Summer is on its way in the northern hemisphere, but I’m sure some of my friends in the southern hemisphere are happy it is almost over. The heat has been alarming and is leading to severe coral bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef.
At home, though, it’s almost time to get 60 feet underwater here in West Virginia. Which means I have to get my tanks inspected and refilled. Last year, I ended up waiting until nearly the end of the season to go diving. A whole lot of life things got in the way, but that won’t happen this year.
I know I’ve been saying this for months, but I am also finally getting back to writing. For real. I’m about a third of the way into what will be the next Mike Scott thriller novel. It’s a good one and a cool story. But I got myself stuck. I finally figured out it was the location. I was trying to put it someplace I didn’t know very well. Once I realized that, the logjam started to open back up.
Right now, I am reading back through what I’ve written and identifying the places I need to adjust. And getting some new ideas on how to move it forward. Stay tuned.
Lately, I’ve been doing some more writing on Substack as well. It’s an interesting place where essayists write on a wide variety of topics. It’s taken me a little while to find my voice there. I wanted to make it informative and based on my personal travels and experiences. Below are my two most recent essays.
- PFAS is a major problem for the oceans — and us
- ‘You should’ve seen this 20 years ago’ becoming more and more real
You can subscribe there to get notified whenever I publish a new essay.
Audiobooks
All of the Mike Scott novels and novellas are now available as audiobooks. Some are read by a professional voice actor; others are read by an AI voice. I’m satisfied with the AI reads, but obviously, they can never touch a human professional.
Now that spring and summer road trip season is beginning, if you haven’t listened to any of my audiobooks, I invite you to check them out.
And speaking of road trips, if you want to get away, but can’t find the time right now, all of the Mike Scott stories are located on the ocean, on beaches and on islands.
Locations in Mike Scott stories include:
- Cayman Cowboys – Grand Cayman
- Flooding Hollywood – Catalina Island and Los Angeles
- Guardians’ Keep – Adriatic coast of Italy
- Wreck of the Huron – North Carolina and Cuba
- Heart of the Maya – Riviera Maya, Mexico
- Return to Cayman – Grand Cayman
- Oil and Water – Curacao
- The 3rd Key – Florida Keys
- Turks and Chaos – liveaboard dive boat in Turks and Caicos
- Water Crisis – Moscow, The Bahamas and Miami, along with a couple shorter stops.
- Held Hostage: Search for the Juncal — North Carolina and the coast of Mexico.