On Call with Brad Meltzer and The Book Of Lies Giveaway

I almost missed the conference call with Brad Meltzer.  Last week was a week of board meetings, and in preparation for them I had been in the office pretty much all the time.  Last Thursday was the first time that I was getting to go home and I was looking forward to some sleep more than anything else. But I had read the book,  I had the list of questions that were to be asked, and I took a gamble that I would be able to take a twenty-minute nap and still wake up and participate in the call. I have to say I’m glad it all worked out because the call was a real treat.

Barely clinging to consciousness I dialed in and, forgetting that I live in the age of technology that can basically do anything, took notes (with a pencil and paper no less); the call was being recorded.  Brad comes across as passionate about his causes, humble and sweet. He admits that he explores the same theme in everyone of his novels, though he claims not have been smart enough to realize it was what he was doing, and he makes no bones abut the essence if truth in histories come from his own experiences even though the circumstances in the stories are fictional.

One of the highlights of the call for me was hearing him say (at least a couple of times) that “we hit the best seller list” and I’m assuming that he was talking about his mom (who recently died of cancer, but was able to read The Book of Lies before she did), family and others who have helped him along the way with this book and others.  It was nice to see hear his gratitude and excitement expressed in such an automatically inclusive way.

In addition to Brad talking about the creation of  The Book of Lies, we touched upon the relationships between parents and children (and more specifically fathers and sons), honesty and truth in the craft of fiction, ordinary people making a difference and charity.  Brad is a huge fan of Superman and in researching his book reached out to the Siegel family to hear their story. When visiting the house where Superman was conceived he was shocked to find it in shambles and without any recognition or commemoration of the fact that in a sense this house is the birthplace of Superman. He set about to change that and has done so largely with the help of “ordinary people changing the world”.

Brad is a big believer in ordinary people changing the world.  He says that so far it is a theme in all of his books; one person making a difference.  In that vein, I will be hosting a giveaway for The Book of Lies.  To enter simply comment on this post which is in support of Reading and Blogging for Darfur hosted by Natasha at Maw Books Blog.  Make sure you leave info where I can reach you when I announce the winner on October 1st.  Any entry that makes it in before I choose the winner will be accepted. An extra entry if you blog about it.

For more information on Brad’s project check out: Ordinary People Change The World

For my thoughts on Brad’s book, The Book of Lies, click here,

To visit the other wonderful bloggers  who participated in this call visit the wonderful sites below:

Kathy at Bermuda Onion

Stacy at Book Bitch

Eric at Broken Frontier

Jeff at Scoffery
Scotty at Superman Homepage
Carrie at Words to Mouth
Jeff at WatchTower Podcast
Kevin at Brad Meltzer is the next John Grisham Facebook group

Special thanks to Miriam at Hachette Book Group USA for putting us all in a room together, so to speak.