It doesn't take much to work this stuff out, Doug. Tom Clancy, who if I remember correctly was an insurance salesman before his writing took off, got thoroughly and angrily investigated after The Hunt for Red October was published. He knew a whole lot—and wrote a whole lot—about the details, tactics, and general behavior of nuclear submarines, both Soviet and American. Military secrets. "Where did you learn that?" the authorities wanted to know. Clancy had no secret pipeline to the Pentagon. He read magazines. He read books. He read newspapers. He watched television (right now, Frontline is on, with a program about ICBMs). He took notes. He thought about it. All the technical information he wanted to lend verisimilitude to his novel was there for the looking. It just happens that what he dug up was all pretty accurate. Most upsetting!

In 1945, just a few weeks after Hiroshima and Nagasaki were bombed, Life Magazine came out with an issue all about the atomic bomb. I specifically recall a two-page spread, complete with formulae and diagrams explaining how an atomic bomb works!! At the age of fourteen, I understood the whole thing. It's pretty basic physics. The only problem is some fairly simple engineering. The Russians didn't need the Rosenbergs, all they needed was a dime (yes, a dime) to buy of copy of that issue of Life.

I've been interested in writing all my life, and it's only within the last few years that I've had a chance to do some. But I've thought like a writer all my life. Ideas are everywhere. Data is everywhere. This, plus a little intelligence and imagination, then formulate a theory. Check a few things for verification, and you can come up with a lot of very accurate information.

There's a lot of information out there. All you have to do is keep your eyes open, your mind open, and look.

Don Firth
(I hope that re-establishes my cover.)