as a writing teacher i have repeated that statement to two generations of students. if they are writers, they will never forget it. it can take a lifetime. thank you so much. [applause] >> you can watch this and other programs online booktv.org. >> now, the monthly in depth program with the best-selling novelists. is the author of over 40 books including absolute power, wish you well, most recently, the following. >> you have been on tour for the last several weeks talking about your 36 adult novels. it features a character called amos sticker. what i see? >> a very large guy going down

the street oblivious to what's going on. if you asked him a question he probably often keep going. he lives in his own world. people take his aloofness for rudeness. a used to be charismatic and then he had a traumatic brain injury. the book has evolved to you read this book and if really like him and reach humanity level. i like complicated guys and he's complicated. >> thank you for being with us for in depth program. we sit with authors for three hours talk about the life and work. david was the spending that time today. we hope you'll be part of the conversation. we'll put phone numbers on the

screen and our facebook and twitter handle so you can join the conversation. we like to hear your questions and why you're intrigued with the book. so what makes amos a good hero? >> guest: i first that will be good to do. so i get this guy who is aloof, he doesn't get along with people, he walks out of the room leave talking to him. but he spoke to me. this is a guy whose mind changed and he had no control of it. had to rebuild his life. when you develop a series you have to have enough material to do more than one book. people can relate to and enjoy. with him he had an enormous

amount of material. the home baxter about his brain injury and his family being murdered. when i first went on book with a different set raising your hand if you think it's great if you have a perfect memory. and then raise your hand if you have something in your life you rather forget. that's his dilemma. for me, every time he can one page of an idea what to. >> host: when you start a look at this series you don't want to the one off anymore, do you have a sense of how many you can plant with him or does it just evolved? >> i'm not good at predicting that. for me i've written a series with two cursors with five.

or more than that. so much gas in the tank to the character have into i want to continue to find out more. if that answer is yes or keep going. if the answers know that i go on for some. >> host: how did you develop amos? was their model of the real world? >> guest: no. it's almost like frankenstein. i knew i wanted a large god. i wanted him to have an intimidating presence even though he's not intimidated. i knew he was going to be a football player. that was the source of the brain injury which is all too prevalent these days. a lot of the players i love growing up watching either passed away in wheelchairs or 60 years old.

so i have this large presence and build them into a detective with a feature not being able to forget anything. then all the other baggage. he doesn't pick up on social cues and it's hard for him to relate to people. as a detective that can be difficult. on one hand you have a superpower but on another entire future relate which is a downside for the struggle lately traumatizes things. makes people understand what makes the sky tick. >> host: the setting is barn veld which is fixable. but it's problems are real. >> it's a roughed up town. much like thousands across this

country and others. western pennsylvania we have coal mining and steel this only exists because john mayer figured out a way to make money. soon i need people to work on it. they came and paid them in hand lives in kids and then everybody went away except those who live there. so i have a lot of challenges in the novel sometimes those challenges take you down a dark path. so there's a lot of secrets under the skin. when he starts poking around bad things happen. >> host: one of this is the opiates. and were all seen the tragedy of the opiates story. what did you want readers to

learn? >> guest: first and foremost that this is a man-made problem. it's not a problem that started with drug dealers on the street. when you have a west virginia town 1300 prescriptions are written for the time you know there's a problem. they may have paid the fifth element of the diagnosis a lot of the opiates word prescribed for back pain and has no effect on back pain. want people to understand it's a man-made problem. now it's transmitting communities. it's called the drug of despair. people have no hope. to take away the fact that the problem is not getting better and it needs to be addressed.

never chasing campaign of just say no is not going to work. you can be addicted to that knowledge are one use, just say no does not work. we have to get the country through. of the trends continue the extra hundred thousand people will overdose on opiates. that's like a small city. >> and then you get into the narcan debate. but think about it? >> guest: a lot of placer given that the first responders and say were gonna give that to everybody. you if you there and doing drugs as well the person you're with overdoses take out the narcan and save his life. people say will that will encourage people to say it will save lives until you can figure out how to save solve the

problem. so narcan needs to be out there. everybody needs to have it. it's a family members and first responders. give it to anybody where there might be an issue. have it in restaurants and bars. people will often overdose in a public place because they know the be resuscitated. some is like having a defibrillator. same thing with narcan. >> to see one of this when you travel? speech absolutely. my family came from a gold mining town very much like this. you have a place where there is once a lot of good coalminer jobs we can make 70 or 80000 without a college education.

when you drive through these places her in the midwest it's unlike the washington, d.c. area. a lot of people don't have a college education. the work is low pay, no benefits, people have few properties, maybe not homes and old cars even if they had a car. for me, not surprise people are turning to opiates to try to break out of it as they don't feel like they have hope. with the richest country on earth. every citizen should have hope that life can get better. >> host: what is the lesson of capitalism then? >> guest: , capitalist and have my own small business. there has to be a balance.

i was thinking about this driving it today. would it be better for one person to make 3 billion a year bunch of other people instead of making 30,000 a year make 60000 here? they could have better insurance than their kids to college, would that make society better for everybody? or the guy having to live on $2 billion less with that hurt him? we've seen this before. the 20th century, this whole thing happened again before we had an income tax. yet very wealthy people, a lot of people had almost nothing. and that was out of whack. then teddy roosevelt came in and

that was the middle class in this country. the union was pretty much dead and all of a sudden if you who are making extraordinary amounts of money the rest of people not so much. i don't think it's sustainable. i also cannot argue to people that there's a bb simmering balancer redistribution. susie say that your socialists. but i know the track ron doesn't seem to be sustainable. and was given people jobs these days. of fulfillment center we visited one of those? what are they like? >> guest: the scale is unbelievable. they are a football field times 12. you've never seen so much cardboard and shelves in your lives. and people literally running all

day. think about the packages you get a house for the fact that the postal service only operates on sunday to deliver amazon. it's piled high with amazon. they have to get to somehow. fulfillment centers is how they do it. if you millions americans buying billions of packages and you places that need to hold that. the speed at which the stuff moves, 400 packages per second out the door and on its way. i was overwhelmed. i've been to a lot of military bases. these places store fat. a crew in the last ten years. some believable to me. >> american my phone numbers and then take telephone calls you

can tweet us the book tv and use the # into. we look forward to that. there's many ways to get involved. in the first book, the memory man, the central plot is round a school shooting. what year did you write that? >> maybe about five years ago. since then we've seen a number of these. what are you thinking about was happening was society wedded to use this is a device and what were you hoping to gain? >> guest: it's this school the daughter would have gone had she

lived. you can write fiction number of different ways. you can go big and shallower you can go small. i wanted my memory man to have this intimate space. so you see him prowling the hall of this high school taking everything in and he's looking into in building this template and on the small stage i could go pretty deep. the senate wanted to do. it was just the school. and then he had to figure out what happened. when i was overseas in england they told me that crime fiction had overtaken in general fiction was the most popular genre in the u.k. people asked me why and i said

well all things being equal if you can't get you one of the world will then in thrillers and crime fiction you have good people and bad people. the good people get the bad people in the end of the truth comes out and you take it at real life and i think that's why people turn to it. >> i read that. but this is most like the agatha christie and sherlock holmes. so you would've thought it was always part of that. >> crime fiction is really big over there. for the first time ever it overtook general literature. >> i want to get into how this started. we have a collar. brian is in sioux city, iowa. welcome to the conversation.

>> good morning. my questions about his memory condition. you said it's about an injury from something in football. can he recall things before the before that or is it triggered by things after the entry. >> is different for different people. with amos it can be before the injury occurred. we all have memories of things that happen to us from day one. but sometimes our memories aren't there with bringing that out. what fascinates me is that in 2018 we know very little about how the brain works. it's almost like this brain injury unlock the brain injuries that were there all along. his bandwidth went from normal to a gazillion.

the information had always been there but he just never access it before. but going forward everything that he sees hugo remember exactly cc it hears it. sometimes people lie to him. but he will remember the lie. he remembers exactly what someone says. so over time he might understand that that might not be true. >> and all of the books that i've read their sizes state and local and federal agency and lots of bureaucracy people need to deal with. where did you develop that worldview of interagency relations? >> guest: from dealing with a lot of agencies.

we are two federal agencies in my office. one was doing something and had not told the other what they were doing. then somebody in the office with binoculars and walkie-talkies looking around. the other agency sent to strike team. full body armor, ak fifteens the guys came in entrance coats like he works for us who we are you have to tell us. it evoked quickly into chaos. but i had worked until a lot of agencies. one thing that slays the cooperation is not always what it should be. there's a lot of people, a lot of paperwork and intrinsic values. such are pedal to.

the crazy way the budget works is that you get more money few have more responsibility. >> and changes that we made after 2001, we would to have agencies with the actual bandwidth that worked with physical communications. what happened? >> the irs would have new computer systems for 40 years. the dod is supposed to do a lot of stuff. but things happen. these are aircraft carriers. if you think you're, those things in three minutes in any direction it's not going to happen. they are bees.

on the same changes in happening but it's long. >> host: martin is in washington, d.c. >> caller: good morning. i've just finished the fallen recently. i went through all the series. my questions, and all of your books but especially deckers, there's some pretty heavy, deep emotional elements and. two plans, or do they come about spontaneously. >> host: was a scene that you remember that struck u.s. emotional. >> caller: the last page will just leave it at that from the latest one. >> guest: that's a great question. for me i have to make the characters feel like their

human. one way can do that is to relate on an emotional level. we all have problems and fall down. this book in particular i wanted to show that even though he had this brain injury seems aloof and not part of the world, he still had heart and soul and could still feel things. i know it you thinking. that was my way to show that this guy may have changed but is still human being and he can still feel and be vulnerable. i don't necessarily plotted all out. i'm so immersed in it, it just feels right when i'm writing it. in college spontaneous but it just came to the surface and i used it when i was supposed to.

so for me i knew i wanted more emotion out of him and his relationship was a critical way to do it. >> host: one relationship is -- who starts out annoying him as a journalist. how does she evolve? >> guest: it's like watson and sherlock holmes. she keeps him somewhat normal and kick some of the but when he goes too far. she is a steady influence but it's frustrating. she's good at her job and wants to be better. she understands his issues and it's important when you have a dual that they have to be complementary. together there better than they would be if they were separate.

i don't think a mistake or could be decker without her. >> host: they work for the fbi and the fbi has been in trouble lately. lotta accusations flying. as someone who's worked with this agency, with severe of the public perceptions. >> everything of doubt with has been apolitical and dedicated to what they do. their jobs are hard and tough. they don't have time for political grandstanding. they're just trying to solve cases and catch people before they do bad things. the bureau doesn't deserve this. i'm not saying that you can't criticize institutions.

you can criticize individual people but to say that the fbi and justice department are tainted and corrupt on broadscale that's not worth it. >> caller: i just started reading the alex decker books. i really like that. i have to tell you, the age of 70 am madly in love with john. i want to know why you don't give him a girlfriend, please. i just love that man. >> host: great, or gonna talk about john fuller later in the program.

>> guest: i will never say never on that. he is a fictional character. he can find love down the road. he'll be back in another book. i do like now and she may be the one to tame him. i'm definitely keeping that in mind. i love him too. he's a great guy. >> host: will there be more amos decker books? >> guest: there will. i must will liberated that i can go further. >> host: step is to anna wisconsin. >> caller: i have been a fan for many years. my husband and i just finished watching the king and maxwell tv series. a little different than the book because i just finished the book which i really enjoyed.

when i walk i do the audiobooks. i'm really glad you do the audiobooks. the amos sticker one, the last smile was fascinating. now going to go back and get the first one so i can read about what happened to him. >> guest: memory man i was going to do a brand-new series and he fit the bill for that. the last smile we see some of the other cast, that was a powerful book for me. is about the death penalty in prison system. it gave amos sticker worthiness. i still get a lot of e-mails

about them. they say when the smell for gonna come back they want him to come back. >> host: with a caller in washington, d.c. >> caller: hello. i'm an old friend, jacqueline. >> guest: how are you? >> caller: i'm good. i'm so proud and elated on what you been doing. have a question that we had regarding the amazon, the headquarters there trying to figure or to put that. and while the major cities are vying for the i wondered if it would be a patriotic service if they were considered just basically providing an industry for the state of west virginia or another state that needs an industry.

>> guest: i would agree with that. the second headquarters for amazon.com will be a huge shot in the arm for any community. the criteria another one a highly educated workforce and other amenities and six of the area that we attract people. west virginia have things like that. i don't know what the exact criteria are. recently they sent out some of the cities in the running alyssa things they didn't like and what they would like them to fix. i'm not sure how you would do that. that's extraordinary when one company has that much power. and they're just clamoring for the jobs. it's extraordinary. >> host: jeff is a part-time washingtonian. have you met him?

>> guest: know. when they started out there were use book business out of the garage in the mid- 1990s. the fact that he is built busybodies scope is quite an achievement. but there is a lot going on. >> is a former colleague it's a good jumping off point for what i want to do which is spending time to tell your story to the audience. . . sensation. >> guest: that's right, with "absolute power" your first successful novel. can you tell our audience how it came about? >> guest: yeah, i know people think, you did like practicing law so you decide to write a book. but i've been writing since i was a kid. i grew up in richmond, virginia. one of his kids are never shut up, and i was always telling tall tales, usually get muscle out of trouble. i was a voracious reader. i would go to the library of the week. with my brother and sister check out more books that was allowed. the library knew i would read them all.

i never let richmond as a kid but i saw the world through books. i was locked in your my mom when i was seven or eight brought me a blank page book instead of some of the stuff you've been writing so it was like and epiphany like when i fall into someone else's imagination and i started writing short stories i was trying to atlantic and story magazine when i was s in high school but i couldn't make a living so i went to law school and wrote the screenplays and have a couple of options that not a lot of success. then i decided to try my hand at longform and my office was near the white house back then in the dc area and we would

occasionally see the presidential motorcade so presidents, mr. sand covered up. and it was pretty intense work but when i would get out of my cubbyhole that night and write until two or three in the morning every day, that was my time as a writer and a lawyer i would spend my years writing

thinking about words and stories so it was about making this transition and i would work on projects at a time so it was an easy transition. so what a great gift you've given to me but quite frankly you are on my last nerve. >> i just saw them at a book signing. >> what was it like when you got the phone call from your agent >> i joined the firm recently

and they had no idea so my agent called and said if i sold the book would you quit writing and i said my dream is to write full-timey. i didn't believe him it was too outrageous something they call came through from the office of time warner books and i didn't have anybody i could tell so i remember after getting the phone call is changed by life talking about insurance regulations like 3030 other lawyers.

that was all i wanted to do it because it was newsworthy by brother, sister, mother and father and we were telling people we have good news to share. they thought we were having another baby or a -- they were blown away. away. i'm the godfathei am the godfats son and he called me later and said what else don't we know about you i usually see you at

the barnes and noble bookstore so it is kind of great to talk to you. in the fall in, you expose me to this whole structure of fulfillment centers and you mentioned you visited one but you bring up the working conditions ofki the people and m just wondering do you see them at least based on what i heard in the book are they becoming thee sweatshops of the 21st century or do they have the potential and are these places that are right for being unionized or as you kind of brought up in the book is to save them for folks when robots

may be taking over a large part of those responsibilities. it's all based on productivity and when you have millions of packages there is no way possible you can compete with the robot that never gets tired or needs a rest room rate so to answer your question i think they should write whether that can happen i don't know. i do think they can and are being exploited in these places because for $12 an hour you shouldn't have to work yourself to death for 12 hours a day but at the same time automation is in the long run cheaper than paying people to these job do ts and when you talk about lifting boxes up, putting label, puttin, sliding them down the thing and putting them on a truck, robots

when they will do all these things that you will have fulfillment centers with just two people in them overseeing things and robots will do all the work. it was noted in a book explaining his robots do all the work and people have the jobs who's going to buy the stuff on the shelves in his answer was i don't think they figured that one out yet. somebody needs to. >> host: if you are a k regular watcher you know we've spent 20 years lookin working at nonfictn authors and their work and we will be celebrating our 20th anniversary in september of this year on this series one sunday each month we've been focusing on fiction writers and the reason is their stories help us understand our society and we will be talking about a lot of issues so if you are new,

welcome and we hope you enjoy theel programming and if you ara regular viewer we hope you will enjoy this dip into fiction. bill is watching in alaska. >> good morning. books on the shelves as you know the history present race authors incomes were based on actual books sold and there would be tn announcements and papers of hot seller is releasing thousand the first day and so on. is that still happening it seems like it's gotten to the point people are not buying books and what is the effect of incomes on authors t. >> three to four years ago they hit their highest, they peaked

saleswise and they were born every other genre or category out of the water. the cover print novel went through the floor nobody was buying mass-market anymore and for me i have six or seven in a row where each sold more than a million each and those are high numbers. three years ago i i i started to plateau and then the sales started to go down again. it may just be this fatigue people have 800 books they haven't read yet so they are not buying as many an price may be n issue there is a fight with some of the online sellers and publishers at the same time printed books i can look at my own statements from m the publisher and hard covers are going up again. downloadable audio has exploded as the fastest growing category of sales in the country and people can also use another

device to download and they can listen to stuff it for a while it had taken over the industry and i think things are getting back more into balance. do royalties anymore so itpu is just the whole pie and e are trying to increase it. for lots out there it was good fofor something couldn't c be published traditionally but it could also end up being a bad thing. >> host: what are your own habits with how you read and take notes and do you travel? >> when i read it's almost book is all the time. my wife to read a lot online. i read online on my phone and

lunch at something short i like to take the dugout and turned the pages myself. wherever my go my laptop goes with me. the first three chapters i wrote in longhand. it sounds weird but it might make sense i think better in cursive when i don't have a keyboard between me and what i want to say.ou gto catholic schools be teaching habit of writing i thought maybe that's why. all of your books have descriptions you see the character in front of you when you are reading do you watch everybody and take notes about how people dress and wear their hair to draw on that for later on when you are writing? >> guest: when i was in high

school and college i just loved watching people into these dayss i'm in front of the camera but i prefer to be in the back watching everybody in the mannerisms and some crazies and how they talk so all of that for me is material and as a writer you have to be a good server of those are attributes a writer has to have you can't be the center of attention you have to be watching everybody else and for me people ask where do you get your ideas and i said i get up and i walk out the door. i don't have my face buried in my laptop or phone. i'm trying to see the potential. i try to take it into something that might be interesting.

>> host: you mentioned your wife several times how did you meet fax fax >> at a vegetarian bbq. first thing she ever said to me she insulted me so i was a hotshot and i felt a tap on my shoulder and had no idea who she was. i hear you are telling people you are a lawyer. can i give you some advice and she said okay. stop telling people that and she walked off. it took me a long time to find out who she was. i heard she'd been in a motorcycle accident and that was not true. finally i got her number and called and we went to lunch.

we went to the old masons in a georgetown. i had a friend of mine a more year i worked with and i walk in and flipped open my briefcase and had like nine ties and the briefcase. so we headed off into dated a couple of years i and we just celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary yesterday. >> and you have two kids. what did they end up doing with their lives? >> guest: our daughterhe just finished a year and a half at dc that focused on helping the homeless she worked there and before that another non- for profit. that's all she's ever wanted to do and now she will take the summer off and they'd be moving to south america to do work down there. she's my traveler.

our son works at a startup company out of philadelphia and is having a great time. we see them both a lot which is nice. that's the most important work we've done is raising them. is it hard to have a famous dad? >> guest: my daughter said when she was in college people would ask her if she would say her dad's name was skipping and everyone would call me skip and i'm like what's happening. my son sometimes will tell people that neither one of them, they are strong independent kids and neither has walked in my shadows. in bloomsburgg pennsylvania. >> caller: it is a pleasure meeting you. y i am such a big fan of your books.

my question is because i've read most of your books i'm very familiar with howte you write ad your descriptions are absolutely wonderful. it puts me right there. i thought to myself wait a minute how does he d do this. i'm curious as to number one you've probably visited these places and number two amazed this being done while you are writing the book or did you pretty much complete the book and fill it in afterwards? >> guest: that's a great question. before i sit down to write a book i think about the subject areas i need to learn about and write it in an authentic way and iut said about what am i going to do, who am i going to talk to. so i collected a lot of information into visit a place

atat the same time i've gone and visitevisited the place and othd with other people alongk the wa. it's kind of a part and parcel of the writing process. the more i know about certain things more interesting plot twists i can come up with and craft my storylines because i know information about the common knowledge and that is stuff you can easily google. it could be happenstance so i invented a way to do it and this is how. i just like listening to those peoples of the research and writing go hand-in-hand and it could be i'm talking to people up until the last page. >> host: do seem to get into places of the people couldn't. you call up the agency and describe some of the places where the work is going on.

why are they open to you? >> guest: i would come with my sister and i quickly learned a couple o things you need to prepare for one, find out what you can about that person and what they do and educate your self so that when you are talking to them on the phone, they understand immediately. if you can gain someone's respect, they are more open to you. so i can sit there and talk and not ask stupid questions because they can tell whether i've done my homework. if you haven't a love o lot of e people he interviews will be short so i will ask questions and show them i'm respecting what they do and i'm not here to waste their time.

isk tend to as ask ask broad-bad questions and i just want a dialogue back and forth not just specific answers. i want to have a chance and they make them feel comfortable, i waste time. people have specialized knowledge they love to talk about it and it'sng something they've worked for hard so they like tope share their stories ad tell back in 1979 it was working in a miami field office and this is what happened. it gives me an insight into their personality, why they joined in the first place and what excites them about their work and i can take all that and bring that alter their into the novels they write. >> host: one thing that seems to have changed his viewer writing style. i look back and they were ten to 12 pages long and now they seem to be three to four pages long and seem to always leave you wondering what's going to happen

with a client at the end. >> guest: writers need to continually reinvent themselves and m for me part of that was becoming more economical in mind works in descriptions. sort of part and parcel i would write where every word count because you cannot have a 300 page screenplay so every scene had multiple purposes. i don't know when it was maybe ten or 12 books ago i decided i'm going to streamline because a lot of the stories i'm going to tell i'm trying to write everything out and th perfect at the cliffhanger at the end of each i love reading books like

that and i found out as i'm writing the books i'm not bad at doing that, i a i'm pretty goodt doing that. it could be totally out of the blue in a particular scene you think something is going to happen and then the last line ie years that didn't happen because, and then you turn to the next page. people say i'm really mad that you. i can't get any sleep. it's 4:00 in the morning. put the book down but i can't. it's about reinventing yourself and k keeping yourself fresh and energetic. i never want to ask myself this question how do they do it. i always want to ask how can i goingifferent way forward. >> host: hello, mike. >> caller: i just wanted to

share an anecdote about how i became acquainted ine your writing. i did a lot of traveling and worked for the government as an investigator and i was going to be waiting a long time for my flight soo i went over to the book area and i saw this with absolute power by read the jacket and said this sounds that it might be interesting. i bought it i and sat down and thought this would make a really terrific movie. and i could see a b. actor and as i was reading the book it finally dawned on me i've already seen this movie. [laughter] >> guest: i hope you like the booliked thebook better. >> guest: >> caller: what i like about

your writing is how you hook the reader from the beginning and like the lady was saying she can't get any sleep because now that you've changed your technique and the chapter that's what i like so much about your writing you can't put the book down and as soon as you pick a ynew book up you get hooked ont from t the beginning so i appreciate what a triptych writer you are. >> guest: >> caller: >> host: everyone likes to hear a call like that. how did the movie rights have been for the rights to power, what is the story? >> guest: it happen happened simultaneously with the sale of the book. they have book agentthe book age houses so they feel the manuscripts make copies and send

them to hollywood right away when you hear about a half block so five or six major studios were bidding for the rights. i met penn station and this is before the smart phones i had like ten people behind me waiting to use the phone and warner bros. and paramount, they are all on the line bidding on this o book and the price keeps going up and i'm shouting on the phone certain things and people behind me are looking at me like okay this man is insane we should call the police and have him taken away. by the time i got home on the train the film rights for disabled for a lot of money which the whole week this is happening i told myself wanting never forget any of this because this is the only time this is going to happen for the first time. everything else is secondary to that and when clint eastwood, i got a cold from the screenwriter

and they hired him before he signed on so goldman called up and said they have great news for you and bad news. okay that's the good news and iconic filmmaker clint eastwood is the store congratulations we're going to make the film. what's the bad news. he said iconic filmmaker is stored to direct the film and your book is pretty much gone because he wanted it to be another father -- daughter picture but even at that point when i was on the train they had to pay phones back then with a credit card, i got on the phone andne i called everybody i've er known in my whole life like you had me in first grade you're not going to believe what happened g to me. >> host: what happened how old

were you? >> guest: 34. >> host: and it happened so fast. you must have been hard to process. >> guest: every day it was something new. the today show wanted me on, i was on the local pc channel five years ago and i remember being on and my law firm was watching me because they wanted me to come on and talk about it and they asked if i was handling ale of this. i said i felt nothing stop you righty there. my lawyers are handling that. i heard everybody later on that night started cheering. every lawyer has wanted to say that.. i stayed for almost a year because we just joined this fi firm, just recently retired actuary after a distinguished career. we have been taught over for a

start up. we've been together for a long time and then i went in and told them i think i've got to go full-time and they were very understanding. >> host: jennifer in richmond. >> caller: hello, how are you. i was actually calling i loved the series, definitely loved how you brought them back into the fix. i was shocked and didn't think you would carry out the character. what advice do you have for a 13-year-old who wants to be a warrior but also wants to be a writer? >> guest: that g is a great question. i was kind of in the same situation.

reading a lot is great and playing around with wordss is great. i would say join a book club or writing group and you will find people with y similar interests. others have organizations around, small firms that encourage peoplee to go into the wall. you can look at those or summer camps to deal with those as well but they shar share a lot of commonalities. they will find there are people there with the same dream is. but i would say open up a blank journal and start writing stuff down. it doesn't have to be anything other than what comes to their headio. just do a little bit every day and i would also say 13-years-old you haven't seen a lot of life but don't write what

you know about what you would like to know about because passion can drive you to great storytelling. >> guest: >> host: w >> host: we are at the end of the first of three hours and we call from stafford virginia and show you a little bit of the trailer from the movie. >> caller: it's so nice to be able to put a face with the book. ii.e. an 80-years-old and i have neurological problems so i can't hold my headstone to read. i listen to audio books and i started listening to them because i couldn't read and my children suggested that i listen to them because they were listening to them as they drove downn the road. i tried to get others to listen to them but they don't understand how you can listen to

a book. so i just want to thank you for all the books you've written i can't recall just one specific woman. i listen to probably four or five books of the. i can listen to a voice because i live and learn and it's nice to hear another voice and i can visualize everything down to a styrofoam cup sitting out of place. the scene changed in a movie and they don't have the same pair of shoes on the head-on in the last scene. i visualize thingsik like that o thank you for your books. >> host: do you read all of your audio books for the reader's? >> guest: though they are professional actors tore do tha.

i've learned my strengths and weaknesses and reading my own novels is not aea weak as. it is a performance, they act out the scenes so there's a lot of reflection and you need a professional to do that. people that read the harry potter books i said listen to jim dale who does. potter he's in the guinness book of world records for 150 places he does but it's a whole better experience. i sat in my garage listening with the car running to see how my book is great and even though i wrote it i know how it's going to end because the audio is a different performance and experience. >> host: we are going to show the trailer from absolute power, this is what's made him a household name with over 140 million books in print we will show how it all began and after that we ask writers to do

with their own favorite authors. we will be back with the second hour. the murder weapon has disappeared. the killer's identity has been concealed. two men know the truth. one is a master thief, the other is the most powerful man in the world.

clint eastwood, gene hackman, judy davis. absolute power. playing back music back music back

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

♪ >> host: and we begin the second hour on c-span2 book tv learning about this writing life and his own personal life and how they all blend together to produce 140 million books in print and in how many countries have? >> guest: most 100 countries in 50w languages. >> host: are you particularly popular in italy?

>> guest: by publishers called upe and said we loved the book but you have to change the name. they said the italians want to read american thrillers so if there's an italian name they think you are. they want an america name. we are all immigrants from somewhere else. i look down the driveway and back then we owned in explorer i said why don't you call me david ford said he said that some american. number one bestseller i in ital. so there isn't my name on it. my second book i was david b. ford and now i've just been david ever since the first book

great guy. they would say why did you change your name are you embarrassed? [laughter] >> host: we promised a 70-year-old earlier whoo called him this john poehler? >> guest: he investigates crime involving army personnel around the world. it's like mps investigate minor crimes while this is a higher level so you can't go to west point and they investigate crimes kind of like nz ias. >> host: we will talk for ten or 12 minutes and then take phone calls so if you have question you

are welcome but you can ask about any of the works. we are here to learn of his writing life so join in phone numbers ono the screen and we will also give you the twitter address as well. sean has a famous father and is a decorated military hero. i kept thinking about the legendary marine. >> guest: he learned abou aboutm antheman whose son was also a decorated veterans of that's where the name came from and we sort of emulatedat his career wh the political differences with eisenhower. he volunteered for duty in vietnam but of course they didn't let him go so there was a

lot of that in the descriptions. >> host: you've been writing about federal agencies. how did you do the research because you have military readers and available spot things that are not true to reality so how did you do that? >> guest: my dad and all of his own )-close-paren law enforcement, uncles and the navy,, coast guard and he had a lot of friends in the military as a friend of mine was a retired colonel and it's angry to writwas angry to a military character and i want to immerse myself in that world so we jumped on a plane where the rangers train and infantry and i spent three down to the days down there getting my butt kicked on the sniper range, the rollover test where they spin

you around until you are sick to your stomach and then they give you the order to get out. i did do training where i have a sergeant behind me and in frontf me and you do nonstop that emulates what soldiers do on the field and you can't stop with the guy behind you will run over you buthe i also take time listening and learned a lot about why people do what they do and how and continue to do that. i didn't want to write a novel about doing anything about it and i wanted to do some of the things these w w people did. i spoke about this earlier you have to be a good listener. i know there is no there is to know about me so i like writing about other people.

>> host: what is the most adventurous thing you've done in your? >> guest: on problems with dc police. you get right ones but i did a walk along where you get out ofo the car and try to catch bad guys so we were walking down the alley just me and this t other y and i think his street nameas ws peanut,uy cool guy so he passed his friends and something the other side defends so hard one of the board split of boards fod hit me in the head sometimes timso i'mstunned stammering bacd defend this mastiff has its muzzle push through and is trying to with his teeth pull off another board so he can get through. i look at peanut and said what dodogh we do an in bikinis likey run so we ran down this alley

with a pound of trying to root out a board to come after us and i look at him and i said what is bad and he said that psycho's dog. psycho is a double murderer who went ups the river and left his dog behind. the book i was working on at the time was called true blue. i put in a character named psycho is oneps of the charactes in a nove the novel based on wht happened. there's parachute jumping at fort benning to this kind of theater as well and dicey. >> host: the book came out in quick succession, 2012: 2014, 2016. is that typical if you have a set of stories you want to tell? >> guest: yes and because i was also enthusiastic about the character i wanted to keep

involved. i think the last 16 to 17, 18 were in secession and when you y get energized you want to spend time with them on the page. >> host: there's a couple things i want to have you talk about. in the zero day once again we return to the theme of the economically stressed coal mining town. it sounds like your family roots. what is the story you're telling? >> guest: it's a town that has seen better days in west virginia. it's right on the border southwest or northwest virginia thetheir own appellation. i like making up places and people can't write me and say that store isn't on the street

corner. it was a place with a military footprint in fairs and object that was sent to investigate the murder and he comes across this dome left over by the military 40 years ago and nobody knows what's inside. i like going to these small towns, picking out its history and little by little shoving it has secrets nobody was aware of it's like peeling away the layers of the onion until you get to a the core. i love that, reading books where writers do that and concocting stories i turn it on a little bit and then over time people realize i never saw that coming. >> host: are there places where there are of them insights that have dangerous material? >> guest: over the place.

there's a lot of it in the 50s and 60s and 70s maybe we were not as conscious about the environment or they didn't have money to clean it up so buried in the ground and fear outm of here. the epa didn't exist until mixing creativity. there was no epa before that. but that corporations self-regulating death. so it was more cost-effective to just kincost effective tojust kd go someplace else but obviously that has repercussions. >> host: you told me to integrate you to do more research on this than the others. why iss that? >> guest: there's these rules and regulations and tradition and just the understanding.

i don't like to drill down too much into that but you have to get into the weeds a little bit but almost naked shorthand so i need to know how to write this book so when they pulled out a weapon i want to describe it in great detail every military person knows what they are going to carry with a particular scope he's going to use or the particular duffeaparticular dufe investigations w were what he hs to wear certain days. but i had to build that into his mentality such that it wasn't like to take a paragraph to describe its purpose wa it, thig about his life. it's hard to do that. i never want to write a flip book where they do research and they won't leave it in so they find a spot and slept in their

seat gets past all this stuff and back to the story. >> host: calls this is chris from massachusetts. welcome. are you there? >> caller: @here, thank you. yes. my question is kind of fact versus fiction. there's a lot of evil in the world that informs writing and you have characters like those savings broke from evil and i'm also wondering why there's all these characters in real life

that are always trying to tie the hands of those out there trying to save the world. >> guest: those ar >> guest: those are good questions and certainly there is evil out there in every country has enemies more from than others. we have more than our fair share. it's a tricky balance. we live in a democracy with a buffet civil liberties and rights. you want people to do their job to protect the country but you also have to achieve the balance so i have to make it plausible. i like the idea that people are working to protect us from evil but at the same time understanding no lunch is ever

free. one thing i've learned in law school is a slippery slope is indeed slippery and once you cua back on enforcement people's rights it's easier to cut back on the enforcement of all rights so protecting people's rights at the same time and to protect everyone from evil i love the challenge of the books i write because complicated stories make for great fiction. >> host: you present as a personable human being but you deal with a lotea of murders. you probably devise hundreds of ways for people to die in your books. how do you deal with that? d >> guest: oyeah there is kind of a dark side. i remember i didn't have an office outside of the home at this point i had a cabinet and my wife made me get it because they had all these books on

crime and murder and how people do bad things. the kids never need to see that, walk up. again i think it's because i'm fascinated by this stuff and when i i write about books but it's a good wayli for the reades to be scared from a safe distance. you never want to run into ted bundy or the golden state killer but if you like to read about them from a safe distance i think my books allow you to kind of do that but for me it is part of what i do i want my books to be authentic and field real and because of that i have to research all these things. i remember when i was in bristol tennessee like 10-years-old in a shopping mall my parents went off to do something and take used books table in the middle ofre the law. one was about autopsies and famous murders at applebee's pictures in favor of the whole

book in the shopping mall and yes i was turned off by the violence and the horror of what happened but i was intrigued by how youen could apply forensic science and help solve these crime and resolve issues and help families to have closure so that is a weird dichotomy i don't necessarily have a great explanation but it comes down to this i crave knowledge and information. i thought i knew a lot about a lot of different subjects i could bring discrete elements together and totally great story. >> host: cypress texas, hello. >> caller: i love all of your books andd of course [inaudible] but my question is about the camel club. i liked all the different characters and how they came togetherra to help solve and i

have another question i want to ask about one summer how did that book come about because i laughed and cried. there wathat was a great book. >> caller: >> guest: thank you. i don't think i've not had someone asking about the camel club. ii was in a signing in atlanta and went up to give my remarks and this guy stands up and he has the camel types to the pool and he yells out what you think i want more of it i look at him and the camel and i'd like medication but he wanted more camel club. if i can think of a story to bring them back, i will and believe me i haven't stopped thinking about them, i would like to bring them back and i will if i can. as far as one summer, it only happened because my son was

having his confirmation in catholic church which is kind of the last catholic right before you get married and went marries whenca you pass away. my wife sent me to church early so i was there like an hour and a half early just and the priest and then i started thinking about things. my dad passed away, my mom wasn't doing well, life was moving oismoving on and i was tg about my own mortalit mortalityt hour and a half i i was alone at the next two months writing it and nobody knew i was writing it so when i sent it to them by publisher was like where did this come from and i said to my wife sent me to church and i remember my editor laughing like can i ask you some big. can you go to church more often. [laughter] >> host: rachel andra south carolina.

>> caller: the lady in front of me got ahead of me with the question about camel club. i'veve read 90% of all of your books. and if i had time, but divine justice, i think it was page 196, it might have been 296, but the driver of the van, that one page was the best writing of any writing i've ever read. it was just outstanding. so i love all the books, stand-alone, absolute power, but what i like is you capture us in the first three pages and they were gone.

i don't know if it's your writing instructions or your b editors but i love the fact that your chapters are shorter than most books and you have periods at the end of pages. peaches. i just got through reading a book that hav had to do like 13 pages before there was a page with a. at the end. now that's because i am elderly and i like to feel like i can stop. >> host: thank you. appreciate the phone call. overall list of these readers do you find most of them read all of youof your books or they zonn a particular character? >> guest: maybe 20% zoom in on particular characters, camel club, but the rest i have people

coming in with hand carved and boxes of every book i've written can from braided last book events without two or three people that have every book i've written. it's much more people say i've read every single book you've written including the fantasies and kids stuff. >> host: do you have a recall of certain books you've written a chapters, can you recall that? >> guest: yes if you give me the name i can tell you all of that. i don't use ghost writers, i write all the books. >> host: gene in washington. >> caller: i am just so excited. i am d deeply impressed with wht integrity and that is something incredible to experience.

i also have two personal questions. you sound like you wrote on toll-free. how did you stay married? and i've been impressed by the books displayed as it were your favorites. how do you choose another author's books to read and how do you decide on through the year and god bless you.on i'm going to hang up and listen. >> guest: i waited until everybody was asleep. we had on had one kid issl so ms probably glad i wasn't around, i wouldd stay in my little cubbyhole writing in the middle of the night i spent time with them in family was important but that's the only flaw flaw that d and she was quiteas understandi. without her support of this would have happenedon for me soi definitely owe a debtly to her. the second question was how to

write choose what to read. much like a lot of people i can recommend for friends and family and they see you got to read this book. i getse hundreds of these a yea, other publishers send the books and tongue-in-cheek i say i will gived it a blurb as long as i don't have to read it and sometimes they will giv i will y wife or friend and my wife will read a little bit of it and take you should readl this, it's really cool. when i was -- a friend of mine that used to be my editor, she liked to go to another publishing company and send a book and said i know you get hundreds of these every year but this is something you will enj enjoy. this peopl people are upgradinge high school and college and they continue to publish and i continue to read them. >> host: if you go in your facebook and twitter feed you constantly promote other writers. why do you do that? >> guest: as an industry doing

the right thing we need fresh voices, we need new writers telling stories and one way to do that is to support them. when i was a new writer coming up i had others that would support me and give me the benefit of their experiences. i have a lot out of came up after me and i wouldld give them the benefit of all the mistakes i made. >> host: there are some a that are not up and coming likeot brd meltzer. is there a kind of writers circle where you stay in touch with each other? >> guest: [laughter] we see each other at events and doing an event at new york in june and i know pretty much all of the popular writers there and

occasionally we do charitable events together. when john came out with his book last year he said i'm going to be in dc do you want to do a podcast with me so we did a podcast together which was a blast so we see them occasionally and it's not like we all hangg out together or tht the show sitting around playing cards, castle. but we get together sometimes and it's nice to catch up. >> host: lewis is in pennsylvania. >> caller: i got reading from my father he forced us to read some at the dinner table he wanted to practice not just emotionemotions, so that's how t into reading but the movie absolute power that i saw based

on your book how close to that was w your writing did they taka lot of liberty as far as the movie goes?? >> guest: the first act is right from the book, to break into the mansion, the burglar and pcs have been pretty much everything after that totally changeli because clint eastwood wanted to be the hero of the film andofil back then he was eh hero for any film and in the book is character is killed about halfway through and i don't think he died in any of his films. the one time he died back then i think it was a day to complain i drifter he comes back as a ghost and kills everybody so he just died. just can't die. that and the had changed the second and third acts to keep vital that he would still be alive.e. >> host: a twitter comments as most writers would be taken

aback when you first learned of clint eastwood's selection and you had to borrow money from the taxi driver to get to the nbc studiolu in new york. >> guest: an old client of mine was the coolest pieces of litigation i've done we scored a great victory against pepsi-cola which is a whole other victory but yes, having to bargain money from a cab driver to get the nbc studios and to get out of a parking garage because the gates were closed and i had no idea buthat i have to pay to get out. when you go a million miles an hour which i was back then, before that i'd never been on a television show and then everybody wanted me on. it's like i was in the same body but a totally different person. >> host: back to the hero no man's land and a couple of questions, first relationship with the general continues but he has been in china succumbing

about the family dynamic and again the human story we are telling. t >> guest: the great thing about the military is there's a lot of opportunity to have weapons and things happening. that is all well and good. you can relate to this on a human level like everybody else even though he seems to have superhuman strength. having a father that was a legendary combat commander who always walked in the shadow out boundaries were to be a shell of what he was, that for me something was going to knock him down and to know he could never measure up but at the same time seeing his fourth as he was now it was hard to bring it into reconciliation so for me the emotional baggage in the book was the relationship between john junior andat chauncey air.

he could no longer be senior at chong junior could no longer be john junior. >> host: : dealing with his father's dementia and the relationship involved and it's aboutlv the disappearance of thr mothers because of a family dynamics going on and not much room for personal relationship. >> guest: veronica has come closest to being the woman with him for a long time but it's a tricky balance to. people kept writing me up for the first two books when are they going to get together and some peopley were very graphic about what they wanted and i said remember there was an old sitcom with bruce willis and sybil shepherd and it was a great tv series until they fell in love and got i in bed togethr and finish for the perfec finiss the magic went away. so that is the sort of dynamic.

one sick result then it's done. >> host: you do a lot of explicit sex scenes in your book. why? >> guest: i like to leave it up to the imagination. the scariest scene i've ever seen in a film is the shower scene from psycho and there's almost no violence it's all in your imagination and let mine go. >> host: next is a call from iab and. you are on with the data. >> caller: i've been a fan of yours for many years beginning with absolute power on to wishing well and in between. i've read four books in english and german and i would like to ask you. i've written a book and it's about my experiences as a child in germany in world war ii and

it feels events about my family and where we lived, what we experienced. we lived right next to the swiss border so we were very fortunate. however, we felt the effects of the war and a small bombs falling and burning flame coming down etc. so i went into quite a bit of detail and then go on to coming to america, so the statue of liberty which was extremely emotional for me to see, etc.. what i would like to know, everybody that has read this is encouraging me to all means write a book and publish it. how do i go about this? >> host: i bet you get that question all the time. >> guest: there are agents who

handle this and you need an agent if you want to get to a traditional mainstream publisher and you can find their name a lot of them are based in new york and some o in washington, d.c. they will tell you if they specialize in nonfiction or memoirs which is what this sounds like. send them a letter with the first chapter or two or three other sample chapters, this is my life experiences, keep it short or longer than a paragraph, two or three chapters and i guarantee they will read them and get back at some point and represent you going forward or these days i if you want to publish yourself you can self publish online with a platform to self publish. the book sounds interesting you might want to try to get an agent. >> host: last question from me in no man's land 2016 the major character is paul rogers and he

is the subject of military experiments on the human being to increase soldier's capabilities on the battlefield. are there such things or is this a product of your imagination? >> guest: these are all things. they are in effect and greatly increase the human capacity to move fast. they are already deployed about making the mind more lethal and precises. there's a whole industrye out there where you try to do it as fast as possible so there's enough highly qualified people with billions i of dollars doing all sorts of things. >> host: on the flipside there's flip sidethere is a lotn to prepare soldiers injured on the battlefield.

>> guest: a lot of the soldiers the injuries they had in iraq and afghanistan if they had been in vietnam they would have died because theseou were t survivable wounds now you get treatment from the battlefield to stabilize people and they get airlifted out and have this amazing work done but at the same time, talking about soldiers and think they are a life thaalive but they have a lf challenges. i was at walter reed hospital to beinbe a book signing talking to troops into there were different places to get funds for amputees and one with traumatic brain injuries. i was talking to one man with his father he'd been injured and

he wasn't a candidate but he lost both of his legs and i was asking how are you doing and a what is your name and his responses were very slow and he was struggling. i pulled his doctor decided and they said this guy has been blown up. imagine being blown up, it's gotten to the point s. we can fix these soldiers but it needs a lot of challenges. >> host: do you spend time visiting veterans? >> guest: i do. i've been to the air force germany, walter reed. i want to continue doing that because when the war was going hot and heavy you would see that this is going through and hear

all the guys coming to talk about the 5,000 plus that died out with about 100,000 are in third. so these are people that their lives on the line, 18, 19, 20-year-olds we owe them everything. >> host: next montana yo url for waiting. >> caller: on a stalk your books so i can read them on airplanes because i had a a terrible flyer and i get so engrossed in your books that i forget about any fear that i have, so it works like a charm. to ask youn i want come from richmond how come you don't have an accent. my wife ever lost her accent even in montana. >> guest: i used to have a southern accent growing up and richmond has its own version. my wife was born and a naval base outside of chicago but lived all over including atlanta

so my wife will tell you she puts on her richmond voice and it is this your family and where are they from because that's just the way that my accent has been smoothed out because they've whipped up in the dc area, i've traveled a lot and just went away but if i'm down in richmond for any period of time it starts to come back. >> host: judy is on from, texas. >> caller: i'm very enamored with john poehler and i was wondering, you don't write enough about him. are you planning on any more books in the future? >> guest: he will definitely be back i have more i want to write about him and i think i just hit my stride with him. even though they no man's land

he solved the mystery of what happened with his mother he still has a lot of things ahead of him and i think his character has a lot more room to grow. i haven't even touched the relationship with his brother yet. his brother got out of prison in the escape there's only been one books and spend. he will be back. >> host: we are going to talk about wanting one standalone bt it's the name of a book and foundation.. tell me theok story of wish youd gogo and why it's important to you. you speak about it's so emotionally. >> guest: it's the most personal book i've written and even the story is fictional and every element is based on my mother's life growing up in southwest virginia. i read a story in the post. they finally pulled running water and electricity up she lived there in the 30s and

40s with a hard life. >> host: we have a couple of pictures we will include on the screen.es >> guest: she had a lot of sibling but it l made her a strg person she was a voicece of nature. i had heard all these stories from my mom and grandmother who lived with us the rest ten years of her life. she was a teacher and i remember going into her bedroom to talk with her about the civil war and she had a great uncle that fought in the war and he left her something in the the only thing a single shot rifle make great uncle. and it even had a blood stain on it so i have that in my office aton home and my grandmother sad the only thing wrong with that as they fought for the yankees.n i would pul hold her chain and e

the day when. [laughter] that was a long-running battle betweenas us so that was my way and with my owinwith my own motn and multiple interviews, hundreds of pages and her recollection of the event's were pristine. i can't even imagine what i was doing yesterday. she said when you grow up like that you never forget. >> host: what did she think of the? >> guest: i this one of the most dramatic moments of my life because i wanted her to love it and she did and we both cried when she finished readingt the book. nothing else would have mattered. she didn't live to see the film but i think she would have liked it because it was an active portrayal of what life was like back then. >> host: i'm going to ask them to put the photograph of the gentleman and the checkered us

shirt back up on the screen. >> guest: that was my grandfather who passed away before i was even born, passed away in the late 50s, his name e was columbus rosis: this rose t reads my book you will see whatever they hear by: this rose that's where i get the name from it but it was the coolest name. my other grandfather was a 6-foot four guys that died before i was born as well. nobody in richmond could pronounce any of his names so they just called him mike. >> host: what generation was the? >> guest: he was an immigrant return of the last century through ellis island and for a lot of italians in new york was too cool to see they got on the train on public transportation

on the first stop in the south that was richmond virginia said there is an italian community in virginia because of that. >> host: we will take some calls and learn about how the book and movie became a foundation. kathy is in bradenton florida. >> caller: hello, how are you. i just want to tell you how much i enjoyed the book and i'm so glad to hear that you are doing more books because i have enjoyed those that i do encourage you to bring the camel club back when you get there. my concern is you don't write quickk enough because i've read all your books and i have to wait so long for another onene o come out. i have notfo read the following. i went to the library to get it into them on the not the waiting list number 92 but i will wait and they will come. i do enjoy your work and you write so beautifully.

i ask you to continue with this wonderful talent and that is all i have to say. thank you for s listening. >> guest: i'm glad you enjoyed the books so much and i do try to write as fast as i can although my wife tells me to slow i down. >> host: libraries seem to be on the decline in our society. >> guest: i'm a big proponent and have been forever because they made a difference in my life. i think the use of libraries is coming up but the funds to support them is going down. there are community centers people use them to go online, to get the jobb résumes posted. they've had to leave all but the problem is we are not funding them, there are fewer books on the shelves and fewer librarians working so for me that is putting great money to great use the future and i

know him if the person i am today and it's a well-rounded tolerant person you would want in society. all the t founding fathers w fathers-year-old voracious readers who are tired of us that you can tell from the letters they wrote into the documents drafted were very intelligent and well read people and that's why we have this great country so why should we not be well read? >> host: i'm reading the following right now and the memory man is my favorite series. what number did he wear in college and the nfl? >> guest: it will be my old faithful member in high school number 68. i wasn't nearly as big but that definitelyfi would have said wht he did on the playing field. >> host: charlie hello.

coco i started reading your books and i get mine from theet library also. i just finished one of your king and maxwells and the psychoanalyst that treats her and thehe consequence the father had kind o torn down the rose bs outside the house when the traumatic scene happened but i wanted to know that i read in one of the earlier work something in referencworkssomet, another character or is there something i reathatsomething i e child books with jack beecher? >> guest: the rose bush you are talking about it the memory reconstruction of what happened with her parents when she was a little girl and is the reason

she is ocd "-end-quotes garbage everywhere in her truck to cover things up. people forget the novel understand what that means so ms far as i can remember, the rose bush incident only happens in simple genius so if you have a recollection in your mind it might have been from another book or series that was the only time i've used it in th that ine novel.de >> host: secret service also have difficult challenges over the past five or six years with a scandal within the organization, officials had to leave. what's going on with that? >> guest: it's an interesting agency and the they have to endure large amounts to keep their focus complete to deal with a few seconds of crisis and that's hard and difficult to do long-term good of the same timee it is their job. i've looked at a lot of things that have bee happened particuly

when obama was because and in the bullets being fired at the white house and finding out about it later when agents going off and doing things when they travel overseas with prostitutes and stuff like that, a breakdown in command and i think what happened t beneath a total housecleaning. obviously when training breaks down you have a tremendous problem and i don't know if about itt complacent like nothing happens anyway we can go out and have some fun, but it is crazy and i think a lot of agents who did many of these are just the bad apples but we hear about. before that time they were the gold standard that organizations are made up of people and they make mistakes and bad judgments.

>> host: suzanne ist in illinois. >> caller: i want you to know when i read your books this is how i get so involved i feel it in my chest. do you become part of that? >> guest: is a great question i go through this when i'm writing seem. there's this emotional connectionio.

>> host: me what kansas what is on your mind? >> caller: do you know the twist and turn and that kind of thing? >> guest: i used little outlines in the chapter and i've always thought if i outlined the book from start to finish it with read to you like everything tied together at the end it's almost like you read the last page first to find out everybody's okay and if you know it's good but not as exciting as it could have been so for me not knowingg the ending is a good thing for me. >> host: the wish you well foundation, when did you start its? >> guest: in the year 2000. we found organizations across

the country so we have a board of directors that we meet four times a year with five or 6,000 grant application all across the u.s. and we funded programs in all of the states and we will continue to do so. it's not justt about enjoying te book on the beach. if you can't read it a sufficient level, you can't be an effective member of the democracy. we live in the information age where as we saw lots of stuff is thrown at you every day and if you're reading skills are not high enough and cognitive skills are not real been effectively someone else is telling you what

to think both socially and economically you need to have these skills we are an informationin age years ago we partnered with feeding america so all of my buck stops people put up with a gently used books people that are seeking food assistance ar are littered witha challengc.challenge or have poog skills and have poor job prospects. >> host: how much money it is the foundation gave away an average year? >> guest: hundreds of thousands. >> host: is it hard to give away money? you get more applications than

you can possibly -- >> guest: absolutely. there is money for adult literacy and i ask somebody in the field about that and they said it makes perfect sense. the governmen government startsa bunch of adult literacy and the acknowledging of the k-12 program that doesn't work in this country so most of the donations come from private foundations. she was a great proponent innovated a loandthat they did t things. >> host: you have a great donation over a million dollars what was that money for? >> guest: that flows to endow a couple of things. the coolest thing i thought was to allow financialal assistance for people studying political science before we made this

donation for the 2016 e. election, my wife and i paid for a think 20 students to travel to the primaries indicate they got to meet the candidates, interview them come up with them aside and they said great things. so they will engage in these experiences anthonexperiences at travel to south america to learn about the political system there or they might work on a political campaign. so, i thought you know, you don't have to spend all four or five years off your life not interacting with the real world. we can get students from the get-go they really want to learn and study and get a degree. >> host: virginia commonwealth university for other regions of the country catherine is in florida go ahead. >> caller: what an honor that i found you today.ha

i am blind in one eye and going blind in the other. i have an eye doctor and he signed me up for tapes and i listen to you on tape. >> guest: it's a great way to read the book obviously with a different scent is. i like listening to books on audio and it's a whole different experience, something i can deliver just with the written word on page but it's another way to experience the story. >> host: .. or

we don't think it's ripe of the, but editorial relations are important to me and i have a great editor who has been editing my last 20 books and with a great report. host: who is that? guest: mitch hoffman. is now an agent, but mitch and i have got along so well that he still edits my book. he's a great guy and i love him to death. i didn't want to start over at this point in my career. i wanted the comfort of having mitch. at this point in my career, it's unlikely the publisher will tell me not to do something.

they want me to write the books and they know that after 40 odd novels that i sort of got what i'm doing. that's not to say that you should listen to editors. you don't have to always agree with them and at the end of the day you are sort of the king or queen of the story and you can do it you want to do, but it's always respectful to listen to other people's opinions and at the end of the day i think they are trying to make the story as good as it can be. host: we will hear from barbara in st. petersburg, florida. caller: hello, mr. "absolute power". contrary to the other callers i have never read any of your books. i've always been kind of the nonfiction reader. however, listening to you now for the couple hours i can't wait to region books, but it's like which one would i start with? guest: well, for first-time readers i tell them a cool fun story with a great villain and

heroin is called "the winner" third novel i wrote. figure out a way to fix the national lottery so he can pick the winner. he will make you rich. all you have to knew his plan no one will find out. it's a bad act, obviously. it's a crime, but i can make you rich, so a lot of people would maybe go for it, but when they find out that they do there are always consequences. most of the people that read it come away loving the story. it is the first book of mine that you will read and i think you'll like it. host: speaking of the lottery, janet has the question. when i read your book it's like writing, but i have a soft spot for polar and decker. can one participate in an option to have a character named after us? guest: the answer is absolutely took i have done that probably over the course of 23 years

maybe 100 times and what happens is charities will come to me and asked to auction off a character named in the novel and i can't say yes to everyone, but i have said yes to different organizations. i'm a former lawyer and i have them signed an agreement that basically says i can make you anything no matter how vile, disgusting and awful it is. if you don't sign you don't get in the book, but i try to have fun with the character of the book i'm working on now has five auctioned names in the book and i try to make them interesting and memorable. i remember one in the book i'm working on now, he paid almost like $20000 for it and that the money went to buy books for every middle school and high school student in the nassau county and i went to speak to those schools in february.

the gentleman came over and said he bought the name for his wife and he said can you do me a favor and i said what's that and he said cannot you make her evil and then the wife comes over and says just don't make me evil and i'm like i will have to thread this needle. host: we will take another short break at the bottom of our two. we have one more hour to go in our three-hour conversation with david baldacci. if you are in queue on the phone, stay there because we will continue to take your call in the third hour. we will be right back. >> when i was 10 and my brother was seven our lives changed in the point when i. ♪ >> hello, i'm louisa. welcome to virginia.

>> there is no money and jack's estate. >> my dad died in that accident because he and my mom were arguing the neck we can't forget them, but we got to go on. >> my company is looking to make a substantial investment here. >> except i ain't selling it to you. that damn coal company will not get my farm and destroy the mountain and ruin the land. >> they paid you to steal the people's land. >> we don't exactly on the land. we just kind of take care of each other. ♪ >> two things in life you die for, friends and family. >> believing in something is a lot better than having on empty hearts. you can find your way off my property. >> stop!

>> what he doing? ♪ >> the reason i came here, but i want to stay here now because of you. >> this land is provided for me all of my life. i think it will provide for us now. >> we are back, our number three with david baldacci. this is an death, and once-- month feature on book tv where we talk about the author's life and work spending three full hours to see how they white, and why they write. we are pleased to have david baldacci with us this month for three hours. let me ask you about this, we keep getting calls about the camel club. why do people like it's a much? guest: it so unique, it's thriller with a group of older guys headed up a guy called

oliver stone, not the conspiracy director, but my oliver stone. used to be very lethal assassin for the us government until things went wrong and they came after him and he had to disappear and he has this ensemble of older guys took one works at the library of congress, once a computer whiz and one is ex- military and they are conspiracy theorists, but they stumble upon real conspiracies and they have to work together to solve them. the camel club i think it was because it was a unique premise. that took time delving into every character's background to make them real and the reason i thought about the camel club again i was walking past-- when i first went to dci wanted to learn the city so i was walking past the white house and back then pennsylvania avenue was

closed and lafayette park was there and there was one lady who-- i think she just recently passed away. she was protesting against nuclear proliferation and she had a tent in that stuff , so fast forward 10 years and i thought i will have my character be a protester with a tent and he's there every day, but he will have a secret back story and that's when i sort of right the camel club. host: the first book is dedicated to the secret service and the character has relationships with the people that control the grounds of the white house. guest: he does. the secret service is a presence there. as i call it later, hells corner and i asked the secret service agent why do you call that he

says that's our turf and if there is anything bad that happens there will be hell to pay. they get to know these people whether they are a threat or not because they are there every day and a relationship builds. secret service has a job to do, but one of the characters is alex and he betrayed-- befriends them and helps them with some of their cases. host: these novels are set mostly in deceit and that is your stomping ground and you said earlier you like to create fictional places. so there is a lot of readers in this area and they know if you put a restaurant in the wrong part of town, so how do you do that? do you rock the streets to make sure you have everything right? guest: yes. this horrific event happened in hells corner , so i went to lafayette park-- remember those flip phone cameras? host: yes. guest: i'm walking around

speaking and by flip phone taking video because i have to make sure everything i see is where it is supposed to be because it has to to be flawlessly choreographed. everything has to hit its mark, so i'm walking around this place and i remember back then there was this guy dressed like a warrior in a loincloth and spear. really nice guy. beautiful like caribbean accent and highly educated, but he's walking around in a loincloth and i'm walking around with my spirits-- flip phone and i'm thinking here would be a good place for the bomb to go off and as i said that the sky is walking past me and he stops and said you are crazy. this is a guy in a loincloth telling me i'm crazy. i go to these places. i don't want to make the mistake that you are in georgetown and five minutes later during bethesda in your car

which everyone knows it would be impossible. through rush hour it might take three hours. i know readers are out there. host: in the first camel club book very important part of it is the national information center, and i see. i presume it exists and does it do what you say which is basically data driven mission to find and sometimes kill opponents of the country? guest: every country has something like that i mean again all countries have enemies and we need to protect ourselves from those enemies so the us is very data driven and may have a assortment of assets that can be deployed to take people out. is called like were on the cheap. you can send out a single assassin and take out-- cut off the head of the snake. some of the stuff we have done around the world we try to topple dictators, sometimes not

dictators, but that is the foreign-policy we have used in the past and continue to use. in these days you see the term regime change. what is that mean? everything is on the table, they say including regime change. how do you change a regime? you take the guy out, that's why. you just take him out. host: you also educate us in a scene about how much data is compiled on every one of us by the government. i remember writing about educate yourself about the patriot act, your records, phone calls. guest: we have 17 intelligence agencies in the us including dia defense intelligence agency which is like the cia only bigger with the bigger global footprint and they are doing something all the time and i'd like to-- recently i have thought about this and i'm like

they collect almost as much information as facebook does. we are information driven society and right now people talk about experts in the field trip the next word will not be on the battlefield. it will be cyber warfare that's where that. what the russians did in the 2016 election probably cost them 10 or $11 million. probably did $2 trillion worth of damages. host: does it provide new plots for you? guest: absolutely. i just have to be careful i don't get behind that eightball because techniques are changing so fast and keep in mind i have one guy sitting in my office writing stuff. i am fighting against millions of highly intelligent people who worked with for/seven try to come up with ways to do things, kill someone, eavesdrop on someone, get four-- more information.

it's a very unequal battle so i try to hold my own at times, but it's a tough fight. host: must go back to calls. kenneth from miami. caller: hello, david baldacci. my question is, given this world of trump and you have a liberal and a conservative point of view focusing on his personality versus his policy, what is your basic take in terms of government corruption. they all have controls and agenda. why are they all picking on trumpet instead of just an overreach of government and white individual responsibility, why do we tolerate if we are aware and don't-- aren't willing to give more and more of our own freedoms away. what is your take? i don't want you to get into labels or anything, but in terms of the liberal conservative, you know, spectrum can

you give me a feel? i read most of your books and i just want to get a feel on where you go down like with this dispute between the president, justice department and maybe some of that place into some of your books, but your own personal viewpoints i would be interested in. guest: absolutely. my first novel, "absolute power" has a quote and it is absolute power corrupts absolutely and that's where the title of the book comes from and i found that in my life that some people are not suited to hold power. i'm not talking about anyone in particular, but people, go. institutions we create are bill to stand the test of time and what we have today in my personal philosophy is that no one is above law in this country. it's just the way it was built. the founding fathers wanted it that way and the institutions we have

whether it be the fbi or justice department or supreme court or congress or the executive branch were built to stand the test of time so no one person should be able to bring these institutions down, but again no one being above the law. richard nixon if he had not resigned would have been impeached because the rule of law said he had to release the tapes bill clinton lied under oath and was impeached by the house of representatives, not convicted by the senate, but he was impeached. of the current president with donald trump, you know, for me investigations need to go forward. if something was done wrong consequences have to follow because no one is above the law and that's what makes us different from other places, different from iran, china, north korea , all these places we hold ourselves above. that space on the rule of law and for me everyone has to be judged by the same criteria. i don't want people to

be on an unlevel playing field, but the institutions we have should be allowed to do their job. if they are doing something wrong they should be how to accountable as well. host: related to that, charlotte williams nichols on facebook asks, based on the fact that you were stories revolve around american government conspiracy how do you explain popularity and other nations? guest: gray question because a couple years ago i got a new publishing contract and i was go and be published in arabic and i think published actually in iran and i thought-- i like the fact it was happening. books of mine could be published in a country that is very autocratic. i think the people are intrigued because other countries have power structures as well. i think they are intrigued by the high-stakes. america come everyone-- if you go to any country overseas and i have been

to many they will know more about our politics than american citizens do because america is sort of the-- the world revolves around what we do, the sole remaining superpower and i totally get that, that people are intrigued about everything about america fiction like mine is very popular american movies that deal with the subject matter is very popular. it's all there sort of front and center, but it's great to be in a country that-- i feel like it's very popular in the matter where you go. host: do you ultimately see yourself as a patriot because even when you have rogue characters the good guys always when? guest: yeah and for me i like having that closure because i want people to understand that if you do bad things there will be punishment. that's not always the case in real life. as a lawyer i can tell you a justice depends on how much you can spend on your lawyer. if you have a good

lawyer then you are in good shape. i also say name me one millionaire that's on death row. of millionaires have committed murder before in an art on death row. the vast majority of people on death row are impoverished, so for me the consequence of good triumph over evil is very important and i think it validates sort of the story i write about and gives an ending that i think since good messages. host: one other point pile talking about president and our country, your president's pop up in many of your books, but you never identify their party. guest: i don't want to get into that because it's not something i have never felt comfortable doing. i met for presidents personally. host: do you consider any of them friends? guest: absolutely. i have known bush 41 for a long time and bill clinton as well and i know george w and barack obama.

all told me they read my books and enjoy them and it was a thrill meeting all of them, but as far as identifying you put yourself in a box of you get a label it a thousand e-mails you don't want to read. host: the inner rock field, maryland. caller: good afternoon. guest: hello. caller: thank you for appearing on c-span. very interesting. you were the inspiration for my becoming a novelist, mr. david baldacci. do you remember marion barry used to be the mayor for the capital of the free world? guest: yes, i do. caller: right out of college and i graduated i worked for the district of columbia government when i was 21, 22 years old and it worked there for 10 years, so i worked in a nuthouse, the mayor of the capital of the free world was a cocaine user with many vices and then i read your book-- i saw the movie,

"absolute power". i'm a big fan of clint eastwood and then i read your book and i thought i can do this. i worked in a nuthouse. i worked for the mayor of the capital of the free world and is so i sat down in the '90s and typed up a manuscript. i called it capital city and lo and behold we got a new york publisher to publish it to good they published it a year and a half ago. you were my inspiration because i almost always read nonfiction. i'm a big fan of robert caro, another-- and other nonfiction writers and jeffrey toobin. he's written a lot of good nonfiction, but i had never read novels since i was an undergraduate when a professor told me to read a novel and you are

my inspiration, "absolute power" was a terrific movie and a terrific book, so i sat down and everyone in the '90s got computers. it was easy to write. i wrote capital city and lo and behold we got a new york publisher. host: thank you. that's a great story to tell. guest: congratulations. host: you spend a lot of time, not just doing the interview with us, but also call and into radio shows when you have books out doing book events, signing. you don't need to do that anymore. why do you do it? guest: because it's a symbiotic world in the book world. there are multiple components, publishers, writers, readers, libraries, book sources and we support each other work you are right i don't have to tour anymore, but i like to go out for a couple reasons. one, love the readers and talking about the books and see the love

they have for the written word and secondly the bookstores i go to, often if their lifeblood between existing or not existing , so for me to go there and have people come in and i other things and become moral patrons throughout the year makes them sustainable and we support each other. it's like this fragile ecosystem. take out one piece and everything falls down, so i feel like it's my duty and obligation because i know how hard they work to help build my career and this is what i do to help them. host: writing is such a solitary profession or does getting out in the public recharger battery? guest: it's a way for me to be the ham i always wanted to be. good to stand up and make people feel good about themselves. my wife says you need to keep doing it otherwise what the much fun to be around. caller: good afternoon and thank you for having david baldacci on today. i met david and a

thriller i car-- archive roundtable a number of years ago and talking to him was really interesting. you gave some stories. i told him how i read "absolute power" on the flight home in the flight attendants were asking me what i was reading because i could not put it down and he also told the cute story with him and his wife out to dinner and a woman coming across and asking him who he was and it turned out it was the crack profession wrong author, but i also wanted to mention that he talked about his literacy and being able to find it and i wanted to tell him and he probably knows this, but most libraries when you donate to them i know in

the providence public library i do that you can take your money and you can actually have it designated to go to the literacy program, which i do. i wanted to thank him for his work in doing that for people who are not able to read and also to be able to get more people out there and more books to people who can't do this and i just wanted to thank him for that and for the countless hours of being able to read his fantastic works. guest: thank you very much. we definitely know that about libraries. that's what they do as part of their curriculum and we feel like they are good partners and thank you for the work you do. i do remember that brown university worked-- roundtable. i think we had a great discussion. host: hello. caller: hello and thank you for taking my call.

i'm an inspiring writer who can just starting out, 49 years old and getting a late start, but i question to you is from a creative standpoint when you come up with the genesis of your stories and novels do you find it easier to come up with an interesting character first and work the story around the character or do you find it easier for you to come up with the plot and story and then work the characters into that plot? guest: great question and the answer is i have done it both ways. i will give you an example, the winner had the idea for the guy that could fix the national lottery and that was the plot process and that's what i came up with first and then i thought about who would inhabit this plot your car needed a villain, the heroine and characters. i would say for the majority of my novels, certainly all the series the characters come first and i build plots for them to inhabit going forward.

characters are the only way to relate to people and readers on an emotional basis and a human basis. the best books i've ever read, can't really remember the plot details, but i remember the characters, so that's the impression that leaves behind so you can write many great stories but if you have mediocre characters people won't enjoy the story. whatever comes first, character or plot yet to make sure the characters are memorable, that people can relate to them and they will care about what happens to them. if you have that they will finish the story. host: what role does michelle play? guest: i will give you an answer to that. host: she might be watching. guest: i know. we were in florida and have a place down there and we had to-- we had an order that was ready. michelle went to the dealership to sign the papers took a friend

there was a fan of mine and it was david this and david that stuff she had heard a million times and finally he said what you do, so michelle methodically signed the documents and said what do i do? and he said what you do and she said everything else and it is so true because without her nothing gets done. i give her stuff to read early on, manuscripts and she's a voracious reader even more than i am. she's a great critic. i don't need her to tell me what is right with the book. i need her to tell me what's wrong with the book and she's good at pinpointing stuff. you know, i don't like this character, this did not work for me and that's what i need her to do and she is my first and my best critic and it's a partnership. it really is. host: are you easier to live around when you are writing or

when you just finished the book? caller: when i'm writing i'm very easy to be around. it's when i'm in between stories that i'm grumpy. .. she knows as soon as i hit that story i am going to be, you know, cheerful. press it seems like you are never not writing. >> i am mopey for about one day. [laughter] >> how many books do you have in the works at any one time? you work on one and finish or do you have a couple of going? cause i've never written more than one at a time. i would lose my focus. right now, i'm working on a book for the fall and the last installment of the series. and i am doing though

simultaneously for the last year. >> will talk about that and we also have questions but let's take a call. we have karen in colorado. you are on. >> caller: i want to thank you so much. i have several authors i follow that i have read. they all seem to become predictable. you are never predictable. and i love your books. i love reading your books. and when i travel, you are always, always on. thank you so much. >> i appreciate it. i work very hard not to be predictable. i think i might learn different series and i tried to get out of my comfort zone. i tried to write every book, is my first novel and i've no idea what i am doing but that gives me the edge that you know, fear is a great antidote to complacency. once a writer figures out what they're doing i think they should go and do something

else. >> host: and from facebook we have two questions. one thing i love vega jane and venomous as ever the series and it became a series. when a releasing book number four? these are young adults. is it difficult for you to write so much adult fiction to do young adult books? >> guest: finisher took me five years to write. and i just could not get what i wanted to write in my mind. i love fantasy, reading it. and again, it was like you have to keep reinventing herself as a writer. what will challenge me, i met a written fantasy can i do that? it is like the complete total exercise of your imagination. so for 4 and a half years, thinking about this and not

getting anywhere, and six months at written under a thousand words. and i put it out under a pseudonym. i do not put under my name. and scholastic bought it and because the way the book is written the tone in the language, they thought that it was a brit. when i got there they said what are you doing there? and i said you just bought my novel. and i think he just almost fainted. it was a way for me to challenge myself again. but fantasy is so cool and the book will be out, the next one will be at spring of next year. >> were 25 minutes left. thank you for being with us for three hours. why would listen to the next caller i will have you fix your earpiece. marjorie in virginia. you are on the air. welcome. >> caller: thank you very much

mr. david baldacci for what you just told us about giving this away and feeding the hungry. i think it is a marvelous thing to do. my grandson is 22. he wrote his first novel when he was 18. it is a medical thriller. i am wondering, how do you go about finding publishers and how did you first find your publishers? >> is a great question. what i did was i sort of knew to have an agent would be good thing to have. with a publisher, get your book out where it needs to go. i heard about a really hot book. i would get out of the bookstore and look for the acknowledgment section. that's where they thanked people to help them to read to discuss the person they will think is there agent. so i had a list of agents from that. and i set up a letter and samples of the book.

and i was hoping that one of them will call me back and you know this is interesting what we talk about it? i was fortunate enough that all of them call me back or wrote back. and they wanted to be my agent. i went up to new york and i met with all of them and i picked the agent that i have to this day. one of my best friends. the way you do this is you get names from different sources and they would say whether they represent fiction, nonfiction or first-time novelists. a lot of them don't. they will only deal with established writers. you can get that online, there are addresses. you can send a query letter with sample chapters. they sort of showcase your writing. and you will hear back from them. >> we talked about how the book business has changed and e-books over the course of your writing career. what are some other significant ways business has changed? and what you think of all of the book festivals that seem to be popping up all over the country these days? >> the book industry really

has, for 200 years it did not change at all. but then e-books came along and everything changed for what they have seen from when i first underwriting, consolidation, there are nearly as many avenues out there but it is balanced out by publishing. self-publishing. back in the days it would be xerox and put them out of the back of your car. now you can do it on social media platforms and get this done and it is a very professional product. it has changed and now they are more self published authors making a living as writers than ever would have been the case in 10 years ago. that is an avenue that people can pursue and they can do in a lucrative matter. i think that one thing that peoples attention spans are very short these days. when i first started out they were no cell phones, there were

no ipads. people did not have xbox and all of that. these days, books have to compete with all of that. for peoples time and attention. it is not something we had to worry about. now there is talk how can we do this more interactive worksheet into other elements of what we are competing against. and i'm not sure where that will go. i just think the written word is very powerful. people always like stories. i'm hoping jack tried to put the square book into a round peg. i think that would be a problem. the industry has to change. and i think change is always good and getting new people involved in the book industry. not just writers but on the publishing side. it is a really good thing. both festivals are awesome! when i go to a place for the book festival i say look, i will say up front. lots of communities around the country would like to have a festival like this and they don't. never take this for granted. because once you start taking

for granted i will not go this year because i have to do this or that been you don't have a book festival. so all other industries, music you know like they have all these awards show same with the film community and all of that. we have a couple. we have the pulitzer, national book award. nobody watches them. it is on page d seven on the newspaper. i think as industry were to be better about self-promoting ourselves and handing out awards and things like that. to be better promoters. because the other industries do a much better job than we do. >> bob, oyster bay, new york. welcome. >> caller: thank you for taking my question. when you develop a new character, do you have in mind that this may be a character that will be a series on and if so, how do you make sure that they are not too narrowly defined so they can broaden out in a future book? >> guest: a great question. i will give you an example for

the first series i started i did not know this is going to be a series was a book that i read called trentb it was going to be a standalone futures former secret service agents and detectives they partner up and solve a mystery. at the end of the book and realize that i have not even tapped into their personal life at work the background, back stories or how they came to be. they just teamed up and solve the mystery. so i wrote another book and another and another. later on, i knew that it would be a series from the get go. so in equating john carr and ruben and others, i needed to build into them potential back stories but i could explore and did is in future books. i added that in and i didn't tell you everything about them. i allowed there to be secrecy and things you did not know about their lives back and further explained that in separate novels. and i have done it with all of

my novels. i continue to explore characters. so really very self focused and intentional set up in the first series but knowing that i will not be done in the first book is done, i will keep going. >> secret service agents, we say the first family presidents are part of that. you talked earlier about how the military opens its doors to to learn about it. and also federal agencies, how about the presidents? the ones that you been friends with? do they help guide your writing about making the presidents authentic? >> certainly, when i have gone to the white house many times when bush 41 and bush 43 were in office. i met bill clinton several times in different events. i see the protection he had as a former protest as -- as the former president. i into white house correspondents dinner.

>> that is all the public part of the job. >> guest: absolutely does. but i've had conversations with them about things that they had done when they were president and things that the public would not necessarily know about. and things that they have to think about the rest so i will, i've never acknowledged them in a book with i say thank you for telling all of these super secrets but just hang out with them, talking to them and seeing how their life is. really, there are things that are used in books and explored and use the facts and make the fiction even better. >> host: with 20 minutes left. three interesting hours with david baldacci. we have a question you can probably get in if you're lucky for the end of the program or send us a tweet and will try to mix it up. next we have donna from pennsylvania. >> caller: hello. hello mr. david baldacci. i just wanted to say thank you so much for your interest in

books. my sister is near richmond and she gave me my first book and it was signed by you. >> guest: very nice! speak issues that i think you will enjoy this because you enjoy reading. and i read it and i was amazed! and i was caught. i love intrigue. so i love your books. >> guest: thank you very much. with all my books, i tried to hit the ground running. i do not want to waste time in the beginning. i would like to immerse you in the story, hooking it's what i'm trying to do. and something interesting happened on the first few pages. evan was what they like the writer is in control and not the reader. if you are a leader in control of the bucket will not be really good reading. but if you're on your tiptoes, unstable, you don't know what will happen next, he thought you had it figured out, he carefully categorized this person is good, this person is bad i know what will happen to them. if i knock you out of all those categories include on the edge of your seat you don't know

what will happen next is a good story. >> i would say were not generally sympathetic to rich people. [laughter] >> guest: i will be sympathetic to rich people if they treat other people with respect. and i'm not saying that i have not met people who don't do that. i have met a lot of wonderful people. but they just don't tend to end up in my books. [laughter] for a number of reasons.i think with this comes great responsibility and again i go back to the quote - about absolute power. a lot of money can corrupt people, obviously. and feeling like they are above everyone else and above the rule of law. i incorporate a very blue-collar background in virginia. wealth was not something that we were ever close to. and my life has not changed in that regard. i look at everybody as a person with not how much money they have. but i do, i have seen that as a

corrupting influence. >> how do you prevent your kids grow up in a pretty privileged lifestyle, parents multimillionaires, from having that second generation problem? >> major that we kids were never going to live in a bubble. disclose that they went to. offense and have to submit to this private school. no, we are not doing that. we are sending them to schools where lots of kids from the socioeconomic platform and their parents were friends or that was good went to school events. we lived in neighborhoods where everybody came from lots of different places. as i was taught, we taught our kids that everyone deserves respect and compassion. and that that is the we need to conduct your life. and be a good person. none of the stuff you have is actually yours. it does not belong to at all. if he did not work for it, you did not earn it. in your life, dedicate cars

when i was 16, and they have jobs, they work and support themselves. they know mom and dad are there if they need it but have their own independent lives and we raise them with that focus in mind. that this is our life. you get to be part of it when you were little. and then you go up and you have your life. and you build it you can and you have a happy life. we will be there to support you and love you. but mom and dad are not writing checks. >> harold, south carolina. you are on the air. >> caller: thank you for taking my call. can you hear me? >> guest: yes, i can. thank you. >> caller: do you read the british writer -- >> guest: yes i do. i loved his pseudonym. i think his last name is something cornwall. he also lives in cornwall as well. but he was actually an intelligence officer during the

cold war. and actually have a first edition signed book that my wife bought me many years ago. he is probably one of the, when i even categories him. he's a great storyteller and he writes amazing books. it puts right into the heart of the situation. talk about being immersed in the world of intelligence field. particularly cold war. distaste cannot be any higher. he is one of the best. >> cindy, florida. >> caller: hi. my favorite is the forgotten. how did you get that seen and why did you write that book? >> guest: the forgotten is in the panhandle of florida. they thought the redneck riviera. and we had just gotten a place down there. i was exploring florida more and more. i saw the area and all of the

oil platforms were there and the idea came to me for john and something bad happened he had to go investigate. the intrigue of what is happening offshore and onshore. in the area. i think i use destin, florida. but it incorporated it was another way to show hit other family members and he had an aunt that was a substitute mother because his mother vanished when he was very young. she really helped raise him because his dad was in the army and spent a lot of time. this is the military guy, tall strong guy. he could do the impossible but here he was, helping an old woman who really was a second mother to him because something really bad had happened. they wanted to make sure justice was done for her. >> we have ynez and new hampshire. >> caller: we are new listeners. we have been trying to get your

books on cd. the first two were divine justice and hells corner. but it did manage to get a cd of the fallen and i'm very interested in learning about how you -- [inaudible] >> guest: perfect recall is what it is called. thereto is to get this. you can even be born with this. an actress was born with this. mary lou henner. she looks at it and she does not forget. we can get their traumatic brain injury. the brain is a phenomenal organ. it can repair itself when it has been damaged. it can re-circuit its way around damaged areas. the sometimes weird things happen. it can open up parts of the brain that have not been utilized. that's why the perfect result comes from. but it can also cause pathways to cross. and that's where you get other

conditions. we associate a particular sensation with a collar. some people have this and they will see numbers and colors. the number seven for this person might see a vivid burst of orange. they know that is the number seven. whenever he senses that he is around a dead body he sees electric blue colors. that represents death ran. it all comes from the tbi that he endured playing football. and it was just, i love the brain. and figuring how this thing functions and trying to push the envelope on it i think is great stuff for storytelling. >> host: the last stretch here 10 minutes left. he made reference to your next book. it is also a new character. so is your new character? speech issues fbi special agent. she works in the hinterlands of the west where she is probably the only federal agent. she prefers it that way.

the very first line, the first chapters of this in longhand because it felt right. the very first line is a nursery rhyme. it begins, eenie meenie miney moe. i caught the choosing rhyme. because the last, where you start and you are doing two different people, the last word will fall. that is the way the word count starts out. and for natlie, it is disastrous. because someone was counting on her and when she was six years old. her sisters four head -- her sister vanished. so she is an fbi agent and this is the first time i've ever had a series that i knew was going to be a series where the lead protagonist is a female.i've written lots of female characters in my novels. the first time. but the name popped into my head and her background popped into my head. and i have been working.

about 70,000 words into it. i'm super excited. >> had to get the authenticity and in a woman characters voice? >> strong independent woman, doesn't want to write about. i don't write about damsels in distress because i've never met one of my entire life. it is has impaired my mother was a force of nature. my sister was a very strong independent woman. my wife is a force of nature. and we raised a very strong independent daughter. my whole life i have been with women. my grandmother was very influential part of my upbringing. i find it sort of natural to the extent that a male writer can write from the female perspective because i've seen in my whole life you see how they react, how they talk and act. how they do with other people. and i tell people that i have such a healthy respect for the other gender because i feel

acknowledged that men are the weaker sex. we might as well just admitted up front and get it over with. other than physical strength, it is pretty much it. i like writing from the fema point of view. and even with my fantasy series. where she was and wishes coming from. i like the fact that i can write from both perspectives and i think it is because again, i'm a great listener and a great observer. i love watching people and i watched a lot of women over the years. >> wayne is in michigan. >> this is wayne from michigan. david, i wanted to say we had david on our high school team to wrestle and i wanted to say that we all have a lot of folks from the team that have accomplished a lot of things in life but i will tell you that we are proud and talk a lot about your compliments and where you are. i just wanted to call in and

send regards. >> wayne, thank you so much man, it is great to hear from you! >> where is our firm in your life? question high school. i just spoke with my wrestling coach a couple of days ago. i signed up for him and we get together and i've seen some of the old wrestling team of the year and wayne was on the team. it is a blast from the past and it is awesome. >> he wrestled, he played football. what other sports? >> those are the two that i did in high school. i wrestled some in college. i played a lot of tennis and i play with my son now. but i'm just too old to keep up with him.he is 22. he can hit the ball a million miles an hour. i think he tolerates at this point.he doesn't hit as hard as he can just so that he can keep me in the game. [laughter] >> and washington d.c. person. welcome, christine. >> hi, how are you? >> hello.

>> hi. i was going to ask, did not sell making it stuck a lot with your plots. which is, you have said that you do not get grumpy for a long time. i've been grumpy for the last four or five months because i have been writing what i thought should be a memoir. and i get too personal places and i got to one where i can't put it on paper. i'm having a really hard time with, when they do better, and not written about before but i do better if i made it less personal maybe or did not write this is a memoir? >> i think the writers need to be flexible. if you really want to write a memoir, you can do that and might be able to work through. i get writers block. it is just a part of the writing process where you are still thinking about what you want to do. and how do you get that? he just work on every day. think about it or thought and do something else and let your subconscious work on a little

bit and so you figured out and keep moving forward. if you really cannot possibly because you don't want to delve done it's how personal it is for you, then be flexible enough to move on and maybe my as a novel and write fiction. then you can make up stuff and get to the personal accounts that might have been a little traumatic for you. then move on and get you into the story. >> will join us from bridgeport, connecticut.just a couple of minutes left with david baldacci. go ahead, please. >> i just wanted to let you know that i love your books. i am more partial to the series because i love their caring characters. i need new facets of the character and i was wondering if when you come up with the premise for a plot, one of your series does it ever happen that you feel that it is better suited to a different one of your series? >> that is a great question and it has happened to me. i thought of plastic sometimes and i think okay this will be

for a certain book but when i go deeper into the plot i can tweak it a little bit and do it but the fact that have so many series going, i can tweak a story and go off in a different direction and is a different series character. i think will roby is the only one we haven't talked about. >> he is an assassin. we first met him in the innocent.he goes around the country. he is the sort of guy that is a regime change guy. he cuts the head of the snake off and he goes around the world and kills. you would think that how can i quit a series about a guys whose job it is to murder people? and that was my challenge as a writer. i had to make him relatable in some ways. and it took great pains to do that. action sequences we see them doing what he does with great professionalism, great precision and tenacity. overcoming ions along the way. often times -- you know if you

pull the trigger and effectivity of the carry that baggage with you all the time and it affects who you are and what kind of like you can leave. and yes, he can be live and a learner it is a big surprise. most people don't go around pulling the trigger but he has to do that. so these are fascinating characters. i have yet to really touch the surface with him. >> our last call is virginia from pennsylvania. hi virginia. >> hello. i loved your camel club series. >> thank you. i cannot wait for the next book to come out. why did you kill them off? i mean, couldn't you have stopped for a while and brought him back later? >> if you're talking about oliver stone, in stone cold at the end of the book, when he goes off, it is done for him. now he came back and he lives into my books.

hill's corner and -- if he stopped the stone cold your tumor books. but the end of hill's corner, other than milton everyone else was alive.i can always bring them back. john clark, fiction wise is alive and kicking. i love to bring this back and if i could think of a really cool plot to put them in, i will bring them back. >> my final question. your 57 years old. you have a lot of writing like ahead of you. you only have a huge body of work. what would you like your legacy to be as an american writer? >> i want to sort of be the guy that it would be hard to put me in a box. it would be hard to label me as what kind of a writer i was. i don't want to be thought of as a mystery or thriller writer but fantasy, personal histories, dramatic family stories as well. i would like to be the kind that you open the book and you do not know what you're going to get. if you look at the word formula

in the dictionary, you will never see a picture of me next to it. >> thank you for spending three hours with the booktv audience. >> thank you, i enjoyed it.