after i write my interest in economic background is in there is a host of deeply structural long-term problems that the global economy has to contend with. the things that demographic shift with the impact technology would be with the jobless underclass and incoming inequality. it certainly the top three big issues. and yet people were charged with overseeing it's very short-term in their frame. >> watch afterward sunday night at nine eastern on c-span twos, but tv. >> best-selling novelist, david is the next in debt fiction

addition author featured on book tv in prime time. he's the author of more than 40 books including authoress power. and most recently the fallen. >> you're talking about you 36 adult novel. the following, if i were to meet amos on the street what what i see he would be oblivious to everything that's going on. he will blow you off and keep going. he lives in his own world. i think people take his aloofness for rudeness which is not that. he used to be an outgoing guy and then he had a traumatic brain injury. he's living in a body that is the same body so that's what you

see in the fall and, you finally liked her and reached humanity level at the core. it took four books to get there but i like complicated books and complicated guys. >> thanks for this. we sit with authors for three hours. we hope very much for both of us as we continue along care will put phone numbers on the screen of facebook and twitter handle so you can join in on the conversation. we would like to hear your questions about his writing and why you are intrigued about them which is the key to success. so what makes amos decker a good hero? especially for thriller. >> when i first started thinking

of a series i thought what would be good to do. i get this guy who was harassed of all, aloof, he walks out of the room while you're talking to him. he will be very popular. but i've always been fascinated by the mine. this is a guy whose mind changed and he had to rebuild his life. when you're developing a series you have to have enough material to justify more than one book. so people can relate to, enjoy and watch. if the characters don't change there's no point writing another book. he had a lot of material to draw on. it's about this perfect memory. when i first went on tour i said raise your hand if you think it's cool to have a perfect memory i can't member anything.

the said raise your hand if you have something in your life you'd rather forget. that's his dilemma. lots of things he would rather forget. every time i get him on the page i have no idea what he's going to do. >> when you start and all of your books are series and you don't want to do the one offs anymore. to have a sense of how many you can play out with him? or does it just evolve as you write. >> i'm not really good at predicting stuff like that. i'm not like jk rowling and said there's going to be seven books. i've written a series with two and five and i've written a series that have more of that. it's how much gas in his tank does a character have. am i excited about writing him or her on the page. if the answer is yes then i keep going. >> how did you develop amos decker? was their model in the real

world? >> it was a must like frankenstein. i knew i wanted a large guy. i wanted him to have an intimidating presence even though he's not an intimidating guy. i knew he would be a football player. that was the source of the brain injury which is all too prevalent. i have been thinking about it. a lot of the players i love growing up either passed away in wheelchairs, with dementia, and six years old they're totally gone. so i wanted to write a story where the character was grappling with those issues as well. and then build them into a unique feature. it's hard for him to relate to

people it's always a struggle with him. but i love the struggle. in innately traumatizes thing and people understand. >> host: the setting for the fallen is fictional. the problems are real it's thousands across the country's this is a place where it only exists because john marilyn figure out how to make money.

they have lives and kids, and then the : textiles went away. everything went away except those who live there. they still have to live somehow. they have a lot of challenges in this novel sometimes they take you down a dark path. we come upon a small town that has a lot of secrets underneath it skin. when amos deckard starts poking around bad things happen. >> one of those is opiates. we are all seen so much with the opiate crisis in the united states, what did you want them to learn? >> first and foremost to understand that this is a problem it's a problem that started with drug dealers on the street and medication. and when you have a west virginia town of 900 people in 1300 opiate prescriptions

ironically enough, the opiates has no effect on back pain at all. they say it's not addicted. so i want people to understand this is a man-made problem. now it is decimating communities. a lot of these rust belt towns. i would take away the fact that the problem we have is not getting any better. an advertising campaign it says just say no is not going to work when you're talking about that now. you can be addicted after one use. just say no doesn't work. but we have to. next year the trends continue next 100,000 people will overdose on overdose or on

opiates. even though it's fictional, all of this is nonfictional. >> it on one area you get in the narcan debate. >> now, let it places are given it out to first responders and say were given it out to everybody. even if you're there and doing drugs and the person you're with overdoses, take out the narcan and save his life. people say that will encourage and i say no, it will save lives until we can figure out how to solve the problem. let's do both. so narcan needs to be out there. everybody needs to have it. give it to family members and the addiction treatment centers. give it to everybody where there could be an issue. people will go and overdose of the public place because they

know they can be resuscitated. put it in public places. it's almost like having a defibrillator. break the glass, pull it out pop it in their nose and bring them back to life. >> to see this when you travel? >> absolutely. my family came from a rust belt town. you have a place that was once a lot of good paying coalminer towns where you can make 70 or $80000 year without a college education but those are all gone. but the towns are still there. when you drive through these places in the midwest it's on like the washington, d.c. area. a lot of people never finished high school. the work there is service-oriented, no pay or benefits. people have very few properties,

they don't have homes to have old cars. a lot of that is what america is. for me, not surprised people are turning to opiates. they don't feel like they have hope. the greatest richest country on earth, every citizen should have hope that life could get better. we just have to get that back. >> what is the lesson of capital capitalism? i'm a capitalist. i have my own small business. there has to be a balance. i was thinking about this, would it be better for one person to make $3 billion here or person to make a billion and other people instead of making 30,000 can make 60000, they could have a better life and send their kids to college, would that make

it better for everybody for the guy having to live on 2 billion less really hurt him? we've seen this before in the beginning of the 20th century this whole thing happened again before we had an income tax. we have phenomenally wealthy people. the rockefellers and a lot of people had almost nothing. that balance is out of whack. teddy roosevelt came and you had unions come in with collective-bargaining and that built the middle class. the union is dead and all of a sudden you have you making extraordinary amounts of money. the rest of the people, not so much. i don't think it's sustainable. i also cannot argue to people plausibly in the united states that there should be a rebalance

redistribution. cities you say that your socialists. i also know the track ron is in sustainable. >> and baravilala it's been giving people jobs his fulfillment center. have you visited one of those? >> yes. >> host: what are those light? >> guest: the scale is unbelievable. they are a football field times 12. you have never seen so much cardboard in your life and shelves and people running literally come all day. when you think about the packages at your house for the fact that the postal service only operates on sunday to to deliver amazon packages, they have to get to some help. fulfillment centers are how they do it.

if you have millions americans find billions of packages than you have places that have to hold that. the scale is breathtaking. 400 packages process to second out the door and on its way. i was overwhelmed. these places door the scale. and it's phenomenal. it's the one major growth industry. it's unbelievable to me. >> i'm you to give the phone numbers mountain pacific time zones you can sweet us, make sure you get mccue and get your questions. we'll have the facebook page and lots of ways to get involved.

in the very firm is a mistake or book, the memory man the central plot is around the school shooting, which your did you write that? >> guest: the first was maybe five years ago. what are you thinking about with society worry hoping to gain for your readers? >> with the school shooting a memory man it was in amos decker's hometown at a school where his daughter would have gone you can write fiction a number of different ways.

ecs on a very small stage taken everything in. all points. he's looking at it in building this templates what actually is the truth. and on the small stage i was able to go deep with the novel. it was almost hitchcockian. he had to figure out what happened and i think when i was overseas he said the crime fiction was overtaken in the most popular genre in the u.k. for the first time ever. people ask me why. >> you can turn to fiction. in thrillers and crime fiction you have good people and bad people you can't get it in real

life. you find it in fiction. >> i read that in publishing traits. this is the home of agatha christie and sherlock holmes. you would think thrillers had always been a part. >> it crime fiction is really big over there. it always has been. i know it happen and i think maybe that's one reason. >> i want to get into how this started. we have a caller. brian is in sioux city, iowa. welcome to the conversation. >> good morning, my questions about amos decker's memory condition. this started because of an injury in football. is the perfect recall only triggered by things that happened after. >> that's a great question. it's different for different people.

for amos decker, it can be before the injury occurred to him. we all have memories of things that happen to us from day one, but sometimes they're not good at bringing it back out. what fascinates me is that in 202018 we know very little about how the brain works. it's a list like this traumatic brain injury unlocked what was in his head all along. his bandwidth went from normal to like a gazillion. he was able to access information so is been there but he's never been able to access it. his ram went up significantly. going forward, everything he sees he will remember exactly as he sees it hears it. sometimes people like to him but he will remember that by and he remembers exactly what someone

says. down the road you can find something contradictory of that. and understand maybe that was not true at all. >> and all the amos decker books and in all of the novels of years i have read there is always state and local and federal agency and always lots of bureaucracy that people have to deal with. where did you develop that worldview of interagency relations? >> for dealing with a lot of agencies. i've had personal experience in my office. it's in virginia where two federal agencies -- one was doing something and had not told the other. they had somebody stations in that office with binoculars and walkie-talkies walking around the office. on this other agency -- full

body armor, a k15's. the other guys came in and trenchcoats, they were like he works for us, why do you need to tell us as we don't tell people anything. it really evolve quickly into chaos. i worked and dealt with a lot of acronym agencies and they will tell you cooperation is not always what it should be. there is a lot of people, a lot of paperwork and a lot of intrinsic values. you get more money if you have more responsibility so you don't want to get a piece of the pie. >> the changes that we made were supposed to solve all this stuff after 9/11.

we're supposed to have agencies that communicated with the actual bandwidth with electronic communications, what happened? >> easier said than done. the dod was was have a lot of stuff in there was $40000 and a hammer. but these are aircraft carriers. if you think you're going to move those things in three minutes in a new direction, it's not going to happen. they are enormous, unwieldy beast. not saying changes won't happening but it's long. >> martin is in the washington, d.c. area, hello. >> a morning -- good morning. i just finish the fall and recently and went through all of the series.

they are in all your books but especially deckers there some elements in it, martin, what is that scene you remember from the book,. >> that is a great question. for me, i have to make these characters feel like they are real and human. one way is to relate to the readers on an emotional level. we all have losses. i really in this book wanted to show that even though he had this traumatic brain injury and was not who he used to be he seems aloof and not really a

part of the world but he still had a heart, soul, could feel things. the relationship was my way of showing that the sky may have changed in a lot of ways but he's still a human being could still feel and be vulnerable. i don't necessary plot these things out. i'm so immersed in it. it just feels right. you could call it spontaneous but my subconscious dwelling on it for so long it's not really spontaneous. i use it when i was supposed to use it. i knew i needed to draw more emotion and his relationship in the book with other characters. >> one relationship throughout the sears it starts out annoying him as a journalist wes too many questions. how do she evolve?

>> she is his watson to her sherlock holmes. she keeps him somewhat normal and kicks him in the butt when she thinks something is wrong. she is a steady influence but is frustrating. she is good at her job but wants to be better. she understand she's better than she will ever be it's always important when you have a dual like this and their better together than they would be separately alex jamison is a really critical i don't think amos decker could be decker without her. >> the fbi has been in a bit of trouble lately. accusations flying, as someone who has worked with this agency for a long time, what is your

view of the public perceptions and arguing over the role of the fbi? >> everything i've dealt with without exception are apolitical and dedicated. their jobs are hard and tough. they don't have time for political grandstanding. they're just trying to solve cases. in this criticism, i'm not an agent but it really hits me. in the bureau doesn't deserve this. i'm not saying you can't criticize institutions, you can criticize individual people to show their doing bad things, but to say that they are corrupt on broadscale is unwarranted. >> caller: hello.

i just started reading the alex decker books. i really like them. i have to tell you, the age of 70 i am madly in love with john polar. i want to know why he you don't give him a girlfriend. please, someone he can be with her something. >> host: will talk about john later in the program. >> guest: they were in the line of fire. i will never say never on that. he's a fictional character and could find love down the road. but he'll be back. i do like mark said she may be the one to tame him and be the one to stand the test of time.

>> will there be more amos decker books? >> guest: there will be more. now that i reached a tipping point, i almost feel liberated that i can go further. >> 's is joanne. hello. >> caller: i have been a fan for many years. my husband and i just finished watching the king and maxwell tv series. it's a little different than the book because i just finish the king and maxwell book which i really enjoy. when i walk i do the audiobook. so i am glad you do the audiobooks. the amos decker one in the last mile was fascinating. i fell in love with the whole series. i'm going to get the first one so i can 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 that the bill. the last mile in the some of the other cast, that clicked for me. it was powerful. she is the injustice of the prison system and all of that. it gave melvin mars -- i still get a lot of e-mails about them. they said when is melvin going to come back? he was not in the following. they want melvin to come back. . . david. this is an old friend. >> guest: how are you doing? >> caller: i'm great. i am so proud, just so happy, elated with all of what you been doing over the past several years. >> guest: thank you. >> caller: i to question that we've

we been pondering in her family regarding amazon, the hq to headquarters their country where to put that. while the major cities are vying for that, i often wondered if perhaps it would be patriotic service or national service if mr. beezus w just basically providing, if you will, an p industry for the state of west virginia or another state which really needs an industry. >> guest: yeah. of you know, i would, i would sort of agree with that too. the headquarters, the seconder headquarters for amazon.com, obviously, will be a huge shot in the arm for any community. and i know the criteria they have too the.. i'm sure they want a highly educated work force, and they want to have lots of other amenities and things inf the ara that would attract people. west virginia has a lot of those things as well, and i certainly think communities like that should be in the running. i don't knowow where their exaci criteria are and what's bicycle to bebe the final -- going to be the final decision.

i did read that amazon sent out a list of things to some of the cities still running about the places. [laughter] ac apparently, they maybe wantwa them to fix. i'm not sure how you do that. it's really extraordinary when one company has that much power and you have all these communities just clamoring for these jobs and throwing all this money at them. it really is extraordinary. >> host: jeff bezos is at least a part-time washingtonian as the owner of "the washington post." have you met him? >> guest: i've never met him. when amazon started out, it was a used book business really out of his garage in the mid, 1990s. the fact that, you know, in 20 some odd years he's built this enormous company, it's quite an achievement. but it's a lot, it's a lot going on. >> host: well, jack jacqueline,a former colleague from a law firm with offices here in washington is a good jumping-off point for what i want to do which is speny

some time telling your story to the audience. it all began as a 20-year overnight sensation. [laughter] >> guest: that'sul right:. >> host: absolutely power with us your o first successful nove. can you tell our audience how it came about. >> guest: i know people decided i didn't like practicing law soi i decided to write a book. i've been writing ever since i was a kid. i awz always telling tall tales, it's just the way my mind worked. i was a voracious reader. i'dhe go the library and check t more books than was allowed a because the librarians knew i would read them all. locked in as a reader. and my mom brought me a blank page book and journal and said some of the things you've been talking about, why don't you try writing it down. so i did, and it was like this epiphany. i can create something other people can read and enjoy like i do when i open a book. and i never really looked back.

i wrote short stories for 15 years. i was trying to sell to atlantic and playboy and story magazine when i was in high school.ay i had very little success doing that, but i couldn't make a living. so i went to law school and practiced law and had a family. and i wrote screenplays, had an agent in l.a. based on the screenplays, had a couple of options but nothing really, not a lot of success. and then i decided to try my hand at long form, you know? a novel. and i had -- my office was near the white house back then, i was relatively new to the d.c. area. i think bush 41 was president then. and you would occasionally see the presidentialas motorcade and see the secret service agents, and i was thinking about, you know what? what if i make a bad person the good person and the good people you ordinarily think of as bad. so it was a president and a mistress and a cover-up, you know? and i know that kind of seems like it's ripped from the

headlines,ik but back then it wasn't. and i spent three years of my t life writing it. when i would write from 10 at night til 3 in the morning, you know, every day, that was my w time, you know? that's when ii could write whati wanted to write and not what a client was paying me to write. and i do say that some the best fiction i ever wrote was when i was a lawyer, you know? i'm talking about my legalng briefs. [laughter] because as a writer and as a lawyer, all i have in my quiver are words, that's it. so i would spend my whole tenld years writing as a lawyer thinking about words and stories and how to tell something plausibly so somebody willg believe it. so for me, it was -- in making this transition from being a practicing lawyer to a writer wasn't all that definitely. and i also would work on projects for years at a time as a lawyer.wr that's u not daunting to me. so it was an easy transition. but writing has not been something -- i wanted to be a full-time writer since i was a

kid.ri and years later my mom came back to me, and i said, mom, what a great gift you gave to me that day. honey, i'm so glad it's worked out, but quite frankly, i just wanted to shut you up. [laughter] >> host: you have two siblings, right? >> guest: yeah. >> host: sounds like they felt the same way aboutwoms you. >> guest: totally. i just saw them yesterday at a book signing, they were like, yeah, you haven't changed. never shut up. [laughter] >> host: what was it like when you got>>th the phone call fromr agent saying this book has been accepted? >> guest: it wasas surreal. i was working at holland and knight, i had just joined recently. to e e them, i was attorney 587. wasn't even a name. so7. my agent called and said o, you know, would you -- if i sell this book, would you quit writing -- quit lawyering and write full time? i said my whole dream is to write full time. he said, well, the book sold. and, i mean, it really sold. and at first i thought when i hung up with him i was like, you

know, it's great. h all this time i took to get an agent, and now i find out he's a whack job because i didn't believe him. [laughter] i didn't believe him. it wasb. too outrageous. things happen like that but not to me. so then i got a call came through from the president of time warner books to t congratulate me and invite me up for this party to celebrate, the signing. and i didn't have anybody i could tell ate the law office.w >> host: sure. >> guest: nobody knew about that. i remember going to a luncheon that day after getting this phone call that had changed my life, and the speaker was talking about insurance regulations. and i'm sitting around this table like 30 other lawyers listening to this guy drone on. all ith wanted to do, swear to god, was jump up on the table and start doing the electric slide all the way down theoo conference room table. that's all i d wanted to do. and because it was newsworthy, we hadnt to tell all of our friends and family that night. none of them knew i was writing -- >> host: none of them knew?re your family and friends? >> guest: other than my wife, ma

brother and sister, my mother and father, not my in-laws, nona of my friends knew. so we were telling people we had some really good news to share. they either thought we were having another baby or we were getting divorced. [laughter] that's what they said. i said, well, we are having another baby, but i'm the one who's pregnant. this is my book. one of my close friends, i'm godfather to one of his sons, he called me up and says what else don't we know about you? [laughter] >> host: we're going to pick up the story after we talk to deb who's been waiting from falls d church,ad virginia. hi, deb. >> caller: hi. mr. baldacci, how are you doingy i usually see you up at the barnes &ut noble up at tyson's,o it's kind of a treat to talk to you. >> guest: oh, yes. >> caller: a couple things, in the fallennen you exposed me to this whole structure of the fulfillment certains. >> guest: yes. >> caller: and i assumed -- and you had mentioned it earlier --

had actually visit one. but in thee book, you kind of also bring up the workingri conditions of the people in these pull filament centers -- fulfillment certains. and i'm just wondering are, do you see them as being, at least base on what i thought i heard ined the book, are they becoming the sweatshops of the 21st century, or do they have thato potential? are these places that are ripe for being unionized? or, as you kind of brought up ii the book, will robots -- this is just a temporary boom for employment opportunities for folks when, you know, robots may be taking over a large part of those responsibilities? >> guest: those are all great questions, and i will say certainly these fulfillment centers have the potential to be the sweatshops of the 21st century. it's all based on productivity, and when you have billions ofas packages you have to get out the door, there's no way possible you can compete with a robot n that never gets tired and never needs a a restroom break.

so tooo answer your question, i think they should bek. ripe fori unionization. whether that can happen in 2018 oror not, i don't know.za i do think that workers can be and are being exploited in these places because literally, you know, for $12 an hour you shouldn't have to literally have to, you know, work yourself to death for 10 hours a day. but at the same t time, you kno, automation is in the long run far cheaper than paying people to do these jobs. and when you're talking about liftingg boxes up, you know, puttingab labels on them, slidig them down a thing and putting them intohi a truck, you -- robs one day will do all of those things. you will have r t these fulfillh centers, and you'll have two people that are just engineers overseeing the stuff that's going on behind computerer screens, and robots will do all the work.cr and as amos decker noted in the book, he talked to the guy who was explaining this, and he said, well, if people aren'tal going to have the jobs, who's going to buy all the crap on the shelves, you know?

and the guy's answer was, well, i don't think the business guys have figured that one out yet. [laughter]s ii think somebody needs to. >> host: if you are a regular booktv watcher or, you know that we have spent 20 years looking at nonfiction authors and their work. our channel is going to be celebrating its 20th an annivern september, but for our anniversary year on our "in depth" series we've actually focusing on fiction writers like mr. baldacci. and the reason is that their stories also help us understand society. you can hear we're a going to be talking t about a lot of issuesn hours today. so if you're new to booktv the, welcome, and if you're a. regular booktv viewer, hope you'll enjoy this little dip into fiction for 12 times this year. bill isor watching us in wasill, alaska.at hi, bill. >> caller: hey, good morning. books on the shelves, david, as you know the history forhe centuries authors -- authors'

incomes were base on actualua books sold. there would be announcements in papers, this hot seller released thousands its first day and so on. is that still happening? it seems like the e-books and all of that stuff has gotten it to a point where you're not -- people are not buying books, and what is the effect on incomes oe authors? thanks. >> guest: those are greatea questions. in the probably three to four years ago i think e-books hit their height. they really peaked. sales wise. and for maybe seven or eight years, they were blowing every other genre or every other category of saleses out of the water. hardhe cover print novels plummeted, mass market salesel went through the floor. nobody was buying mass marketet anymore. andym literally for me, i had, like, six or seven books in a row where each book sold more than a millionoo e-books, each book, which was, you know, those are really high numbers. probably three years ago it

started to plateau, and the e-book sales have started to go down again. i think it may be just the fact that there's fatiguet out there. people have 800 books on their kindle or nook they haven't read yet, so they're not buying as manyle e-books. price may be an issue, there was a big fight with some of the online sellers and some of the publishers. and at the same time, printer books -- i can look at my own statements that i get from the publisher, hard cover sales are going up. downloadable audio has exploded. it's the fastest growing category of sales now in the o country. i think it'sf because people can also use it on their devices, on their smartphones, download it to their ipads and listen to stuff. but for a while, e-books really had taken over the entire industry. iin think things are back in balance. me at this point, i'm a full partner with the publisher, so e-books go up -- it's just theoo whole pie out there. what we're trying to do is increase the pie. if the pie gets bigger, i make more money and the publisher

makes more a money. but for a lot of writers, e-books were a good thing for some who couldn't be published traditionally, but it also could endo up being a bad thing too. it's a really complicated area. >> host: what are your own habits both with howha you read and how you take notes? you travel so much. >> guest: yes. i almost -- when i read, it's almost real books all the time. my b wife is different. she use toe be real books only,l now she reads both. but her e-book or notebook is loaded with books, and she only reads online.ea i only read online if i'm going to read something short. i like to take the book out,, smell it, hold it, feel it and turn the pages myself. as far as notes and all that gol wherever i go my laptop goes with me. i do still do a lot of handwritten notes. in fact, the first three chapters of the new book i'm working on, they've been written out longhand. i tell people it sounds weird,

but if you think about it, itht might make sense. i think better in cursive, you know? when i don't have a keyboard between me and what i want to't say. >> host: did you go a to catholc school? >> guest: no -- >> host: i thought maybe that was a habit fromcal? childhood. [laughter] so the -- i'm wondering if you, all of yourse books haveou descriptions. yous see the character in front of you when you're reading.ou do you kind of watch everybody around and take full notes about how people dress and how they wear their hair to kind of drawf on that later on when you're writing? >> guest: yeah. i'm y y like harriet the spy. [laughter] remember those books? h i love to watch people, i loved to eavesdrop when i was in high school, college and rule, i just loved watching people.g these days i'm in front of the camera, in the front of the room, but people fascinate me. their mannerisms, idiosin rah says, how they hold themselves, what they talk about. all of that, for me, is material for books and stories.

as a writer, you have to be a really good observer and listener. those are two attributes a t writer has to have. you have to be the one eaves dropping and watching everybodys else. and for me, people ask me where do you get your from. i get up every day and i walk out the door. i don't have my face buried in a laptopp or an iphone. i'm actually watching the world and trying to seize the potential of a particular scene. i see two people talking on a corner and one of them turns and walks down an alley, i think about what were they talking about, and what's going to w happen to the person walking down the alley. >> host: you've referenced youre wife michelle several times in our conversation. how did you meet? >> guest: we met at a vegetarian barbecue.cu and neither one of us are vegetarian. that's just the way itit happen. the first thing she ever said ts me, she insulted me. i wasot this hot shot trial lawyer, and i felt this tap on my shoulder. i turned around, and there sheht was, i had no idea who she was.

i hear you're telling people you're a lawyer. i said, yeah. i was thinking maybe she wanted to hear a story.ho she goes, can i give you some advice? i'd stopic telling people. and she turned and walked off. a i was, like, i have to date her. [laughter] d and, you know, it was -- it took me a long time to find out who she was. she had just moved to the area. i heard she'd been in a motorcycle accident, and that was not i true. finally, i, you know, got herfi number and called, and we had -- we went to lunch, because luncho is easy. if it's not working out, you're out of there in an hour. we went to the h old nathan's in georgetown, and we sat at a booth, and we were will there for three hours. andth i remember before i met b, i had a friend of mine, michelle, a lawyer i work with, and i walked in my brief case and had, like, nine ties in the briefcase, which one do you think, you know? because i want to make a good impression. to michelle for the tie i picked that day.mp we hit it off, and is we dated

for a couple of years, and we just celebrate our 28th wedding anniversary yesterday. >> host: congratulations. and you have two kids. what did theyy end up doing with their lives? >> guest: our daughter is totally in the not for profit world. she just finished a year and a half at thrive d.c. which focuses on helping the homeless. so she worked there for -- and before that she worked for another t not for profit. that's allha she's ever wanted o do. and now i thinkofof she's goingo take the summer off, and she may be moving to south america to do good work.om she's my no mad, my traveler. h and our son works at a green start-up company outside philadelphia and is having a great time out there, and we get to see them both a lot, which is really nice. yeah, i tell people that's the most important work i've ever done is raising them.of >> host: is it hard for them to have such a famous dad? >> guest: you know, my daughter never tells anybody. [laughter] when she was in k college, peope said, baldacci -- she goes, no, we don't know that part of they

family. my dad's name is skip. everybody started calling me skip.wa i was like, what's happening here? she doesn't like any of that.g? my son sometimes will tell people, but neither one of them -- they're very strong, independent kids. neither onee of them's ever walked in my shadow. they're leading their own lives. >> host: harriet's in -- harry is in blooms berg, pennsylvania. >> caller: hi. mr. baldacci, it's a pleasure meeting you. >> guest: thank you. >> caller: i'm such a big fan oy your books that i immediately pre-order as soon as i get my notice from amazon. >> guest: thank you. >> caller: but my question is, is that because of i've read most of your books, i'm veryf particular with how you write yourr venues. and your descriptions are just absolutely wonderful. it puts me right there. and i thought to myself, wait a minute, how does he do this?

i am curious as to, one, you've probably visited those places and, two, is this being done while you're writing the book, or is it that you've pretty much completed the book and fill it in afterwards? >> guest: both of those are great questions. i'll tell you the way i do it, i do -- before i sit down to write afo book, i think about the subject areas i need to to learr about to write a book well, anda i set about setting up a plan of how am i going to do this, where am i going w to go, who am i gog to talko to.al i collect a lot of information and go and visit places. but at the same time, as i'm writing the book, i have gone and visited other places and talked to other people along the way. it's not like, youo know, i finished my research, i'm never going to do any more, and now i'm going to write the book. tt kind of part and parcel of te writing process. the more ior know about certaint things, the more interesting plot twists i can come up with, i can craft my storylines bettew

because i know information that maybe is not common knowledge. not stuff that you can easily wikipedia or google. so that's why i like to visit thewi places, i like to talk to the people that are actually doing some of the things that i write about. it's's happenstance, it could be seat of the pants. i invented a way to do it, and this is how we did it. so i just like listening to those people. research and the writing go hand in hand, and it could be that i'm researching and thinking about stuff and talking to peoplele up until the very lt page. >> host: you seem to get into places where other people g couldn't. you call up agencies, and you describe some of the places where some top secret work is going on.re why are they open to you? >> guest: well, i've become a journalist at those parts. what i've always done, and my sister was a journalist for years, and i would go with her when i was in college, i would go on some of her beat with her, and she would be interviewing people. i quickly learned there are aui couple of things you need to prepare for. one, you need to find out as

muchee as you possibly can about that agency or that person andte what they do. educate yourself. so when you are talk to them on the -- talking to them on theho phone they understandqu immediately, hey, you know what? he's not just calling out of the blue, he's done some work. i respect that. if youou can gain someone's respect, they're more open to you. so when i go in, i can sit and talk to them and not ask stupid questions because they can very quickly thehe tell whether i've done my homework at all. if you a haven't, a lot of these people in these agencies, interviews can be very short. so i will ask questions, show them i respect what they do, and i tendor to ask broad-based questions,t and i just want a dialogue back and forth. i don't wantrt specific, you kn, answers. i just want us to have a chat. and so, and i make them feel comfortable, i respect what they do, i don't waste their time. and people have specialized knowledge, you know? be they love to talk about it. it's something they've earned and worked for hard, and they m

know most people don't know about it, and they love to tell, youo know, back in 1979 or i was working out of the miami field office, and this is what happened. and i love those stories because it gives me insight into theirve personality, why they joined upr in the first place and what excites them about their work. and i p can take all that and bring sort of that all to bear into the novels i write. >> host: we're still telling story of>> your breakthrough in absolute power as we go along here. one thing that seems to have changed is your writing style. i looked back at the chapters, and they were 10-12 pages long. >> guest: yes. >> host: now they seem to bew 34 pages long. >> guest: yes. >> host: they also seem to leavw you wondering what's going tola happen, there's always a hookline. how did your writing style evolve? >> guest: i think thattho writes need to continually reinvent themselves, and for me part of it was becoming a lot more economical with my words and my descriptions and my dialogue. i don't know if it was sort of part and parcel with the screenplays i would write where

every word counts because you can't have a 30046 page p screenplay. -- 300-page screenplay. so every scene had to have multiple purposes. i don't know when it was, maybe 10 or 12 books ago, i decided, you know what? i'm going to streamline this because a lot of the story i'm going to tell, the poe tenty isf being dilute by me, you know, not being able to tear enough words out of it. i'me trying to write everything outt without regard to whether it's interfering with the flow of the story.. so that's when -- and the fact about, you know, the cliffhanger at the end of each chapter, i love reading books like that. that's going to draw me on to the next chapter. and i found out as i'm writingt all these books, i'm not bad at doing that. i'm pretty good. yout. know, it can just be one sentence, you know, and it coulf be totally out of the blue where you're going along and you think something else is going tola happen, and then the last line is and that didn't happen because. and then, you know, youdn turn o the next page. i was, so many times i go to

book events and people say, you know, i'm really mad at you. why is that? because i can't get any sleep, you know? it's 4:00 in the morning.n and i say to myself, put the bookok down and i can't. it'she all about reinventing yourself and keeping yourselfyo fresh and energetic. as a writer, i never want to ask myself question: how did i do it last time. you know? i always want to ask the question how can i do it differently going forward. >> host: mikeke is in bridgefie, delaware. hi, mike. >> caller: hi, how you doing? >> guest: i'm fine. how are you? >> caller: i'm good. listen, i just wanted to share an anecdote about how i first became acquainted with your writing.it >> guest: okay. >> caller: i was in the airport. i did a lot of traveling. i worked for the federal government. i was an auditor and an investigator, and i was going to be sitting, waiting a long time for my flight. and i went over to the book area, and i looked through the books and i saw this book,s

"absolute power" by david baldacci, and i read the jacket and said, hmm, this sounds interesting. i sat down and while i was reading it, i was saying, wow, this would make a really terrific movie. and ierer could see the actor -- >> guest: oh, clint eastwood. yes. >> caller: and as i was reading book, finally it dawned on me, i've already seen this -- [laughter] the movie. [laughter] >> guest: i hope you liked the book better.. [laughter] >> caller: let's see, well, what i like about your writing is how you hook people, how you hook the reader from the very beginning, and you just -- like the lady was saying, she can't w get any sleep because, especially now that you've changed your technique and the chapters goqu so fast. >> guest: yes.s. >> caller: and that's, that's

what i like so much about your writing, is that you can't put the book down. and as soon as you pick a new book up, you get hooked from very v beginning. so i really appreciate what a terrific writer you are. >> host: thank you,u, mike. >> guest: thank you. >> host: every author likes to hear calls like that. that's a great segway into hearing about how you actuallyut had the movie rights happen to "absolute power." what was the storiesome.bs >> guest: yeah. there were a number of studios bidding on it. o it happened almost simultaneously with the sale of the book. what happenedf is they have book agents that are in all the publishingy houses. people will feel the manuscript to make copies and send them out to t hollywood right away when u hear about a hot book selling. so back then probably five or six ofol the major studios were bying for the rights. so i'm at penn station. thisn is pre-cell phones, i'm at penn station and the pay phone,n and i've got, like, ten people behind meay waiting to use the phone. and warner brothers and pair pa mount and castle wrong, they're

all on the line are bidding on t this book, and the price keeps going up. i'm, like, shouting in the phone certain things. i have no idea what i even said, and people are looking at me like, okay, this man is insane. we should call the police and have him taken away. by the time i had, you know, gotten home on the train, the film rights had sold. for, you know, a lot of money. the whole period, the whole weeks and weeks of this happening, i told myself one thing, i said never forget any of this, because this is the o only time this is going to happen to you for the first time.ou everything else is just kind of secondary to that.o >> host: sure. >> guest: and then when clint eastwood, i got a call from bill goldman, the screen writer, because castle rock had hired him to write the screenplay. he said, hey, i've got some really great news and some bad news. iconic filmmaker, clint eastwood has signed on to star, direct and produce. the studio green lighted it. oh, my god, clint eastwood, u

unbelievable. what's the bad news? well, iconic filmmaker clint eastwood, your book is pretty much gone. [laughter] because clint wanted it to be a father/daughter picture, the young hero in the book, jack graham, the young lawyer, was not in the film anymore. but even to that point when i w was on the train, when i heard that news too, they had pay phones on the train, credit cards. i got on theed phone, i called everybody i'd ever known. hello, mrs. dugan? you're not going to believe what's happened to me. [laughter] >> host: how old wereel you? >> guest: i was 34. yeah. >> host: and this just kind of happened so fast after 20 years of -- i mean, you really must have beent mentally, hard to process. >> guest: it was dream-like, and every day was something new, you know? today show wanted me on. you know, good morning america wanted me on. i wase b on the local d.c. chanl 9 here years ago, and i remember being on there, and my whole lan

firm at holland and knight was watching me because they wanted me to come on and talk about it. in the end, are you doing the film and book rights? andrea, let me just stop you,o and i paused, and i said my lawyers are handling that. i heard later everybody at and knight started cheering -- [laughter] because every lawyer has wanted to say that. >> host: how long until you quit the lawd firm? >> guest: i stayed there for almost a year, because we had just joined, my partner and ioi had just joined this firm. .. brought over to start a corporate department and it didn't want to leave them in a lurch. we've been together for a long time. i was going to build book tour, writing the next book and it went in and i told, i think i've got to go full-time. i'm not being the best i can be. he was very understanding your you got to go for it, so i get. >> host: jennifer is in

richmond. david baldacci his hometown, how are you? >> guest: fica, you? , good. i love the amos decker series. definitely i love how you brought melvyn back into the fix. i was shocked, didn't think you'd carry on the character. i was calling, what advice do you have for a 13 year old who wants to be a lawyer but also wants to be a writer? >> guest: that's a a great question. i was kind of in that same situation. reading a lot >> guest: reading a lot is great. playing around with words is great. that is both what lawyers and writers do. join a book club, you'll find a lot of people with similar interests. you might want to get involved. there are organizations, legal organizations and law firms

sponsor these to encourage them to go into law. summer camps that deal with that as well. but they share commonality. if he or she goes they might find people i there who have the same dream that your kid does. i would say, open up a blank page journalists are writing something down. it could be a line of dialogue, little plotter narrative. do that a little bit every day. at 13 years old you haven't seen a lot of life. don't write about what you know about, write about what you would like to know about. passion can drive you to great storytelling. >> host: we are at the end of our first of three hours. we will take one call from nancy. then will show you a little bit

of the trailer from absolute power. >> caller: hello. it is so nice to be able to put a face with the book. i am 80 years old. i have a neurological problem. i cannot hold my head still to read. i listen to audiobooks. i started listening to them because i could not sleep. and my children suggested that i listen to them because they were listening to them as they drove down the road. so, i tried to get other seniors to listen to them but they can understand how you can listen to a book. so, i just want to thank you for all of the books you have written. i can't say one per specific one. i listen to for five books a week. i can listen to a voice because

i live alone. it is nice to hear another voice and i can visualize everything, down to a styrofoam cup setting out of place. ike seems change in a movie. and they don't have the same pair of shoes on that they had in the last scene. i can visualize things like that. so, thank you for all of your books. >> what a nice call, thank you. >> i'm presuming you read your own audiobooks. >> no, i don't they're not hearing my voice. they are professional actors who do that. i have long since learned my strengths and weaknesses. it really is a performance, they act out the scenes. there's a lot of drama and inflection. we professionals to do that. i say go listen to jim dale who

reads the harry potter books. she's like a hundred 58 voices. it's phenomenal. i set my garage listening to one of my books trying to see how it in even though i wrote it. i know how it ends. the audio is a different performance. >> join us for live coverage of the 18th annual library of commerce book festival next saturday starting at 10:00 a.m. eastern. our caller includes pulitzer prize-winning jon meacham in his book, the soul of america, the battle for better angels. >> and fox news host with his book, andrew jackson and the miracle of new orleans, the

battle that shaped america's destiny. watch live on c-span twos book tv next saturday at 10:00 a.m. eastern. >> up next is the first hour of the fiction addition of in-depth with david ignatius. his written many novels including agents of innocence, blood money, body of lies in the quantum spy. >> david, what is the premise of the quantum spy? >> guest: that the united states is locked in a new project in race to bill technology that is world changing and that is a quantum computer. our principal rival in that race