Transcripts For BBCNEWS Meet The Author 20170504

Wa nted become a president. As if shejust wanted to remain that nuisance within the heart of society. That decenter if you like. How much difference would the tv debate at this stage really make to her because if you like her policies, what she stands for, putting france first, shell get your vote . Well, a lot of her fans, especially the new fans, not her fathers fans who were a lwa ys fans, not her fathers fans who were always vote for le pen are having second thoughts on social networksment they are saying, she is not what we thought she was. The real question is the abstention because Emmanuel Macron held the fort. He stood his ground, but has he done enough to convince the hard leftists who are tempted not to cast their ballot, not to even bother going. So the abstention is very, very, very high, it could benefit her. Depending on whoever wins the president ial election, youve got the parliamentary elections to come. How are they going to gather mps around them because the Front National doesnt have that kind of traction. The other party is a new party. They dont have many mps . Thats the next headache after sunday. Of course sh were facing two rounds on 11 thejune and 18th, the french usually give a majority at the National Assembly they have just elected except this time no really traditional parties, so Emmanuel Macron said it would have new candidate for every new constituency, but you know, how is he going to do that . Never a dull moment. Agnes poirier thank you for coming now its time for meet the author with rebecca jones. The thriller writer David Baldacci has enjoyed the kind of success most authors can only dream about. His first book, absolute power, became a bestseller and it was turned into a film, starring and directed by clint eastwood. David baldacci has gone on to write 30 novels, which have sold more than 100 million copies around the world. His latest is called the fix and its his third book about the detective amos decker, who witnesses a seemingly senseless and random murder outside the headquarters of the fbi, in washington, dc. David baldacci, id like to start, if i may, by rewinding the clock back to your childhood, when your mother gave you a notebook in which to write stories. Had you always wanted to be a writer . Well, i was a big reader back then. I was probably about seven or eight years old. I was a kid, i never shut up. I was telling tall tales all the time, usually to get myself out of trouble with School Officials and other parents. And my mom came and brought me a journal. And she said, honey, you know, some of the stuff youve been talking about, why dont you try writing it down . So my pen hit the paper and i was kind of like, this epiphanyjust went off in my head. I can take my imagination, put it down on paper, and people can read what im thinking about. This is so cool. And years went by and i went back to my mom and i said, thank you for such a gift, mom, for this, it changed my life. And she said, well, im so glad it worked out for you but, quite frankly, i just wanted to shut you up you know, because moms need a little peace and quiet. I will always love you, but you just never stop talking. So, there you go, it worked out in the end. It worked out in the end, but in the interim, you became a lawyer. You didnt become a writer. So how did that happen . Well, for, like, 15 years, i wrote Short Stories only, and you cant make a living selling Short Stories. Maybe you could if you were john updike orjohn irving, but not David Baldacci, so i never even got paid for when i sold a story. They would give me a bunch of free copies of the magazine and said that would be enough in payment. So i became a lawyer and i did very well. I practised for ten years from washington, writing the whole time. High school, college, law school, ten years of practising law. I wrote Short Stories, novellas, screenplays and then finally novels. And absolute powerjust really was the Turning Point for me. And then you were able to commit to it full time. Fast forward now dozens of novels later to your latest novel, the fix, and this tells the Story Of A Man who shoots a woman outside the Fbi Headquarters and then turns the gun on himself. So its a whydunnit, rather than a whodunnit. What inspired the story . Well, this is the third instalment of My Amos Decker series. Hes your detective. He is. We first saw him in memory man. And he has a perfect memory, hyperthymesia, because of a brain trauma that he suffered. And he is the most unlikeliest of heroes. He is not your knight in white shining armour. He is a big, sloppy, obese guy who has no personal skills, ticks everybody off, nobody really gets along with him. And i thought, yeah, thatd be a great series guy people will love him. But they do. And his motivation is simple. He wants to find out the truth, no matter where it takes him. And so he looks at the scene. He was a witness to this crime. He was walking down the street and the guy pulls out a gun, shoots a woman, then turns the gun on himself. And he keeps going back to that scene. Its very hitchcockian. Its a small stage. He keeps going back, his mental frames flipping through. Did he really see what he thought he saw . And so constantly, throughout the entire novel, the reader over his shoulder going back and looking at that one scene. I wanted to make it really claustrophobic, you know. I wanted people to be hammered with that scene over and over again. Because, look, as a lawyer, i know that eyewitness accounts are totally unreliable. People cant remember anything they saw. Or even if they do remember it, its all wrong. So i thought it would be kind of cool to put that as a plot point in a novel. As you say, amos decker isnt your typical hero. What appeals to you so much about him . So many of my other characters are kind of like, you know, theyre fit and well trained and, you know, theyre sort of classical heroes, 0k . As a writer, i think if you dont expand and challenge yourself, you wither on the vine. So i wanted to write a character totally different from anything ive written before. Amos decker fit that bill. I mean, he is not your typical hero. I channel him so easily, though. You know, hes really weird and quirky. And my wife will say, yeah, i can understand why you channel him so easily, cos youre that too what does that tell us about you . I was very struck by how topical the book is. The murder turns into an issue of national security. You also deal with isis, cyber hacking, cyber security. How important is that to you, to make the book feel current . I have to be. Plausibility, im bound by plausibility. Fortunately for me, it seems like these days, anything is possible. So i can write about anything and people will say, yeah, i think i read that in a newspaper last week. So for me, its to take life as we know it now. And im very curious about the world. I try to Read Everything i can possibly read. So take life as it is now and try to extrapolate it out, so i can say, 0k, what is it gonna be like in the nearfuture . And so i can sort of push the envelope and see whats coming down the road. I had an intelligence guy one time tell me. Id written a scene and i thought it was gonna be over the top, too much. I said, read this, let me know if i need to pull it back. He said, i dont have to read it. I said, no, just read it and let me know if its too much. He goes, i dont have to read it. I said, why not . He said, because if you can imagine it, weve already done it. Really . Thats chilling. Yes. And its interesting you say you had a conversation with an intelligence guy, because i know you talk to members of the fbi and the secret service, dont you . Yeah. What kind of things do they tell you . Its funny, theyre wonderfully helpful, they share a lot of information. Sometimes, theyll say, im gonna tell you this, but can it never end up in a book . And it never does, cos i do play fair. So theyve got a lot of stuff that, you know, i would not want to be them because it must be hard to sleep at night sometimes. I was struck by how meticulously plotted the novel was and i wondered, do you start from the outset knowing exactly whats going to happen, or does the story evolve as youre writing it . It really evolves organically. Ive never known the ending of any book ive sat down to write. Really . so i write myself until the end. Ive always thought that if i knew the ending, i wouldnt be creating a novel, i would be typing to the end, you know, a manuscript, not really writing. So for me, every day is an epiphany. I might sit down in front of the computer and think, er, what am i gonna do today . Oh, my god, 0k, let me just try this. And if it doesnt work, i can always go back, hit the delete key and try something else. So that spontaneity is an integral part of creativity. So for me to plot along an outline that ive thought about before ive even created a character, i mean, how dulland boring would that be . And i think that boringness would come through in the pages. So for me to discover the page as im writing it, for the reader, i think its gonna be stunning to them. But that must be even more difficult because you sometimes have more than one novel on the go, dont you . I mean, you have a phenomenal workload. You write two, sometimes three novels a year. How do you fit it all in . Yeah, im obsessive about it. This is what i do and its what i love to do. I think if i didnt love to write, i probably would have stopped by now. Ive written a lot of books, and maybe i would just go do something else. But every day, i get up thinking to myself, its so fortunate that i can tell another story today. Im an eight year old kid, with a piece of paper and a pen, and im just using this in my head and putting it down for people to read. Its just a joy. And i tell an aspiring writer, i say, make sure youre in it for the right reasons. Can you live without writing . If you can live without writing, go do something else, because youre not gonna make it. Because that will get you through all the bad times. That will get you through all the rejection and criticism people throw at you. Its like bullet proof armour youre putting around yourself, that joy of writing, because no matter what they hit you with, youre gonna keep going. Nonetheless, how difficult is it to keep coming up with different plots and ideas . I think the one attribute a writer needs to have is this non stop curiosity about the world and life, and i certainly am. I Read Everything. I go to places, i talk to people all the time. I just absorb knowledge and information like you wouldnt believe, because i think if you know a lot about a lot of different things, you can bring those disparate elements together and, all of a sudden, youre writing some really unique stories. So its a challenge to yourself. Writing is not a job, its not a hobby, its not even a passion for me, its a lifestyle. This is who i am and it permeates throughout my entire life. Im never going anywhere. Im sitting here right in the studio, but im also thinking about, you know, im looking around and seeing stuff and ideas are coming to me. Its just part of who i am. How do you relax . Well, you know, i love to write. I relax by writing. I love to read. I love to go out on the water. Im a big boater, i like to do all the watersports and stuff. Itsjust nice, you know, i have a nice family and its a nice life. But at the end of the day, its that book and the pen that draws you back . My wife gave me a journal on christmas day. I tell people, never give a Writer Blank Paper on a major holiday, cos youll never see them for the rest of the day David Baldacci, its been a pleasure to talk to you, thank you. After a lovely sunny day, we saw a decent sunset for many. This is the view not long ago in the wirral in the north west of england. We saw a fair bit of cloud further south and thats been coming in on the breeze. This cloud thickened up. The odd spot of rain in a few places, but thats the exception rather than the rule. The further north you go, the skies are the further north you go, the skies a re clearer the further north you go, the skies are clearer and the winds are lighter. That means the temperature will be dropping away. No real problems in major towns and cities. It will be four, five, six celsius, In Rural Parts of england and scotland, it will go down to freezing or below. So a chill in the airfirst thing. There maybe freezing or below. So a chill in the air first thing. There maybe low cloud into the north of scotland, but the bulk of scotland will be fine and dry with a good deal of morning sunshine. It looks like a decent day in northern ireland, Northern England too, but that keen breeze along that North Sea Coast and it will peg the temperatures backin and it will peg the temperatures back in spite of sunshine. More in the way of sunshine in parts of east anglia, but there will be this extra cloud for southern most counties of england. It looks like it will be sunny in wales. There will be patches of cloud along the southern most counties. Another day with plenty of sunshine. Still that breeze though bringing that cooler feel to the North Sea Coast, but still warm further west. Some places will get to 18 celsius. We have got 16s widely. So quite a decent afternoon out of the breeze which continues to blow through the evening. A little bit of rain to the far south west by the end of the night. Thats a weak Weather Front which will bring cloud and rain to the far south west. Most other places on saturday just seeing south west. Most other places on saturdayjust seeing more cloud and still a keen breeze coming in from the east or north east. Western scotla nd the east or north east. Western scotland is doing very well. Lighter winds and sunshine and warm here, North Sea Coastal areas on the cool side. The pattern repeats on sunday. We lose the rain from the south and the winds fall light for most placesment there will be a breeze coming into the North Sea Coastal areas on sunday and again on the cool side here, but get away from the coast where it is 10 to 12 celsius, you have got temperatures in the mid to upper teens. It looks like a decent second part of the weekend away from the North Sea Coast. There is more details should you need them online. Hello youre watching Bbc World News with Me Tim Willcox in washington. A major legislative victory for President Trump as republicans in the Us Congress Pass their health care bill. Make no mistake, this is a repeal and a replace of 0bamacare, make no mistake about it. Republicans secured just enough votes to push through the legislation. All democrats voted against the bill. And it will face big hurdles in the senate. Meanwhile the president will now head to new york to meet the australian prime minister. Its Donald Trumps first trip home since taking office and im Christian Fraser in paris. After a brutal tv debate between the contenders just 3 days to go until french voters return to the polls. Centrist candidate Emmanuel Macron takes legal action over claims