Scuba Diving Adventurer Stacy Allen and Her Novel: Expedition Indigo

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 Fiona - Stacy, last time I saw you, you were generously offering me your bathing suit, and that's how I

           learned that you are quite the under water adventurer. First, thank you for your kind generosity.

           Can you introduce yourself to the readers? 

Author, Stacy Allen

Stacy - Hi everyone, I'm Stacy Allen, author of the

            upcoming debut, Expedition Indigo, 

            (August 18, 2014), the first in

           my Riley Cooper Romantic Suspense

           series. Expedition Indigo introduces Dr. 

           Riley Cooper, an archaeology

           professor who is thrust into the world of

           wreck diving and treasure hunting when she

           travels to Italy with a team

           of treasure hunters to find and salvage The

           Indigo, a cargo ship that sank off the coast 

           of Sorrento in 808 A.D. Dr. Cooper is 

           persuaded by her mentor to take his

           place on an expedition to Italy, where she

           will assist a team of treasure hunters to

           salvage an ancient shipwreck

           off the coast of Sorrento, Italy. 

Fiona - What was your motivations

           writing this series?

Stacy - I wanted to write a novel that showed that we are all

            stronger than we think we are. All of us have

            self-doubts and misgivings of what we are capable of, and yet, when things get tough, the human

            condition shows us strength and courage we didn’t know existed, and gets us all through the tough,

            trying times that life throws at us. When you first meet Riley, she is unsure of herself and doubtful she

            has what it takes to go on this mission. By the end of the book, she has found out what the reader

            knew all along: that she is more than capable of the tasks she is given. She has a new respect for

            herself, when she realizes that without her courage and strength, lives would have been lost and

            treasures would have been stolen. I want the readers of this book to realize, through Riley’s story,

            that they are also capable of doing the difficult, seemingly impossible things that we are faced with in

            our lives. Even when we don’t think we can, we have what it takes.

         

Fiona - You've been researching this book through your personal adventures. Can you share your 

            credentials  and background with us?

Ron and Stacy kayaking on Lake Panama

Stacy - I have an Advanced Open Water Diver

            certificate, with specialties in wreck diving

            and night diving.

            I have traveled to Italy many times. My

            passion for adventure has taken me to six

            continents, in order to explore over 53

            countries. I have studied many languages,

            but am most comfortable with

            Italian and French, having studied both for

            many years. My love of history, treasure

            hunting, Italy, archaeology and wreck

            diving led me to my character, Dr. Riley

            Cooper, and sparked the fire to write

            Expedition Indigo, the first in the Riley

            Cooper series. 

Fiona - Just to fill everyone in, Stacy chose Italy 

            as the first location (it is her second home

            and she speaks Italian). The second book is

            set in Cyprus, 3rd in Egypt and the 4th in

            Iceland.

Ron and Stacy, Giza, Egypt

Stacy - Yes, so other than that, I'm  married, living

             just north of Atlanta, Georgia. I play

             guitar, sing, and do a zillion things. Like

             most writers, I have a ton of interests. I

             was that little girl (now woman) who

             wanted to conquer the world and see

             every inch of it.

Fiona - And your experience diving? Tell me

            about taking the plunge.

Stacy - My very first SCUBA experience was in

             St. Thomas (U.S.V.I.) I was on vacation

             and I took an Intro to SCUBA course.

             After a bit of pool work, off we went. My

              very first dive was:   

              a) in the ocean 

              b) a wreck dive and 

              c) in very deep water. 

              

              I was immediately hooked. Ignorance is bliss, however. Years pass and I move to Atlanta, and I

              decide I should just go ahead and get my SCUBA certificate. I go sign up and start the classroom

              lessons and reading books and my reaction was "I am lucky to be alive!" I didn't know anything

              about current or nitrogen narcosis or any of the other dozens of things that could have killed me on

              the check-out dives I had done. I got my certification here in Atlanta after doing my required "open

              waters" in Cozumel, Mexico. 

              Open water dives are required because you can only learn so much in a class room.

              When you do your open water dives as your final step, you and an instructor go out - either in

               the open ocean or in a river or lake - some body of water other than a swimming pool. 

              There I was tested on my skills (mask clearing, equipment removal, that is taking off my gear and

               putting it back on underwater, underwater signals, buddy breathing, things like that. I then got my

               advanced certification pretty soon after that. For my advanced, I went to Crystal Springs, Florida.

               For my Open Waters I did a navigational dive (where you rely solely on your compass and not

               your eyes), a flora and fauna dive, and a cave dive.

               After I got my Advanced Certification, I then spent time in Key West, where I got my

               Nitrox certification.

Fiona - Did you always love being in the water?

Stacy - When I was young my family lived on a river. We swam

Yangtze River, China

            and played as much as we could. One afternoon,

            I dived in where I shouldn't have. There was a rock

            ledge and I hit it, scraping all down my side, and dazing

            me but not knocking me out. I remember every second

            of that experience. I floated gently to the bottom, and I 

            remember seeing the sun's rays coming through the

            water, and I blacked out. My brother Kevin dived in

            and found me, brought me up, and saved my life. You

            know they say your life passes before you, and it surely

           did that day. I think I was around six or seven years old.

            I wouldn't go near water for years. I was completely 

            panicked and terrified. So my mother told me I had to

            get over the fear, and she sent me to the Y to learn to

            swim when I was in Jr High. I couldn't do it. So I had to
            go back a second time. It was also a

            disaster. 

            When I was about 21, I decided I had better learn to
            swim. I went to the Virgin Islands on a

            vacation. I decided the best way to get over my fear of water was to jump off a boat in the ocean.

            That's what I did! I hyperventilated and was terrified, but I stayed in the water. And some baby 

            steps later, on another vacation to St. Thomas, I took that fateful SCUBA intro class. So my biggest

            obstacle was my own fear. And that is now, thankfully, gone.

Fiona - Which is a great set up for any heroine - to face a fear of water to save the situation.

Stacy - Absoluetly!

Ostia Antica, Italy

Fiona - What are some of the things that a writer without your

             background might write by mistake that would have a

             SCUBA diver shaking their head and saying - I can't

              read this anymore, she got this all wrong!

Stacy  - Ha! Let's see. 
          * Calling air tanks "oxygen" drives us up

             the wall. It is a mixed gas air tank, and is basically

             surface air that has been compressed into a tank.

             Like using those Vacuum bags on big blankets. The

             blankets are in tact, they are just compressed and

             take up less space! 

          * Thinking that as long as you have air in your

              tank you can stay underwater. 

          * Thinking that if a diver is low on air, they can just 

              hold their breath as long as they can and only breathe when necessary to make the tank last

              longer. The first, and I do mean the first, rule of diving is BREATHE. We must inhale, followed by

              an exhale, continuously the entire dive. It can be deadly to hold your breath underwater. We must
              "off -gas" which means expel our breath so nitrogen does not build up in our bloodstream. If gases
              are stuck in our bloodstream, as we ascend to the surface, they will expand and cause The Bends

              which very often will kill a diver. That is why divers do Safety Stops at 25 or 20 feet (I do them

              around 25 feet), which is to hang there and off-gas for 3-5 minutes (3 is what we learned,

              experienced divers do a 5 minute stop).

Fiona - Okay here is my last and most important question. What is your favorite scar and how did you get it?

Stacy - Hah! Wow. In August of 2000, I was living in Seattle. I was opening up a bottle of vitamins, or

            trying to, and the stupid plastic seal around the top wasn't budging. I was frustrated, so I grabbed a

            french boning knife out of my kitchen (can you say S.T.U.P.I.D.?) and in a split second I had sliced

            my left index finger nearly off. I held my hand up and my forearm was coated with blood in a tenth

            of  a second. I could see the bone in my finger! (insert "GROSS!" here). I went into shock

            immediately. I ended up having reconstruction on that finger, and it has taken years to recover, and I

            still can't bend it entirely. But I could play guitar again after a couple of years, and that is something I 

            didn't think I would ever be able to do again.

Fiona - That was a most excellent scar story! And having listened to you play and sing on several

            occasions, I can say it would be a big loss had you not regained your ability.Thank you so much

            for sharing. It's been a pleasure having you on ThrillWriting today.

Stacy in Portugal

Stacy Allen served on the Board of Trustees of the Pacific Northwest Writers Association, the Pacific Northwest Mystery Writers of America chapter, and currently serves as Vice President of the Southeast Mystery Writers of America (SEMWA) chapter. She is represented by Jill Marr, of Sandra Dijkstra Literary Agency.

Expedition Indigo will debut August 18, 2014, and will be available in all electronic formats and audio, from Entranced  Publishing. It will also be available in print.

You can get in touch with Stacy:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/StacyAllen5
FB: https://www.facebook.com/stacy.allen.754
Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/stacyallen5/

Website: www.stacyballen.com

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