All of my novels include themes like the ocean, islands, scuba diving and the environment, especially as it relates to the ocean. Some are a bit more fanciful and center on finding historic shipwrecks (Held Hostage: Search for the Juncal) and the conflict that comes with treasure hunters. Others center on real life issues like fresh water and population disruption (Water Crisis: Day Zero).
While Mike Scott and his friends are made up, all of the stories revolve around real events, shipwrecks (Wreck of the Huron: Cuban Secrets) or locations I have visited.
The novel I am feverishly working to finish, however, isn’t something I have first hand knowledge of. Instead, I stumbled across an old news article on some trip down an online rabbit hole. Like a lot of my story research, I find things interesting and then file them away in a tickler file until I get the chance to get back to them.
The trigger was the discovery of thousands of barrels of waste dumped off the California coast in super deep, cold water. There are vast fields of the dump sites and no one knows what is in them, or at least no one is admitting to it.
But in digging around, I also discovered news reports of chemical weapons being dumped by the American military off the coast of Florida in the 1970s and some of it washing ashore in Europe.
And that’s where the seeds of what will be the twelfth Mike Scott novel took root.
After 50+ years, these weapons are out there waiting in decaying barrels and crates, waiting to be disturbed. A report from the military says it is safer to leave them in place fearing bigger problems if you try to bring them to the surface.
The question I asked in the novel was, what if someone does?
It’s coming soon, but that should give you a taste of what’s coming.
Download a free short story from the Mike Scott thriller series. This story even includes tips on protecting sea turtles!
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Apt observations, E.
As a country/ world, we don't talk -- or do enough -- about polluting our oceans.