Having viewed the book cover and some of the images on this site you are probably wondering: how were these created? You would not be far wrong if I said I took creative license, but the truth is a bit deeper than that. The cover image, for example, is an actual photograph taken by Jedd Wasson (https://www.jeddspix.com/) using a drone over the San Diego coastline. The image you see on the cover is as it was taken (check it out yourself). Some of the website images are mixtures of actual photo capture, CG, CG mixed in with live capture, and of course some noodling with AI and Photoshop. No, this book is not a graphic novel, but I often toyed with making one of it. The novel is extremely visual in its telling. The ocean world is, after all, a vivid environment.

When I wrote An Ocean Life, my goal was to disrupt both the protagonist's and our own anthropomorphic view of the world. Imagine if your life is suddenly upended in such a way that none of your experiences could prepare you for the isolation of existing and surviving in the deep ocean. I also wanted to write a very different shark novel, one that does not resign itself to the familiar horror tropes. It is still a terrifying tale.

So what kind of novel is it? When people ask me I have a difficult time answering. Is it an action/adventure story? Yes. Horror? Yes. Is it emotional / personal story? Yes. Is it science fiction? Yes. Thriller / suspense? Yes. Survival? Yes.

I also decided not to focus on any particular message when I wrote it. But, you know what? Messages started creeping out of the woodwork of my text. I suppose this is inevitable as a writer. But my main goal was to entertain and enchant the reader.

An Ocean Life started as a fable over five years ago. I was fascinated with Hawaiian legends which told the story of men spawned from sharks and the reincarnation of the dead as sharks. From this, the basic story evolved into something more grounded, less magical, but equally fantastic. The novel tells the story of a frustrated entrepreneur who takes his family to Hawaii as a way to reconcile with his wife and children. A frightening episode with an apex predator on a routine dive dramatically changes his life, leaving him adrift and almost alone in the Pacific Ocean. Almost alone.

In fiction, sharks are often depicted as menacing, mindless monsters. Something to be feared. I had a clear goal while writing this novel not to demonize sharks, or any ocean lifeform for that matter. Most of the ocean is still unknown to us, and within its mysteries there is something captivating about it, something that draws us.

It is a story about fate, love, rage, redemption, and to a large extent, our relationship with the oceans. I used a unique perspective to get my story across, along with my thirty years of diving experience. I have always loved the sea, so this novel is my homage to all creatures, great and small, that live in it.