what i'd do if i lost him. he'd probably break me. before i met my life, i would died eventually if anything had happened to my brother before i lost the will to live. that's how close we are. we are the same. you go that deep your daughters? [laughter] you know, we came up with that on our own growing up together. we have friends but they come and go. he's always there for me. we served together. the only thing was we couldn't ride in the same helicopter. sometimes they wanted to separate us. if something happens to him, i want to be there. i don't trust any other medic to touch himmed be me. if something happened to me, my brother wanted to be there. i'm not a fast runner. we bounce stuff off of each other. especially when we got impute and the stuff starts falling.

i can tell him kneeing anything. it was good to have him there. i don't understand the whole philosophy -- i know if both of us the name dies whatever. tell our parents to start over. i don't have to answer for that. i want to be there with him. probably pretty rough way to think about it. but whatever. from the women womb to the tom. >> extract you from the building . >> roger that. yes, sir? >> regarding the operation red wing, what was the seal say -- course of action in the situation [inaudible conversations] >> >> we love the seals. so you men everybody out the busy. i can't answer that. thank you you all.

[applause] book tv has over 150,000 twitter followers. follow book tv on twitter to get publishing news, scheduling updates, author information and talk directly with authors during the live programming. twitter.com/book tv. coming up next author brad meltzer presents a collection and some men throughout history who he believes his daughter can look up to. he profiles a rake of historical figures figures figures figures from astronaut sally ride and aviator amelia earhart. this is about 45 minutes. [applause] >> i am not brad melt diser.

you have probably read here my daughter. i know, you have all read here's for son. now the person who wrote the two awesome books, the best dad in the world. brad melt diser. [applause] the kid write z i had own material. the most important thing first. thank you. i traveled the country to bookstores, that's what i do. that's my job. i talk to imaginary people and i travel the country to bookstores. i say to everyone who asks, books and books is the best bookstore in the country. i don't say it just because i believe it's true. i don't say it because he knows my family, i don't say it because i love him. it's a fact. that's true. it's not a opinion. it's a fact. anyone who argues with me, they

are wrong. and i also want to thank, of course, my family. this becomes a very as mitch say a bittersweet moment. this the first event that my dad is not at. the last time we were here was the event my mom wasn'ted at. we lost my grandma also whom i'm going to talk about. the event we had no doubt was dedicated to him. there's no question. he was the guy who the one thing you'll notice now, the signings are more quiet. people listening. my cad was in the back talking to people. trying to sell them more books and tell them a good way to get a sandwich. he played a provide l role if the book selling. i miss him every day. in many ways the book as i was losing him became a search for new heros and appreciate the heros that were already in my high of. of course, need to thank the heros who have been there for me

as i was losing parts parts of family. bobby and dale, and amy, adam, my nieces and nephews and ad dram incredible. they have saved in me in more ways than you know. of course my own family, there are no books without them. and of course, my favorite hero, i'm going save for last. that is my wife kori. you are here and i love you. [applause] here is my daughter was born on the night my daughter -- my daughter was born suggestion years ago i wrote a book that last her whole life. i'm going give to her and think i'm the greatest of father of all time when she sees the wisdom. i had a parade planned for myself. it was spent lar. it was the per foact plan. the truth was, i didn't know

anything about being a dad. i loved my daughter, that's all i knew. i wrote the day i came home from the hospital. i wrote down rules for her to live by. just as i did with mid son. you should love god and be nice to the kid in class. i'm going to write a book of rules. i did something similar with my son. for two years now my daughter has been asking one question over and over. where is my book. tick to be, come on. you think i'm joking he was worst than my editor. i started with looking at heres are like sally ride. and everyone knows sally ride the first female american astronaut in space. the question to me why sally ride? why she out of all american women why did nasa pick her. some say she's a again yous at physics. she was a great athlete a great

tennis player. some say it was because she was fareless. something had to happen first. she had to happened to see an ad in the college newspaper and answer it. she had to see an opportunity and seize it. that's why they picked her. that's the kind of hero i want for my daughter. i want someone she can learn the lesson from and see how you can do before no one does before. i said i don't want to give her a book of rules. i want to give my daughter a book of heros. i want to give her heros like rosa parks and christopher rev like mary curry. self-reline. ing heros. i thought it was going to be very much like myson's book. i more men and few women. i'd have more women and few men. i thought to myself it's going to be the same. i treat my kids absolutely equally. that's the kind of dad i am. the perfect one. and the truth was, i handed book

in and thought they were the same. my aide or it says we have problem. there's a problem with the book. i said what? you use one word over and over and over again. and every description every hero you have. what's the word? fighter. you use the fighter in over dozen hero entries. you use the word hero in the dally llama. which shows a couple of thins. my lack of the command of the english language. i was like i change it. here i said she fights. that's different. but the truth was, it shows you two things about me as a dad. i'm overprotective of my daughter i am. in ways i didn't know about. i daughter used to jump into the pool she would sip and pop up and say i'm okay. we would laugh. and it took me a long to

realize, she kept saying is are you okay? -- i was always being overpresentive of her always worried. here's what i don't apologize for for i want my daughter to learn how to fight. i want her to know if you see injustice you have to fight harder than you ever have before. i will never apologize for that. do not be the princess waiting for the prince to save you. you can save yourself. the book is anything is an camp of that. it is an example filled with people that prove that. one of the people in there, there are lots of famous people in there, rosa parks, amelia earhart, people you know. i think there are people like modern heros. there are people like randy poush. the story in the book, it was told to me he famously wrote the last lecture. when he wrote the book, he

cowrote it with my dear friend. jeff passed away a few months ago. i hope i can honor him tonight in my hometown. i said you work so close with him. can you tell me a story no one knows. he told me this story. he said randy on the days before he died. he wasn't on opera doing the talk show. he had one rule, he spent it it with his family. he was with his young son, the son came to the father's friend and is cancer solveable. pch the friend said no. there is no cure from it. he can tell the son was upset. dylan said i have it within me to solve problems. but this is why randy is so important. he's so important bus on i found out that last summer, young dylan went do capitol hill to lobby for pancreatic cancer

research. it is for a more vital what one person acts on that. i love that he's proof of that. that's what randy is proof of to me. there are heros, again i, athis is a book not about famous people. it's about what we are all capable of on the best days. we are brave, cowards, all strong, weak, and can ability beyond others. we can do the same things in a day. that's what makes us what we are. it is filled of people with have never heard alexander scott. before she was a year 09, she was diagnosed with cancer. with only life she knew. chemotherapy and surgery and hospitals. when she was four years old, she said to her parents she wanted to open a lemonade stand. she wanted to give the money to doctors to help other kids with cancer. within a single day, the lemonade stand raises $2,000.

and then she sets a new goal and i love that. suddenly, other lemonade stands start popping up with her name on them. she set a new goal. let's raise $1 million. on june 4, hundreds of lemonade stands open up in every state in the country. they are selling lemonade to to try to cure cancer. she dies, before she does she said let's raise $5 million. it has raised over $45 million. it's still going strong. right. i love that one girl, one idea, one big dream. that is a hero for my daughter. you better believe she's in this book. i wanted her in here. and to me, i love that fact. to me, that's the most important part of the regular heros that we don't -- famous people great.

i tell my son and torr all the time. you know what it means to be a famous at street nothing. it means you are good at sports. you know what it means to be a best selling author? nothing. it means people buy your book. they are famous people, they are people we've never heard of. it is my teacher, you'll see here in there. sheila spicer. my ninth grade english teacher. i can see see in the people in the room who had her. she was the first person who told me i can write. i want do you think for a moment the first person that told you you were good at something. the person changes your life. sheol will spicer changed mine. she said you can write. you know what you're doing. she tried to put in the honors class and change me. out of conflict she couldn't switch. she said you're going to be sit in the corner the entire year. ignore everything i give. you're going to do the honors

work. what she was really saying is you're going to thank me later. a decade later when the first novel was published. i went to her classroom in junior high school. knocked on the door, and i said to her, she said can i help you. she didn't recognize me, last time i had a full head of hair. i said i wrote this book, it's for you. she's crying. and i said why are you crying? i was going to retire this year. >> i said why? >> i didn't think i was having an impact anywhere. are you getting? you have thirty students. we have one teacher. one teacher. she no idea of her impact on the my life here's the best part. it's not in the book. last summer she retired. and as a surprise, i wanted to surprise her to thank the woman who changed my life. i went to retirement party. it's a scary moment, when you go back, think for a moment. when you go back to something that is great.

you are risk thing the entire memory. you are ready to risk the entire memory. you love when you go to the restaurant when you are a kid and you go back and think it sucks. it's terrible. it was a memory that is good. you riive it all. i was terrified to go back. i said what if i go there and she's not as great as i remember. the whole memory is gone. washed out. and i go back to the retirement party and there i am, and, you know, it's like the teacher's lounge with the cigarettes they're tired. it's friday. they want to go home. they want to pay the tribute to the teacher retire. they give her a thank you gift. she has to go up and say thank you. i love half and hate half. is say thank you and retire. my teacher goes up in front of the jaded group of teach freers the junior high school and says, you know, all of you who

complain that it's harder now that the kids are different. it's so much harder to get through to them. you're getting lazy and old. do not give up on the kids don't give up on them. she gives the ruing speech like we're going storm the beaches. i'm ready. i'm signing up to be a teacher. i'm ready now. i'm going teach next year. it was so amazing. she showed me why she's my hero. that's the great moment. to the people when you think to yourself who's the person who gave me first job told you were good at something for the first time. it was a giant in your life. here's the news. you are the person. you have all that power to go out and do that for something else you have the power to say i like what you did. good job. you do a great job at this. this changes their lives in ways you never know. if you don't use the power, time

fades and power fades with it. use that power. if i can ask you one thing, think of that person, think of your mrs. spicer the person who gave you your first job. thank you. go on facebook, find them, whatever you can do. find them and thank them. you will never believe how much it'll mean to them. that is an amazing power. you don't have to raise $45 million in lemonade sales to change the world. awe you have to do is help one person. help one person. that's one way to get to be the hero. beyond that, a couple of other stories i want to tell, because i feel like miami i wanted to tell personal stories and tell them why they are personal. the other hers hero the united flight 93. i lived in washington when 9/11 happened. ly say i usually don't like when i see 9/11 being used to celebrate the thing. it feels like that a

manipulation to me. who do we nang? who do we make the heros in "heros for my daughter"? i can make it it people for the firefighter. i keen on my desk every day because a woman gave me a picture of her brother and said, never forget him. he died. never forget him. i said he'd be the perfect person. then i think of tom and michelle who was a flight attendant who died in the pentagon flight. we should celebrate tom, who have to move forward after it happened. i wouldn't escape it for one simple reason. i owe them personally. i was living in 9/11 in washington, d.c., on 9/11. my wife on that morning, you know, right now, if you look at the fourth flight, no one u will say the government won't say where it was going whether it was going to hit the white house or to hit the cop capitol. if you look where nay put the

making it was in the capitol. it was going to the capitol. that's when was going. on the morning of 9/11. my wife was driving to work ant at her job in the united states capitol. she was nine pregnants with the first child. i'm not saying the plane was going to come down and land on her car,ly promise you one thing, if it hit there, i have femaling my life would have easily and profoundly different today. i owe them personally forever. you better believe they are in the book. they are a heros to me. a couple more heros. last two. and they are both personal. this book came out and when they told me announced the day of the publication. i was thrilled it was my grandma's birthday. she is one of the last here rows in here. dorothy ruben is in the book she helped raise me. i love her for it. what she's in the book for, when

my grandma lost her husband, my family said she'll never go on. she loves him so much. he went on for over twenty years. she went blind and she went on. then she wercht went deaf and she went on. i would ask how she was doing. and said how are you doing? she said i'm fine. i can't complain. i said you're jewish. that's what you're supposed to do is comain. that's what our major is in college, complaining. we're great at it. she never did. you people look at her and say she has nothing. she's blind and deaf and widow. but to her, she had everything. because she had her family. when he would show up, i have everything, they are right here. i think of the things in our lives we complain about mown about. i love that my grandma put it

into perspective for me. that was the best legacy for me. let me tell you that the best hero for you in the book is on the last page. because the last page are blain they say your hero's photograph and story here. i promise you, take picture of your mother or grandma or military member of your family. you put the picture in the book, on mother's day or any other day. you write one sentence what they've done for you whether it's a teacher or coworker or whatever. it's the most important hero in the "heros for my daughter." that's the way it should be. that should be the best page. the last page is one of my here rows and i actually have a special guest to introduce that hero to you. now, i want to be clear here. when you go to dan brown's book signing he doesn't bring leonardo dray virchl sei. i brought my daughter with me. i want to introduce you to my daughter lisa meltzer.

here she is. >> are you ready? >> yes. >> hold on. yeah. fighter. mother, she's the most important hero in here. my mom. when she was in fourth grade, the category five hurricane hit the dominica republican. she was 9 years old. cory heard the people were suffering. some wrote checks others made personal donations. she started a club to collect canned goods. soon they were running a school-wide food drive. even in fourth grade, she was smart. the more people she involved,

the more hurricane victims she could help. [applause] >> and here's the end of the story. i love that story. and i love it because all the years later one of your mother's favorite compression is this. people don't change. she's actually wrong. your mother changed me. when it comes to herself, here's what never changed from high school to hard to harvard to being a lawyer for the how judiciary school your mother has loved to pick a good fight. it's always the same fight. fight for someone else. there's no one on the entire planet who every single they fights the way she fights for you. she always will. you have a strong mother, let it make you a strong woman, lie lye -- [applause]

again, dan brown does not bring leonardo. we bring the daughter. i have one other guest. let me tell you something, that joke doesn't work in virginia. right. in virginia, they're like the ear. we have the jews. we scrowled done helen keller or something. with that said, what i love to do is open it to questions. i appreciate you guys coming here. i'm going close out. what i promised that we'd do is do a couple of questions. you can ask about the thrillers, ask about heros for myson or daughter "heros for my daughter." i'll make up an answer yes? >> [inaudible] >> why don't you tell them . >> you said on the radio, the story you told . >> oh what happened. i don't know my own stories. thank you for that.

that was awe many. here's what happened. here's what happened last book signing two nights ago. one of my heros, one of the heros in the book is christopher rev. he is one of my heros not because he played superman. the most important part of the story is not superman. the most important is clark kent. we're all clark kent. we know what it's like to be boring and ordinary. we can do something beyond others. christopher reeves is proof of that. he is a hero after he had his accident and became paralyzed. he regained sensation over most of his body. the hero my daughter introduced was christopher rev's daughter. she came up and read the entry for her father. whey loved the most, beyond seeing, you know, here's one of my hers are in a book called

"heros for my daughter." she introduces his daughter. when we were picking the pictures for the book. we were picking the one for christopher rev. i want to show you what the entry is. we said do we put him in the superman costume or the wheelchair? what is the lasting legacy? the picture you we put is this one in a wheelchair. i'm going hold tup for a second. and the picture that we picked for him shows him in the wheelchair. what al sandra said, which i loved, i struggled with this this is why he's remembered. not because he wore a big costume or the underwear on the outside of his pants. which i will do on halloween on occasion. he said, this one is one of favorites. reason is because it was taken at the democratic national convention one year. i picked it because i loved it. she said, this was the moment

where he realized he needed to make transition to an actor to activist. you can see it happening in the picture. that's the picture you picked. of course, i said, that every signing we after that was going to be straight downhill. i love that my daughter got to read. it was straight uphill. thank you for reminding me of that. other questions? are you guys ready? >> you mention your heros. >> how do you go about choosing your heros and not the famous ones? >> i love there are so many heros. to me, they're not. the best ones are the ones you live we. with did a poll. to me, what i hope the book is if nothing else, it helps refocus on what we should be focused at. if you look at heros in the country. they tell the history of the united states.

if you look at back at great depression. they were characters disiebed to transport us elsewhere. it was depressing. it was the great depression. what they want, people wanted to be in the 25th century. in the jungle. away free the own lives. in world war ii comes and starts encroaching on the shores and who comes? superman? we're a country that is scared and terrify. here is superman to save us. if you look at 9/11 when everybody said there will be no humor or irony or laugh again. you remember the first movie that broke through is spiderman. if you look at the super hero movies thaish making over $100 million a pop we're a country starving for heros. if you look at the last presidential election. that alone. one of the guys is the great ode

to america. the other fought the bad guys with the bad hand. we were looking for saviors. we are still, look at the country now. we're starving for heros. we haven't found him. to me, when it happens you see the things continue. it's how it operates. we did a thing where we say people focus on reality stars for hero and athletes. how do we refocus on our heros. to me all so you to cois look at your own family. look for the people who did their things for you. on our website people submit their heros. the one story i get over and over my mom, dad, grandma, or grandfather. worked two or three jobs to go to college. i'm in the first of my family to go to college. it i would have never went if my parents didn't sack fire for me. that story hits home. i'm the first in my immediate family to go to school. my dad and mom skilled themselves to make sure i could

attend. those are the best heros. that's how i pick them. if you want to know how you pick them. it's the supreme court definition of pornography. it you know it when you see it. that's the resume. you know it when you see it. that's the rule. >> yes? >> ..

>> i gave my daughter this advice. the first copy of the book am i did to her. i wrote a special note in it for her. one of the things i wrote is i said, lia, this book is going to change over time. it will change always. every book, in but, in fact, does the same thing. a change over time. this book, especially. wherever you are in your life. there are answers in this book. there are answers not for me but from these heroes. and i love that there are people who buy this book for their daughters, and the pastor said,

even if you don't have children, you should read it to be inspired. amelia earhart, she was a hero not because she disappeared, but the mystery is so awesome. we love that. we love that she was the first to break these records. i love that, too. more than any of that nonsense, amelia earhart was an naturally great and a pilot, she worked as a stenographer and it cannot photographer. she had worked very hard that's harder than anyone. every night when i taught my daughter into bed, i say to her, that's the one to say it? [laughter] >> everyone is a volunteer here.

>> dream big, work hard, stay humble. that is it. dream big, work hard, and stay humble. >> are there other questions? >> are you planning to write more soon? >> the question has come are you going to write more comic books. usually, i'm actually disappointed. the comic book readers always ask the first question. right? us nerds, we don't want to wait for anything else. we want to be in front. i write superman and batman and i have written wonder woman. that is why i said i was sometimes wear my underwear on the outside of my pants. i loved the heroes and superheroes. i write thrillers, also, undigested buffy the vampire slayer. right now, there are no plans to write anyone knew, simply

because of doing the next novel. decoded is the next novel. we are waiting to see if it comes back for season three. the next novel will be coming out in january that book is called "the fifth assasin." it will be out very soon. "decoded" and "the fifth assasin" are the two books planned for the near future. >> [inaudible question] would you mind sharing what you're working on? there are [inaudible] >> the question is, it is about

the book "decoded." we show people the secret hidden room that is hidden behind ebrahim lincoln's head. i said what are we going to have for dinner tonight? [laughter] [laughter] tonight i would like to have brad meltzer's posta, and she said that you can sleep on brad meltzer's couch. no one who has ever heard those words is going to look at mount rushmore it in the same way again. it is amazing how the novels and the show and heroes, the heroes book and 10 q. and heroes for my son, he is one of the heroes because they are quite, they

said when his father died, you have to take care of the family. he did the most daring thing of all. he did what he loved. that is a lesson. do what you love. take that chance, find what you love and do it. when we did the episode a few dini on "decoded", we were writing the ending and whether he was killed, whether it was a murder or not, then i went and grabbed my copy of "heros for my son" and read it. it is amazing. as we do the research, we have other topics. the other topics i would like to look at, and never talk about them i'm a because when i do, i say oh, my gosh, everyone there, but i would always love to do jfk. i would always love to do so. i think that would be a perfect episode. one of the stories i love, do

something no one has ever heard. doing mount rushmore, showing something they don't know about it. here's a great story i heard about jfk. i have to look into it, but the one i want to start with is when you actually look at the book depository, it was owned by a texas millionaire. before he sold the building, he said pull out the window. i want the window that oswald was shooting out of. go get the window. go get the window on the right. so the guy goes and takes the window out, sells the building to another texas millionaire, and he comes in and means the window on the inside and not the outside, and so the second guy says i want a winner. there are two texas millionaires would insist they have the window. only in texas can something that incident happened. but i want to know who has the right window.

those are the things i would love to tackle. but we will see if we get the shot. it has been an amazing ride. >> [inaudible question] [inaudible question] >> that sums up the entire book and that is what i would like to ask? >> she was asking a question about identity crisis, it is a murder mystery starring superman

and wonder woman. he is asking about the page that i wrote. it is about a palette of words. you can do whatever you want, and the editor keeps you from driving it off the cliff. but it is your paint palette and you get the ink. you actually get to write how the comic book should be drawn. you have to learn to shut up because you have another guy there since helping you. an artist or some woman who is trying. you can say i want a close-up on superman, on panel two, pull him closer. on panel three, going so close that i can see a bead of sweat. you now know that superman is nervous. and you know that superman doesn't sweat. i love that you get to do that.

for kryptonite reasons, he doesn't sweat. [laughter] [laughter] yes, i know that you are a nerd like me. [laughter] [laughter] >> what happens is you write something, and you get the artwork commented so far other than what you thought. yes the question about what pages blew me away. after tim drake loses his father, batman loses his parents, you know that i love that man. i lost both my parents. i loved that man long before i lost them, but that hits home for me. the scene that i wrote is when the new robin loses his father. that moment, you realize, that it's not that batman and robin are just superhuman and wear costumes, but in this moment

when batman sees what robin lose his father, the both of them realized that they share something in lost in the blew me away. the other thing that i should tell you how comic books were, because i just love the story, my favorite page of art, it is a team shot of the justice league of america. it was a team shot commander told the artist, when he saw that page, because i'm never saw that page -- when he saw this one page on this one shop, i want to buy it. he said absolutely. he calls me up one day. my cell phone rings, and actually didn't know. an hour or two later, i say hello, it's me. i sold a page of art. i couldn't reach her. he said oh, that page where they

are in that special shot. i said oh, that's my favorite page. he felt so terrible. he was the nicest guy. i was at comic con in san diego, and the guy says i have a page of art that i would love you to sign for me. he puts down my favorite page of all time. and i was like oh, that's great. i say to him, i look at him and say, here's my phone number and e-mail, and i want to buy it from you. i actually came on so strong, he was terrified. he runs away. he takes the artwork and runs away and never calls me. here's how life works. now, i'm at a bookstore in philadelphia pennsylvania. the bookstore manager says i hope you don't mind, because you were signing some books, but told me such a nice guy that he would go to this bookstore a few blocks down the road.

i said, of course. i walked into the comics world. he said can you sign this copy. he says, you have a customer here at home a story about you two years ago. he was at comic con, and he says he has a piece of art of yours and you loved it so much he wanted to buy it from him. i said, that guy comes here? to this comic store in america? i say to him, or is my phone number, here's my e-mail. i say give it to him. a week later, i get a phone call and he says brad, i have had this for two years now, and i don't know why, but i feel like it's supposed to be yours. he sold it back to me. my favorite page came back to me. i owe him forever for that. the other one i will answer is that shot of the suited me. it is her death scene. you always wanted to be very emotional when you write it in your head. but brad to the heck out of it. i remember seeing it for the

first time. it was the husband holding his dead wife. he drew it like it was his dead wife. i look at that page and said oh, my goodness, we have a problem, because this is going to really freak people out and move people in a way that i hope they understand what we're trying to do here. and i love that page. he sold it to me. that is true. last question, and then we will sign some books. does anyone have a question? >> [inaudible question] >> i love this, because her husband was in the bathroom and then he comes back. >> [inaudible question]