Home colorful, creative as writer's work
http://www.azcentral.com/community/scottsd...hocket06Z8.htmlAdventure writer Clive
Cussler likes to joke that
although he doesn't
consider himself a socialite,
he's sometimes
approached by a
photographer at a
fund-raising party who
asks, "Are you anybody?"
"When I answer 'No,' "
says Cussler, "the
photographer moves on."
But Cussler is hardly a nobody (whatever that word means, anyway).
In fact, when you Google this best-selling author's name, you get about
72,000 listings.
His phenomenal success in producing adventure novels, featuring his Dirk
Pitt character, has afforded Clive the luxury of two homes.
He has a
5,000-square-foot home in
Telluride, Colo. where he
also has a warehouse filled
with his 87 classic cars.
Actor Tom Cruise lives
up the hill.
And Pitt has a
4,200-square-foot abode
in Paradise Valley, where
he now spends most of the
year.
Deep-sea diver
That's when he's not off on one of his deep-sea adventures, searching for
shipwrecks. He has "sunk" about $2 million into this expensive hobby.
"These are mini-replicas of the some of the 60 underwater historical
shipwrecks my team and I have discovered," he says of the treasures at his
Paradise Valley home office. He is surrounded by shelves and shelves of
his books, published in 40 languages.
The bathroom in the guesthouse is, in Clive fashion, a conversation piece.
The walls are lined with awards he's received.
Throughout a tour of the house and
guesthouse, he told me the many
charming stories behind the décor.
He and his late wife Barbara - they
were married 48 years - designed and
decorated the home in a Southwestern
style, with brilliant colors and personality
pieces.
In the living room sits a life-size
look-alike of Clive that he had made.
"I like to confuse people when they walk
in," he says, hiding around the corner and
grabbing the wireless microphone that
makes it talk.
Man of characters
Besides the Dirk Pitt fictional character,
Clive created a mirthful character, Charles Winthrop, when he was
searching for an agent 35 years ago.
He printed 1,000 sheets of Charles Winthrop stationery and sent Peter
Lampack at the William Morris Agency one of the letters he wrote talking
up Clive Cussler's book.
It worked, and it took six years for Clive to tell Peter there was no Charles
Winthrop.
Nineteen consecutive best-selling fiction books later, Peter is still his agent,
and Clive is busy cranking out another manuscript.
His girlfriend, Lisa Castelli, a high school graphic arts and photography
teacher, who illustrated his bestseller Trojan Odyssey, is illustrating his
next book, too.
And the writer best known for his book Raise the Titanic! will vacation
this summer on the North Sea, looking for shipwrecks.