Host of decoded. We all know why you are here and without further ado, lets welcome mr. Brad meltzer. [applause] story we are here and just so you know you all have your cameras out. Cspan is here and you know what that means, we are being watched by all of our Favorite Book nerds. We are all together in one pla place. The joke doesnt work in sports places. I love coming to virginia. Our home and a beautiful place for us where we had our lives here. I started writing here and it is especially important today. Today i is the day my dad died d we mark the day and i know it seems that something sad i love my father and especially i love being in this barnes and noble because my father used to go to the local barnes and noble and is a claim here for brad meltzers new book, hes my favorite author and they would say we know hes your son. My mom would say what do you mean john grisham is in the front window, not anymore. After co we honor my father here tonight. We have a couple of things used to do. I have a character and i know my friend trevor is here. Come on out. This is the guy that helpede[ap] so handsome. And people have helped us online. I see lots of friends over here. Ive never told this story publicly this year for halloween i went as willy wonka and my daughter birth o burka salt. I went on twitter and said can anyone help me with a costume. In a total stranger on the twitter site became part of our family and is that i have a costume for you that his homemade. My daughter wore it and think you. I appreciate that. [applause] and this is the biggest think you of all. Iam a man of my word. Three years ago i made a promise and it was as if, i was a history teacher in 11th grade needed a kidney, she was dying and they put a notice on facebook that said can you help me find a kidney for my teacher. If you help me find a kidney from a teacher i will put you in my next book. That was my pride. Where are you off, amy. Dont clap for her yet. You dont know her yet. Heres what happens. She says i volunteered to be the donor for your teacher and i want you to know i didnt hear back. I said that there is lots of volunteers and i said im going to embarrass you. I said dont worry im sure it got there. I dont know what possessed me that i called ubut i called up u know theres someone who volunteered and i know youve gotten a lot of check this one out and of all the people that volunteered he me was the match from a teacher and came down to florida early on year to yet . Over two years came to florida in the hospital gave her kidney. You are looking at a one kidney women here. Dont clap yet im not here done with the story. The best part is when she was having the surgery when the reporters said whatever happened to that original email. I was curious so they loved. It was in spam. If i never would have called that day it was just gone forever so a man of my word you will see the character amy in this book and finally she is immortalized as the hero she should be. [applause] she stayed up all night reading it to make sure i didnt make her a jerk. [laughter] only in virginia do you get costumes and kidneys. [laughter] lets talk about the book we are here to talk about. This is 20 years that ive been writing thrillers and when you are done with 20 years you have a choice you can say im done and thats the way its going to be and im going to write another book or you can be another person and have some humility and to say how do i get better, what was my best book. I went back and looked and picked out which books i thought for the actual best. What i realized is they were the ones with an amazing character. You needed one. Of all the books ive written i wouldnt ask you to your good money to buy it. My favorite ones had these characters and i said that is going to be my notice this time. So six years ago i was on a trip in the middle east entertaining troops and while we were there it was the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders right before us, mma fighters and then us, the authors. My friend said to me can you tape the moment when after the cheerleaders they realized they got authors flex [laughter] how many came up to us and said i love all of the amazing people that come through here whether it is the fighters or the cheerleaders but they were the first group that is here for me because im a reader and that is fantastic to me because there is a fellow nerd says lets friends. It was on this tour i finally learned about the Dover Air Force base. We all know it. We have seen sadly those famous coffins that come out of the plane. But i didnt know if they also handle the biggest cases so when the space shuttles go down, those bodies go to dover and when 9 11, the pentagon victims whewent there. All of our spies no one is supposed to know about and no one knows their real identity, they go to dover. That means it is a place that is built to hold secrets and mysteries you Better Believe i wanted to get into that place. So i thought you know what, ive been a secret tunnedone the sece white house, below the capital. I know that its a place, and going to write my book and that is how i was going to be. I was humbled when i got there because when i saw the care they took for our Fallen Soldiers did was nothing that i see them. Theres nothing like the white house or any place id been because he realized the families of those that have fallen troops they dont even believe sometimes what happens until they seen it for their own eyes. They will rebuild for 14 hours someones cheekbone and smooth it out with clays othe the famy can get one last look at her child, they will rebuild an entire hand because a mother says i want to hold my sons hand one more time. A country right now whatever your politics are, we are starving for heroes and here is where the heroes were. This was the best of us. I knew right there that i had to tell this story. I always bring my plot to the people im talking to. I said i want to see him coming in and going to tell you the escape artist opens with this one of my favorite characters i pretend. The government says shes dead, died in a plane crash and when her body is brought to dover, our hero pulls down the sheet and realizes theres a secret note hidden inside her body and it says you were right, keep running and realizes shes alive and on the run, she is the escape artist. I gave that plot and asked them all the same thing how could you hide a secret note on the body and one of them said if the plane is going down if the timing is right the liquid in your stomach could protect the note end of that happened. I was blown away by that and i knew in that moment that was the plot. Every time i fly on a plane i think about what is in my note. Every time you are in a plane you will be thinking of me and dont write your note to me. [laughter] a better version of what happened in this story but thats where i started. And i had just divorced guy missing many things in his life and he needs to fill a hole in his life. Then when we were filming lost history we were here in virginia filming happy to find that the flag. They gave me a tour and we were Walking Around this museum and i see the paintings of adolf hitler in the military artists and im like why does the army have so much art in that they explained to me that since world war i theyve had a painter on staff in charge of painting disasters as they happen whether it is the beaches, normandy, vietnam, 9 11 there is an artist on staff. I said you are telling me while everyone else is going in guns blazing someone is running in with nothing but pencils and paint brushes that is the craziest person, i want to meet them and they said no you need to meet her. I knew right there. A woman who can see things no one else sees. And the artist came to dinner with me in florida and he said after meeting you im glad weve worked together but now i know so much more about you. He rattled off a list of tape i have that i didnt realize. Things like you see the world differently than i do. Its a great Graphic Designer we see a stop sign and he sees the representation that can be read in any language he sees it differently than we do. There is this woman. There is a character that will look at you and see what no one else sees and figure out the way that its plaintiff. Every time you walk past the surface you check yourself. She has so many herself and so you have these two characters, shes going to bshe is going tof there and that is a plot put in charge of the secret service he is a magician who loves to do magic tricks himself and the only time in history that is a good detail and for a couple of books ive been trying to figure out how to use it. It has to make sense. I couldnt figure it out. Then i started looking into his life. He had his own secret service which is a fantastic idea. If he was going to virginia he would come and they would come the week before and figure out what kind of handcuffs the police use in cuba to come to towtown if they lock me up and t me in your jail and i will get out. He always had the inside information. He never got over the death of his mother. When i looked at Harry Houdinis life, we know the escape artist shows him he looks like hes going to die and gets out. The other part of the show he spent time defrauding and showing what they us mediums were and seances. This was a time after world war i. We lost many sons after the war. There were people who would say your son sent me a message from beyond the grave and wants to talk with you if you pay me 5. It sounds obvious but back then they didnt know. It was called spiritualism. Houdini hated it they were trying to do that. So part of his show was dedicated to pulling out these people and they were frauds. One of the things i love and houdini was so obsessed he gave secret code words to his family and friends that if they died, yet there is a seance and they came back that he would know that its them. He was like i dont believe this nonsense but in case im wrong [laughter] here is your code word and it the word he gave his mother and the mother whose death he never got over was simply this one word, forgive, some chastened se idea. It may be addiction and abuse and the loss of a loved one. We have that moment your we ara creator and have to come back to life, truly come back to life and it was houdini who taught at best how to do it, forgive especially starting with your self. When i learned that, the escape artist, i knew the puzzle pieces and form the picture and thats when i started the buck and where it came from. For me obviously thats the look and that is both relevant of it and i love i get to talk about it but 20 years in, what do you take away. I feel like in virginia it is the day that i think about my dad, that we all have our rituals. We all have things. I want to tell you for 20 years now when i was first writing here in washington, d. C. , i had set down my first book with 22 rejection letters we were waiting for number 23 and 24. The good news was that editors said they liked the book. I met with them and they told me they liked it. My agent told me at the time to sisaved at your places, wait on the phone and im going to call you at whatever time it was and im going to tell you, they will have a bidding war. I was thinking im going to pick up the phone and she was going to tell me how rich i was going to be. I was in debt and i thought this is my moment. I will never forget the phone rang and i was excited to hear how well we did. She said sorry. And every day for 20 years, every day that i sit down to write, before i touched a keyboard or i do anything, i repaint the entire moment. What type of phone i was hoping of those clear phones where you could see the wires inside because in the 80s that was like hightech. [laughter] and disposal landfill every college kid had because that goes with it. The bed was on my right with no headboard, it was a match race because that is all they have to. I pictured a little. In washington, d. C. That looked over a bad parking lot and a fire station i was staring out witatwith the doors. And i say those three words, sorry kiddo, 20 years and going because every single day i want to be as humble as i was living in this town, and i never want to think im done or ive made it. Then im finished. I want to be so hungry that i will always put out my best work. We can do the same things every day. We are so good at our jobs but to do the same thing over and over like a magician we need to reinvent ourselves and have that moment they say ive done it this way and now i want to do better. Sorry, kiddo. Sorry, kiddo. Sorry, kiddo. I was telling the story today, and just the way we were going, we drove past the fire station and im staring at the fire station right now. Here it is, the one i pictured when i woke up, sorry, kiddo. I love that this town brings them back to me. I love that they changed the words last two years on the fire station but its the old one to me everyday in my minds eye. That said, that is the introduction. What type of two distinct questions, because there will always inspired talk and you can ask anything. But the kids books, the thrillers and i will give a quick update on the kids book. One interesting thing that has happened for those that dont know, i do a line of kids books with the amazing artist. I was tired of my own books and loudmouth athletes, so we started with eyeing an elite that your heart and Abraham Lincoln. We did im rosa parks, and i am jackie robinson. A hero isnt someone that scores a lot of points, here is what he looks like. My daughter, i did lucille ball, famous for the idea that its not just okay to be a different its spectacular. I also did im jane goodall. My toddler loves to create and draw s suffered him i did im jim henson. On sesame street he proved you can use your creativity to look good in this world. I hope if im doing nothing else all im doing is using my creativity to put good in the world. That is what i inspired to do. The amazing part on the kids books is as the election was approaching we saw something amazing happened with the kids books. Two heroes started popping up and it was im Martin Luther king jr. And i am George Washington. They started selling like crazy then the whole series. In publishing, just about everything is down. I love that book tv when we have cspan here its incredible they still support the written word. They support the most important and most dangerous and valuable thing in the world, ideas. That is where the book is for his ideas. And i love the part of it. Both books and movies are down because we have so many things were looking at, intranet, facebook, everything else. But the kids books were selling like bananas and we realized what it was. Was that everyone was tired, just like i was, of turning on the tv, and it wasnt a democrat or republican thing but they were tired of seeing politicia politicians. We all know theres a difference between a leader in the politician is what they need to do is teach our kids and grandchildren, nieces and nephews. I love the people buy these books and they are not not just buying i am an alien airheart or Abraham Lincoln or ie and harriet tubman, i love that they are using our im books to build a library of heroes with kids and grandkids and nieces and nephews, so thats what its about. And i love any person wearing one of our kids books tshirts coming you get an extra hug from me so i appreciate that. Letbut to ask questions about , comics, thrillers, escape artists. Yes, sir. Shout it out and i will repeat it. Spin it would be focused on an alien airheart, shes been a great inspiration. What about a book on im carol burnett. On the list. And i will tell you this about an alien airheart, right now with this group we can get there. We are working right now on a nuclear Amelia Airheart. We went to legal ideas and if you get 10,000 people to vote they will consider making it. That is how the ghostbusters effect was made and all these different ones that have come out. They come through the ideas. We are at i think 8,200 were 8,300, 8,400 as of last night, 8,400. We need 10,000 with 30 days to go. So, go put the words we go Amelia Airheart into the first thing that comes up, it will take you a minute to register, then we would get to 10,000 if im tired on the licensed toys or barbies or superheroes were things like that, i would love to give the kids in america a hero in the waco sect. So please, while you are in line, dont talk to a person to make friends. [laughter] we dont need more friends. Google Amelia Airheart and thank you for reminding me of that. Yes. Do i make government sources nervous . Edu. The best part of these events, here we are in maryland. All of despising people working the Intelligence Community they come out and tell me secretly you never know who they are if i tried to pick them out right now i would never pick correctly. A woman came up to me last night and i was like you are totally thwere totallythe grandmother,. [laughter] i said wow. And i love that the Intelligence Community has been so supportive. Here is the thing to answer the question that deserves a serious answer. I am not an Investigative Reporter. I am a storyteller. When i looked at the Dover Air Force base on a thought i would try to go in the front door but if not i will go around the back. I went through and said basically i want to write it up. I have great respect. Lets see what happens. And they were kind to let me in. I got access to places you cant go. Ive done research with president bush. Its the same reason the secret service talked with me for 16 years in every acronym over and over again. They will say i can tell you this thing right here that you cant write about it. You need to understand about it so you can write about this but in the 16 years i can get i name in the paper. I know many things i can put my name in the paper and thats going to get the press and be a good thing that i dont want to be the thing that undoes the safety or security of the country and there are stories that we talk about because they are interesting and have a part of history. They will put someone in danger and i wanted no part of it. That is why even when you see something that sounds cool i change the security protocols. I know what they really are. They say that i know. I changed it. Save your letters. I know its coming especially of the dover, but i dont want to show you and i take that very seriously. I think the reason they helped me most important if i am guessing its because i write about i love. Thats it. Im not an Investigative Reporter whos there to make you feel bad. I wrote that entry to my word i said i love what you do here. You take care of our fallen troops. Its your honor and dignity and respect and i want to show the world that this amazing universe. That when you step into that room, you feel the entirety. How many people we talk about. You see the ultimate sacrifice. Army and navy and air force and marines. They used to have a nameplate in their they are. I wont ruin the book but there is a room where all the things the soldier leaves behind when they die it is immediate like sunglasses and cell phone your wallet, laptop but then the things they immediately send it to the families that is heartbreaking. Pictures of young kids, the cross that they wear or the star of david. Or a wedding band. The most heartbreaking one of all is the unfinished letter that will never be finished. Writing to their son or daughter telling them how much they miss them. It is the perfect metaphor a letter in the life unfinished. It is heartbreaking and they deserve all the love we can give them we cannot bring them back or experience airplane on pain that make sure that we could tell that story and how many people have said i never knew about this place i admire it now. I hope thats why dont make people nervous. What about the artist of the book . You know a great place to meet people is on the internet. [laughter] a round of applause for every parent that brought their kid tonight to hear about dead bodies. [applause] all we did was talk about morgues. So the reason i love this work it just looks like peanuts and calvin and hobbes and it over and over. We want them to be off their phones and off their screens chris is the secret weapon. And said they are adorable and want to learn more. And then hes history nerd and we have mutual friends. Dont talk to people on the internet kids that is a joke. [laughter] every person says im a lawyer. Thank you for that. [laughter] so lets talk quickly about the books. In two months, may we have i am gone d the graphic novel is the same as the kids book but when the election happened i am just finishing i am gandhi and i have a 16 yearold son. Do you remember Election Night . You are killing each other and i was having none of that. I said read this book. We are stronger we dont hate each other. And then to realize my son needed this and the older kids of middle school and high school and adults to be honest. So i brought on board the best comic book artist in the country marvel and dc you rated their rolodex for us. Everybody works for free including myself. We wrote the book all the money goes to feed the piece we dont make a dollar thats in gandhis mission coming out in may. Right after that i am doing superman for action comics number 1000 which i am so excited about because they are bringing back supermans red trunks. We all want to wear our underwear on the outside of our pants hes coming back with the underwear on the outside of my sense that i dont like it and i said you are wrong. Go to your room. [laughter] daddies bringing it back. [laughter] a real man wears his underwear on the outside. We didnt know if they would give us the okay so i wrote to the artist said we dont have the okay yet so if they dont give us the okay never dry him from the waist down because he will be wearing those trunks. [laughter] no matter what happens he said im in i can hide it with a cape. I said you are my man and then Neil Armstrong comes out in september. Chris is the artist hes been begging to do Neil Armstrong since book number one even more than Abraham Lincoln. We sent it to our friends at nasa we are always nervous for me did i am Martin Luther king junior we had his top lieutenants. The writers of the march representative lewis read the book for us. This is what we have to do. And when john lewis is reading your book i hope i dont mess it up. Its his life to. So they came back and said you guys are such nerds. [laughter] we went really deep. You will love the book dont tell anyone nobody knows thi this, when you read i am Neil Armstrong we want to do the scene when he gets to the moon he looks back at the earth and i want it to be immense. When we first you would it wasnt working so i asked for Something Special when he looks back it foldout both ways and it is a giant spread like this and you can see the entire earth from space and it is beautiful. That is september. Another project nobody knows about, in january of doing my first adult nonfiction book. I found the story about George Washington. During the revolutionary war in the early battles of new york there was a secret plot against George Washington some say to kill him or murder him or kidnap him. When washington found out he gathered together 20000 troops took those responsible and executed him in the largest public execution at that point in north american history. George washington brings down the hammer. I am George Washington put me on the dollar bill. He is amazing that is actually real historical dialogue by the way. [laughter] is called the first conspiracy the secret plot and the birth of the counterintelligence movemen movement. You can see how those operations started out after that. Thats we started to fight back. So the first conspiracy comes out in january. In your i am books you put in the next character hidden somewhere who is any armstrong . [laughter] the smartest kid in the whole room just pointed out we do secretly hide things in every book. I am in every book i am like wheres waldo. Chris puts me in every book. We also hide the number 27. We hide superman but if you are the lawyers watching it is not superman or clark cant. [laughter] cant if you see it who would be in that book i should be looking for which is very tricky of you so you are the intelligence person tonight. We are making them younger than ever. Im not telling you what all. But good try. Have any of your books become movies or would you want that in which book . We might be doing tv. Im looking someone that knows exactly if we are doing tv and we are not announcing it yet. Its not what you think. It will be great. [laughter] i love secrets. I can keep a secret. [laughter] but for me i dont see anyone doing this. Everyone says do you know that you look like that doctor on er . Clooney . [laughter] thank you for laughing. For me go with it. I can tell the stories for 20 years. Whether they make the film are not hollywood messes up everything every way anyway. 13 years ago i came to your book signing pregnant. My friend is here came to a signing at the supermarket and where is the craziest place i had ever signed . No question the white house. I was invited to a private lunch not the big area but in the president s private dining room. I was invited to go there. When you sit in the white house. The lincoln bedroom the top two floors of the white house no secret service. Its a big deal. You dont just take your seat grab a seat. No no no they dont trust you they tell you where to set. Theres a little card thats engraved with the picture of the white house and has your name on it. As i sat down i said i am totally stealing my card. Mrs. Bush leaned over and said you know, they always tried to steal their card. [laughter] i said look and then i took my card. [laughter] my card is in my house. I got it. I took it. Signing books up there i remember when bill clinton was president i was walking through the west wing and i said should i put on the desk . Is my one regret we didnt we would have gotten so much trouble but it would have been worth it. To put the first book on the president s desk. Right as clinton was leaving a friend of mine worked for the White House Press office. With the genius marketing idea of all time. They were going to south africa. Really really far and a long trip. He snuck me on the plane before they left and we took 50 copies of the book and put it on every seat. They didnt have movies. They will be stuck we are marketing geniuses they probably just use them like pillows but it was a good thought. [laughter] what about medical heroes . The best thing about kids they have the demands. [laughter] they tell me what time next book should be. It cant last night at maryland i will show you this up. Im almost there. Weight. This is what they kid asked for last night. [laughter] that is a short list. [laughter] this kid is crazy then i saw right above beethoven was me and that i said you are favorite i will do every single one on here. Do you ever do you are writing contest for kids where we can collaborate . I will collaborate. I am not paying them. I would never pay a child. My daughter said one day i want to write a book. I said ive waited my whole life to hear my child, my offspring tell me she wants my job. I said we are ready we will write a book together. First we have to make the cover so we made the title it was about a dog. She drew a picture of a dog. I put her name on the front and mine on the bottom she said maybe we leave your name out. [laughter] did you just cut me out of the deal . You will be an agent. [laughter] and she totally cut me out. Ruthless. Never working with children again they will turn on you on a dime. But i do like that idea. Its a good idea. We have a lot of books to sign. Thank you for letting me have this writers life. When i look back at this life it was my midlife crisis where do we go from here. It sounds so crazy that a book that focuses so much on loss and the endoflife that you learn so much there is a line that says just because youre not dead doesnt mean you are alive. And all of us i know we have things in our lives every person you meet is going through battle you know nothing about. Be kind all of us, no matter your battle, come back to life. We think escape means runaway but if you want to be the escape artist is not about running away its about starting with forgiveness when joining us back with the land of the living. Thinking of my father and the loss that i suffered when he died i dont have that sadness. Somebody will be an amazing story. He was struck by lightning and his father was struck by lightning. That is crazy. Even when he would tell a story it seemed like nonsense what are the odds to people are struck by lightning and my dad was a kid when it happened i thought he made it up. Is that i know its true but i love the story of making a metaphor so dont mess with that and a few weeks after a guy rights to me through email and says somebody passed along the eulogy will for your father he did not he was struck by lightning i just want to tell you that he did because i was there that day and he tells a story exactly how my father told me. Become the most important person the whole world the easiest thing of all to show some kindness to reach out. So forgiveness. I love every Single Person who supports these books and those who let me escape but not runaway. Thank you for supporting escape artist and every crazy tv idea especially the new one and the im books. Thank you for letting me do this 20 years. Dad, this is for you. Love you. [applause] hello everyone im a member of the event staff and welcome on this surprisingly cold even