carrie adams here at bookexpo america. university of chicago press, some of their new titles coming out in the fall of 2012. in "heroes for my daughter," author brad meltzer presents a collection of individuals throughout history who he believes his daughter leah can look up to and derive strength from. he profiles figurings from astronaut sally ride to civil rights leader rosa park. he spoke at a books and books bookstore in coral gables, florida. this is about 45 minutes. [applause] >> i am not brad meltzer. [laughter] i am joy, and my brad meltzer is my father. you have probably all read "heroes for my daughter." and now the person who wrote those two awesome books, the

best dad in the world, brad meltzer. [applause] >> kid writes his own material. [laughter] you think i'm joking. so the most important thing's first, and that's simply to say thank you. thank you to mitchell kaplan. i travel 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. and i say to everyone who asks, books and books is the best bookstore in the country, and i don't say it -- it's true. [applause] i don't say it because i know mitchell, i don't want say it because he knows my family, i don't say it because i love him and he's part of our family, it just is true. that's not opinion, it's a fact. anyone who argues with you, they're just wrong. [laughter] and i also want to thank, of course, my family because this becomes a very, as mitch said, a bittersweet moment. this is the first event that my dad's not at, and the last time

we were here was an event my mom wasn't at. lost my grandmother, also, who i'm going to talk about. and, um, this event we had no doubt was dedicated to him. there was no question. he was always the guy who -- the one thing you'll notice now is the signings are much more quiet. actually people are listening. because my dad was always in the back with people and hocking them and trying to sell more books and telling them where to get a good pastrami sandwich. so played a vital role in the book-selling circuit. we miss him, i miss him every day, and in this mays this book, as i was losing them, became a search for new heroes and can made me appreciate more than anything the heroes in my life. and, of course, need to thank the heroes who have been there for me as i was losing parts of my family, the family that does remain. bobby and dale and amy and adam and my nieces and nephews and adam and, g are incredible.

they have saved me in more ways than you know. and, of course, my own family, my jonas, my lila, my theo. there are no books without them. and, of course, my favorite hero i'm going to save for last, but that is my wife corey, and i love you. you're here tonight. [applause] so "heroes for my daughter" was born on the night my daughter was born, six years ago on the night my daughter was born, i said i'm going to write a book that lasts her whole life. i am going to give it to her, and she will, indeed, think i'm the greatest father of all time when she sees the wisdom i have presented for her. it was going to be spectacular. it was the perfect plan. and the truth was, i didn't know anything about being a dad. i just loved my daughter. that's all i knew. and i wrote the day that i came home from the hospital, i wrote down rules for her to live by just as i'd done with my son. i wrote that she should love god, she should be nice to the

kid who needs help in class. i said, i'm going to write a book of rules for her toly by. and i had done something similar with "heroes for my son." and for two years my daughter's been asking one question over and over o, where is my book? tick tock, dad, let's go, come on. and you think i'm joking, but she was worse than my own editor. [laughter] she was literally on this every single day, wanted to know where the book was. and i started with looking at heroes like sally ride. and everyone knows sally ride, the first female american astronaut in space. and the question to me was, why'd they pick sally ride? why does she, out of all the great american women, why does nasa pick her? and some say because she's a genius at physics, and others say it's because she's a great athlete, some say just because she was fearless, and those are all true. but here's what's also true. something had to happen first, and here's what happened. she had to see an ad in her college newspaper and answer it. she had to see an opportunity, and she had to seize it.

that's why they picked sally ride. i said, that's the kind of hero i want for my daughter, someone she can learn that lesson from and see how you get to do what someone's never done before. and that's when "heroes for my daughter" was really born. i want to give my daughter a book of heroes. heros like rosa parks, heroes like christopher reeve, heroes like marie curie. that was the key to me, and that's where the book began. and i thought it was going to be very much like my son's book. i had more men in my son's book and a few women, and in her book i'd have more women and a few men. i treat my kids absolutely equally. that's the kind of dad i am, right? the perfect one. and the truth was i handed the week in and thought they were -- the book in and thought they were exactly the same. the editor said, there's a problem with your book. she says, you use one word over and over again. in every description of every

hero you have, and i said, what's the word? she said, fighter. you use it in over a dozen hero entries. you use the word fighter in the dalai lama's entry. he's a pacifist, you call him a fighter. [laughter] which shows a number of things, number one, my lack of command of the english language. [laughter] but the truth was it shows you two things about me as a dad. one, i'm overprotective of my daughter, i am. in ways i didn't even know about, but of course i am. my daughter used to jump into the pool, and she'd sink to the bottom of the pool, and she would pop up and say, i'm okay. and we would laugh at that. she would jump up and say, i'm okay. and it took me a long time to realize the reason she kept saying i'm okay is because i kept saying, are you okay, right? that's what i kept doing. so i was always overprotective of her, always worried about her as a dad. but i want my daughter to learn how to fight.

i do. i want her to know that if you see something you want, you have to fight for it. and if you see injustice, you have to fight harder than you've ever fought before. i will never apologize for that. i tell her, lila, do not be the princess who is waiting for the prince to come save you. you can save yourself. and this book, if anything, it is an example of that, right? it is an example filled with people that prove that. one of the people, and there are lots of famous people in there, of course, rosa parks, amelia earhart, people that you know, and then there are more modern heroes. randy power, i never told the story, the story that's in this book i don't think anyone knows because it was told to me by jeff zaslow. randy pausch pa famously wrote "the last lecture" and he cowrote it with my dear friend, jeff. and jeff passed away a few months ago, and i hope i can honor him by passing on the story. you wrote "the last lecture"

with randy, can you tell me a story no one's ever heard before? he said, randy pausch on the days before he died, he wasn't on oprah or doing the talk show circuit, he had one rule, he spent it with his family. he was with his young son di lahr, and -- dylan, and his son came to a friend and said is cancer sofl bl? and the friend said, no, there is no cure for it. and be you could tell the son was upset, and he said to dylan, why? dylan said, my dad told me i have it within me to solve problems, but this is why randy pausch is so important. he's so important because i found out that last summer young dylan went to capitol hill to lobby for pancreatic cancer research. so it is fantastic when millions of people hear your message and watch a youtube video, but it is far more vital when one person acts on it, and i love that he is prove of that. there are also heroes and, again, i always say this is a

book not about famous people. it's about what we're all capable of on our very best days. we are all brave, and we are all cowards, and we are all strong and weak, and we all can act beyond ourselves. sometimes we do all those things on the same exact day. so the book is also filled with people you've never heard of. there's a young girl named alex scott who's in the book, and alex scott before she was a year old, she was diagnosed with cancer. it was the only life she knew. chemotherapy and surgery and hospitals. and when she was 4 years old, she said to her parents she wanted to open a lemonade stand in her front yard to not to buy toys, she wanted to give the money to doctors to help other kids with cancer. alex's lemonade stand raises $2,000 within a single day. and then she eventually sets a new goal. suddenly, other lemonade stands start popping up all with alex's name on them. so she says, let's raise a million dollars.

on june 12, 2004, hundreds of lemonade stands open up in every state in the country, ordinary people selling water and sugar and lemons to help kids with cancer. nearly two months later, alex dies. she's 8 years old, while her parents hold her hands. before she dies, she sets a new goal. she says, let's raise $5 million. to this day alex's lemonade stand has raised over $45 million, and 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, and i wanted her in the here. and, to me, i love that fact. to me, that's the most important part of those regular heroes. you know, again, famous people are great, but i tell my son and daughter all the time, you know what it means to be a famous athlete? nothing. it just means you're good at sports. you know what it means to be a bestselling author? nothing. it just means people buy your books.

in this book, yeah, there are famous people, but there are people you've never heard of. i have to single out one, my teacher, my ninth grade english teacher. and i know there are people who i know had sheila spicer. i know they're here. and sheila spicer was the first person who ever told me i could write. and i want to tell you about the first person who ever told you you were good at something. she tried to put me into the honors class, but i had a conflict, so i said -- she said, you're going to sit in this corner for the entire year, ignore everything i do at the blackboard, ignore every homework assignment, what she was really saying was, you're going to thank me later. and that's exactly what i did. twelve years later, a decade later when my first novel was published, i went out, i went to her classroom in junior high school, and i knocked on the

door. she didn't recognize me. last time she saw me, i had a full head of hair. i said, my name is brad meltzer, and i wrote this book, and it's for you. she said, you know, i was going to retire this year. i said, why? because, she said, i didn't think i was having an impact. are you kidding? you have 30 students, we have one teacher. she had no idea of her impact on my life. and here's the best part, and this part isn't in the book. last summer ms. spicer retired. and as a surprise, i wanted to surprise her to thank her for changing my life, i went to her retirement party to surprise her. i was a surprise in back, and it's a scary moment. when you go back be, now, think for a moment. when you go back to something that was great when you were younger, you're risking the entire memory, right? you're ready to risk the foundations of that entire memory. when you go to a restaurant and you go back and you like, this restaurant sucks, right? [laughter] this is a really terrible place.

it's just a memory that was good, so you risk it all. and i was terrified to go back. what if i go there and she's not as inspirational as i remember? then the whole memory's gone, washed out. and i go back to her retirement party, and there i am. and, you know, it's like the teachers' lounge. like the teachers with the long cigarettes, and they're tired, it's a friday, they want to go home. they're there to pay their tribute to the teachers who are retiring, they give ms. spicer this beautiful nice thank you gift, and all she has to do is go up there and say thank you very much, i hate half of you, but i love the other half of you, and that's all she has to do and say thank you and retire quietly. and my teacher, ms. spicer, goes up in front of this jaded group of teachers from my junior high school and says, you know, all you who complain that it's harder now, that the kids are different, that it's so much harder to get through to them, you're all getting lazy and old. do not give up on these kids. don't give up on any of them. and she gives the rousing speech

like it's the, you know, like it's patton, and we're going to storm the beaches, right? i'm ready. i'm signing up to be a teacher. [laughter] screw this writing thing, i'm ready right now, i'm going to teach next year. it was so amazing. and it showed me why this woman is my hero, right? that's the great moment. and, you know, to those people who you think when you think to yourself, who's the person who gave me my first shot, right? that person gave you your first job, told you you were good at something for the first time, that person was a giant in your life. but here's the news: you are now that person. you all have that power to go out and do that for someone else. you have the power to go out there and say i like what you did here to someone at work. good job. you do a really great job at this. that changes their lives in ways you will never know. and if you don't use that power, time fades, so, please, go use that power. if i can you one thing, think of that one person, the person who gave you your first job. do me one favor, go and thank

them. go on facebook, find them on facebook, whatever you can do. find them and thank them. you will not be, you will never believe how much you'll mean to them. that is an amazing power we all have today. you don't have to raise $45 million in lemonade sales to change the world. all you've got to do is be kind to one person. that's the answer. that's how you get to be the hero. beyond that, a couple other stories that i do want to tell because i felt like in miami i wanted to tell personal stories and tell you why these stories in here are personal. the other heroes you'll see in this book are the heroes of united flight 93. i lived in washington when 9/11 happened, and i will say i actually don't like when i see 9/11 being used to celebrate these things because it feels like a manipulation to me. when i came to it i was, like, who do we thank, who do we make the heroes when i was putting it together? is i can make it the people who were the firefighters. i have a firefighter who i keep on my desk every day because a

woman right after it happened gave me a picture of my brother and said, never forget him. so i keep my picture on his desk, i thought he'd be the perfect person. and then i think of people like tom heiden berger, michelle was a dear friend of ours who died, and i thought maybe we should celebrate tom who had to go on with his life and actually move forward, the people that had to move forward after it happened. but i couldn't escape united flight 93 for one simple reason. i owe them personally. i was living in washington, d.c. on 9/11, and my wife on that morning, you know, right now if you look at the fourth flight, no one will say, the government won't say where it actually was going, whether it was going to hit the white house or the capitol. but if you look where they actually put the plaque to honor those heroes, the plaque is in the capitol. to me, that means one thing: it was going to the capitol. that's where that plane was going. and on the morning of 9/11, my wife was driving to work at her job in the united states capitol. she was nine months pregnant

with our first child. and i'm not saying that the plane was going to come down o and land on my wife's car, but i will promise you one thing, if it hit there, i have a feeling that my life could have easily been profoundly different today. i owe those men and women personally forever. and so you better believe they're in this book. they are heroes to me. and i owe them for that. a couple more heroes. last two. um, and they are both personal. this book came out, and when they told me they announced the day of the publication i was thrilled, because it was actually my grandmother's birthday, and she's one of the last heroes in her. dorothy rubin the is in the book because she raised me, she helped raise me which i love her for. but what she's in this book for is my grandmother, when she lost her husband, my family said, oh, she'll never go on, she loved him so much. she went on for over 20 years. and then she went blind, and they said, she'll never go on, she's blind now. and she went on. and then she went deaf, and they

said, she'll never go on. i used to go on sundays with my kids to visit her, and i'd scream how you doing? and she would say, oh, i'm fine, darling, i can't complain. and i was like, are you kidding? you're a jewish grandmother, all you're supposed to do is complain. that's what we do, we're the best at that. we're better than anyone, right? [laughter] that's what our major is in college, complaining. we're the greatest at it. but she never dud. and you people would look at her and say she had nothing. she's blind, she's deaf, and she's a widow, but to her she had everything because she had our family. when we would show up, she would say i have everything, tear right here. -- they're right here. think of the things in our lives we moan and complain about, and my grandmother always put it in perspective for me. that, to me, was her best legacy. i will tell you that the best hero for you in this book is on the last page. because the last pages are blank. and they say your hero's photo here, and your hero's story

here. and i promise you, you take a picture of your mother or your grandmother or a military member of your family, you put their picture in this book, and on mother's day or any other day, you write one sentence of what they've done for you whether it's a teacher, coworker or anyone, and that will be the most important hero in "heroes for my daughter," and that's the way it should be. that should be the best page. for me, though, is one of my heroes, and i actually have a special guest to introduce that hero to you. now, i want to be very clear here. when you go to dan brown's book signing, he doesn't bring leonardo da vinci with him, right? he doesn't do that. [laughter] but when you come to the book signing for "heroes for my daughter," i've brought my daughter with me. so i want to introduce you to my daughter, lila meltzer. here she comes. [applause] you ready?

want to hold it? >> corey meltzer, mother. she's the most important hero in here, my mom. when she was in fourth grade, the category five hurricane hit the dominican republic, she was only 9 years old, but corey heard the people were suffering. she was -- some people wrote checks, others made personal donations. my mother's solution, she started a club to collect canned goods. soon they were running a schoolwide food drive. even in fourth grade she was smart. the more people she involved, the more hurricane victims she could help. [applause] >> i'm going to add, it says i

love that story. and i love it because all these years later one of your mother's favorite expressions is this: people don't change. she's actually wrong. your mother changed me. but when it comes to herself, here's what's never changed. from high school to harvard to being a lawyer for the house judiciary committee to her work for inner city schools, your mother has always loved to pick a good fight, and it's always, always the same fight. a fight for someone else. best of all, there's no one, not on this entire planet, who every single day fights the way she fights for you. she always will. you have a strong mother, lila, let it make you a strong woman. [applause] again, dan brown does not bring da vinci. i have one other guest coming up. [laughter] let me also tell you something, that joke doesn't work in virginia, right?

[laughter] in virginia they're like -- [inaudible] here we've got the jews, right? it's miami, we're ready. if i said helen keller, it would have been okay. so with that said, what i'd love to do is open it to questions. i appreciate you guys coming here, and can i'm going to close after, but what i promised we'd do is a couple questions. you can ask about heroes for my son or daughter. you can ask about heart surgery. i write fiction, i'll make up an answer. [laughter] yes, ma'am. >> why don't you tell them what happened in washington -- >> why don't i tell them -- and what am i telling them? >> the story you -- >> oh, what happened in washington. i don't even know my own stories. thank you for that. that was awesome. so here is what happened. the last book signing two nights ago one of my heroes in the book is christopher reeve. and christopher reeve is one of my heroes because, not because

he played superman, but to me the most important part of the story is not superman. the most important part of the story is clark kent. and you want to know why? because we all know what it's like to be boring and ordinary and wish we could do something beyond ourselves. but the news is we can do something incredibly beyond ourselves, and christopher reeve is proof of that. so to me what he did is a hero. doctors said he'll never move anything and regained sensation over most of his body. the hero who my daughter introduced two nights ago was christopher reeve's daughter. and christopher reeve's daughter came up and read the entry for her father. and what i loved the most beyond seeing, you know, here's one of my heroes in a book called "heroes for my daughter," my daughter introduces his daughter. when we were picking the pictures for the book, we were picking, um, the one for christopher reeve. and i want to show you quickly what christopher reeve's entry was. because we were debating, do we

put him in the superman costume, shall we put him in a wheelchair? what is his lasting legacy, how should we portray him in and the picture we put is this one in a wheelchair. hold this up for a sec. and the picture that we picked for him shows him in this wheelchair, and what alexandra said which i loved, and i really struggled with this, this is how he needs to be remembered. not because he wore his underwear on the outside of his panels, right? which i will do on halloween on occasion. but she said to me this picture is one of the favorites of my father. and the reason is because it was taken at the democratic national convention that year which i had no idea, i just picked it because i loved it. and she said, this was the moment where he realized he needed to make the transition from an actor to an activist, and you can see it happening in this picture. that's the picture you picked. and, of course, i said that every signing we had after that was going to be straight

downhill because we wanted to have her explain that. but i love that my daughter was here, so for me, it was straight uphill. but thank you for reminding me of that. other questions? yes, sir. >> how do you go about choosing your heroes, not the famous ones? >> um, to me what i love is that there are so many heroes. and, you know, people ask me all the time tell me, you know, why this famous person's here or this one -- to me, they're not. the best heroes are the ones you live with. we did a poll, and to me what i hope this book is, if nothing else, is it helps us redefine or i say refocus on what we should be focused on. i think if you look at heroes in the country, they actually tell the history of the united states. if you look back at the great depression, the heroes who are famous were flash gordon, they were tarzan. characters designed to transport us elsewhere. it was the depression, right? people were depressed, that's why it was called the great depression.

and basically, people wanted to be in the 25th century, they wanted to be in the jungle, away from their own lives. that's why those characters took off. and then world war ii comes, and who comes and who's the biggest character? superman. we're a country that's scared and terrified, and here comes superman to come save us. and if you look after 9/11 when everyone said there'll be no humor again, no irony again, we'll never laugh again, you remember the first movie that broke through the public consciousness, it was spider-man. if you look at all the superhero movies, they're making over $100 million a pop. why? because we're a country starving for heroes. we're starving for them. and if you look at the last presidential election, look at obama v. mccain. that alone, right in one of the guys is the great hope to half of america, the other fought the bad guys with his bare hands. we weren't looking for politicians in that election, we were looking for saviors, someone to come save us. we are still. look at the country now, we are still starving for heroes, we still haven't found him. so, to me, when that happens,

you see these things continue. that is just the scythe dais and how it operates. we always say people focus on reality stars, how do we refocus on our heroes? to me, all you've got to do is look at your own family. look at the people who did things for you. on our web site people come and submit their hero stories. you know who my favorite heroes are to directly answer your question? people say my mom, my dad, my grandmother or grandfather worked two, three jobs so i could go to college. i would have never went if it wasn't for what my parents sacrificed for me. i love that story. because, you know what? i'm the first in my immediate family to go to college, and i know my dad killed himself, and my mom killed herself to go and make sure that i could attend. so those, to me, are the best heroes, that's how i pick them. it's the supreme court definition of pornography, you know it when you see it, right? [laughter] and that's the rule. you know it when you see it.

yes. >> um, we are actually representatives of fellow chargers -- >> i love the chargers. yes. >> really nice to see you. hometown boy done good. our daughter's actually getting ready to graduate high school. your book is actually going to be our gift to her. we bought the computer and all the other things something we wanted that has meaning x the timing is just perfect. it literally says all of the things we want to say to her. my question to you is what advice or what statements would you make to your own daughter at that point where she's really getting ready to start her own life based on everything that you've come across and found in finding these people to, um, give to her -- [inaudible] >> sure. yeah, no, no pressure. i'm just going to raise your daughter now. [laughter] so here's the question, the question is, as a present for someone who's graduating and wants to know what advise i would give her because it says so many wonderful things. so really what's the best life

advice. what advice would i give my daughter. and i gave my daughter this advice. the very first copy, lila knows this, i gave it to her. and i wrote a special note in it for her. and one of the things i wrote to her is i said, lila, this book is going to change over time. it will change always. but most books, every book, in fact, does the same thing. they change over time. and, but this book especially because wherever you are in your life, there are answers in this book. there are answers not from me, but from these heroes. and i love that there are people who buy this for their young daughters and people who buy it for people graduating college, and there's a pastor who said to me even if you don't write kids, you should buy this book and be inspired. it's not because of me, it's because of these heroes. amelia earhart is not in this book not because she disappeared. why do we all know her? because she disappeared, and the mystery is so awesome. and we love that she was the

first to break these records. but you know what i love more than any of that nonsense? amelia earhart wasn't a natural pilot. she had to work at it harder than anyone. she worked as a stenographer, as a photographer, anything to save money for flying lessons and to buy that plane. when she bought it, it was a bright yellow plane she called canary, but she wasn't good at it. she had to work harder than anyone. i love that. as for what i'd say to my daughter, it's what i say every single night when i tuck her in to bed. i say to her dream -- you want to say it? you want to say it? >> me? [laughter] >> everyone's a volunteer here. okay, ready? dream big, work hard -- >> stay humble. >> stay humble. that's it. [laughter] dream big, work hard, stay humble. that's it. you can get all the words you want, but i think those three say it for me, and i stole the idea from a friend of mine whose dad used to say it to him, and i

love it to this day. other questions? yes. >> not to, like, go too far off the track here, but are you planning to go back to -- [inaudible] anytime soon? is. >> yeah, i love that. the question is, are you going to write more comic books? actually, i'm 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 right in front. if i write superman and batman and have written wonder woman, and that's why i say sometimes i will wear my underwear on the outside of my pants, and i love these superheroes. i write thrillers, also, but i love these heroes. and i just did buffy the vampire slayer, but right now there are no plans to write anything new simply because of working on the next novel. decoded, we are waiting to hear if it comes back for seen three, we are hoping for it, and then the next novel will be coming out in january, it is called "the fifth assassin." i am almost three-quarters

through working on it now. as long as i finish on time -- don't tell my publisher i'm here talking, but it will be out very soon. so those are the plans for the future in different genres. couple more questions, and then we can sign. yes. >> i told you before, i was a big fan of decoded. if the season does get picked up, could you let us know what you're working on? the thing i love about the show is you're able to show a lot of things, just the whole background of things that i found out. for example, mount rush more, i had no clue about the back story of it. can you tell us what you're working on? >> the question is, on decoded, what are the new topics we're planning to see, things like mount rushmore, and, listen, we showed people the secret hidden room that is hidden behind abraham lincoln's head. that is an awesome hour of television to me, right? first of all, for two reasons, one, the show is called brad meltzer's decoded. that's the greatest title of all time, right? [laughter] i say to my wife, you know, what

do we have for brad meltzer's dinner tonight? yesterday we had brad peltser's chicken, and tonight i'd like to have brad meltzer's pasta, and she's like you can go sleep on borat meltzer's couch. i love that we get to go to mount rushmore and find the hidden room behind abraham lincoln's head. no one is ever going to look at mount rushmore the same way again. and i will tell you it's amazes how the novels and the show and the heroes' books, you know, harry houdini is one of the heroes in the "heroes for my son." and he's one of the heroes because when he was younger they said, you know, he lost his dad can, they said you have to take care of the family, eric weiss -- his real name -- and he should have worked in a factory. that was the safe job. but he did the most daring thing of all, he did what he loved. that's the lesson, right? do what you love. take that chance. find what you love and do it. that's why he succeeded.

that was the great escape. because escaping's simple. when we did the episode of houdini on decoded, we had the ending, and we were writing the ending and what happened, whether he was killed, but we couldn't sum him up. and i actually went and grabbed my copy of "heroes for my son" and read that. we have other topics. the other topics i want to look at, there are actually a bunch. i never talk about them because last time i did, history channel won't let us do them, and then i do go, oh, my gosh, i ruined it. of course i'd always love to do jfk, i just think that's a perfect episode. and to me, you know, to do jfk is a layup, but why do that? it's been done 50 million times before. like you said, doing mount rushmore, showing people something they don't know about it. here's the great story i heard about jfk, and i have to look into it, but this is the one i want to start with. when you look at the book

depository, it was owned by this great big texas millionaire, and before he sold the building, he said pull out the window to this fix-it guy. i want the window that oswald was shooting out of. go get the window on the right. so this fix-it guy goes and takes the windows out, and he sells the building to another texas millionaire who comes in and realizes that he spent the window on the right, he took the right window. so the second texas millionaire said to his fix-it guy, go get the window. so there are two texas millionaires who insist they have the window. only in texas can something that insane happen. but i do want to know who has the right window. which is the window, and we know which the window is, but who has it? to me, that alone is worth it. there are, obviously, other great stories that people have sent me. so those are the things i'd love to tackle, but we'll see if we get the shot. it's certainly been an amazing ride. yes, sir.

>> [inaudible] i love all the books, but my favorite thing that you've ever written is "identity crisis." for dc comics. it struck me -- [inaudible] it still has an emotional impact. the page that always hits me the hardest is when you see tim drake and that shot of his eye, cradling him in his arms, the most depressing thing i've seen in my life. is there anything that you -- [inaudible] wow, he knocked that out of the park, and that sums up the entire book, and ha sums up what i was going for? >> he was asking me about identity crisis, it's a murder mystery starring superman, batman and wonderwoman. and he's asking me what is the page that when you saw the art, it just blew you away. you can do whatever you want, and the editor keeps you from driving it off the cliff, but, you know, pretty much it's your

pallet, you get to paint. when you do a comic book, you actually get to write how the comic book should be drawn. tell the artist. and you have to shut up because you have another guy there who's helping you or some woman who's drawing just the hell out of it. and you can say panel one i want a close-up on superman. panel two pull up a little closer. panel three, you see a bead of sweat coming down. panel four, i want to see the reflection of who superman's talking to. i haven't said a single word, but you now know that superman is nervous. superman doesn't sweat, right? come on. soupman can't sweat. but i love that you get to do that. and so now you have -- that was just a test of who the nerds were in the audience. the guy in the back is going, i know, superman does not threat. [laughter] in issue 152 he does, but it's the red kryptonite reason. red kryptonite does exist, by the way, and for those -- yes, you, i know, you're a nerd, too,

like me, i know. [laughter] so, but the answer is, um, what happens though as you write something and it's so far better than you thought when you get the art. he asked the question of the pages that lieu me away, and i'll tell you, the one you mentioned with tim drake, after he loses his father in "batman," it's basically batman loses his parents. you know why i love "batman," right? i lost both my parents. i loved batmanlong before i lost them, but the scene that i wrote is when the character robin losing his father. and for that first moment you realize in that moment that batman and robin are not just superhumans and wear costumes that they have in common. but in this moment when batman sees robin lose their father, they are both orphans, and can you see batman hug robin and tear up and cry. and that page was the page that blew me away. i actually own that page of art,

i bought it from the artist because it blew me away. the other thing i should tell you because i just love the story is my favorite page of art, one of my favorite pages of art is a team shot of the justice league of america. and it was a team shop. and i told the artist when you sell that page -- he said, i'll never sell that page. i said when you sell this one page of this one shot, i want to buy it. and he said, absolutely. so he calls me up one day, my cell phone ring, i actually didn't know, and i call him back an hour or two later and say, hey, rags, it's me. i sold a page of art, i couldn't reach you. what page did you sell? i couldn't reach you for an hour, you sold the shot? yeah, i sold it, i couldn't reach you, so i sold it. rags, that was my favorite page, he's the nicest guy in the world, he feels terrible, and i'm at comicon in sand yea go, and this guy comes up to me and says i have a page of art, and he puts down my favorite page of all time.

[laughter] and i'm like -- [laughter] i really just want to be like -- but i say to him, i look at him, and instead in that moment i look at him and i say here's my phone number, here's my e-mail, i want to buy it from you. and i came on so strong, coming on to the girl in the bar, he actually runs away. he takes the art, and he literally runs away and never calls me, okay? never calls me again. but here's how life works. so now i'm at a bookstore in philadelphia in pennsylvania, and the bookstore manager says, you know, brad, i hope you don't mind, but because you were here, there's a comic bookstore just a block away, and i told them you're such a nice guy that you'll come. and i go, of course i'm going to go. i walk a block, and i meet the manager, and he says, can you sign this copy of your book? he says, you know, we have a customer who told me this story about you two years ago. he was at comicon, and he says he has a piece of art of yours -- i'm like, that guy goes

to this comic store? all of the comic stores in all of america? be my fellow nerd is here? and i say to him, here's my phone number, here's my e-mail address. i say, give it to him. and a week later i get a phone call, and he says, brad, he says, i've had this for two years now, and i don't know why, but i feel like it's supposed to be yours, and he sold it back to me. and it all came right around. so my favorite page came back to me. i owe him forever for that, and the other one i will answer is the shot of -- [inaudible] when sue dibny dies, it's her death scene. and you write a death scene in your head, and you always want it to be very emotional, but rags drew the heck o out of it. i remember seeing it for the first time, it was a husband holding his dead wife. and he drew it like it was his dead wife. and i looked at that page, and i said, oh, my gosh, we have a problem here because this is going to really freak people out, it's going to move people in a way that i hope they understand that what we're trying to do here. and i love that page.

so i'll kill rags if he sold it. actually, he did sell it. he sold it to me. [laughter] it's true. okay, last question, then we'll sign some books. anyone got a question? in the back, oh, i'm sorry, i couldn't see you. >> with i was waiting because i wanted you to answer. my husband's in the bathroom. >> i love this. we can all say, how was the bathroom together. yes, embarrass him on national television. it's perfect. >> perfect. um, six years ago -- [inaudible] as long as i've known him he's been talking about how he wants to write a book, and he's a fellow attorney -- [inaudible] >> be oh, yeah? >> [inaudible] i wanted to know -- [inaudible] how do you get from it in your head as something you want to do -- [inaudible] >> yeah. so the question is, her husband

for six years now has been working on and wanting to be a writer and wants to write this book and what advice would i give him, and also how do can you start a book, how do you get to the end of it. to me, writing a book is like building a sand castle one grain of sand at a time. chapter one, and then you come in and add three more pages, and it's nothing. it's just two grains of sand next to each other. then you come back on wednesday, and again you've got another grain. and the thing is, is if you write a page a day, every day you'll have a book. after a year, you will have a book. it may not be a good book, but you're going to have a book. what most people do is they say, oh, it's monday, i'll write two pages on tuesday. i think if i gave you advice for how to finish it, you have to put the grain down every day. when i wrote my first book, i was working full time, i had no money, i was paying off school loans, and i would write from 8

to 11 every night. i would take off friday nights, and i would write all day saturday and sunday. and that was all i did. i loved these imaginary people i was talking to. but what i would tell your husband, and this is, to me, to anyone who's writing or doing anything when they chase their dream, i got 24 rejection letters on my first book. it still sits on my shelves published by kinkos. there were only 20 publishers at the time, i got 24 rejection letters, right? that means some people were writing me twice to make sure i got the point. but i said, i love this. if the they don't like this book, i'm going to write another. and what i would tell your husband and any writer out there listening to this is, you know, i don't look back on the experience and say i was right and they were wrong. what i look back on is life is subjective, right? that's it. it just takes one person to say yes. that's the only difference. and it doesn't mean, again, that i was right and they were wrong, it just means i didn't find that

person on that first book. so what i would tell him is whatever your dream is in your life, the only way you find it is to chase it. that's it. so whatever it is you do with your life whether you run a restaurant or you're a teacher or you stay at home, whatever it is you do, don't let anyone tell you no ever. ever. that, to me, is a lesson for writing or anything else. i think that's it always. with that said, i do want to also thank -- this is national library week, the end of national library week, and i want to thank every librarian and every teacher. we always get them at every book signing. i know one librarian and one teacher are here for sure. but thank you for what you do, thank you for giving books to all of us. [applause] my 10-year-old gave me the thumbs up, my 4-year-old is still qiept. i'm going to take it as a sign from god. i want to thank you all for coming here tonight, i greatly appreciate it. [applause]

>> one more big round of applause for peltser. [applause] brad meltzer. [applause] now you can help us all. you buy one of brad's books, you can help fix our awnings. at the same time, you can help put all brad's kids through school, and we will all welcome brad as he takes off on his book tour and help propel this onto the bestseller list as well. so, please, welcome all -- i mean, thank you all for coming. thanks c-span and one more -- >> one more thing i just forgot my daughter just said, so this shirt i'm wearing says i am abraham lincoln. and when i was shopping for clothes for my daughter while i was writing this book, and i would see all these things she was wearing, and it was always princesses, and i kept thinking, i have better heroes. and i designed a shirt for her, a little amelia earhart cartoon

character, and on the back i wrote with, i know no bounds. she loved it, my wife loved it, so we brought it to amelia earhart's estate, and they loved it. and then we did one of lucille ball, and they loved it. so we launched a clothing line called ordinary people change the world. and you can, tonight you can see the shirts, you can buy the shirts if you like the shirt, but if you go to ordinary people change the world.com, you'll see my true motto in the life. i don't care where you went to school. i believe in ordinary people and their ability to change this world. and to me, if i can give and let people wear these real heroes, but the best part to me is 10% of the proceeds go to charity, and you pick the charity. we are working with the city of miami who i think is one of the greatest organizations anywhere. and i feel terrible i forgot to mention them. or the make-a-wish foundation. the power is in your hands. you vote on where the proceeds

go, and i appreciate you helping out these organizations. so thank you very much again. [applause] >> visit booktv.org to watch any of the percentages you see here online. type the author or book title in the search bar on the upper left side of the page and click "search." you can also share anything you see on booktv.org easily by clicking "share" on the upper left side of the page and selecting the format. booktv streams live online for 48 hours every weekend with top nonfiction books and authors. booktv.org. >> john kennedy once met with harold mcmillan, the british prime minister, and you read the rep or taj of the day in the newspaper, they discussed arms control, whatever, issues between the two powers, which they sure did. but only long afterwards did they get the notes on -- we get the notes on what they said to each other in this private.

kennedy spent a lot of time complaining about bad press coverage, press was being tough on jackie and other things. and mcmillan said, jack, you know, why do you care? brush it off, it doesn't matter. you have other things to worry about. and kennedy quite heatedly said, well, that's easy for you to say, harold. how would you like it if the press said your wife, lady dorothy, was a drunk, and mcmillan said, i would reply, you should have seen her mother. [laughter] fun things that give you an idea of what these people are like that you just can't learn in real time. >> historians use the advantage of hindsight to understand their subjects through a prism of time. sunday, your questions, calls, e-mails and tweets for presidential historian michael beschloss on the lives of presidents and wars, hot and cold. in depth at noon eastern on c-span2's booktv. >> what are you reading this

summer? booktv wants to know. >> i think there are some wonderful political books and, of course, since this' what i do -- that's what i do, i'm always interested in looking at the history and things that have happened. i think, certainly, robert caro's book, the third in his series about lbj, is worth a read. now, it's a big read, um, but this one documents his years as vice president, when he was running against president kennedy for the nomination, and then president kennedy tapped him for vice president. and we all know that that was a troubled time for both lyndon johnson and president kennedy. they were certainly different in just about every aspect, so, um, it was a time of trial, certainly, in lyndon johnson's

life. and then as he is passing into the presidency this is, i think, one of the more interesting times to see this from the background. i have to say i think robert caro does an incredible job having looked at other books and heard them talk about both this book and the others, he is so nonjudgmental, he tells the good and the bad and lets people decide for themselves what they think is important. and i think he has captured so much and done so much research. he went down and lived around johnson city to kind of see in the early growing-up years what lyndon johnson's life would have been like. and each time he has gone further, he has done just

detailed research, amazing amounts of research. so i think he is an excellent writer, and, um, i was privileged to invite him to speak to a group of republican senators at one point. and he came, and we had a very interesting back and forth because the senators, of course, were interested in the experiences that lyndon johnson had as majority leader and the tactics he used which are very different from any kind of leadership tactics that you would be able to talk about or actually do today. it's a different world. he was a very, very strong leader and also very demanding. so i think that i would certainly recommend robert caro's books, and i know that his research is so good that you would enjoy reading that. um, another book that i have

been beginning to read is a book by douglas brinkley about cronkite. now, there wasn't a more well known and loved person in american news lore than walter cronkite. um, we love him in texas. he went to the university of texas. he grew up in houston. and then he was a foreign correspondent for united press international, got a lot of real reporter experience. he wasn't just a kind of a face guy. but then when cbs evening news became more important when the news programs, all the three major networks had them, watter cronkite started -- walter cronkite started as the anchor, i think, in the '60s and was there for about 20 years into the early '80s. and i just think that his

time -- he said he covered eight presidents -- and his time covering is certainly fascinating, and he was a fascinating person because he was so thoughtful. and i think douglas brinkley is a wonderful historian. he is a history professor at rice university. he's also taught at the naval academy and princeton. so he's a real historian who also does detailed, um, comprehensive research in his writing. so the biography of cronkite that he wrote, i think, will be the definitive biography of walter cronkite. and i think both the fact that doug brinkley wrote it and my high regard for him and the fact that cronkite, of course, is so well hone the and loved -- well hone the and loved in our country that having this kind of a biography is an excellent

thing for us to have for historic documentations in the future. the last book, um, i have a chapter in this book. it's "vital voices." now, "vital voices" is an organization that was formed with then-senator hillary clinton and myself as the honorary co--chairs. and i relate to this and put a chapter in as did now-secretary of state clinton because i have been so impressed by the role that women have taken throughout the world particularly in countries that are in trouble. and the women leaders have emerged to create peace or create honesty and integrity or just to fight for human rights in these countries where it is

so lacking. all of us, i think, were taken with the women, the treatment of women in afghanistan and what they endour -- endured and the treatment they received and how some of them emerged even in the face of, um, torture and death to say we can create a society here and fight for education for girls which the united states has done since we have been in afghanistan trying to help them be free of the taliban and al-qaeda's infiltration. we have insisted that all the aid that america puts forward with for girls and women -- be for girls and women as well as

for boys and men. and vital voices is an organization that came from these experiences and where vital voices honors each year the women who have led in these countries and made a difference. um, and every year that senator, now-secretary of state clinton and i have been the honorary co-chairs, we have come to the award events -- they're held at the kennedy center -- and these women get a validation that helps them pursue what they're doing this their countries. -- in their countries. in some cases it's a woman who is building an economy, giving women micro-- opportunities for microbusinesses and letting them earn for their families. in some cases it's just standing

up. we've had a rape victim in a village in pakistan who, um, who pursued justice and got justice and turned back to create schools for both boys and girls in her village. and she was a woman i'll never forget. she was so magnificent. you know, she was illiterate, but she had a spirit and a wisdom that was so far beyond her experience or her education. it was within her. and it is women like that that are honored by vital voices, and the book that i think is a wonderful book for this summer, it just came out, talks about some of these great stories and what women coming together and honoring these great leaders can

do to begin to bring, um, an economy and an equality and a treatment for the women who are in countries that don't have the luxuries of freedom that we have in america. so those are three books that i would highly recommend to the readers this summer, and they're not, they're not funny books or the light books that many times people read, but they're all very substantive, and i think when you read a book like the biography of walter cronkite or lyndon johnson or the stories of these women who have done so much, um, i think it does enrich every one of us. so i'm kay bailey hitchson, and i hope -- kay bailey hutchison, and i hope you have great summer reading. >> for more information on in the and other summer reading lists, visit booktv.org.