So Long Tom.

I said that my blog had been neglected for a long time but I won’t get into the reasons why.
However I do feel bad about this particular short blog because I wrote it and never posted it,
and it was about someone I admired as a writer, a lot.
Still now having read it 2+ years later I still mean every word.

So here goes ´So Long Tom´ (originally written Mon, January 13, 2014)

Recently we said farewell to another great story teller. Gone to that great camp fire in the sky where all the great writers of the past sit around drinking cocoa ( or maybe the odd scotch) and tell their tales.
Like many, I first discovered Tom Clancy through ‘The Hunt for Red October’. I remember being totally blown away by it. For many it was the technical detail, the incredible inside knowledge that hooked them in. But personally, I believe that if you strip all that away at the heart of it was a great story with great characters.
Even though his books were great fat tomes, I was consumed by them. I personally always thought his books were usually a hundred pages or so too long. Tom could ramble on for 30 or 40 pages at a time, on some technical detail. But that’s just my opinion, I’m sure many readers loved that aspect of his books. But me, I was always champing at the bit to get back to the story.
I loved ‘Patriot Games’ and ‘Clear and Present Danger’ both of which made excellent movies, but I also loved ‘The Cardinal of the Kremlin’. I could go on.
Tom went on to great stardom, great wealth, Video Games?? (who knows where life will take us). But he was another of the great storytellers who made me want to tell stories, to weave that magic which had enthralled me since I was a kid, sitting around the fire with my brothers and sisters, listening to my Dad tell his stories of the Second World War. I was the one sitting with his mouth open, seeing the story unfold like a movie in my head. Not a lot’s changed. It’s just taken a little longer to get them into print, but I never gave up. I know I never will.
So long Tom, and thanks for all the great stories.