a familiar name if you like thrillers and novels, and that is brad meltzer.sir, it's not often that we talked to authors about lisa simpson and dolly parton and the three stooges. why are we talking to you about this? >> because i bring only the highest of high wherever i go. [laughter] .. the things you keeping your car that the movers can't touch, that's your life. those are things no one can touch. remember, we move, mom and the front seat to my dad and the front seat, sister and i and then back. behind this had rest were two bottles of champagne. and that was that clear sign to us. we were their lives. i remember driving from brooklyn to miami. they're rolling back and forth in the florida sun. my family knew nothing about how to care champagne. when my daughter was born i said, i'm going to write a book that lasts for whole life. underwriter, novelist. all right a book for her. all fill it with a gray years that i can find to my including lisa simpson and rosa parks and amelya air force -- amelya earhart. i should tell you, i thought i was going to the r

there will be introduced by brad meltzer who will be moderating the panel. the novelist will be joining us later. ms. kaplan will also be speaking, the founder of the miami book fair, introducing and opening the weekend coverage. in just a minute we'll take you now to chapman all. it's rather full. we will be beginning or coverage varies and. we are live on book tv. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> good morning. i had a little bit too much coffee is morning. it is a pleasure to see you. we are delighted to welcome you to the first session this saturday morning. how are you today. [applause] as you know, this is one of the most exciting times for us in the fall season in miami, and we are thrilled with this morning's panel. first and foremost, we would like to thank everyone who helped make this impossible, including our sponsors as well as blue florida and o

after that, thriller novelist brad meltzer will be joining us. is written a couple of non-fictions come his most recent heroes for my daughter. he also is the history channel host and you have probably seen him as well. we will conclude our coverage with a panel on christopher hitchens and his postmortem book, mortality. that panel will include his widow, carol blue, his publisher cary goldstein and two friends martin amis and robert while. after that carol blue will be joining us here at miami-dade college to take your tweets and facebook questions so there is another exclusive on line chance for you to talk with the widow of christopher hitchens. this is the 29th annual miami book fair. about 100,000 people. this is a weeklong event and we kicked off last week with tom wolfe live from chapman hall but we are down here this weekend and will be live all weekend with 100,000 people attending this event every year. as well as about 350 authors are down here. it was founded by mitch kaplan, founder of books & books, a big bookstore down here in sout