Dirgo recalls meeting Cussler

Revising a dream

Author’s friendship takes local man from ski bum to best-seller

By Valerie Singleton
The Daily Times-Call

LONGMONT — One of author Craig Dirgo’s favorite nonfiction stories took place 30 years ago, when renowned author Clive Cussler almost caught him sleeping in his Minerva Town Car.



Dirgo had spent the previous evening working the late shift at a local diner, then got a few hours of rest before prepping for classes at Arvada High School. By 1 p.m. or so, Dirgo was working his second job, performing maintenance on dozens of classic cars owned by Cussler.



Local author Craig Dirgo will host a book signing today at Borders in Longmont for his recently released adventure novel, “Tremor.” Though Dirgo received second billing to author Clive Cussler on the novels the two co-wrote, Dirgo says he has developed a highly marketable style, with fast, punchy dialogue, an appeal to the senses and characters that break the mold

“I was pretty much running on empty,” Dirgo recalls, reminiscing from his front porch in Longmont.

Inside Cussler’s garage, Dirgo laid down on the dark blue interior of Cussler’s Town Car and dozed off. When the rattle of the garage’s metal door awakened him, Dirgo peeked out the car’s window and saw Cussler — a man he knew only in passing and from paydays — approaching.

“What are you doing?” Cussler asked.

Dirgo barely hesitated: My imagination wandered while I was working inside this car, Dirgo lied to Cussler. I imagined I was a wealthy man of the 1930s, he continued.

“He looked at me and said, ‘You know, I do that, too,’” Dirgo recalls Cussler saying.

Years later, when Dirgo and Cussler began co-writing books — including “The Sea Hunters” and the “Oregon Files” series — Dirgo came clean about that nap. By then, the kid who once snoozed in Cussler’s fancy car had become a friend and, later, a fellow best-selling writer.

“I think any person can be successful writing books,” says Dirgo, on the heels of releasing his latest adventure novel, “Tremor.” “It just depends on how much you’re willing to put into it.”

Dirgo doesn’t fit the stereotypical mold. He had no early aspirations to be a writer, never wore a tweed jacket or smoked a pipe.

In high school, he was a ski bum. He maintained a solid C average while working at the diner owned by his best friend’s father. It was through the owner, a business partner of Cussler’s, that Dirgo got his second job.

Years after a knee injury at Eldora Mountain Resort dashed Dirgo’s dreams of an eternity spent on the slopes, he turned to writing. In 1989, he handed Cussler a 450-page manuscript.

Cussler didn’t like it.

“He said, ‘You can finish a book; you just need to learn how to write one,’” Dirgo says.

They threw the manuscript into Cussler’s fireplace before Dirgo embarked on more writing projects. With each new story, his writing talent and ability to meet deadlines improved, he says.

In 1999, he released the novel “The Einstein Papers.” Though he received second billing to Cussler on the novels they co-wrote, Dirgo says he has developed a highly marketable style, with fast, punchy dialogue, an appeal to the senses and characters that break the mold.

“John Taft is a reluctant hero,” Dirgo says of the fictional special agent featured in “Tremor.”

Dirgo’s hero is, in some ways, like Dirgo himself. Like his creator, Taft enjoys Philly cheese steaks, likes working on old cars and motorcycles and is in constant search of truth.

“Taft is very questioning,” Dirgo says. “He does what he has to do, but he’s very questioning. Taft isn’t satisfied; I’m not satisfied.”


If you go


What: Longmont author Craig Dirgo hosts a book signing for his latest novel, “Tremor”

When and where: 2 p.m. today at Borders Books, Music & Cafe, 1101 S. Hover St., Longmont; and 2 p.m. Sunday at Borders Books, Music & Cafe, 1600 Pearl St., Boulder

Valerie Singleton can be reached at 303-684-5319 or by e-mail at vsingleton@times-call.com.

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I am looking forward to reading Tremor. In Dirgo's first novel, The Einstein Papers, John Taft's girlfriend was reading a Clive Cussler novel (yes, a specific book was not actually mentioned), and John Taft told the cabbie driver that he was Pitt, Dirk Pitt. Not expecting such a play on "persons" (real or fictious) in Tremor, but another John Taft adventure is on my reading list.

Cool story!!!

To fall asleep in one of Clive's cars an to wake up and meet the man is a dream come true. Lucky man. What a wild way to start a freindship.

I agree, Loren...I just hope one day I can SIT in one of Clive's cars...and maybe get a picture with him sitting next to me. ( cough, cough ) LIZ! - You lucky bum.

Life's funny. One day your working multiple jobs and fall asleep in a car, the next day your on your way to becoming a successful writer. Some people have all the luck. I guess I need to go sleep in some cars.

Chalk it up to right place, right time!