Transcripts For CSPAN2 In Depth In Depth With Brad Thor 20240712

I would love to see nine movies made. There seems to be a reluctance there that is misplaced. A lot of books that have nothing to do with islamic terrorism. In the code of conduct they all had to do with someone at the un. Hidden order was all about a series of murders taken place around boston. I normally dont say its about the fed when i publicize it because how could you make that sexy and be a thriller. Lets just one of several examples there was one muslim guy in it. It was one guy for all of that. Another theme intergovernmental intrigue. I talked to family members and things like this. Not close immediate family members. Francie tucker intrigue and i realize this is a same government that could not run the post office. All of the things that people want to put on dc makes for interesting fiction and i think we find it very easy to believe that there are forces behind the scene puppeteers that are controlling everything. I think that makes for interesting reading i grew up reading things like this. This fasting that there would be a group that just read a book looking for plots for the cia. That intrigue makes for tension and fund reading. Speaking of the deep states in politics you sent out a tweet in april that we want to show our viewer saying that if nobody else stepped up you were going to run for president against president trump. It is born of incredible frustration. I was told civic had a father i am a father. We dont on this country. We are stewards of this republic. We have a stronger and freer and more prosperous nation to the next generation. We safeguard and then we can do it on. And when im doing a good job at first but need money with an anonymous spending bill. I had been told if they can only control the house things would start happening. If we just put about public it in the over Office Things would change. Im tired of listening to what would be my political policy. That is a National Security issues. To have a republican that controls everything. They put out that government budget. We were promised that that wouldnt happen. Then i have a realization afterwards. Im not running for president to run for president i would have to get into the republican primaries and thats what i was more interested in. Actually not being afraid to confront him. I would have to be part of the Republican Party to do that. As i can happen because i go to the libertarian party. Pushing me to run as a Vice President ial candidate to bring a little bit more hawkish foreign policy. The old chinese curses. It is just crazy. Is it occurs in a sense to be a conservative writer. Im conservative when it comes to financial issues. Im not conservatives when it comes to social issues. Im very much with hw bush. Hit a great tweet during pride month. Im conservative when it comes to debt and deficit and keeping a good financial house in order. I want the government to leave me alone. I want the government to be as small as possible. The people at the churches that kind of stuff. Can of stuff. I think the closer you keep control and decisionmaking to the people it impacts the wiser the decisions will be. As a writer i think i get painted with that brush. The only thing people here is conservative. It was all about me not about my book. People who really read these books. They only wanted to talk about my politics. That was a profile piece on me. They saw some in a certain weight in the cited that he would signal that they were not worthy of consideration. I think he and i probably have a lot more in common than he thinks we do. I think we could find out can find out we agree on the lot. This is my big thing with all of the toxicity and politics. There is so much more that unites us than divides us. I dont want to be another september 11 that pulls us together. It is silly. And isnt good. For our republic. As a reader of brad thor nicholas has grown on me and i dont trust him. I dont trust him. For people who have not read my fellow thrillers he is a character that started it started out as some other bad guy. Grew up with very brittle bones. He has lived. Where does that character come from. A little person. That is a master in cyber. Made his living blackmailing people. It is interesting because the place he came from is a very exciting actually. We watched a lot of dora the explorer. If you figure out riddles to get across the bridge. My kids used to ask me about that there was an actual little person and we would see this person going to work every day very sharply dressed. Ready think this person goes to work. For a character i love the troll under the bridge. If you didnt even have a normal size height what rob could you be successful in. What might you do. If you really have a powerful intellect. And they really had developed a relationship with this person. Nobody else really trust them. I think youre right not to trust them. Lets hear from mike who is calling in from the hometown of nashville tennessee. I am a really big fan. Im a really smart guy. Im sorry to hear youre not running for president. And you have great hair. In your first book i just love them. With the president s daughter in his arms. And there been chased by an avalanche. Where was that ski resort and how did you come up with that amazing idea. That was based on my time in park city utah. My wife and i as poor newlyweds used to ski there because they picked up shifts on the weekends. It is a lovely resort. She was a dr. There on the weekends. They would give her two passes for the day to ski. Good question. Good afternoon. I had been watching with great interest. If the name if they influence the sensibilities and writing i also want to suggest that for his next thriller he could do a reluctant author being pulled into a Political Campaign of course you do. Youre very engaging personality. Thank you for writing all of your great books. A lot of people ask me is brad thor my real name and it is. Way back in the 1800. That used to be because you would take your dads name and add son or daughter. You gotta pick a name for the family and thank goodness we have a great grandfather erickson who said were going to be thor. Brad thor thinks its sax very well. You can do that via social media. And we will scroll through those addresses as we go. This is a question from Facebook Larry wants to know, how many more books do you envision in a movie update on liens of looser. Hardback isnt going anywhere anytime soon. I think you will enjoy seeing whats in spymaster. He so wants to be out in the action. There is no updates. Or at a standstill in hollywood some hollywood producers thought it would be a great place to start the and i dont count my chickens before they hatch. I thought we have a good thing going with clients and it didnt materialize but you cant swing a dead cat in hollywood. Much of the future is an incredible story of how long it took to get made. When did you start start working on spymaster. When i got off book to her last year. It is when i started writing it. And there was so much going on. It wasnt just here. As you work into what the russians are doing. I was fascinated by something actually. September 30 of this year. We will recognize the anniversary of the munich pack. A chunk of czechoslovakia they wanted to bring protect ethnic germans. They were saying i want to protect ethnic russians. History doesnt repeat but it does rhyme. Lets hear from janet with jean with the Jackson Heights new york. A number of years involved in the area. I have to have the feeling. In the novels i did read of yours there is not an appreciation of how insightful the action is to feel what you are covering. And how the people who make things go are not the actual people. A lot of the people who die in the end are people who never started this whole operation. I was wondering if you think that about this whole thing. It is a fight between habit and insight. It might be very interesting to formulate those actions. How much is habit but how much is insight. Its where you are and what you are doing. It is total mental and very little physical. I think you. Its one of my favorite film characters. That is fascinating. I get to do a lot of training with people. Habit versus insight. And something is absolutely fascinating. The challenge for me is how i make that exciting. How do i give them a little bit of that. Thats probably a very interesting insight. Its something i would file away in my mental rollbacks rolodex going forward. It depends. They exist. Its something that is very necessary and sometimes they are temporary and set up for to certain operations there something i talk about called the capabilities kit. We are back to murphys law again. We have to expect that murphys can a shot. At the worst possible time. Through the operation into chaos. If you can affix it on the run. If you can think about that just for a second its helpful. My wife really who wrote hitchhikers guide to the galaxy. I like deadlines. I miss my deadline. I put the wonderful pieces together. It was really up against the wall. I was tweaking and changing stuff. I wanted the book to be not news the have already happened but news is about to happen. So my wife didnt like that. And working hard and nights. If thats what it takes to get the booked and they book done they support me. Here is a hot meal. The goal with the next one i have started it was to get a put to bed in the fall so that i could have a lovely christmas. So i could go out shopping with the family and have not everything be the same. The ending of spymaster is frustrating. You made that very clear that it was on the air. I will repeat for our viewers its with the music what the music told me to do. Im a big fan fan and personal responsibility for your actions. I do not ignore her. If she says this is what youve got to do thats what i trust. If i secondguess it too much. She will go someplace else. And it is a nightmare trying to find her and bring her back. It is the first thing you talked about when i met you peter. I think that there is probably other readers that have the same reaction but there is a blogger that said ending the spymaster is an absolute jot jaw dropper of an ending. Im hoping that people really like it. And something that people appreciate. If you say book over i havent really done my job. If people out there are brad thor fans. The cia operative. And now with the private cia operative. Could you envision dumbledore in him and kill telling him off. There would be some real anger out there. I have no plans to do that. But i cannot imagine doing that without being sure that the supporting cast i had put together was enough to keep readers excited. Its really important for them to know when the release date is. I have no plans to kill him off. Cant think of a worse career move than to kill him off. And may be dealing with some of the stuff in this book. And then see how readers react. He is still kicking in doors and he hes not going anywhere. There were a couple of insights in the spymaster where it seems like you are promoting his successor. They track some real people i know that are out there doing these things. When i talk about what he has to do physically to stay in the field i know people who are doing those things. He does wake up in the morning and needs a pop couple of motrin just to get his day going and stuff like that. I want them to be exciting. I need people to find them believable and likable. There are characters that i read what i love. That is what i love. Its great. It was a year in his life. Im not actually enjoying adding the year every year to my life. Hes can be doing a lot of interesting things and its can be a combination of things. The early reviews on this head been so positive without they are looking at balancing those things. It depends on what the readers think and not what i think. This will end up being one of peoples favorites. Some call it the cocktail. It is a real thing. Whenever youre on the airplane and youre looking and the magazines and you see that genetics add that is like bald and gray there is a lot of the stuff going on. I have someone from seal team three take me to a facility that rehabs professional athletes. It gets them tuned up before the combine and everything. It was a meeting to major to see what theyre doing for physical therapy and they realized a lot of these injuries that Football Players are getting are the same things that are happening to the seals. We should be combining the technique. Give a lot of time and money invested in these incredibly brave people. The quicker and better you can mend. They can get back out doing the business for the nation that theyve done. There are other places that are looking at what works and in performance enhanced drugs. If you want to use a growth hormone its all out there. Youre not out there doing hard drugs or Something Like that. You see the bad guys is a lot of that. You will see speed when the hotel happened. Those were for 46 and 38 hours. Thats not what our guys do. But if theres something in medical science that can give them the edge. Ability to get on target and fire faster. That is all legit fair game. Good morning. You are in book tv with author brad thor. That is an excellent segway that i was can ask. The competition between mitchell and scott door back as that been a thought in your mind it is a great question. They have a wonderful character named mitch rapp. I got to know vince before i was ever published and he was kind enough to say that youre going to need an agent. And an incredible writer. We get a lot of fans unfortunately vince passed due to cancer. My godfather his dad and the fbi were in there together. Its an interesting question. There is no competition between me and vince flynn we basically shared a lot of the same readers because my books were not ramped. Especially early in my career. It has always been a nice overlap. It has been a team up. I think kyle would probably do it but at the end of the day it comes down to how much time do we head in a the year to write something and then the estate would agree that it was okay. I have done something. I think it was steves idea one year that we all write the other main character into our books. Everybody will pop up and say im in a see that steve berry. Its kind of an easter egg for fancy love the genre to see my character or other writers and one of my books. I think one of the seals at one time was reading brad meltzer. If you ever get a chance to interview him. He is one of the smartest and nicest guys. Of the people i have met in my industry along with jim rollins and steve barry and some the others one of the reasons i wanted to become an author meltzer will talk about that in two seconds. He will be on the special fiction in depth in december. Weve interviewed him several times so you can find that online at book tv. Org. What is the red unit. In the aftermath we talked about 911 a little bit. Before the Commission Report ever came out the federal government realized that what have happened on september 11 was largely due to a failure of imagination on our part. One of the criticisms is that they were always fighting in the rearview mirror. They have not been creative enough. When it was stood up they enacted a program called the analytic red cell unit. Lets not just all sit around the washington beltway. Lets bring in some creative thinkers from outside the beltway. They had interesting mines. Brad meltzer, me, michael bay who did the transformer movies. Probably the most forward thinking federal program i have ever seen. Make government as small as possible. This was one of the best things ive ever seen our government do. We can were going to talk about different scenarios. If you were in a group what targets might you be interested in. It was a big think tank on steroids. That is what would happen. It is the las vegas of government programs. What happens in the red cell program stays in the red cell program. For me the son of someone whose life had been made in the United States marine corps. He went to college on the g. I. Bill. For my country to asked me to be of service. It was an incredible honor for me. I will come and do it 100 percent. I remember one attack that happened somewhere in the world and it was a scenario where i had been working on in the red zone. I called my team leader and i said can i talk about this. The only thing ever let out was them targeting communities who were are about to hit my hurricane. If you think about emergency vehicles being marshaled away from the eye of the storm so they could rush in. I can tell you the scenarios go even further. And to channel them and not let them go off and wild directions. They really were west incredible with how they handled it. And to keep americans safe both home and abroad. It was an unbelievable thing to ask to be a part of. Jeremy, please go ahead. I wanted to ask brad there a question i wanted to know if divisive or wrong for him to tweet out that he wanted to have that at the acquittal. Great question. The tweet was he is asking me if it was divisive the stand that when seconds count police are only minutes away and after he was acquitted the department of justice had said were not going to give him his done his gun back. Here is a guy who has been acquitted by the jury of his peers yet not the department of justice its almost like double jeopardy. They are refusing to give him the gun back. I will pay for one for him. I can understand the interpretation might be divisive. He have tons of death threats. I dont think the government should be able to keep their boot on the neck of an american citizen there was no find this. There was nothing found in his trial in florida that said that was there. The department of justice wants to keep that gun. There was no legal reason he shouldnt had one. Some people didnt like it. Thats where i was coming from. Im a big believer in the second amendment. We are talking with the bestselling novelist brad thor this month on indepth mount in pacific time zones time zones the first time callers only today and andrea is in walla walla, washington. High, this is andrea thorson. Im half norwegian and my husband is half norwegian. I always make jokes i always make jokes that he would only let someone have got there. It was new to me. And i just finished the book. I asked my daughter for an idea to read. I just saw your name and then i turned the tv on and there you are you are so delightful anyway, i just wanted to tell you i just finished Madeleine Albrights book. That is pretty heavy reading for me. I like mysteries. I was delighted to see this morning and thank you so much for writing a book and i will read all of your books thank you. And i will read all of your books thank you. You have an absolutely lovely last name. I will tell you peter one of the funny things a lot of people ask me about the reading devices in it has one big pro and one big con. The big prow of an e reader whether its a kindle or an ipad is that when someone gets the end of one of my books they can get the next one. That is the pro. The con is you dont know anybody is reading. I think weve lost a little bit on the fun of seen people read book. That is the fifth time ive seen that. Are you enjoying it. I am seeing it everywhere. Im always glad to hear for readers and how they have discovered me. And there was some great reader that have my book out thank you. Your name is as big if not bigger than the book title. I hate to apply this to books but everything seems to be a brand. I wanted to want that to be recognizable for folks when they cs. My job is to get better with each book. Those are the people i work for. I really strive to do better than the last one and so i think you are buying a brad thor book for a certain experience. Is there a formula that you use for that experience. There is some hallmarks where i say the see the action happens on page one. The only thing i do and its just to tell me where i am in the book. I will do a microsoft spreadsheet. It has been six chapters since we last saw scott her back. That changes every book. You would see a different rhythm for each book. And that is the music guiding me. I think it was Dorothy Parker that said i dont like writing. I like having written. It is good writing. Good reading is darn hard writing. You just started your book to her with us today. And you enjoyed the book to her and meeting fans. Its one of the best parts. I can go out and celebrate. The big thing as is i said a few minutes ago the fans are the people i work for. This is my job review. How nice the resume views are our on amazon. But i like to go out and meet readers because i was a reader long before i was a writer. We can talk about books forever and not had to get into Everything Else. For me it is like a book club in every different city as i go along. What do the like what do they want to see more of. And all that kind of stuff. The authors just dont go out on the road. Its tough a different city every day. My readers are my second family. How many people have walked up to you and said i found it an airport airports are a big place. They used to accost people and airports and put me on the phone. It used to just drive me crazy. You need to talk to this person right now. Your daughter has just been kidnapped that is a big way that people discovering me. There is no better marketing mechanism for an author than for someone you trust to hand you a book and say i love this book or author. Its one of the nicest things you can give someone is a book. My question is i know that ed is a fan of old hollywood. Ive seen them say a couple times. If you could just head anybody from classic hollywood do it who would he have. Thats an awesome question ive never been ask it. He was a marine and he have all of the right combinations and its one of the things as i talk to hollywood. Thank you for such a great question. One of the things i keep coming up with is the intelligence level of the actor. I cant just be a pretty face. By the way quick fact when jason bourne goes to the safety deposit box and finally see what who he is. I people make fun of it all the time. I have read those books as a kid. Was how smart matt damon is. There is some great actors out there that i would never want too. That is a kind of kinda smart juergen have to have. I want to share at tweet that came out a year or two back. That happened about this time last year during bridge gate in the aftermath of bridge gate. Chris christie decided to go has a couple of houses. I think that was over fourth of july weekend. And the way we came to doing this he was not reading my book. We are watching this unfold in real time. You know what hes missing and have a great book. He said yes. Only a handful of journalists reached out to me on twitter to say is this a real picture or is it at photoshop. Its amazing how many took it as absolutely legit, in fact, there was a writer for the Boston Herald that hated chrissys guts. Not only are they on the beaches. He is hes reading a trash novel. He is not only taken a shot at chrissy but a shot at me. Lighten up francis. It was a joke. So upset about chrissy that of course hes sitting there reading a book as if nothings going on. We have more fun in watching this. That thing went make a viral. I really focused on technology. It is a double edged sword. And like Edward Snowden i dont like brandon manning. I think starting with snowden that the idea that these kids are going to decide what should be in the public realm and what should it is not up to you to decide it. I also at the same time i dont like interests intrusive spine that set up with this facility. I would rather see tax breaks given for Companies Like verizon and sprint. If you have to give it up you have to give a warrant from the judge. Even if its a computer. If there is a keyword hit are those being recorded. I have a concern about this. Certain technology i had been fascinated by stuff ive learned. If theyre looking for bad actors. Someone is flushing the toilet a lot more acre house. The sky bill is not flushing his toilet. It wasnt of the u. S. Government. It was governments outside the United States. One of the big problems you end up having. Create a process tutorial time machine. They will be used to place them in context. There is a lot of individual freedom issues that come up with technology. There is that old butchered phrase. That gets attributed to ben franklin. Those who would trade a little security they deserve neither and will lose both. They warned us when they did the church on the today show. Very soon we will get to appoint surveillance wise. Where the government has the power to know everything. If the government ever turns at giant listening its a giant listening ears and from looking outside the United States to looking inside the United States there is something we wont get back from. It is under the banner of safety and weve have a tremendous track record of keeping america safe. There has not been anything like 911 mac september 11. Where is the balance. How much are we there. In my opinion should exist. I dont think there is enough of a public safety. Im worried about things that can be abuse. Scott hardback are protagonists has used facial recognition technology. Not only does he try to use it to get bad guys. It creates an incredible problem. For our operatives. Now that everybody has the cameras and they are doing if he thought facial recognition. It is a tool. There is also that potential for abuse. And thats what im concerned about. The private citizens having their liberty in infringe on it by the government. I had been a fan since the blinds of glycerin. Thank you. From your lips to my publishers ear. Getting enough fans together in new york might be tough but we pack out our events when we go to new jersey. I would certainly like to try it. If you will agree to come to the event. I would be seeing my publisher tomorrow. I will tell them i have a very public request im book on book tv and to do at signing in new york city. Even if just jim shows up we will have a great time. You get that rock n roll musicians. Is not the fault of the people that came and sat in the seats. My readers and people come to my book signing. It would be there if there was a thousand more people in the room. You think in the acknowledgments and the president and ceo in your editor emily bessler. How long has she been your editor. It is kind of an interesting story on my honeymoon we shared an overnight train ride from munich to answer them i have done a lot of train travel. I thought my honeymoon i want a private compartment. Our show was being underwritten at the time by rail europe group. They gave us this overnight train ride as we wanted. The last leg of our trip we could get a private compartment. Every time i had set has a better cancellation. We ended up going and we had been an oktoberfest. I learned the hard way. We were just running that we can have miserable compartment mates. As i told you before if we have a shared love of books we have a shared language. We spent almost the entire night talking about books only got an hour or two of sleep. They always loved to travel. She said but you do when you go home you can make more tv shows. When we went to Exchange Business cards she was a sales rep. She read the manuscript when i wrote it. One of the top editors in the business. My editor and publisher now that she has her own imprint. I have your question i hope it is not a dumb one. What would you call your Favorite Book that you have wrote. David, our you a brad thor reader . I have read some. What is your favorite. I havent read that much. Thank you for calling in. I always say theyre like my children. It sounds like a made up answer. My favorite is always the one im currently working on david morel my love. He wrote rambo. He likes to tell people he is rambos daddy. Is a Lessons Learned from the right time. One of the things they talk about and there is that they should not talk about the subject matter or anything within that book they are currently writing. Its supposed to fuel you through a whole year. I get really excited about the next book. If i have to say what is published at spymaster. That one is the hardest book i ever had to write. Things were rapidly changing in the geopolitical world. I took a lot of risks by exposing things. I didnt know how fans were going to react to. I do know how the edge was going to be there. With the internal struggle. What i found from the early reviewers it was the right amount. It helps them to feel closer to them. A lot of action in the book. Thats what im known for. Kind of the human struggle as well as the internal struggle. You write about Current Events that are going on in the world. This is focus a lot on russia. Do you see russia as a threat . I believe they are a huge threat. One of the things that is interesting is particularly with the nato that nato angle of this book. The idea of the article five that is in the nato treaty. Its only been evoked once. We ask our partners to help us come fight in afghanistan. One of my underlining questions that were going through my mind. If one of the smaller members got attacked when we go support them or are we to war weary after afghanistan. I try to make my politics fictional in the book. This isnt about the Trump Administration or the obama administration. Certain things are happening in the world particularly with just the timing that is unbelievable. The idea of what america get in another war in europe to protect a country that most americans probably couldnt find on a map. It will be very difficult the way russia is set up to get them back. They see that United States and nato. If they can weaken us. He thinks that is good for him and he is launching it. He wants these breakaway sovereign nations back and the fact that we let him take the prince and only encourage hitler to do more. That is my worry about. We will see history maybe not repeat but rhyme. If this pick up spymaster. Are they going to learn a little history. Im a thrill writer. My job is to entertain you. I want you to have a great White Knuckle thrill ride. I want you to skip it across the top of the waves. I only wanted to read one chapter and i had 12. That is the goal of the book. If as you just ask you close the book and you say hey, i learned a little bit here. I didnt feel like i was learning things i have some fans that really love to deep dive on my books. They cant believe certain things that are happening in the story are true. Its kind of the cherry on top. You will close it. Its not going to feel like youre getting a lesson. It was a natural part of the mechanics of what was happening in the flock. What about the picking of names. You have a lithuanian intelligence operative. Was that on purse purpose. There is a lot of stuff that goes on that is intentional. Particularly because of that certain air base there. It was a bomber that could come over and drop nukes on the United States. They couldnt carry enough fuel to get back home. That was very intentional. Have a mike heaney ended. My daughter is sloan ashby thor. I get uncomfortable questions where people will say you think jason sloan or what ever look up. I could just not right that. Just getting together. There is a lot of things and there were many things i do intentionally. I almost named a polish character in this book after the polish king. It is an interesting part of history. Im dealing with questions about maintaining western civilization and things like that. The critical point in european history. And that can be a little too heavyhanded. I appreciate that you caught a subtle one. Not as nice to know that people appreciate that. Oftentimes they do have meaning. John is in washington and you are on book tv. My question to you is my father was a pow mia in siberia russia during world war ii. His plane was shot down. And for 50 years was top secret my question to you is would it be a good idea to have a coauthor to help write the story. And my fathers crew was the windy city. They end up in siberia and her dad is a pilot. Sounds like a fascinating story. My problem is im on track for about year with Simon Schuster and thats a multiple book contracts. I just dont have the bandwidth. One year i wrote two books and i did a project in the other year. That was a big heavy lift the duke two books. For me to maintain the quality and keep Getting Better every year i told the editor emily, when is a booklet to be done . I said its going to take as much runway as for the point of the top. I wont know until the plane has lifted off. What i find is the harder i working the more runway im looking at. My wife said lets get the plane out on the tarmac so you can get liftoff. These are wonderful opportunities. I would encourage you to find somebody, even if its a ghost writer, somebody to work with to tell your dads story. If it moves you that much it will of the people. Unfortunately i cant participate. I dont have the time. My job that keep keep you happy with my books and actually does thats a great writer out there that would love your dads story. Host from scott, im a frustrated writer and a screenwriter. Whats the best way to get an agent . Guest ill tell you the best way to get an agent which is this something called the writers guide to literary agents. Order it from your local independent bookstore, go to amazon. Com. Its like a telephone directory. It will show you agents that are looking for new authors and what areas theyre looking for. It is the best thing. One other piece of advice. Every agent watching this is going to hate my guts i dont care. This is important for writers. Agents will tell you they will want to be queried one at a time. You wait until the reply queue. They dont like to think multiple submissions. If it takes the first page in three months to get back until you know and she had to go through 12 agents before you find yours, thats three years out of your life. Pick the five to ten best to you and hit them all at the same time. They will see your talent and stepping up and they should have to compete for you. Host you mentioned earlier the athena project. With the idea for that come from . Guest the athena project was we talked about you brought up the concept of these beautiful talented women who are in my novels and i told you there based on people i work with. I am surrounded by beautiful talented women. I am a father of the beautiful talented gentlewoman and i wanted to write a set of characters that would appeal to my daughter. The athena project was about an allfemale delta force team. The theory is when you put beautiful women into the fuel and had to go up against men, even the toughest men, men often shut off the threat part of the brain because beauty was not perceived as a threat. Theres a lot us that you can do it achieve through women not just tactically like kicking in doors but also at a bar, in the refugee camp, so its half spy operative. This has been talked about very quietly and special Operations Community for a while about going to the female ironman competition in hawaii and tapping is one of the shoulder and saying how about giving up a sport and serving your country . They do exist and want to be the guy who wrote the book on it and planted that flag. I need to write another one because fans love it. Its a matter of that balance between doing, they tended to focus on candidate a quarter of one done before the end of the year and try to wrap it up. Host what is your approach to sex and bad language . Guest great question because they are separate issues. I dont think sex is necessary in the books. I can hit its about to happen and we fade to black as they walk off hand in hand towards the bedroom. I dont think it needs to be described. Not that im in a prude. Im a big social libertarian. I dont have a religious or any other issue about sex in books. I think leaving it to the imagination is the sexiest thing you can do. People will paint their own picture but i respect i have some readers that dont want to see you there. I dont have anybody beating down my door saying youre not putting enough in the book store. I know other people other side just dont put it in. The language is what they want to get a little pushback from some fancy dont like it but i i try to explain to them i respect you dont like the language. I am not using it gratuitously. I actually trying to replicate the speech that happens with some of these people. Theres a lot of very funny, giving other people hand gestures or using certain words and phrases that have salty language in there and so ive ig authentic when you use. Im not being gratuitous. I will leave the sex at the some of the that language will always be there. Host who want to show you a little bit of video. This is our author guest, brad thor, talking about the books he read and used while doing research for his most recent book spy master. This is from his website. I wanted to share with you some of the fascinating books that i read in addition to those as i was in research new thriller spy master that comes out on july 3. The world of espionage, of recruiting spies and running spies is fascinating because it requires exceptional leadership, inspirational and management skills. I wanted to share with you a few these books because theyth are fantastic. Whether not you were in a leadership capacity, just interested in how organizations work and how to inspire people, or whether it is just espionage, spies and shall become interested in those stories you will love these books for both reasons. Lets start out with the great again by frederick hits. This book was vested and because it looked at some of the greatest spy novels ever and then compare them with how the world of espionage really works, the Intelligence Community really works. Hes a former Intelligence Officer himself. He had a good perspective to bring to a fiction authors like me get right and sometimes what we get wrong and how the real world of espionage works. This was fascinating and this is the top of my stack of this book actually ties into the very last book im going to share with you that this one. Thisdb book called the handbookf spies or actually handbook for spies, was written in the 1940s. It is about an englishman who was recruited into soviet intelligence and how they set up the networks and his role within them, particularly the network and switch olympic fast fading fast dating book. Its tough to find. I had to really scramble to get my copy of this fascinating, fascinating book. If youre interested in no real Intelligent Networks run and managed and how hard it is to keep Something Like that going and the skills necessary for it i highly recommend alexander foot, his handbook for spies. Fascinating true life account. Great stuff. Under the book that it read that is amazing, i talk a lot about the bravery of our men and women in uniform and what they have to overcome in the field. Its amazing. Great, great plans for combat until the combat begins until First Contact they say and then immediately you have to change the range which are doing, i do differently to do it. The printer assignment absently captivated me. A very good friend link to this book to me and i was thrilled to learn about these incredible operations run by the precursor to the cia come something called the oss. This is all about real personal courage, the ability to take adversity and turn it to your benefit. Fascinating,s, fascinating accounts particularly whats happening with the americans in northern italy in world war ii as they try to shut down not to supply lines and to really harass the nazis. There were a lot of operations very few of which went according to plan and how these incredible operatives had to move in the field, change up their plans and also what it took to recruit partisan italians to work with us and to keep the motivated throughout the war. This is an awesome, awesome book. Any leader will enjoy this book. The next one that a red was the printer assignment for those of you who couldnt read it is by patrick odonnell. Five users by this book. The printer assignment. Another book the printer assignment. Again all of these are Nonfiction Books, conrad j by pe earley, the untold secrets of russias master spy in america after the end of the cold war. This was an amazing, amazing book. Not only how this russian kept himself hidden from his unintelligent services, he came over to the american side, but what he had t to do to keep his own networks in place and the management skills, the personal attributes you need to have in spades to have it to be a successful spy master. This is a fascinating book. You will love this book. I wish the subject was still alive. I wouldve loved to made in an interview him as i is working on my own thriller spy master. He would evening fascinating and to talkno to. I will wrap up with one of the most fascinating spy masters ive ever known. In fact, rita carlton in my thrillers is based on this gentleman do we. This is his book called a spy for all seasons. It is amazing. He was an incredible, incredible american come help set up the Counterterrorism Center at the cia and this is the story of his life. It reads like a thriller. You learn about again as with all these of the books what it takes to be successful in the world of espionage. Many of those things are things we need to be successful in our daytoday lives whether its managers in companies, whether Small Business owners. These books are all fabulous in not places you might think to go to to pick up management secrets. We have a lot of great seals and delta force guys that are writing some phenomenal management books and leadership books and i talked about those in the past but its fun to dip into the world of espionage and to see what we can take from it to be better leaders are cells. This is my stack. I will post a list of these books and we can find them and i hope that this video was helpful for you. Thanks a lot. Host brad thor, thats a bit of research you got going on there. Guest that is part of what is of about my job is that i can read great books, particularly nonfiction, that stack, and then distill it and channel it into what im writing now. I have very nice recognition from politico where they had name me one of the 50 most influential people in politics. One of the reasons they said was because i had been creating the cold war thriller for a new era of conflict and that was a heck of a compliment. They recognized as a lot of people in government and beyond that read my thrillers, so its a lot of fun. I like to take things i think are important and like his earlier read those tea leaves, what is coming over the horizon and put that in one of my thrillers so what happens in the news, that forgot, i read that in spy master. One part of my job. Host two other thriller national screenwriters without on, David Baldacci and David Ignatius. Do you read them as well . Guest i do, i do. So David Ignatius, i like a lot because i not only read his fiction, i read his nonfiction. David baldacci is a hell of a storyteller. Never met him. I sat at a dinner where he spoke but have not met him in person and ive not met David Ignatius but i think it was davids book the director i did a blurb on that, David Ignatius, and, of course, body of lies was an unbelievable book and fabulous movie about with Russell Crowe and leonardo dicaprio. Im a a big fan of david ignat. Host some of the authors that are your favorites and some of your Favorite Books include ken follett, stephen king, Sidney Sheldon. Guest a lot of people dont remember Sidney Sheldon. I lived away to school in paris my junior year and i was able to find a fabulous bookstore called shakespeare and company and its right on the sin and george ran was an amazing guy and is able to get my hands on some Sidney Sheldon books and he did doomsday conspiracy was one when my favorites and he had an American Military intelligence operative and i got excited about his writing and how we did it and actually sheldon led me to reading david morrell. He wrote some great thrillers. He wrote kind of some romain c type things as well but he was some incredible thrillers, actually dictated figure had a stenographer in his office any dictated his novels which i thought was interesting. Host ken follett. Guest pillars is my favorite and how you take hundreds of years to build the cathedral and tell the stories of the lives of the people through that and make it riveting, it is as thats on my bucket list is to meet ken follett. I would love to meet him. His book was given to me by a young tourist while i was on my honeymoon with my wife. We met this young couple and he suggested pillars of the earth and stephen king and thats what kicked off with ken follett and stephen king. We traded books on about going from i think greece to italy. Host two thinks brad thor mention just as a quick plug for booktv. Org. We have visited shakespeare and company in pairs and done a profile of the bookstore. If you type in shakespeare and company and paris into our search, you will be able to watch that online. Also we have interviewed ken follett and say could watch both of those interviews online. Right now were talking with bestselling novelist and thriller writer brad thor phone numbers on the screen. A reminder for this program, firsttime callers to booktv only. We will also cycle through our social media addresses. You can make a a comment or asa question that way as well. Brad thor, im going to be distasteful, we we got from gregory and only because you have talked about this in the influence in the past, but he wants to know how the authors parroting influence, the personality and character that you have now. In other words, what does mr. Thor think his parents did right and wrong . Guest what a great, great question. My parents instilled in us a sense of responsibility and duty, patriotism and kindness, and also they were both entrepreneurs. Theres a lot of entrepreneurship flashing around the dining room table in the kitchen counter. My parents got divorced when i was nine years old and thats always very interesting. My brother ended up going to live with my dad and i ended up going to live with my mom and i both had different styles which probably led to the divorce, two different styles, probably to come in different directions. It was interesting, my mom was in mensa and brilliant, brilliant brilliant woman, and put a lot of emphasis on creativity and intuition do things like this, and my dad the marine super tough guy about noe grindstone, i i used to watch o cold calls and he was an amazing thing, an incredible learning experience to watch him just say basically, you get a no, that just means yes is that much closer. So in viewing us with this determination. Never give up. There was a little bit of that marine corps ethos in him that harvick has. A lot of Scott Harvath is my dad. Those are much a part of my dad being and who he was as a marine. I think they did a great job in teaching us love of country, responsibility as citizens in our community. Also listen, i grew up in one of the greatest periods in american history, the 1980s. Unbelievable time for music and for fashion. You may not like the fashion. It was a lot of fun. I grew up in this time when my dad was born in 1939, i grew up in a time where its just incredible abundance in the United States and you could be and do anything you wanted and that was reinforced at home. Even though the arts were not looked at as as a career path y house, this idea was still there that if id something i wouldve loved in went and did, the money would follow. You should do what youre passionate about. Do you what you really believe in and Everything Else will fall behind that, your mother passed . Guest my mother is suffering from severe dementia. Whatever medication they have her on, she always smiles back shes even having trouble recognizing me and as a son and all that kind of stuff. That split into a little bit with harvath mentor whats going on with him and what would happen to get this great cia operative that something was struck with alzheimers and there was a race to extract all this great wisdom out of him and also to protect them because the brakes come off. Thats one of the symptoms of alzheimers and could somebody with all the secrets that were still highly sensitive, could he speak to a caregiver when they shouldnt and stuff like that . Theres a little bit of catharsis that happens with every writer. There was a time where multiple references to red bull in my book the apostle and that happen because it went to afghanistan. I never had a ripple adjustable put when we hit in afghanistan and we havent had cases of it as a truck us awake. That worked its way through my fiction so theres a little bit of working through my stuff that happens in the novels. Host and your father . Guest my dad is alive doing very, very well in chicago and still has his business and is still working and just hitting an out of the park in loving his life. Host has he ever been approached and asked, lasting four, are you the guest first thing brad also. So took the author photo site down on your plate. Hes been a big flair for usually sits in front of your point and look at the manifest and like brad thor, theres a brad thor on the book next to. He plays out as far as he can plate. Host back to your mother, another theme in your book is the sixth sense that agents seem to have. Guest right. Im a big believer in man is the only animal that ignores their intuition. We have a rule in my house which is the only time you can use earbuds is when youre in the house. You dont get to shut off your hearing when you go outside. I knew some folks that were involved in investigation several years ago in times square wizard been that horrible, horrible killing where the men man had driven his carn the sidewalk and it killed, injured a bunch of people in times square. I i had a talk by children about that same it happened very quickly. Might not make the difference what with you earbuds are not but if youd heard people screaming to think even a fraction of second attempt section mightve bought you a chance . Maybe it couldnt because it happens quickly but intuition is a big thing. Trust in your gut. If you talk to people who put their lives on the line, the talk a lot about not believing in coincidence, things like this. I think ian flynn was one is the first time is chance, second time is coincidence, third time is in the action. In any action. Theres a certain thing you cant bottle comes you cant teach you just have it and i think that comes from trusting intuition. Host lets hear from georgia in pennsylvania. You are on with author brad thor. Caller hello. I voice would have the opportunity to ask an author if he can number of words yesterday used in the book, because i find im a big reader, that authors seem to do a lot of fill in. Guest georgia, its a great question and thank you for the question. Most authors have a contract with theres a target of words. I cant speak for other people what it got in everything but i think when you have a contract and youre being paid by your publisher and be given an advanced they dont want you to target a book that that is only five pages. I had to say theres a certain realm you have to operate within. As we discussed earlier my love of tom clancy books, the one thing i would kind of skin was with a lot of details about technology and things like that. I think some authors my dad was convinced clancy was paid by the word. You could not convince them otherwise. He had read some article in the 80s and he is convinced it was by the word and i thought thats probably the worst encouragement or worse way to incentivize an author is by the worse words because you get a lot of filler. As i said, Elmore Leonard always has taken up the parts of people will skip. I hope if you read my books you wont find that by the think a lot of that comes down to the relationship of an author and editor. Stephen king has a great expression. He says you have to be willing to kill your darlings. You cant be so married to stopping it about that you refuse to take it out in the editing process. Anything that makes the book faster, smoother you have to be willing to take it up but some people fight and dont take it up and thats what georgia has had that experience. Host stand, lees summit missouri. Stand, are you with us . I hit the wrong line and i apologize. Wilmington, North Carolina. Caller thanks for receiving my call. Im a great reader and ive read most of your books. Recently though you have aged steve that, i region for the romantic part of it, but why are you aging him and also bring in the other, the secondary characters a little higher than he is . Guest so, okay, so good question, why am i aging my main character Scott Harvath. You are obviously reading the books are very close it for nog that one of my favorite fiction characters was frozen is dirk pitt. Clive decide he would do james bond underwater. Thats what i heard was kind of way that clive describes it. I never heard him say but thats what i was told. Harvath reflects a lot of people i know in real life. I heard about etiquette talk about him here on cspan waterford about some fascinating operations the u. S. Has been involved in very high risk very high reward very important operations that happen with teens here in a couple of my books i brought together the secondary characters that only to reflect that kind of camaraderie in the challenge is putting a team in the field but also to showcase another part of harvath. How does he do his leadership . We know how he does it when hes on his own and he likes that come he likes it a lot and as you really like having to run a team . Thats the fun it is been forced to take a team and it is being pushed running and how does he react . When i add, throw some curveballs at harvath is because i want to test of the parts of his character and hopefully that is revealing things to you did know about them and even makes the experience even more enjoyable. Host whats the toughest part for you . Is it time the pieces together . Is it coming to a conclusion . Guest the toughest part is getting started. It is amazing, authors are incredible oppressed and it is. Theres always something that will pop up the seam so important, and me being a voracious consumer of news, i can convince myself that whats breaking right now is so important and needs my attention and i have done a lot of commentary on Cable Television and other outlets where i can say i need to focus on this because i might get the call from cnn or fox or msnbc and he wanted to talk about this kind of better know whats going on. It takes you away from your work and i think thats probably the hardest thing for me is i talk about getting the train rolling on the tracks. Giving is moving forward. So hitting all my storylines going and getting forward momentum. It takes a lot of energy to get a locomotive going to get you to pull all those cars out of the station. That tends to be the hardest part. Once i get it moving it actually gets easier. For the rest of the book. Thats a hard part though is getting started. Host why are you living in nashville . Guest great question. We moved to nashville four years ago last month. From chicago. I was born and raised in chicago. My dad is from the southside of chicago, my mom is from chicago. If you put the question to the children they will tell you freedom and i will tell you i am an economic refugee from chicago. We moved to national with have a balanced budget, running a surplus and theres no state income tax. They have great schools, low property taxes, very low regulation. We are back to being a fiscal guy and having a a responsible government is important to me. I was paying higher and higher property taxes and income taxes and things like this in chicago, and i and i was getting less and less enjoyment out of my city because the pilots was getting to where had to tell the babysitter dont take the kids to the beach for the park or the zoo. And i thought this is kind of like when i was a kid and of watch a cartoon of two characters stranded on a Deserted Island and it would be starving. One look at the other end of the one side and looked like a pork chop. I think all the politicians in annoy look like and 18. The answer to all the families wasnt to change what was wrong, it was always to tax more. I thought id contributing to this by staying. Its the great thing about federalism is you can move from state to state and the author i could move my job and my family. Its hard to do that. To start over with new schools and find a a new dentist, a new barber, your children have to make new friends but it was the right move for us because i felt the politicians had their hands so deep in my pocket they could tie my shoes for me. It was just there. I thought im working harder and harder and harder just to keep up with more and more taxes. I thought note, i would rather say that money from for myselfi will to state and city is being responsibly run. Host now lets hear from lees summit, missouri. Caller i first heard that you when i read an interview of you in the industry bulletin. Its been a couple of decades ago. Been a fan ever since. I love your technical accuracy. For instance, you would never have Scott Harvath operate the safety on a revolver, for example,. Guest right, my question is very simple. Are you still ipe and if so in what states currently have with that stands for, not society of professional engineers. Guest i was never part of an spe. Im not a professional engineer. Maybe someone spoke nicely of one of my books but i appreciate that you like the technical accuracy as im assuming youre into engineer yourself to the technical stuff is important. I have to tell you though i got things wrong in the beginning of my career. I talked about the smell of quartet hanging in the air. I used the term clip instead of the magazine. I made mistakes as far as firearms were concerned early in my career and what was nice is i people come to me and say we can help you. Let us take you shooting. Let us teach you, let us each with a certified firearms instructor who can explain all the safety issues. I started doing training and learning about the parts and the pieces and all that kind of stuff, but i will still get from somebody today that finds like a First Edition paperback way back when were a polygon back in for the addition of a cracked the things that are wrong, somebody complained to me its not a clip, its a magazine and their 100 right and i wrote it have to own it but i work very hard now not to get those things wrong. I have built up over 20 years in the business of working knowledge of firearms and tactics and things like that. I may not be perfect but i work very hard to make sure its right. Host in spy master you thanked james ryan in the acknowledgments. Who is he . Guest james ryan recently who is a friend of mine that has done some very, very selfless and Dangerous Things on behalf of the United States. Thats about all i can say, that was about as big as guest that was a pseudonym he said i could put in my book, bob, chicago. Good afternoon. Caller im an old and dear friend of you and your books, and just love them. I cant wait to get my hands on spy master i have learned over the years to start reading it in the morning because i know that im not going to put it down until im finished with it. Have to get up early. I just wanted to make a comment about something you said about us giving up crimea. I just finished reading a couple of books id like to recommend to you. One is called the internationalists written by two people, two professors who deal with international law, and the crime he has been taken by russia but, in fact, that taking has not been recognized by any nation in the world, and because of international law. Its an interesting take and i think you would enjoy it. More exciting was a true book for nonfiction, excuse me, Nonfiction Book which i probably learned about on booktv by bill browder. He is a chicago and by the way that is not the book is about. Hes a moscow investor. He was responsible for the majewski act and all that. Thats more exciting and any spy novel ive ever read and he is still around and the reactive. Anyway, i want to thank you again. Its good to see on television, and what you said about your dad is absolutely right. Hes a tough, hard guy and i love him, to. Host . Guest just before you hang up, is this bob s . , yes, it is. Guest i thought he recognized the voice. A longtime friend my dad. Can i say his last name . Bob sharpton, wonderful, wonderful guy, been a longtime support one, dear friend of my dads and what i love about bob is in chicago we had emigration of vaccines restaurant in paris built in chicago and when the owner died she left it to the city of chicago to the cultural pursuits in chicago and they once a month would bring in great cabaret acts. Im a big cap rate then. I love the songbook, huge and and the one act once a month you could come and data local hotel, tailoring with orders and bob would be there every time i was there with my wife. We would sit and listen to this great Music Together such great to hear from you. Glad you called in. Host another Great American city is brooklyn and heres pally. Caller brad, interesting listening to. I didnt know you were an author. Havent read any books but you sound smart and interesting writer. I love thrillers was wondering what books i would start with in a list of books . I want to make a comment in that i just heard your comments about George Zimmerman and that you were interested in replacing his gun. I thought i really cant support you for that. I dont think i can support you as an author. I wonder what your comments would be. Host who are some of the authors you enjoy reading before we hear from mr. Thor. Caller i read patterson. I read im blanking on the ones i read. Host date patterson, we will go with that one. Lets go. Thanks. Guest your position as a fellow american absolute respect hayfield and want to thank you for saying its a nicely. If you dont want to read my books because of my position, i absolutely understand that and thats the nice thing. I believe in civility and we can agree to disagree. Thats no problem at all. I thank you for calling in. Host in short form for viewers just tuning in, what were your comments about George Zimmerman . Guest my comments we talked for early was after George Zimmerman was acquitted, meaning he was found not guilty by a jury of his peers, the department of justice decided they would launch their own investigation and during that time there were not going to give them his gun back. So George Zimmerman was being further prosecuted after being equated, he was, i use the term of the government was keeping their boot on his neck and i said the guy needed to be able to protect himself at that point more than ever because he is under so many death threats. I tweeted out of offer that if the Department Justice would do this and not return his weapon i would help him fight against them to protect himself and his family. People dont like that and thats okay. Im a big believer and we need to work to be simple civil andt other opinions. Host facebook comment. Can the book spy master be read as a standalone . Guest absolutely again. Any of the 18, absolutely. If you go into a bookstore tuesday looking for spy master and they dont have it yet and theres another brad thor book you can start anywhere in there. Absolutely. Host is that frustrating and difficult to make sure you are in each book introducing the characters and the situation . Guest its a delicate balancing act could just be prepared someone is coming to work for the very first time and you also have to make sure you are not boring your fan base that ill regret all the books up to the point with material they know. The biggest thing you can commit as an author is to do cut and paste description from of the books because your fans will recognize it right away. I have watched authors get played for doing that. People asked me how to keep track of everything in your books . My wife is so fantastic, she has done three x five cards in a recipe box of each character, where do introduce with a look like him what the job is come all this kind of stuff. If i have character im bringing back from another book i will refer to the card and it will tell me where to go read the description and thats it and i will figure out, i will not cut and paste, i looked he got away say the same thing but indigent away quick enough that the longtime readers alike i remember that guy and the new readers alike okay, i got my feet wet with his character, lets see what happens in the book. Host in him and we will show a little bit of video and let you explain it. Want to let our viewers know if you can get to the phone lines you can get through on social media. We will scroll through the phone numbers and the social media addresses as well and here is an email from diane. Do your books come in large print . In cleveland with wonderful libraries but there are no large print copies of spy master available. No copies of spy master available. Guest you doubt the only one who cant find a copy of spy master. It comes out on tuesday but yes. Thorndike is my publisher that does in large print so you can find it. Its offered bookstores can find it for you. If your library doesnt have it please requested because they will put in an order for it but it does exist to run what we wish you a little bit of video and. Sea island georgia. Should have gone to bed hours ago. She shouldve ignored the second bottle of white burgundy in the fridge, placed her into wine class in the sink and headed upstairs. But the 45yearold was feeling nostalgic, and the more she drank the more nostalgic she became. Picking up the bottle she stepped outside. The night was warm in the ocean air carried with it the scent of magnolias. Just be on her pool host what are we seeing . Guest that is the amazingly talented rod with actor armin scholz who is reading the audio version of a y book hidden order. Host does he do all your books . Guest district hes amazing. People say why did you read your own books . You have up and ran to get me e why dont you do that . I could never do what he does keeping track of the different characters voice and all that stuff. He is fantastic. Host audiobooks is a really growing area right now. Guest huge. Its something weve been committed to and involved with forever. Its eyes and something i believed very, very much. I have a close relationship with Simon Schuster audio. They do a great job in he just got a little taste of it there. Hes an unbelievable talent. I will get sent the script and i have to read through the script to see what they are cutting for the abridged versus unabridged editions, and sometimes i get a call in the middle of recording, how do you pronounce this word . I found that on the internet. I dont how to pronounce it. Let me see if i can call some of the state department was on the desk or whatever and let me know. Its a collaborative process. I enjoy the audio versions. Host fredericksburg, virginia,. Caller i am so thankful for you. Ive traveled all over the world. I have pieces of the berlin wall. I traveled through east germany and saw the devastation. It was absolutely amazing. I walked the same path that you have but im so handicapped and disabled now, i dont do things online anymore. I rely on i devoured your books but have to wait so long for something to come out in large print. I just dont know what to do. I have been everywhere you have been all over the world. My father was a world war ii vet. We lived in europe. I was educated in europe. I traveled same path, did everything you do. I want to do your books but i dont do online stuff. I dont know what to do. I wait years for things to come out in large print. I dont like really audiobooks because i like looking and investigating in determining whats right and wrong, i mean, i used to went to east berlin to get to berlin at the time when it was divided, the soldiers marching outside, we would throw things at the window. They would grab the of. They would sell for thousands of dollars on the black market but they couldnt get anybody. Host i think we got the just. Brad thor, there is a real fan there. Guest it sounds like shes is a very exciting things. If you did hit the previous color, if you cant find my books in large print, make sure to ask for them whether its such a library or your local bookstore because they do exist and i am doing one book a year and we are, i will double my efforts to make sure that those large print books are available for you and for everybody else who prefers those because a lot of readers like that. Im wearing reading glasses now and every single time i got 1000 pairs around the house because i have to be able to have been my arms are getting shorter. Thats two calls with that of a large grid such a shot important that of the businesses. Host the use of drones has really become increasing in your books. Is it increasing in the intel world . Guest it is. What youre seeing in my books is drones not necessarily the big ones all the time that the missiles. They do exist kind of on certain battlefields in certain areas. Smaller ones for surveillance thats a big, big thing. Whats interesting is my last book use of force was an interesting drone controversy that i discovered while i was writing it and did something happen in a in a certain part e world the drone that would respond and what the drone could do is based on where the gun was launched from. That was a fun, ive got operative is in the field under fire and theyre calling for help and the going weight, seriously . That drones cant help us because it flew out of italy versus one that comes out of is a fascinating story from a technological standpoint they are important on the battlefield and important for surveillance in my books. Host do you find another thing in your books is allies and cooperation of allies in the different roles allies have . Guest its hugely important. Its interesting to watch what supporting the actual intelligence world, how we cooperate with certain of the groups whether the jordanians with the french for the germans were the aussies, the canadians. All those relationships are very, very important. They have always been particularly with our closest allies, and so that has become a function sometimes harvath has going to other countries. Easy going to do with the knowledge of those allies are not . Anyone has onset of goals are times where harvath have to try to skirt those allies and i can even be a good thing or bad thing depending on how circumstances unfold in the novel. Host seemed to spend a lot of time in italy with Scott Harvath. Guest i like it a lot. I like all of europe. Host is a something about italy were a lot of maybe terrorism or plots are hatched . Guest the last book use of force last summers book italy played a prominent role because of the migrants have coming over out of north africa. That was in the role of terrorists trying to hide terrorist in those migrant communities in the fact they were hidden, so that italy was a very interesting and how they would work the way up and some of the investigations that have happened in italy are fascinating. They are like a james bond movie. I was influenced by those in the last book. Ive done italy before. I did my second book because my wife and i went to the island and it was a fun place to set a book. Host california, good afternoon. Caller good afternoon. I have a question for brad. Have you ever invented a cool spy gadget in your books . Guest thats a great question. Host how old are you . Guest im in my 40s. Host you sounded younger. Good question. Guest i probably have. I will say this. I have the technique that harvath have started using in the last couple of books. You definitely see it in last summers book use you support au see here, interrogation technique but i just completely seem to me to make scientific sense that we will be able to do this kind of interrogation and as i started digging and digging i found it was something we were working on. Were i invented it i thought it existed in the real world it was one of the maxon Washington Post review. This guy knocked me on this thing and it exists which was very funny. I guess i have chris and stuff and do some stuff i found actually exists that i didnt know was there. Host what was the toughest of your books to work on . Guest toughest host toughest more frustrating . Guest each one presents its own special challenge. They are all difficult. Its hard to write 100,000 plus words in a year and make them hopefully engaging and compelling. I dont know and its funny because im always by such a set on the next one. Its very rare i look back. If you could go back and edit an old book would you do it . He said no. I said why . Visa because i would drive myself nuts. There isnt a single sentence i could convince myself would be written better. I agree. I find it in editing process them at how may times of agreed manuscript i can still go back and change every sentence because i tell myself that can be done better. Host are there any other 18 books that you wish i hadnt written that . Guest no, no, not at all. Each one was an absolutely amazing ride, was a challenge, was hard and fun to do and im extremely proud of it. I really mean that. There is anything if i could go back and change i would. No, i wouldnt. Host this is an email, marshall. You mention sending multiple queries to agents. Do you suggest sending proposals to more than one agent at a Single Agency . Guest thats a great question. I think youre starting to get into a little dangerous territory if you do that. I think maybe your query letter, i think if theres multiple agents at the agency, unless it is a huge, huge agency, if its a huge agency you can probably get away with it but it might not be the right thing to do. You should do your homework and find it was represented the most books which will be writing a focus on that one. If they reject you i would suggest writing back to say do you think would be appropriate if i approached, then list the other agents are thinking about. That would be the way to work with that. Host lets hear from north miami beach. Caller i dont know if remember me but i remember you. I took you on a book tour. Guest yes. Where were you when we went on that trip together . What sadie . Caller miami. Guest if i remember correctly, joan, you were quite wellknown and beloved among authors for being such a wonderful author escort, well, if you thought that come thats all that counts. [laughing] what i wanted to read what you wrote a book and i thought youd get a kick out of it and everybody else would, too. And he wanted to know if you have any plans, again, im not escorting anymore but i wanted to read this to you. And he said, to joan, my jewish godmother, hell of a bang up day. Our lives will be forever entwined. Thanks for keeping us on the green side of the grass love, brad. Guest thank you. Thats very nice. Host are you still an author escort . Caller no. There are very, very few bookstores left, and host did you go to books and books down in miami . , its the only one, yes. They were four bookstores where i live and they are all gone. So no, those days are over for miami. Host any idea how many of your books are sold online as opposed guest yeah, it is, mine per se know. I have some incredibly relationship with independent bookstores. I know about 80 of the market these days is amazon and barnes noble but you great bookstores like poison pen in scottsdale and murdered by the book in houston and halfprice books in dallas. I could go on and on and on with all these great bookstores, but it is interesting. A book escort like joan was come you would, she would pick you up at the airport and that she would be your guide through the city and before your event that night joan would take you around to every bookstore that copies of your books. He would sign the book with an income it would put a a sticken it signed by the author and that was the old legend in the Book Business is a signed book is sold book. I would spend the day with a lovely woman like joan. I what a predominately jewish high school. So many of my friends growing up in chicago were jewish, said joan and i hit it off over jewish culture right away, very nice. Host another thing, Scott Harvath says a quick prayer animals of the book. It sat on purpose . Guest no. It is not on purpose and it is not my injecting my own spirituality into the books. It comes from there are no atheists in foxholes, the old line that you come to find god very quickly when the bullets are flying. Host if you fall, fall forward tragic that is a term i use in the books. That is from wild bill donovan the director of the office of strategic services, the precursor to the cia and that was his big model, is if you fall, fall forward in service of the nation. Great, great motto. Host barbara, garland, texas, good afternoon, how are you doing . I just called in with a comment that i enjoyed the program. I am a librarian and of course mr. Thor is very popular. Just calling to let you know im truly enjoying the program. I have not read of your titles but im inspired to read them now. I basically read nonfiction, but i am going to read one of your titles. When i go to the library decided on going to pick up one. Host barbara come as a librarian, spy master comes up this week. Have you already gotten requests for this book . , yes, we have. There is a waiting list. Host as off how does it feel . Guest first of all thank you for the call. Libraries are such an important special people. When i look back at my summers in wisconsin at lake geneva one of my highlights you speak going to the library and checking out books that i could read for that week. Librarian was my guide to another world. The books she would help you pick up. Librarians are super, super important people. There are so many people have been led to my books because of wonderful librarians like barbara, and barber, but you said you are in nonfiction reader because i have a lot of nonfiction readers. There are two classes of people i love hearing from. People who are nonfiction readers and people who say my husband doesnt read or my wife doesnt read or my son or my uncle, and i gave them one of your books and they couldnt put it down and out there working through the series. I love nonfiction as well, and i think theres something i call what i do, this is a great one for you. I called it action where you dont know what the facts in in the book and the fiction begins. We talked earlier about reading the last, people love to do that because of some interesting facts i find during my research that it put in its almost like entertaining nonfiction, a little bit. Its a thriller, its fiction but i love to read from people who say i i wasnt much of a reader but you changed that. Thats probably the best coupleu can pay an author. Host speaking of faction, the last patriot, the dead Poets Society, fact or fiction . Guest this is in way, that it really call something the dead Poets Society . Host secret branch that kills four gets rid of rogue Intelligence Officers. Guest so i gave it, its funny now, i in national and dead Poets Society, the screen what actually went to a school in nashville. I went to see a lecture at the school and was surprised to see that the writer was a bear. Thats pure fiction, pure fiction dressed up with a fun kind of almost flippant name is a lot of these operations get interesting names. Thats fiction. Host dallas, good afternoon, i have two questions. You believe in sleepers and what is your definition thereof . The next one is do you believe in special agents who have been spying around the world and is their capability to have that part of the brain memory taken away so they dont recall them being agents except for Little Things that remind them that they were . Guest so number one, if you mean sleeper like sleeper agents like the tv show the americans weigh their place in the United States and activated at some point, yes. The other stuff about changing peoples memories and stuff like that can i dont know anything about that. Nothing, sorry. Nothing for you on that one. Host joanne is in North Carolina and youre on the line, hello. Thank you for taking my call. I have enjoyed all your books. They are very exciting, thrilling, but my question is do you have [inaudible] and why did you choose them in your book as your guard dogs and pets . I will have to explain what that word is. Its a russian come the russian dogs the patrol had. These were dogs popular with east german border