to get, but just judging by the number and the quality of the questions that were asked on a scale of 1 to 10, i'm going to give this one a 12. so thank you four for contributing and thanks for the challenge. on about books, we delve into the latest news about the publishing industry with

interesting insider interviews with publishing industry experts. we'll also give you updates on current nonfiction authors and books, the latest book reviews and we'll talk about the current nonfiction books featured on c-span book tv. james patterson's latest book is american heroes. his coauthors are matt eversmann with tim malloy and chris mooney. mr. patterson, what should we know about your coauthors? they're all good people. matt eversmann is and i we're sort of the main cog here in terms of the interviews and doing most of the writing. tim malloy i did something with him on abc. jeffrey actually minutes the story. he was a reporter down here in florida, been a reporter in a few cities. so we did that together and we worked together on a couple of things. and american heroes was actually tim's idea.

he had tried to get something on medical medal of honor winners going as a as as a film, and it couldn't happen. but i thought it would be a terrific book. so so that was tim's involvement and he's been a little involved. any interviews and money gets involved in some of the research and some of the writing, so it's a good team though. i think. james patterson, what is the format of american heroes? it's just we got 30 some medal winners and it ranges from, you know, a bronze medal still to a medal of honor and congressional medal of honor and we just tell the stories of the individual goals. and i think that you know, one of the things for readers to look forward to is and this is true of anything that i that i write, i try to keep it really pasty and keep people interested. and these stories are genuinely

thrilling. we one of the things, a couple of novel is jack carr and mark greaney, who are both military people. they just couldn't believe how stunning these stories are. and this idea of i know that there's ever been a time in my lifetime when we've needed heroes more and the kind of heroes heroism that's that's really necessary right now. it's more small heroes, small gestures, small things that we can all do. but in this book, it's big things. and, you know, we we, you know, in five, six, seven pages, you are with a a an army guy at iwo jima with a flamethrower. and what he had to do to survive and to somehow help those who were around him survive, we've got to in vietnam, we have a military man who they would have trouble bringing a helicopter and they had, you know, bring out some wounded soldiers.

and he ran out into this field. in the end, he took the helicopter. he said, if i could stand here, you can land here. and it's that kind of bravery. we had another this was in korea where in order to save his team, he literally put a grenade in his pocket and lived to tell about it. i did go off. so the stories are are just amazing stuff like nothing that i've ever come across and we've done, you know, with with combat boots and we did our nurses is another book that matt eversmann and i did. and and they're stunning stories, but these are just off the charts in terms of you just won't believe of what these men and women do. and i think. right now, you know, i tend not to. well, let's just do a couple of question. so we'll keep going in this in this way. yeah, sorry. so otherwise i'll just talk for half an hour and who wants to hear that? 200 novels, about 20 non fiction books. and you've written with about

two dozen other authors is what's the process of writing? who cares? who cares? what's the process? i will write a long outline in most cases. not not with american heroes. there's no way you can write an outline about a book like this because. we had to talk to the people and find out what they would say. mostly, i will write a 50 to 80 page outline and then it depends on who it is. it depends on whether it's maximum, but when we do the women's murder club or whether it's dolly parton and we're doing run roads, run it really. and it changes with every single person i'm doing now. i'm doing one with viola davis, which is very exciting. and she's she's very intense and in a good way. so she's a great partner, very, very intense. and that's what the story in the novel, the two of us are doing needs that kind of intensity. but it really it varies all over the place. and people are funny with what coauthors say it because people are i don't know what's going on

in their little heads, but the sistine chapel, first of all, without collaboration, i don't think we can save the world. you're so like big, big, big picture sistine chapel. you've got, you know, 20 amazing painters on on up there. and it's the ceiling painting that a lot of people have written colorized before. it's not a big thing. and i was in advertising for a while, but i've been clean for over 25 years. but that business you tend to work with an art director and a producer and the collaboration thing and it's a good thing. i think it allows us to do more. it allows the work to be better. so and i don't quite understand why people peck at it, but some people, that's what they do. they like to pick things and. mr. mr. patterson in american heroes, you feature korea, vietnam and the war on terror. do you think that vets from the war on terror get the same adulation or treatment that some of the bigger wars? well, i think i think that the group that got the worst

treatment is vietnam, to be honest with you, because most of those men and women came home to two booths and, you know, how can you know? it's just a horrible horrible things that people would say to them. and it wasn't i mean, we've we've sort of moved on in a good way in terms of, you know, thank you for your service. although the reality of when people think these people are they service, they have no idea how incredible the service is. but vietnam, i think that's that's the war where i think those people came back and a lot of them really heroic and certainly had done nothing wrong. and they took a lot of a a lot of harsh talk and action. so but, you know, more recently, think once again, you know, people who have served in in afghanistan and other places in the middle east, i think people respect that. but i and there certainly aren't as many it's much harder to get medal. the medal of honors now, because

most of that was hand to hand fighting. and there isn't as much of that. thank god, as it used to be. right. there was certainly with two big wars. one of the people featured in this book is cynthia pritchett, who was the command sergeant, major general in the army. a woman, yes, right. yeah. and that's an incredible story. how she what you know, to go from enlisted person and, you know, not not being asked to do much and and basic training because well it's a woman we can't ask a woman to do that much. and how she rose through the ranks and ultimately became, you know, became a general, which is which is astonishing. and, you know, one of the things that's fascinate about these people and it's true of almost all of them when you talk to them, they don't want to talk about themselves. they want to talk about the people around them.

they want to talk about the bravery of of the men and women that they serve who have and who are in combat with them. and how so many of them could have gotten honors and they actually, in some cases, they feel embarrassed that they that they got the award they deserved the awards in terms of what they did. but but they they they won. and one of the heroes actually insisted on bringing his whole team to the white house when he when he got the medal of honor. but that's that's an extraordinary thing in terms of just the the modesty and the idea, you know, again and again, you would hear these men and women say, i didn't do anything special. i just did my duty. and, you know, matt eversmann hoo. who it was in very, very heavy combat himself. and he said it was it was truly the same thing. he got a bronze medal, but he said, yeah, anybody around him could have gotten a medal. so there was so much bravery. and he also said recently he

said he has never served with anybody on the battlefield where they didn't they didn't they didn't do a good job. he never saw anybody who didn't really live up to to you know what what needed to happen, what's what. shots were fired. mr. patterson, do approach a book like this the same way you would an alex cross novel? no. i mean, it's a whole different thing. i say, you know, with alex cross, there'll be a 60 to 80 page outline and and i'm not a slave to the outline, but but but it's a good starting place. and certainly it's nice when you sit down to write that there's, there's an outline and you know what the next chapter supposed to be, at least in theory. and a lot of times i'll change it. but it's really good to have the outline. this kind of book, you know, with with walking combat boots, what happened there was you mentioned tim like tim malloy

and i worked on the epstein book filthy rich and he was a reporter down here and we had done a documentary which won a bunch of emmys, and we wanted to do another one. and he started to talk me about the epstein story, which i was only vaguely familiar with. this is back in 2008, and i said, oh my god, now this is a book. i want to do this book because people don't know this story about this billionaire who who abuse all of these young women. and and basically a, you know, a 13 month sentence sentence reduced to 11 months and but this and then and then tim and matt went and did a document. they spent $5,000 to do it in afghanistan. and i saw what an incredible interviewer matt was. and he had that ability to get combat veterans to talk about combat, which is which is not

easy. and then the same thing happened when we took the e.r. nurses with our second book. and that's an astonishing group of men and women, women and men. i should take this more women and men. a lot more women than men and then with american heroes and, you know, and matt, he's been through it and dramatic it is mind blowing with these stories or suddenly i mean, he was in mogadishu. i mean, it was an awful awful one of his best friends died in his leg. and was astonished at these stories by these medal of honor winners, in particular, american heroes is dedicated to the memory of colonel ralph puckett, junior. who was he? he was another medal of honor winner. who once he got back in civilian life, he just continued to do things for vets, veterans hospital was named after him. and just an astonishing human being and man.

and he got very close. and that was one of the interviews where matt actually it in person he went down to puckett's house, met with him, spent the day with them, had dinner with them, and then and then while we were putting the book together, he died. so we dedicated the book to his memory. so did matt eversmann. do 30 or so of these interviews. or did you do some as well? he did most of what? yeah. parris davis, vietnam medal of honor winner, which he received during the biden administration. what can you tell us about him? help me with the stories, because the names i'm i very rarely can remember my sister's names. paris, davis, i know, was a black man, but i just african-american in vietnam and was given a an entire white platoon and yeah and yes yes

that is correct which you know that's not really is irrelevant in war as it is in a lot of other places. but it certainly there's some relevance and. certainly when he when he when he started off, there was some fears. what did he have problems with with the other soldiers? and he didn't feel that he that he did have problems. however, in terms of of the medal itself, and he certainly earned it. but it took a long, long time for him to get that medal for whatever reasons. the papers kept getting lost. so and we don't really know. and he wasn't really clear on what happened himself, except that it was very extraordinary and probably a book in itself in terms of why he didn't get the medal sooner than he did. there's another gentleman in your book, tim sheehy, who was both a seal and a ranger, a graduate of the naval academy and is, as of this taping a candidate for senate in montana. yes, yeah, yeah, that is

correct. and and he's probably in a win, which is interesting. he's he's amazing human being. you know, once again, i try not to get political, but tim is a republican and it's an important race because if he unseats gates, if it could turn the senate republic kid but but he's a very deserving guy wonderful and a big medal winner so that's a that's certainly one to watch and and matt and i are watching that one closely. james patterson, when you do a coauthored book, do you approach dolly parton, bill clinton, matt eversmann, or do they approach you? it depends. oh, i get approached a lot, especially through through hollywood, really. i would say at least once a week with with screenwriters or celebrities who want to do something, you know i came across a quote. oh, a year and a half ago and

it's i think it's more useful for younger people. it is with me, but it is really motivated for the past year and a half and the quote is, my time here is short. what can i do most beautifully? so i'm very careful with the co-writing and what i want to do. i think the things with matt, i'm very proud of american heroes and so is matt. i can't imagine anybody watching who will not really learn a lot from this book and i mean it's not one of these nonfiction where you go, oh my god, am i going to get through it? you will get through it very, very quickly. but i am about the projects that i do, and it is is different with dolly parton. i actually thought we might do a kids book together because we both kids books and i went down to see her and we just really hit it off. we were together for two and a half hours in. her office and, you know, she's kind of funny and i tend to be kind of funny in that of

environment. and she said, you know, i've done, you know thousands and thousands of country songs. i could write one standing in my head. well, i say it and it was kind of like that. and we wound up i had a rough idea for for an adult novel and that's what we wound up doing. but when i got back, i given her a little bit of an outline and two days later she called and she had a couple of notes on the outline and she had already written seven songs for the book. and that's and that's dolly parton. my grandmother used to have a how we dogs run faster and i've always been a hungry dog and dolly is a hungry dog. with president clinton, we have the same lawyer and, bob barnett, who handles the clintons. he handles, barack obama, the obamas. he handles woodward. yes. well, i see people come out of washington. and may i don't come out of washington but we're together. and president clinton reads

everything. he's the biggest reader ever seen. and he also reads a lot of mysteries and he loves them. and bob barnett always wanted to write a mystery and the president never really wanted to sit down to write a mystery. so, bob to and he said, well, how would you like to write one with james patterson and president clinton said, well, why would why would he said, i read a lot of jim's book about who want to read a book with and the reason. one of the reasons i want to write with him just because i spent a lot of time with him, that would be but another piece of. it is just to get as much authenticity as you get. you know, sometimes you write a book, you're making up a fair amount of stuff. but when we wrote, you know, the president is missing, i mean, and we were talking this is what the secret service would do under the circumstances or, you know they could never have a meeting in this room in the white house because it's too small or, oh, here's what a president would be thinking about under these circumstances.

so that was invaluable. and similarly with dolly, in terms of authenticity, the music scene in nashville, a country music. so it really depends on on who i'm writing with. but but i went to well, bob went to president clinton and he was all in. and i literally went i went to meet dolly and that's how that one worked. and then it really depends on on other people with i mentioned viola ridge at first thought was i had an idea for this book, which is a really amazing story i think set in alabama. and my first thought was, was morgan freeman, who did the alice the first two alice first movies, and then i started talking about viola and we're both with the same agency. so they sort of check with her in terms of whether she'd be interested and then she and i talked and she really liked the

story. i had an outline, beginning of an outline, and she really liked it a lot. and subsequently, one of the things she said to me, which is kind of she said, you know, you would expect hollywood. i'm sure she said that you would expect that i get all these parts and i just can't wait to play. and she said, that's not true. she says, i don't i get almost no parts where i'm like dying to play that character. she said, i'm dying to play this character in our novel. she said, this character is just so good and so and so interesting and so real, so, so i mean, that's how that the viola thing happened and the einstein estate approached me to do a kid's book. i this is kind of funny. i mean, wanted to do a book that would tell kids that they would they would be familiar with einstein and his scientific theories, but they said, you have to make it entertaining. i said, oh, so i just have to

reach young kids and explain einstein stories to them and make it entertaining. he said, yeah, that's it. but i think i think we kind of accomplish it with max einstein because max is pretty entertaining and kids do get some feeling for einstein's theories. i wanted to write about mohammed ali's youth in a car and in because i knew it was kind of misunderstood and i but i was approached by muhammad ali's estate and in particular his widow, who, like myself, went to vanderbilt and once again we kind of hit it off and then i reached out to bombay. alexie and her, who i'd done a couple of speaking agents with, and we wrote, i think, a pretty amazing book because it's half. i wrote the prose and he wrote the poetry and we tell the story

going back and forth and the poetry is particularly relevant when you talk about muhammad ali, because poetry, rhyme, etc. was so important in terms of his rise as a personality. you know, mr. patterson, how did you meet your coauthor on american heroes? matt eversmann. i had done nonfiction with a friend of matt tim malloy. i done, as i mentioned, the book about jeffrey epstein and matt and and and tim did a inexpensive documentary and, afghanistan. and it had to do how the hospital fertilization, the medical care to to wounded soldiers had improved so much since matt in combat and and i

work with him a little bit on that on that film just a little bit. and but i saw the interviews that matt did and and the title welcome my combat was the first one we did together just came me because i love the idea and this became our mission that our mission of walking in combat boots was if you had been in combat, you would say that every woman in patterson it right and how could we because we interviewed for that book over a hundred combat veterans and if you're one of these people that sits there and thinks that you understand things that you don't like, how i collaborate with people, those people always have their own stupid theories, who always are wrong. but if you think you understand the military you would read that book and go, i had no idea i was totally wrong about that. you mentioned that when you met with dolly parton, she said could write a country song standing on her head. do you feel that? do you feel that way about writing books now? that's not not sitting in my

head, but i do have a lot confidence in myself as a storyteller. and i think there are a couple. stephen king think is a is a storyteller who can who can change speech and write different kinds of things. i think he could have going outside of horror even more than he did, you know. but i don't think there are that many storytellers who really can, because i've done kids books. so i think kids books are actually maybe the best books i've done. and they're and they're humorous for the most part. but i do have that either gift or that curse of being able to tell stories about kind of anything. i could probably do a book about book tv, and i thought about it for a little. so, yeah, that storytel thing i do that is as, say, either a gift or a curse. and i do have it because i have in my here and i can actually

see the pilots across the office thataway and it's about, i would say, a foot thick and each and it's just page after page after page. as to clever title ideas on the top. and those are all ideas that i have for books or or movies. and when it comes time to do a new one, i'll kind of pour through those and see if something gets me excited. going back to that statement i said before, my time here is short. what can i do most beautifully? i did a bunch of books recently with. with black and so bear with names. so one of my best friends, mike lupica, and i'm really, really proud of them. the one series is with james, which we're developing now with hbo. max and and jane i think, you know, could be the best character i've ever created created one with mike in this case and the idea of the trilogy to me is, is pretty stunning

because the title was originally supposed to be 12 months of live. and then the following year, eight months to live and the following year for much to live. we've changed the title then, but the idea here is it's a woman, jane smith, and she briefly served in nypd then to work away through law school. she was a private investigator and now she's a defense attorney. and never lost a case. and she finds out in the first book that she only has 12 months to live just her nature is she bargains with her doctor and says, i need six months. and that's just that's her. and, you know, we all have a limited amount of time, time to live. but in jane's case, she kind of somebody has told her approximately how much time she to live. so and i love the idea of doing a trilogy like that where you kind of know where where it's going to end. and you get involved with the character and you do not want jane to die. and i thought that was sort of a

courageous interest way to do a series of and with lupica. you know, i love the work that we've done together. james patterson, 1130 in the morning when we're taping this interview, have you written today? yes, i have. i've been writing since about 615. i go and make my coffee. i have a bunch of newspaper at times and the wall street journal today and the local paper palm beach post and through the course of the morning, i will read some and drink, a little coffee and write. but i have been writing this morning. yeah, i'm just doing a a introducing a thing on substack, which i will write sort of essays or opinion pieces every week, but also interview somebody every i've done president clinton that'll be a two parter.

i'm to do bob woodward. i'm going to do dolly. did a david bell dolce did elliott hilderbrand. and i love the interviews. i mean doing them. but see i you're i'm smarter you because i get better people to interview than did and they're really really good interviews and i love doing them. so that's another thing to like. i needed something else on my plate i but i really am enjoying this substack thing. have you and your coauthor of american heroes, matt eversmann, come with your next topic? well, we actually have finished the next one, which is teachers and this is another where teachers are going to read and say woman in paris and got it right. we interviewed nearly 100 teachers for this one and a lot of people are going to say, okay, i didn't really understand all the forces, the teachers to deal with in the modern world. you know, the parents who are more involved ever, the parents who insist on being political

about the thing which makes it very hard for the teachers, the boards of education, the the principals who being threatened on the outside and the kids who are more unruly than they used to be. let's say when i was growing up or difficult to deal with. so it's really hard to be a teacher. we still don't give teachers the respect that i think we should. my mother was a teacher for nearly 50 years, so i understand that area. so matt and i did that we're we're going to do on veterinarians which i think will be interesting because there are so many different kinds of vets and people there love their pets. but you know we, got mountain lion vets and we've got horse vets, different kinds of horses and show horses and and horses and workhorses, etc. so that's that's kind of a fun interesting. well, but, you know, matt and i and tim is involved in of the shooting. milloy so yeah american heroes is the name of the book james patterson and matt eversmann are

the authors with, tim malloy and chris mooney, thank you for your time. mr. patterson oh, yeah, thank you. thank you. i hope it's a book tv. that'll be my next thriller. we are really honored to