tonight writers, encore presentation of some of my conversations including terry mcdonnell, marlon james and julian barns. >> i found all kinds of stories, photographs, whatever of the relationship i had with the writers and then i thought well, the best for me to show my own writing would probably be to write about these writers. so i started telling those stories. >> rose: writers on writing when we continue. >> rose: funding for "charlie rose" has been provided by the following: >> and by bloomberg, a provider of multimedia news and information services worldwide. captioning sponsored by rose communications from our studios in new york city, this is charlie rose. >> rose: terry mcdonnell is here. his career in magazine journalism spans more than four decades, 40 years. he's edited some of this country's influential magazine including outside, esquire, rolling stones and sports illustrated. he also worked with and befriended many literary writers. he chronicles his long life in publishing and in the world of letters in this new memoir, it is called the accidental life, editor's notes o

terry mcdonnell. what a pleasure. back in a moment.tay with us. ♪ ♪ charlie: marlon james is here. he is the author of "a brief history of southern killings." the 700-page novel is a feat of storytelling. the story revolves around the attempted assassination of bob marley. it was narrated by over a dozen characters. this book was called epic in every sense of the word, sweeping, mythic, over the top, zzyingly complex. it has been optioned by hbo for a television series adaptation. i am pleased to have marlon james at this table. marlon: thank you for having me. charlie: pleasure to have you and congratulations. you came about seven years ago to the united states looking for a teaching job in minneapolis. knowing you would do what? was this in your mind? marlon: no. when i moved to minneapolis, i just finished my second novel which was set in the 18th century. i hadn't thought about that before even though i was haunted by that story from way back in 1991 when i was still in college, i read this article. timothy white wrote the definiti