This is a list of fan fiction resources available to writers. Disclaimer: WEB PAGE ADDRESSES ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE. This list is roughly grouped by subject, and suggestions for additions/deletions are welcomed. SUBMARINES A good place to start is Tom Clancy's SUBMARINE: A GUIDED TOUR INSIDE A NUCLEAR WARSHIP which is just what it says. SILENT CHASE: SUBMARINES OF THE U.S. NAVY is nice because it not only has great pictures (it's a big coffee-table type book) but because they talked to some personnel in various jobs on board the boats. NAVAL ONLINE (assume the "http://www." okay?) ncts.navy.mil/nol/ -- NavyOnLine is truly your one-stop information source. If it's not included in their FAQ, they include the option to do a subject search! Spend hours browsing. www.history.navy.mil/ -- Naval Historical Center home page. FAQs and "Other Navy & Naval History-related web sites" can kill more time. www.nadn.navy.mil/ -- U.S. Naval Academy home page. (Stories about our favorite commissioned officers as college kids, anyone?) They've also put the campus newspaper, The Trident, online. On Usenet, you might want to visit (or lurk at) sci.military.naval. For writing the military side on SQ, you could do worse than browsing through books offered by the Naval Institute Press (which is where the REAL guys find answers to THEIR questions). Officers have the NAVAL OFFICERS' GUIDE, the enlisted guys have the BLUEJACKETS' MANUAL. (To quote from the book itself: "THE BLUEJACKETS' MANUAL is the sailor's book. Properly used, it can provide the sailor with ready answers to questions on such subjects as naval tradition, history..." It also includes a glossary of Navy terms (since new recruits frequently don't know the jargon). For more detail, try the NAVAL TERMS DICTIONARY. I found NAVAL CEREMONIES, CUSTOMS AND TRADITIONS fascinating reading. Among other things, it includes the poem "The Laws of the Navy" (familiar to readers of Darwin's Log #1) and tells the difference between the Navy Hymn and the Marine Hymn. Contact the NAVAL INSTITUTE PRESS at 118 Maryland Avenue in Annapolis MD. (Where else?) Zip 21402-5035. Or call them at 1-800-233-8764. They advertise free catalogs, for those without Web access ... 8-) http://www.usni.org/press/press.html FICTION (for more painless learning) We've all seen/read THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER, haven't we? (No prize for naming the book's original publisher -- yes, it was their FIRST novel. [Talk about starting with a bang.]) James Webb's A SENSE OF HONOR is about Navy guys (including portions set at the Naval Academy at Annapolis) by a (former) Navy guy. Another novel with good Naval Academy/Annapolis bits is Tom Clancy's PATRIOT GAMES. (Both of the above were recommended by a former mid I know.) If you want to do Marine Corps stories, start with that series by W.E.B. Griffin. Some of you may have "heard" Gharlane of Eddore's screed about SQ ripping off the alien storyline from a series of science fiction novels: it was "Starsea Invaders" by G. Harry Stine. The individual volume titles are: FIRST ACTION, SECOND CONTACT and THIRD ENCOUNTER. BIOGRAPHICAL Several Naval officers (and specifically sub personnel) have had their life stories published. I enjoyed: TAKE HER DEEP by I.J. Galantin SUBMARINE COMMANDER by Paul Schratz WAHOO by Richard O'Kane SUBMARINE DIARY by Crowin Mendenhall For the Naval Academy in particular, try Joseph Staffan's HONOR BOUND: A GAY NAVAL MIDSHIPMAN FIGHTS TO SERVE HIS COUNTRY. He goes into great detail about his 4 years as a student at "Canoe U". Another newer source on the Naval Academy is Jeffrey Gantar's A QUESTION OF HONOR: THE CHEATING SCANDAL THAT ROCKED ANNAPOLIS AND A MIDSHIPMAN WHO DECIDED TO TELL THE TRUTH. MARINE (AS IN OCEAN, NOT JARHEAD) About the wildlife, try your local library for ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AQUATIC LIFE from Facts on File. Copyrighted 1985. In choosing specific locations to set stories in (or specific depth or topography), try a good atlas (at your local library). RANDOM HOUSE ATLAS OF THE OCEANS is copyright 1991 RAND MCNALLY ATLAS OF THE OCEANS is copyright 1987 OCEANOGRAPHY ONLINE (assume the "http://" okay?) www.noaa.gov/ -- the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's home page. Good stuff in their links further into the page, such as the next two listings : www.whoi.edu/index.html -- Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Look for various subjects under "K-12 resources" in the OCEANOGRAPHIC EDUCATION section. (And Dr. Ballard's Deep Submergence Laboratory [DSL] is listed under the WHOI Research section.) seawifs.gsfc.nasa.gov/ocean_planet.html -- there is NO www. in that addy, people! Official site for the Smithsonian Institution's Ocean Planet exhibition. www.coral.org/IYOR/ -- International Year of the Reef site with good content as well as more links to other sites. One book recommendation is obvious to first season fans: EXPLORATIONS by Dr. Robert Ballard. [The paperback is out!] A second recommendation is probably also unnecessary: anything by Jacques Cousteau. (Every library I've ever been to has at LEAST one of his books.) I also enjoyed Willard Bascom's THE CREST OF THE WAVE: ADVENTURES IN OCEANOGRAPHY. DOLPHINS ONLINE http://www.bev.net/education/SeaWorld/bottlenose_dolphin/bottlenose_ dolphins.html -- Everything you ever wanted to know about Darwin and his family. (Yes, in the URL the first use is singular and the second is plural. Go figure.) Some of these books are specifically about the bottlenose dolphin, Darwin's own species. (And yes, I *have* read all of them; why do you ask?) Jacques Cousteau's DOLPHINS came out in the mid-70s, but is still good. Paul Thompson & Ben Wilson BOTTLENOSE DOLPHINS (small paperback, basic information) Chris Catton DOLPHINS (large hardcover profusely illustrated) Carol Howard DOLPHIN CHRONICLES (paperback about research with captive dolphins) Horace Dobbs writes mostly about wild dolphins who choose to interact with humans in such books as FOLLOW A WILD DOLPHIN, SAVE THE DOLPHINS, MAGIC OF DOLPHINS (a children's book) Karen Pryor LADS BEFORE THE WIND (adventures setting up and running a marine park; first season fans will find the first photograph in chapter 7 VERY interesting) Karen Pryor and Kenneth Norris DOLPHIN SOCIETIES: DISCOVERIES AND PUZZLES is a collection of formal research papers; more heavy reading. Sam Ridgway THE DOLPHIN DOCTOR (He is one, and this is his story.)