Diving Archives - Page 23 of 34 - Books by Eric Douglas

Making stuff up

February 11, 2013 By Eric Douglas

One of the coolest things about being a fiction writer is that you can make up things you need to tell a story. Obviously, writers make up people all the time…or risk getting sued.

I’ve read books where writers have made up planets or technology. The key to making up things like that is even if you make up something totally different, it still has to have a basis in fact. Sci-Fi writers look at what’s available today and then extrapolate what might be available in the future. It’s always interesting to read some of the best science fiction from 50 years ago and then see how close they were to the truth. Still no flying cars, but we do have “communicators” that plug wirelessly into our ears that respond to voice commands.

I don’t write sci-fi, and all of my novels have been based on real locations I’ve visited (except for Cuba; still working on that trip) so you might think I don’t end up making up too much stuff. And that is where you would be wrong.

A few years ago, I decided to write a series of short stories. I knew I wanted to write about the ocean and diving, but I decided to do something different from what I had been doing. In my mind’s eye, I could see these short stories like a television series with a cast of characters in the same location. There would be some reoccurring characters along with new ones who came in and out as the stories evolved.

My first question was where? Where could I set this up that seemed believable? What location could have divergent story lines and themes? And then it hit me. I could make up my own island. From that, Withrow Key was born.

I decided to stay in the United States rather than going off-shore. If you’ve ever been to the Florida Keys, you know there are a lot of interesting characters there already. It didn’t seem like much of a stretch that I could have my own island with odd things happening on a regular basis. The first Withrow Key story was Going Down with the Ship. At the time, I knew some people involved in creating artificial reefs out of retired warships. Within months of each other, attempts to sink two ships got a little crazy as one ship sank ahead of schedule and the other rolled over on the surface, but didn’t sink until people had to board it again and cut more holes to let the air out. All of that came together in my mind to serve as the basis for that short story. It might not be science fiction, but I would definitely say it was a case of extrapolation from current events and wondering “what if?”

You can read an entire series of these short stories for free from my website. These stories are free to download, read and share. Just don’t change them or plagiarize them.

The most recent Withrow Key short story is available through Amazon. It is called Sea Monster.

Going Black and White Underwater

October 8, 2012 By Eric Douglas

My first “real” exposure to photography was a black and white photography and darkroom class I took at Marshall. I had taken pictures before that, but never seriously. We all had those oblong cameras on our 6^thgrade patrol trip to Washington DC that advanced the film with a thumb slide.

After college, I set up a darkroom in my mom’s house and continued shooting black and white for myself. I loved the control of the darkroom and the ability to make images look the way they did in my mind. I would literally spend hours in the darkroom, making prints and adjusting them and then watching them appear in the developer tray.

In 1998, I moved to California and mothballed my darkroom. I didn’t have the room for it, and I wasn’t shooting much at that time anyway. Later that same year, I saw a series of photographs by Ernie Brooks that blew me away. The show was made up entirely of underwater images in black and white. I was amazed by what I saw and I never forgot those photographs, but it never occurred to me to try black and white underwater photography for myself. (I admit, sometimes, I’m a little dense…)

Earlier this summer, I was scuba diving with my father in Summersville Lake when I realized that everything was monotone—in this case, shades of green. Suddenly a light came on in my brain that the photographs I was making, and everything around me, would look good in black and white. And a new project was born.

My new darkroom comes in the form of my laptop computer. Fortunately, I don’t have to spend hours waiting on these images to develop and I don’t have to deal with the chemical smells. For me, the fun thing about these photographs is that they reveal a side to the state that most West Virginians never see. I think they look spooky and mysterious.

Many of my friends say they could never go scuba diving, for any number of reasons. I feel sorry for them—they will never experience what I’ve been fortunate to see—but I do understand.

I hope sharing these photographs will shed a new light on the world beneath the surface of the water. You can find beauty in some of the strangest places. It just takes getting out there and opening your eyes.

Even in black and white.

Scuba Diving for a good cause

August 27, 2012 By Eric Douglas

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of making a couple dives at Bluestone Dive Resort in Thomasville, North Carolina. It was a pleasure because I got to dive with my dad again, and I got to see a couple old friends and it was a perfect day to be outside enjoying the world. But most importantly, we were diving for a good cause.

The quarry is owned by Robert Outlaw, who also owns the Blue Dolphin Dive Center in Winston-Salem. Bob and his family have been part of the diving community for more than 40 years. He has taught thousands of people to dive and moved them on to become dive instructors. His wife Janet runs the dive shop with a passion.

About six months ago, their son Ronnie, a paramedic and a dive instructor himself, became aware that his health wasn’t where it should be. It just so happened, though, that he was headed for Afghanistan to do some training for Homeland Security. I didn’t ask exactly what type of training he was doing over there, but it required him to grow his hair out and wear a beard. He put off seeing a doctor for a few weeks until he returned.

When Ronnie got back he discovered he had colon cancer. Not one of the happiest days, as you can imagine, for the 40-year-old. When I saw him yesterday, he said he had lost 85 pounds since the beginning of this ordeal. He was wearing a wrist band that said “F**K Cancer”. He said that was his edited version…

Divers in the water prepare for a shotgun start to hunt golfballs.

Ronnie is fighting hard, and still has the same grit and determination, but he needs some help with medical bills and such. That was why approximately 150 divers came together to show their support. The quarry waived their entrance and air fill fees, in lieu of donations. I don’t know how much money they raised, but the water barrels seemed to be filling up.

Part of the event included a hunt for golf balls in the water that would determine what prizes each diver won. Several balls never made it back to the surface so that meant several prizes— including a set of signed copies of all four of my dive adventure novels—ended up going unclaimed.

It’s not live yet, but Janet plans to place the prizes that are still left as a silent auction on the Blue Dolphin Dive Center website. I encourage anyone reading to participate in the auction and help out a fellow diver and friend as he fights he way past cancer and the problems that come with it.

Writing historical fiction

August 9, 2012 By Eric Douglas

I have the first local book signing for my new novel Wreck of the Huron tonight and I’m giving a short presentation on the book. I’ve been thinking about what to say and it finally occurred to me that what I like best about Wreck of the Huron is the story behind the story.

I’ve always been a history buff. I think I’ve always been blessed with the ability to “see” history in my mind. Not the history of textbooks, mind you. I’m terrible at memorizing dates. But I’ve always been able to imagine how things looked or think of historical events in terms of the people involved. I remember reading a book about the Civil War when I was about 12 or so and actually getting mad at General George McClellan. The book described all the ways in which he failed to do his job and it made me angry.

The thing I’ve learned about telling stories is that when you try talk about something huge like the Civil War, it doesn’t make sense to people. That’s where textbooks fall short. Most readers can’t relate to those events in human terms. When you’re telling a huge story, and probably especially then, you have to do it with just a few characters and make them real. Done well, historical fiction can be just as informative and educational as traditional history lessons.

The very idea of “historical fiction” makes some people groan. I know that. They think back to high school history class and how bored they were. Historical fiction doesn’t have to be boring. My last two novels (Guardian’s Keep and Wreck of the Huron) both have historical settings and backgrounds but the main part of the story takes place in present day. I like to bring readers along through the past so they can learn what happened and why as the present day characters do.

When I first heard the story of the USS Huron and her sinking in 1877, I was intrigued and knew I wanted to use it in a story, but I was stuck for a long time on how to do it. I began writing the book, but then hit a wall and had to put it away for a while. I didn’t know how I was going to tell the story of the men on board and do it justice. And then I stumbled across the transcript of the official inquest into the Huron’s sinking. I quickly realized I could tell the story of the ship by letting the men who survived do it themselves. Now that Wreck of the Huron is complete, that section is my favorite part of the book. It tells the story in human terms.

My first exposure to the story of the Huron and the circumstances of her sinking happened because of a historical highway marker beside the road and some signs explaining what had happened on a quiet stretch of beach 135 years ago. When you consider how many historical highway markers there are out there, it tells me there is no end to good stories to tell.

You just have to find the right way to tell it..

Breathing underwater for the first time

August 2, 2012 By Eric Douglas

I still remember my first breath underwater. You might think I’d let that memory pass long ago. Since that first day, I’ve logged hundreds of dives and spent hundreds of hours breathing with a scuba regulator in my mouth. But that first breath was special.

I wish I could say it went smoothly, but it didn’t.

It was 1990 and I had just graduated from college with a degree in Journalism from Marshall. Like a lot of new graduates, I looked at my resume and realized just how bare it was. And, of course, I had grand aspirations of going to work for National Geographic, but that’s a different story. Anyway, I looked at my resume and wondered what I could do to beef things up a bit. I thought to myself, I could learn to fly a plane or learn to dive. I checked into both. Learning to dive seemed a lot more practical at the time.

So, that was how I found myself at the West Virginia State University (then college) pool kneeling in the shallow end with 40 or so pounds of dive gear on my back. I put my face in the water and looked around at my fellow students for a moment. We were all smiling behind our masks. And then it came time to breathe. I couldn’t do it. I choked. My throat locked up and I couldn’t inhale. I quickly rose up out of the water and spat out my regulator. After a few minutes of thinking through the process and telling myself I could actually breathe with my face in the water, I tried it again and was successful. The rest, as they say, is history. (Not really, but no one is interested in all that detail.) It has led to several books and a career in diving. Not bad for a goofy kid from West Virginia.

Last night I got to watch a couple new divers experience scuba for the first time.

“So how was it?” “Pretty cool!”

Local Charleston dive instructor Bob Sharpe was teaching a class and I was hanging around to get in the pool for a bit. It was fun to watch and brought back a lot of memories for me…from my own experiences as a diver and some of the students I taught along the way.

You never know if a new diver has just discovered something that will end up being a life-long passion or if they will dive a few times on their own and then move on to other experiences. It’s funny though, I often wear dive t-shirts or other logos (it makes up quite a bit of my wardrobe) and people stop me and say “Are you a diver? Me too.” Even if they haven’t been diving in years, they still identify with being a diver. And when they talk about diving you can still see that look in their eyes from their first breath. It is a look of excitement and wonder.

Tonight, I plan to spend some time in the pool with my daughters helping them learn to snorkel. Neither one of them has been all that interested in it to this point and I know better than to push it on them. Maybe next year, they will want to get scuba certified. Who knows? I won’t teach the class, but I know some very good instructors who will do it for me. I do want to be there, though, and watch that light in their eyes for the first time. I think they will say it was “pretty cool” too..