Chewing the Fat with Jeff Fisher - Jeffy's Corner: Interview w/ author Brad Meltzer

Episode Date: July 18, 2015

Jeff Fisher is live from 6am to 8am ET, Saturday. Listen for free on The Blaze Radio Network: www.theblaze.com/radio & www.iheart.comFollow Jeff at twitter.com/JeffyMRA Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to the Jeff Fisher Show. Hey, it's Glenn, and I want to remind you, peace of mind is tough to come by these days unless you have a Liberty Safe. With a Liberty Safe, you won't worry when you leave the house because you'll know your valuables are protected. And right now, you can get free delivery to your home on any Liberty Safe. Go to LibertySafe.com for factory direct pricing. LibertySafe.com made in the USA lifetime warranty and peace of mind. LibertySafe.com. Joining me now on the Blaze Radio Network is the great.

Brad Meltzer. Brad Meltzer, though, some many call the greatest criminal mind of our time. No, they're not talking about me. They're talking about the great, Brad Meltzer. Brad, welcome to the broadcaster. I was just there.

I thought they were talking about you. No, no, no. No, no. You, sir, are the greatest criminal mind of all time. And yet, you know that. And yet, the greatest criminal mind of our time is doing children's books.

Well, you know, that's what I said, I said, you know, here I am. I just finished writing a thriller. I, you know, come on Glenn's show to talk about the president's shadow. We talk about, you know, this thriller where the first lady finds a severed arm in the White House Rose Garden. So what goes better with severed arms than

children's books? Absolutely. Kids have to know about that. But, you know, listen, you know why I do these books. You know me a long time. I was tired of my own kids looking at reality TV show stars and loudmouth athletes and thinking that that's a hero. And I tell my kids all the time

That is being famous And being famous is very different Than being a hero So because of this show I do on the history channel Because of the thrillers that I do I said I have so many better heroes for them So we started doing a children's biography series And these children's books

We started with I'm Amelia Earhart And I am Abraham Lincoln And then we did I am Rosa Parks I am Albert Einstein I'm Jackie Robinson And finally this week I appreciate and listen

I love you for support him I know your family supports each and everyone. And I'd be remiss and, and first of all, I would get killed if I didn't mention your amazing wife, who also is the great, not just the greatest cookie gipper, but the greatest photographer of all time. Well, she's, she's on her way. She's on her way to that.

Thank you. But, you know, you're talking about. And then this week we come out with I Am Lucille Ballas, is the brand new one that just came out this week. That's fantastic, by the way. I was just, in fact, I was just reading it with my daughter last night. And her favorite, though, is still Amelia. You know, my eight-year-old daughter loves Amelia.

And I was taught in her favor was, I asked her, well, how come you like that one the best? Because she can do anything, and so can any girl. And, right? I mean, that's the thing is that book touches people in a way. In fact, the number one email we got for Halloween and a letter we got for Halloween was people who wrote to me and said, dear Brad, for the first year, my daughter wasn't a Christmas, for Halloween this year wasn't a princess. Thanks to your book, she went as Amelia Earhart.

That's great, isn't it? That's when you're just like, oh, my gosh, like, this is just beyond what. ever I could have expected to happen here. Now, I just want to go on record as saying, I still don't have a problem with princesses, okay? Oh, no, listen, please. No one, I mean, I live in Florida, no one has given more money to support the princess phenomenon than my family.

Like, we ate in the castle, we did the breakfast, we raised the Antsuan, we did it all, but eventually, you want to give your, you know, you want to give your kids something also that they can find them real life and give them real heroes. Yes, and listen. Look around to the country. We're starving for heroes. need great heroes. Oh my gosh. Think about how many of our so-called heroes have fallen from grace and so fast. It's unbelievable. And I say, you know, when I want those, I want military

hero, you know, there are military heroes we can see every day. My work with the U.S.O. You know, that's the number one thing I learned. But I also think we have to give our kids historical heroes. And, you know, people say, well, why would you do Lucille Ball or so many others? And I said, you know what? I want my daughter. I want my daughter to have a female entertainment hero who isn't just famous for being thin and pretty. And I want, you know, Lucy doesn't just stand for the idea that it's okay to be different. She stands for the idea. It's fantastic to be different.

Yeah, and she really was. And her and Ricky were. I mean, they were. Both of them are. No question. He's still known for the, you know, so many, he created so many things for television we still use today. I mean, it's amazing. Not only that, not only that, but, you know, they became, and she became, thanks to his work and they worked together, the first woman to run her own Hollywood studio.

Right. And Desi Lou Productions, they together produced these little shows called Star Trek and Mission Impossible. You know how much nerd goodness that gave me? I gave you a lot of nerd goodness. You know, one of my favorite stories, too, is I have become a little friend to Noel Blank, Mel Blank's son. And he grew up with all these people. I mean, they used to have ping pong night at Lucy's house. every, you know, once a week.

And some of his stories are unbelievable over the years. And let's talk about that. I mean, you know, that's the key thing, right? We all know these characters, we call them characters, but we all know these heroes as famous people. So we know stories of how Lucy became famous. We know how she made her way. But what the kids' books do,

and I think it's the most important thing they do, is they show you also when these heroes were little kids themselves. Yes. So you see Lucy when she's a little girl, and the acting teachers say to her, you're not going to make it, you're terrible at this, you have a bad Midwestern accent, why can't you be more like your classmate,

a little girl named Betty Davis? Right. And then you see the dance studio reject her, you see another acting studio reject her, they all reject her, but she keeps going and going and going, because she has this principal in high school who says to her Lucy,

you have talent, but you've got to make hard work, work for that talent, and that's a lesson she takes with her forever, and I want my daughter to have that lesson. Yes. Oh, my gosh. And then you see this amazing.

My favorite story in there is you see her grandmother. When Lucy was a little girl, she lived with this grandmother who was just really rough to live with. And the grandmother used to cover all the mirrors except for the one in the bathroom. So Lucy wouldn't lead to vanity. And Lucy used to make funny faces in her reflection in trolley car windows. And I love that. I know. There's always a way.

Right. When you're facing hardship, your humor. can be a shield for you. Your humor can take on anything. And again, I need my daughter to learn that when she's facing that hard moment to use her sense of humor. And when you're rejected for no matter what it is, you know, maybe if you believe in it and are darn good at it, you just keep right on going instead of giving up. I mean, you're a prime example of that yourself.

I was going to say, right, I got my first novel that I wrote, got 24, my first novel that I wrote, got 24 rejection letters. Jeffrey, there were only 20 publishers at the time. I got 24 rejection letters. That means there were some people writing me twice to make sure I got the point. But I said, if they don't like that book, I'll write another. And if they don't like that, I'll write another. And the goal with these kids' books, it's never about just the Lucy book or the Amelia Earhart book or the Abraham Lincoln book.

Our real goal, and you know this, is to help you build a library of real heroes for your kids and your grandkids and your nieces and your nephews. Yes. Yeah, absolutely. Okay. So now we're done on why I have some I had some personal questions for you. Yeah. I know you're hawking your kid's book and you got your little president's shadow books and you know, all that.

I know you got all that stuff going on. But I see you Instagrammed a picture of yourself, you know, holding up the copy of Lucille Ball and you're wearing your t-shirt, promoting the book, which I'm sure you can get your t-shirt at Bradmeltzer.com, you know, at your store, the Brad Meltzer store where you get all your stuff. I got it. It's all good. but you're in your, you know, I'm guessing you're in your den, your workplace because there's

a big bookshelf full of stuff behind you, books and little knickknacks. Is that, and I'm guessing maybe that's where you're sitting right now. Is that where I am right now? Okay, so what you see on the shelf? What good thing? All right. So I want to know, turn around. Tell me what's your favorite thing on those shelves.

Okay, so let me look right now. I'm going to look. Oh, I can tell you right now. I know what's my favorite thing in there is. So if you look to the top right, I don't know if it's in the picture. So I got to write the job. Justice League of America, right? DC Comics hires me to put the team together

of Batman, Superman, one, or whoever I want. That's like a nerd dream come true, right? So the one thing they give me, they surprise me with when I'm finally done with the task is in the top right corner, they gave me a certificate, and it says this hereby inducts Brad Meltzer into the Justice League of America. Nice. And they

gave me my own induction certificate, like is the one that they used, you know, in the comic book, used to see Superman get one in Batman would get one, one would get one, and I have one. And that is just, that's as badass as anything. Absolutely it is.

That's really nice. You know what else is on there? There's actually like a, you'll see some old Freemason books that when people, people's relatives have died, they'll send me these kind of ancient books that they got from the Freemason. My grandpa had this in his basement. Yeah,

you got to have those, no problem. Yeah. Okay, so what's next for you? You've got TV. show, you've got the books. How many, first of all, we'll go down the list. How many books are you working on right now?

And what TV show is next? I'm working on 17 books. I don't even write them anymore. These kids in Malaysia write them for me. No, no. Listen, people think I pump them out. Like, I can't, I do a book every two years on the thrill. Yeah, I know that.

But how many, but, okay, so you do one every couple years. I got that. But I'm guessing, and, you know, I could be wrong. But I'm guessing that, you know, you come up with, say, three or four ideas and maybe you're working on three or four at a time. They might not come out until four to five years from now, but the idea is there. Yeah, no, that's right. So I'm working on.

So right now, the next book that comes out is I am Helen Keller, comes out in September. And I will say there's something really special about that book. On the pages when she goes blind, the pages go black, and they just say, this is how I see the world. Oh, wow. And then on the pages where she learns how to read, we actually had real braille put into the book. So your kids can type of braille. and it says, you know, this is my name. My name's Helen.

Can you find your name? That's great. That's great. They can really understand even more. Which really can really understand it. So then I'm working on the new thriller after that. And even actually now developing the thriller after that, because you just have to, you know, these ideas, they take a while. And, you know, they take a long time.

And I wish I could just pump them out and overnight. But it takes me years to work on each one. So I kind of bust my rear end on that. There you go. I think what's on the bookshelf that's cool, too, that you'd like this character. Now you're going to make me open the door. Let's go through my closet because I never do this with anyone, but you all do it. Oh, I got awesome stuff here.

Okay, so here's the other thing that's cool I'm looking at. So there's the convention comic book guy from The Simpsons is there. But here's the thing that's so awesome. I never tell anyone the story, but I can only do it with you. If you look at the top shelf there, there is an action figure. The action figure, when I work for DC Comics, and I got to invent my own supervillain. and they actually made an action figure of that supervillain. And let me tell you some, Jeff, if you make your own supervillain and you get your own

action figure, I think you get your own superpowers, right? I mean, I sleep with my action figure. I'll leave. I won't ask any more about that. It's okay. And then what else is on the shelf? You know what else is on this shelf when I was in college? I published a friend's book.

My buddy was the cartoonist for the Daily Newspaper. in the University of Michigan. And he didn't have anyone to publish his book. So I became the publisher and I literally keep stacks of that book in there. It's the first book I ever worked on. I mean, is that book available or you just have it around so you can look at it and say? I'm looking right now. I have two, four, six, eight.

I have ten copies. As far as I'm concerned, besides his, I think they're the only ten copies that exist. So the University of Michigan, the great Ann Arbor, Michigan. Yep. And I noticed that leads me into. you one question that I had for you that I never hear anybody ask you. I noticed in some of those pictures

from the great city of Ann Arbor, which I've spent quite a bit of time in, you had hair. When was the decision? When was the decision and what prompted you to, as my oldest son calls it, rock the bald?

Yeah, here's the thing. This is where I'm going to help every bald man out there. And this is what I wish someone said to me. This is why I love you, by the way. because I can't do, usually I do on the interview that make me hawk the books and then I'm done. With you, I can have actual fun. So here's, let's have some fun. So here's what I do.

We're going to change ball people. We're going to change men's lives. Let me say it like this first. Everyone is heading my way. Everybody. There you go. I know. I know.

I wanted to do that for a long time. And I didn't just have hair. I had like a lion's mane. Right. I had like awesome hair, which is, which I love and miss every day. But I will say this is once you start losing it and you think you could like combing moment forward to cover it and no one notices. They notice.

You're lying to yourself. And the moment you start losing it, I'm going to tell you, you don't have to shave it all ball because you've got to see what the shape of your head is, but trust me, go to the barber, have them buzz it like you're in the military, and you will thank me for it because that's when you stop looking like you're hiding something. And when I did that, I remember going to the barber and they buzzed it like the military. And I remember looking at him, and then I said, you know what? I like this.

let's go one shorter, and he shaved it like bald, bald. And then I looked at him and he took the sheet off that's wrapped around my, you know, like the barber thing they put on you, so no hair gets there. And he says, nice seeing you. Do me a favor and just come in. Because the guy becomes my friend. I always talk to the barber. And he says, just give me here, come in every couple months so I can know how you're doing.

And I'm like, what? And I realize that he's like, oh, I don't need you anymore. Right? You don't need me anymore. And I'm like, wow, you just put yourself out of business. But not really, because you could still use them. You can still use them, and I still see him, and he's a sweetheart. All right, Brad Meltzer, I'm up against the clock.

Thank you so much. You got it. Keep you on forever, but I can't since somehow there's commercials and things have to happen on a radio network that go figure. Brad Meltzer, Brad Meltzer.com. I am Lucille Ball is the latest. Helen Keller up next. Thank you so much, my friend. We'll talk to you soon.

Send you my love. Thanks, buddy. Hey, it's Glenn, and I want to remind you, peace of mind is tough to come by these days unless you have a liberty safe. With a Liberty Safe, you won't worry when you leave the house because you'll know your valuables are protected. And right now you can get free delivery to your home on any Liberty Safe. Go to LibertySafe.com for factory direct pricing. LibertySafe.com made in the USA lifetime warranty and peace of mind. LibertySafe.com.