you have been on tour for the last several weeks talking about your 36 novel, "the fallen." it features number four in line for a character by the name of a mess. if i were to meet him on the street what would i see? >> guest: you would see a very large guy ambling down the street oblivious to everything going on. and if you stopped him and asked him a question he would probably just blow you off and keep going. he lives in his own world. i think people take his aloofness for buddhist which is

not that at all. how used to be a very good guy. he had a traumatic brain injury and it changes whole personality. he's living in a body that is the same, just not the same person. the book evolves and you see in "the fallen," my wife for this book. i finally liking. he finally reached his humanity level at the core but it took me four books to get there. i like complicated guys. east, get it, being with us for our "in depth" program in the special series. we sit with authors three hours talking about their life and the work. david ball that you will spend that time with us today and we hope very much for both of us that you'll be part of the conversation. as we continue along will put the phone numbers on the screen and our facebook and twitter handle so you can join in the conversation and we very much like to hear your questions about his writing, the characters he developed and why you're intrigued about them, the key to his success over the

years. what makes amos decker a good hero? especial for a thriller series. >> guest: when i first started thinking about a series, what would be good to do? i get this guy who's aloof, he doesn't get along with people, he doesn't pick up social cues. he walks out of the room when you're talking to. he'll be very popular. he just spoke to me. i've been fascinated by the mine and this is a guy whose mind changed and he had no control over that. he had to rebuild his life. when you are developing a series you have to have enough material to justify more than one book, like a character will evolve and go, the people can relate to and joy. if the character doesn't change there's no point in writing another book. within had enormous amount of material i could draw on. there exist back straight about his injury, about this perfect memory. when it first went on tour with the first book "memory man"

everybody, i said raise your hand if you think it's called at the perfect memory, can't forget anything. a lot of people raised their hand. i said ray should you get something in your life would rather forget. everybody raised their hand and that's just a little. he has lots of things would rather forget. for me what school is every time i get it on the page i have no idea what is going to do. >> host: when you start and think about series, all of your books premature are a series come he said you don't want to do the one offs, too much work, do you have a sense of how many you can play out with him or is doesn't just evolve? >> guest: i'm not good at predicting stuff like that. i'm not like jk rowling, there will be seven books in the harry potter series and that's it. for me i've written series that have two, witnesses that have five, written series that lot more than that. for me it's how much gas intake does the character have and i want to keep discovering things about him. i'm excited about writing him or her on the page. if the answers to that is just

barely keep going regardless of the book count is. if the edge is no, i do something else. >> host: how did you develop amos? was there a model in the real world you drew him from? >> guest: no. it was almost like frankenstein. i built in from parts all over the place. i knew i wanted a large guy. i want him to have this enormous presence, , and committing prest even though he's not really intimidating guy. i knew he would be a football player, and that was the source of the brain injury. which is all too prevalent these days especially in sports, football. a lot of the players i loved growing up watching, they are either passed away or in wheelchairs, dementia. at 60, they are totally gone,, their brain is gone. i wanted to write a story worth character scrapping with those issues as well. had this large presence and then build them a mental detective h

this unique feature about being able to unforgiving thing. but all the other package. he doesn't pick up on social cues anymore. it's hard for them to relate to people. as the detective that can be difficult. on one hand he is a superpower, perfect memory. on the event it's difficultly to people which is a downside for detectives. a choice of struggle but struggles innately traumatize this thing and raises the stakes and makes people want to understand this person what makes him tick. if you can give the reader to say what makes this guy tick. >> host: a setting for "the fallen" is fictional but its problems are real. when you tell our audience about the? >> guest: it's a rough bout time much like thousands across this country and thousands cost of the countries. western pennsylvania coal money, steel territory and this is a place where all exist because a guy named john figured out a way to make money. there is coal, a river, i can do

textiles. here we have berryville and know any people to work on it, so they came. payton whatever he paid them, headlights, kids and the call went away, the textiles went away and everything when we accept people who live there. they still have to move somehow. i have a lot of challenges in this novel and sometimes those challenges take it up a dark path. in better in philly, costs a small town has a lot of secrets underneath it. when amos starts poking around, bad things happen. >> host: one of those is the opioid, and we are all seeing so much, the travesty of the opioid crisis. what story did you want readers to learn about what the country struggling with? >> guest: first and foremost i wanted to understand this is a man-made problem, and this is not a problem start with the drug dealers on the street. mr. with prescription medication by doctors that your pharmacist

filled. another west virginia town that has 900 people and 13 million opiate prescriptions are written for the town you know it's a problem. in the '90s big pharma decide if we're not selling enough of these painkillers and want some more. they may paint the fifth element of a diagnosis and set said isd for anything that ails you. ironically a lot of the opioids were prescribed for back pain. almost has no effect on back pain at all. that's the irony. this is not addictive, don't worry. i want to people understand this is a man-made problem. now it is decimated commuters, it's called the drug of despair. people have no hope. they are spiraling. this is a problem we have that's not getting any better. it needs to be addressed. it is not being addressed. advertising campaign says just say no is not good work when you talk about that know which you can be addicted after one use. just saying no really doesn't work.

the poulos of factors that needs to be addressed to get the country to it but we have to. next year if the trends continue, next year 100,000 people overdose on no prince. that's the population of a small city. i want people to take away even with this novel a is fictionall the stuff is nonfiction. >> host: one thing to get into the narcan debate. what you think about it? >> guest: i think now a lot of places are giving it to first responders. places are saying we would give that to everybody. even if you're there and you're doing drugs as well, the person you're with overdoses, take out the narcan and save his life because it is a lifesaver. people say that will encourage people --.com headlines until we figure out how to solve the public you don't want to say don't do elephantine and will forget the problem litigant must do both at the same time. narcan needs to be out there. everybody did to have it taken in these towns. give it to family members, the addiction treatment since come first responders, everybody with

a might be an issue. have it in restaurants and bars because people don't realize this, people going overdose in a public place because they know they can be resuscitated. but in a bar, restaurant, in public places. it's almost like having a defibrillator. some goes into cardiac arrest, break the glass, hit them with a same thing with narcan. bring them back to life. >> host: do you see a lot of this when you travel? >> guest: absolutely. my mother stomach came from coal mining country and south virginia, , bring much like this pic you have a place that was once with a lot of good paying jobs where you could make 70, 80,000 a year without a college education. they are all gone. all gone. the towns still are there. when you drive to these places can try to the midwest, it's unlike washington, d.c. area. a lot of people, they don't have

college education. the work is service oriented, low-paying, no benefits. people have very few properties. they don't have homes sometimes. there in old cars even if they have a car. a lot of that is what america is, and so for me i'm not surprised people are turning to opioids to try to break out of this because they don't feel like they have in hell. that's the bad thing, with the greatest country, the richest country on earth. every citizen should have hope. that life can get better and we just did get that back. >> host: what is the lesson of capitalism then? >> guest: the lesson of capitalism is, look, i'm a capitalist. i have my own small business. there has to be a balance. i was thinking about this when i was driving in today, that would be better for one person to make $3 billion a year or the person to make $1 billion a year and a bunch of other people instead of making $30,000 a year could make

$60,000 a year. they could buy more stuff, have better health insurance, syndicates to college. with that make society better for everybody to what is at the guy having to live on $2 billion less, with that hurt him? i think, we've seen this before, in the beginning of 20 center, the robber barons, the gilded age. this will thing happened again before you have an income tax and jeff anomaly wealthy people, robber baron, railroad barons, magnets, rockefellers, , carnege some people like that. people had nothing. that house was totally out of whack in judd teddy roosevelt come in, breaking these monopolies. collective bargaining. that built the middle class. unions are pretty much dead and all of a sudden you have very few who are making extraordinary amounts of money and the rest of the people not so much. i don't know, i don't think it's

sustainable, i really don't. i also can't argue to people plausibly least the united states that they should maybe be some rebalanced or redistribution. as soon as you say redistribution then you're a socialist. i'm not a socialist but i also know the track we're on doesn't seem to be sustainable. >> host: in better envelop what's been given people jobs is a fulfillment center for online unnamed online company. have you visited one of those? >> guest: yes, i have. drama what are they like? >> guest: this deal is unbelievable. they are football field times 12. you've never seen so much cardboard in your life, shelters and robots and people running literally all day. when you think about it, you think about the packages you get your house or the fact that the postal service on it operates on sunday to deliver amazon packages. when you see a mail truck on sunday look and said, amazon

packages. those packages have to get to some out. fulfillment centers are how they do it. if you millions of americans by billions of packages, and your places that have told by capacity. when you go in the scales are breathtaking. the speech which the stuff moves, 400 packages processed a second, out the door and on its way. i was overwhelmed. it was like, i been to a lot of big military bases, you know. these places dwarfed the scale i saw there. it is a phenomena. it grew in the last ten years. it's the one major growth industry employment weiser people. it was unbelievable to me tremble and i'm going get the phone numbers in about 50 minutes start taking your telephone calls for david baldacci. you can tweet us @booktv and use hashtag in depth, please to make

sure get into and we can get your questions and we look forward to them. with a facebook page, lots of ways to get involved if you'd like to do that. in the very first amos dekker book, the "memory man," the central plot is around the school shooting. what year did you write that? >> guest: first was about maybe five years ago. >> host: since then we've seen a number of these. what are you thinking about happening with society? why did you use this as a device that what we hoping to gain for your readers? >> guest: with the school shooting in "memory man," for me it was his hometown, the school where his daughter would a con had she lived through high school. you can write fiction number of different ways. you can write screenplays number of different ways. you can grow big and shallow or you can go small and litigate. i wanted in "memory man" tethys

-- you see him telling the hallways of this high school at this horrific event, this very small stage, taking everything in, all points and is looking at. building this template of what is the truth. on the small stage i was able to go deep and that's i wanted to do. i didn't want to go brought and shallow. for me it was almost a hitchcockian reflection. action moved off but the primary focus come here to figure out what happened. i think when i was overseas, when i was in england they told me crime fiction had taken over general fiction is most popular genre in uk first time ever that people asking why i thought that was. i said other things being equal if you can't get what you want in the real world you turn to fiction. in thrillers and crime fiction you good people and bad people, and then the good people get the

bad people, truth comes out and it in as it is supposed in. you can't get in good life with a good people keep losing. >> host: this is the home of agatha christie and sherlock holmes so you would think thrillers of those been a part of the british popular -- tragic they really haven't. crime fiction is big over there and always has been but i don't know what happened. this year for the first time ever it overtook general literature. i think maybe that's one reason. >> host: we will get into how this all started which of the caller. let's listen to what he has to say. brian is in sioux city iowa. welcome to the conversation with david baldacci. >> caller: good morning. my question is about his memory condition that you set start because of injuries suffered in football. this is perfect recall something we can recall things before the

entry perfectly or is the perfect recall only triggered by things happen after thoughtful entry? >> guest: a great question and the answer is it's different for different people. with amos decker it can be before the injury occurred to him. we all have memories of things that happen to us from day one moving up, but sometimes our memory is nothing good about bringing it back out but it is a summa. what fasted me is in 2018 -- fascinated me. we don't know how the brain works. it's almost like traumatic brain injury unlock the memories that were in his had all along. it's almost like you want to think that come as bandwidth went from normal to like a gazillion all the information. house was been in there but never able to access before. his ramp went up significantly if you want to talk about on a computer basis. but going forward everything he sees he will remember exactly as

he sees it and exactly as he hears it. sometimes i can be tricky because sometimes people like to do he will remember that life. he remembers exactly someone says. down the road find something that's contradictory. he put his template over to understand maybe that statement was not true. he can remember everything from day one. >> host: all the amos decker books and a fact in all of the novels of yours that a bread, there's always a state and local, federal agency, there is federal agencies and is always lots of bureaucracy for people to deal with. where did you develop that worldview about an agency relations? >> guest: from dealing with a lot of agencies who do with each other. i've had personal extremes in my office one time my office in west virginia were to federal agencies almost came to blows in the lobby in my office because one was doing something and had not told the other that they were doing. they had somebody stationed in

their office with binoculars and walkie-talkie walking around and looking around. this of agency sent a a strike team into our building to grab this person. full body armor, ak 15th and it was like what's going on? the other guys came in and trenchcoats, i want named agencies. they were like she works for us. why do need to tell us? we don't tell anybody anything. we are who we are and you to tell us. it really default quickly into like chaos. i've worked in that with a lot of academic agencies over the years and one thing they will tell you is the cooperation and communication is not always what it should be. there's a lot of people, a lot of paperwork and a lot of intrinsic values to these places. it's a turf battle. the crazy way the federal budget works is you get more money if you have more responsibility and more stuff that you do. you never want to get a piece of

the fight anybody else. >> host: the changes that were made after 2001 were supposed to solve all the stuff after 9/11. bandwidth the word for communication, electronic medication. what happened? >> guest: easier said than done. the iris was supposed be having new computer systems the last 40 years as well. they dod is supposed to do lots of stuff and not spent $40,000 on a hammer. all those things to happen because look, these are aircraft carriers, military symbolism again. if you think you are going to move those things in three minutes in a a new direction, s not going to happen. they are enormous unwieldy beast and it takes time. i'm not say changes are napping at things about working better but it's a long, long slog, martin is in washington, d.c. area. hello, martin. >> caller: good morning.

mr. baldock you, good morning. >> guest: good morning. >> caller: i just finished "the fallen" recently, and went to all the series my question is, there are some pretty heavy deep emotional elements in it. do you plan those or do they come about spontaneously? >> host: what's the senior member that struck you as an emotion one? >> caller: latest one, the last page, i would just leave it at that. >> host: we will tantalus our viewers. >> guest: that the great question, martin. for me i have to make these characters feel like they are real and human. one into that is to relate to the readers on an emotional level. we all have problems in allies, we all fall down. we all have losses and great and things went to suffer through.

i really in this book in particular with amos decker wanted to show even though he had his traumatic brain injury, even though he was never used to be and he seems aloof and not really part of the world anymore, that he still had heart and soul and he could still feel things. i know exactly what you're talking about. the relationship between decker and that particular character was my way to show this guy might a change in a lot of ways but he still a human being and he can still feel and be vulnerable. as far as i don't necessary plot all these things up. a lot of it as i'm writing i'm so immersed in it it just feels right as i'm writing it. you can call it spontaneous but i think i some colleges has been to want on for so long that it's not spontaneous. edges came to the service and the user when i spoke to use. i knew i wanted to draw a lot more emotion out of amos decker in this novel, and his relationship in the book with his other character you are talking about was really one critical way to do it. >> host: one relationship threat the series is alex

jamieson who starts out annoying him i think in the first book as a journalist asked too many questions. how does she evolve? >> guest: if the one or two -- she's his watson. she keeps him somewhat normal and even keel and kicks him in the butt when he goes too far and he does something that she thinks is wrong. she's a steady influence but it's frustrating for her, too. she's good at her job and she wants to be better. she understands that that is br than she will ever be because of his unique abilities. he is issues and i think together it's also important you have dual like this. i have to be complement it. you feel like together they are better than it would be separately for both of them. each of them to talk the other. i like that about that. alex is a really critical part of amos decker i don't think he could be himself without her. >> host: they work for the

fbi, and fbi has been an bit of trouble lately, nationally lots of accusations like about the role in things. someone who is really worked with his agency for such a long time what is your view of the public perceptions and the arguing over the role of the fbi right now? >> guest: all the agencies i've dealt with without exception or a political and dedicate to what to do. their jobs are hard and tough and they don't have time reallr political grandstanding worrying about an agenda down the road. they're just trying to solve cases and get people are doing bad things are catch them before they do bad things. this criticism i'm not an agent really gets me because i know a lot of agents. the bureau doesn't deserve this, justice department doesn't deserve this. on the sink you can't criticize institutions. you can criticize individual people who you can show were doing bad things but to say the fbi or the justice department are tainted and corrupt

broadscale i think that's totally not right, martha in billings montana. >> caller: i just started reading the alex decker books. i really like them. >> guest: thank you, but had to tell you at the age of 70 i am madly in love with john poehler. [laughing] , of which no way don't give him a girlfriend, please. somebody that he can be settled with or something. i just love that man. >> host: we will talk about john later in the program it seemed like a status to be john love interest. they don't often survive -- >> guest: bad things seem to happen. they are in the line of fire. well, i will never say never on that. he's a a fictional character se could find love down the road. but he will be back in another book. i do like knox, she may be the

one to tame him and be the one that stands the test of time. i'm keeping that in mind. look, i love them, too. i think he's a great guy, will they be more amos decker books? >> guest: there will be more amos decker books. now that if it does reached the tipping point on it being him more, almost deliberated that ii can go farther with them, next up is joanne in ld-1 wisconsin. welcome. >> caller: i have been a david baldacci finance for many years, and my husband and i just finished watching, got from the library, the "king and maxwell" tv series. it's a lot different than the book because i just finished the "king and maxwell" book, which i really enjoyed it. i read, actual and listen to it, when i walk, i do the audiobooks so i'm really glad you do the audiobooks. the amos decker one, "the last mile," which was fascinating.

i felt in love with a whole series of going to go back and get first once i can figure out -- not figure out that 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 with a lot of reasons. "the last mile," the second one, will you meet marvin and some of the other cast, that really clicked, that was possible because i explored a lot that justice department, the prison system. it gave -- i guy that was on his level. i don't get a lot of e-mails about this goes. they said when is melvin going to come back? melvin wasn't in the fall in and in what melvin come back. >> host: jacquelyn is in washington, d.c. >> caller: hello, 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 would consider just basically providing them if you will and industry for of west virginia or i another state whh really needs an industry. >> guest: i would sort of agree with that, too. the headquarters of the second headquarters for amazon.com will be a huge shot any offer any community. i know the criteria they have. i'm sure they want highly educated workforce and what of lots of other amenities and things in the area that would

attract people. west virginia has a lot of those things as well. i think communities like that should be in the running. i don't know what the exact criteria are. i did hear recently amazon sent out to some of the city still in the running a list of things they didn't like about the places and apparently they maybe want them to fix. i'm not sure i do that. i don't know what the issues were but it's extraordinary when a a company, one company has that much power edge of all these communities clamoring for the jobs and through all this money at them. it's really extraordinary. >> host: jeff basis as a part-time washingtonian as owner of the "washington post." have you met him? >> guest: no. when amazon first word out in the book basis, out of his garage in the mid-1990s, and the fact 20 some odd years he spoke this enormous company. it's quite an achievement, and,

but it's a lot going on. >> host: jacqueline, as a former colleague from a law firm with offices wash and, this is a good jumping off point for of what to do witches spend time tell your story to the audience. it all began as a 20 year overnight sensation. >> guest: that's right, with "absolute power" your first successful novel. can you tell our audience how it came about? >> guest: yeah, i know people think, you did like practicing law so you decide to write a book. but i've been writing since i was a kid. i grew up in richmond, virginia. one of his kids are never shut up, and i was always telling tall tales, usually get muscle out of trouble. i was a voracious reader. i would go to the library of the week. with my brother and sister check out more books that was allowed. the library knew i would read them all. i never let richmond as a kid but i saw the world through books. i was locked in your my mom when i was seven or eight brought me a blank page book and journal.

why did you try writing? i did anderson as my pen hit the paper, i can create something of the people can read and enjoy it like i do. i never looked back. i wrote short stories for 15 years. i was trying to show short stories to the atlantic and playbook and story magazine when i was in high school. had very little success during that but i went to law school in practice law, had a family. i wrote screenplays and agent in l.a. based on screen was, had a couple of the options but not a lot of success. and then i decide to try my hand at long form, a novel. my law office was near the white house back then. i was relatively new to the d.c. area and it would walk past the white house. i think bush 411 was president been. we would occasion see the presidential motorcade and see the secret service agents and us thinking about you know what, what if or when a book that fits

ulster types? i will make a bad person a good person and the good people you think are good or bad. so president, and and a cover. i know this seems like was ripped from the headlines the fact that it wasn't. i spent three years of my life writing while i was practicing law as a trailer which is pretty intense work. when i get into my cup ilmenite and work from 10:00 until three in everyday that was my type. i wanted to write. i do say so tongue-in-cheek some of best fiction i have wrote was when i was a lawyer. i'm talking about my legal briefs now. as a writer and as a lawyer all i had in my quiver our words. that's it. i would spend my whole ten years writing as a lawyer think about words and stories and had a something possibly so someone will believe it. for me in making this transition from being a lawyer to write it was all that difficult.

i would work on projects for years at a time as olympic estimates it will take years to write a book, unlike my whole life has been about that. that wasn't daunting to me. it was an easy transition. writing, i wanted to be a full-time writer since i was a kid. years later my mom came back to me after my success and i said mom, what a great gift you gave to me that day. she said i'm so glad it's worked out for you but quite frankly i just wanted to shut you up. you on my last nerve as a kid. >> host: you have two siblings, right? himself like they felt the same way about you. >> guest: totally. i just saw the yesterday. you have changed. never shut up. >> host: was like when you got the phone call from your agent saying this book is -- >> guest: it was surreal. i just joined the firm recently in working in a small for most of my career. i had no idea who i was. today i was attorney 587. wasn't even a name. my agent called and said if i sell this book would you quit

loitering and write full-time? i said my whole dream is to write full-time. he said the book sold. it really sold. at first i thought what hung up with him as like that's great, all the time i take it an agent and now i find out he's a whack job. i didn't believe him. i didn't believe him, it was too outrageous. things have like that but not to me. then i i get a call came to the office on the president of time warner books to congratulate me and it might be up for this party to celebrate the signing. i didn't have anybody i could tell at the law office. nobody knew about that. i remember going to a luncheon that day after getting this phone call this the change my life. the talk about insurance regulation. i'm sitting around the table with 30 other lawyers losing to the discard two november insurance regulatory all the way he was jump up the table and start doing the electric slide all the way down the conference room table. that's all he wanted to do. because it was newsworthy it a

go into all of friends and family that night. none of them knew i was writing. it was just -- >> host: none of the knew you were writing? >> guest: other than my wife, my brother and sister my mother my father nobody knew. nobody had ever practiced law with, none of my friends knew. we had to go around telling people of good news to share. we went there and that is not with having another baby or we're getting divorced. so they said. i said we are having another baby but i'm the one who is pregnant. this is my book. they would look away. one of my close friends can i'm godfather to one of his sons called me up later and said what else do we know about you? >> host: we will pick up the story out would talk to dad who's been waiting from falls church virginia. >> caller: mr. baldacci and how you doing? uses you up at the barnes & noble bookstore about tyson. it's a treat to talk to you. a couple things. in the following you exposed me

to this whole structure of the fulfillment centers. i assumed and you mentioned it earlier that you had visited one. in the book you also bring up the working conditions of the people in the fulfillment centers. i'm just wondering, do you see them as being a lease based on what i 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, robots, this just a temporary boon for employment opportunity for folks when robots may be taking over a large part of those responsibilities? >> guest: those are all great question. i will say these ultimate centers have the potential to be

the sweatshops of the 21st century. it's all based on productivity and when you have billions the packages you had to get out the door, there's no way humanly possible you can compete with the robot that never gets tired and never needs a restroom break. to add to your question, i think they should be ripe for unionization. whether that can happen in 2018 or not i don't know know. i do think workers can be and are being exploited in his place it because literally for $12 an hour you shouldn't have to literally have to work yourself to death for ten hours a day. but at the same time automation is in the long run is far cheaper than paying people to do these jobs. when you're talking lifting boxes up, putting labels on them come sliding them down a thing and then putting them into a truck, robots when they would all of those things so you have these fulfillment centers and you have two people who work in the under just engineers overseeing the stuff going on

behind computer screens, , and robots will do all the work. amos decker noted, he talked about, explaining this and he said if robots are going to do all the work and people are not going to jobs, who is going to buy all the crap on the shelf? the guy schedules i don't think the business guys have figured that one out yet. i think somebody needs to. >> host: if you're a regular booktv watching you know that we have spent 20 years looking at nonfiction authors and their work. our channel will be celebrate its 20th anniversary this september. for this particular your our anniversary year on our in-depth series, once in each month we've been focusing on dictionary like mr. baldacci took the reason is that their store is also a percentage that. we are going to be talk about a lot of issues three hours together if you're new to booktv welcome and we hope you'll enjoy our programming. if you're a regular booktv pure hope you'll enjoy this little dip into fiction for 12

times this year. bill is watching us from wassail alaska. >> caller: good morning. books on the shelves, david as you know the history for centuries authors, authors and, based on actual books sold. it would be announcements in papers, this hot selling release thousands his first day and so on. if that still happening it seems like the e-books and all that stuff has got to a point where people are not buying books, and what is the effect on incomes of authors? >> guest: great questions. in the three to four years ago i think e-books hit their height. they really peaked sales wise. for maybe seven or eight years employing every other genre or every other category of sales out of the water. art cover print novels

plummeted. nobody is buying mass-market anymore. literally for me i had like six or seven books in a row what each book sold more than 1 million e-books, each book, which supposedly high numbers are probably three years ago it started to plateau and then the e-book sales started to go down again. it may be just the fact there is that the other. people of asian books under kindle or not they have registered and not by as many e-books. i may be an issue. there was a big fight with some of the online sellers and some of the publishers. at the same time print books i can look at my own statements that he get from the publisher, print books yesterday go up again. hardcover sales are going up. downloadable audio has exploded, it's the fastest growing category of sales now any country. i think people can use other devices, smart phones, download on the ipad and they can listen to the stuff. for a while e-books had taken over the entire industry. things are getting back more in the balance.

with me at this point in my career i don't really do royalty schedule. i'm a full partner with a publisher e-books go up, it's the whole pie at there. what we're trying to do is increase the pie, if the pie gets bigger i make more money and a publisher makes more money. but for a lot of writers, e-books were a good thing. for some it could be published traditionally by traditional publisher and sold just online but also dreamed of being a bad thing, it's a complicated area. >> host: what are your own habits both with how you read and that you take notes? >> guest: almost, when i read it's almost real books all the time. my wife is to shias to be real books only. now she reads e-book is loaded and she reads a lot online. i only read online, thought it them at lunch. i read something short. for me i like to take the book out and smell, hold it, feel it and turn the pages myself. as for us note i'll let go,

wherever i go my laptop goes with me. i do still do a lot of handwritten notes. the fact is, i would all three chapters in long hand just because of the like that's what i wanted to do. i took people a sense weird but it might make sense, i think better in cursive. i don't have a keyboard between me and what had to say. >> host: did you go to catholic school? they teach cursive writing. i thought maybe those habit from childhood. i'm wondering if all of your books have descriptions. you see the character in front of you when you're reading. do you watch everybody around and take full notes about how people dress and how they wear their hair to kind of draw on that for later on when you're writing? >> guest: i like harry best buy. remember those books? i loved eavesdropper when i sent high school, college and law school i just love watching people. these days on the front of the camera and in front of the room talk a lot but i prefer to be in

the back watching. people fascinate me. how to relate to each other, their mannerisms, idiosyncrasies, how they hold themselves, what to talk about. all of that is material. as writer i just think you had e to be a good observer and a listener. those are true attribute a writer has to you have to be the one eavesdropping to watch a anybody else. for me people ask me what you get your ideas some? i said i get up of day and walk out the door. i don't have a face buried in a laptop or an iphone. i'm watching the world and trying to see the potential of a particular secret ict people talking ongoing and one in terms of walked on out and i think what were the talk about and what's can happen the person who just walked down the alley? >> host: you have referenced your wife several times. how did you meet? >> guest: we met at a vegetarian barbecue. neither one of us were our

vegetarian but that's the way to have. the first thing schipper said to me, she insulted me. i was this hotshot new trial lawyer for myself. i felt this tap commercial and turn right and was. i had no idea who she was. she said i hear you telling people you're a lawyer. i said, yet. i thought maybe she wanted her story. she said kennedy some advice? okay. stop telling people that. she just turned and walked off. i thought i have to date her. you know, it took me a long time to find and who she was. nobody knew she was picked she just moved to the area. i hurt you been in a motorcycle accident, and that was not true. finally, i got her number and called and we had, we went to lunch because lunch is, it's not working out, you're out of there in an hour. we went to natives, the old nations in georgetown. we sat at a booth and with were there for three hours. before i went i do friend of mine, michelle, although i worked with.

for the luncheon i walked in and a flick of my briefcase, i had like nine ties in a briefcase. which one do you think what i want to make a good impression. we hit it off. we did it for a couple of years and to celebrate our 28th wedding anniversary. >> host: congratulations to both of you. you have two kids. what did they end up in with our lives? >> guest: are a is told in the not-for-profit world. she just finished a year and a half at thrive d.c. which focus on helping the homeless. she worked there and before that she worked at another not-for-profit. that's all she's ever wanted to do. and now i think she's going to take a little some offense may be moving to south america to do good work down there. she's my nomad, my traveler, my mayawati going just help people. our son works at a green start a company outside of philadelphia it's had a great time up there. we get to see in the a lot which is really nice.

that's the most important work of ever done, raising them. >> host: is it hard for them to such a famous dad? >> guest: you know, my daughter know which is anybody. when in college people said -- she said my dads name is skipped. when i went up there for graduation nobody was calling me skip. was like, what, what's happening? she does want any of that. my son sometimes until people but neither one of them, their stall, independent kids. neither one of them have walked in my shadows. >> host: harriet in bloomsburg pennsylvania. hi, harry. >> caller: hello. mr. baldacci, it's a pleasure meeting you try to thank you, i'm such a big fan of your books that i really preorder as soon as i my notice from amazon. >> guest: thank you, but my question is, because of i've read most of your books, i'm very familiar with how you write

your venues and your descriptions are just absolutely wonderful. it puts me right there. i thought to myself, wait a minute, how does he do this? i'm curious as to, one, you probably visited these places, and two, is this being done while you're writing the book or is it that you are pretty much completed the book and film and afterwards? >> guest: great questions. i'll tell you what i do it. before i sit down to write a book i think about the subject areas i need to learn about in order to write a book well and find an authentic way. then i set about taking where the going to go? who i'm going to talk to? i collect a lot of information before going to is a place. at the same time as i'm writing i have gone and visited other places and talk to other people along the way. it's not like i finish my

research, undergraduate and more, not to write the book. it's part and parcel of the writing process. i force of the more i know about certain things, the more interesting plot twist i can come up with. i can craft my story lines better because i knew information that maybe is not common knowledge. that's something you can wikipedia or google so that's why like to visit the places, like to talk to people. it's just happenstance. it can be seat-of-the-pants, or i need to do this and i figured away. i just like listening to this te people. the research and writing go hand in hand and could be i'm researching and thinking stuff and talking to people up until the very last page. >> host: you seem to get into places where other people couldn't. you call it agencies and you describe some of places where top-secret work is going on. why are the open to you? >> guest: i become a journalist at those parts. what a voice done, my sister was

a journalist for years and don't go with her when i was in college, where should the anything people. i quickly learned a couple think she'd prepare for. one, you need to find as much as you can about that agency or the person and what they do. and educate yourself. so that when you're talking to them on the phone or send them a query that they understand he's not just calling out of the blue, he knows all of it of what come he's done some work, i respect that. if you can gain someone's respect their more open to it when i go in and the den background like to sit there and talk to a not ask stupid questions because they can very quickly tell whether id. at homework at all. if not doing homework, interviews will be very short. i will ask questions, show them i'm respecting what to do and i'm not here to waste of time, they get more comfortable. i didn't ask broad-based questions and i just want to, i dial it back forth. i do want specific answers. i just want us to have a chat.

i make them feel comfortable. i respect what to do. i don't waste their time. people have specialized knowledge. they love to talk about it. it's something they averred and worked for hard at the know most people know about you like to share those stores. they love to tell back in 1979 i was working out of miami field office and this is what happened. i love those stores because it gives me insight into their personality, why they joined up the first place and what excites them about their work. i can take all that and bring sort of that all to bear in the novels i've written. >> host: we are still telling the story of your breakthrough in absolute power as a go alone. one thing the seem to have changed your writing style. i look back at the chapters in absolute power and are ten to 12 pages long. now they seem to be three to four pages long. they also seem to always lead r when it was can happen in the next chapter. their choice in oakland at the end which isn't present in absolute power. how did your writing style

people? >> guest: writers need to random themselves. for me part of it was becoming -- in my descriptions, my dialogue. you can't have a 300 page screenplay screenplay, it's not going to work. so everything had to have multiple purposes. for me i don't know when it was, maybe ten or 12 books ago i decided i'm going to streamline. because a lot of the stories on going to tell the potency of it, is being diluted by me not being able to care in a forced out of it. what everything out without regard to whether it's in the flow of the story are not. that's when, in the fact about the cliffhanger at the end of each chapter, i love reading books like that that's going to gone onto the next chapter. i found it as i'm writing, i'm not bad at doing that. pretty good at doing that because they can just be one

sentence. it could be totally out of the blue frequent long a particular scene that you think someone else is going to happen and then the last line is, and that didn't happen because. and then you turn to the next page. some at times i have heard people say i am really mad at you. why? because i can't get any sleep. it's 4:00 in the morning and i say to myself, put the book down at the camp. it's all about reinventing yourself and keeping yourself fresh and energetic. as a writer i i want to ask myself this question how did i do last time? i always want to ask how can they do differently going forward? >> host: mike is in delaware. >> caller: how're you doing? try to find. how would you? >> caller: good. listen, i wanted to share an anecdote about our first became acquainted with the writing. >> guest: okay. >> caller: i was in the airport. i did a lot of traveling. i worked for the government.

i was 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 "absolute power" i david baldacci and a red the jacket and i said this sounds like it might be interesting. so i bought it and i sat down and while i was reading it i was saying, wow, this would make a really terrific movie. and i could see the actor -- no not going -- >> guest: clint eastwood, yes. >> caller: eastwood. as i was reading the book, some add-on dummy i've already seen the movie. >> guest: i hope you liked the book better. >> caller: let's see, well, what i like about your rating is how you hook the reader from the very beginning and you just,

like the lady was saying, , she can't get any sleep because, special and of changed your technique and the chapters. that's what i liked so much about your writing, is that you can't put the book down or essen as you pick a new book up you get hooked on it from the very beginning. i really appreciate what a terrific writer you are. >> caller: . >> host: thank you. that's a great segue into hearing about how you actually had the reverse happen to "absolute power." what was the story? >> guest: the were a number of studious bidding on it. it happened almost simultaneous with the sale of the book. what happens is they have book agents that are and all the publishing houses and people steal the main skip, make copies and then at the hollywood. back then probably five or six major studios were bidding for the rights.

i met penn station. this was pre-cell phone, smart phone. at penn station and the payphone and i got like ten people behind me waiting to use the phone. warner bros. and paramount and council rock for all on the line, all these guys on the line bidding on this book and the price keeps going up. i'm like shouting and phone certain things. i have no idea what a said. people behind obligate you liked this man is insane. we should call the police and had them taken away. so by the time i had gotten home on the train, the film rights had sold for a lot of money. the whole time, weeks and weeks of this happening but i told by someone think i said never forget any of this because this is the only time this is going to happen to you for the first time. everything else is secondary to that. when clint eastwood i got a call from bill goldman, the screenwriter because castro hired him to write the screenplay before eastwood hired under bill called up and said hey, great news, bad news.

okay, what's the good is? iconic film maker clint eastwood just sign on the line to star and direct in absolute power. congratulation. clint eastwood, unbelievable. what's the bag is? he said iconic film actor clint eastwood just signed to star and direct to produce the filter your book is pretty much gone. because he wanted to be father daughter here. even at that point when i was on the train when heard that news, they had payphones on the train back in. credit card, i got on the phone and call anybody i item in my life, like hello, mr. dugan? you would be a first grade. you're not going to believe what's happened to me. >> host: how old were you? >> guest: 34. >> host: this just happened so fast after 20 years, i mean you really must have been hard to

process. >> guest: it was a dreamlike. everyday something do. some today shawon me to be on, good morning america me to be on. i would on local d.c. channel line years ago and i remember being on the whole law firm was watching it because when we do, and talk about it at the end she said at the film is, but quite. are you doing all that? i said let me to stop you. i always want to say this and a positive said, my lawyers are handling this. i heard later anybody at holland and nights started chewing. every lawyer has wanted to say that. >> host: how long it equipped the law from? >> guest: i stayed there for almost a year. because we just joined, my partner and i just joined this film, and he recently retired after distinguished long career. we've been 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 is great and playing around with words is great because that's what both lawyers and writers do. i would say join a book club

writing group, and you will find a lot of people with very similar interest. you might want to get involved. there are a lot of organizations around, legal organizations, law firms sponsors these to encourage people to go into law. you can go look at some of those for summer camps that deal with that as well. the truth discipline share a lot of, notes. so i think if he or she goes and does as she might find their people there who have the same dream that your kid does. i would say open up a blank page journal and start writing stuff debbie does had anything other than what comes out of it. it could be a little plot, although narrative, some 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 from nancy in stafford virginia and then we'll show you all the bit of the truth of "absolute power." nancy, you are on. .. caller: i started listening to them because i could not sleep p or my children were listening to them as they drove down the road , so i try to get other seniors to listen to them, but they cannot understand how you can listen to a book, and so i guess i want to thank you for all of the books you have written. i cannot recall one

specific one. i listen to probably four or five books a week, so i can listen in to a voice and it's nice to hear another voice and i can visualize everything down to a-- [inaudible] and they don't have that same pair of shoes on they had in the last scene and i can visualize things like that, so thank you for all of your books. host: what a nice call. thank you. i presume you read all of your own audiobooks for your readers? guest: no, i doubt. host: they are not hearing your voice? guest: professional actors. i have learned my strength and weaknesses. it is really a performance.

they act out these scenes so there is a lot of drama and you need professionals to do that people read the harry potter books have said listen to jim dale who does the audio books. ease in the book of world records for the voices, so it's phenomenal. i have sat in my garage listening with the car running listening to my books to see how it will end even though i wrote it. i know how it will end, but

this is part of our 2018 special fiction addition of in-depth . >> host: david ignatius, what's the premise of "the quantum spy". >> g: