Chewing the Fat with Jeff Fisher - Jeffy's Corner: Brad Meltzer, House Of Secrets...

Episode Date: June 6, 2016

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You're listening to The Jeff Fisher Show. Brad Meltzer, kids' books, comic books, big graduation, speech grandeur, mastermind of the country, and Facebook storyteller, and now thrill writer, mystery writer, all between the hard covers of books. Brad Meltzer, how are you, sir? I am happy because I'm talking to you.

Oh, that's so nice. That's so nice. So before we get to all your other dealings at Brad Meltzer.com, you're hawking, you know, all kinds of stuff on your website, you have a brand new book, which I have in my grubby little hands called The House of Secrets. And I will say that I've, voted for the cover that made the cover?

When you, I don't know if the vote actually counted. I always lose that vote, by the way, just so you know that. Like, and that's why I always have the vote on our website and on Facebook because a friend of mine who is an advertising, he said, you know, before you pick your winner, ask a hundred people. And from my very first book, I asked 100 people and 65% of them saw it one way. And, you know, and I was like, well, that's just a random hundred people. Let me ask another 100.

So I asked another 100 people, like in a mall at the time. There was no internet. We were just in a ball. Right. And instead of 65, it was like 66. And I was like, oh, my gosh, it works. So I always do that. So our readers always pick the titles and the covers because I can write the book.

But as to what's going to make it jump off the shelf? I trust the readers to do that. You guys are better at it. And I will say that, and then when I flip it over, I see the classic Brad Meltzer arm folded leaning against bookshelves. I'm smarter than you pose. I hope you're standing like that now. No, I sleep like that.

So the new book, House of Secrets. Yeah. I must admit, I have not finished it, but I did start it. And I'm very intrigued. I'm very intrigued. Yes. Yeah. So, I mean, let's talk.

I mean, very quickly what it's about is this book starts with a little six-year-old girl who's pulled by her father. mother, histories need to be solved. And she loves her dad's stories because her dad is a TV host for one of the best conspiracy shows in the country. And the stories that she loves are these really gruesome stories like a body that's found. And when they open up the body and the autopsy, they find a Bible inside that belonged to Benedict Arnold. That's a great story. And so in chapter one, as the book opens, we see this girl. She's all grown up now. She's 30 years old. She wakes up in a hospital, and there's been a terrible accident that's killed her father.

And she also has no memories of what happened. Her memories are all messed up. And an FBI agent comes into the hospital room and tells her that the last person who was seen with her father was also just found dead. And when they cut open his body for the autopsy, they found, and she says a Bible that belonged to Benedict Garnold. And she realizes in that moment that all the gruesome stories her father told for all the conspiracy stories, they were all real.

They were all true. And now she has to figure out who kills her father, just to figure out how she got these scars on her forehead. She has to figure out she's the mystery herself. She's the actual house of secret. And that's where the mystery begins. Think about it. Now, I see that I wish, see this is what makes you smarter than me, Brad,

is that I would think, man, I've got to write a book and I just can't do it. So I'd throw it to the side. You get help with Todd Goldberg. You say, oh, you know what? I'll just get help. So how did that relationship work for this? You know, the reality for this book is I went out to Hollywood to try and sell the idea for the book

because I thought it would actually be something that Hollywood might be interested in. And they said to me, you know what? We're not interested. And I was like, what do you mean? What? And I just, I was so upset about that that, you know, again, I'm not a Hollywood fan.

You know me a long time personally, not just on the radio stuff, but, you know, it's not my theme. And I just was like, you know what, they don't know. We all know that in culture today, they do not play out the best work. And I was like, you know what, I can do better. So I said, you know what, I love books. I went back and I'm going to hire not just some person to work with some stranger that's going to turn it out. I said, I'm going to hire an award-winning literary writer who writes incredible characters,

but doesn't really have, you know, a plot like that. And Todd Goldberg, God bless him. He and I worked together. He came to my house. We sat. I mean, we wrote this book together, truly, both of us. And it wound up being this amazing experience where I could bring the best parts of him and the character work that he does with my plot. And I call it the literary version of peanut butter cups.

We put the chocolate and the peanut butter together. And I think we got something that's just incredible. And I think, you know, the earlier review that we've gotten for House secrets, it's just been so incredible. Everyone's like, wow, we're seeing character work on this, this groundbreaking character that is really, you know, we're great fathers they give and all that. And I think it's because of, you know, I work with Todd. Oh, my gosh. A Father's Day gift.

Father's Day is just around the corner. Oh, my gosh. It is so lucky. I said you mentioned that. I hadn't even thought of it. Listen, they obviously put this book out, you know, right now for a reason. It's obvious, you know, the funniest part, Jeffrey, that when they told me they wanted to tell us a secret to be there for Father's Day,

they said, you know, oh, you're going to go up against this one other guy in competition. I said, oh, great, what's his name? They said, a guy named Stephen King. My wife is like, you're going to get killed. But, you know, I love the fact that the publisher thinks that, you know, that the House of Secretes is something good for Father's Day. And I love the fact that, you know, women read our books. And I can't ask for more.

It's okay to try and go after the big dogs. Absolutely. Now, that having been said, I want to get back to this Hollywood thing because I'm intrigued. Because I would say Hollywood needs to rethink how they're doing things. And, like, I believe Netflix and Amazon and who, have really changed the face of that. And so many of these big-time movies really would be better suited for, say, just a 10-part series. And that's it.

No more. You don't need season one, season two. I used to go out there. It used to be, if Hollywood said, no, you couldn't do anything about it. And it's because of the Huluos and the Amazon's and the Netflix and those other things. and maybe go, you know what? The one thing that is proof positive in entertainment today, and you guys know it on your own network.

Yeah, yes. Forget what the big dog says and go do it yourself. And that's what we did here. You know, and this book started for me years ago when I was asked by the Department of Homeland Security to come in and brainstorm different ways for terrorists to attack us, I was like, that's a really good way for the government to get information from people.

And as someone who, you know, I make my living on Decoded on the History Channel, who people tell me secrets. They tell me them all the time. And I've been invited to the White House. I've had lunch at the White House. I've been invited. I've spoken to senators and congressmen. And they all tell me their stories just because I'm on television

because they like my thrillers. And I was like, you know what? I'm the perfect spy. I'm the perfect person in those big conspiracy. There's no one looks twice in me. And that's what I put in the book. I was like, that's the plot of the book. It's like that the government is using this guy

who runs a conspiracy TV show to do work nobody knows and everyone was like where'd you get the idea i'm like dummy it's my life right it's well i mean i i realized that i could do that right i could do that and and listen i also you know i wind up you know hollywood doesn't react to what are of course my favorite parts of the book and this is a true story that's in the book that hollywood had no interest in and i said i'm telling you people i mean basically here's here's what i built the story around is this is real this really happened is the last moment of Benedict Arnold and George Washington are among the most heartbreaking in U.S. history because it's one of the moments when George Washington finds out that Benedict

Arnold has betrayed him, it's one of the only moments people have ever seen George Washington cry. Right. And Alexander Hamilton delivers a letter from Benedict Arnold, gives it to George Washington after he betrays him, and the letter says three things. It says, one, don't kill my wife because she didn't know anything about my betrayal. two, don't kill the people I worked with. They didn't know anything either that I was a traitor. And three, he says,

and can you also send me back my luggage and my books and my stuff? And the crazy part is... Of course, George does it. George Washington actually doesn't. He spends the rest of his life hunting Benedict Donald and trying to kill him. But in that moment, in the craziest one of the U.S. history, he sends his stuff back. And I'm like, and to this day, nobody knows what was in the United States.

that luggage and in that case that George Washington sent back. And you're telling you, this guy's one of the most hated people since Judith himself. And you're telling me he sent them something. I want to know what's in there. And if you want to know what's really in that secret case, you'll see my theory. It's in the House of Secret. How's that for it to be? That's so great.

Only George Washington would do that because I love the phrase of, don't kill the messenger. I'm sorry, that's what we have messengers for. We send messengers to die. Right. I mean, the amazing part is it's exactly right. Like anyone else would have said, you know what? Forget that. I'm not going to be a man of honor.

I'm not going to do anything. And George Washington says give the man his stuff. Like still has honor at his most heated, hurt moment on a personal level. And I just become obsessed with that story. So, you know, Hollywood was like, oh, I don't really care about that story. That's old in that history. And I'm like, I got the best thriller to build around that story. story and now I get to tell it and that's where the book really was born.

That's so great. Brad Meltzer, award-winning author, now comic books, kids, I got to say that my kids love catching the Facebook story time. What prompted that for you? You know, so Facebook, this is when it was first starting, Facebook came to me and said, you know, we can put you live on the internet, go out to your, you know, the 130,000 people that follow you on Facebook and we'll give you this little technology. And I was like, I don't want to go out there and just kind of like make people, you know, read my books. I said, why don't we do something instead of asking people to do stuff, why don't we do something

for people? And again, to show you my lack of faith in Hollywood, I was like, you know what? You could be great as like, when do we lose the art of telling stories to our kids? Right. Why is that gone? Why would put our kids in front of screens and in front of phones? Like, how do we get that back? I'm going to just take your technology and I'm going to just read stories every week.

and we did it for you saw it for a couple months, and it just kept growing and growing. I would have done it more, but the truth was I just was on deadline for this book. We're going to bring it back when we do the next kid books, because the next kid books are, surprised. I am George Washington, and I am Jane Goodall. And so when we do, I am George Washington,

you better believe I want to read it right there and do it live. So anyone who has seen us, we have a lot of fun with those. I'm fascinating. But your wife also threatens every time to send more cookies. It's the only reason we really do it. I'm fascinated by the, in quotation marks, kids' books. Because really, I mean, they're educational for adults as well. So I'm really fascinated that we're still calling them kids' books.

You know, the funniest thing is, I can't say how many people say, I bought these for my kids, but I read them for myself, because they're more interesting than any history of them I ever read. And you know why? It's because they're not obsessed with boring, like, age, facts, memorized. That's not what history is. history is a selection process, and it chooses every single one of us every single day. And what we do in these books is we tell the stories of these heroes when they were little.

So you see George Washington when he's a young boy. And we get rid of it. There is no cherry tree that he chopped down, and we see that he was bad at spelling and good at math, you know, good at math, but a terrible speller. He liked the dance of all things. And kids suddenly go like, oh, he's like me. He's good at some things and bad it up there. and I can be just like him. And then our kids' books are not just the stories of famous people.

They're what we're all capable of on our very best days. And to me, that's what's missing from our moral fiber today is we need to get back, get our kids back, and ourselves back, looking at real heroes as opposed to reality TV show stars and loudmouth athletes who are taking up the airway. I don't want to say anything after that. I just want to let that breathe for a little bit because I love the way that sounded so much. Brad Meltzer, Brad Meltzer.com. What is, what's next?

You're on tour? What's next? First of all, you need to order the book for Father's Day, right? I mean, let's be honest. Nothing else matters right now except for that Father's Day gift. No, listen, if you want to be loved, you have to buy the House of Secrets for the parents or grandparents or yourself. And otherwise, it's a lot of loneliness for you. That's my prediction.

I would also say, I'd like to add that if you get one for five, five, you know, if you get one for five. Father's Day, really it's a shame that the house only has one copy of it. I love you for that. You know, really. Can I just tell you something when my parents passed away and I was cleaning out their closet. You'll see why this is totally relevant to what you just said. I cleaned out their closet and I found in their closet, like, I can't tell you how many

dozens of copies of my books they had stored in the back of the closet. Like my parents went every day on a daily basis and I think bought one of my books and they just had them all stored up. And I was like, oh, my gosh, all of our sales, all these years are from my dead parents. Like, it's incredible. So I do appreciate anyone who buys the multiple copy to share with a friend. But the reality, and you know what, and again, all kidding aside, is I just, I need to thank you publicly because you and I, we know each other a long time now, but have just been so supportive whether it's the kids' books or whether it's these thrillers.

And you have me on at the start when I was just writing thrillers, but I just appreciate that whatever they, medium is, whether it's, you know, conspiracy shows on TV or books about conspiracies like The House of Secrets, that you always support us, and that means a great deal to me. Oh, well, thank you. I love you for that. Now, are you, I saw the U of M speech, Mr. University of Michigan, Mr. Hale to the Victors, you know, I mean, I was raised, being forced to love the University of Michigan in my childhood and hate Ohio State.

I got it. I know the game. Yeah. I saw your speech. Are you just, you graduated from the University of Michigan. law school, right? Oh, I went to Michigan undergrad. Okay, okay. So you're, I mean, you're not, you don't practice.

You're not Mr. Bar Association. No, no, I don't practice. You're not Mr. Big Shot, well, I'm part of the bar too. I actually am a member of the bar. That's kind of disappointing. I can, I can sue people, but I choose not to because that's not my job, right? Right. I've never, I can happily say I've never practiced law. That's great.

I often, once, when, you know what I miss is. We're going to go back to talking attorney for a little bit. When court TV first started, they used to actually show trials. And I realized how bad most attorneys are. I mean, the reason that good attorneys make great money is because they take over the courtroom. Oh, my God. I have a friend when I was in high school was like the most dangerous, like, inflammatory were get in trouble. He was

kicked out of his undergrad at college. College literally told him as an Ivy League School, University of Pennsylvania told him, you need to go calm down for a year and then come back. It's an impossible, impossible person. But I always said one thing about him. God bless him.

I said I would never want to face him in court because he was ruthlessly charming. Right. And if I have my own life on the line, there is no one. I would call first than my friend. And the funniest part was, is years later, I met, I can't name who it is, but basically it was a very, very well-known congressman who's still on television these days on national TV. And I interviewed him for one of the books I was researching the Zero Game.

And I said to him, hey, you went to Pennsylvania, University of Pennsylvania. He said, yeah, and he's being like a congressman. He's just, you know, he's got his guard up. And I mentioned my friends then. I said, did you know this friend? Because I knew we were around the same age. And he goes, oh, my gosh, you knew him? Oh, he knows where all my skeletons are.

And I realized in that moment that, like, that's when you're the great attorney, right? Where even the most powerful people in America know they want you when it all comes down. You know where the bodies are and you know how to protect them. And I was like, that is where the great lawyer is worth everything. That is fantastic. Brad Meltzer. Brad Meltzer.com. Get the new book, House of Secrets, The House of Secrets.

You can get it at Bradmeltzer.com and all the usual places. Make sure that you get it. You know what? Your father, your stepfather, your grandfather, and every other father that you know needs a copy of this. Immediately. Anything else we want to talk about? I do. I want to talk about your speech, and we will get to that.

Maybe, you know, we should hook up maybe at the end of, I know you're just starting the tour. Yeah. Just text me. You know how to reach me. I mean, you and I always do this ourselves. So you just tell me anywhere in the tour when you want to. to do it. Let's talk to speech because I'd love to do that. That's a good inspiration.

Yeah. And I'll talk to you, see how the tour went and see, but get some stories from On the Road with Brad Meltzer, tour talk. And thank you very much, Brad Meltzer. I appreciate it. Listen, always love talking to you, brother. You're listening to the Jeff Fisher Show. The experts at web.com want to bill your business a successful website for free. Plus, we'll promote it on all the major search engines. If after 30 days, you're happy, we'll continue to provide

promotion, hosting, support, and maintenance, all for one low monthly fee. If not, cancel and pay nothing. Call right now, and you'll also get a free.com or dot net domain name for your new website, powered by Veracine, the world's leading domain name provider. Call 800-215-0465. That's 800-215-0465.