Scott Brick on Voiceover

Jonathan Lowe) You’ve been narrating for a couple decades now, so you literally need no introduction. To begin, when did you foresee how your acting would turn from stage to recording booth or studio?

Scott Brick)  It started slowly transitioning when I did my first audiobook in 1999.  For the first few years of my career I was doing a book or two every month, but it wasn’t until about four years in that I realized this was a full-time gig.  What had been a passion of mine, narrating audiobooks, was suddenly my career!  Or not so suddenly, but you take my meaning.

JL What was the watershed moment for why all this came about, as an evolution? How much was chance, and how much just hard work and planning?

SB) Well, I’m a fan of the quote from the great Branch Rickey: “Luck is the residue of design.”  I like to think there was definitely a purpose for putting me in the position to book that first job, God gave me the opportunity to pursue it as a career if I wanted to, but after that much of it was up to me.  He wasn’t going to do it for me, right?  We get out of life what we put into it.  I feel like God gave me certain gifts, the ability to tell stories in ways people enjoy, but it’s up to me to use them.

JL) You are teaching as well as performing these days. Plus you’re publishing. This came about as a natural progression, did it not?

SB) I think it did, yes, and both simply because I was passionate about doing them.  When a number of people asked me to teach classes, I at first didn’t think I had anything to say, but when they kept asking, I gave it a try and found out that I loved it.  I didn’t just love it, I wanted to do more and more of it, and it’s been hugely rewarding.  Five years ago, UCLA, my alma mater, came to me and asked me to teach their third year graduate Theater students, so we created the first nationally-accredited university course that teaches solely audiobook narration.  That felt wonderful, and is a nice way to spend my Fall months.  And the publishing happened similarly, I had a series of books, The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant by Stephen R. Donaldson, and nobody had narrated the first six volumes on audio.  Well, I had a studio, I had pretty much everything I needed to get them finished and distributed online, so I asked my attorney to contact the publisher and we secured the rights.  We just renewed that contract, in fact, and it’s wonderful seeing them available for the first time on audio.  And my best friend suggested the name of my company: Brick by Brick Audiobooks.  It seemed right.

JL) You’ve often been asked who your fav writers are, or books, true? What is your ballpark total now, after so many awards?

SB) Yes, I’m often asked which are my favorites, but I’ve narrated nearly a thousand titles at this point, so it’s difficult narrowing it down to one or two.  I typically ask the person I’m speaking to what their favorite genre is, then suggest something I’ve done in that genre that I particularly liked.  Much easier to handle it that way, although I do maintain a list of favorites on my website that fans can check out if they wish, it’s the list of books I am most often asked about.

JL) What is the most surprising thing in your personal life up to this point?

SB) I still get such a huge kick when someone whose work I’ve loved, respected and admired somehow knows who I am.  I’ve been a lifelong fan of Stephen King, and years ago, he actually mentioned my name in an interview, and it was the most surreal experience.  I mean, of course I know who HE is, but HE knows who I am?  That’s nuts!

JL) The Wall Street Journal once published a cover piece on you. That’s amazing. What amazes you most about the audiobook industry itself, and how do you see it changing?

SB) That was a wonderful moment, and really helped my career take off.  They came back to me this past year and profiled me again in their Entertainment section and I told them they’d given me no end of street cred.  I told the interviewer, “This is going to be my third time in your publication, and I’ve never even been indicted, that’s got to be some kind of record…!”  As for the changes to the industry, the biggest one I’ve seen over the years is that it’s finally become cool to do books, as in, celebrities seek out the work, occasionally.  I was part of a terrific profile of the industry by CBS This Morning last month, and David Pogue interviewed a number of celebrities who spoke eloquently about why they love doing this work, and it was wonderful to see.

JL) Are there voices, dialects and pronunciations even you struggle over, or is research generally able to clear up problems in the course of production? What’s an example of a difficult book?

SB) There’s a wonderful database available online, the International Dialects of English archive, or IDEA as it’s known, and it breaks down accents by every country on Earth, some of them, like the US and the UK, quite extensively.  So there’s rarely an accent that’s described that we can’t listen to rather quickly.  At that point, it’s up to us and how well we can mimic it.  Some of the hardest accent work I’ve ever had to do have been in Brad Meltzer’s books, because he intentionally puts in crazy ones, just to see if it’ll trip me up.  Oy.

JL) The Reacher series by Lee Child is a recent coup for you. How did it come about, and what do you try to bring to the character that’s special?

SB) I’ve been reading and listening to those books for years, so I cannot tell you how much it meant to me to be cast to do it.  The month it took between the audition and the news I’d been picked was nerve-wracking, there were a lot of sleepless nights, believe me.  As for bringing anything special to it, look, it’s really hard replacing a legend like Dick Hill.  He’s wonderful, and knew that character so well, so I’ve always said I can’t fill his shoes, but it’s nice to be walking in them.  I used to be a fight choreographer, so I spent years seeing the world in a tactical way, where everyone’s attack leaves them open to their opponent’s next move in some way.  If I swing at a guy’s head, that means my chest is exposed, yes?  And Lee Child has always written from a highly tactical mindset, so I’ve just paid particular attention to those moments where Reacher looks for a weakness, then pounces on it and exploits it.  It’s those mental moments that I enjoy the most, and I think the listener should too.

JL) It must be thrilling to be reading a book no one has read yet in book format. Exhausting too?

SB)  Yes, getting to read stuff months before other people is pretty darn thrilling, I won't lie.  A part of me kinda wants to rub it in online, sometimes, especially when it's really good.  But yes, it is pretty exhausting work, at least when you're as tightly booked as I am right now.  Still, it's a good problem to have, a First World problem for sure.

JL) How many times do you read and make notes on any particular galley before recording, and how long does it take to produce a typical unabridged title?

SB) The average books takes about a week to record, depending on how difficult it is, or how much research is required.  I have a researcher who writes copious notes for me, in case I need them.  For instance, when he preps the manuscript, he may not know that I know how to pronounce “fecund,” so he’ll typically write it out for me, just in case.

JL) Where do readers go to best sample your work--ScottBrick.net?

SB) My production manager Gina has been working for years to update my list of books recorded to date on my website, and while it’s not quite comprehensive yet, there are a ton of books listed, many by genre, or by series, or by author, and each of them links to various click through pages where they can either listen to samples or purchase them if they want.  I love audiobooks so much that I told her long ago that I want to make them as easy as possible to put them in people’s hands, or ears, or phones, or however you want to look at it.  There are a lot of people who’ve never listened to one, so I’ve got my work cut out for me if I want to convert them all. 

Thanks to Scott for contributing to my upcoming memoir POST OFFICE CONFIDENTIAL.

SIDEWAYS by Rex Pickett is read by Scott Brick. As you probably know, the story follows two friends---one of whom will soon be married---on a road trip to California wine country for one last blowout. Things become complicated when they get entangled with two barmaids, and fail to tell them about Jack's pending wedding. Then comic situations ensue when the truth comes out. But in the end this thoughtful, balanced first novel displays a talent for pacing and narrative focus.  Indeed, only minor differences are evident between book and film, including an alternate ending, and yet it's interesting to hear and contemplate why Hollywood's medium requires a slightly different approach. Interesting, too, to hear more of Miles' inner thoughts than can be expressed on screen. Scott Brick gives such a believable performance that, like a fine Pinot Noir, the experience of listening mellows one's mood with delicate, luxuriant flavors simply not present in the more flashy but shallow Merlot of Star Wars.

THE STARS HIS DESTINATION

from the Vault: Before winning an Audiobook Publishers Association's "Audie" award in 2003 for narrating DUNE: THE BUTLERIAN JIHAD, Scott Brick was already one the most prolific narrators in the business. A former Shakespearian actor turned film actor and writer, the versatile 42 year old has been featured on Page 1 of the Wall Street Journal for his studious interpretations of 900 books by authors from Brad Meltzer and Clive Cussler to Orson Scott Card and Isaac Asimov. Chosen as "Narrator of the Year" by Publishers Weekly in 2007, Brick has also won over 40 Earphones awards from AudioFile magazine, and is nominated twice in this year’s "Audie" awards (the Oscar of the industry). First, for work on the original DUNE novel, produced in a recent multi-voice edition by Audio Renaissance (now MacMillan Audio), and again, for DREAMSONGS, a short story collection by George R. R. Martin published by Random House Audio. His website is ScottBrickPresents.com.      

JONATHAN LOWE: Despite narrating a variety of genres, including the mystery and suspense of Joseph Finder, Tom Clancy, Nelson DeMille, Dennis Lehane, David Baldacci, Harlan Coben and others, you've attracted the most critical attention narrating the DUNE series by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson. Is Frank Herbert's DUNE and its prequels also your favorites, and if so, why?

SCOTT BRICK: Well, I read the original six novels while in college and absolutely loved them, so when I was asked to record "Dune," I was overwhelmed. Brian was so giving of his time. He spent four and a half hours on the phone with me, guiding me through extremely difficult pronunciations. After we'd done the first prequel, we recorded the original "Dune," and Brian shared all his father's notes with me, to ensure that all our pronunciations were correct. It's hard for me to convey just how special an occurrence this was. No one had ever gone to this effort before, and Brian was so appreciative that we were doing so. The time we sank into this series was immense, yet was completely rewarding.  

LOWE: AudioFile gave you a great review, as I recall. Something about your sounding as though you were a tour guide for the planet Arrakis, with all the words just flowing off your tongue as though you'd been saying them for years.

BRICK: Yeah, it's the nicest review I've ever received. Never smiled more after reading a review. Brian actually gave me the most wonderful compliment, as well: 'Scott, after doing all this work, I want you to know you're now officially a pillar of the Dune universe.' When he pointed out that the main character's name means 'pillar' in the Dune language, I told him, 'Geez, Brian, I feel like you just dubbed me with a sword!' 

LOWE: Narrating isn't as easy as people think. It should be obvious that it requires a lot of skill and research. But when you read a book that difficult to interpret, don't you run into time constraints, caught between your recording schedule and the need to take notes about the characters?  

BRICK: I do, especially when authors make specific references to accents and such. Brad Meltzer, for instance, has a real ear for accents, and makes a point of assigning even minor characters the most obscure accents. He'll go into incredible detail about stretched or flat consonants, resonant vowels, etc. Then there’s the accents: South Dakota, Chicago, Boston. . . he even threw in a Greek guy who'd been raised in England, and if that isn't a direct challenge I don't know what is!

LOWE: Maybe they should force him to read his own work! What's the most difficult and most enjoyable thing about reading books for Random House and other publishers?

BRICK: Reading a book from a different genre and finding a treasure I ordinarily would never read. I’ve had that happen numerous times. WHAT MAKES SAMMY RUN? by Budd Schulberg is the example I always cite, it’s the Great American Novel, and I likely never would have read it were I not asked to narrate it. I’ve had that happen over and over in my career. ALEXANDER HAMILTON by Ron Chernow, THE OMNIVORE’S DILEMMA by Michael Pollan, THE TALBOT ODYSSEY, or any of the thrillers by Nelson DeMille. I always knew these authors were great, but when you’re such a fan of one particular genre, as I am with science fiction, you tend to be somewhat blind to the other great reads out there. I likely would’ve gone without reading them, and that would be a shame. I’m so thankful I got to. 

LOWE: Is there a difference in the way different publishers direct you, or do they now just give you the book and let you do your thing?

BRICK: Sure, each publisher has their own technique, their own approach to the work. Some are very hands-on, others just let me to do my own thing. As far as direction goes, I'm always happy to have other people's input. Sometimes directors will listen more for gaffes or mouth noises and ask me to go back and fix those. Others will sometimes tell me, ‘I don't think the meaning of that sentence came through,’ and ask me to pick it up. It's nice to have their perspective. One time, a studio manager told me, 'Scott, I told our director that you've done a ton of these, so she should just stay out of your way and let you do it.' Even though it was a compliment, I wished he hadn't told the director that. I never want anyone to feel like they can't correct me. What we do is a collaborative effort, and director/producers don't get nearly enough credit for their work. That being said, I've worked with producers who stop me every other sentence, and it drives me nuts!

    

LOWE: As a writer, you also got to adapt some of Orson Scott Card's stories for the stage, and to script the production draft of the upcoming Arthur C. Clarke based movie "Rendezvous With Rama." How did this come about, and where did you first meet Orson and producer Morgan Freeman?

BRICK: Well, my friendship with Scott Card actually predates my audiobook days. I used to write articles for a living, and got to interview him once for a science fiction magazine. It turned out we had so much in common that about ninety minutes after this phone interview was over, he was at my house dropping off a script for a Reader’s Theater production of LORD OF THE RINGS he was directing. He’d been listening to my voice and told me, ‘Would you do this? You’d make a great Gandalf.’ That, of course, after I’d dropped innumerable hints that I’d like to participate in some way. Thank God, he got the hint! Then a few years later I found myself narrating his work on audio. That really made me happy.

As for Morgan, that came about through Lori McCreary, Morgan’s business partner and the head of Revelations Entertainment, his production company. She and I used to go to church together, way back when, and knowing I was so well-versed in science fiction, when they were having trouble with their adaptation of RAMA, she asked me to consult on it, to help her figure out how to fix it. I basically told her it needed a complete overhaul, a page-one rewrite, and asked if I could do it. She said yes, and we were off. I met Morgan shortly thereafter, in production meetings, and he’s the absolute nicest man. He loves that book. In fact, it was his idea to do the film. He dropped the book on her desk years ago and said, ‘Let’s make this.’ Years later, they wound up hiring me all over again to write another draft of RAMA. We were hoping it would be the production draft, but in Hollywood, things don’t always go according to plan. Given Clarke’s recent passing, the thing that makes me proud is that when Morgan and Lori flew to Sri Lanka to visit him and show him the script, it was my version they brought over. I hope he’s watching one day when the movie finally gets made. It’s a lovely story, and Clarke deserves all the credit for it.

LOWE: You also have a special interest in Stephen R. Donaldson. What's this I hear about your buying audio rights to Donaldson's books? 

BRICK: Yeah, look at me, I’m a publisher all of a sudden! I fell in love with Donaldson’s work the first time I read his Chronicles of Thomas Covenant. I literally sacrificed my grades during finals, my freshman year of college, because I couldn’t bring myself to study without knowing how the first volume, LORD FOUL’S BANE, turned out. Well, years later I got to narrate his latest in the series, RUNES OF THE EARTH. When its sequel, FATAL REVENANT, came out late last year, I learned there were no plans to record it, and I thought that would be a shame, so I purchased the rights myself. I recorded it in my brand new home studio, then made a deal with Random House to purchase the rights to the original series as well, which as it turns out had never been recorded either. So at the beginning of May, people can either grab the most recent installment, FATAL REVENANT, or they can start at the beginning with LORD FOUL’S BANE. The plan is to have all original six books finished by the time Donaldson comes out with the next in the series. And the folks at Random House Audio were so cool, they’ve agreed to distribute the series for me, so people can either go to my website and download it there, or they’ll find it in all the usual digital distribution outlets like Audible, iTunes and Amazon, as well.

LOWE: What's his best, in your opinion?

BRICK: His GAP series is amazing, his MORDANT’S NEED books are lovely, but having just re-read the first Covenant book (for at least the sixth time), the Covenant series is clearly his masterpiece. And it’s an honor to be able to do them on audio, to be associated with them in any way. There were times I had to shut off the tape, I was crying too hard. This is an absolutely glorious series, and I’m really excited about new readers discovering him. I envy them, getting to experience this story for the first time.

LOWE: Tell us about "Spin," by Robert Charles Wilson. Hearing you read it, I was struck by how detailed the human story was, or how believable the characters were, which they needed to be in order to support such an otherwise unbelievable plot. What were your thoughts, in recording it?

BRICK: Well, of course its premise is spectacularly original, a novel about Earth being cut off from the rest of the universe by beings unknown for reasons unknown. But it shows humanity adapting to life in exile, essentially, and the crazy effects that has on us as a species. It was extraordinarily dense, in every way. It had dozens of words I’d never heard of before. I lived with my dictionary open before me, and, yes, it was dense in terms of character development too. The book is inhabited by wonderful, original characters that you really feel for, that you root for, and that’s always so welcome in books of any genre. There were also some unique challenges. I had to learn how to curse in Flemish, for one thing. And not just any curse, but the absolute worst thing you can say in the Flemish language. It’s hysterical, actually, and I’ve gotten a lot of mileage out of this odd, odd curse.

Elizabeth Letts

Hollywood, 1938: As soon as she learns that M-G-M is adapting her late husband’s masterpiece for the screen, seventy-seven-year-old Maud Gage Baum sets about trying to finagle her way onto the set. Nineteen years after Frank’s passing, Maud is the only person who can help the producers stay true to the spirit of the book—because she’s the only one left who knows its secrets. But the moment she hears Judy Garland rehearsing the first notes of “Over the Rainbow,” Maud recognizes the yearning that defined her own life story, from her youth as a suffragette’s daughter to her coming of age as one of the first women in the Ivy League, from her blossoming romance with Frank to the hardscrabble prairie years that inspired The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Judy reminds Maud of a young girl she cared for and tried to help in South Dakota, a dreamer who never got her happy ending. Now, with the young actress under pressure from the studio as well as her ambitious stage mother, Maud resolves to protect her—the way she tried so hard to protect the real Dorothy. The author of two New York Times bestselling nonfiction books, The Eighty-Dollar Champion and The Perfect Horse, Elizabeth Letts is a master at discovering and researching a rich historical story and transforming it into a page-turner. FINDING DOROTHY is the result of Letts’s journey into the amazing lives of Frank and Maud Baum. Written as fiction but based closely on the truth, Elizabeth Letts’s new book tells a story of love, loss, inspiration, and perseverance, set in America’s heartland. On audio the book is narrated by the author and Ann Marie Lee.

1. Jonathan Lowe) The book CIRCE by won an award this year as Best Fantasy, and on audio was chosen as a Best Audiobook of the Year, read by Perdita Weeks. What gave you the idea to mingle fiction and non-fiction to create a novel about The Wizard of Oz?

Elizabeth Letts) I was first drawn to the story behind The Wonderful Wizard of Oz when I was reading the book aloud to my son and I wondered about the author, L. Frank Baum and why his characters were so much better known than the man himself.  With a quick bit of research, I discovered that Frank’s mother-in-law was a prominent advocate for the rights of women—which made me see Baum’s strong female characters in a whole new light. But I didn’t realize I had a story to tell until I discovered that his widow, Maud, was still alive during the filming of the Hollywood movie. I found a picture of Maud on the set with Judy Garland and I wanted to know what happened when they met—as a non-fiction writer, I believe in grounding my work in historical fact, but to get to the emotional heart of a story, fiction has the edge. In writing this book, I took my inspiration from Frank Baum himself. He believed that only a thin veil separated us from other worlds. In Finding Dorothy, I tried to push aside that veil and live in the world that Frank and Maud inhabited—to unveil them as they actually were, before The Wonderful Wizard of Oz whirled them into the spotlight. Circe is a fabulous book by the way! I think it much deserved its honors.

2. JL) Why tell it in the author’s wife’s point of view—because she had a hard life and overcame adversity?

EL) Frank and Maud did not have any daughters, so the first mystery for me was how did a man with no daughters create one of the most beloved little girls in all of literature—Dorothy? As one of America’s most beloved tales, the inspirations for Baum’s story have been well-researched, but no one knew if there was a real little girl who inspired the character of Dorothy. Some have speculated that she was named for a niece who died in infancy, but I did not think that rang true since Baum first wrote about a character named Dorothy before that niece was born. As I read more about Baum’s wife and their life together, the more convinced I became that their marriage and life together inspired Baum’s book—as for who inspired Dorothy—well, you’ll need to read the book!

3. JL) Any great anecdote to share from the non-fiction side to the story, or the movie itself?

EL) If you read the book, you’ll read a scene set in the witch’s castle where Dorothy sings a reprise of “Over the Rainbow.” That scene was cut from the final movie, and no film has ever been found, but there is an audio recording and it is simply heartbreaking to listen to. 

4. JL) What writers have influenced your own fiction?

EL) I have always been a voracious reader since I was a little kid. In addition to reading the Oz series as a child, many children’s books made a big impression on me—and I had a special fondness for books where ordinary children had extraordinary adventures—the Oz books of course, but also Edward Eager and Roald Dahl. I adored historical fiction and used to read the big sprawling books—Irving Stone, James Michener. Some go to authors for historical fiction—Paula McClain, Melanie Benjamin, and Tasha Alexander.  My favorite book of the past year was Pachinko by Min Jee Lee. And I never miss a book by Anne Tyler.

JL) Are we not in Kansas anymore, culturally speaking?

EL) I still have an old black and white photograph of a farmhouse in Parsons, Kansas that my grandmother’s family moved to after my great-great-great grandfather fought in the Civil War. I was born in Houston and moved to Los Angeles when I was five, but my family still has deep Midwestern roots.  I absolutely love the Great Plains. In my opinion, we’ll always be in Kansas, metaphorically speaking, because of the many ways that the center of our country has fueled our imaginations and affected how we think of our identity as a nation. The Smithsonian called The Wonderful Wizard of Oz “America’s first homegrown fairy tale” and Baum knew what he was doing. Kansas and Oz are the two sides of our national psyche, and they have always coexisted side by side.

JL) You also love horses. Do you still own one, and which horses do you love most from history?

EL) I do love horses, and I don’t currently own one but I still ride all the time, and I confess I’m looking for a new horse right now. My favorite horse from history? No question—it’s Snowman, The Eighty-Dollar Champion!

James Fallows

JAMES FALLOWS is a writer and journalist for The Atlantic. He was Jimmy Carter’s chief speechwriter, and won the National Book Award in 1983 for National Defense. He has since written about China, business, technology, and the military in both books and articles. A Rhodes scholar at Oxford in economics, he also went to Harvard, where he was editor of the Harvard Crimson. He later worked as an editor at The Washington Monthly, Texas Monthly, and U.S. News & World Report. In addition to holding a number of honorary degrees, he is also a licensed pilot, and once, long ago, worked as a mail carrier for the USPS. Given this experience, it is perhaps befitting that his last book was written with his wife Deborah, and is titled OUR TOWNS: A 100,000 Mile Journey into the Heart of America. 

Jonathan Lowe) Describe your book tour. Whom did you meet?

James Fallows) Over the past four months, my wife, Deb, and I have spent most of our time on the road across the United States, talking with readers -- and a wide range of other citizens. We've met business people, teachers and librarians, mayors and other political leaders, immigrants and refugees, artists, nurses and doctors, police officers and judges, architects and construction staffers, farmers and shop owners, reporters and local news staffers, entrepreneurs, brewers and distillers, truckers and delivery drivers, and the others who make up a modern community. 

JL) Impressions of America between the coasts?

JF) The more we've continued to travel, the more humbled and impressed we've become by the breadth and intensity of the renewal efforts already underway in communities large and small. Every American is aware of the problems and failures of the current United States, from bitter division at the level of national politics to economic dislocation and stagnation, and drug-addiction scourges. But not enough people are vividly enough aware of how much innovative energy is being applied toward solutions. 

JL) How do you think this will all turn out?

JF) We can't be sure -- no one can -- of how the balance between national-level bitterness and local-level practicality will turn out. But the more we've seen, the more convinced Deb and I have become about the importance of sharing these stories and letting today's Americans know about the solutions their fellow citizens are discovering.  

JL) You and your wife recorded the audio version of this book, reading the alternating passages each of you wrote. What did you learn from the experience?

JF) We benefitted from the guidance of a skillful producer / director of the recording, Gordon Rachman. Deb says about the experience, “Gordon was a great coach. He turned a famously arduous process – (think of going to the dentist!) -- into one that was as pleasant and rewarding as could be (think of taking the happy gas!)”
  I agree with Deb, and found the recording process both more demanding than I expected – every word and syllable had to be spoken clearly, in contrast to the tolerance for half-slurred words we get in normal life – but also more satisfying. Deb and I were trying to tell the story of what we had seen city-by-city as we went across the country, and telling those stories, aloud, finally seemed like the right and natural way to deliver the message. (Though I couldn’t help copy-editing myself as we went along, or thinking, “Gee, there could have been a clearer way to make that point!”)

I am a huge fan and customer of recorded books, and so I was all the more gratified to be able to participate in this part of the writing-and-publishing process.

From the Publisher: “For five years James and Deborah Fallows traveled across America in a single-engine prop airplane. Visiting dozens of towns, they met hundreds of civic leaders, workers, immigrants, educators, environmentalists, artists, public servants, librarians, business people, city planners, students, and entrepreneurs to take the pulse and understand the prospects of places that usually draw notice only after a disaster or during a political campaign.  The America they saw is acutely conscious of its problems—from economic dislocation to the opioid scourge—but it is also crafting solutions, with a practical-minded determination at dramatic odds with the bitter paralysis of national politics. At times of dysfunction on a national level, reform possibilities have often arisen from the local level. They describe America in the middle of one of these creative waves. Their view of the country is as complex and contradictory as America itself, but it also reflects the energy, the generosity and compassion, the dreams, and the determination of many who are in the midst of making things better. Our Towns is the story of their journey—and an account of a country busy remaking itself.”

Remembering Clive Cussler

The undisputed Grand Master of the American action/adventure novel, Clive Cussler was author of many bestsellers published in more than 40 languages, with a readership of more than 120 million avid fans.  The founder of the National Underwater & Marine Agency (NUMA), a non-profit organization that dedicates itself to preserving maritime and naval history, Cussler and his crew of volunteers discovered more than 60 historically significant underwater wreck sites.  His alter-ego Dirk Pitt, like James Bond,was re-cast for the big screen, with an initial production of his novel "Sahara."  Cussler died in Feb. of 2020. This interview dates from his work on the TROJAN ODYSSEY. He endorsed my novel Postmarked for Death.

JONATHAN LOWE:  You have a degree in maritime history, yet you worked in advertising, then in a dive shop on a lark, where you started writing.  This was what--the mid-60s?

CLIVE CUSSLER:  Yes, that would have been the mid-60s.  But I got the degree, though, in '99 or 2000.  Sometime around then.

LOWE:  How long had you been diving by the time you incorporated NUMA?

CUSSLER:  Started diving when I was in the Air Force.  We were in Hickam Field in Hawaii for a while in 1951, and my friend Don Spencer and I sent for a dive tank and regulator from Cousteau in France, who'd started manufacturing them.  I think we might have had the first tank in Hawaii, and I remember we went into the hanger and filled it up with a couple hundred pounds of stale air out of a compressor, and just ran into the water.  So I would have started diving in '51.

LOWE:  Finding lost shipwrecks isn't easy, is it?

CUSSLER:  Oh, no!  Sometimes you get lucky, but I would say most of the time it's difficult.  The ghost ship Marie Celeste, we found that in the first hour.  The Civil War submarine Hunley took me fifteen years.  

LOWE:  Is it the location?  Do the wrecks shift or drift?

CUSSLER:  No, it's just that the records aren't good.  I always give the example that, say, a plane crashed in your neighborhood. . . you could come back in two hundred years to find that site, but of course everything has changed, and you don't know where to begin.  Maybe they gave you a street, but maybe the street's not there.  And they didn't say "it crashed two hundred yards from the old rock," you know?  So you can see how difficult it is to find the exact spot.  That's the same way it is with shipwrecks.  Nobody puts a big marker up and says "here it is."  So when you come by later, there's no GPS coordinates.

LOWE:  Like in the story "The Gold Bug" by Poe, where they drop the line through the skull to find the treasure.

CUSSLER:  Yes, but even then they had a ball park.   

LOWE:  How many expeditions have you mounted by now?

CUSSLER:  {sighs}  Oh my, there must be a hundred or more.

LOWE:  The two Sea Hunters books outline some amazing successes, like the Hunley, Carpathia, Marie Celeste.  Is there a ship still out there that beckons you, though, or still nags at you?

CUSSLER:  For sure.  John Paul Jones, the Bon Homme Richard.  I tried for that four times, haven't found it yet.

LOWE:  Where did that sink?

CUSSLER:  In the North Sea off Yorkshire.

LOWE:   How goes the Sea Hunters TV series?  Will it air here?

CUSSLER:  I don't know.  It's under National Geographic, and airs internationally.  What's so funny with Geographic, I narrate the program overseas, but here they run a few of them under "Mysteries of the Sea" or something, and I'm cut out of it.  (laughs)

LOWE:  So you don't know what's going on?

CUSSLER:  Well, somebody told me, and I don't know how true it is, but they didn't want to upset Bob Ballard, who found the Titanic.

LOWE:  Your novels have been wildly successful, I think, due as much to the research behind them as the pacing and characters.  Are you doing research for some lost shipwreck when it occurs to you that Dirk Pitt might wade in?

CUSSLER:  Not really.  I haven't really combined the two.  I had Pitt looking for a Pharaoh's barge in the Nile one time, but we really haven't crossed paths.  I don't know why.  I think it's just because the storyline doesn't work as far as following anything I've done. 

LOWE:  Are there any more Pitt adventures in the works?

CUSSLER:  Yes, I'm about two thirds through the next one.

LOWE:  Really?  I thought you were just continuing with Kurt Austin.

CUSSLER:  No, those are just spinoff series.  I come up with most of the plotting and they'll start the writing, and I'll edit, that sort of thing.  

LOWE:  So you switch off with Craig Dirgo.

CUSSLER:  Right.  Together we just finished a fiction book which has nothing to do with NUMA or Pitt or anything.  In one book, "Flood Tide," I had this ship that looked like an old beat up tramp steamer, had all the exotic gear, and people who ran it were like corporate mercenaries, they go around the world, like a Mission Impossible plot.

LOWE:  Where did the name Dirk Pitt come from?

CUSSLER:  My son's name.  He was six months old when I started writing.  His name is Dirk, and I used it for fun, really.  I was looking through an encyclopedia about the British prime ministers during the Revolutionary war, Pitt the younger and Pitt the elder.  So I thought, well, that works, 'cause I wanted a one syllable name.  

LOWE:  I was thinking, you know, like one letter less than James Bond, and easier to type than Brandon Tartikoff or something.

CUSSLER:  (laughs)  Well, that's it.  It's easier to say "Pitt jumped over the wall" than that.  I think that's why Fleming wanted a simple name.  James Bond.  There was an ornithologist by that name too.

LOWE:  What does your writing schedule look like these days?  Do you work nonstop on a project?

CUSSLER:  Pretty much, but I get so many interruptions.  I mean, an expedition, or I have to go out to L.A. to fight over the screenplay or the movie.  Or I have to speak here.  There's always something.  But I try to work nine to six.  Some nights now too.  

LOWE:  What's up with the Sahara movie?  Is Tom Cruise still linked to it?

CUSSLER:  No, they're talking to Matthew McConnehy 'cause I wouldn't have approved Cruise, and then he wanted to go off and do Mission Impossible III anyway.

LOWE:  So you have control over that?

CUSSLER:  I have casting and script approval, right.

LOWE:  So they can't do a switcheroo and replace Matthew with Brad Pitt playing Dirk Pitt, then?

CUSSLER:  Not a chance.  Legally, they're bound.

LOWE:  What's your next book about?

CUSSLER:  It's called "The Trojan Odyssey" at this point, so it has to do with Troy and the fact that Odysseus didn't sail around the Mediterranean, he sailed around the Atlantic.  That'll be out probably in December.

LOWE:  You know what would be great is a full cast and sound audiobook of a Pitt or Austin book.  

CUSSLER:  Yes, it would.

LOWE:  Most big publishers don't have the time to spend on productions like that, though.  

CUSSLER:  No, they don't.  Usually it's just a guy sits there and reads.

LOWE:  Do you ever get fan mail from people about your audiobooks?

CUSSLER:  Yes, I do.

LOWE:  I remember being at an air show at Davis Monthan Air Force Base here in Tucson, and seeing a lady listening to a Cracker Barrel audiobook before the show started up.  I asked what she was listening to, and she said "Clive Cussler."  I said, "I know him."  She goes, "No way."  Have you ever visited a Cracker Barrel?

CUSSLER:  Certainly.  I'm trying to think when I was travelling.  I remember eating at one in Indiana.  Oh course, I've stopped in them.  They're kinda neat.  Good basic food.  I've stopped in others in Oregon and Colorado, I think.

LOWE:  It's a nostalgic place.  Your interest in antique cars plays into that.

CUSSLER:  Yes.  

LOWE:  Have you ever been on the Tonight Show?  Leno's a car buff.

CUSSLER:  No, I never have, but I remember I talked to him at Pebble Beach one time and I asked him "How come you don't have more cars on the show?"  And he said he had Carroll Shelby on one time, and the audience just had no connection with him.  So producers got after him, and other than a brief bit with him in a car now and then, that's about it.

LOWE:  Who are your own favorite authors?

CUSSLER:  When I started out the one I leaned on the most was Alister McLean.  And then Hammond Innes, in his eighties now and still writing.  As for new authors, I like Nelson DeMille.  But I don't have time to read.  I had lunch one time with James Michener, and just for fun I said, "Have you read any good books lately, Jim?"  And he laughed and said "I don't read," then clarified it by saying he doesn't read fiction because he's always working.  I'm pretty much the same way.  About the only fiction books I'll read is like in your case, try to help a new author with a quote.  I gave a quote for "The Hunt for Red October" for Clancy.

LOWE:  Really?  Clancy?  That's amazing.

CUSSLER:  If you ever find an original, those things sell for about a thousand bucks.  And then there's Stephen Coonts, for "Flight of the Intruder."  Tells you how long I've been around, doesn't it? 

Reclaim the Brain

Dr. Joseph A. Annibali narrates RECLAIM YOUR BRAIN by him and Dr. Daniel Amen. It examines all aspects of psychology related to brain science, particularly depression, anxiety, ADD, OCD, PTSD, autism, bipolar disorder, and substance abuse. Particular attention is paid to the limbic system, that lower part of the brain which controls emotions. Brain activity in this region has been shown to be high on scans when someone is under duress (either physical or mental / imaginary.) This busy brain can interfere with concentration and cause much unneeded stress, and the audiobook presents methods and practices and exercises to calm the limbic system, thereby bringing back a sense of calm and normalcy (focus) to decision making. Drawing on the findings of many diverse sources, the author aids the listener in how to distance oneself from one’s thoughts, which may sound odd, but thoughts are produced automatically by the brain, outside the conscious will sometimes, and these repetitive thoughts can trap people in a cycle of negativity. Recognizing that one’s thoughts do not define “who they are” is, therefore, important, (as was noted by Eckhart Tolle.) Living in the past or for the future solely is therefore like a living death in which one cannot appreciate one’s life in the present (which is all we ever truly own.) Until such time as scientists discover what directs and constitutes consciousness and ego, this may be the best we can do in quelling violence and hate. So the tools that the author relates are important and well organized in this comprehensive and important self help audiobook. Amen's latest is THE END OF MENTAL ILLNESS, which I recommend. (Update: my novel THE FINAL PLOT OF VALERIE LOTT is relevant here, and based on THE POWER OF NOW.)