had so much time and energy in the world and she's focused hers on her people and she protected them for 50 years. [applause]. thank you. i'm very grateful. [applause]. [inaudible conversations]'s [inaudible conversations] .. ..

abca 15. if i were to meet amos decker on the street, what what i see? >> a very large guy ambling down the street and if you stopped him and asked him a question he would blow you off and keep going. he lives in his own world and people take his looseness for ruthlessness which is not that at all. he used to be a very outgoing guy and then had a traumatic injury - brain injury, he does not the same person. you see the book evolve and you see in the "the fallen," i finally like him.

he has reached his humanity level, the core but it took me four books to get there. i like, located guys and he's, located. >> host: thanks for joining us for our "in depth" program. we spent 3 hours talking about their life and their work. david baldacci is spending time with us today. we hope to enjoy the interaction and that you will be part of the conversation. we will put the phone numbers on the screen and our facebook and twitter handle so you can join the conversation and we would like to hear your questions about his writing, the characters he has developed and why you are intrigued. that is the key to his success over the years. what makes amos decker a good hero especially for thriller? >> guest: i work with good to do. i get this guy who is irascible, aloof, doesn't get along with people, doesn't get

jokes, he will be very popular. he just spoke to me. i'm fascinated by the mind and this is guy whose mind changed. he had to rebuild his life. when you are developing a series you need enough material to justify more than one book, like developing a television series. people can relate to it, and watch as he changes. of the characters don't change there is no data to writing another book. he had enormous amount of material, a back story about his you would rather forget.

what is cool is -- >> you didn't want to do the one off anymore but do you have a sense of how many you can play out with him? >> guest: i'm not good at predicting something. i'm not like jk rowling where i said for me i have written a series that had two, that had five, that had more. do i want to keep discovering things. am i excited? if the answer is yes, i should keep going. if the answer is no i do something else. >> host: how did you develop this? was there a model in the real world you worked from? >> it was like frankenstein. i built from parts all over the

place. i knew i didn't want a large guy. i wanted an intimidating presence even though he is not an intimidating guy. i knew he would be a football player. that was the source of the brain injury which is prevalent in professional sports and football. a lot of players i loved growing up, watching, passed away, in wheelchairs, have dementia, their brain is gone. had a large presence and billed him into a detective with the unique feature, and everything that goes with it. he doesn't pick up on social cues. a detective that can be difficult. so he has a perfect memory but difficult to relate to people which is a downside to

detectives. i love struggle because struggle dramatizes things, makes mistakes, what makes this guy take? >> host: the setting for "the fallen" is a fictional place but the problems are real. tell us about them. >> it is a rough uptown, in western pennsylvania, coal mining, steel territory, this is a place, it only exists because john maren figured out a way to make money. there is coal there, textiles, so here we have baron bill. so they came. they had lives and kids in the coal went away and textiles went away, they still have to move so they have a lot of

challenges in this novel and sometimes those challenges take you down the wrong path. and baron bill we come on a town that has a lot of secrets under the skin. and bad things happen. >> host: one of those is opioid, we are seeing so much trafficking of the opioid cases, and what is the country struggling with? >> first and foremost i wanted people to understand this is a problem that didn't start with drug dealers. it is good for w

nails you. and for back pain, there is no effect on this. it is not addictive, this is a man-made problem. it is to fentanyl after one use. there is a whole host of factors but if trends continue, 100,000 people will overdose. that is the population of a small city, all this stuff is

not fictional. >> host: what you think of the narco debate. >> a lot of her first responders, a lot of places are saying we will give that to everybody. if you are doing drugs and the person you are with overdoses, save his life. it really is a lifesaver. people say that will encourage people. no, it will save lives and do we solve the problem. you don't want to say don't do it, let them die and figure out the problem later. it needs to be out there. everybody needs to have it. give it to a family member, the addiction treatment, first responders, everybody with the issue. have it in restaurants, people don't realize people go to overdose in a public place and resuscitate it. put it in a bar, a restaurant, a public place. almost like having a defibrillator these days, someone goes into cardiac arrest, hit him with it.

pull it out, pop it in their nose and bring it back to life. >> host: do you see this when you travel? these towns? >> guest: absolutely. in west virginia, you have a place where there were a lot of good paying cold minds -- coal mines where you could make $70,000 a year without an education. they are all gone. when you drive through these places, the midwest, unlike the washington dc area. it is menial, low-paying, no benefits, people had very few properties. a lot of that is what america

is. i am not surprised people are turning to opioids to break out of this because they don't feel they have any hope. we are the greatest country on earth, every citizen should have hope, would like to get better. we need to get that back. >> host: what is the lesson of capitalism? >> guest: the lesson of capitalism, i am a capitalist, i have my own small business but there has to be a balance. i was thinking about this when i was driving in today. would it be better for one person to make $3 billion a year or that person to make $1 billion a year and another person makes $30 billion a year and another make $60 billion a year, better health insurance and kids in college. would that make society better for everybody or the guy having to live on $2000 less, would that heard him?

we have seen this before in the beginning of the 20th century, the gilded age mark twain called it. this happened again before we had income tax and phenomenally wealthy people, robber barons, the rockefellers and a lot of people had almost nothing. that balance is out of whack. teddy roosevelt came in, monopolies up, unions come in, collective bargaining, unions are pretty much dead and all of the sudden very few are making extraordinary amounts of money and the rest of the people not so much. i don't think it is sustainable, i really don't. i can't argue to people, at least the united states, there should be some balance. as soon as you say redistribution, you are a socialist. i'm not a socialist but this is

not sustainable. >> host: in baron bill, a fulfillment center for an online, unnamed online company, have you visited one of those? what are they like? >> guest: the scale is unbelievable. they are football fields times 12. you have ever seen so much cardboard and shells and robots, people running literally all day. think about the packages you get at your house or the fact the postal service only operates sunday to deliver amazon packages and use the mail truck on sunday piled high with amazon packages. those packages have to get to you somehow. and holding that capacity, that volume, the scale is breathtaking and the speed this stuff moves, 400 packages

process the second. i was overwhelmed. i have been to a lot of big military bases. these places dwarfs the family life i saw there and it is phenomenal. the one major growth industry for people, and -- >> host: i will give the phone numbers and in 15 minutes take your telephone calls for david baldacci. 202-748-1800. easter central time zones. mountain and pacific times of, 748-8201. tweet us that booktv, use the hashtag "the fallen" -- "in depth". we will get to your questions and we have a facebook page. the very first amos decker book, the memory man, the

central plot of the school shooting. when did you write that? >> 55 years ago. >> host: 2015. we have seen a number of these. what are you thinking about what is happening with society? why did you use this as a device and what do you hope to gain for your readers? >> guest: the school shooting in memory man was in amos decker's hometown where she lived. you can write fiction, screenplays and any story, grow big and shallow, pointed to have a very intimate state. a very small stage and building this. and going deep with that novel.

and it is almost hitchcockian. it moved off and the primary focus, to figure out what happened. when i was overseas in england, they told me crime fiction has overtaken general fiction is the most popular genre in the uk for the first time ever and i said other things being equal if you can't get what you want in the real world you turn to fiction. good people hit the bed people at the end. and ending is the way it was supposed to go. and that is why people turn to

that. >> this is the home of agatha christie and sherlock holmes. you would think thrillers have always been part of the british club. >> guest: crime fiction is big over there and always has been. for the first time ever, taking general literature. >> host: let me get into how this started but you have our collar, listen to what he has to say. in iowa, welcome to the conversation with david baldacci. >> guest: >> caller: my question is about amos decker's memory condition. it started because of an injury he suffered in football. is is perfect recall something where he can recall things before the injury perfectly or is the perfect recall only triggered by things that happened after his football injury? >> guest: great question. it is different for different people. with amos decker, before the injury occurred to him, we all have memories of things that

happen to us from day one moving up but sometimes memory is not good about bringing that back out. what this condition is coming in 2018 we know little about how the brain works. it is almost like traumatic brain injury unlocked the memories that were in his head, think about his bandwidth. he was able to access all the information that has always been in their, his ram went up significantly, to talk about it on a computer basis. he will remember everything he sees exactly as he sees and hears it. the trick is sometimes people lie to him. he remembers what somebody said. he said something contradictory, put his template over that and the statement was not true at all so he could remember everything from day

one. >> host: all the novels of yours, state and local, federal agencies, various federal agencies and bureaucracy people have to deal with. what did you do with interagency relations? >> dealing with a lot of agencies dealing with each other is an experience in my office. it is in virginia where two federal agencies came to blows in my office. one was doing something, and somebody stationed in an office with binoculars, looking around, this other agency in the building, they grabbed this one, full body armor, a.k.a. 15s, other guys came in in trenchcoats and she worked for

us telling us because we don't tell anybody anything, we are who we are and it evolves quickly and evolved into chaos. and one thing they tell you is communication is not always what it should be. there is a lot of paperwork and intrinsic value, they like to be independent as a turf battle too. and or stuff they do so you don't get a piece of the pie to anyone else. >> host: changes made after 2001, solving the stuff after 9/11, have agencies that communicated with each other, actual bandwidth and physical

communications, what happens? >> guest: the irs has new computer systems as well. and $40,000 with a hammer and all those things happen. these are aircraft carriers, and if you think you will move those things in three minutes in a new direction it is not going to happen and it takes time and it is working better. >> host: high, martin. >> caller: good morning. i just finished "the fallen" recently and went through the entire amos decker series. and all your books, but especially decker's, there is some pretty heavy, deep,

emotional elements in it, do you plan those or do they come about spontaneously? >> host: what scene do you remember that really struck you as an emotional one? >> caller: the latest one, the last page, i will leave it at that. abby 19 tantalize our readers. "the fallen" "the width of the world" i do that relating to the readers on an emotional level. we all fall down, we all have losses that we have to suffer through. i really in this book in particular with amos decker wanted to show even though he had a traumatic brain injury about who he used to be, and not part of the world anymore, he has a heart and soul. and that is the way to show

this guy might have changed in a lot of ways but is still a human being. as far as i don't necessarily call these things out. i am writing the book and so immersed in it. call it spontaneous but my subconscious has been dwelling on it so long it is not really spontaneous, just came to the surface and used it when i am supposed to use it so i knew i wanted to get more emotion out of amos decker and his relationship in the book with other characters we are talking about. >> host: one relationship throughout the series starts out annoying him in the first book is a journalist who asks too many questions. how did she evolve? >> guest: she is his watson to sherlock holmes. she keeps him somewhat normal and on an even keel, kicks him

in the butt when he goes too far, and she is a steady influence but it is frustrating for her, she's good at her job and wants to be better and understand he is better than she will never be because of his unique abilities but he has issues and it is important to have a duo like this. they have to be complementary. they are better than they would be separately. each of them feeds off the other. alex jamison is a critical part of him. amos decker couldn't be decker without her. >> host: they work for the fbi. the fbi has been in trouble really nationally. a lot of accusations lying about their role in things which is someone who has worked with his agency for such a long time, what is your view of the public perception and arguing over the role of the fbi right

now? >> guest: all the aids i dealt with were apolitical and dedicated to what they do. they don't have time for political grandstanding or worrying about an agenda down the road. they are just trying to solve cases and catch people doing bad things before they do bad things. there is criticism. i'm not an agent but it hits me because i know a lot. the bureau, the justice department, some are saying you can't criticize institutions, you can criticize individual people who you show are doing bad things, to say the fbi and justice department are tainted and corrupt is not true. >> host: martha is in billings, montana. >> caller: i just started reading the alex decker books. i really like them. at the age i am madly in love

with john, i want to know why you don't give him a girlfriend. someone he can be settled with or something. i just love that man. >> host: we will talk about john later in the program. it is dangerous to be john's love interest. they don't often survive. >> guest: they are in the line of fire. never say never on that. he is a fictional character, he could find love down the road. he will be back in another book. i do like knox. she may be the one to tame him and stand the test of time. i'm keeping that in mind. i think he is a great guy. >> host: will there be more amos decker books or have you run dry? >> guest: there will be more amos decker books. i've reached the point on

revealing him a little more. i feel liberated to go far. >> host: next up is joann in wisconsin. >> caller: i have been a david baldacci fan for many years. my husband and i finished watching the king and maxwell tv series. it is different from the book because i just finished the king and maxwell book which i really enjoyed. i watched, i read, i listened, when i walk, i do the audiobooks. i'm glad you do the audiobooks. the amos decker one, the last mile, was fascinating. i've fell in love with the whole series. i will get the first one so i can figure out, not figure out but read about what happened to him. >> guest: the memory man, i was in the mood to do a brand-new

series and amos decker fit the bill for a lot of reasons. the last mile, the second one, you meet the other cast, that really clicked, it was a powerful book for me. i explored a lot of issues about injustice, the death penalty, the prison system, and all that. it gave amos decker a worthy foil. i get a lot of emails about both those guys. in "the fallen" it is melvyn the comes back. >> host: jacqueline is in washington dc. >> caller: david, this is jacqueline, an old friend. >> guest: how are you doing? >> caller: great. so proud and happy with all you have been doing the past several years. i have a question we have been pondering in our family regarding amazon, trying to figure out where to put the h2

headquarters. the major cities are vying for that. i often wonder if it would be a patriotic service or national service if jeff bezos was considered providing an industry for the state of west virginia or another state which needs an industry. >> guest: i would agree with that too. the second had court is amazon.com will be a shot in the arm community. i know the criteria they have, they want highly educated workforce and lots of other amenities and things in the area that would attract people. west virginia has a lot of those things as well and they should be in the running. i don't know what their criteria are. recently i read that amazon sent out to some of the cities in the running, a list of

things they didn't like and didn't know what to fix. it is extraordinary, one company has that much power, it is clamoring for jobs and all this money, really extraordinary. >> host: jeff bezos is a part-time washingtonian. have you met him? >> guest: i never met him. when amazon started out, it was out of his garage in the 1990s, and in 20 some years he built this enormous company, quite an achievement but a lot going on. >> host: jacqueline, a former colleague, a good jumping off point for what i want to do, spend some time telling your story in the audience. it began as a 20 year, overnight sensation, absolute

power, your first successful novel. can you tell the audience how it came about? >> guest: i have been writing since i was a kid, one of the kids that never shut up and always telling tall tales, just the way my mind works, i'm a voracious reader, my brother and sister, checking out more books so i never really left when i was a kid but i saw the world through both and locked in here. my mom brought me a blank page book, this of you have been writing and talking about, i did and i can create something other people can read and i looked back at that point and sourced into atlantic and

playboy and story magazine, had more success than that but couldn't make a living with a law school and practice law and family and i wrote school plays based on the screenplay and not a lot of success. then i decided to try my hand at longform, the novel. i have law offices, relatively new to the dc area and jordan and bush 41 was president and you occasionally see the presidential motorcade and secret service agents and thinking about what if i write a book that makes a bad person a good person and good people you normally think of good or bad for the pres. the mistress and the covenant and other teams ripped from the headlines. i spent 3 years of my life writing, when i was a trial lawyer, pretty intense work but

in my little cubbyhole until 3:00 in the morning every day, that was my time. i do say tongue-in-cheek the best fiction i ever wrote was there, not talking about legally. because as a writer and a lawyer, all i have are words. i would spend my whole 10 years writing as a lawyer about words and stories and how to tell something plausibly so somebody will believe it. it is making the transition, somebody said it will take a year to write a book. so it was then easy transition. i've wanted to be a full-time writer since i was a kid. my mom came back to me after my successes and said what a great

gift you gave to me, i'm so glad it worked out. quite frankly i just wanted to shut you up because i was on my last nerve. >> host: you have two siblings who felt the same way about you. >> saw them yesterday at the book signing. never shut up. >> what was it like when you got the phone call from your agent saying this book is effective? >> it is surreal. i just joined the firm very recently, working in a small firm, they had no idea who i was. i was attorney 587. my agent called and if i sell this book would you quit writing, and practice in full time? the book sold, it really sold. at first i thought it is great, all this time, i took an agent and found out he is a whack

job. i didn't believe him. it was too outrageous. things happen like that but not to me. than a call came through from the office of the president of time warner books to congratulate me, to celebrate the signing and i didn't -- nobody knew about that. i remember going to a luncheon that day after getting a phone call that changed my life. the speaker was talking about insurance regulation and i was sitting at the table with 30 other lawyers, all i wanted to do was get up from the table and do the electric fly all the way down, that is all i wanted to do. because it was newsworthy we had to tell our friends and family none of them knew i was writing. other than my wife, my brother and sister, my mother and father, not my in-laws, nobody i practiced law with, none of

my friends knew, we were telling people we had good news to share. we went there and they either thought we were having another baby or were getting divorced. i said we are having another baby but i'm the one who is pregnant. this is my book and they were blown away. one of my close friends, godfathers one of my sons, called me up and said what else does we know about you. >> we will pick up the story. >> >> caller: how are you doing? usually icu at the barnes and noble bookstore so it is a treat to talk to you. a couple things. in "the fallen" you exposed me to this whole structure of the fulfillment center and i assumed, you mentioned earlier that you had visited one but in the book you also bring up the working conditions of the

people in the fulfillment centers and i am just wondering do you see them as at least based on what i thought i heard in the book, are they becoming the sweatshops of the 21st-century or do they have that potential? are these places that are ripe for being unionized, or as you brought up in the book, this is just a temporary boom for employment opportunities for folks when robots may be taking over a large part of those responsibilities? >> those are all great questions. the fulfillment centers have the potential to be the sweatshops of the 21st-century. it is all based on productivity, building a package you have to get outdoor, it is impossible to compete with a robot that never gets tired and never needs a rest. to answer your question i think they should be right for

unionization, whether that can happen in 2018 or not i don't know. workers can be and are being exploited because literally for $12 an hour you shouldn't have to literally work yourself to death for 10 hours a day but at the same time automation is in the long run cheaper than paying people to do these jobs. when you are talking about lifting boxes up, putting labels on them, sliding them down and putting them into a truck, robots will one day do those things and you will have these fulfillment centers and two people work in them who are just engineers overseeing stuff that is going on behind computer screens and robots will do all the work. amos decker noted in the book he talked to the guys explaining this to him and said if robots do all the work and people are not going to have the jobs who is going to buy the crap on the shelves? and his answer was i don't think the business guys have figured that out yet.

somebody needs to. >> we spent 20 years looking at nonfiction authors and their work. we are celebrating the 20th anniversary this september but for this particular year our anniversary year on our "in depth" series we are focusing on fiction writers like david baldacci because their stories help us understand society and we will be talking about a lot of issues. if you are new to booktv, welcome and we hope you will enjoy our programming. if you are a regular booktv viewer i hope you enjoy this dip into fiction. bill is watching us in alaska. hi, bill. >> good morning. books on the shelves, the history, for centuries, authors incomes were based on actual books sold.

there would be announcements, hot seller released thousands its first day and so on. is that still happening? seems like the e-books have gotten to a point where people are not buying books. what is the effect on incomes of authors? >> guest: a few years ago e-books hit their height, really peaked saleswise and in 7 or 8 years they were blowing every other category of sales out of the water. hardcover, print novels plummeted, mass-market sales went through the floor, no one is buying massmarketed in the -- anymore. i had 6 or 7 books in a row where each book sold more than 1 million e-books, really high numbers. three years ago it started to plateau. e-book sales have started to go down. it may be just the fact that

there is fatigue, people have 800 books on the kindle or nook they haven't read yet so they are not buying as many e-books, might be an issue for some people, a big fight with online sellers and publishers, at the same time print books, i can look at my own statements i get from the publisher, have started to go up again, hardcover sales are going up. downloadable audio has exploded. it is the fastest-growing category in the country. people put them on their smartphones and ipads. for a while e-books had taken over the industry, things are getting back into balance. i don't do royalties anymore. i'm a full partner with the publisher so e-books go up and what we are trying to do is increase the pie, the pie gets bigger and i make more money but for a lot of writers out

there, e-books were a good thing for some, couldn't be punished -- published by traditional publishers but also could be a bad thing for some writers. it is accommodated area. >> host: how you read and travel so much. >> guest: when i read it is real books all the time. my wife used to be real books only but now it is both. her look book is loaded, she reads a lot online. i only redefined in lunch. for me, i hold it, feel it and turn the pages myself. as far as notes and all that go, wherever my go my laptop goes with me. i do a lot of handwritten notes. the first three chapters of the new book i'm working on, i felt like that was the way i wanted to do it but i tell people 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. >> 19 did you go to catholic school? >> guest: know. >> host: i thought it would have it from childhood. i am wondering, 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 how people dress and wear their hair to draw on that from later on in your writing? >> guest: i am like harriet the spy. i love to watch people. when i was in high school, college, law school, i loved watching people in these days i'm in front of the camera at the front of the room talking a lot but i love to be in the pack watching everybody. how people relate to each other and how they don't and reach other mannerisms and how they hold themselves. all of that is material for

bookstores. as a writer you have to be a good observer and good listener. those are the two attribute a writer has to have, you can't be at the center of attention, you have to watch everybody else. people asked me where i get my ideas from? i get up every day and walk out the door. i don't have my face buried in a laptop or iphone. i'm watching the world and trying to see the potential of a particular scene. and what happens when you walk down the alley. so i go to something that might be interesting. >> host: you referenced your wife, michelle. how did you meet? >> guest: we met at a vegetarian bbq. first thing she ever said to me, she insulted me. a new trial lawyer, fool of myself, felt a tap on my shoulder, turned around. i hear you are telling good for

your lawyer, thinking she wanted a story. can i give you some advice? okay. stop telling people that. she turned and walked off. i had to date her. it took a long time to find out who she was. she moved to the area, heard she had been in a motorcycle accident, that was not true. finally i got her number, called, we went to lunch. lunch is easy. we were out of there in an hour. we went to georgia and before i went, a lawyer i work with, we went in the briefcase, which one do you think? i want to make a good impression so we hit it off. they celebrated the 20th anniversary yesterday.

>> host: you have two kids was what did they do? >> guest: my daughter is in the not-for-profit world. a year and a half, thrived, focusing on helping the homeless. she worked there. and taking summer off. she is my traveler. and outside philadelphia and see them a lot which is really nice. the support thing is raising the. >> host: is it important to have such a famous dad? >> guest: my daughter never told anybody. when she was in college, david baldacci, my dad's name is skip. i went for graduation and, calling me skip, what is

happening here? my son will tell people, neither one of them, strong independent kids. >> host: harriet in bloomberg, books. and my question is, i have read most of the books. and it puts me right there. and how does he do this? i am curious, you have probably

visited those places. is this when you were writing the book, or pretty much -- >> guest: when i sit down to write a book? in order to write a book well, in an authentic way, who am i going to talk to? i collect a lot of information but at the same time as i am writing the book i visit other places and talk to other people along the way so finishing my research, i will never write the book, it is part and parcel of the writing process. i found the whitmore i know about certain things, the more interesting plot twists i can come up with, craft my storylines better because i know information that is not

common knowledge. not something you can wikipedia or google. i like to talk to people that i write about. it just is happenstance. i just like listening to those people. the research and the writing go hand in hand. it could be i am researching and thinking and talking to people until the last page. >> host: you get into places other people couldn't. you call up agencies and describe the top-secret work going on. why are they open to you? >> guest: i have become a journalist. my sister was a journalist for years. when i was in college i would go on a beat with her. i quickly learned there are a couple things. find out as much as you can about the agency or the person and what they do. educate your self so that when you talk to them on the phone

or send a query they understand he is not just calling out of the blue. he has done some work, i respect that. then they are more open. when i go in and i have done backgrounds, and not ask stupid questions, they tell whether i have done my homework. then a lot of people working at agencies are very short. that i will ask questions, show that i'm respecting what they do and not here to waste their time, they get more comfortable and i asked broad-based questions and dialogue back and forth and don't want specific answers. i want to have a chat and make them feel comfortable. and people have specialized knowledge, love to talk about it, something they look for so they like to share those stories. in 1979, i was i can bring tha

area. >> host: telling the story about your breakthrough in absolute power, one thing that changed your writing style, looking at the chapters in "absolute power" were 10 to 12 pages long, now they are 3 to 4 pages long, they also seem to always leave you wondering what will happen in the next chapter, always a hook line at the end. how did your writing style evolved? >> guest: i think writers need to continually reinvent themselves. for me, part of it was to become more economical with my words and descriptions. being part and parcel with the screenplays where every word counts, you can't write a 300

page screenplay. every scene had to have multiple purposes. for me i don't know when it was, 10 or 12 books ago i decided to streamline. a lot of the story i want to tell, the potency has been diluted by need not carry enough words out of it. i'm trying to write everything out without regard to whether it affects the flow of the story or not. the fact about the cliffhanger at the end of each chapter, i love reading books like that that draw me to the next chapter. i found out as i write these books that i am not bad at doing that. it could be one sentence and it could be totally out of the blue, one particular scene and you think something else will happen in the last line is that didn't happen because, then you turn to the next page. people say i am really mad at you because i can't get to sleep at 4:00 in the morning.

i say to myself put the book down and i can't. it is all about reinventing yourself and keeping yourself fresh, energetic. i never want to ask myself how did i do it? i want to ask the question how can i do it differently. >> host: mike is in bridgeville, delaware. >> caller: hi, how are you doing? i wanted to share and anecdote how i became acquainted with your writing. i was in the airport, did a lot of traveling, worked for the federal government, i was an auditor, an investigator, i was going to be waiting a long time for my flight and went over to the book area and looked the books and i saw this book

"absolute power" by david baldacci. i read the jacket and said this might be interesting. i bought it and sat down while i was reading and saying this would make a really terrific movie. i could see the actor -- >> guest: clint eastwood. >> caller: as i was reading the book it dawned on me i have already seen this. >> guest: i hope you like the book better. >> caller: what i liked about your writing is how you hook people, you hook the reader from the very beginning and like the lady was saying, she can't get any sleep because now that you have changed your technique and the chapters, so fast and that is what i liked about your writing is you can't

put the back -- the book down and when you pick a new book up you get hooked on it from the very beginning. i really appreciate what a terrific writer you are. >> host: that is a great segue into hearing about the movie rights. what was the story. >> guest: a number of studios were bidding on it. simultaneously, what happens, they have book agents in all the publishing houses, people field a manuscript to make copies. back then, 5 or 6 major studios were bidding for the rights. this was pre-cell phones, pens station, the payphone, 10 people behind me waiting to use the phone. warner bros. and paramount and castlerock, all these guys are on the line bidding on this book and i am shouting certain

things, have no idea what i said. people are looking at me like this man is insane. we should call the police and have them pave the way. i had gotten home on the train, the film rights were sold for a lot of money. weeks and weeks -- i told myself one thing, never forget this. this is the only time this will ever happen to you for the first time. everything else is secondary to that. when clint eastwood, i got a call from bill golan, the screenwriter, castlerock hired him to write the screenplay and eastwood signed on, he called up and said good news and bad news. what is the good news? iconic filmmaker clint eastwood is signed on for "absolute power," congratulations. clint eastwood, unbelievable. what is the bad news? iconic filmmaker clint eastwood

is going to start, direct and produce the film, your book is pre-much gone because clint wanted to be a father, mother, daughter picture, jack graham, the young hero was gone. even to that point when i was on the train and her dad news, the payphone, the credit card, called everybody i had known in my life, you had me in first grade, won't believe what happened to me. >> host: how old were you? >> guest: i was 34. >> host: you must have been hard to process. >> guest: every day was something new. good morning america, in dc, channel 9, years ago, i remember being on there and the film rights and book rights, i

heard later, everybody started cheering. >> host: how long till you quit the law firm? >> guest: i went there for almost a year. just recently retired after a distinguished career. we had been brought over to the corporate department. i didn't want to leave them in the lurch after that. we had been together for a long time. then going to be on book tour. i was writing the next book. and not being the best lawyer i could be and understanding that. >> host: jennifer is in richmond, david baldacci's

hometown. >> caller: i was actually calling, i love the amos decker series, loved how you brought melvyn mars back into the fix. i was shocked, i didn't think you would carry on the character but i was calling, what advice do you have about a 13-year-old who wants to be a lawyer but also a writer? >> guest: i was listening to the same situation. reading a lot is great, playing with words is great, that is what lawyers and writers do. i just say join a book club and you will find a lot of people with similar interests, there are a lot of organizations around, legal organizations, law firms, to encourage people to go into law, some summer camp deal with that as well. the true discipline shares a

lot of commonality so she goes and does this she might find people there have the same dreams. i would say open up a blank page journal and start writing stuff down, doesn't have to be anything but what comes out of your head. a line of dialogue, little plot or observation the. ..observations. do that everyday, all of it every day. i also would say at 13 you have seen a lot of light but what i would say is don't write about what you know about the write about what you'd like to know about. because passion and drive you to really bridge storytelling. >> host: we are at the end of our first of three hours with david baldacci. we will take one call we will take one call from nancy. and then we will show you a little bit of the trailer from absolute power. it is so nice to be able to put a face with the book. i'm 80 years old i have a neurological problem so i

can't hold my head still to read. i started listening to them because i couldn't sleep. in my children suggested i try to get other seniors. i just want to thank you for all of the books that you had written. i can't recall one specifical one. i have to listen to the voice it's nice to hear another voice that i can visualize everything down to a styrofoam

cup that is sitting out of place.ud then i have the same. if she was that they head in the last scene. a condition wash things like that.e so think you for all of your books. >> and presuming from this that you use all p of those. they are professional actors who do that. i've long since learned my strengths and weaknesses. it's not just people reading. they act out the scenes. there is a lot of drama and inflection. people that read the harry potter books. jim dale creates a guy in her petite voices for every book. but is a whole another experience.

i have sat in my garage listening to see how it's yling and even though i wrote it. because the audio is a different performance and experience. it's just a while. we are going to show you the trailer from absolute power. this is the book and then the movie that made david baldacci a household name. we will say how it see how it all began. and then after that a were writing to tell them about their own favorite authors. we will be back with our two.

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and we begin our two of three hours with david baldacci. and his own personal life. 140million books in print in how many countries now? see mike almost a hundred countries. n a particularly popular in italy? >> we love the book. yet to change the name. my name's italian. they said that's why you have to change it. if you have an italian name they want to see american films.er they are all immigrants from somewhere else. luckilyre i looked out in the

driveway. i saw the blue emblem. the number one bestseller in italy. i must be now. in my second book. i have no idea why that happened. great guy. due to her in italyre ever. and what is your interaction with the italian readers. we promised the one that called in earlier. we would start this hour talking about it. he investigates crime involving army personnel

around. they will investigate minor crimes. see ideas cid is a higher level. you can go to west point and head that. on the investigate crimes. it's kinda like and cis. we will talk for ten orho 12 minutes and then begin your phone calls again. if you had questions about this particular series you can ask about any of the works and we are we're here to learn about his writing. we will also give you art twitter address as well. they've a very famous father. and he is a decorated military hero. a three star. his name is general puller. the legendary marine. that's where the marina came from.

as a kid growing up in virginia. he learned about them. that's where it came from. i kind of emulated his career with the political differences with eisenhower. they volunteered for combat duty in vietnam. a lot of the descriptions came from my remembrances. now these books are still with the military. military leaders and their in a spot things that are not true from reality. lot of rents in

the area. cite a friend of mine who was retired colonel. so they jumped on the plane. and flew down to fort benning georgia. an infantry. connected three days down. i got my butt kicked from one end to the other. with the rollover task. until they're sick to their stomach. i did the functional fitness training where had it sergeant behind me and it will run the copy. i also spent a lot of time just talking to people.

as i was writing that novel. i did want to write a book but not one that i didmi know anything about.th and also get into the heads and hearts by talking to them. i spoke about this earlier. i love learning about other people. what is the most adventuresome thing you've ever done in researching a book. probably some walk along's and then you have right along's. in trying to catch bad guys. and just just me and this other guy. i think his street name was peanut.

and then we passed the fence. it was a walking path. something on the other side of the fence hit it so hard that one of the boards hit me in the head. i'm staggering back. the master bill. so he can get through there. we run. and we ran down this alley with this hound. trying to rip out the otherer board to come after us.s. it was called true blue. because of the one episode i put in a character named psycho who was one of the characters in the now ball based on what have happened.

i think it was kind of weird as well. and dacey and you have to do it. there were 50 paratroopers there. i was going to chicken out. 2011, 2012. 2016. we have a set of stories. the last four springs have been named that. there is a couple things i want to have you talk about. the lesson no man's land. once again it returns to the scene of economically stressed town.f this is a coal mining town.

it sounds like the family roots. what is a story of drake virginia that you are telling. it's a town that has seen better days. it's right on the border. if you are in southwest virginia. i totally made that up. you know what that is not on the street corner anymore. it was a place that have a military footprint. the investigated the murder. it was left over by the military for four years ago. and nobody knows what's inside. they kind of reclaimed that. and taking out the history little by little.

they actually have secrets know what he was aware of. on peeling likeke the layers of the onion and take it to the court. i love that. i love reading books where writers do that. i like concocting stories where i turn it off a little bit and then people over time are there places from world war ii. where their abandoned sites that had dangerous material in them.ou there is a lot of it that was just easier back then 50s and 60s and 70s where we weren't as conscious about the environment or we didn't have money to clean up. the epa did not exist until nixon created it in the 70s. talk about corporations and self regulating themselves. i don't think that works

really. it was just easier and more cost-effective to leave it behind and go somewhere else. obviously that has repercussions. you told me during the breaksi the military is a complicated beast. there have all these acronyms. and just understanding the weaponry a i'd like to drill down too much. because i'm writing a book. may had to get into the weeds a little bit but you have to make it almost shorthand. to write this book. i've actually served in the military. every military person knows that the and 11 as a side arm. that's what they carry.so or the particular duffel bag that he uses for

investigations.g i have to build that into his mentality such that it wasn't like i took the paragraph to describe it. a it's really hard to do that i never want to work a flipbook. they've done a lot of research.. they want to leave it all in. then you get past all of the step. and stuff. and then you get back to the story.y. we will take some calls. we are in we're in turner falls massachusetts. chris, our you there. thank you. hi mr. baldacci thank you. my question is kind of fact versus fiction i'm thinking

that there is a lot of evil out people out in the world with what you're writing. in roby and they are out there saving the world from this evil. i'm also wondering why these have all of these characters in real life. and they are all race trying to tie the handsg out there trying to save the world every house that. we certainly had more than our fair share. it's a balance. with a lot of civil liberties. and you want people to do their job but you also had to

achieve a balance. to head somebody do something that will interfere with the constitutional rights. i have to make it across the board and shortcuts. don't you want when they're trying to get one. i like the idea that people are working to protect us from evil. but understanding that nobody works free. and that's the one thing i learned in law school.t' s once you cut back on other peoples rates it's much easier to come back on the enforcement of all rights. then it's a slippery slope that none of us really want to be with. it is a tricky balance. with the books that i writes in complicated stories in fiction.

you present this is a very personal human being. hundreds of ways for people to die how do you do with that. it's kind of a dark side. remember when the kids were little i have this cabinet. it have all of these books in there. a murders and all that stuff. don't worry about that. i can i'm fascinated by the stuff and i think it's a good way for readers to be scared. you never wanted to run into ted bundy. by it.r fascinated

for me it's part of what i did. i wanted want books to be authentic and real and because of that i have too research all of these things. when i was in tennessee. about ten years old. i went off and i did something. i went over to it. it was about autopsies. i read the whole book. yes i was turned off by the violence of these people in the military by. and those that help solve these. and all the issues and had families and closure. and i have a great explanation for it. i crave knowledge. i always thought i know knew a lot about a lot of things.

and putting these discrete elements together. i love all your books and of course my question is about the chino club books. i loved all of the different characters how they team together. i would ask you about one summer. how did that book come about. i i laughed and i cried. that was a great book. i walk. and the guy in the middle the crowd stands up and had stuff camel.

he said what you think i want more of. i was like medication. but he wanted more camel club. if i can think of a great story to bring them back i well. and believe me i have not stopped thinking about them. as far as one summer it only happened because my son was having his confirmation in catholic church and my wife sent me to church to save pews i was like there a hour hour and a half early. then i started thinking about things. my son was being confirmed life is moving on. as things about my think about my own mortality.

the entire story for one summer it was in my head. no one knew i was writing it. when i sent it up to them they were like where did this come from. i remember my editor just laughed and saidd can you go to church more often. easily south carolina. hello, rachel. the lady from texasro just got in front of me with the camel club. i have read if i had time and not been on hold. the divine justice i think it was there. it was on page 196.

probably 296, the elderly. the driver of the van that they were after them. and that one page was the best writing of any writing i have ever read. it was just outstanding. i love all of the books. the standalones and the absolute power in total control you capture in about the first three pages and then were gone. we say put everything aside. i don't know if it's your writing or instructions but i love the fact that the chapters are shorter than most booksos and that you had times in the pages i just got through reading a book that have a go through 13 pages that's because i'm elderly and i feel like i can stop at the end of this chapter.

overall with the readers do you find that most of them read all of your books or they just zoom into a particular character and like them. the rest based on book signings i've done over the last 20 years i had people coming in with handcarts and boxes of every single book i've written. where i didn't have a few people there. with every other book i've written. the majority of the people say i read every single book. including the kid stuff. do you recall specific books. can you recall all of them. >> yes i can.

and some of the stuff that has happened. i'm the one that writes all the books. a total recall. >> i'm so excited here in the man and seen him interviewed i'm deeply impressed with your integrity. and that's something incredible to experience in the state ain't i had two personal questions you sound like he you wrote until 3:00. how do you stay married. it seems like that keeps the house alive. i've been impressed by the books that were displayed. how do you choose another authors books of who to read and how often do you get to read in one month or throughout the year. >> your first question i wait

until everybody was asleep i was down in my little cubbyhole writing in the middle the night. the family is very important for me. that was really the only slot i have. without her support none of this would've happened for me. i definitely owe that to her. and the second question how do you choose what to read. i get recommendations from friends and family. a lot of times i almost tongue-in-cheek said i will get the blurbs i don't have to read it. i sometimes i will give it to my wife our friend when i was a friend of mine he used to be my editor at my publisher she

sent me a book that she is published i know you hundreds of these every year. i think this is something you're going to injure -- enjoy.y. they continue to publish and i continue to read them. if you go on your facebook or twitter feeded as an industry with doing the right thing we always need fresh voices. when you need new writers out there telling us. one way to do that is support them. i have other writers who would teach me and give me the benefit of their experiences. i've have a lot of them now who came up after me and i would give them the benefits of all of the mistakes i have made.

>> there are some that are not up-and-coming.g. is there a writers sucker where you all stay in touch with each other. >> we see each other advents i'm doing an event with him. and sandra brown i know pretty much all of the popular writers that people enjoy. michael connelly. all of those. occasionally we will do charitable events together. when john came out with his book last year we went to see friends and did a podcast there. you see them occasionally it's not like we all hang out together this not like that show where they are sitting around playing cards. but we get together from time

to time and we talk shop. lewis is in bethlehem, pennsylvania. >> yes, mr. tran to baldacci my comment is i got into reading for my father in grade school he forced us to read so that we argued. he wanted facts not just emotions that's how i got into reading.he but the movie absolute power that i saw based on your book. how close to that was your writing. the first act of the film is right from the book. the burglar and what he sees. and in everything then everything after that totally changed. they wanted to be the hero of the film. t back then clint was enough here for any film. his character is killed about

i think theugh one time he died back then. i think it was a film called high plains drifter. that is clint eastward. he can't die. the screen writer who have a change is a whole to keep by a little that he was seven be a lie. and you have to borrow money brown was an old client of mine. one of the coolest pieces of litigation i have ever done. we scored a great victory. so having to borrow money from

a cab driver to get to the nbc studios. and to get out of the money --dash make those things happen. when you go in a million miles an hour back then. before that i have never been on a television show before. n >> it was like i was in thehe same body but a totally different person. back to our hero john pull her puller in the series. couple of questions about it. the relationship with the general puller continues. tell me about the dynamic and then the human story you are telling there. the great thing is there is a lot of opportunities to head action and weapons and things happening but that's all well and good but i needed to have some hyper emotional. where you can relate to the sky on a human level just like everybody else. having a father who was ae legendary combat commander who

you always walked in the shadow of. not to be a shell of what he was. that for me was something that was gonna knock him down to the knees. always know that he can never measure up to the old man.anld it was hard for him. for me the emotional baggage in that book was the relation between john junior and john senior. he could no longer be senior because of that he could no longer do that. he wanted him to have a relationship. he's dealing with his father's dementia.io not much room for emotional v closest to being the woman that could be with him for a long time.

people cap writing after the first two it books. it was a great tv series all of the magic went away. all right it's done. in that way and very like that. the scariest scene i have ever seen in the film is the shower scene from psycho. you let the mind go you're good.ag you are on for david baldacci.

beginning with absolute power onto a wishing well. i would like to add. it was about my experiences as a child in germany in world war ii and where they lived. right next to the swiss border. we were very fortunate howeverer we felt the effects of the war. i just went into quite a bit of detail. with the statue of liberty

which was extremely emotional.l. e what i would like to know everybody has read this and is encourage me to write a book and publish it how do i go about this.bo >> i bet you get this question all the time. if this is a nonfiction piece there are agents that handle it.th and you can find their names send them a query letter. this is what the experience is. send them to her three

chapters. for these days.av you can self publish online. this book sounds really interesting. p that would be my advice. the main question paul rogers is the subject of military on the human being to increase soldier's soldiers capabilities on the battlefield.ty it was all things. the endoskeleton's are already in effect. to lift weights and move fast.

they are doing that research as well. there is a whole cottage industry out there.on trying to do as fast as possible. with billions of dollars. doing all sorts of things. and in the flipside there is flalso a lot of work going on to repair soldiers who have been injured on the battlefield. a lot of the soldiers that were injured the injuries that they have in iraq and afghanistangh they all would have died. now you get treatments on the battlefield that stabilize these people and they get airlifted out. and then they have all this amazing work done. and bring them back but at thehe same time you're talking about soldiers and he got there

alive but have a lot of challenges now. they might have lost all of their limbs. i was down there at walter reed hospital. hospital. in talking to troops on the and seven or eight years ago. and there were different places in walter reed. they i had one for the tbi traumatic brain injury. i was talking one young man have been entered he was not a tbi candidate that he lost both of his legs. i was asking you know how are you doing what's your name. all of the response is very slow and i h could see he was struggling. i pulled this dr. aside and i said that he's not a tbi. he said this has been blown up a there all tbi's. can you imagine getting blown

up. they're all of tbi's. yes we can fix the soldiers but it leaves them with a lot of challenges for the next seven years of their life. he spent time visiting veterans. i've been over to the air force base in germany. i want to continue to do more of that. when they have that going hot and heavy. they put their lives on the lights. we owe them everything. next is jail wolf point.

>> i stock your books so that i can read them on airplanes because i'm a terrible fire and i get so engrossed in your books that i forgot any fears that i have. it works like a charm. the question i wanted to ask you how come you don't have an accent my wife lives near monument avenue. she never lost it. i used to have a southern exit growing up. my wife she was born and the naval base outside of chicago but she lived all over atlanta she puts on her richmond voicey and the richmond voice is who is your family and where they from. i think my accent over the last few years has been smoothed out. it just went away but i have to tell you if i'm down there for any. of time it all starts to come back. hi, i seem very enamored with

the john john taylor and i was wondering that we don't write enough about him. are you planning on any new books in the future. have a lot moree that i want to write about him. i hit my stride with him. his a lot of baggage. the mistry what happened to his mother. i think his character has a lot more room to grow. and i really haven't even touched the relationship with his brother yet. but it's only been one book since then. he will be back. guaranteed. tell me of the storyk. of wish you will and why it's might so important to you. s

that's by far the most personal book i've ever written b and even of the though the story is fictional every element is nonfiction. i have read a story in the washington post in 2004 they finally pulled running water and electricity out to ramsey ridge. the youngest of ten. a very hard life. a couple of pictures that we head in that screen. she did a lot of siblings but a difficult life and it made her incredibly strong personally. when i was think about writing the story because i'd heard all of these for myas mom or my grandmother. she was a teacher and i remember going to her bedroom before i go to school. and we would talk about the civil war.

did a great uncle who have fought in the war. it was the only thing she really had to leave. it was a single shot rifle. and my great uncle paul well wrote. i head in my office at home. in my grandmother said the only thing wrong about was that they fought for the yankees. didn't they win. it was a long winning battle between us. that was my ways, with my own mother for this book. i looked at pages of notes. and her recollection of things that happened were pristine. i can't even remember what happened yesterday. she said when you grow upid like that you never forget for me

that was one of the most traumatic's moments in my life because i wanted her to love and she did. thank you. because of that nothing else would've mattered. she did not live to see the film but i think she would've liked it as it was an active betrayal of what life was like back then. with a gentleman in the checkered and the checkered shirt back on screen. it was my grandfather. anybody that reads the books. will say copyrightt and my other grandfather he was

6-foot four guy who died before i was born as well. nobody in richmond could pronounce any of those names to everybody so everybody just call the mike.e. what generation was he in the nine seats. he came across from italy. the turn of the last century through ellis island. for a lot of italians new york was far too cold. that was richmond virginia. because of that. can it take some more calls and then we willea how it became a foundation for the baldacci's. hello and how are you. i just want to say how very much i am per enjoy your books

and i'm so glad to hear you're doing more john pull her books. i do encourage you to bring the chemical back when you get there. my concern is you don't write quick enough. because i've read all of yourca books and i have to write wait so long for another want to come back. i have not read the fallen. i'm 92 of the waiting list it will come continue with this wonderful tell you talent that you have i do try to write as fast as i can't my wife keeps telling me to slow down.y >> libraries seem to be on the decline in our society. >> i'm a big proponent of libraries and i had been forever. they made a huge difference in my life.

i think the use of labor is is going up the funds we use to support them her going down. they had had to evolve. the problem is were not funding them. and fewer librarians that are working. investing in libraries is investing in education. i know what book reading meant to me. it made me the person i am today. it's what you would want to have in a society all of the founding fathers we are all readers and well-educated men who were tireless writers. they were very intelligent and will read people and that's why we have this great country why should we not be will read. this is what got us here.ot

i'm reading the fallen right now and memory man is my favorite series going. >> it will be my old football number in high school number 68 i wasn't nearly as big as decker but that deftly would've fit what he did number 68. charlie, california. i started reading your books r and i get mine from the library also. i do question. i just finished one of the king met shawls. the cycle psychoanalyst that treats her and have a consequence there where father had torn down the rosebushes side the house.

what i wanted to know did i read in one of your earlier works something in reference to that another character and they tore the rose bush death rosebush down or is that something i read with one of the child books. the rosebush you are talking about what they did in simple genius was a memory every kind -- reconstruction of what happened between her parents people that read the novel understand what that means. as far as i can remember from all my books that incident only happened in simple genius.iu if you have a recollection of the in your mind and might of been from another book or another series. that is the only time i've used that in the novel.

secret service also has some difficult challenges over the past five or year's years -- five or six years.. what's going on with that. the secret service is interesting agency and that they have to endure large amounts of p pdm and keep their focus complete with dealing with a few seconds of crisis. and that's hard and difficult to do. at the same time that's their job.he i've looked at a lot of things that have happened over the years particularly when obama was president agents going off and doing things when they're traveling over overseas to never should have happened. a total breakdown and command.. i think what happened they needed to have a total housecleaning and obviously when trainingd and readiness for duty break so i don't know if people get complacent about it nothings ever happen

anyway. we can go off and have some fun. it's crazy. i think a lot a of agency didn't these are just the bad apples that we hear about.t. and one of the agencies goes back to it. they were the gold standarde organizations are made up of people. they can turn it around. susan is in morris illinois. hello to both of you. i just want you to know that when i read your book i become one with your book and i need to have nitro my bedside. that's how i get so involved that i get it into my chest. when you write a book do you

yourself become part of it. yes i do. when you're reading the book and felix excitement i go through the emotional gamut and i'm writing seems also. even though i'm writing and creating it and know how it's can and it's the whole emotional connection as your writing the novel. i really jump into that myself. gn and leawood kansas. hello jan. >> i have a question about plotting do you know the exact ending that could if theyxa i never know the ending of a book. i let it grow organically. i always thought if i outline the entire. and it was to

neatly time together. if you know thee book is still good but it's not nearly as exciting as it could've been. not knowing the ending is actually good thing for me. >> the wish you will foundation when did you start and what do you do with it. in the year 2000. and what we do is we fund literacy organizations across the country of a board of directors who meet four times a year and we get about five to 6,000 great applications across the world. we approve as many of those as we can.ur and we fund the program in all 50 states in counting. we will continue to do so. we will continue to do so. we accept donations from other

i know what literacy and meet reading has meant to me. is not just about enjoying a book on the beach. if you can't read at a significant level. you can't be a member of democracy. lots of stuff is thrown at you every day. and if you're reading skills are not high enough. effectively someone else is telling you what to think. to make it as great as we can possibly be. both socially and economically even today if your academic --dash can act. it's not just about pulling wrenches. readings at reading is at the forefront of that. years ago we partnered with

feeding america. there's a big white box that they're filling up. we pay to have it shipped to local area food banks. we've collected nearly 2 million books because people who are seeking food assistance are usually literacy challenged. getting books into the home is a good thing. and how much money does the foundation giveaway. hundreds give away. hundreds of thousands of dollars. many more applications and than you can possibly get. there is very little government money t for adult literacy. is that it saidd it makes perfect sense. they are defectivelt acknowledging the k-12 program. it doesn't work in this country. so most of the donations come from private foundations.it

she was a greatat proponent and raise more money for it literacy than any other organization. and they did a lot of great things. that works to endow a couple of things. the coolest thing i thought is to allow financial assistance for people studying political science that there is another fund that they set up. before we made this donation my wife and i paid for to travel to the new hampshire primaries.re and talk it was a great thing. part of this money will allow students to travel the world engaging in these learning experiences. so they might travel to south america and they might work on political campaigns.l

you have to spend all four or five yearspe sitting in the college. we can get students right fromit the get-go. they really want to learn about and study about it.y for those of you in other regions of the country. what an honor that i had found you today. i am blind in my eye and going blind in the other. and he signed me up for congressional takes. that is okay because it's the same story. as a whole different experience which is a written

word on a page. it's another dramatic way to experience a great story. .. .. wanted you to change the character, change how you fit into the role and you didn't want to. >> guest: that's a really good question. i've never encountered that. certainleded temperatures have given me comment at a person in the novel. never had them tell me we don't want this character in a book or it's not right for this story, but i -- editorial relationships are important to me and i have a

great editor who has been editing my book. >> host: who is he. >> guest: mitch hoffman, he is now an agent. the agent still employs him to edit my books, he is a great guy and i love him to death and we -- i didn't want to start over at this night my career. want heed the comfort as having mitch part of the team. that this point in my career it's very unlikely the publisher will tell me dope do something. want me to write the books and they know that after 40-odd novel is know what i'm doing. but that's not to say that you should listen to editors. you don't have to always agree with them and you at the end of the day you're the king or the queen of the story you can do what you want to do. it's always very respectful to listen to other people's opinions and they're just trying to make the story as good as it could be. >> host: bash where in st. petersburg, florida.

>> hello, mr. baldacci. >> guest: hello. >> caller: contrary to the other callers i never read any of your books. i've always been kind of a nonfiction reader. however, listening to you now just a couple hours, i can't wait to read your books, but it's like which one would i start with? >> guest: well, you know, for first-time readers i tell them a cool, fun story that has a great villain and great heroine is called the killer and be figure out how to texas the united states national lottery to she can pick the winners. like faustian tail. hoe can make you rip and nobody ever has to find out. it's a crime to do that but i can make you rich. so, a lot of people will --. most people have read the winner can wait, just loving the story

and if that's the first book of yours -- >> speaking of lottery on facebook, here's a question: when i read your books it's like simultaneously witching a movie with the pace, characters, love them all, but have soft spot for puller and decker. question: can one participate in an auction to have a character named after us? >> guest: the answer to that is, absolutely. i've done that probably over the course of 23 years, maybe 100 times. what happens is charities will come to me, cancer society, cystic fibrosis, united way, and can we auction off a character name in a novel? and i can say yes to everybody but i said yes to a lot of different organizations and i was a former lawyer. i grew up in agreement. you have to sign an agreement. whoever gets the name says i can make you anything no matter how vial, disgustinggusting and disk

able and you have no legal recourse, and if you don't sign the document you don't get in the book. the book i have now has five auction names in the book and i try make them interesting and memorable so people -- i remember one that's in the book i'm working on now, he paid like almost $20,000 for it, and it in the money went to buy books for every middle school and high school student? nassau county, florida, and i went to speak at the schools when i was down there in february. it was great. the husband came over and said he bought the name for his wife, and he drew me aside and said can you do me a favor? can you make her evil? and i said, well issue don't know. then his buy comes over and says -- just don't make my evil, okay? i'm like, okay, i have to thread this needle. >> host: we'll take another short break at the top of the hour two -- the bottom of hour two. one more thundershower go in our three-hour conversation with best selling author david baldacci. we happen you'll stay around for it and if you're on cue on the

phone, stay there. we'll continue taking your calls in the third hour. we'll be right back. ♪ >> hello, i'm louisa. welcome to virginia >> there's no. >> there's no money -- -- >> my dad died in that accident, he and my mom were arguing. >> people pass when it's there time. >> can't forget them but we have to go on this. my company is looking to make a substantial investment here. that coal company is not going to get my farm and destroy the mountain and ruin the land. >> he paid you to steal other

people's land. >> you don't exactly own land. you just trying to take care of it. >> two things in life we die for, friends and family. >> believing in something is not better than having an empty heart. you can find your way off my property. >> what are you doing? >> the reason i came here was to see my dad but i want -- >> this land is provided for me all my life. i think it will provide for us now. >> we're back. hour three with david baldacci. this is "in depth," a response a

month feature on book tv where we talk but author's life and work, and learning more but their body of work, we're so pleased to have david baldacci with is for three hours. let me ask you about this, we keep getting called about the campbell -- camel club. >> guest: it's total lie unique certainfully thriller onramps a group of old irguys, the headed by a guy -- oliver stone, not the director but my oliver stone. whose real name is john carr and used to be a lethal assassin for the u.s. government until things went wrong and they came after him and he had to disappear. and he had this ensemble of older guys, one works at the library of congress, one is a computer whiz, and one is ex-military and fell into bad ways and they're conspiracy

theorists but stumble upon real conspiracy and have to working to to solve them. so it's -- the camel club was because it was upa unique premise, unique setup, and i took time building to every character's brown and make them very real. the real i thought of the camel club issue was -- when its fit went to d.c. i waned to learn the city and walking past the white house, and back then, before pennsylvania avenue was closed off to vehicular traffic -- people thought that happened after 9/11. actually happened after the oklahoma city bombing. and the lafayette park was there and you had protesters in lafayette park and there was one lady whose hand -- just recently peace away and he was protesting against nuclear proliferation and she had a ten and all that stuff. that was -- so fast forward ten years, i'll have my oliver stone be a protester in lafayette park, has little accident there every day but has the secret

back story. >> host: the first book is dedicated to the secret service, which we have been talking about. in this, the character, john carr, oliver stone, has relationships with the people that patrol the grounds of the white house. >> guest: he does. the secret service is an omni presence there. it's the most -- i call it in a litter become in the camel club series, hell's corner, that's the code name for lafayette park and i asked a secret service why? he said that's our turf and anything bad happens there there's hell to pay. so they get to know the people, whether they're a threat or not base they're there every day and there's a relationship that buildings with a little skepticism. the secret service has a job to do. one character that the secret service agents were friendly were, with alex ford and he befriends them and helps them with cases. >> these novembers are set mostfully d.c. and that's your stomping grounds. you said earlier you like to create fixam -- fictional

places because people won't say you have the movie theater on he wrong corner. so how are you -- how do you do that? d.c.? walk the streets to make sure you have everything right. >> guest: die. i -- i wrote hell's corner, this horrific event happened, bomb went off, so i went to lafayette park it and was -- remember those phone cameras? i'm walking around lafayette park and speaking into any flip known and taking video. he have to make sure offering i see is where it's supposed to be so i can write about it later because it has to be flawlessly choreographed and everything had to his its mark. so i remember back then was this guy that wag dressed as like a warrior in a loin enclosing cloth -- loincloth and a spear and he had a caribbean accent and walking rind in a loincloth.

so i'm in my flip camera i'm saying to myself, i think here would be a really good place for the bomb to go off. and as i said that, this guy walking past me in the loincloth and spear stops and looks at me and heard me and said, you're crazy. this is a guy in a loincloth telling me i'm crazy. but i -- so i go to these places. don't want to make he mistake of you're in georgetown and five minutes later you pulling into bethesda in your car which everybody knows here would be impossible. so rush hour might take three yours, but i try hit the marks, know readers will try to ding me. >> host: the first camel club book, very important part is the national information center, nic. presume it exists and does it do what you say, which is basically data driven, mission to find some sometimes kill opponents of the country. >> guest: yes. no, every country has something like that. again, i talked but all

countries have enemies, and we need to protect ourselves against those enemies to the united states is very data driven and have a whole assortment of assets that can be deployed to take people out. it's called like the war on the cheap. you can send out a single assassin and take out a head -- cut off the head of the snake and send in 100,000 people to try to do it. some stuff we have done around the world, we try topple dictators and sometimes not dictators, but that's a policy, foreign policy we have used in the past and continue to use and always look for ways -- in these days you see the term regime change. what that dot many? talk about northern northern and iran you read in the newspaper. one policy and everything is on the table, they say, including regime change. how are you changing regimes? you take the guy out. that's how. just take them out. >> host: you also educate news this in the scene about how much

data is compiled on every one of us by the government. remember writing about educate yourself but the patriot act. your health records, you're foreign calls, all being collated. >> guest: yes. we have 17 intelligence agenciness the united states. including dia, he defense intelligence agency which is like the cia except bigger with a bigger global footprint. and they're doing something all the time. and i like -- very recently i've been thinking and they check almost as much information as facebook does. we're an information-driven society and right now people talk about -- you talk to experts in field. the next war it nose in a battlefield, it's cyberware fair. that's where it's at. what the russias did in the 2016 election cost them $10 million or $20 million and probably did two trillion of damage to the country. >> host: does it approved new plots for you.

>> guest: absolutely. i have to be careful i don't get behind the eight ball because technology and techniques are changing fast. i'm one guy sitting in in my office writing stuff. i'm fighting against millions of highly intelligent people who work 24/7 trying to come up with ways to do things. kill somebody. eavesdrop on something, get more information. all this technology behind them. so it's pretty unequal battle so i try to hold my own but it's a tough fight. >> host: let's go back to calls. this kenneth n miami. >> caller: hello. mr. baldacci, my question is given this world of trump and you have a liberal and a conservative point of view on focusing on his personality versus his policy, what is your basic take in terms of

government corruption, you know, they have controls and agent, you'll know, why are the all picking on trump instead of just an rove overreach of government and why individual responsibility, why do we tolerate if wore aware and are willing to give more and more of our own freedomway. what is your snake -- i don't want to get you into label but in term of the liberal-conservative spectrum could you just kind of give me a. read most of your books, and i just want to kind of get a feel on where you go down, like with this dispute when at the president and the justice department and maybe that plays in entire books but your own personal viewpoints, i would be very much interested in. >> guest: sure. absolutely. my very first novel, absolute power, there's a quote that absolute power corrupts absolutely. the title of the week and found that in my life that some people

are not suited to hold power and i'm not talk about any particular person, but people come and go, institutions we create are built to stand the test of time. and what we have today, in my personal philosophy is that no one is above the rule of law. that's just the way it was built. he founding fathers want evidenced that way ask that's the way we are in the nation, and the institution's have, whether it be the fbi or the justice department or the supreme court or the congress or the executive branch, were built to stand the test of time so no one person no matter what they do, should be able to bring the institutions down but again no one being above the rule of law, richard nixon, if he had not resend he would have been impeached. he had to release the tapes. bill clinton lied under oath, was impeached by the house of representatives not convict by the senate but was inpeopled. the current president, with donald trump, for me,

investigations need to go forward. if something was wrong, consequences have follow because no person is above the law and that makes us different from other places and different frap iran, from china, from north korea, all the places we hold ourselves far above because we're the united states of america based on the rule oft law. and for me, everybody has to be judged by the same criteria. i don't want people -- i want people on a level playing field buts the institutions we have should be allowed to do their job but they've are doing something wrong they should be held accountable as well. >> host: re rated to that, charlotte williams on facebook asks: based on the fact that your stories revolve around american government, corruption, conspiracy, et cetera, how do you explain such pop flaherty -- popularity in other nations. >> guest: a great question. a couple years ago i got a

contract i was going to be published in arabic and actually in iran, and i thought that was dish liked the fact that was happening, that the books of mine could be published in a country that is seen as very autocratic and a theocracy. i think the people are intriguedment. other countries have power structures and people in high place does bad things. america is -- everybody knows america. if you go to any country overseas -- i've been to many -- the average citizen of there will know more but our politics than american citizens do because america is the world revolves around what we do as the sole remaining super pour to it andly get that. people are intrigued by everything about america, and fiction like miner very popular, american movies that deal with these subject matters are popular. american music is very popular. they're all there front and center in other countries. to be in a country in a citizen here, writing about the country

because i feel like -- >> host: do you ultimately see yourself as a patriot because even when you have rouge characters the good guys always win. >> guest: yeah. for me i like having that closure because i want people to understand that if you do bad things, there will be some type of punishment and that's the case in real life. as a lawyer i can tell you that justice dependingses on how much you can spend or your lawyer. if you have a good lawyer negotiation good shape. and name me one millionaire who is on death row. million areas have committed murder before, none of them are on death row. so the vast majority of peoplen death or are impoverished, didn't have a good lawyer. so for me the consequences of good triumphing over evil is very important. i think it validate the story rise write about and is an ending i think that sends a good message. >> host: one other point while i would talking about presidents and our country, your presidents

pop up in many of your books as characters but you can never identify their party. >> guest: right. know. i don't want to get into that. it's just not something that i've ever felt comfortable doing. i met four presidents, personally. >> host: do you consider them friend, any of them. >> guest: absolutely i do. i've 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. as far as -- then you put yourself into a box and get a label and get a thousand i'mtime don't -- a thousand e-mails you don't want to read. >> host: lee in rockville, maryland. >> good afternoon, thank you for appearing on c-span, very interesting. you were the inspiration for my becoming a novelist, mr. baldacci. i -- do your remember marion

berry, the mayor of the capitol of the free world. >> guest: yes, do. >> host: well, right out of college, when i graduated, i worked for the distributing of columbia government when i was -- the district of columbia government and i worked in a nuthouse, the mayor of the capital of the free world was cocaine user, he had many, many vices, and he -- then i read your book -- i saw the movie, absolute power, and i'm a big fan of clint eastwood and then i read your book, and i thought, hey, i can do this. i worked in a nuthouse. i worked for the mayor of the capital of the free world, and so i sat down in the '90s and type up a manuscript. i called it capital city by lee horror witness and tim trainer and lo and be hold we got a new york publisher to publish it and they published it a year and a

half ago. >> guest: that's excellent. >> caller: you were my inspiration. i'm a big fan of robert careo and otheron fiction writers and jeffrey toobin but i had never read novels since i was an undergraduate when a professor told me to read a novel. and you were my inspiration. absolute power was a terrific movie ask trick book. so i sat down and everyone in the '$90 got computers and it was very easy to write. i wrote capital city by and we got a new york publisher. >> host: thank you. that's a great story to tell. >> guest: congratulations. >> host: you do spend a lot of time, not just doing the interview with us, for for which we thank you but calling into radio shows, doing book events, signings, you don't need to do

that anymore. why do you do it? >> guest: because it's a symbiotic world and a relationship in the book world ask already mull pelt components. three -publishers, writers, e.r.a.s, libraries and book stores and we all need to support each other, so you're right. don't have to tour anymore but i like to go out for a couple of reasons 'one, i love to meet readers and talk to me about the books and see that love that they have for the written word. and secondly, the book store is go to, these author events are life blood. a difference between them existing or not existing to to go there and bring hundreds of anymore to buy their books and buy other things and become loyal patrons, that makes them sustainable. and we all support each other. so almost like this really fragile ecosystem. you take out one piece and everything comes falling down, so i feel like it's my duty and obligation because ill know how hard they work to help build my career. this is what die to help them.

>> host: wright is such a solitary profession. does getting out with the public recharge your batteries? a way for me to be the hand that i always -- be the ham i always wanted to be. i get to stand up and make people love and my wife says you have to keep doing that or you boston be much fin to be around. >> host: jill in providence, rhode island. >> caller: good afternoon and thank you for having david baldacci on today. >> guest: thank you. >> caller: i met david at a thriller archive roundtable at brown university a number of years ago, and his -- talking to him was really interesting. he gave some stories. had told him how i had absolute power on the flying home and the flying attendants were asking me what i was reading because i couldn't put it down and he told a cute story with he and his wife out to dinner and a woman coming across and asking him who

he was, and it turn out it was correct profession, in the right downgenre but the wrong author and i also wanted to mention that he talked about his literacy and being able to fund it and i wanted to tell him that -- probably knows this -- but most libraries, when you donate to them, i know in the providence public library, i do, that they actually -- you can take your money and you can actually have it designated to go to the literacy program, which die, and 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. i we definitely know that libraries and we funded libraries with those literacy programs bill into what they do and we feel like we're good partner for them and thank you for the work. do remember the brown university roundtable it and was a really cool -- a lot of nice authors got to meet and we had a great discussion. >> host: gork is next in great falls, montana. >> caller: i'm an aspiring writer. just starting out 49 years old, getting a late start. my question is from a creative standpoint, when you're coming up we the engine so i was your story -- up with the genesis and the movies do you come up with the character first and work the exterior around you or come up with the lot and story, an interesting story and then work the characters into that plot? >> guest: that's a great question. the answer is i've done it both

ways. i'll give you an example. the winner, which i talked but earlier,s a he idea of the guy who could fix the national lottery and that was the plot premise. then i thought i needed to have a villain and heroine and privilege'll characters so i went plot first and then characters. for the majority of my novels, all the series, the characters have come first and i built plots for them to inhabit. characters are the only way to relate to people 0, an emotional basis and a human basis. the best books i've read -- i can't arm he plot but i remember the characters very well. you can write a really great story if you immediate owe ochre characters -- mediocre story, people won't care. whatever comes first, character or plot, you have 0 make sure the characters are relatable and

people will care what happens to them and they'll finish the book. >> that role does michelle by a in your business. >> guest: i'll give you an answer. we -- >> host: might be watching. >> guest: i know. she may be watching. she knows the story. we were in florida and had a place down there and i bought a car and we had to order it and it was ready i wasn't there michelle was so the salesman there was a fan and was david this and david that and stuff she has heard. and she is signing the documents and finally she says, what do you do? so michelle just methodically finish the signing the document and she says, what do die? she said, everything else. and it is so true. because without her, none of this would get. i give her stuff to read. she is a voracious reader, and hi is a good critic and she lay

dish don't need her to the me what is right with the book. i need her to tell me what is wrong with the book and she guess at pin points stuff. this not working. i don't like this character. this twist didn't work for me. and that's what i need her to do some and she is my first and best critic. it's partnership. >> host: in terms of being a life partner are you easier to live around when you're writing our just finished a book. >> guest: i've i'm writing i've very pleasant to be around. when i'm between story is get grumpy and -- it's a lifestyle. can't separate me from the write sore if i'm not immersed in a story and in between stories and haven't thought about what i want to work on next, i'm moody and mope. >> and not pleasant. so michelle knows to leave me alone and as soon as i hit the story i'm going to be cheerful. >> host: seems like you're never not writing.

you have -- >> guest: that's why, yes. when i'm mopey for a day. and then a day at time. >> host: how many books in works as any one final. >> guest: i've never written two thrillers at the same time that's not dish would lose my focus. right now i'm working on the book for the fall and i'm work on the last signalment of the james fantasy series. >> host: we'll talk about the next book and questions about vega jane. let's take a call, karen in colorado and. >> caller: i just want to thank you so much. i have several authors that i have followed, that i have read, and 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 -- you're always on audio.

and thank you so much. well, i appreciate it very much. i work very hard not to be predictable and a lot different series and try get of my comfort zone. i try write ever book i write as if it's my first novel and i have no idea. it gives me an edge -- fear is a great ante ante do it to complacency. >> host: on facebook. both sent us questions: about vega jane, one saying i love and eye the saying i became a big fan. when are you releasing vega vane book for. these are young adult books. >> guest: yes. >> host: is it rick for you, who write so much adult fiction to do young adult backs? it's a challenge first. finisher took me five years to write and it was fits and start. could not get it in my mind how

i wanted to writ. >> host: why did you star sunny love reading fantasy. you need to keep reinventing yourself as a writer. what is going to challenge me, i've never written fan simple -- fantasy. the world didn't exist before you sat down to write it. so four and a half years, fits and starts, thinking about it and not getting center then everything hit and six months i'd written 150,000 words and i sent it out nature pseudonym to be published. i wanted emthe to buy it for the book, not because of my name, and scholastic bought it and they thought i was in england. i went to see them and i got and they were like, duluth here? i said you just bought my novel and in the lobby they have big red dog, he is like you wrote

that? so, -- but it was way for me to challenge myself again and scare myself. fantasy is so cool and the book will be out in the spring of next year. >> host: we have 25 minutes left to go with you. thank you for being wives. that pesky ear piecees popping out. majorie in west virginia, you're on the air. welcome. >> caller: thank you so much, mr. baldacci for what you just told us about giving books away, with feeding the hungry. just thing that's a marvelous thing to do. my grandson is 22, he wrote his first novel when he was 18 it asia political thriller, and -- it is a political thriller. how do you find publishers and how did you first find your publisher? a? a great. >> guest: a great question. knew from the industry that

having an agent would be a great g thing to have. they can represent you with a publisher and get your book out. whenever i heard about a hot book i would look at the acknowledgment section, and right after their spouse the person they will thank is their agent and i got a list of agented that way and i sent up a query letter and samples of the book to them and i was hoping one of them would call me back, and this is interesting, why don't we talk about it. i was fortunate enough that all of them called me back and wrote me back and wanted to be my agent after reading the power draft. so i went to new york and met all of them and picked the eight have today. so to get a good a little, you get names from different sours and they telly whether they represent fiction or first-time novelists. a lot them only represent established writers. you knowledge get writer's die jett e jest, online, send a

queriry letter, a thirst chapter and three or four other chapters that showcase your writing and you'll hear back from them guaranteed. >> host: we talked about hoe the book business has changed with apex of e-books of the course of your writing career. what are other significant ways the business chas changes and what do you think of all the book festivities that are popping up all over the country these days? yeah. >> guest: the book industry for 2 hon years didn't hasn't and i'm e-books everything changed. start writing there were 16 major publishers, today there are six because of consolidation. but that has been balanced out by self-publishing. way back when self-publishing meant you went to xerox machine and made copies and sold it out of the trunk of your car, these days you can can go on social immediate a platform, publish it

yourself and get some marketing and editing it's a investigation professional product. now are their self-published authors making living as writers than ever would have been the case even ten years ago that is an avenue people can purdue and a lucrative manner. i think that one that that people's attention spans are very short and when i first start out there were no cellphones no i-padsment people didn't have xbox. these days books have to compete with all that stuff for people's time and attention. so that's not something we had to ware about. now the talk about hoe to make books more interactive, cheat into that other element of what we're competing against. i'm not sure where that's going go i think the written word is very powerful and people always need stories, so i'm hoping we don't try make the book -- the square book into a round peg. that would be a problem.

but 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 the publishing side, is a really good thing, and book festivals are awesome. when guy to a place with a book festival, i say i'll tell you up front. a lot of communities would love to have a festival like this and they don't. so never take this for granted because once you start taking it no granted, i'm not going to go because i have to do this or that and then all of a sudden you don't have a book festival. all other industries, music industry has 874 word shows, same for the film community. and all that. and we have a couple. we actual pitter, the national book award, nobody watches them. it's listed on page d7 of most newspapers. nobody knows who won anything. but i think as an industry we need to be better but self-promoting ourselves and hangs out awards and being better promoters. all the other industry does a better job.

>> host: bob, new york. >> caller: thank you for taking my question. when you develop a new character, are you in mind that this may be a character that there 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'll give you an example. the first series i started dimeant to this was going be a series was kingen maxwell. a book called flip second and i thought wise a stand-alone, two former secret service agents team up and they solve a mystery. realized haven't even tapped into them. have not talked but the personal relationships, they're just team up and solved a mystery. so i wrote another book and another and another and another, with their characters. later on, like the camel club, i knew the cam club would be a

series from be get-go so i knew indicating john carr and reuben rhodess and milton farb and the others needed to build into them potential back stories that could i explore and explore in future books, so i add that in from the get-go and didn't tell you everybody about them and allowed them to have some secrecy and things you don't no so i could further exploit that in separate novels and if ondebts with ail my novels. with john puller. with amos decker, didn't know everything about him in memory man. i exploder his character. so really very focused and intentional set up in the first series but knowing i won't be done whenever the first book is done. >> host: king and maxwell are the secret service agents first families and presidents an important part. you talk about how the military opens it doors to you to learn about it and also federal agencies. how about be presidents, the ones you've have been friends

with, did the help you writing about your presidents and making them authentic. >> guest: i've gone to the white house many times when bush 41 and then bush 43 were in office. i've met bill clinton several times at different event size see the protection he has as former president and what he does, what he routine is, how the come in and go out. i've been the white house correspondents there -- >> host: those their public parts of their job. >> guest: absolutely. it is. but i have had conversations with them, too, about things they're done when they were president and things that the public wouldn't necessarily know about. and things that hey have to think but the regs of us don't have to think about. i never acknowledge them in a book, thank you for telling me up a these superhe secrets but hanging out with them, talking to them, seeing how their life is, really were things i've used in books and exploder in books and were able to use those facts and make the fiction even better. >> host: 20 minutes lift.

three interesting hours with david baldacci. if you have a question in mind you can get queue and still get through. or send us a tweet and we'll try to mix it. in next up is donna in pennsylvania. hello, donna. >> caller: hello. i just wanted to say thank you so much for your interesting books. my sister from --er in richmond gave my me first book it and was signed by you, and she said, think you'll 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. i try -- with a all my book tries toy hit the ground running. i don't want to waste time. i hook you into what i'm trying

do have something interesting happen on the first few pages. like books where i feel like the write per is in control and not the reader. i you're a reader in control of a book it's not a good read. but if you're on your tiptoes are you're unstable, don't know what is going to happen next, you carefully cart gorized this person is good or bad and i if i can knock you out of the categories and put you on the edge of your seat and you have nod where what wail come next, that's a great story. >> host: would say you're not generally sympathetic to rich people. [laughing] i will be sympathetic to rich people if they treat other people with respect. and i'm not saying i haven't met wealthy people who don't do that. i've met a lot of wonderful people. they just don't tend to end minute my books. for a number of reasons, and i think with great wealth comes great responsibility and i go

back to the quote but absolute power corrupts absolutely, and a lot of money can corrupt people obviously, too, and feel like -- feeling like they're above everybody else and above the rule of law. grew up in a blue collar background and wealth is not something we were close and toe and my life has not changes and i look at everybody as a person regardless of how much money they have but i have seen it in my life,. >> host: how did you prevent your kids who grew fun a pretty privileged he lifestyle, parentness multimillionaire, from having the second generation problem. >> guest: we made sure our kids were never going to live in a bubble. their days and went to are friends were like send them to this profit school. no. we'll send them to schools where the lots of kids from across the socialow economic platform and

their parents became became friends. we lived in the neighborhoods where people came from different places and we -- is a was taught, we taught our kid everyone deserves respect and compassion, and that's the way you need to conduct your life and nothing you have doesn't belong to you at all. you didn't work for it and didn't earn it. so in your life we never gave the kids anything i. they didn't get cars when the were 16. still haven't got an car they have jobs and work for their own and support themselves. they over in that mom and dad there are if they need it but they've have their own independent lives and race raised them with that focus. this is our live and then you grow up and you have your life and you build what you and can have a happy life and we'll be there to support you and love you, but mom and dad aren't writing checks. >> host: harold, south carolina, you're on the air.

>> caller: thank you for taking my call. can you hear me. ey. >> caller: we familiar we john he care and do you read his book >> guest: yes, i do. i love his pseudonym. his last name is something cornwall, corporationwell, but liveness cornwall as well but he was actually an intelligence officer during the cold war and i have a first edition sign of the spy who came in from the cold which my wife bought me. won't even cart gorize him. he is a great story teller and writes amazing book that puts you in the heart of the situation, talks about being immersed in the intelligent field in the cold war and the stakes couldn't couldn't be any higher. one of the best. >> host: cindy, florida. hi, cindy. >> caller: my favorite book is

the forgotten. how did you get that scene and why did you write that book. >> the forgotten is based -- the panhandle in florida, the red neck riviera and we had just got place and i was exploring florida and i saw the area and all the oil drilling platforms were off of there and the whole idea couple no me of john puller and he had to investigate something that happened. this whole intrigue of happening offshore and then onshore and i used the area destiny, florida. another way to show he had other family members and he was someone who had been the substitute mother because his mother vanished when he was young. she helped raise him because his dad was in the mayor ask didn't have time for the son. would way to show john puller in another light.

military guy, this tall, strong guy, who could seemingly do the impossible, but her he was, helping an old woman, who really was second mom to him, because something really bad happened. he wanted to make sure that justice was done for her. >> host: inez in new hampshire. what's your question? >> caller: yes. mr. baldacci, we're in the car a lot and we managing to get your books. the first two were divine justice and hell's corner. but i did manage to get the fallen and we are just starting listening to. that i'm very interested in their -- you how -- [inaudible] >> guest: perfect recall. you can be born with it. the actress mary marry lou

henner has is or you can get it through a traumatic brain injury. the brain can repair itself when it's been damaged, recircuit around the damaged areas but when that happens, sometimes weird things happen and you can open up parts of the brain you haven't been utilizing where the perfect recall comes from and can always cause sensory pathways to cross you get another condition which is where you associate a particular sensation with a color. some people have it and will see numbers and colors so the number 7 for this person, they see it as a vivid burst of congress and that's the number 7. for amos decker, whenever he senses death, around a dead body, he sees an electric blue color and comes from at the tbi when he was playing football. i love the brain, and figuring out how this thing functions and trying to push the envelope is great stuff for story-telling.

>> host: you're on the last stretch here. you made reference to your next book and it's also a new character by the name of atley pine. who is atley pine. >> guest: atley pine, 35 years old, she is thefish special agent and doesn't work in washington. the works in the hinterlandses of the west where there's -- probably the only federal agent for 300 miles and prefers its that way. i wrote the first three chap america long hand because i wanted to do it that way. felt right. the first very first line is a nursery rhyme, eveny, meany, mineie, moe, the choosing line. whoever you start we word with, the last word falls on the other person. that's the way the word count works out, and for atley pine, who is a disastrous effect because somebody was counting on her and her twin sister when they were six years old, and it

hit her sister's fourhead with missouri, and her sister vanished and she has grown up without ore twin and she is an fbi agent. the first time i've ever had a series i knew would would series where protagonist is a female. asley pine, the name popped into my head and i've been work on it, about 70,000 words into it and i'm super excite. >> host: how do you get the authenticity in a woman character's voice? >> guest: i strong independent women, the one is write about -- i don't write about dam sells in distress because i never meds onement i haven't. my mother was force of nature. my sister was very strong, independent woman. my wife is a force of nature and we raised a very strong, independent daughter. so my whole life has been surrounds by women mitchell

grandmother was a very influence sal part of my upbringing. i find it sort our natural to the extent that a male writer can toite prom a female perspective because if a seen how they racket, how they talk and act. and how they deal with other people. i tell people i have such a healthy respect for the other gender because i freely acknowledge decade ago that men are the weaker sex and might as well admit it. other than physical strength, that's it. anyway, so i like writing from the feel money opinion of view and vega jane and i like the fact that i can write for both perspectives and i think it's because, again, i'm a great listener and a great observer. i love watching people and have watched loot of women.

>> host: wayne in portage, michigan. >> caller: hey. this is wayne something i from -- wayne smith, from portage, michigan. i knew you before you wrote your first book, we had had david wees until high school on our team and just wanted to tell you, we have a lot of folks from the team that have accomplished a lot of things but i well tell you that we are proud and talk about your accomplishments and were you were so wanted to send my regards? wayne, thank you so much, man. great to hear from you. >> host: where is that's in your life. >> guest: from high school. wayne will know i just talked now old wrestling coach a couple days ago, i find books for him and we get together and i've seen she old wrestling team and wayne was on the team. that's a blast from the past and that's awesome. >> host: you weesed, played football. what sports. >> guest: those are the two i inside high school.

wrestleed some in college, played tennis and played since i was a kid, and my -- i play with my son now but i'm just too old to keep up with him. he is 22, can hit the ball a million miles an hour. i think he tolerates cad at this point. her doesn't hit as hard as he can so he can keep me in the game. >> host: a washington, dc person. kristine, you're on the air. >> caller: hi, how are you. >> guest: hello. >> caller: i was going to ask you, doesn't sound like you get stuck a lot with your plots because you have said that you don't get grumpy for a long time. i i've been grumpy for four or five months because i've been writing what i thought should be a memoir, and i get to personal places and i got one where i can't put it on paper, and i'm having a hard time with -- what i do better is -- i have not written a book before -- i made it less personal as i did not

write it as memoir. >> guest: writers need to be flexible. if you really want to write a memoir and you're writing from a personal perspective you can do that and might be able to work -- i get writers block. it's a misnomer. it's part of the writing process where you're still think what you want to do and how to get through that? just work on it every day. you grow up and do something else and let your subconscious work on it until you figure it out and keep moving forward. if you can't get past this because you don't want do delve down, then be flexible enough to move on and maybe write as a novel and then write fix and you can make up stuff and get through the personal account might have been traumatic for you and then move on and continue the story. >> host: joanne is up next, bridgeport, connecticut, couple i minutes left go ahead. >> caller: hello. thank you. i just wanted to let you know that it love your books but i'm more partial to because i

love the characters. when you couple if way premise for the plot, does it ever happen that you feel it's suited better to a different series. >> guest: that's a great question and that has happened. i thought of plots sometimes and thought this is going be a john puller or a will roby and i realize i can tweak bit and make it into an amos decker story. these happened the fact i have so many series going, i can beatle interchangeable on that and if i tweak the store story a little might i might use a different character. >> host: who is will roby. >> guest: america's most lethal assassin, other than jessica reel, and we first met him in the innocent. he is the sort of guy that is he regime change guy, the guy that cut the healed of the snake off

and doing war on the cheap. he goes around the world and kills on behalf of his country, and you would think how can i create a series about a guy whose job it is to murder people and that was my challenge as a writer. had to make him relatable and i took great pains to do that. so action sequencies you sew him doing what does with great professionalism and great precision and great tenacity and overcoming obstacles and then show the human side. you think it won't pull you. you pull the trigger and it fake outside and queue carry that bag gage with you all the time. he become a aloof and a loner and can't replate to other people. big surprise. most people don't kill people but he does that. he's a fascinating character and i have yet to tough the surface with this guy. >> host: the last caller is virginia from pennsylvania. >> caller: hello. i loved your camel club series.

>> guest: thank you. >> caller: and i couldn't 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 them back later? >> guest: ey. if you are talk but oliver stone, and then stone cold, when the -- it's done for him. he came back and he liveses in two more books, justice and hell's corner. i if stopped at stone cold you have two more book but at the end of hell's corner, other than milton, everybody else is alive. i can always bring them back. john carr is alive and kicking and i would love to bring the camel club back and if can think of a cool plot to put them in i'll bring them back. >> host: you're 57 years old, a lot of writing life but you have a huge body of work. what would you like your legacy to be as an american writeer?

>> guest: i want to be the guy that it would be hard to label me what kind of writer i was. most people think of my as a thriller or -- i've written fantasy and personal histories and dramatic family stories as well simple would like to be the kind of guy when you open the book you never mow what you're going to get and look at the word formula and n the dictionary you'll never see a picture of me next to it. >> host: thank you are spend throwing hours with the book dtv audience. >> watching booktv. booktv, television for serious readers.

>> journalist arguing there's a effort to thwart the presidency of donald trump her is be views by investigative journalist, and then this weekend former secretary of state condoleezza rice and amy sieger talk about role in insecurity and the future of american diplomacy, sally explores where ahead comes from with candy crawlly, and m.i.t. looks at the influence of the environment on the brain. and journalist alise so roth reports that over half of the people nuss prisons have a psychiatric disorder. that is all this weekend on booktv, television for sear your readers. ...