The USS Hunley, located by Clive Cussler’s National Underwater Marine Agency in 1995 will hopefully reveal new clues to the mystery of the crew’s demise.  See the press release here.

June 2011 NY: Penguin/Norwood Press

The thrilling new adventure from the number-one New York Times-bestselling author! The husband-and-wife team of Sam and Remi Fargo are used to hunting for treasure, but they aren’t used to hunting for people-until an investigator friend of their goes missing, and they promise to search for him.

What they discover, however, will be beyond anything they could have imagined.

On a journey that will take them to Tibet, Nepal, China, Italy, and Siberia, the Fargos find themselves embroiled with black-market fossils, an ancient Tibetan kingdom, a lost landmass in the North Sea, Stone Age ostrich egg shards inscribed in a cryptic language, a pair of battles separated by thousands of miles and hundreds of years . . . and a skeleton that could just turn the history of human evolution on its head.

Buddy Martin

We recently learned of the passing of our friend Dr.  Charles (Buddy) Martin.  If there ever was a charter member of the Clive Cussler Fan Club, it certainly had to be Buddy (sorry Wayne).

We met Buddy at the first Clive Cussler Collector Society Convention in Denver in 2005, and have enjoyed his antics ever since.  Who can forget the time he had Clive sign his forehead?  He probably didn’t wash it for days!

Buddy was a serious collector, assembling a collection of “all things Cussler,” amassing ten of thousands of articles related to Clive or his books.

We will miss you Buddy.

John

John interviews Clive Cussler and Jack DuBrul about their newest (The Jungle) as well as interviews with Grant Blackwood and Kerry Frey from the Adventure Writer’s Competition.

Click to see the fun that was had in Arizona at the 2010 Cusslercon!

Today is the official laydown date for THE JUNGLE, so I thought I’d give Jack DuBrul a call and see how he feels about his latest collaboration with Clive Cussler. It seemed a shame to take him away from his writing, but I always enjoy talking with him.

Jack says that THE JUNGLE is probably his favorite Oregon Files book, and he sounds pleased with the twist he adds to the ending of the story.

From the “news fit to print” category, Phil Mercer lives! Jack is “hard” at work on the long awaited new Phil Mercer story. He is unwilling to share his working title, but did say that I can report that the story revolves around the global warming controversy, and starts with the long lost aviation pioneer, Amelia Earhart. As a long time fan of the series I was pleased to learn last fall that Jack would take a break from the Oregon Files to flesh out the Mercer tale that has been rattling around in his head for a couple of years.

So save a weekend sometime in the months ahead to head back to Tiny’s Bar, where you can slide onto a stool next to Harry White, order a Vodka Gimlet and wait for Phil Mercer to make an appearance.

I have it on good authority that he is on his way.

- John

VJ Books is now shipping Signed Limited Numbered Editions of Crescent Dawn by Clive Cussler and Dirk Cussler.