Tom Clancy

Just received word of the passing of legendary literary figure Tom Clancy.

Mr. Clancy, a prolific writer of political thrillers such as Executive Orders and Patriot Games, as well as the creator of the iconic character Jack Ryan, will be sorely missed by readers everywhere.

His career spanned decades, and he published more than two dozen books – a new release was scheduled for this coming December. His books inspired several movies, as well as a number of video games.

You can learn all of this, of course, anywhere on the Internet today. It’s been a while since I’ve read a Clancy novel; in truth, the movies are more at the forefront of my mind. But as an author myself, I can only imagine what may have been going through his head in recent weeks:

‘Oh, my God, I hope no one reads that LAST paragraph. What was I thinking?? WHY didn’t I change that ONE sentence? Oh, crap – I knew I forgot to add a comma there . . . and I’m pretty sure that’s NOT how that word’s spelled.

‘No one will ever read my books again. I’m a failure; I left that ending totally hanging. It must have all been a dream. I’m not a real writer, a real author . . . God, I hope my publicist never tells that one story about me!

‘Ryan, Schmyan – that was ME and nobody better ever forget it!’

Too soon? I don’t think so, because I know what I and many (if not most!) of my writer friends would be thinking near the end. Of course, unlike Mr. Clancy, we’d also be moaning and wailing about not yet having made the NYT bestseller list, which he did – something like 17 times.

All in all, the book world lost a very talented part of itself today, an author so well known, so incredibly capable of sending his readers into the heart of his thrillers. Mr. Clancy will be missed.

“The difference between fiction and reality? Fiction has to make sense.”

                ~Tom Clancy