. >> thanks for joining us on in-depth and i want to begin with your latest book because you wrote the following i believe every book is born to re-read. it is this book to help me realize the difference between being alive and actually living the book is called the escaped on - - escape artist.

explainh. >> i wish i was smart enough to figure out the theme of my story but i need to figure out the differencet to be alive and living but i am not. i finish the book and got to the end of it and i said this is what i'm doing with my own life both parents have passed away, i thought it was over i had wrote four different books to deal with it but it was that point dealing with the death of my parents and then me then selfishly to say when you go through that we all have moments whether addiction or abuse or the loss of a loved one but you were in that hole and you have to climb out and the escape artist was my way out of it. o harry houdini was the one that gave it to me he was so obsessed with the death that family and friends passwords

and codewords if they came back to life in a séance they would know it is real so if you say librarian i know it is my friend steve he wasd obsessed with his mother's death but the secret word supposedly was the word forgive. the most powerful words in the english language. we are in a hole and you want to escape or you want to be the escape artist you have to forgive starting with yourself. and that is where he blew it open for me and this is what i am dealing with myself. cspan: you have written one dozen fiction books had you go about that quick. >> for me after 20 years i know that i am not that

special that if i love somethinger there has to be other people who like it just as much. that is what happened with the escape artist. i went to the uso to entertain troops so when we got there we heard about dover air force base and you know, those flag covered coffins that are coming off the plane to say this iss incredible but when i got there i realized, i thought it would be a transaction like the white house or the capital. they will tell men, the secrets. but when i got to dover i was humbled by what i saw. the men and women who work on the bodies will spend 12 hours to rewiring someone's jaw to

smooth it over with clay to get one last good look ateo their son or re-create the hand from scratch because she wants to hold her son's hand. i don't care your politics but these are our heroes. they were the best of the best working on the best of the t best. so the creativity for me in that moment on the story side and i give them to the people who work there. so with the escape artist i went to the top partition i got to meet a lot of them i want to do a hidden note inside of somebody's body or have you seen someone try to

pass a note? and they said if you even note the liquid in your stomach will protect that note in a crash. they said it really happened. so they truly opened up someone stomach there was a note inside of course, it wouldn't tell me because it was privacy reasons but in that moment that person is loved and wants to be loved and is reaching out and i love that idea and then she's now a

soldier opens up bodies a secret note inside to say you right to realize she's not dead she is on the run she is the escape artist. but i do realize it is to pick out those other characters and that is where i start with the creative process. >> it's obvious from reading your books you take real-life locations and events w that i can start the book i can build the boat while i sail that. don't do it i had a literary midlife m crisis that i knew i was doing after 20 years to figure it out or you could

stop and say i will get better. like i was just phoning it in it i took a hard look which is the best one? i want them all to be the best but they cannotic be. so these are the best and what do they have inco common there is 1 million books written about magic thatat we like harry potter because all of the people there is a plot but don't start this until you have the woman on the table. so i was at her face here in virginia they took me around and i saw an army base that

had all these paintings on the wallta why does the us military have all this art by adolf hitler and military people. i said why? they said u.s. army has a us painter on staff that paints the disaster as they happen. your storming the beach or or vietnam quick. >> as everybody else's racing in with guns blazing somebody is racing in with paintbrushes? i have got to meet thatt person. they said you mean you want to meet her? of course, it's a woman. so that is how the character was born i love that they compare to the girl with the dragon tattoo but that character was born racing into

disasters running from her own and that is where it comes from. >>host: your first book was that the most difficult? .. >> so my first book i ever wrote it got me 24 rejection letters that was 20 publishers the 24 rejection letters but it was a love letter be putting myself out there but 24 rejections was a beating so the fact that even got published that was catnip i couldn't wait to get to every single page because i was so excited. the first one is not the

hard-won. hter you have gotten the bad reviews that is the hard-won. the bad one. i love my bad reviews. the biggest flaw that if they are critic is that they are human. i remember i was 27 years old when it came out and it made the bestseller list and it came through a fax machine and it came through on the bestseller list and at that moment i turned to my wife it was week one thing we had vanity fair "usa today" thing we had vanity fair "usa today" it made the bestseller i said thatat the backlash begin.

right after that truly the next week entertainment weekly gave me a d+ on the exact same book and i had to embrace it. i did a whole video showcasing them we all take our beatings you have to take it publicly. >> his writing is good and original but what original is not good. >> that was for my 40th birthday my birthday is on aprit and my wife reach out and said give the worst review you could so they all wrote ruthless reviews they were spectacular one of them said i

love his books i use them all the time as toilet paper. i like that is so creative. the best part it got picked up in the louisiana times did a post about that and my agent called me that morning and said did you see what happened? she said it's a funny practical joke but i thought it was real. i said you are my agent what do you mean you thought it was real? i love? those. >>host: lincoln of crappy fictions mimic that's another one left you give writers a chance they will show up. >>host: do you have writers block quick. >> i don't know what that is but i do have days that don't go as well asf others of

course, and other days you feel it froze completely but the first thing i do is i get up and i leave if i'm stuck the phone always rings when i'm in the shower. but i won't give up i will sit in that seat until i can do it so writing a novel is like building a sandin castle. with one grain of sandse you got nothing. but you do it every year. one page a day you will have a book so just keep doing it. >>host: - . >>host: jumping to nonfiction george herbert walker bush

left the office to clinton. dear bill when i walk into this office just now i felt the same sense of wonderme and respect that i fell four years agoo they know you will feel that too i wish you y great happiness i've never felt that loneliness others have described there'll be tough times and criticism you may not think it's fair i'm not very good at giving advice but to let the critics discourage you or push you off course you will be our president when you read this note i wish you well. i wish your family well. your success now is our country success. i am rooting hard for you. good luck. >> there's the man right there. many years ago i got a fan letter the greatest one i ever got from president george h.w. bush. as a stranger. i thought it was fake i was so convinced my first job here in

washington i was an intern with to take the stationery from the senate judiciary committee and write to my friends and tell them they were being deported. i lived in miami. that works they believed it. [laughter] so i said as my friends playing a joke on me. i thought it was so fake i called the president's office ine houston and said someone on staff asked for assigned copy and they said you got the president's letter. i said it was really him? i got to meet president bush and mrs. bushshto and we became dear t friends and i told president bush at the time i was researching a book on the formersi president and said first of all, the fact he is writing to me shows how bored he was how bored are you that writing y letters to a novelist? it is so amazing to me the

most powerful man in the world one day the next he had to stop at the red lights like the rest of us. somebody tolde you everything you have done in the world after thiss moment is downhill not as good as it was today just what it does to your psyche. so he and full kindness said come to houston and hang out with us for the week i will give you unprecedented access. we had a great time together. and i started to write the book it was the former president b that was working on another book after that and i heard these story that ronald reagan when he left the oval office left a secret letter for george h.w. bush to let them get you down he put in

the desk and then when bush left he left a letter for clinton then of course, heff left one for w and obama for trump c so could you hide secret messages in those letters? he would helpre me with different books and different questions even secret service doesn't know what he has seen i open my e-mail and it says the president wants you to have this. this was a decade ago and the attachment was a letter that you just read the secret know he left for bill clinton my first thought was it a secret code. i check to see if every first letter of every sentence spelled i hate you bill. [laughter] he j just beat him for the presidency and you wrote what you just said one of the most generous letters your site success is our country

success. of course, it was incredibly humble thing he put on paper. his biographer was mad you didn't give that to me still to this day i don't know why he gave it to me but i love the fact we were the first ones to bring it out. >>host: did you askid him that to say why did you give it to me? i just said thank you. i felt it was beyond what was even normal but we just had a wonderful relationship this is bush and i she reminds me of emmy mom my mom was one of those people she doesn't care if you're the king of england if you don't have something interesting or i funny to say

then get out of my face she wasn't impressed or care about your title get away from the are you interesting or not? doesn't care on the social ladder i love that about her so we would sit together and laugh at one point they invited me to a private lunch at the white house it was in the big open area but in the president's private dining room upstairs. when you go there it is takeus you don't just your seat there are ten or 15 people in the whole room they tell you where you will said exactly with a little card that has a beautiful engraving of the white house my first thought was i am totally stealing my card mrs. bush says you know, all the novices all want to steal their cards i said i know.

look. ruth bader ginsburg and i have and she caught me but she knew that was the fun we had a great time. >>host: when was the last time you saw him? we met just a few weeks ago. i was in i kennebunkport doing an event on mrs. bush's passing i was told he would probably be asleep so we all knew it was a matter of time. they said he has moments of clarity one hour a day he is totally clear and we had one of those moments i got to say thank you and goodbye maybe a month or two ago we all knew what was coming but nothing like the kindness if you did a search on all the things said about him like a many times

the word decency is mentioned and part of that is because of who he was and as a country that is what we need i don't care about your politics are what side of the aisle as a culture we are not talking to each other decently anymore it's us versus them they did this or they did that and i am personally tired of us doing that and i would like to get back to the way george bush was. may he>> rest in peace. >>host: what about the negative tone xp mexico that starts at the top the media does this but if we don't watch the. if we say we don't want it you cannotll force people so they

say it's the president or the democrats or the media or the viewer you blame everything except the one thing we should always do the only way it ever changes you start by changing the world by changing yourself every single person looks at the world to say how do i be a better s place stop doing the nonsense that makes me mad i will stop saying the word them i will stop writing mean things on twitter the question is do we have someone who can lead us to show us s that? >>host: follow us on facebook three hours withh brad meltzer. >> 12 thrillers 16 kids books nonfiction comic books and some fun limericks at birthday

parties. >> talk about the book of fate he dies in the beginning of the book but doesn't. >> this is what i was writing about a former president i had written about the white house before this is probably my favorite chapter ones it opens up add a nascar race and our hero is that person to the president o the guy that was there hands him what he needs

chapstick that i i have your advil signed the babies for head i have the pen. they have it you are right there to view the history as it is being made and the person who has that job i studied them all and that all of them going back to president bush and i have interviewed all of them every single one. they all had one thing in common they all went on to incredible things they had great jobs they worked right there with the president my friend where the top people at starbucks my friend tommy works in financial sector and so what happens in chapter one who says i'm going everywhere everything will go great and then the crazy person pulls

tt a gun they announce the start of the race he goes to shoot the president and he shoots the president chief of staff by accident misses the president then another bullet hits the hero in the face and in the moment all of his dreams die but then he comes back to life and what you see in chapter two is a decade later and he did not turn out grand the president at that moment in trying to dodge the bullet had a still picture that looked like a coward that leland the lion look like a

coward so his presidency tanks now he is a next president and former president nobody cares anymore and that's what it's like to be out of the white house now during one of the president speeches and now to the backdrop to go backstage is ron the man who died a decade earlier and he stops and says what the hell is going on that's a dead man he is alive what happened so now i just ruined it chapter one and chapter two and then he tries to come back to figure out that is the beginning so all the research you see in the book is all based on my time inpr president bush's and the layout of the office is his houston office that you can really see what life is like.

>> spoiler alert what happened? we like you can see a will not ruin that but one of my favorite things in that book is that it hinges on two things. the first guy who hates the freemasons looking at the founders of the declarations of independence the signers of the u.s. constitution 14 different times freemasons have beennt president in the white house and i love the secrets of the freemasons and the secret code that thomas jefferson used to use when he was president he actually used a secret code when he was presidentle so people cannot see what he was talking about he would rank his staffers using a secret code to find out if they were trustworthy or not i love the idea the president using a secret code that's why president bush and clinton and

clinton had been up to his office while researching that book but what was great i don't think they're trying to take over the world are stealing your car right now i have worked with them with a number of books but the best thing that happened out of that book is ahead of the historyha channel he said to me i love these secret codes of the freemasons secrets you want to do a tv show and that's how we got decoded the first television show on the air so at the timeat of the da vinci code so they were capitalizing on the freemasonry so why do you want tot do a ripo off? he did his and that's wonderful but they said what would you do? i said do this instead in 1792

when the first white house was put down it was put down with the freemason ceremony. they put down the first piece of the white house in 24 hours later the first piece went missing at this point nobody knows where the cornerstone actually is truman from barbara bush went searching for it and nobody could find it to this da day. it is in his fictional world and that's how we started the show. . . . .

one of the great places in washington, d.c. that has declaration of independence, the u.s. constitution to concede the magna carta for rubenstein is there, incredible things to go see. anyone can walk in and see things. the archivist of the united states is one of the most incredible people and what they told me when i was there is it's not just that it's so much stuff they can't just put it in one building so there are hidden caves all across the country that house or documents. it's not because they did it and batman thinks it is awesome. it's because the temperature down in a cave can make sure to

keep it coolt' like that we have these caves all across the u.s.. st. louis, all over the place and they let me go see them and i went out there like i want to go check on them so at this point there isn't one or two, there are many and some in the library of congress i l found ot that have recordings and ones that have military documents and the one i went to was a place called iron mountain and it is this incredible underground mountain that they carved into it then went downwards. when you think you are going to see the batmobile like you are literally walking through dc army logo and the navy and the pentagon and down there is

marilyn monro and mars photographs. the history is underground. it's an amazing place and i have to write about this, so what you see down there is absolutely real. >> host: how did you come up with beach or white? >> guest: back up a little bit. a few years ago i got a call from the department of homeland security asking me to come in and brainstormrm different ways terrorists could attack the united states.

they would say let's use this chemical as well as will dissipate and do more damage and you don't go home feeling good you go home feeling terrified as he realized how easy it is but what i was struck by was why would they pick a fiction writer and george washington i found out that his own secret spy ring that had all of these military peopleou and that is in the book

that is a great idea so i went to the department of homeland security. that is a good idea for the book done right there. what if you have this kid was ih thes archivist and he finds a georgeha washington's spy ring still exists to this day in our great history beecher was born by my time with amazing people at the archives and couldn't truthfully out of my nerdy side. he was the first character that i wrote when i was i don't think i'm a better writer over the years but i am a more honest writer.

i was so terrified of complaining and i thought i'm so luckynd blessed where i talked to imaginary people how can i possibly complain. it was my first attempt to find and alter ego. up in florida. mywh dad lost his job at 39-years-old he had no money, $1,200 to his name, started over so no job, no place to live we were worried about our own safety saying what are we going

to do. when i got to florida i could go to the local public school and it changed my life. from there i heard of a great thing called college and i didn't even know i didn't know what c the sat is that i'm takig it andre i became the first of y family to go to a four year college. the university of michigan at columbia law school and i got a job is that i'm going to be your mentor and come to a boston. when i got to boston he left the job and i thought iraq's my life and while ie was there. that was the big one for me. let's go to katie joining us in new york. good afternoon.

i just want to say thank you to booktv because this is such an b interesting conversation i think it is transcending just nonfiction but i did want to mention i thought it was so interesting i loved coded so i found it interesting that you said h. w. bush sent you that letter after you asked about the ability of one president to send a message to another because of his association with the cia. so i wonder if you look at it through that kind of lens. it was for the untrained eye that couldn't necessarily recognize the signs of somethi

something. every code i can find ran the cia wasn't skull and bones, was the president of the united states sent a letter you pay attention to the letter sometimes just a cigar into someone that writes a generous letter but yes all the paranoia from newport kentucky, good afternoon. i want to ask brad what he is currently reading is it fiction or nonfiction.

it's like eating solid peanuts. what is he reading right now in terms of novels and nonfiction? >> guest: my favorite author i can'can't live lie about this, y named brad meltzer. sometimes i watch his shows and just look in the mirror like you've done it again. now my wife is rolling her eyes at home. answer is it's funny i read every genre from young adult to thrillers.

it's down to starting with john grisham when i wasoh starting o. hispanic let me ask about the book you put out a moment ago. >> guest: the first mystery that i ever read. to this day i don't know what it is and i don't want to know. i remember when i was reading it i was 10-years-old and i remember getting into that book and there on that page was a dead body and i remember being shocked byen that and asking tht one question i've been asking for over 20 years now. it changed my life. there's this dead body and who have done it but when it comes to thrillers today i don't w red many because it is like a therea mechanic i am not enjoying the

ride just trying to figure out what's wrong with it. ten minutes into the movie i'm like i've got it i kno if i knot is and she said don't say anything. i've caught it, i know who it is and then she's like werend you right and i say mine was better. i can't help but read write th them. of course i love my friends who do this and whether it is david or jody there are so many friends out there that i will say that for me i wrote a loss of nonfiction because of the book that we are working on but i'm sure we will talk about soon the next book is about a plot to kill george washington so i've been reading tons of biographies of george washington. the newest case because i am billie jean king and that tend

to be where my reading goes and amazingly that's where i get the thrills so reading about george washington gives me theng fact that while i'm researching and i've chosen this book called i am george washington i find out he used to write invisible ink and between the lines w and letters that's where we get the phrase read between the lines and i was like we've got to put that in there. then i'm reading the book with my son. so i take these nonfiction ide ideas. >> guest: i'm on twitter all

the time. my twitter account is there. >> host: from sylvia who says what is one subject that you've not written about that you would love to put on paper even if just for your self or your family a? >> guest: one day i want to write about my mom and dad. my mother, may they both rest in peace, when borders was around, the head of sales says guess where your books sell more than anything else. new yornew york city come 8 miln people in one place. nope. washington, d.c., no. the number one place my book is sold with the boca raton florida borders 1 mile from the furniture store where my mother used to work which means my mother single-handedly beat

1 million new yorkers. that was her power and my dad was no different she used to go to the local like where is the book he's my favorite author in the entire world. our marketing plan was very simple we are going to unleash a piece w to people and they willo the job and god bless them, they did. when they died there were stacks of my books in the car. they bought them all single-handedly. the numbers in florida skyrocketed. i know because i wrote the obituary is put they showed they are not about the sales of books

and everything i am today my sense of humor, everything im is about the love that my parents always showered on me. this is from kathy anderson. when will we see nola again and :brad meltzer? >> guest: the sequel to the escape artist is what is coming right now and we will talk about the other books that t are comig we do to escape artist just down on paperbacks with perfect timing and then the second question. oui was tired of my own kids looking at reality tv show stars and people famous for being

famous and loudmouth athletes and i thought ith had so many better heroes for them and we started with im emelia erhardt and im abraham lincoln. if i tell my daughter she flew across the atlantic ocean cheeselike big deal. she built a homemade roller coaster in her backyard and came flying down the side and went through as a 7-year-old my daughter was like that's interesting so we started with im and ilia airhart and we've done i am rosa parks, i was like you want a sports hero, here is i am jackie robinson here's what a hero looks like it's not about boring points. then we did iem lucille ball because i wanted my daughter to have a female h entertainment he and it's not just okay to be different spectacular to be

different. >> host: coming up at about an houin about anhour is a video wd barbara bush. >> guest: our favorite scene is the chocolate conveyor belt scene and i won't give it away but if you have it in your head just get ready. watching and trying to see through someone else's eyes the best thing a book can do but something amazing happened.

i am george washington and im martin luther king jr. and what's amazing about if it wasn't a democrat or republican thing that parents and grandparents were tired of turning on the tvv and seeing politicians and what they wanted to show their kid we all know there's a differencthere is a dn the politician and the theater and they were using powerbooks to fight back with them. here's what a real american leader looks like the newest books we just did this neil armstrong because look at where the worldd is today. we did this. we accomplished it. he wasn't talking about justme e astronaut. he meant the mathematicians of

the people who sewed the spacesuit together and right now inin the culture we favor thosen twitter or facebook they are good at getting attention. look at me, look at me. i am tired of that. i want to go back to the times of neil w arms drawn when humily was a great american value and it's no surprise they were neil armstrong and mr. rogers. people who were humbled. i want to teach my kids to be humbled again and also a value of hard work and not fame. when he was arm little kid his dream was to climb the maple tree in his backyard and when you climb a tree it's like doing a puzzle, this branch into that branch you've got to engineer a solution.

he's grabbing a branch into snaps and he falls to the ground come as the wind knocked out of him, hisis sister comes running for the most important thing he does and at the moment i read i am neil armstrong most important thing hent does is get up againe wants to buy toy planes and real plane tickets is pilot's license and becomes a test pilot and of course becomes an astronaut and takes a leap for all of mankind but the lesson in the book is you don't get to take the tens of thousands until you take those steps before. that's the lesson we need to teach our kids that's what this entire series is about.

neil armstrong just came out. i have three kids from 17 down to ten and they are the reason for these books. they gave me an entire line to write about because i felt like we all have a legacy and i love the fiction booksks of course is the house i built with my own hands but for me my greatest legacy will not be about writing it will beilbo my children and i wanted them to have heroes they could look up to especially in today's times where we are starving for heroes. we need better heroes right now but they are there you just have to find them and teach them who they are.

of this holiday season or this whole being people write me letters and say this is the first year my daughter didn't go as a princess this year thanks to your book she went as emelia ehrhardt or albert einstein or 'msa parks. to think i'm going to be responsible for someone's. he has a style that's a little bit like peanuts meets charlie brown and calvin and hobbes but there's her own different style and if you want your kids to be a better you've got to give them something better to c look at ad we were able to do that. >> host: listed ashland virginia you are on the air with brad balter. good afternoon.

>> caller: good afternoon. i would like to share a tweaked with very important information related to what people accept in the media and also the statement about being a change in the world and also i want to praise c-span for always allowing all points of view to come forth with truth. so to havewe proclaimed as i loe america datatype down the chaos and have people be more reflective between thanksgiving and christmas on exactly who they are and what they are doing in this country taking personal responsibility and bringing forth solutions that willio benefit everyone. that should be everyday w everye don't need just a day for that.

that's our responsibility being kind to each other and showing generosity. that should just be called being a human being and i feel like we've kind of lost sightt of that. if you are going on yourng socil media and muting everyone who disagrees with you, you are doing no favors to your self you are just in a vacuum you need to go out there and follow people you don't like, see what they are seeing. the only way to look for someone else's eyes and get their perspective because anyone you hate trust me they hate you just asou much but you're a nice pern so maybe just maybe you can take a look at your self to find some humanity there. every single person you meet in spite of the battle you know nothing about. >> host: among your favorite books are you there god it's m e

margaret. >> guest: my first love of books or comics the dust after comics it was judy blume. i loved it so much that there is a character named father jonathan making references for years and i read the book because i was obsessed with girls and i thought it was a manual to help me figure out girlss like she's writing abouta subject i know nothing about, but she writes about young people in a way that doesn't feel like it's a younger person so she's always one of my true literary heroes. >> host: you told "washington post" in 2013, quote, history is

a giant game of telephone our job is to find out the first whisper if people want to see conspiracies but the scariest story of all is the true story. >> guest: this is right where the next book is going. look at anything today. is the date on that? i said that in 2013 having no idea it's like a pre- social media quote having no idea where we arere now it seems pretty bod to say that it's a games of telephone now it seems so ervious of course it is. every single day we are living in a world of fewer watching just one station as your point of view you are in a different world you are doing no favors for yourself and that just goes even faster with social media. bad facts, news, information.

it goes off like wildfire but i still believe the scariest story ever is the true story. it's what led me about a decade ago i found out about a plot to kill t george washington and i s like this is a real story there is a real plot to kill george s washington and i went looking for it and it just scared me that idea would've been lost and george washington at the time found out about the plot, he gathered up those responsible, took one of the ringleaders and hung him in front of 20,000 people and it was the largest execution in that point in history. he brought the hammer down like do not mess with me i'm george washington i'm going to be on the money one day. i love this story and so the next book i'm doing that comes out is the first conspiracy.

it's called the secret plot to killll george washington. i don't want to ruin the look but you will see one of them is the governor of new york, the mayor of new york and another guy was one of the top guards at the time. he's one of the people who worked on our tv show together for the first conspiracy is so scary you realize how close we were to losing not just losing the war but losing george washington and of course i found that story and said i've got to do it. so for anyone out there looking for the great holiday thing and you are looking for a present for anyone out there, the first conspiracy, those are the next neoks to come out.

>> host: ten from somerset, new jersey. welcome to the conversation. >> caller: good afternoon. i was curious to know what brad thinks of an article i read recently where the chinese government is going to surveyed virtually every citizen in their country and then rate their behavior. first what does he think about that and what circumstance factors into any book he may one dayma write? >> guest: that is a crazy story because that is all we are right now is walking around little bits of data. we are not that special. we all think we are but we all kind of act and love and care and have hopes and dreams all of us even the ones you don't like weim still do. the idea that you can watch a pattern of behavior you just proved a point that is a

terrifying idea i am almost mad at you right now for saying it on the stand from portland tennessee you are not, good afternoon. i am a big fan as i said in my question is are you going to be doing any more coding i have seen about everything you've done and i'm looking forward to hoping your answer is going to be yes. the actual title is called brad meltzer is decoded. one day i said to my wife will e having for brad meltzer's dinner tonight.

i love you for asking about decoded it is our truly secret membership group and i've never given up on it. if you like that, go right now on social media go to at history and tell them you want it back, go on social media and say you want it back. i am so obsessed with doing that but the first conspiracy of the book i wanted to do an episode that i'm doing it as a book version. the first conspiracy is in first form and i would also say if you want to know you should join our invisible army we have a group through my website we have membership cards to the invisible army and literally has benefits that gogo with it, sect handshakes and all sorts of stuff.

if you want a card they just you order the first conspiracy and on my twitter account you will see if the link and we will send you a card that will be part of the invisible army and that is what we always tell the secrets to first. they stick with us and they've been with us for years and we continue doing it. >> host: i have questions about that. are there any additionalhe characters titles yo would consr working on and are you developing any creator owned comics property? >> guest: you mean dc comic's. i write comic books as well they are my first love, the first thing i ever read and i love the

thrillers and the kids books and the first conspiracy but when i get to sit in my house and write and put words in that man's mouth i'm wearing my underwear on the outside of my pants if they it's the best day of all and i love that i get to do that because to me the most important part of the story isn't superman, the most important part of the story is clark kent because we all know what it's like to be boring and ordinary. it was the issue of action comics and i di indicted historl faster than a speeding bullet. he knows he's not fast enough and he's flying in what he sees

is there is a gun being held to someone's head, holding a gun t, a woman's head and pulls the trigger and superman is flying, the bullet is going through the gun so he's like i know the speed of the bullet and how far i am, i'm not going to make is that i've got to try. he's going fast and he's still not going to make it and then he realizes that she was focused so much on the man he didn't see the woman and she pushes her head against the gun andea moves it just a tiny fraction of space but it's enough to device than half a second and he comes throughh the wall and says thats the second that i need and catches the bullet but what no one knows and the secret of the story because it takes place in half a second that the end of the scene he says you saved your self you should think about being a cop and she says my dad

says everyone is here for a reason and superman is your dad is a smart man and what no one knew if the woman he sees in that story is my daughter. i had the amazing artist who beautifully drew that issue i gave him pictures of my daughter and she became the hero of the book so i was writing something for my daughter to have forever. the great part was i got to have my daughter have superman take your dad is a smart man which she has to live with forever. >> host: you wrote about a woman whoea saved a teacher's life. >> guest: let's talk about amy. my life was changed by teachers, any of them. ms. spicems. spicer with englisr who told me i could write into the picture you are looking at there is mrs. sherman my history teacher in 11 grade i owe her forever and when we were doing

decoded by dedicated the book to her to say thank you to my history teacher and she wrote me a letter saying she was actually sick and she needed ay. new kidy she was going to die and i went on my facebook page and said can you put it on facebook and twitter for me. of course i can do that. we sent it out and anyone who will ge give a kidney my history teacher needs a kid he and one of the amazing people out there was a woman named amy and she said had volunteered and said yes, a number of people said yes but she was the match. i was there after this picture was taken she came to florida, saved her life and i said in that post if you get a body part to my history teacher i will make you a character in my next book so when you read the escape

artist you will see an amazing woman named amy named after the hero who lives here in the washington, d.c. area and we owe her forever for that one. >> host: jackie is next in arizona you were on the air. >> caller: i was wonder if if brad had created a book called the first computer compiler if she was a navy personnell -- >> guest: you are talking about grace hopper. are you ready for this this is going to be great you have no idea what you stumbled onto. grace hopper is this amazing navy hero, a woman who is credited with developing the term or computer book because she finds an actual bug in one

of her computers, an incredible woman i love her so much that when you read of the inner circle there is a character who's named amazing grace and she's a computer genius in the book and everyone thinks she's an incredible hacker and this person was the man in the chair but then you find out she's this elderly older woman named amazing grace. the show we are doing with pbs that comes out next year it's going to be the books we are talking about but we got cut off before but we are doing the books as a tv show and grace hopper is on that list. >> host: i truly enjoyed lost history and a heartfelt thank you for locating the ground zero flag. how do you choose which missing

historical items toto pursue? >> guest: i went to the history channel and i said i would love to use a tv show to find lost historical artifacts and i said we will use the show like a poster and hold the object of an essay have you seen this and ge give out a reward in the first episode we said this is t from 9/11 to the firefights raised the ground zero, everyone knows the photograph but it went missing and no one knew where it went caniv you help us find it e will give you $10,000 to help bring it back. what no one knew at the time is a man for days after the first episode a man walked intok a fie station and said i saw the show lost history, this is the flag and i need to return it and truthfully i the items that i thought should come back or fixed and we wanted to come back and they picked the ones i thought were important.

kids are amazing they come to the book signings and i have a huge tour coming in january for the first conspiracy and even when i'm doing fiction or nonfiction kids come to the event with a list of demands it's not a list of suggestions if they demand list of who the next book should be and they are determined to have h im brad meltzer, which i will never write that the b kids now are so opinionated they are writing them for me. i was going to sayay that's cray -- the thing is i'm so easy to draw. like that's me it's perfect. but they go and find out about my life and write stories. when i grew up and graduated from the university of michigan from boston they totally figure me out. theydr draw me.

buris is very scared right now because it looks just like me but they do, kids are incredible and i love that they are determined to write my own book. >> host: good afternoon from aurora colorado you are on the air. >> caller: hello. thank you to c-span and i wanted to bring up the last speech of abraham lincoln which was where he was talking about restoring the union and wanted a black man to have the right to vote particularly black soldiers and there was a man in the crowd who was so enraged by this that he swore this would be the last speech abraham lincoln ever made in the three days later that the man shot abraham lincoln. i just wanted to bring this up

as lincoln was the hero for the voting rights because they heard in the last evil action some people say he didn't care for the black voting rights he died for black voting rights. is the hero for that. >> guest: 100%. of course it you have it right. when we did i. am abraham lincoln, the most important page in the book we talk about him as a kid, but the most important page of the book is the greatest speech he gave at gettysburg and it says to the kids so they can flat-out the speech the gettysburg address with 271 words. the most important words were these five all men are created equal. i don't care how much nonsense you see on facebook, twitter or anywhere else we all know that to be true and that's why abraham lincoln to this day is the greatest president. i love george washington, i'd love some modern ones do, but to

me the moral character of this man is unimpeachable. >> host: did he preserve the country? >> guest: that's the reason we are here. we are in a civil war right now we just don't call it tha for tt we are in a modern-day civil war we just don't do it with guns and shooting each other we do it on social media every day and on television and in reporting we are doing nothing else but trying to take each other down. and abraham lincoln was the person we could rally around. so to finally come and say we have more in common and as long as you have leaders who think they have less in common we have a problem. i know abraham lincoln and his best skill was again even to disagree, people disagree with

him, but that clarity he had to be able to remind us that we are better than our worst selves. >> host: if you were to write a book on president trump, what would you write? >> guest: this story isn't written but it's not going to be about a guy who spends so much time saying things that have to be fact checked and have to be about him. my wife worked for donald trump's sister and i know the family very well. i've met him before, but you've got to look around today and say -- go back to ronald reagan, the great campaign was fewer better off four years ago and you are now. you think the country is better off right now and that is the question we are going to be asking in two years, where we are right now, do you feel colder than you did all those years ago, are things better, do you feel we are headed in the right direction, if you do and

if you don't history will judge. >> host: another facebook comment. we are planning a big trip to dc next year. what are your secrets must do things that should be on the list i'm trying to take tips but i'm never sure exactly what part is total fiction. >> guest: take the books and go to dc with books. let's go through them one by one. if you take in trying to remember which one it is, i guess it's the president's shadow about the lincoln memorial and it shows you the hidden place below, it is real. read that chapter you can see it from above ground you can see where there is they are fun to our -- air vents are if you reat the first council you will see where the tunnels are below the white house and where they come out and can actually go see from outside where they kind of lead and when you go to the white

house. if you read books about the capital it shows you that the tunnel that is below the capital and the capital was built there was n no air conditioning and so they have a dome in the middle the sides were not there yet. when they put aside their, the air conditioning used to come through these giant air vents and when they built besides it wasn't like modern day where they figured out how to call these things because they ran them all together and i remember going with a curator in the capital we were crawling on our hands and knees and seeing some of these things and i remember at one point days after 9/11 and he said stop. don't move and i said what. they'd just put in a sniffer that could smell a change in the air. u he's like if this smells us

whether you are wearing cologne or whatever it is going to set off an alarm and they will evacuate the capitol after 9/11 we will be on the front page ofl the paper. but for my readers i will risk my life every time. obviously all those things you see in the book i always change the security protocols always. i change them on purpose because they want to write a book that's interesting but never at the expense of someone's safety but those things you see they are real. i don't think them up. >> host: e-mail at booktv@c-span.org or send a tweet. jeremy in new jersey with brad meltzer, good afternoon. jeremy, are you with us ask. juscheck in texas, go ahead ple. >> caller: thank you for taking my call. i have a question with regards to your daily writing habits.

first of all how long does it take for you to compose an entire book and second, what is your daily writing habit, question from an aspiring writer. he's like screw you i want to know how to write my book. i appreciate you jeff and actually you should go on my website because under best of there is a section that says how to get your book published. very quickly, i treat it like a job. i said by about 9:00, 9:30 until i peter out and eventually you can only squeeze a sponge so mucmuch and then it's dry and sometimes i write straight through to 2:30. i take lunch at 2:30. i eat a late lunch and come back and sometimes i keep going and sometimes i'm done at 3:00 and sometimes 6:00 o6:00 or somethi, butik i like every day sitting

down i don't work on the weekend i need to recharge. but that's what i do every single day is sit down and try to do that. in terms of, how long, the thrillers take me two years about six months of research and another year to year and a half of writing. the im kids the, i mean it will take me a couple weeks of writingnd that so many months of research and reading books and biographies and of course editing, chris has his own timing to the incredible work and art and then in terms of nonfiction like the conspiracy that was almost a decade in the making because it started out a decade ago and slowly looking into it by one thing for a book is when you have an idea and lots of good ideas are out there, but when you have the idea that you can't shake that is the idea you've got to work on and i knew after seven years that it was still with me, the secret plot to kill george washington and t i still couldnt

stop thinking about it i was like they've got to do this book so i went l to him first and i s like can you help me with the research int and the first conspiracy came out of a ten year process so every book is its own kind of animal. >> host: what about the millionaires? >> guest: i heard this detail. i heard that we all know what they think is you take your car and go to the bank and get your money out with someone said to me bill gates at that point the richest man in the world doesn't go to the same bank you go to. bill gates has his own private bank and these private banks cater to the wealthiest people in the world. if you a have $10 million, thats a nice start. if you have $50 million they will gasp of a private jet and go see you. they have private chats and gifts and it was a whole universeiv out there for the millionaires. now it's probably the

billionaires. but i was like what do you mean they have a world that we are not in? i want to know what's in that world and the need for that book we startethe bookwe started outy book comes from the need, what is my obsession with the wealthy out there where d what do they t we don't and how do we w get there.my and i understand because that is my story. oliver and charlie who are the heroes of the plot of the millionaires is very simple they are too working-class kids to work in the back rooms of one of the private bank. they find out they've been betrayed and the boss bracket their career on purpose and they find an account of a dead person who left $3 million. the guy is dead of the money is going to sit here it's a victimless crime they take the 3 million as revenge to this boss screwed them over and when they check their bank account, and in a link like that no one misses 3 million it's just t noa big amount of money that when they check the account they moved it into they didn't still

3 million to 313 million as they are screwed and that's the opening chapter of the book and they are on the run. and this is a true story i haven't told this in a long time, i've never told us, the opening chapter of the book is based on a really famous person. i went to a friend and i always say to people what's the scariest day you had at work. there is one of those guys i worked at a bank and you all know everybody that listens to y voice knows who it is. it's a friday afternoon, 5:00 and the phone rings and it's a famous guy who says he's really mad because he wants to be on thest forbes 400 list of the wealthiest men in t the world bt his bank account the money is supposed to be and had to be in a certain account and it hasn't been transferred and he's screaming at my buddy, true story, he's like you better get my money in there and my friend hangs up the phone, calls his boss he isn't reachable, three cell phones coming to the hampton, he's got to get this

millions transferred by 20 million to transfer so he panics, he calls the guy and figures it out and transfers the money and it's all done right before 5:00. then anybody says to him are you sure that was really the famous guy on the phone and my friend has a heart attack he realizes he doesn't know who he just transfers to. thankfully it really was him. the opening scene the same thing happens. how does 3,000,300,000,000? someone clearly put the money in there and it was hiding in this account that they don't know and that is the mystery ofof the bo. >> host: welcome to the conversation from erie pennsylvania. >> caller: thank you for c-span. interesting story.

i'm especially interested in the your teacher was saved by a donor. i just watched your tech talk. our story is simple the start of a pro-life charity we started just with one person who was thinking about an abortion and she said i can't afford this child so we came out and the director said i wish we could do something. why don't we offer her some money and we think over 100 unborn babies so far through our charity we wanted to know from you how to get our story out there. you are proving that is how history works i don't care how much you make i care about regular people and the ability to affect. i believe ordinary people change

the world and people have a passion or a cause and want to help people, whatever it might be that is how the world is always changed is one person socommitted to an idea and wants to fight for the idf said to me as you saw in the talks you've story how doour you get more people and get more interesting get more attention. it's not a f bunch of dates and facts, it is a selection process that chooses every single one of us every single day and the only question is if you heard the call. there are people out there that i guaranteeri our mad. whatever the cause is, we all have them. fight for your cause and tell your story as long as it's going to help people that is a good thing and timmy i love that it's

not just the wealthy and the connected to the power of a regular person who will always be at the core of every book i write every nonfiction book i write and every im kids book at the core of the first conspiracy this man in this moment and the escape artist i'm so glad you are creating back. use all the ones who just came back and a day before thero othr one in that incrediblyle horrifying that incredible pictures of the work they do that's how it should be and that's how it will always be and it's always going to be.

>> host: if there was a chubby at jeopardy question -- >> guest: there was one. someone sent me a picture. it said this brad meltzer m book has. houdini and what was it, the escape artist so that was a good one but i think a better one again my brain is now going with a good answer but my honest answer is my parents that always goes to my parents. my parents and my kids. i don't have a sharp amazing intellectual answer but it's like i write for my wife and my kids and my parents who passed away. that's the core of who i am if you understand them you will understand me and it's why i do what i do.

i have nonfiction books now because i have kids. when i got married i wrote a book about a married guy and i sit here today because my parents when i went to michigan, they had no money to do it they should have sent me to a state school and set go there at cost much less but my dad looked at me and said i'm going to get you there. he had no business doing that, no business at all that he would kill himself for my sister and for me so the question to me is that as the core something that goes back to them. >> host: who keeps you humble, your wife? >> guest: who keeps me humble, certainly my wife does that's for sure she reads every book and is the first editor and the things she always takes notice all the jokes. i'm a very funny person. i know that because i just said

to you. and i know i'm very funny and everything i write and she's always reading and coming your not that funny, this i isn't tht funny this is super not funny so funny youi am have no idea how funny i am right now. yo one keeps me more humble than my children, no one. my daughter says to me and my son says i hate to read and i'm like you do know what i do for a living and what pays to feed you and in fact my son recently came home from school, we helped find the flag my son comes home from school and she says the book they didn't even mention you in the article.

it was great it was like the greatest moment i could ever ask for. there's a picture of the jeopardy question. >> guest: there it is. you even have that. >> host: stanley in chicago that afternoon with brad meltzer. >> caller: i read your escape artist. kudos to you. my question goes to the dover delaware mortuary. in my previous life i was him tn and ballmer but my question is the detail, the respect that you put in. my question at this grand facility i didn't understand, did they involve civilians

because three dead military, what do they do with the rest of their time are they just local contracted and ballmer's, do they cremate on scene or let the local magicians or whomever did the cremations? your detail is so amazing, i loved it but could you just tell the little? >> guest: yes, thank you. e-mail me through my website because i'm always looking for people who've worked as an ballmer's, so tell me you were the one who called in because i want to ask you some questions. >> host: why?re >> guest: research. he's got a story i guarantee y you. to answer the question they are civilian, they are not military

people and sadly there's a lot of work to go around. i was just talking to one of the ones, one of my friends i met while i was researching thein escape artist he said we show these pictures when there's three coming up that we forget that at the height of the war there were 30 coming home every day and there was just so much work to go around. in terms of civilian deaths, the only thing you will see civilian deaths worked on is if there's somisn't theresome kind of conne case or its important. all the victims from the flight from the pentagon all went there. the astronauts from the challenger explosion went to dovereiei and so you'll see cern cases where they will go in d there and you also see sometimes john glenn went in because he was just kind of a man obviously

a huge publication a famous person they wanted to make sure his body was done right so sometimes you'll see peopl you e like that going through but it really run the gamut but if therepe is a regular civilian ty will go to someone local. i love that he's basically asking about the business side like how are they getting paid him only the real mortician knows that so he has an entire experience as that job that's going to form a character of mine i promise that. >> host: kansas city, missouri. go ahead please. >> caller: thank you c-span. i appreciate what you all do. i'm really fascinated on hearing his story, brad's story. i'm not that familiar. my question is, and i know he said the children, but will he consider for pim books, a child

advocate marian wright alderman. >> guest: she hosted my very first book party. i love to work with children. she hosted the tenth book party. when i first went in and said i wanted to work on the im children's books, i am a millionaire heart, i am abraham lincoln they said how many do you want to do the two were three and i said no, 100 my goal is 100 i want to do an entire library of heroes and mary wright alderman is someone who certainly deserves to be on their she does incredible work. we did two books a number of years ago when my kids were first born. on the day that i was born, my father went to the liquor store and bought a bottle of champagne and seven going to open this bottle when my son gets married. and i remember we moved to florida from new york. the things you get to the movers

and the things you take in the car with youou that's your life and i remember when we drove down from new york down to florida it was my mom and dad in the front seat, my sister and i in the back and behind the two head rests with two bottles of champagne that would roll back and forth i turned it and know anything about taking care of champagne that we were their lives and what they cared about and i when my son was born my first son was born, i said i don't care about the champagne, i want to write a book that's going to teach him to be a good man and give him rules to live by to be a good person, how to be kind and generous and i figured one day i would present him with this book and he would say to me thank you you are indeed the greatest dad of all time, i had this planned for myself it was going to be spectacular but the book was carthage. it was like saying be good and expecting your kid to be good a friend of mine told me an amazing story about the wright brothers from everything they

would go to fly the plane they would bring enough extra material for multiple crashes which meant every time they went out they knew they would fail they would crash and rebuild and f wcrash and rebuild and that s where they took off and i love that story. i wanted my son to hear that story, my daughter, everyone to know if you dream big and work hard and have stubbornness you can do anything in the world. not a book of rules but a book of heroes so i wrote he rose for my son and he arose for my daughter and they are filled with 100 just one page stories of inspiration that starts with the wright brothers but that is what started me out and doing that.t and that question about marian wright alderman, i put all these people in there who are not just famous people you've never heard of. my english teacher from ninth grade is in their, who changed my life by saying as i said, you can write. and i thought everyone can write

and she said you know what you're doing and she tried to put me in the honors class but i have a conflict so she said here's what you're going to do you go sit in the corner the entire year, ignore what i do on the blackboard, every homework assignment. but she was really saying is you are going to thank me later and i tell you a decade later when my first book was published i went into her classroom and knocked on the door i said my name is brad meltzer i wrote this book and it's for you and she starts crying. she said i was going to retire because i didn't think i was having an impact on anyone. 30 students and one teacher and she had such an impact. but those people i selected are all these incredible people through history and was the first place. just one of those great people.

>> host: that trip from brooklyn to florida is that the trip we stopped in washington? >> guest: how do you know that one? some of the things i wille give you i honestly don't know, i told the public biden trying to figure out where you saw that. i just told this story to my sister and she didn't even know it. we didn't have any money for hotels when we drove. we had to make it quick. if you driv they drive we stayee hotel and just write down. we couldn't stop in dc so what we did when we drove through, i was 13-years-old and i have a kodak camera and my parents knowing i wanted to see these things that i've never seen them before they would pull up to the monument or the white house or the lincoln memorial and they car and i would get out of the car i remember i

ran up the steps, took a picture with the disk, got in the car and then i went up to the gate and did the same thing at these monuments and that was my first moment of washington it was a 52nd tour but it changed my life and needless to say i made my way back. good for you on finding that story. earlier we teased this brad meltzer with barbara bush and lucille coble. explain what they are about to see. >> guest: this is how much barbara loves literacy. i wanted my daughter to have this book we used to watch lucy together and we used to do these storytimes we would read the book with someone and do something fun and funny and i said what if i dress up like lucille and we re-create the

conveyor belt seemed. the office said that's great for going to be in washington said they put us in the car together and we are going back to the president's office and i figured she had been briefed and knows everything so we are in the talking and she says what are we doing anyway and they realized they didn't tell her and now it's up to me. like i'm not even going to tell you. i told her this and this is what she basically said yes to is creating the scene and a thousand chocolates. >> host: we are through the conversation on c-span2 book tv and this is the final of the series in which we featured fiction authors. our guest this month brad meltzer. we will come back with calls in comments and e-mail questions but this runs about six a minut. brad meltzer with barbara bush.

we are going to read a very special book my favorite author mrs. bush went on to tell us who wewe are reading? >> find lucille ball by brad meltzer illustrated by christopher. the writer is who we want to focus on. here we go. i just want you to know we are going to do a conveyor belt seemed and you are going to do that with me. i am lucille ball. when i was a little girl my mother tried to dress me in ribbons and bows but i was different from other girls. my idea of fun was forcing around with my dad he used to throw me into th up to the ceilg always catching me and making me laugh. put her downam right now that isn't a game for a proper girl i

don't think this one is a proper girl. when i was 3-years-old at the local grocer used to let me put on a show in his store and my favorite was a fraud routine. and you are like lucy and ethel don't you think. >> yeah. skipper and gilligan. are you a not? by the time i was 12 i realized there was power in making people laugh. the principle of my school realized it. heso was the first person to lal my wild and fun behavior as talent. when i was 17, my mom sent me to a fancy acting school in new

york city. it didn't go as i planned. on the cover o two of the 70 sts accepted into school they narrowed it down to 12. i didn't make it. i failed. from there i tried being a dancer but nothing much changed. i never let that stop me. at one point i was so poor ii ws down to my last forcing. that's it, for pennies. to ease they waited for a customer to leave the restaurant of theand i would grab some lefr food before it got thrown away.g i went to so many tryouts i even wore out my shoes but no matter how hard i tried, the message never seem to change. eventually i did find work and then with a bit of luck i finally got my first big break in the movies. i was 21-years-old and selected to be one of the girls in the background ofk the movie roman scandals.

as the director came to inspect us i grabbed some red crepe paper, tore it into shreds, licked it and lucy was born. >> host: here's the key part, pay attention to this important part. in time that confidence led to the role that changed my life. i left the movies and was working in radio then cbs had a brand-new idea for a tv show. to prove them wrong, my husband and i took our show on the road. we turned it into an act come in old kind of shows that have lots of funny skit. it became such a big hit cbs decided it was ready for tv. he asked for one thing to film the show in front of a live audience. hearing the audience people at home would really feel the

laughter. the tv network was worried about the cost of film. they said it would be too expensive so we made a deal. they could pay us less money but the show would belong to us. this is the part. eat all the chocolate with me. that wasn't the best example of me admit. here we go. every episode lucy and wrecked a long with their friends at all and fred would get into a crazy adventure. every day america turned to see what lucy is up to they wanted to see what's new trouble i would get into and who else would show up. we had famous guest stars like superman, that's right, superm superman. >> i love superman 20s my favorite. >> your mouth is full. >> 1952 and 1953 the first tv

bosses said no one would be interested. two out of three households with tv sets are watching i love lucy on the night. what was the secret of the show's success? [laughter]le you could always find a laugh in what anyone else is taking so seriously. >> i have so much chocolate in my mouth you have no idea. >> yes i do. >> you've done this before? >> no. today people come to the greatest comedian of my time and one of the most belovedd entertainers ever i was also the first woman to run a major hollywood studio. remember what i said when the tv show belonged to us? our studio used the money from i love lucy to produce other shows, star trek and mission impossible. >> this is my favorite part by the way. >> people believed because i was

different from everyone else, they didn't like the way b i looked or the way i talked or even the way i was always clowning around. this isn't a joke don'tt let other people change you there's no such thing as a proper girl or boy. be true to who ever you are. >> host: as we look at that, first of all what was her reaction after completed that? >> guest: i mean come on. it's total mad max. i'm eating a thousand chocolates in the president's office, barbara bush it was all done in one take and if you listen really closely you can see the highlight reel of it online and it is the staff is this typically laughing in the background. they said it's the funniest thing they've seen her do and it's all her.

she's the perfect straight man for the job and it's just crushing it when i saved you like hillary and donald trump she just looks at me like this and knows the comedy is there so she knew it was a good laugh. what you are really seeing in between the pixels is our trust and she knew i would never do anything that would not be in the best respect and that wouldn't be fun for literacy but what i really think you r see is her to not take herself seriously and have a good time. >> host: tha that seen from neay 70 years ago and we still are member today. 7 >> when we were doing the im was the buck there was a moment they said we don't know if we can get the chocolate conveyor belt scene because it doesn't come from the estate i of it comes fm cbs and i was like if you don't have that we don't have the book because that's what people know and we want kids to see it so when our amazing artist was redoing that, we knew kids had

to laugh so when we see that in the book i love that there are kids now across the country for halloween dressed up as lucille ball thanks to our books and they are watching it and writing letters and saying i watched the conveyor belt scene, i love that we brought that back to them. when you watch, lucille ball is such a star. everyone elseki is doing nothing but working around her and it's this incredible power she has and people don't even realize in terms of impact. but that's not why we do the books. lucy was rejected over and over, so poor she would eat out of a restaurant off other people's plates, told in the dance studio she should never make it as a dancer, go home you are never yr going to make it, you're not pretty enough, you're not light on your feet and she was like watch this. there's nothing that inspires me more than someone saying no to

me. >> host: and now her hometown has the comedy hall of fame and museum. >> guest: the love working with them with the book and i love the power that we get it out for the next generation. >> host: sending an e-mail booktv affecten c-span.org. rob says the most impactful book you've ever read and why, what isad that? >> guest: we talked about the murder of agatha christie that changed my life and i'm supposed to say to kill a mockingbird or something like that but i honestly think for me it was justice league of america number 150. the first comic book i ever read and in the. comic book, the justice league is trapped in these prisons and they are like giant keyholes and superman is in his prison but it's coated with kryptonite and green lantern is in his and he can't get out and/can't vibrate out.

i'm 9-years-old and i'm like ohh my god will they be trapped there forever? they could all die. i'm a kid so i don't know. but here's the thing that happens in the book is the way they get out it's like he can stretch his body. he can't get out of his prison, but what they can do, flash can vibrate through but can't leave. so elongated man makes himself into a giant rubber band and the flash together they move him over and he can run in his own person and then they figure out by doing that they can work together is the point of the story. that metaphor has served me well for 40 something years.

that idea even though we are ordinary people and we all have our own things we care about is that for the power of when you dorere it altogether. you see that person struggling with that issue especially in the thrillers. the signing for the escape artist in miami, and i've been doing signings for 20 years, a woman stands up and says i read your books, i've read all of your thrillers and i feel like every book you write is like this young guy who wants to be part of some bigger thing it could be the white house, a private bank, something big by the end of the book he realizes that wasn't what he thought it was and he's struggling to figure out who he is. i didn't know either but i said to her right there you are

absolutely right that it's every single one of my books except for this one and the escape artist was a different one because instead of writing it ae a kid who read justice league and you team up with her friends to figure it out, it was different because i wrote it from the point of view. he was in this hole surrounded by death everyday worried about this girl who comes onto the table who supposedly dead butab actually not. the lovlove he feels for his own daughter and this woman is in danger, that is my love for my kids and for my wife, that's the love for where i am now and i switch that point of view and i think that justice league started to b the affair and some along the way i found my own story. >> host: is a difficult or

easy to come up with the names? >> guest: there is an alchemy of names when you name something you get the power and if you just give it a boring name and say this is going to be ira, even the name after my grandfather who used to put a batman stories when i was little because he knew i loved batman so much you give it power to it and they have a whole list of the best names. >> host: sonora and michael from the first council in 2001. >> guest: it is a code in the name he's named after flash was always running. nora i wanted a name that was a throwback so that was the perfect thing because she was named after new orleans

was the dangerous city as far as breaking rules and then in honor it was the perfect name. >> host: in the book the body parts found in the rose garden. >> guest: i knew i wanted to start the book with a body part. basically what they find is i don't want to ruin the whole scene they find a hand in the rose garden buried in the dirt and the first lady opens, she's a gardener and when i ask this is push about it but have always books, president clinton was kind to me many years ago also gotl to ask what do you miss, what is the thing when you were in the white a house what do you miss and they were like just a moment to your self. everybody is always all over use of the idea of this first ladyy just gardening answering

questions all day long surrounded by scaffolding along but here in the middle of the night she can just plant and have a garden. just have a moment and as she's digging throughy the dirt, the smell of disloyal inspire this r and makes her feel like you know what, i'm back again i'm not in the white house, i'm home, i'm younger and i have a moment to myself and then she finds an arm buried in the rose garden, screams obviously like oh my god how did it get there, what happened, so that's the plot. i got to chapter one. questioquestion is trapped or ti went to the secret service and i said what would you do what you put it on the news and they said the first thing is i would think the white house and they said were you p talking about? well here's the thing if i go

and scream to everyone i'm going to tell everyone what i've got and ruin the whole crime scene, but if i say i want to do home improvement in the white house some rooms neat painting we should get the first family to move across the street they were going to move in blair house for a little bit and now we've got thetl first family away and the press is a way i can do the full investigation and no one will know what i'm up to and no one realizes what's going on. why does that sound like it might have happened. he said think of it this way. bill clinton did home improvements in the music room, george w. bush did improvements, barack obama did improvements you will not believe the investigations that have happened in the name of. home improvement and that's where the net rest of the book came from. >> host: oakland new jersey, good afternoon. >> caller: good afternoon.

mr. meltzer, you could through the grand allusions to the point that your intelligence will take you certain places to find out what was really happening. i'm concerned with your thinking to apply your ten synthetic thinking to the 9/11 scene. do you believe some people say that it was a spy operation and that it was a controlled demolition and also at the pentagon, many of the government thinkersnm and observers visuale that there was a missile turbine in spite of the pentagon and thought jet turbines. >> guest: i appreciate the question and welcome to my life because when you do a show called decoded, when you have a crazy story no one gets crazier e-mails than me if you have a crazy storyas to tell you send t to jesse ventura or to me. the family of abraham lincoln's killer john wilkes booze

famously killed abraham lincoln 12 days later shot himself. their lawyer is a friend of mine now. they called me up and said listen i've got the family i represent john wilkes booth family and they have a story to tell they say john wilkes booth did died 12 days later even though every history book says it they say he escaped and they have the evidence would like to speak with them. yes i want to hear that call so i get plenty of people who ask me what happened in the pentagon. .. leave

our country right before, a day before that happened like that is interesting to me. .. and get one million dollars

coming to them. they lie for very simple reason. for money, power, sex, embarrassment, things they want to cover up, things they're ashamed of and the government has hard team keeping a secret, as we know. die think there's more out there that is interesting about what people knew and when? absolutely. die think this is all crazy, kooky -- there's some crazy store us but something that would always love to look at, always love to hear more. >> host: a quick followup. you mentioned saudi arabia. could you come up with a store jamal khashoggi and the prince. >> guest: i was invited to go to a conference right before it happened and then all of this happened. and i ask myself to this moment, why was i invite. >> host: why. >> a book festival. the big crown prince wanted to

meet me. sometimes book still is a book festival. in my imagine -- i made that up saul the reaction and watched an american citizen be killed and now we have a president who doesn't want to do anything about that, there's a reason that for the first time republicans and democrats are aligned ago something. this is the first time where donald j. trump is saying, my gosh, the democrats and republicans agree on one thing, that you have to stand up for your own citizen, your own people. if i bring a story like that to my editor, my editor says, no one will believe it. this is sometimes history -- you don't know it's playing out and you absolutely know. this is playing out. >> host: in 2015 you said if i created a character like donald trump in a thriller my editor would say no one will believe this. >> guest: a reality story who is going to become the president?

telling me -- if i said at that time to my editor some she -- she would be, brick it back. you can't fight against arrest can't beat it. always beat you. so, i remember when i was doing the -- the first council. first book about the white house. i hat meetings set up. the first white house book i'm doing and i'm not joke, the week i'm about to goo into the white house this little scandal named monica lewinski broke? and no one would talk to anyone. you have a reporter coming to your office. everything was shut down. and the "washington post" did this huge story that said, basically, only a fool would be write bought the white house right now. what's going on in the white

house, in the midst of monica lewinski is so crazy. nobody would -- only a fool would start a white house thriller. i was like, i'm that fool. i'm the fool. i was obsessed with the white house. still wanted to no what goes on, the secret tunnels. how does the president get out and eventually they let me in because i am the fission writer. i'm the -- fiction writer. i i'm not going to quote you our say you did something bad. it's heyday. you inbound find footage of me going the white house. one i had the head person of the lewinski investigation in the white house, setting and talking to me. every reporter in the whole country wanted to me but was in there because i was like, what's it like when the whole world is staring down and i had the best seat in the house. now two years past. and this -- my book is coming out. the book is coming out in i

think a month or two, and this tiny little tv show debuts for the fir time called "the win e west wing" and everybody at that moment in time is interested in the white house again, and a week or two or a month later, my book comes out, and we -- the biggest book i'd ever done. suddenly the only dumbies who had anything to do with the white house was the west swing and me and the book took off. just because the interest was there it taught me right there, never try to fight reality. do what you love and pray for the best. the escape artist, i started three years ago. if i was writing a book right now but the white house, i would literally -- i want to put a gun my head. i can't compete with the crazy necessary every day going on in white house, the world is so focused on this president who every day, whether you love him or hate him, has more action going on than any president in history. the speed of the scandal, the

speed of the reporting, the -- we are on hypertime right now. remember when you used to fastford and go times 12 and 12 and we are watching 128 every day. that's where our twitter feeds are and if i wrote about the white house right now, i'd be like, can't compete with that. it's too much. i don't know that. the escape artist, i happened to pick over air force base -- dover air force base and our fallen troops because it was interesting. i lad no idea donald j. trump would be elected and we would go to times 28 and i got lucky. >> host: send us your questions. wonder, i would love to listen to other media sources to provide alternatives aside from c-span and pbs there are few alternative sources. your recommendations. >> guest: yeah. no. it's a yeley good question. let's think real quick. firmly believe in picking opposite yourself. so if you are one of those people who watches fox news

every day, go to ms. snbc. follow them on twitter, facebook. if you're on msnbc all the time go to fox news. think more interestingly is pick the -- pick people, pick smart people. even if they're the opposite of your thinking, whether you're picking george will or whether -- there are incredibly smart people and whether it's jake tapper, or chuck todd that you want to physical, just really interesting feeds of i you want to -- whether it's brian kilmeade, check them out. the one thing i know is when you look through someone else's eyes you open your heart, open your mind, and you look for someone else's eyes. not going to agree with them. gorge bush -- when president bush passeddary, the number one thing people wrote i didn't agree with the man ol' his politics but i respected him and that's how the sentence would

start, over and over and over. we at least need to get back to that. may not agree but try to find some semblance of common ground. now, admittedly, when the president of the united states is taking harder crack at things happening here rather than putin, rather than saudi arabia, rather than all these thing that are -- china and things, it makes it hard for people but try to find that semblance of, let me understand where they are coming from. i promise you it will make you. >> host: our next caller, linda. >> caller: hello, big question. my question for you is you're so entertaining in your words are so great. >> guest: thank you. hasn't thelma. i really appreciate it. >> caller: you're welcome. i am a underground, never done it but i have hundreds of stories in my -- and i start out

writing all the time but i never finish, and i just want to be a writer, i have no idea, and i did take a little creative writing class after i graduated from college and the teacher just shot me down. >> guest: oh, no. can't have that. this is a very important question. a big question. i will tell you one thing. you must keep writing. you must keep writing. had 24 people who told me to give it up. 24 rejection letters on my first book, said, brad, you're terrible, you can never do it and i don't look back on that experience and say, i was right and they were wrong and ha-ha on them. that very pighead, but when i look back i realize that we know so often in life, all it takes is one person to change your life. right? think of that person who gave you your first real job, told you were good at something. your job is to find that person.

so, go tell your story. put it down on paper. i knoll you said you started which means you're luke i couldn't finish. finish. finish. there's a -- almost like -- i don't think -- statistically true. but 99% of people who start a book never finish it and 99% of people who finish a book never get it published. those numbers are a little ridiculous but the point is right, which is everybody says they want to be a writer but can't finish the book can then you're not writing. to by a writer is just to write, do it. like i said before, write a page every day. you. >> host: you included criticism of the book of lies, the negative reviews. what was that about? >> guest: it was very important to me. i think it was about 15 year anniversary of me doing this, and i just gotten all these bad reviews. always gotten beautiful reviews, i'm the greatesting of the happen, fresh new breath of legal thrillers, the next coming

are that's not right. but it's also just as othersly not right to say he's the worst thing ever but they hurt. they hurt. remember when i said i wasn't in the good-i could be like everything is great. got -- "usa today" gave me a review, the first council, wrote a headline and said i opened up the paper so excite, great big launch party, and they said you're going to be vie screwed inas "usa today" tomorrow. i was at mcdonald's and i opened up the paper and i was so excited to see what they wrote about my amazing book it and said, make first your last and it was like a public beating. every bad review is like your mother said it to you and i remember calling my mom, mad and upset and so sad, purpose -- punk me in the face and my mom says, don't worry, no one reads that paper. i'm like, mom, it's the most read paper in the country and

imfinally realized i can't be scared of these things. have to embrace them. rather than just ignore them. every single one of them i read and there's some good truth in there. if you read them you below become a better writer. that person had you for a reason. better learn or you won't get better. i read the reviews but can't have them have power over me. collected the reviews and took my kids and the little league team and went to at the old age home where my grandmother worked and i did this. i think the best way to show it. >> host: let's watch a portion of it. >> if you don't think about it too much. >> disappointment. >> biggest book. [inaudible] >> d plus. >> d plus. >> d plus. >> well, it sounds okay.

>> d plus? >> no, b plus. >> i no, but i got a d plus. >> oh. >> that's my grandmother, may she rest in peace and no script. but i got a b plus. he says a b plus isn't bad. i said i got a d plus. he said you have to work harder. if you put in worst -- everyone ahead brad meltzer and you can fine that. for writers-specially our last caller -- i'm talking about famous writer, many who you have hat on here who e-mailed me privately and said thank you for vat video and i realized i wish i was smart enough to know this. when i did that and embraced all the awfulness, it freed me from it, and make no mistake, every bad review still hurts. not like i'm impervious, but made me realize the flaw in every critic is that they're humid. it's why it's an inpeople serve

and that's okay, too. but i do believe that all the reviews that say you're the best doesn't mean you're the best and. journey job is to look for the truth and to the caller, keep writing you story, every day, write a page. you'll have a book in a year. >> james from fort washington, maryland good. ahead, please. >> caller: how are you doing. good afternoon to steve and brad. a friend of mine gave me one of your books. i can remember the name of it but it was in 2009 while i was in the hospital. and the end part was about something in the basement of a -- somewhere in western d.c., and you got some muck and stuff down there. but at any rate, let me say this. i followed you and i see you quite often in different places of he here's what i would like for you to do if you can.

can you write up story of -- called, who asked you, and the reason i say that is like all of the k street and the think tanks come on sometimes with good stuff but who asked them to come on? and the good thing about c-span is that it's right next to fox and so they can keep them covered. when i say -- the studio, evidently, is right there -- >> host: you want me to find out who benefits, fright that's the whole thing. listen. the great thing but c-span -- let me tell you the other great thing. no out it next to fox or cnn but the fact if you -- it lets you have access to information and there's nothing more powerful

than that. you're asking the right question. you want to know who benefit us. want to know the why. you answer that question and you'll find more interest interesting. >> host: this an e-mail from a viewer saying would you consider a i am book, the first soldiers in what became the war on terror, the hero passengers and the crew of flight 93. >> guest: i love of course i would. and i love them so much if outcome loot a heroes from the daughter there is an entire page, one of of the heroes is the crew and the passengers on unite flight 93. and let me tell you why i'm particularly interested in that story. my wife on 9/11, we were living near washington, dc. and my wife work at the u.s. capitol. she was nine months pregnant. and our son, truly -- say nine months pregnant. nine months pregnant and was

driving to work and the planes just hit in new york, and hit the towers, and my wife is driving to the capitol, and she says to herself, you know, i wonder if they republic up -- they'll upsecurity at the capitol and city stops on the side of the road and says we have terrible security in the capitol, and pulls over and calls me, and she says, i have a bad feeling about what is going thereon today. i don't think shy go to work. and i said, shouldn't go to work. turn around and come home. and she came home, and of course we know what happened at the pentagon. we know what happened in new york. but that pennsylvania flight, flight 93, that beamer and those amezing people that, plane was head nor capitol. some say it's the white house or the cap you'll about to the plaque is in the u.s. capitol. always been my take the signal was, it was glowing and i believe it was going there and

i'm not saying that the plane was coming in right as my wife pulled into work and they saved her life but i do know that but for those people, my life is profoundly different. they are heroes regardless of my personal stake in that story but 100%. that's why dedicated a page to them. >> right, billings, montana. go ahead, please. >> yes, mr. meltzer, james was talking about the archivist -- >> guest: yeah. talking about the inner circle. >> caller: yes. we have to get him to buy more books? >> but my -- you're research and your life are amazing. my favorite novelist was taylor caldwell, and she plug me into all this. she wrote historical novels and it made you feel like you were there and i felt like i was in

the archivist room. i'm about 80 and i had a little eye problem and i do all of the books on tape. >> guest: yeah. >> caller: wondering if you're going to do all your new things on tape. >> guest: yes. my grandmother, who you just saw in the video, was -- when she reached her nine's, she could no longer -- she was a huge reader. the only real reader in our family. she could no longer read because she went blind, and i remember we just had -- just starting audiotapes back then. cassettes. and doing audio books and i gave her scott brick, has read all our books, the best audio book reader of anybody, and i gave dish didn't like the first guy they gave us and gave us another person it and was like, not a very great match and then scott brick, and i played it for my grandmother, and i said what do

you shock, she said, bradly, he sound handsome and i knew that was our guy. wanted a guy who was handsome, so -- but all kidding aside, it changed my grandmother's life. would make sure she always got an audio book. so to answer your question, absolutely they're on audio book, every single book i every wherein, they're all on odd you book and all read by scott brick and the first conspiracy, the secret plot that killed george washington, he just finished recording a week and a half ago and will be doing the audio. even are you can't see it, grab it on audio. they're all there. >> host: from the book, the zero game, matthew mercer, harris sandler, 2005. >> guest: yeah. so i'm going to do this without the spoiler. so this book came about -- i told you my first job was i was 18 years old and i used to work at the senate judiciary committee, and this was a story i heard back then.

there were two staffers who would make a little bet. make bets like, i bet i can guess how many pencils in your drawer and i can guess what time we'll go to lunch, i bet how many votes on a bill. and then it just started escalating and then the rumor i heard was that one of them said, i bet i can put two words in the senate're speech and he'll never know it. the words dry cleaning. they were tired of picking up the senator's dry cleaning so let's put the word dry cleaning in his speech and one said to the other you can't do and that he said, wanna bet? and i forget what the rumor but the whole story is like blur to me, but i'll never forget it it and said, maybe people think the environment is an issue that is dry, comma, cleaning up should be the first priority and the word dry clean was in the

senator's speech. that was the greatest story if heard, way to show that you who think you're in power are not really in power. there are so many people behind the scenes who are far more power than you time didn't realize why i loved that start of the story. i know now because of my whole core belief system, and i said, why don't we do a book where have staffer who are truly gambling on congress. not just about -- putting word inside congressmen's speech but actually to -- how many votes on this bill. i bet i can get 200, 250. i bet you can't get over 230. wanna bet? and the bet is paid and that's the zero game. members of congress betting on bills. start happening and people started telling me stories that it really happened. that's when you know you're on to a good plot. people say to you, my gosh,

yeah, i heard someone was doing that. i remember when i was doing the book about -- the inner circumstance of george washington, doing seek cell for the book the fifth assassin. went to one of the top guys in the cia and i said my book is about george washington and he said i heard their still around and i said, no, i made that up and he was like, yeah issue head their still around. when the head guys at the cia tell you that,ow feel like you're just -- now you're like, my phone is bugged. but that's when it gets cool. so matthew americaer and harris also had -- they were the main characterness the zero game, and the zero game was -- can't -- has the single best twist i've ever written. and i wanted to see -- >> host: give us a tease. >> guest: i basically was like, can you kill the character that no one thinks you're going to

kill? that's the best way. and i'll just say it. the question was can you kill a first person narrate glory you have a first person narrate you. can you tell that person or is that thank you enbroken rule. once you hear the word, i'm bored today and want to go to work today, you're like he's our narrator, he's safe. i was like why? why are they safe? says who? who wrote the rules? i said ick do that? can i somewhere in the middle of the book take that away and i said i don't know if i can or can't but that's the best reason to try. this first book i ever wrote, a third person narrator, ben was sweeting like pig, someone suppose told be that way. i said to my editor at the time, can you go to, like, first person and third person and do them both at the same time?

one person says, ben is sweating and the next chapter, i was really nervous. no, no, no, they have to be all third person help said that's the rule. the second book i was i'm going to two narrators. and he said, okay. and then he said you can't do third and first. was like, let's try, and the third book i gave if at show. the fourth book -- then i got the zero game and i was like, can you kill a first person narrator and they said no. i says, who is they? so everybody book to me is me trying to figure out in the form and not to get all arty fartsy, when someone says see if it's possible. when you read a book and have been reading them -- like in our onwhere, thrillers or legal thrillers, written ten or 12 of them, you're like, i read that

person in the beginning, they were good in the beginning but now their -- you know what's going to happen, like connect the dots. that happens because the author is bored, too. been writing that character for 20 years and they're bored and when i started writing remember i said, i never want to be that person. never want to be that author who feels like, man, i'm bored. i did so it much i don't want to do it again. every book i've written i try to find the thing i have never done before and i tried. there are that's why i found know lamp can i nolan. when due you due when your character is the most dangerous character in the book. can i pulling that off? let's see. that's what makes me feel like it's going to be interesting, and to me when you're reading a good book and you you feel like it's leave the station like a train thatter is barrel ought of the station, the reader is feeling that because the writer love what they doing. the x-factor is does the write are love what they're doing some to me that's what you have to

have. everybody book you do. if you don't feel like that, don't start the back. >> host: vick, thank you for joining, and bruno, california, you're next. >> caller: yes. thank you, good afternoon. mr. meltzer has been talking about the question why and who benefits. wondered if he has ever thought but taking on a subject that a lot of over people seem to stay away from, and that's the jfk assassination. >> guest: you just -- that's my number one of all the great stories. we actually did tackle it. i became -- i'm so obsessed with it that we put it in our decodessed book, where we counted on the ten top conspiracies. the great thing but the jfk one it has the best stories. also has the crazy jest -- craziest stores and enwhether i first starts doing this, that was the first conspiracy theory i ever heard. i talk but miss sherman, who is life was saved when he helped

find her a kidney but the reason she got me turned on to history, wayns 11th grade and she brought in a big tv and when the rolling cart comes in with the tv, it's the best day because you're going to see the movie. the movie the put on was the jfk conspiracy. it wasn't a cooky movie but one of those one that asked the true, logical questions that deserve to be asked, which is, how does jack ruby get through an entire police station full of cops and no one stops him? what is lee harvey oswald doing in russia for all those years, as someone who served in the military and no one knows anything about system even with the reese of the documents, there's still unanswered questions. those are logical, good, fair questions to be asked. why. >> host: why hey took lee harvey oswald in a public set snag

right. there's things that just -- i think that many of these things are like the supreme court definition of pornography. we know when something just smells wrong. we just do. but what is great about the jfk story is when you really dig, some of the things have completely unanswerable questions and deserve to be asked some and some are based on lies that have been bred into us. oliver stone, when he did the jfk movie, did one of the great disservices to history because at the time -- we didn't have the internet, didn't see interviews with directors back then, but he actually says at the time he was so mad at the warren commission that he wanted his movie to be a response to it so he added characters and facts and details that weren't true. and he average person -- however many millions people took the movie as true, there's an audio tape that has a third shot on it? where did that shot come from or

fourth shot? where did that come from? in the movie is says that no one has been able to recreate the shot that lee harvey oswalt took. i remember when i was a kid watching the movie i thought, oh, then he couldn't have done it because no one has been able to recreate the shot. too hard too far, there's the answer, logic tells you. >> host: have you been do dallas sunny went there it's an easy shot. in fact, what they didn't tell you in jfk is tons of people have recreated that shot. marine -- the marines to be a sharpshooter have to make a shot like that even further away. but we watch the movie and no one has made the shot. it's just not true. >> host: this is from phoenix, an e-mail, this viewer in the 11th grade. as history buffer i care about history. first what can we do to make history, to give it exciting to

a new generation secondly how do we change the education k through 12 with regard to history? >> guest: that's a good question. that's knee 11th grade. that kid from phoenix, mention me on your interview when we are long dead. or we're old -- you and are going to call in that day, i'm calling from boca raton. that joke just killed in boca. crushed in boca. but he asked a really vital question. went to the history department to university of michigan, which is where i majored in history, and i said what's the biggest problem you face? the biggest problem they were facing in he history departments in the country, is when i was a kid and i wanted to be a history major, my parents said, okay you like history, go do it. the number one problem is parents when they're kid says they want to be a history major, the parents says to them, you're going to make no money, don't do

it. and all across many of these liberal art ideas whether it's sociology, history, anything else, you see parents enter saying you're not going to make money. the departments are getting decimatessed because they can't get the funding, can't get kids to sign up. when you less kids, you have lest fund can, less faculty and then we start to lose its. that's a disaster. so we have to change that. you just need to do that. so, i think the first way to start is, like, parents out there stop telling your kids they can't make money in history. that's it. i think i solved the problem. we're done. but all kidding aside, the thing that he asked is the more important question, which is how do you make it interesting? i will say that -- i saw this the national book festival. brian sells nick gave an

incredible speech and he -- childrens republic el straighter, the illustrator on the harry the hard harry pots when they did the rerelease and brian gave an incredible speech and said -- he said never read harry potter, and he read it recently and when he read it he was struck by that idea that harry and ron, they were faced with this horrible kind of dictateyear who was trying to take power and anyone who spoke against him he would a day and can anyone who days challenge him, he would attack, and use the actual system of government in the magical world. he sees power in there got the ministry of magic. grabbed power and put his thumb down and anyone who poke against him he would attack. but these kids realized that the adults weren't going to save them. the adults were never going to

save them. that if you want to see change happen, the kid needed to do it themselves, and he didn't have to mention -- didn't mention gun control or what happened in florida. or anywhere else in vegas or anywhere else. when you look, these kids that are out there today, like this 11th grader who just wrote to us, they have been raised on harry potter. they have been armed with harry potter since they were five years old. they have learned that when you see something like that, someone in power who is abusing it, that you must rise up because the step won't save its. you have to save everybody and he is like, that's how you'll you'll get freedom and power back and that hit home for me. didn't have to say the name donald trump or anyone else. it was rousing and i think that the answer to that 11th grader problem is the 11th grader. when you have a kid in 11th 11th grade saying how do i make history more interesting in

he's going to writes the interesting book that will bring people back, going do write the incredible leak tour that will -- lecture. we'll larry from that kid again. >> host: another question, president orson wallace and the role of st. elizabeth. >> guest: yeah. a good one. or son wallace is the -- i've hidden as someone who loves mystery and loves digging through things to fine that golden nugget, i have hidden more hidingen thing nikolas book than anyone will find. frock book one this, villain who is arrested, you find out what happened to him if you are close reader and you read book two one page, one sentence. it's there. or orson wallace is the president here and in this little universe and he shows up in other places. what doesn't show up is

st. elizabeth and that was fantastic place. when the book opens up as we talk about, with this nascar race with this guy who comes out and shoots at the president. always base the shooting -- spoke to many people on ronald reagan's secret service team and did a lot of research when ronald reagan shot. one assassination where the president lived but what happened to all the people who servedly, there, and as we all know until recently, the shooter of ronald reagan, john hinkly, within to st. elizabeth and st. elizabeth held this person that tried to kill the president. it is so close to where we are in downtown d.c. and i went there and was blown away by what i saw. gave me incredible as sees to it. don't want to ruin the book but the things you see and hear were based on real people that were there, and i just -- when you're building a villain, you must --

as important as your hero is in any of these thrillers you must build a real villain. ous must build a person that is real and i remember at st. elizabeth and other institutions that would tell me for the calm people down when they angry that we've have a labyrinth outside, and they could walk through and just walking through the maze was a therapeutic endeavor. i was like, that's going in a book and all the things they do with a people who are trying to kill those we love. i became obsessed with that. so the st. elizabeth details in the book came to life. >> host: donald, elk grove village, image. thank youor waiting? >> caller: great privilege to walk to brad meltzer, booktv is a great service because

history is the photo -- you should learn from off mr. systems. are you going do make any movies or documentaries from the books he has written? my family was involved in knight's. the golden circle. >> guest: thanks, donald. a man of historically appreciate. the knights of the golden circle, when the civil war happened, and the south was falling, there was -- the civil war gold, the confederate gold was pun on a train and the train was headed out of town, and the idea was we'll put our -- we lost, we're done, put the money on the train and on this going train we'll send the money south and basically hide the money and the implication when it's ready the south will rise again. the guardians of that were supposedly the knights of the

golden circle. actual him came from a group during the civil war that wanted to have -- so angry with slavery being disrupted that they wanted to form their own golden circle, an area where slavery would be legal. that was the start. what eventually einvolved into, in the kind of story of history, is they were supposedly the guardians of the civil war gold, and the confederate gold. the great part of the story and the great mystery which we dealt with was the gold never got there. i disappeared forever. to this day nobody knows where it is and there's a story breaking right now of some guys who thought they found it and government operatives think took it out from under their hands. i'm looking into that story. but knights of the golden circle was -- had sentinels who guarded the gold and put marks on trees that told you where is what. needless to say, i thought that would be a really good group to

deal with in a book and win when you reads the fifth assassin, and the president's shadow and. if george washington aspiring the ring still exist cozy suspend it make sense the knight of the golden circle still visit. >> host: three tweets roading the ring novel. when we we get another novel. not that i'm patient -- okay, maybe i am. >> guest: i'm slow. i admit. i'm slow when it comes to writing the thrillers. not because of any disinterest but for 20 years i can go two years in time. some people go great every year, put out a book every area. if i did tom, they would good garbage. and god bless the men and women who do it but the research matters so much to me and i like spending six more months on it doing the research. so the next thriller is a nola and zig book. the next book that comes out is

the first conspiracy this secret plot to kill george washington, comes out january 8 in i am billie jean king comes out after. thatle we are working on a film and movie. i spoke win someone who we have been working with he. we have optioned and sold many booked but it's lard to make it happen where super hero is what you see. the last time you saw a john grisham movie or mary higgins clark. those have modern to television as you see with my friend michael connellly. those things noter no movies anymore. if you don't a have special effects and a cape you won't see it. those who love this genre are trying to find great partners. >> host: this tweet from ian says who are your biggest influences when its comes to

writing, in particular comic books? >> the comic books, they are my biggest writing influences. my favorite writer-0 all-tile it alan moore, who wrote watchman and other things but watchman is the pinnacle of what any book can accomplish. the book dish used re-read if every year. just actually fished my re-reading, isn't read nit three. >> and i just finish elfed. the one book i can rereads. i hoover nell gamon, and tom king, what he i doing, jeff johns, i can name them. mark miller, doing wonderful things, jason aaron, who i think are all incredible writers. and even more artists out there i think, my college room may was jed winnik, a great writer -- used to do comic book and now

dodd kids backs, a book about a little row bolt who -- row boat is as heartwarming and moving as anything you can read. love hero stories, i do. i think stan lee passes away ask the reason i love these stories is not that i love clarks would wear their underwear on the outside of their pants. what i love and what i love about stan lee and -- who created superman is the stories gave me a foundation to live by, a moral foundation. it taught me -- they gave me the pillar of my sense of right and wrong. what i loved is those characters were being good because it's good to be good. that's why we should be good. that is an incredibly powerful important lesson we lost sight of. being good for the sake of it. what we learned over the years,

learned how to fight. learn that from comics. fighting and punching. we're great at that. if your just fighting for yourself or politics or because you're a corporation and want more attention or fighting for something like that? you already lost. as far as i'm concerned. we need to get back to that idea of just being good and kind for no other reason than it's right. and what i love about those lessons that comics give us, is that we can still use that lesson every day. i know it's crazy but if you lived your life like superman, like batman, that is a good thing. in batman, what inspires me is everyday he knows he's going to fail. he he bassman because he wants to stop crime mays parents were killed. never going to do it. he's never going to stop all crime. he's never going to do the mission he starts with every day. never accomplish it but tomorrow he's going to try again.

he next day try again, too. and that lesson of persistence is a powerful, beautiful one. supermans lesson of truth, justice the american way, on to the days when i say i'm going run for president and i think them, because we look around today, you're like, mr. gosh, anybody could be it, i think it. know what my moto would be, truth, just and the american way. what we're missing today. truth, and justice, and the american way. and those lessons came to me when i was a kid. like the best things we learned when we are a kid, just as valuable as today. >> host: would you run for offers? >> guest: i stay in my world of fiction but trust me there are moment winter-weather advisory get just as mad as anyone else and say, someone needs to step forward and do better. that's the only way the world changes. >> host: what would you think of the president? >> guest: i do not believe -- i'm going to -- not to just kind of switch the subject but i just

don't believe in -- it's easy to sit here and say why does he do this or that and that's unfire do. other think is look at and go, you know what? you can't take our greatest enemies and be nighter to them than our own people. you can't. those are the things you see right now. the republicans and democrats are finally starting to realize one thing they agree on. you have to treat americans better. and i'll be the first one to say it. you got to. got to. not going them. when you start going those people, you're in the wrong side of history. that is it. we're all of us at some point in time, somewhere in this country, traced back to someone who came from elsewhere. the great hero of all of us, fake superman himself, is truly an immigrant from another planet. that comes down here. becomes a journalist. he is like -- almost the embodiment of what donald trump

hates the most, an immigrant and a journalist, clark kent and superman. but what is amazing to me and -- whether it's anywhere and at any point in history, when you start generalizing about an entire group of people, an entire religion, about an entire culture, you are doing it wrong. >> host: let's go to kit in washington, dc. good afternoon, kit. hello? one more time for kit. okay, go to franklin in yonk kess, new york. >> guest: finally, new york represent. >> caller: hi there. yes, mr. meltzer, before my question i just want to address what you were just saying but the importance of being a hero and such, and i just really think that it is vital for -- especially privileged white males like myself and yourself, we have to be more honest about

racism in this country. for example, everyone's talking about on the news george h.w. bush. in the '60s he was a horrible racist. there's an article called bush and the blacks by jefferson morely in the new york review of books in 1992. bush was against the civil rights act, against blacks having the right to eat in rathers and hotels. there's -- . >> guest: let's talk about that. i was actually reading just about that and the amazing thing is, you're right about that. george bush ran against the act. he when he got into congress he voted the opposite way. to the consternation of everyone in texas who was like, you bastards, you said you were going to do something about and that he did the right thing. and i can't possibly with a straight face sit here and say, my gosh, that takes away

everything else that was said and done and everyone is a saint and everyone does the right thing. a complicated story. a complicated life. as all of ours are. if i judge he you the caller, by your worst moment, i'm not doing you a good service. you sound like a good man, fine person, but if i take that one day where you did that thing you regret and live with that, i wouldn't say that's what you are fretless of your live? i have not painted you fairly. complicated. thing you start with are the thing you are. eyeful a white kid from brooklyn, new york, you're from yonk kess, -- yonkers, and i knw when he write this have the perspective of everybody i writes about in history. so when i'm rosa parks i know where i'm going to be. can't possibly have the depth of that so i win -- when we did i am martin luther king jr., i went to john lewis himself read

that book and proofed it because he was there with dr. king. when we did jane good y'all, i don't know what i it's like to be you and harriet tubman, i went to the scholars in the country and win we died sacajawea i went to smith sewn ya native american museum. it all goes back to what we started to talk about earlier, you want to change the world, easy to say that guy did this and this woman did that. you can find something about everyone. every book i've written, every hero i've written about in the i am series, every one of them has problem. george washington owned slaves and abraham lincoln -- you can signed some political problems, racist things about gandhi. just as that caller did with gorge bush but if you're looking for perfection, you're not looking at human beings. the only thing that is perfect i god. that's it. that's my core belief and if you're look for perfect human beings you'll always be

disappointed. so rather than that guy did this and that, why not, and this is so vital, why not have a little bit more tolerance? that is what the world could use right now. >> you will be at president bush's funeral on thursday. >> guest: i will. >> host: if you were deliver a eulogy, what would you say? >> guest: i wrote a bit about him. what i would write about -- listen, i real tell you what i write that i wish someone would write about me and that is, loved his family, certainly loved sports, but he loved the idea of service. and that's the thing is. it's easy to love your family, even a crazy family, and easy of of love sports or your passion. but he dedicated his life to service. the point life foundation is still going. doesn't need to. doesn't need to do it anymore. look how many past president

does nothing. just go and play golf and do their thing. doesn't need to do that but he was passionate, he believed the changed the world through service. one person doing that changed the world. and that is what i would talk but when i talk about him, is that man who -- when you ask the secret service about dish always ask the secret service but the presidents they they don't love everyone they stroke you get them alone they'll tell you. so many president they'd don't like. all loved -- every single screes screes agent i spoke to loved george h.w. bush. and all said the same thing, asked me about my familily mobies knew me by name and characters is who you are when no one is looking. and that's who we has when no one was looking. that's what i would say about him. always that kind person, and i talk about him and world war ii. when he went -- when that plane was going down, and he said, a

kid, the first thing he did is he tried to turn the plane show to slip stream didn't hit the door so that the side door could open up so john and -- i forget the other employ could get out. two 0 men ask rathern just jumping out he turned the plane so the door would open so she air pressure wasn't on the door so they could get out first before him. and when he landed and he crashed, he's vomiting, bleed, crying, and those men died. he lived and they died. but what they gave him more than anything else was an appreciation of life, and he never forgot that. >> host: marian in by aside, new york. >> caller: wow. thank you. it's a perspective to talk to you and that is like an amazing thing that our i'm going to try to follow up with my question. the healthcare profession which

is totally different than what you talk but -- the health care system in this country is in such terrible shape with 250,000 people a year dying of hospital accidents, according to john hopkins university that was in 2017. and we pay more than any other country on the planet for health care according to the world health organization. we get the worst health care. and personally, every elder relative in my family, close to me, died of some hospital ridiculous thing, and my background is in animal science and agriculture, i see lifestock being treated -- >> we only have a minutes or two left, your question. >> caller: my question is, is it's culturalling? why isn't this addressed in the media? in entertainment? >> guest: let's talk about that. because, again, who benefits?

when -- if you ask me what i think our biggest system -- i'll keep it short. when you have a governmental system that is focused on being run by people with money, when money is the thing that runs it, who benefits tells you the answer right there? why is is so hard? because the healthcare industry is spending bilges to convince your congressmen and your congresswoman to vote in a way that favors them and know why they vote for them? they get a bigger donation than you. so if you want to solve the problem, you got to take money out of the system. if money is in the system, then those with more money are going have more influence. the moment people have more influence or systemming wrong. >> host: nancy, virginia? >> caller: good afternoon. i've been alive today because of george w. george w. bush because he signed the americans if with disables

act. i'm calling to ask him to clarify his remark a how mr. trump, whom i support, should -- couldn't treat other people better than he did americans and then turned around and talked about how anybody could -- the country was founds by immigrants and i disagree with this because the country was founded for ourselves and our posterity, so said our founding document. i wonder why he never said anything but mr. jefferson because george washington was terrific but it was jefferson that gave us the country along with mr. madisoning are worth fighting for i want to point out that it was mr. jefferson's virginia statute of religious freedom which has never been replicated on the planet. that was responsible for mr. joshua leavy buying monticello when it was falling

into disrepair. >> guest: thank you, nancy. i agree with you've thomas jefferson is a favorite. we went to do do an i am thomas jefferson. one of the greatest minds we ever had. someone who -- my gosh, owned slaves. so, again, not perfect, complicated, but incredible. but to answer your question, what i -- just to following up quickly, what i was talking about is when you see our president -- i'll do this like this. i we have lost sight of what we talking about. i was talking about if you look at how much time he has spent with -- we know who our enemies are in the world. we know that vladimir putin tried to enter fire with our election and throw its one way or the other. doesn't matter what your politicked but tried interfere.

we know that saudi arabia has done some major harm and most recently to an american citizen. those are the bad guys. not hard. they'll admit they're the bad guys and when ensee yesterday the head of russia and the head of saudi arabia getting together and laughing, i'm worried. as american citizen. make monday go, we're doing it wrong. when so much time is spent yelling here on twister and other places, about not that, you got to -- why are you not arguing but putin? not arguing but saudi arabia? why are you not going after our enemies? why are you going after americans? that -- again, not to get into why you should vote for one or the other but who benefits? who benefits? who benefits? ask that question. always find your answer. >> our conversation concludes with which has been a 12 month

project at c-span2, fiction authors. we go back to nonfiction next month and that's a segway to talk but your book only george washington warrant to ask you but the beginning of the book and the words franklin fran we must hang together or assuredly we shall all hang separately. why in your book. >> guest: a book about loyalty. when you read the first conspiracy, i'm going -- i have to save because we have so much too talk but when the book come outs but it bears repeating here. where we are as a culture. if we do no standing to we most certainly fall apart by ourselves and so i think for those -- listen, a lot of people will figure out their vote and they should judge by merits, always, not by who you like or who mikes you feel better but by the merit. this cubfully a better space? if it is, vote for you guy. if unique we are treating each

other in a gay, vote for your guy. if not, don't. don't go it makes me feel good. judge and say are we better off? for me -- the best way to close -- i'll tell you my ritual. my secret. i started by talking about all the rejection letter is got, and there were 24 people who said i shouldn't do it. i got a phone call from my agent at the time, i thought she would tell me we sold the book. and she told me wait by your phone issue think number 23 and 24 will be positive. so i waited by the phone, pick up the phone and she said to me, sorry, kido and i i-my stomach bottomed out and every day i sit down to write, i replay that moment. i preplay where i was sitting, replay the phone i was on when i pick i up, one of those see-through fine, the desk with the civil lamp on my left, the

bed with nothing but a box spring and a mattress no headboard. i see the -- looking over a terrace, concretes floor, pier station here in d.c., three doors and i say to the word, sorry, kido, and for 20 years when i writes, anything i work on, i says to the words, sorry, kiddo, sorry, kid dough, sorry, kid dough. 20 produce years now because i never want to forget what it's like to have nothing, never want to ever not be thankful for what i'm lucky four to talk to imaginary friend all day and certainly never, ever, ever want to think i made it. if i think i made it, i'm finished. i always want to be as young and humble a hungry as i was when i was 20 something years old. so, i'm the escape artist. i'm the escape artist. and not escaping from some magic trick.

we all have the hole we're in. we have to get out. mean get out by doing something different. trying to be kind to someone. heat how you get out of your hole. you forgive, starting with yourself. that was harry houdini's greatest gift, forgiveness. i want to si thank you to every he person who called in sent a tweet, follow us us on facebook, the invisible army people. get too sit here for 20 years because of your kindness. >> host: on twitter and web, follow you how. >> guest: at brad meltzer on twister, on affection, and go to brad meltzer.com, join in the invisible army. >> thank you for your time. good luck with the next project, come back to c-span often. we appreciate it. ...