How did you get your start in writing and what other books have you written, including those as a solo artist?

I came to writing fiction in the same zig-zag fashion I use with my books. After graduating from Boston University's School of Journalism, I worked twenty-five years for newspapers. I was managing editor of a twice-weekly on Cape Cod when the reporter covering the search for the pirate ship Whydah left for another job and I took over the story.

Three salvage groups were competing for the riches supposedly aboard the ship which went down off the Cape in 1717. The story was great fun and I thought it might translate into a non-fiction book. I got a few nibbles of interest but nothing solid, so decided to use the material in a mystery based on the pirate ship hunt. I had read few mysteries, preferred non-fiction and had never written fiction before, but figured it couldn't be too hard.

I got a two-book contract based on my proposal, which turned out to be timely, when management changed at the newspaper and long-time employees like me were shown the door. Writing the first book turned out to be a humbling experience that almost had me crawling back into journalism. But my editor at Bantam poked and prodded my manuscript which came out under the title: Cool Blue Tomb. Much to my surprise the book won a Shamus award for best original paperback novel. My editor sent it to Clive Cussler who gave it a nice jacket blurb. Neptune's Eye was the next book in the series, and Clive gave me another plug, saying" There is no finer mystery writer in America than Paul Kemprecos."

One night the phone rang at the cottage I was renting near Cape Cod Bay. It was Clive, just calling to chat. I was thrilled that he would take time to call. He suggested that I put Soc on an international stage but my agent felt the strength of the books lay in their regional setting.

Four other books followed, all centered around the underwater adventures of a detective-fisherman-diver named Aristotle 'Soc' Socarides: Death in Deep Water, Feeding Frenzy, The Mayflower Murder and Bluefin Blues. Despite Clive's nice quotes, I was never able to come close to making a living writing the books. I free-lanced, worked on boats and around beaches and harbors, got married to a lovely woman named Christi, and we had a great deal of fun. But money was becoming tight and I had decided to quit writing books. I sent Clive a copy of my final and long-delayed Soc, saying "Rumors of my literary demise have been greatly exaggerated."

How did you wind up co-writing with Clive Cussler?

Not long after that Clive called, said he was doing a new spin-off from the Dirk Pitt series and asked if I would be interested in writing the first book. He made the offer irresistible: "You'll do all the work and I'll get all the money," Clive said. I had only met Clive once at a book signing, and we had kept in contact through the years. I drove to my wife's financial planning office and said, "Cussler called and asked me to collaborate with him on a new series, but I don't know if I can do it."
 
"What else do you have to do?" she said.

After a moment of thought, I said. "Nothing."

Thus began my new career writing international adventure thrillers.

Serpent, the first book in the NUMA Files, met with some resistance from Cussler fans who thought it might replace the Dirk Pitt series. But once they realized that it was something to keep them going between Pitt adventures, they warmed up to Kurt and his team. Readership has grown and all the books have ended up on The New York Times best seller list.

Clive's idea was that the NUMA Files should be different from the Pitt series, although there is sometimes an overlap, and that's what I have tried to do. In the last few books I've tried to get away from the standard formula, at the same time recognizing that it is what the readers like. I'm still playing around with this balance in Medusa, which is a combo of adventure, intrigue and mystery, with some fun characters. While they pass judgment on this book I'll be working on another, hoping it will be even better.

Robert Gregory Browne is the author of KISS HER GOODBYE and the upcoming WHISPER IN THE DARK, which received a starred review from Publisher's Weekly.