been tremendous and even Ronald Reagan had been quoted calling it "The perfect yarn" (Cohen 114). "One of my gifts is, you give me 30, 40 minutes to talk to somebody, and I can look at the world through his eyes"(Zaleski 5). Clancy's search for direction in his writing career was brought to an end after talking to his agent for the first time, "When my agent approached me for the first time one of the first questions I asked him was, Do you think I'm good enough to do this for a living?', and he said, Yeah I think you probably are.', It turns out he was right" (Greenberg 59). Possibly even more amazing than Clancy's talent at creating believable international thrillers is his ability to describe the military technology so accurately, without ever having been in contact with it. Clancy was asked after writing The Hunt for Red October, "How could you have written Hunt for Red October without ever having gone on a submarine"(Zaleski 4). Clancy tells of how he has many friends in the military and government from whom he borrows information in order to write his books. His hunt for information from friends is not always successful though, "I know the people there and I have friendships, and nobody ever, ever, ever gives me classified information. The fact is, I can make up the classified stuff very easily. Sometimes I make up stuff that later turns out to be real." (Zaleski 5). Though to Tom Clancy at the time, The Hunt For Red October was only a small project, what was to follow would exceed his every expectation.A long list of accomplishments followed the creation of The Hunt For Red October. Clancy continued writing, releasing such popular books as The Cardinal in the Kremlin, Patriot Games, Clear and Present Danger, Red Storm Rising, Sum of All Fears, and Debt of Honor. Each book earned Clancy a monstrous amount of money. He received 14 million dollars just for signing the contract to write Without Remorse. In a majority of ...
