0774
Photo of me diving in Curacao, by Lynn Bean. Page 17
DSC_0083
Page 58
DSC_0079
Page 58
DSC_1021 (2)
Page 72
DSC_0116
Page 72
DSC_0063
Page 80
DSC_0093
Page 85
DSC_1039
Page 94

Filed Under: Adventure, Books, Diving, New Releases, Photography, Travel

Oil and Water novella latest installment in Mike Scott series

August 10, 2016 By Eric Douglas

oil and water 6 lowOil and Water is a story that’s been on my mind for a while. It brings together a beautiful, unique island in the western Caribbean and puts it right in the middle of the current oil market and situation. It’s a fun story with twists and turns.

It’s also in novella length, great for a day at the pool or the beach, or a surface interval between dives.

Listen to me talking to Greg Holt from ScubaRadio during the pre-release of the novella Oil and Water. We discuss the book, the pre-release specials and other chances to go diving.

https://www.booksbyeric.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/SR_8-6-16-complete.mp3

You can also read a news story about Oil and Water in the Curacao Chronicle, the primary newspaper on the island where the story takes place.

Learn more about the book and read the first reviews here.

Filed Under: Adventure, Books, Diving, New Releases

Return to Diving after Open-Heart Surgery

August 10, 2016 By Eric Douglas

return to diving, me and dadA short video of my return to diving following open heart surgery. Just over six months after my surgery, and a few days after my 49th birthday, I returned to diving. Better yet, I was able to dive with my dad a few days before his 78th birthday.

Visit the Heart Disease and Diving page to see the entire story of my diagnosis, recovery and getting back in the water.

Filed Under: Diving, Heart Blog, Uncategorized

Extra day = Special sale on books!

February 29, 2016 By Eric Douglas

For Leap Day, I’m running a 12-hour sale on the Kindle version of three of my books.

Starting at 8 am EST, they will be on sale at a 61% discount. As the day progresses, the price will increase in increments, returning to the regular list price at 8 pm EST.

cayman cover finalThe books included in this special offer are:

  • Return to Cayman: the latest Mike Scott dive thriller.
    • Direct from Amazon
    • For more information
  • The Mike Scott Boxed set: The first five Mike Scott thrillers, plus two short stories.
    • Direct from Amazon
    • For more information
  • Tales from Withrow Key: The first eight short stories from Withrow Key.
    • Direct from Amazon
    • For more information 

Don’t hesitate. This offer is as fleeting as a Leap Day and won’t come around again before the next one.

If you already own all three of these books, thank you. Why don’t you pass this along to a friend or two who might be able to take advantage of this limited time offer?

Heart Blog

On a totally unrelated note, I’ve posted three blogs to my website from my weekly column in the local paper about my open heart surgery and the recovery from quintuple bypasses. I’ll be doing this throughout my recovery process to help my friends and readers learn from my experiences, hopefully avoid what I’m going through, or at least be prepared for what’s to come.

You can read them all on my website at Heart Blog

Capturing Memories: Recording Oral Histories

oral histories book webOn an even more unrelated note, check out my new “How To” book on recording oral histories. The book covers: Research, Interviewing, Getting Releases, Recording the Interview, Telling a Story and Editing. It also includes a foreword on the importance of collecting oral histories by the Editor of Goldenseal and West Virginia State Folklife Director Stan Bumgardner.

Capturing Memories: Recording Oral Histories will guide you through the process from choosing your goals, writing advance questions and making the recording using your smartphone, a recorder or your computer. It is available in softcover through all major online retailers for $9.99 and in Kindle format through Amazon for $5.99.

  • Direct from Amazon
  • For more information

Filed Under: Adventure, Books, Diving, New Releases

  • « Previous Page
  • 1
  • …
  • 8
  • 9
  • 10
  • 11
  • 12
  • …
  • 34
  • Next Page »

Real Thugs: A Cult of Murder — Small groups of travelers have disappeared all over the mid-Atlantic without a trace. When bodies turn up with what appear to be ritual markings, FBI Agent AJ West is on the hunt for what might be a serial killer. Or something even more sinister. It’s a race against […]

View Book

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Substack
  • Threads
  • YouTube
Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2025 ·