Clive Cussler and Dirk Pitt Revealed By Clive Cussler with Craig ...

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CLIVE CUSSLER:I remember meeting James Michener when he was in Colorado writing
Centennial . The fellow who set up the luncheon, Mike Windsor, who knew Michener during the war,
asked him jokingly, "Have you read any good books lately, Jim?"
Michener smiled. "Actually, I don't read." Then he explained by saying that he had little time to read
fiction, as most of his waking hours were spent either in writing or research. Most writers have been
there, done that. When you're in the middle of writing a book, it's almost impossible to read another's tale
of fiction. Authors are plagued by people who always ask if you've read so-and-so and seem puzzled
when you say no. They can't understand why we have no time for recreational reading.
The only fiction books I try to read in the evening rather than watch TV are review copies sent from
agents and editors and written by new, first-time authors. I always try to give a newcomer a helping hand,
even though I seriously doubt an endorsement from me would buy them a cup of coffee.
I did have the honor of writing an endorsement for Tom Clancy's first effort,The Hunt for Red
October , and Stephen Coontz'sFlight of the Intruder .
Clancy called not long after his book hit the top of the best-seller list and asked what I thought of his
idea to keep using Jack Ryan as a continuing protagonist in his next novels. All I could tell him with any
accuracy was that Dirk Pitt hadn't hurt me, and go for it.
When it comes to writing, it's fun to be different and do things other authors wouldn't think of doing.
Overseeing the book jackets, appearing in story lines, using plots that haven't been used before, shying
away from the old hackneyed story lines using the nasty Russian KGB and Arab terrorists, old Nazi
criminals, CIA conspiracies and military espionage. It's definitely more fun to be original.
I do admit to writing a vague formula.
My first two books were basic potboilers, what I call formula A. This is where the readers walk
beside the protagonist from chapter one to the end.