Kind of like getting up on a soap box and preaching. I let that story, once i found the characters, you have to go with what you have got. I love nuance. I love nuance characters. In the case of garden of the beast, i have been criticized by people for including martha in the book or not being more judgmental in the book about the ambassador and his daughter and not taking a more judgmental stand on hitler and so forth but jove to tell it the way it is. It doesnt take away. It isnt part of the architecture of the book. Back in the day when you used to appear at smaller venues like out in forest park. I saw you doing an author event for devil in the white city. You mention the types of story where you have two and you bring it together at the end i believe you called it a parallel narrative dual narrative. You said it was difficult to do and that particularly book would be the last dual narrative and obviously it wasnt. So my question is what attracts you to the dual narrative and is this your last dual narrative . Are you a stalker . I never want to do another one because it is like writing two books instead of one. You are writing two books. I did say publically i would not do another dual narrative and the next book was thunderstruck and it was completely by accident, believe me, i told my wife, you know, i am going to get attacked for being derivative of my own book. But it was like i just love the story and that became the story of the second most notorious murder in british history. That was the second last one i did in my view. I dont like at it as a dual narrative or this as a dual narrative. So, yeah. I dont have a question so much but i want to thank you for all of the great books you are providing. I have been telling friends that if you read the book, you are only reading half the story. I mean if you look at the notes toward the back of the book he provides so much more information you are not getting if you dont read them. For example, he puts in his foot notes where you can go to a website and see film of people boarding the boat and film of the boat leaving the harbor. It was so nice you offer all of this Additional Information for the readers. Thank you very much. [applause] thank you very much for your comment because i have learned people love the foot notes and i love people that love the foot notes because that is the genesis of devil in the white city. I worked very hard at my foot notes to squeeze in the things that would not fit into the narrative sometimes they are far field. Young lady . Can you seen, or are you aware of, the photo Stans Company production of the devil in the white city . I know of it but i have not seen it. Do you recommend it . Highly. When i read the book i will make you a deal. When the announcement came out, i was very anxious to go see the production and i thoroughly enjoyed it. I recommend it to anyone who is a fan of the book . Did you read the book . Yeah. Let me interrupt and ask there is always, every since published, there is a lot of movie buzz about devil in the white city. What is going on . It is still under option by l leo. There is incentive to do it and soon there is going to be a change of studio but they are still progressing. Look at gone girl. You know . It is just terrific. For my books, it is good. Yes, sir . You mentioned what it was like to write a prewar book not knowing the ending. Before you write your first sentence do you know where the book is ending . That is a very astute question. You need to break it up into phases. Like in the actual final writing process, after i finished by research, actually, i know when i do the book proposal. With nonfiction books it is not like novels. You have to have the novel turned in before they can decide if they want to publish it or not. But nonfiction, you send them, this is important to realize when you think about why some books are expensive and some are not doing research is an expensive process. I make a pitch of a book proposal that is very detailed based on my preliminary research. It is an educated guess as to what is out there. By the time i have the book published i know where the book is most likely going to begin. I do also know the ending. There is always one scene that comes out early in the process that you realize that is where i am going to end this book. It can change and there can be additional material that foll s follows. I love touching the end of the book to see what happened to them in the end. I also think of it as thing with the music trailing off and stuff. But i also know watt the main ending will be before i start to write the actual ending of the book. Erik, when you were younger you had a dream of becoming a new yorker cartoonist. That is correct. Do you do any drawing now . I do draw. I gave up my aspirations at an early age. 1314. I was drawing cartoons and submitting them. I sent them to the new yorker and they came back within 24 hours thch hours. My feeling is the new yorker had a guy waiting at the mailbox. I love to draw and i do keep an ongoing journal of text and drawings. Part of your youth was a desire to and becoming a novelist. You could say, right now, i am not going to go to the dark place, i will sit down and write a novel. Is that every going to happen . Probably not. I am a failed novelist. I have four complete novels and one didnt include the novels. There are a hundred publishers who say we will p publish that. The historical aspect is outstanding and gives a lot of information and makes it come alive. I am wondering about your Character Development being suburb. Is that from your research and do you put your own feelings of the Character Development to make them real and personali . Personal i dont start a book unless there is enough material that the characters will be rich and come alive on some level. Once you decide who the characters will be it becomes a process of going to distance. Going to the archives. Spending endless amounts of time and looking for the bits and pieces because if you break down i would argue if you break down some of the things that you might have in mind about characters and Character Development, i think what it might come down to is three our four very specific choice details about the character. That is what it is all about. It is not about masses of material. It is finding those little specific things that are going to light the imagination for me and for a reader. If you put them in the right places and the right structure you will have a book that i would argue seem much richer and more alive than the words themselves if you analyze them or were to suggest. That is something i feel. What do you, erik larson, and this is my last question, i would assume there would be like 30 lusitania questions but it means many you have have not bought the book yet. What do you read for pleasure . I read fiction. I am almost exclusively a fiction reader. In the course of the day, especially when you do research, there was a lot of really awful nonfiction out there sex and you know things very dry stuff i have to go through in the course of the day so i love to just read fiction. Anybody in particular . Well, you know i just finished a book on the plane called missing person very good. I love detective fiction. I love anything that is well written. That is my thing. Anybody read this is where i meet you . The first 25 pages of scenes are funny and then you have to be a guy to appreciate it. The guys i always go back to are like hemmingway, dashal hammond, west mcdowel i loved. He is a detective writer, too. And i have been reading dark scandinavian detective stories. I couldnt find steve larson. There was this creepy iceland story. Think about the scandinavian authors. They know how to kill people. Erik larson, you know how to write a narrative. Dead weight the most recent. You know what his other books are. If they are not on the shelves you should not be at lit fest. Thank you for coming. He will be signing outside. Thank you. On behalf of the printers row lit fest we would like to thank the panel, thank you for attending and mr. Larson will be signing books in the lobby. Tonight were focusing on best sellers. [inaudible conversations] on his two were. In kansas city wheat got together then beat to get on its own little trail we went to the mission, then the Pioneer Family and then we went to the scout statues and then to the huge stockyards. And then as a with and its dirty people knew where it came from. We have the testers skean the book. That is what we shipped out across the country. We had so much fun in rehab great feedback along the way. That was a fun project. So now please help me to welcome back to kansas city, its united author of the oregon trail. I will just do a little audio. Can you hear me now . They explore welcoming me to kansas city in this gorgeous base also i want to say greedy daybooks. I imagine most of you from being from kids the city are aware of the National Reputation of the store it is legendary to promote books in take bothers people have not heard of yet but this is a large crowd. Had given the independent bookstores from small towns in resorts i cannot imagine it would be in the space. I will tell you how i gunboat in this book. By researchers ago working on their journalism peace i decided to go see the flint hills because i every history nets in they just wanted to see the hills. It is of apartheid had not visited. While there i came across a range worker for the oregon trail the was just the up side the it is a Convenience Store for the pioneers i was mesmerized and fascinated i just walked out on the history books air and people for many months. With vice of historians that would have been passed down and to get into a huge arguments to have free will among the elect. So religious contention drove a lot of people to the trail i wanted to write a book about their real trail about what happened, which reminded me of america today. I came across said one of my history books the last documented crossing of the trail was 1909. I had grown up on a horse by bar and i took them from a young age i had a brother who cave on the trip was even better than ibm. I felt empowered a question of a dream. To say that is your strength. So i will take the oregon trail and write about it when i get home. I will go through pitchers relatively quickly. It is just a fantastic thing. 2100 miles. Get with through five presentday states in this is a defined a rational character. Approximately five and thousand crossed in peak migration in years between 1843 and the civil war. They have picked it so well. I will show you a few pitchers year. Bed is made towards the end of the trip actually. I lost a lot of weight but that worker marks the trail all the way across the my brother had severe bipolar disease. [laughter] i refined with a College Education he is blue caller but nick is attracted to crazy women. Said after age one dash but every morning we had a routine one of the gene up the mules because you would do if to prove this is a view to. As a prom queen she has a very pretty head. This is jake. Very affectionate. Hears that the ranch in central nebraska. It is a three abreast because to get more power out of the mules that way. The secret to the trip was the trail pup in the back i had that built. Half of the trail is paved over. Proposed date paid to the road to get to a lot quicker. Here is the pony express tirade. It shows that is exactly the trail right there. That is what it looks like in the places it is paved. That is the jack russell terrier named olive oil. We would give it to lecture wrote the covered wagon and the wheels. Once we got further out west with a lot of rattlesnakes she would run circles around me and theres nothing to live in the territory of what they caught. This is some people wanting to talk. This is the view. Dealing with mules. The drill is preserved today you can find it even in congested areas. But this was of a river from the association. We stopped in many places like this. We were not reactors control of but then reroute 350 miles print with the original has not been tempered with toward mr. Durkin but then famous little black in central nebraska to fire them lung dash fire them to where they spend their summer down here on and the the train started to door for a night and taking this picture from behind. The attitude and in the katchis their best to attend impact made to your into kobe stay in. [laughter] i hate your book. He would have to fix it. Who is we . It was back on the trail within 24 hours. Have the typical experience to wait three days. That is my favorite. Imus him. There he in and again. But the rubble of what we knew where we would know. I had to navigate to make sure were in the race bought but that was a natural relief. That will stretch between caspar in tokyo after purchasing a the gannett candidate ingate a remark a married couple. Actually over can have a surprise if surprise for us. The guide book said the newspapers but 20 years ago remain at imagine being on the trail here i am coming on the trail. Bet you can see how when you go down the decline. You are way above the neil said looking through. Said here we are along this feet water river in wyoming day after day. Really is was the most gorgeous landscapes in the world and shows you how had to follow the rivers. And thus help pass does the rockies . This is the kind of place that we met the rancher couple later. With 15 or 20 miles west to stop at my place and we will hookey what. Been here we are crossing on the wooden bridge. This is photographed because it is the major pioneer camp ground. Horace greeley, what happened but is now in the public rowel and we would camping places like desperate arrived very comfortable. On a mattress in the covered wagon. By brother had ted bedroll the key is very rugged. Said the axle broke the rancher came along. We were going to leave Something Else to leave on the trail. He said we could have it fixed so we did it and headed back. It was just lovely to drive to this remote country in the wagon with three good mules who with ben noone self, i did not know how. But these yellow sunflowers they would go nuts for them. So to give the rest i would pull them in there they would eat these so voraciously that yellow and green issues would go to another base. I am going to do some brief readings. Then we will do questions. One of the things about the trip i can never predict what it was if you take on the ambitious and crazy thing that hasnt been done in more than a century you cannot predict but i planned and planned. I was very careful to read in the journals they had a habit to overlook the wagon and i said i will not do that. But on either hand a 38inch and then i said i had absolutely everything i had to have. Now is a walk past the barbecue cooker and the kitchen where. It was the opposite recession. Deepsixed this shit. [laughter] making the distant silos and barnes more pink. Barnes more pink. Propane and coffee and the cookers and pains and a vegetable steamer. [laughter] it was ridiculous. Of bay cable tv chef provisions. But to have retained the shoeshine cant for this long. [laughter] but then the contra brandeis had smuggled the cd player, i had packed my Brooks Brothers and bathrobe. [laughter] every morning i would look so fetching. Well look at this. From the beginning of all the online that you are rising pretty quickly but this contradiction by having a sense of the beauty of the land from the landscape. One historian says the attention paid to the landscape that joins us as a nation. Abigail james scott is a move that theyve used of games her cry like a at a guess at one dash but like so many women she was in an equestrian hes saddled up just to look at the trail from a higher vantage. Here she is but one place we very closely mirrored the river. But there saw a romantic spectacle. It would flow on in peaceful music intersected. But bodies were eventually piled. A woman got on her forced to write such memorable prose to tell about how beautiful the landscape was. Or a change of pace as a writer about religion and talk about the mormons and were hounded out of illinois by but then to face the point of rocky ridge where the mormons mistake to bring some immigrants over earlier in the year ended in have enough money to buy the covered wagons and hundreds died because this knows, that while still in the rockies it is very controversial to this day. They consider that a myth but they died in the snow. So it is a reenactment like some of the old parades where the religion and follows the track of jesus but basically they to the National Monument with the permission of the federal government to turn into a religious monument. And to bring the and needed to read there is more women we are one century now. I spend a lot of time with morgans. Theyre wonderful people. I am not sure about the organization but the people are wonderful. So we traveled a very remote stretch of the trail for days and days we had not seen anything. Then we come over Rattlesnake Pass and it is a huge more manly and 20,000 people camped out. I thought we needed to be prepared for this. I shifted my shoulders and adjusted my cowboy hat. It was time to go more rand mormon. Lets start by even the nadine vf bomb. What do i say instead . Fiddlesticks is good. What about when shit and god dammit . Dont forget please than baggio. For the rest of the morning i am brothers rinker you are brother nicholas. To call them elders you dont even have to remember their name. What about the women . Got it. I will be the best mormon you ever saw. [laughter] we parked the mules in the shade talking to a mormon beater and i went through the museum. Music is coming out and everything is perfectly arranged but the nfl and indeed it did in conversation. He was Holding Space with all of wailed in his lap