Trivia / Clive Cussler

• Defictionalization: While NUMA is not a real agency, Clive Cussler made NUMA non-fictional. He now has over sixty shipwreck recoveries under his belt.
• The Red Stapler: Dirk Pitt's's signature orange-faced Doxa SUB 300T dive watch has become very popular. It was based on a watch Cussler actually owned^note which was a parting gift given to him by the manager of a dive shop he worked at until he published his first novel. In fact, it was so popular that a fan started creating reproductions in 2001, decades after the original Doxa went out of business, and Cussler got the first in the limited run.
• Throw It In!: Cussler writing himself into his books as a Creator Cameo and occasional Deus ex Machina started in Dragon, as a joke that he fully expected his editor to remove. when his editor didn't, he began writing himself into more novels, and also added cameos and mentions of several real-life friends of his, such as Leigh Hunt (whom he dedicated the book Arctic Drift to after Leigh's death in 2007), and even his co-author Craig Dirgo.