Interview with Joe Buff

by Christy Tillery French

Review of TIDAL RIP by author Joe Buff,
written by Christy Tillery French
Reviewer, Midwest Book Review
(reproduced with permission)

In the year 2012, Commander Jeffrey Fuller is back in TIDAL RIP and at war once more against Korvettenkapitan Ernst Beck, commander of Imperial Germany's most lethal submarine, the SMS Admiral von Scheer. Fuller has just received the Congressional Medal of Honor for victories in battle as captain of the USS Challenger, America's most deadly fast-attack nuclear submarine. Almost immediately, he is sent to join the Challenger with the mission to find the von Scheer before she can stop an Allied convoy heading toward Africa.

Fuller learns from intelligence sources that the Berlin-Boer Axis is attempting to bring into Argentina an American atom bomb. Their plans are to use the bomb against Brazil, then blame the Americans for the deadly act. Fuller deploys Navy SEALs into South America to stop the Germans from setting off the bomb, while he meets with the president of Brazil to try to convince him what the Germans have planned. After a successful meeting, Fuller is back on the Challenger, stalking the von Scheer. When the submarines meet, the battle becomes a mental one between the two commanders. But what Beck does not know is that Fuller is determined to stop him at all costs, even if it means the destruction and ultimate death of his own ship and crew.

TIDAL RIP is a mesmerizing read, full of tension-filled action scenes and intense dialogue. The action is constant, shifting from the SEALs team and their efforts on land as well as at sea, to the submariners and their sensational engagements with one another. The characterization is phenomenal. Buff takes his readers into the minds of the two captains before and during their conflicts and allows them to understand what motivates the two men. The modern warfare technologies are explained clearly, and the story realistic to the point of being frightening. Get ready for one rip-roaring, exciting read with this page-turner. Highly recommended.

INTERVIEW WITH JOE BUFF

When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer?

You may be considered by some authors to be an anomaly: you had an agent before you had a marketable manuscript for a novel. Wow! Tell us how that came about.

It started with that SF ms., which was rejected all over the place (including by the guy who eventually became my agent), until even I had to admit it needed a ton of work. Step One was that if I wanted to be a writer, I’d better learn how to write. So I took two professionally run short-story workshops, and a number of one-day weekend classes. Also read everything I could find about the publishing industry and the writing craft. Eventually I rewrote my SF novel completely and cut it down to 93,000 words. Then, I started trying to outline a sequel, which by a twisted rabbit trail led me to think about submarines. Again, I began with research. This quickly led me to have some ideas and I wrote my first non-fiction article accepted by THE SUBMARINE REVIEW’s editor, a retired submarine captain, in late 1997. A few months later, John Talbot left the Anita Diamont Agency to form his own literary agency. I resubmitted the SF novel (Hey, you never know) and mentioned my single professional article credit. In a month, John got back to me. He said he loved my writing, was amazed by the learning curve I’d shown in one year, but didn’t do SF. He’d been one of Tom Clancy’s editors, and did represent technothrillers. Based on my article, John suggested I write in the submarine military-suspense genre instead, and if I would agree, then he’d take me on as a client immediately. You don’t say no to an offer like that! I tossed the unpublishable SF ms. into the trash heap, told John the thoughts I already had for a submarine novel, and we brainstormed from there. The concept for Deep Sound Channel was born. I took about 9 months to draft it, and then John did a rolling auction and got me a rather nice first contract: two books, hard/soft, that made the Publishers Weekly “Hot Deals” column in April, ‘99....

You have some background in nuclear physics and other science, which plays into the subject matter of your books, and you write with vast knowledge and authenticity about nuclear submarines. In fact, your latest novel TIDAL RIP got a very strong review from the prestigious U.S. Naval Institute PROCEEDINGS. At this point two of your non-fiction papers won literary awards from the Naval Submarine League. Since you were never in the military, Joe, how did you do it?

“It all began when I was a child.” Seriously, before I was born, my father was in the U.S. Navy. He was very proud of his service in the early Cold War as a Seabee, and this rubbed off on me in a big way. I’ve been an avid reader since I was a kid (I’m 50 now), and three topics were always my favorites: history, science/technology, and the military. I devoured the stuff, reading far above my grade level – till the teachers told my mother I seemed to be obsessed. Her answer was “So what? Joey knows what he likes.” (She’s the only person who’s allowed to call me Joey, by the way. To everyone else, it’s Joe, heh heh!!!) Also, one of my uncles was a merchant mariner on the North Atlantic convoys late in World War II, before being drafted into the U.S. Army for the occupation of Nazi Germany. So I had just the right sort of parental support and role models to get me started on what amounted to literally a lifetime of hectic research that I draw on now for my own writings. I must have read a thousand relevant books, with an emphasis on personal memoirs of combat over the centuries, biographies of great generals and admirals, and warfighting gadgetry of all sorts, to the point where it really got in my blood. The summer between college and grad school, I was a paid intern at the Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois. Once I started to think about writing technothrillers, I also put into play some skills I’d acquired in my previous business career, especially networking, except now it was with military folks, particularly submariners. I hit it off with them right away. Early on, I got to spend several days at sea aboard the Los Angeles-class fast-attack nuclear sub USS Miami, also I visited at least a dozen other subs (including a modern German U-boat!) and talked with their crews, and attended conference after conference of the major military organizations to which I belong. At these I heard speeches from submarine COs, active duty admirals, WWII diesel boat veterans, military contractors, politicians, the works. I mingled with them and got to know them as people and became good friends with some of them. My articles for THE SUBMARINE REVIEW, I think now I have seven out, two of them ran in two parts, amounted to term papers or take-home exams, great learning tools: original ideas based upon lateral thinking that I wrote up to be “graded” by tough teachers who practiced undersea warfare for a living. Four or five active duty or retired submariner officers or chiefs carefully critique each of my novels for me in chunks as I write them. These guys are very meticulous and demanding, and I’ve learned a huge amount from working with them on five published novels so far (counting the draft of STRAITS OF POWER, which is with my Editor right now). But I write everything first, after doing my ongoing reading and thinking “homework” aggressively -- and then the military pros hit me with their none-too-gentle feedback to firm up each draft. That’s one reason I have a saying, “A writer succeeds in a village.” I’m proud of this. You can’t do as well on your own. By now you may be wondering, so why did I ever start trying to write by dabbling in science fiction? Why didn’t I do military suspense from the beginning, since my whole life prepared me so much better for that? It just goes to show, the most obvious things are sometimes the hardest to see....

Can you give us a brief summary of the storyline behind your submarine warfare novels?

In a nutshell, the books depict tactical nuclear war at sea in 2011/2012. (Tactical nuclear war at sea is a type of warfare specifically recognized by the Pentagon.) The hero of the saga is an American submarine officer, Jeffrey Fuller, who gradually rises in rank and wins major medals completing mission after mission during the war – despite his own inner conflicts and human foibles. The enemy is the Berlin-Boer Axis, i.e. Germany taken over by an ultranationalist conspiracy within the country’s financial-military-industrial complex, allied with South Africa taken over by Boers and other whites who have restored Apartheid -- secretly, with the distraction of the Global War on Terror as cover, the conspirators built their own low-yield atom bombs. The Axis, using the shock value of a couple of tactical nukes set off on land, and an ambush of a coalition carrier task force out at sea, have overrun continental Europe and big parts of Africa. America’s principal allies are the UK and the British Commonwealth nations. At first much of the rest of the world stays neutral – Russia pretends to be neutral but supports the Germans. Then the war gradually spreads, and some other countries choose sides. Things also get closer and closer to uncontrolled escalation toward a global thermonuclear holocaust. So far that hasn’t happened, and Jeffrey plays a key role in averting disaster, achieving success, and helping in the march toward (we hope) an eventual Allied victory. But in STRAITS OF POWER, the war sure isn’t over yet! Jeffrey and his friends and shipmates provide a strong ray of courage and hope amid this very dark scenario. I like to say that I’m not writing comfort food! My intention is to entertain and educate people, but also scare them like in JAWS or ALIEN, and shake them up about how the real world works, give them something to think about beyond escapist fiction....

The oceanographic facts and seafloor terrain depicted in your books are fascinating to read. Are these accurate?

All the science and geography in each novel, above and underneath the water, is as entirely accurate as I can possibly make it. For each book I purchase dozens of detailed nautical charts, and spend countless hours doing research on the Internet and reading a (rather daunting) pile of applicable non-fiction books and journals, too. All of the weapons systems depicted in my stories either exist now for real or in test-prototype, or are in the design phase as announced by the Navy or the Pentagon, or are completely realistic given science and technology projected on a timeframe of a decade or so into the future – were funding made available. In fact, in a chapter in the TIDAL RIP draft about a particular “secret weapon,” one of my submariner ms. critiquers wrote in the margin -- I think only half tongue-in-cheek -- “Where did you get the security clearance to know about this?” I’m especially proud of my self-study in sonar and undersea acoustics, based on some of the same textbooks that practicing submariners read. All of the depicted effects of tactical nuclear weapons, radioactive fallout, etc., are also thoroughly researched. Nothing is “made up” to fit the story. Actually, writing stories that strictly “fit the facts” is half the fun of it for me! Where I depict equipment breaking, or new crewmen being half-clueless, let’s just say I have very good reason to know such things do happen in real life....

Navy SEALs play a strong role in your books, and it's interesting to read how committed and tough these men are, as well as versatile in the duties they perform. How did you research the SEALs?

The same way I researched submariners. After years of reading every book by or about Navy SEALs that I could find, I started networking at the people level. I was very privileged to be part of a tour of the SEAL training compound in Coronado, CA. I met a number of SEAL instructors, and also got to speak to some of the SEAL trainees who had just finished “Hell Week.” I visited the Amphibious Warfare Base nearby, and toured the various types of craft used to conduct SEAL operations. I also got to attend an annual SEAL reunion in Norfolk, VA, met a number of other SEALs there, and saw demonstrations of some of their key weapons and tactics and support aircraft. I even met and spoke with some German combat swimmers, the Kampfschwimmer – scary guys whom I’d never want to meet in combat, let me tell you! People ask me sometimes if I made the Kampfschwimmer up. I say, Heck no. The encounters Jeffrey and his SEAL friends have with them in the war in 2011/2012 are meant to be utterly frightening. One of the nicest compliments I’ve ever gotten was from a Navy SEAL who told me he found my novels impressively realistic, and they kept him up to five in the morning to finish them in one sitting!...

You also write a column for Military.com as well as nonfiction articles for THE SUBMARINE REVIEW. Do you find it easier to write fiction or nonfiction, and do you have a preference?

To me, fiction and non-fiction are different forms of writing that reinforce each other in my work and my career. I believe that the shorter a piece is in word-count, the more challenging it is to draft it to retain the reader’s interest and make a useful point. When it comes to fiction, I’m definitely a “marathon man.” Short stories are not my milieu, at all. Novels that take a year full-time to research and outline, then draft and edit, are the sort of fiction writing I most prefer. The column I write every week or two for Military.com, in their Military Opinion feature, represents a type of commentary or op-ed writing. Frankly, I really do enjoy this! (I started it in January, ‘03, when the president of Military.com’s parent company invited me to be a regular contributor, alongside big-name writers and military experts like Joe Galloway, Oliver North, David Hackworth, and William Lind.) To me, personally, a mix of long fiction and shorter non-fiction seems ideal. I can get a nice immediate sense of gratification and closure with each Military.com piece, 1,000 to 2,000 words long, because it’s usually posted on their home page the same day I submit it. The articles for THE SUBMARINE REVIEW are more “serious” and technical in tone, run about 3,000 words (or 6,000ish for a two-parter), and often take up to a year after submittal to appear in print in a quarterly issue. A novel, from first concept to the hardcover being in the stores, takes up to two years – then add another year to get to the massmarket paperback edition. So novel writing demands tremendous patience and a hefty dose of deferred gratification. What’s also great about the Military.com column is it’s given me a whole new circle of people to write for, and earned me a new set of e-pals beyond the folks who contact me about my novels. The hardest part is juggling everything, to do a good job and meet the contractual or self-imposed deadlines scattered all over my calendar. But I think writing constantly is crucial to writing well. I often compare it to professionally playing golf or the violin. You need to practice every day to stay in your groove. Some variety is good, even essential, it keeps you fresh and builds your craft skills to the utmost....

Tell us about your efforts to raise public awareness that the Seabees still exist and are active.

Speaking of Military.com e-pals, a retired reservist Seabee chief “Stormin’ Normand” once bemoaned to me that most people don’t even realize that the Seabees still exist, let alone are as busy as ever as combat construction workers – with heavy involvement in humanitarian aid efforts worldwide. (He first contacted me because he saw in my bio that my late father was a Seabee.) I put on my thinking cap, and suggested we do something practical. So I wrote one essay for my column called “Seabees… Special Forces?” I was instantly deluged by an incredible outpouring of e-mails from Seabees everywhere, even their parents, spouses, fiancées, thanking me for getting them some long-craved public recognition. Then I suggested to Stormin’ that we needed to name-brand an effort and start getting serious. Thus “OPERATION SEABEES KNOWLEDGE” was born, a volunteer grassroots effort. One early success was that one of my favorite military novelists, David E. Meadows, a captain in the U.S. Navy, wrote JOINT TASK FORCE: FRANCE, which is due out this summer and has modern Seabees as major characters in the story. I also included Seabees in an action sequence near the beginning of STRAITS OF POWER. Then I said, hey, we need a website as a cyberspace home and “Rallying Point” for OPERATION SEABEES KNOWLEDGE. And so, soon now the new website www.SeabeesInfoHQ.org will be announced to the public; it might in fact officially go live by the time people read this interview!...

You have received acclaim from very well-known authors, including Stephen Coonts and Clive Cussler. Congratulations. Whose opinion do you value the most, above all others?

Of course I’m absolutely delighted to get such praise from Mr. Coonts and Mr. Cussler. But the positive feedback I cherish most comes from recreational readers who are or used to be in the armed forces, especially enlisted people. They’re the toughest crowd to satisfy, because they’ve “been there, done that,” they’re very pragmatic, and it’s impossible to put one over on them about the realities of combat and life in the military. When they actually thank me for writing my novels, or for putting into words in my column things they’ve always felt in their hearts to be true, well, for me there really is no better feeling. At the other end of that spectrum, praise – direct or indirect -- from submariner captains and admirals is terrific affirmation that my work is on the right track. Lastly, there’s something very special about hearing from young readers. Once, by snailmail I got a hand-written fan letter from a boy in seventh grade. Naturally, I responded to it the same day. I don’t think you can put a price tag on the value of this shared sense of participation and belonging between author and reader....

You are an author who is sought out by other authors for endorsement quotes regarding their books. Do you enjoy doing this and what is it like providing a quote for another author?

Doing endorsement quotes is hard work, in that the request will usually come up suddenly and the deadline is always tight, and I make it a rule to read every such book from cover to cover. But as I said above, I believe a writer succeeds best in a village with other writers and editors and agents. I take a collegial approach to the business, as do most other people I know. Of course, first of all, it’s flattering to be asked, since the editor (the usual source of the request) wouldn’t bother if they didn’t feel my endorsement would be valuable. Also, it’s kewl to get a free book and have the reader’s copy or bound manuscript sent to me well before the novel hits the stores. And I won’t deny it’s a nice bit of extra advertising to see my name with my quote on someone else’s book – but in writing I think you have to give in order to get, in many ways. What can be tricky is coming up with accurate praise that doesn’t start sounding trite, since there are just so many superlatives in the dictionary. I have to be careful remembering what I said in other blurbs, or I might repeat myself! This could get embarrassing, if a reader compares two books I gave endorsements for and sees that by accident I said the same thing twice. Ha! You think I’m joking. But it’s harder than it looks. Yet it’s fun and exciting, to see another writer’s work just as it’s coming together in the production and marketing stage, and give it a helpful push in the right direction toward being received well by the sales force, booksellers, and the public....

What is your current Work In Progress?

As we do this interview in late February, 2004, I’m about to start editing the delivered manuscript of STRAITS OF POWER with my editor Mike Shohl at Wm. Morrow. From that I will roll right into my major project for 2004, which is writing the next book in the Jeffrey Fuller series. Mike and I have already agreed on the basic concept of this next story, and I’ll be delivering that manuscript around January 1, 2005....

What do you like to do in your spare time?

My wife and I live in a hilly rural area and really love nature. We take exercise hikes through the fields or along the roads with our dog for an hour or more almost every day, regardless of the weather. We tend to pick up neighbors’ dogs as we go, and also often this way informally talk to people we know whom we see in their yards or who drive by us and stop in their cars. We enjoy watching primarily two types of TV shows, either animated shows like “Futurama” (my favorite) or “South Park,” or the BBC comedies and police procedurals. “Cops” is also one of our favorites. We like going out to dinner with other couples, as there are some very good restaurants within a moderate drive of our house. I’ll also relax by listening to music, mostly soft rock or country....

Who are your favorite authors?

Believe it or not my favorite authors are non-fiction naval history writers. Two great ones really stand out on my bookshelves. One is Samuel Eliot Morison, especially his biographies of Christopher Columbus and John Paul Jones. Another is Alfred Thayer Mahan, including his biographies of Farragut and Nelson, but most of all his classic multi-volume THE INFLUENCE OF SEA POWER series. Dudley Pope is another superb author of very vivid naval history. Among more modern writers, Norman Friedman is a sea power strategist and commentator whose works always keep me up into the wee hours. I draw a lot of inspiration from these writers and their books, because I try to give my action-adventure novels the feel of “real-world naval history that just hasn’t happened yet.”...

I love the pictures of your dog, Dina, at your website. It seems most authors are either dog or cat lovers. Is she your only "child"?

My wife Sheila and I first met in college in 1972. We decided many years ago that neither of us wanted children. (We do, so far, have over thirty nieces and nephews.) We both like cats but I’m allergic to cats. We got our first dog, Dagmar, in early 1986. When she passed away at age 14, we got Dina. Both of them we adopted from the North Shore Animal League on Long Island. We don’t think of Dina as our child. It’s more like she thinks of us as her slaves, heh heh! Dina is definitely the leader of the pack of all the dogs along our road. She can be very willful and stubborn, but also is cuddly and affectionate, quite a combination in a dog who weighs seventy pounds! (Sheila, by the way, is a full-time nonfiction writer, specializing in health, wellness, and nutrition. She co-authored some of Dr. Atkins’s recent books, and has been on the NY TIMES Bestseller List as a result.)...

As an author who writes for a living, do you follow a strict writing regimen?

Yes and no. In an overall macro sense, I’m always working on some aspect of something I’m writing, even if it’s just noodling around in the back of my head as I’m watching TV. In a day-to-day micro sense, I’d have to say I have no specific regimen at all. I seem to be a natural self-starter, and very much enjoy being self-employed. On the novels especially, each manuscript tends to pour out of me in spurts. I might write 100 pages in a week, or nothing new on that front for two weeks, but the story is always busy taking further shape inside my brain. My record so far is writing 62 pages in one day toward the end of TIDAL RIP, but I’m sure other writers can top that. I keep a daily tally of how many pages I write, so that by simple arithmetic I make sure I’ll meet the final deadline on time with the target manuscript length. Sometimes when in what I call a “writing frenzy” I’ll jump out of bed before dawn and write non-stop until midnight. Sometimes I’ll sleep to 11, stay up past 2 a.m., and won’t physically write at all – but my mind is always going. (The one thing I make sure to do without fail each day is respond to all incoming e-mails, which is another form of writing, into which I put great care.) I think all this works for me because I’m very organized and analytical, even though my schedule habits probably sound like a form of chaos theory!...

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