Contents
About the Newsgroup Is that *really* Tom Clancy posting here? Netiquette -- Spoiler Warnings Netiquette -- Contacting Mr. Clancy About the Authors Tom Clancy Larry Bond Steve Pieczenik Abbreviations and Acronyms Tom Clancy Mailing List About the FAQ
About the Newsgroup
Is that *really* Tom Clancy posting here? Yes! Tom Clancy sometimes reads these newsgroups and will respond to some questions and will sometimes post to clarify some points in the various discussions. His participation is at his discretion and is limited by his various other activities. His postings have been informative, interesting, polite and fun. The readers of these newsgroups value and enjoy his participation and appreciate whatever time he gives. Netiquette -- Spoiler Warnings These are newsgroups dedicated to discussions of Tom Clancy and his stories. Please be considerate of your fellow readers who may not have read the latest Clancy story or seen the latest Clancy movie. If you are going to include information that may spoil the book or movie for other readers of this group, please have the courtesy to place the title and the word "SPOILER" before any such information; preferably in the Subject line. Since the paperback version may take up to a year to be published, it is appropriate to continue to add a spoiler warning for that length of time after a hardcover book comes out. Netiquette -- Contacting Tom Clancy If you want to ask Mr. Clancy a question, post it on the appropriate newsgroup; *don't* email him. Flooding his mail with questions is discourteous and counter productive. Besides, another reader will very likely be able to answer your question faster than Mr. Clancy. We all know that he's busy researching and writing and that demands on his time are huge. See the answer to question 1. above.
About the Authors
Tom Clancy
Father of four. Catholic. Owned and operated independent insurance
business before starting writing career. Did not serve in any branch of
the US Military. Jesuit education - 8 years.
Larry Bond
The following is the autobiographic sketch Larry Bond sent to the Harpoon
mailing list.
====start====
Biographical Sketch:
Larry Bond is 45 and lives with his wife Jeanne and daughters Katie and
Julia in Virginia outside Washington DC. He is the designer of the Harpoon
and Command at Sea gaming systems and several supplements for the games. He
also co-authored Red Storm Rising with Tom Clancy and has recently finished
The Enemy Within, published by Warner Books in hardcover February 1996, and
softcover February 1997. He has three other novels to his credit, Red
Phoenix, Vortex and Cauldron.
Larry's writing career started by collaborating with Tom Clancy on Red
Storm Rising, a runaway New York Times bestseller that has been called one of
the best-selling books of the 1980s. It depicted a hypothetical conflict
between NATO and the Warsaw Pact, drawing heavily on current analysis of what
such a conflict would be like. It has been used as a text at the Naval War
College and similar institutions.
Since then, Larry's books have depicted military and political crises,
emphasizing accuracy and fast-paced action. Red Phoenix , Vortex, and
Cauldron were all New York Times bestsellers.
Red Phoenix was set in South Korea and depicted an invasion of the south by
a decaying North Korean government. Vortex told the story of a reactionary
Afrikaner government trying to roll back the clock in South Africa. Cauldron
showed a financial crisis in Europe that grew out of control, leading to a
military confrontation between France and the United States.
Larry's Harpoon gaming system was first published in 1980. Designed as
a general-purpose air, surface, and submarine naval simulation, it combines
playability with a wealth of information on modern naval weapons systems.
Designed for the entry-level player, it has found acceptance in both the
commercial market and the professional naval community. It is used at the
Naval Academy, several ROTC installations, and on several surface ships as a
training aid.
Now in its fourth edition, Harpoon has won the H.G. Wells Award, a
trade association honor, in both 1981 and 1987 as the best miniatures game of
the year. It is the only game to win the award twice.
The computer version of the game first appeared in 1990, and won the 1990
Wargame of the Year award from Computer Gaming World, an industry journal. An
updated version of the single-player game has been released, and a
multiplayer version is in preparation.
Command at Sea is Larry's latest game, and is an adaptation of Harpoon
to the WW II era. Like Harpoon, it emphasizes both playability and historical
accuracy, drawing on many contemporary sources.
Graduating from St. Thomas College, St. Paul, Minnesota in 1973 with a
degree in Quantitative Methods, Larry worked first as a computer programmer
for two years before being selected for Officer Candidate School in Newport,
Rhode Island. He was sworn into the Navy in 1975 and graduated from OCS the
following year.
Larry was in the Navy for six years, serving four on a destroyer and
two on shore duty in the Washington DC area. He served in the reserves for
two years with the Naval Reserve Intelligence Program. After leaving the Navy
he worked as a naval analyst for defense consulting firms in the Washington,
DC area. He now writes and designs games full-time.
Larry is an avid wargamer and modeler.
Published Work
Harpoon First Edition, 1981, Adventure Games Incorporated.
Resolution 502, 1982, Adventure Games Incorporated.
Harpoon Second Edition, 1983, Adventure Games Incorporated.
Red Storm Rising, with Tom Clancy, 1985, Putnam
Harpoon Third Edition, 1987, Game Designer's Workshop
Battles From the Third World War, 1987, Game Designer's Workshop
Red Phoenix, with Pat Larkin, 1989, Warner Books
Computer Harpoon, 1990, Three-Sixty Pacific, Inc.
The Harpoon SITREP (20 issues - 1989 to 1994)
Harpoon Data Annex 3.2, 1990, Game Designer's Workshop
Harpoon Captain's Edition, 1990, Game Designer's Workshop
Vortex, with Pat Larkin, 1991, Warner Books
Cauldron, with Pat Larkin, 1993, Warner Books
Command at Sea, with Chris Carlson and Ed Kettler, 1994, Clash of Arms
The Naval SITREP (10 issues - 1995 and continuing)
Command at Sea Player's Handbook, with Chris Carlson and Ed Kettler, 1995,
Clash of Arms
Command at Sea Second Edition, with Chris Carlson and Ed Kettler, 1995,
Clash of Arms
Harpoon Fourth Edition, with Chris Carlson, 1996, Clash of Arms
====end====
Steve Pieczenik
Co-creater of Op-Center series. Info needed.
Abbreviations and Acronyms
Rather than create a separate list of abbreviations and acronyms for
this FAQ, I will refer readers to existing FAQs. The sci.military.naval
FAQ contains a basic list of naval abbreviations/acronyms; there is also
a separate, and very large, Acronyms and Codenames FAQ. These are
available at the following URL:
http://www.membrane.com/~elmer/faqs/
Tom Clancy Mailing List
An email mailing list for those interested in Tom Clancy's works is
available. To subscribe, send an email to
tomclancy-list-request@upstatepress.com, with the word "subscribe" in the
subject line. To receive the digest version of the list, send email to
tomclancy-digest-list-request@upstatepress.com, with the word "subscribe"
in the subject line.
About the FAQ
This FAQ was originally the work of Bob Marek (bobm@loc3.tandem.com).
Maintenance of the FAQ was then passed to Geoff Gass (glg@nwu.edu), and to
Andrew Toppan in November 1996. It is maintained on a time-available
basis. Contributions, suggestions, comments and corrections are always
welcome.