I almost write to formula, because there's a historical beginning, then the plots get convoluted.
I like snappy dialogue and short descriptions and lots of action.
There is no greater unknown than the sea and no greater mystery than a lost ship.
I'd heard about a shipwreck that was never found - John Paul Jones' Bonhomme Richard. So I thought, 'Well, I'll go look for it.'
If you have some natural talent and really want to write, you should read the books of someone who's very successful in your genre. You don't want to plagiarize, but you want to learn from that author.
When I first started writing, I was in advertising at the time, I was doing most of my writing on weekends. I had studied most of the other series heroes and I figured it would be fun for mine to be different and put him in and around water. So I dreamed up Dirk Pitt.
If ever a car was created by designers with dreams of grandeur, it had to be the 1958 Buick Limited: the heftiest, highest-priced and most opulent monster ever to hit the street in the '50s.
I'm considered the 'old daddy of adventure.'
My friends joke that I raised the Titanic and never left the Rockies.
I don't like interior decorating. It looks gorgeous, but it doesn't have that lived-in look.
Some people are drawn to a van Gogh or a Rembrandt. Some are attracted to exotic guns. Coins. Stamps. I am attracted to cars.
When we find a ship, we turn it over to the state or federal government. It's purely historical. I've never made a dime on any of it.
If it ain't fun, it ain't worth doing.
I've always been a Civil War buff. In fact, the ships that always fascinated me the most were the ironclads, because they were the start of an era.
I was always a history buff.
I love doing the research for the novels. For me, the writing is hard work.
It's a quirk of mine; I love neat garages.
The fascination for me is searching the unknown for a mystery.
There's no literary merit in my books.
My son's name is Dirk - I named Dirk Pitt after him when he was about three years old.
