Clive Cussler
Clive Cussler
Clive Eric Cussleris an American adventure novelist and underwater explorer. His thriller novels, many featuring the character Dirk Pitt, have reached The New York Times fiction best-seller list more than 20 times. Cussler is the founder and chairman of the real-life National Underwater and Marine Agency, which has discovered more than 60 shipwreck sites and numerous other notable underwater wrecks. He is the sole author or lead author of more than 70 books...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth15 July 1931
CityAurora, IL
CountryUnited States of America
I feel pretty good. Nobody expected it to do that well right out of the gate.
I guess the books are kind of like the old Saturday afternoon matinee serials. Most of them were westerns in those days. Where the hero is going off the cliff in a car filled with dynamite and that's were it would end, until you came back the following Saturday to find out what happened.
Ever since Pitt was wearing one, collectors were dumbfounded; they were saying that it wasn't an expensive watch, what's all the fuss about. I understand the prices have been driven up since then; people are even paying $1000 for them. I've met people that tell me that they spent two years looking for one.
As for the DOXA watch, when I was beginning my second book, I was the creative director for a big ad agency in L.A. My wife said jokingly, why don 't you apply for this job? It was a $400/month job as a clerk in a Dive shop, perfect for writing underwater books.
It will be a thrilling moment, ... It's going to be a wonder.
I applied for the job. They had three stores and they were shocked! They said that I was a little over qualified, but they hired me anyway.
Not much to comment on, because they made a botch of Raise the Titanic 20 years ago. I wouldn't sell to Hollywood.
To those of you who seek lost objects of history, I wish you the best of luck. They're out there, and they're whispering.
I plot as I go. Many novelists write an outline that has almost as many pages as their ultimate book. Others knock out a brief synopsis... Do what is comfortable. If you have to plot out every move your characters make, so be it. Just make sure there is a plausible purpose behind their machinations. A good reader can smell a phony plot a block away.
Sometimes my plot lines are so convoluted, I get calls from friends at 3 am saying; you SOB, you'll never pull this one off.
Giordino...simply sighed in resignation. "Who else," he asked no one in particular, "but Dirk Pitt could tramp off into a blizzard on an uninhabited backwater island in the Antarctic and discover a beautiful girl?
I must say one thing about southern down-home brewed coffee with chicory. If you have worms, you'll never have them again.
To create something you want to sell, you first study and research the market, then you develop the product to the best of your ability.
My friends joke that I raised the Titanic and never left the Rockies.