Just returned from Sierra Leone on assignment for Vanity Fair magazine, the freelance journalist and author of The Perfect Storm (New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 1997) met recently in New York City with the Naval Institute's Fred L. Schultz. Their discussion centered on the mechanics of writing the best-selling book—the harrowing true story of one of the fiercest storms in recorded history—and on the new Warner Brothers movie by the same name, starring George Clooney, Elizabeth Mastrantonio, and Mark Wahlberg.
Proceedings : The biographical notes we've seen describe you as simply a freelance journalist. How did you get started in the writing business?
