Clive Cussler Collector's Society

STEVE TRACY

Home > 2021 Clive Cussler Collector's Society

ISOTTA
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Article by Steve Tracy
09/22/2021

There used to be a "SimonSays" Discussion board on Simon & Schuster's internet site back in 2004. There was a sub-forum for discussing one of the publisher's most popular writers - Clive Cussler.

Thousands of Cussler fans worldwide perused that discussion board and several Clive Cussler Collector's Society were frequent commenters. Many of us got to know each other through this board and the first CCCS CusslerCon in 2005 in Denver was an amazing time where internet friends met face to face for the first time.

On March 5 of that year, Clive Cussler himself responded to questions that had been posed earlier by one of his family members with the user name of Isotta.

When Isotta had first requested questions for Clive from his fans, I had asked what items other than books had Cussler signed and were there any odd places he had been asked for an autograph. I was thinking of Don Julio tequila bottles or ship models and wondered if he had been recognized while out of the United States or while out on the town.

It's interesting and nostalgic to look back on this forum board post and see some of the names and user names and the answers to their questions. While the actual questions themselves are not posted, you can pretty much guess by the answer what the question originally was.

Some of those asking the questions have passed away over the years. Reading Cussler's answers makes me appreciate that I happened to print out this little tidbit of history. The SimonSays board is long gone and this interaction with his fans makes us all realize how special Clive Cussler was to all of us.

And apparently we were to him.

-Steve Tracy
CCCS Member #69