So who is Abbi and what am I blaming her for? Well, Abbi Kincaid is a character who has been alive in my mind for several years, but this summer I hope she'll come alive on paper (or actually on my computer screen).
Abbi is the youngest child and only girl in a law enforcement family. At the start of the story she has just made the underwater crime scene investigation team (whew! that's a mouthful!) as the first female team member.
While planning this story, I found myself asking my daughter, who was in the underwater crime scene program at our local college at the time, question after question about diving so that my dive scenes would be accurate.
Then I decided to take the four hour Try Scuba class to get a feel for the gear. I am somewhat claustrophobic and I doubted I'd be able to clear my mask, so I didn't have high expectations for the experience. Turns out I loved it. I signed up for Padi open water and began class the next day!
Time went by, and I went on a few dives, and Jessica and I started writing Abbi together. But her life got busy, and I went on with the story by myself. However, I was struggling with it and set it aside to write some YA stories. I'm on more familiar territory there!
This past year I switched from Padi to SDI and started working on my advanced specialties--buoyancy, nitrox, boat dive, deep dive and earned my SDI advanced certifications. And learned a lot more skills that I can incorporate into the story. Including ways someone could die. Always important in crime scene books.
The photos in blog post are from my dive trip to Key Largo last week.
So, because of Abbi, I have a new hobby that allows me to explore a whole new area of God's amazing creation. And I'm able to share that hobby with a three of my children. And now I can claim these dives and dive trips as research!