Hello. Im Dylan Skolnick from the Cinema Arts Centre delighted to see you all here on this very, very special evening. A rare program, around to ask for their guest so i dont think need enormous introduction. Want to mention cspan is here covering this event so we are all being videotaped and will be able to see it on cspan which is i always find really fascinating. So this program is presented in cooperation with lit fest, Great Organization that you should check them out online and see all the other Great Programs if you havent already been going to it. The organizer, the founder with that has been doing this for a while but it seemed new part of our cinema family has already presented some great, Great Program chair looking forward to a bunch of more in the future. So to get the show on the road it gives me great pleasure to introduce the founder of lit fest, claudia copquin. [applause] hi, everyone. Im claudia copquin. You have a safe slippery when wet . Turns out its true. Thank you for being here tonight. I am super excited for this evening. This is a long island litfest presents event featuring Nelson Demille in conversation with representative steve israel. Its really exciting. Just to tell you a little bit of who i am, im the founder of long island litfest, the first Literary Festival now entering our fourth year. We usually hold our fullday program in the spring and its a full day of author readings and workshops and talks and book signings, and really fun and exciting so please come to our website for information and author events that we do as well. I also want to thank the wonderful people at Cinema Arts Centre for allowing us to be here and for hosting events. We hope to produce more of these like this within the next months. So again please go to our website, sign in, you would get an ibo last with information and find out whats going on and what we are doing. Our website is on the bookmark that she should all have received in a copy of your book. Before we begin if you check and your seat and you fight an extra bookmark we have a special surprise tonight, a cuban affair tshirt to give weight to whoever is the bookmark under e seat. Take a look. Whos got it . All right, crate, congratulations. Please see me afterwards and we will give you your tshirt. Just an extra little bit of housekeeping for those tonight. We are going to have a conversation followed by audience q a. You get to ask all all the ques youd like in the following that there will be a book signed by mr. Demille. All of those who want your book signed not personalize please go to the front of the line and youll you will be taken care of really quickly. And now its my pleasure to introduce tonight to moderator, former United States congressman steve israel currently serves as chairman of the Long Island UniversityGlobal Institute and University Writer in residence. In 2014 he published a critically acclaimed satire of washington called the global war on mars come partly based on national moods during his tenure in congress. His second novel big guns will be published in 2018 by simon schuster. He was a member of congress for 16 years and president clinton called in one of the most thoughtful members of congress. He served as as a regular polil commentator on cnn. He graduated from George Washington university with a ba in Political Science and his home is in oyster bay. Nelson demille is in your times bestselling author of 20 novels, six of which were number one New York Times bestsellers. His novels include tonight the cuban affair, rating angel, the charm school, the generals daughter which is made into a major Motion Picture starring john travolta. He has written short stories and articles for magazines and newspapers. He is a combat decorated u. S. Army veteran, a member of mensa, poets and writers and Authors Guild and a member and past president of the mystery writers of america. Hes a member of the International Thriller writers who honored him in 2015 as the real master of the year and he also lived on long island with his family. Ladies and gentlemen, it is my honor to introduce to you representative steve israel and Nelson Demille. [applause] [inaudible conversations] can you hear . Hello . Thank you, claudia, i always say what i want to retest on that. But thank you for that. Thank you all for being here. And. Lets give a big hand for Nelson Demille. [applause] extraordinary writing. Also on the issue of mensa, not wanting to be retested, you heard claudia kind repeat bill clintons line about me, what is most thoughtful members of the nicest congress. Have you been watching the United States congress . The bar is pretty damn low. Nelson steve, first of all i want to thank you for being here. I hardly ever [inaudible] steve such a generous man. We had a little lunch party for the book. My tenyearold son said congressman israel would speak at his class and congressman israel said yes, all if your homework that night. [inaudible] something that not doing homework tonight, congressman israel speaks to the class. Thank you for being here tonight. Happy to do. Before we get into the 2500 or so conversation and then q a with ask a very important question. How many of you have already read the cuban affair . Nobody. Okay. We dont want to give anything away this evening. Let me get right to the first question. This is but what an extraordinary book. Heres whats going to happen. Im going to predict you will get it tonight. Nelson will sign it and then youre going to ask yourself around christmas and hanukkah why didnt i get another five sign for all my relatives . After this get your book and go to the book review and buy more. Because this this is a book yod your family and your friends wont want to miss. This is not just a book about risk. Its actually i thought i risky book because you basically retired the character of john. John cory corey was making monr you as the author, making money for a publisher. And now you invent an entirely new character, decidedly different i think from corey and put him in a new setting. How much of a a risk was it for you to depart from john corey . Youre in Publishing Company how they operate. They want you to do the same thing every time with the same thing. After 35 years with my prior publisher, i finally left at a store with the new publisher, simon schuster. This is my first book with simon schuster. I thought theyre buying john corey, this series because it was doing so well but they were actually buying me and they said no, do Something Different. It took me aback but account like the idea because i got a little tired of john. John was getting on my nerves a little bit. I always remember [inaudible] charlotte kills, finally killed him in switzerland but the outrage was so much from fans that they had to bring this guy back from the dead. [inaudible] you dont survive that fall. But anyway, the risk was, i dont know if i would taken it myself but the publisher was very much behind me going to a new character. [inaudible] it became a series. I went back to my roots, a new character, and this is a standalone book. Dan mccormick is the main character. Having read every one of your books, and dont give me a quiz on them having read i read every one of yours. [laughing] congressman peter king had a great line whenever together he says between, peter has written a three novels, ive written one and have another one coming back and he says between Nelson Demille, peter king and steve israel weve sold 45 million books. You dont want to know how the equation breaks down. So mack maccormick i found him to be a departure from john corey character. He seemed more restless than corey, less granted. How difficult was it for you to divorce yourself from this character and create a new character . The character of Mac Maccormick, you have to build those guys bio from the beginning and mac, one of the reasons by the way, one of the reasons i think the publisher, i think i know why the publish one me to come up with a new character, a lot of my older characters were ready for Social Security and medicare and interim chronology of the book if you look at it you realize even john corey was getting on in years. So he asked me to come up with somebody, the only requirement of the sky should be about 35 which is the sweet spot i think in hollywood and literature. So 35 years old, too young from vietnam, too young for iraq, a bit of an afghan war veteran here grew up in portland, good family, new england side of family. Went to second tour in afghanistan, got injured. Came from a solid background but the washington. On page when we see Mac Maccormick in the green parrot bar in key west. Thats the opening scene and now hes been there three or four years and hes, he bought himself a charter fishing boat, 42foot and is got a quarter of nine dollars bank loan on them, things are going quite well. Hes waiting at the green parrot for a customer, a man named carlos. I cubanamerican miami lawyer and carlos [inaudible] mac turned it down but then the book would only be three pages long. He eventually does turn it down. I will give away the whole in fact, the first three chapters are published online at my website. Does anybody go on Nelson Demille. Net . Its free. Three chapters for free. Then i to come up with romantic history, his parents, the whole thing. The problem with creating a 35yearold, i did know any 35yearold, except my son who was 36 when i started writing writing the book. I called them. Much of it you didnt want to know. Because reminded you of you at 36. By the way, sunday was an important day. On sunday this book was the number one bestseller of the New York Times. [applause] how about that . Lets talk about cuba. Ive been to cuba several years ago. You were there. Why cuba . Did you had the idea for the book . Tell us about your trip and how it informed the book. Good question. Again, new publisher, the sp o come up with not only a new character but a plot that would be interesting. You have ideas, you had to sit and write them. The Obama Administration opened up cuba. Im a Political Science history major, a a political junkie soi was following this cuban trail. I knew a lot of cubanamericans in south florida, in miami and i have cubanamerican who lives down the block from me who escaped from the revolution and lost everything. It was at the kind the back of my mind. So im thinking about it and there was, only 2015, and then one day in the mail i get this brochure from an educational group. My son went to yale. [inaudible] he doesnt live there but they have my address so i said why not . I should really go to cuba. So i said to my wife do want to go to the Cayman Islands . So she said yeah, sure, sounds good. I called a classmate of john kerry. They graduate together in 66. He said he want to go . This will be fun. It sounded like it could be fun. He said let me call bundy, a nephew of georgia bundy. An assistant to john kennedy. He was very involved with the bay of pigs invasion and the cuban missile crisis. He wanted to go because it never seen cuba and you wanted to see where his uncle screwed up i guess, i dont know. The trip was until october but it will had to start the book, i could wait until october. I begin the book then but the book, you know, kind of took shape but didnt really come to life until i went to cuba, spent 13 or 14 days there. And because of john, they spoke to john kerry and forgot what would of amounted to a get out of jail free card in case we were busted for something. We carried it with us wherever we went. We did get a chance to see the acting ambassador. It was kind of interesting to go to the american industry which as you know, the tectonic ways released at the time. I think anybodys going to write a novel needs to go to the place because thats what really inspires you and you feel youre not a fraud. You have done this and thats what i felt whenever my book about vietnam. I had been in 6768 but i went back there in leningrad, i went there. Good resources as a writer. Finished a book, i dont know when, but when i got back and they published it in september 19. Here we are. The total elapsed time from inception to publication was almost two years . A year and a half i guess. What i thought was remarkable was, you spent 12 days in cuba but two years. Twelve days in cuba but your descriptions of places in cuba, your description of the hemingway house, your description of old havana was his if you grew up in these places. How do you pull that off . This was by the way in addition to being intriguing and spellbinding it is a a tour through cuba with its totalitarianism and disclose the side and everybody you talk to, maybe a spy or spying on spies or spy spying on spies buying another spies. Your description of extraordinary. How you do that . You have to make some of it up. Literary license. Most of it is accurate. But i am known in the business of being a tick killer a stickler for accuracy. Thats what my books come out every two years as a post every year or some authors i wont name, every three months. I just called Jim Patterson the other day. [laughing] his wife said im sorry come hes writing a book. I said thats okay, ill hold. [laughing] i didnt even realize he writes his own books. What in cuba did you learn that you would say affected the trajectory of the book . I did a lot of Book Research before i got there. It was about april what i propose the book and october before i went. What are the things that really surprised me, and you were there, a nightlife, vibrant nightlife was in a country thats very poor and with a totalitarian regime. Ive been to moscow, Eastern Europe and the grimness about the people. But the cuban people, a lot of life, the music, the art and the dance was absolutely fabulous. This has not changed since 1959 when the communists took over. The poverty was, the poverty was almost comprehensible. Everybody in cuba, you probably know this, everybody makes 20 a month. Thats the official salary 20 a month and is not even food available. They have fallen back to a barter system its very primitive, a barter system and a system of black market which is the sadiq khan which is your thing that keeps people going. Poverty was, you know, you hear about poverty but when you see it its kind of jarring. As an american you feel guilty. It doesnt have the appearance of a police state. I think it mightve felt the same thing. What are my characters in the book said this looks like any other tropical paradise and the police state is not always apparent but you must be careful. This this is a way we felt whene were there, that we just knew we needed to be careful. Did you ever feel threatened . Youre a bestselling author, the government and authorities had to know, did you feel you are being watched . Not watched, no, but we felt we could be the victim of a scam at any point. A lot of scams going on. Or when the political winds blow some way for some reason, we were talking backstage, you might know who allen gross was. He was arrested in cuba back in 2008. He was with working for an ngog some telecommunication working cuba. He had done this all over the world. He was arrested and charged with espionage by the cuban government, spent a year in solitary confinement before the trial. Was tried and sentenced to 15 years and spent five years in a cuban jail with nothing. He was totally innocent. The reason i knew, we heard the story, read about it but when he came out of jail he was very nice and he said something to the effect publicly that when he was able to get books, Nelson Demille books kept them going which i thought was very nice of them. I met him and he said i met him in washington a couple of weeks ago and we did something in atlanta together. But knowing that story, but thats what i mean about the get out of jail free. You dont think its going to work. The fact i am with two guys who were roommates of the secretary of state, you know, i thought maybe they would keep us out of jail or it might get essential. You dont know whats going on behind the scenes and what theyre trying to do at the moment. It could make relations better or make relations worse. Its a crapshoot when you go to place like that. Theres a fascinating character in the book who is eerily familiar to fans of Nelson Demille. He is a bestselling author who is doing research on cuba. Easy based on anybody we know . For some reason, i cant, i i talked to think about this, what i put myself in the book, i have no idea. It just seemed, you know,. [inaudible] i thought for sure she was going to take a step it goes me putting myself in the book and she thought it was funny, left it in. I said maybe i should take it out. One of the reasons i did is because part of the book has to do with the group i went with. I put them in the book as a kind of way for mac and is wilmot he is with to get into cuba, kind of undercover. It was a group tour. Im afraid i made fun of him because i was still this tuition for my son. Multiple things i said about them. Make fun of myself a little bit, too. On the topic of humor and having fun, the first novel i did when i sent it to my agent, she sent it back and said, its too funny. She said youve got to learn how to, where wit belongs and what doesnt. Shes of every paragraph is a punchline. The marvel of your books i think is you are able to maintain that pace of with without distracting from the story. How much of a challenge is that . I had the same criticism. A little too much, send it back, it was a great joke but do i need it here . Americans are funny so we can to make fun of things, you know, that are not funny because this is how we get through it. G. I. Humor which i havent some of my books, when youre in combat, under fire, you have to make a joke. Some of the jokes i remember from vietnam while were being shot at, its hard to believe, years ago i had a chance to meet oliver stone, and he made platoon which was a great movie. Oliver stone himself and then a combat veteran but he said to me, nelson, you saw it, do you think this is accurate . I said the only thing you left out, it was accurate, sure, bt the g. I. Humor was kind of crazy dark from the gallows humor that you need when youre under fire, under pressure. He said, he kind that in their at first but nobody would believe as i left it out. Thats the way i felt with my first couple of books. Then i started injecting more kind of american humor, dark humor, g. I. Humor. But it works. We have a few more minutes in this conversation and then we will open it up to q a so think about the questions you want to ask. What was it like visiting the hemingway house for a bestselling author . Well, you know, i said to myself, said to my wife actually, first were going to the Cayman Islands by the way. I said we should open our house for five bucks a shot. [laughing] she said no when will. [inaudible] steve and i have same publisher, same editor. Coming out in april and i just started reading it. I just got it actually a week ago. But it is really, this is steve israel, the humor, the sarcasm, politico, i dont know, we to resist you say i hope its not that its worse than you think. Thats what i was afraid of. In a few minutes we have left for this conversation tell us about your writing regimen. Its a wonderful book called regiment, how artists work and its about magnificent writers, scientists and other creative people. Each has his or her own unique workstyle are regiment. Telephone up tell us about your writing regimen. I asked the same question to office because i want to know what they do. My friend wakes up at 45 in the morning, writes until noon, as lunch. If i dont i dont get up at five and a morning. I dont even know who a. M. Until about noon. I tend to be a knight rider. This is how i started writing late into the night when i was working a real job. I have an office where i have an assistant but have another office the floor above which is just for me. A little place hidden away which i call area 51. I dont type, and i dont pretend to be able to get by on a keyboard i write everything longhand, two or three drafts on legal paper, i give it to my longsuffering assistant who can read my handwriting and she types it. I make the correction on the page and go from there. One of the reason it takes me a little longer that way but im so comfortable. We all learn how to write in the first grade with a pencil and paper, and i really havent progressed much since then. But it works. You have a concept for the next book . No. I do. What about this, totalitarian regime statecontrolled, very dangerous. You and i coauthor it and we call it the north korean affair . All right. Which one of us will go . And you are now, final question, you are now coming off of a relentless schedule of events like this. Can you talk about the process, and then well open it up to q a . The 11 city tour. Bestselling authors complain about it and others wish they could do it without asking to do. I put that in perspective when i go out on the road. I like to see my fans. Its the only time you can. Theres a whole book, you did a tour for your first book. Theres a whole book about the awful tour. Some of people who planned this in your car geographically challenged at the think you can be at two places at the same time. 5 00 in the morning wakeup calls for 6 00 flight, that sort of thing. Its exciting anyway. You are not a rock star on the road, but on the other hand, you were out there. You are seeing cities you might not normally see. I wont mention the cities but your friends, your friends come to like atlanta. I knew people in every city actually, came to the event. Its good and its bad but its mostly good. Having done it, when its done you feel good you did it because you did everything you could for your book, everything a publisher would want you to do. When youre done, like im almost done, ive got another week and then you swear never again. Never again. Then the next time you do it again. Folks, it is romance. It is intrigued. It is espionage. It is a new place and a new character. And as i said before, you are going to read it and youre going to want to buy a whole bunch more for all of your friends and relatives. Lets give Nelson Demille abbe cant. We we will open it up to q a. [applause] so do we have a microphone . Lets give steve a big bighand. [applause] thank you. Lets take some questions. Yes, sir. You have a tradition of putting people into your books within make donations, and your tradition used be if they gave you a certain amount that they would be a hero but if they gave you more they would be a villain. Are you continuing that . I tell you how that happened, to raise money for charity i wasted this thing called dinner or lunch with Nelson Demille. I never do lunch. Dinners were okay. Most of the time it was kind of fun. People were fans. They would be it at a Charity Auction and we raise a lot of money but dennis are realizing, i wife said can we just go to dinner with friends once in a while . A great friend said to be are you crazy . Are you still doing dinners with Nelson Demille . You have to do character in a book site lets go to dinner. Just auction off a character in the book. It makes sense. Action raises more money. After 15 or 16,000 to be a be a character in a Nelson Demille book. I put them in the book but weve got to be careful because you have to sign a waiver. I always tell everybody, no thing i can promise you is you will not be a prostitute or a lawyer. We have a question over here. I just finished reading, actually listening to the book on audible, scotti does an amazing job on all your books. I guess i shouldnt argue with the author, but i really found a lot of john corey or the offthecuff wiseguy character in mac that i think is in some of the books. But putting that aside, the question, truth or not, and i wont tell you what its about but the 17 american soldiers is speed is sort of a spoiler alert. I will still ask. [inaudible] is it true . Is it true . You know, its on the internet. You cant believe everything on internet. There was a guy named, i cant member his name now, testify before congress about just that subject, about american pows in cuba, in the vietnam era, vietnam pows that its kind of a spoiler i wont go further. Are you guys going to recognize people i would you like me to do it . Why dont we take you right over here. First of all, congressman, we miss you. [applause] well, thank you very much. Mr. Demille, i want to ask you a question about i i want to run for congress. [laughing] that wasnt the question but that might be good. One of your earlier books that i remember so vividly is kind of out of step with the rest of them, word of honor. That i think of quite often, i think its a wonderful book but nobody i know has read it. So could you say, tell us a bit about the writing of that book . How many people have read word of honor . It was written i think in may be early 80s i believe, 83, 84. It was a vietnam story, than me lai massacre was in my mind when erode. Made into a tv movie, tnt when nobody ever knew what tnt was but it was don johnson and Jean Tripplehorn and a good supporting cast but it was tnt, before madmen. I dont think tnt was 35 years. It was a good production. For a long time it was my vaguest selling book and was actually not originally by we worked on a project together. We did an okay job but i but it a feature film would bring the book back. I dont think the book is as relevant today as it was when i wrote it. If you havent read it, i think its the second or third book, word of honor. Was that your breakout book usa . Breakout book. Just out of curiosity how long did that take . Trying to think. That wouldve been my fourth book. There were three before that, which my first was in 1978. Cathedral was 1981, and then the odyssey was the third one and then word of honor was the fourth and i was a breakout book that made the bestseller list. An actual got these reviews is in the New York Times. Forgive me for pointing, but great questions. Right over here, please. Thank you. Akamai on . I just want to thank you so much for giving us john corey. Because there were nights when i was just so in love with him. He just has such a great sense of humor, and the books were wonderful and i just have to tell you that because i enjoyed him so much at im sad to see left but its a wonderful that you gave it to us. Thank you. The last corey book, john is available again. [laughing] other questions . Just raise your hands. Theres one back there. Do you have any tips for aspiring amateur writers, and not only building up the discipline needed to write but also develop the right balance in maintaining writing and realworld demands, like fulltime job and all that . Well, steve can also enter this. My advice, take it aspens, laid out in the darkroom and the feeling will pass. [laughing] its a tough take to aspirins. Youre a young man. A young man, holding down a fulltime job, i had an apartment, not airconditioned, on the Kitchen Table with my pencil and paper and my first wife. She typed all my manuscripts but she did a great job and thats what got me, you know, i mean, but i was able to hold down a a fulltime job and so was she. But i but i would not recommendt because i think the writing, i just said one day im not doing this anymore. One of the other things is going to happen, give up the writing or her give up the day job. I gave up the day job and start writing and it made a difference. The writing got better. I was in a bad mood because i wasnt working 50 and 60 hours a day. And also i was able to kind of connect with the business and the bit better, the publishing industry. I looked for an agent and would i committed to it, things started happening. I could have gone on as a parttime paperback night writer for ever but i but i realized o make a decision. But i am not saying you should quit your day job. I would never say that budget to think about how serious you are about writing. Steve, what do you think . I agree with you and its why i left congress. I appreciate your kind words, but i just, i learned that, put aside the dysfunction and the screaming and the bickering and the bitterness and the fundraising. Put all that aside if he can. My own experience was i learned at a certain point that i just loved to write and i couldnt write in less i freed myself of those constraints. I took a big risk and announced after 16 years i wouldnt be returning to congress so i could devote much more of my time to my craft. I dont know if it will ever be good as this gentleman but my own experience is that my own craft did get better once is able to focus on as my number one priority both in terms of time, allocation of resources, et cetera. I think there is agreement that the best advice we can give is just right. Just right. We have a few minutes for any final questions. This this is a thank you to h of you to former congressman israel. You went to bat for libraries when we really needed you and hope you continue as an author because your heart is in the right place. Thank you. And to you, mr. Demille, you were the only author who came to my library, and thank you. We cant afford to authors, you came and you are so gracious and use a wonderful to us. Thank you. Thank you. My day job. At that time i was an insurance investigator for Liberty MutualInsurance Company. It was getting interesting because its like fraud and that type of thing. Actually when i decide to quit the job what are the things i thought about was writing a novel based on Insurance Fraud and murder, the whole thing. I never got around to because business has changed over the years. I think its still a great idea. Insurance fraud, regular Insurance Fraud is like someone is trying to screw the Insurance Company but a novel, murder, life insurance, the whole thing. Now im thinking maybe that should be the book. Thank you. A a question in the back. Do you think you were born a writer or entertaining important . And what backgrounded you have to prepare you . Excellent question. How you answer it, let me just be honest. I was probably born provider. I have no formal training in writing, never took a writing course in my life. I used to think that everybody wrote like i did, and then in college several professors can be said you really write well, and one professor, English Literature medieval, that kind of thing, i wrote a paper and he said, albeit his office and said this is all yours . Is as original . Like a plagiarized and i said wow, i am accused of being a plagiarist. It must really be good. So it just, you know, with the way the mind works. You can train yourself obviously but i think most people would say it just comes naturally and you dont think about it and thats the way, but i was never, i didnt think i can turn into an occupation until maybe when i came home from vietnam. I start thinking of writing a Great American war novel. It compels compelled me to sitn and actually writing things other than trump papers, i used to write, you know, for some might say. Officers who couldnt give a speech. People are coming to me to ask him to write things for them. I finally sat down and 71, 72 to write a novel and i realize i could do it. I just remember what id read and i had a storyline, the story often unfolds or the plot unfolds and i sat down and wrote a Police Procedural and got published. Couldnt even pay the rent. Is a book you wrote that you are not able to get published that you really regret . No. Unfortunately everything ive ever written has been published. The paperbacks, the originals i wont tell you the names of them, you can find online but ii think i have every one of them burned. Right from the beginning, i never really started a book and threw it away because [inaudible] you salvage almost anything. I have a Good Relationship with editors, i know what youre looking for. They know what i can do. A lot of this is just natural. Its nothing that you can really teach yourself. I dont want to sound arrogant but i get probably 200 manuscripts a year from people who think that they will have much to do except read their manuscripts. But i would love to find a young upcoming writer, i always read the first ten or 15 pages and usually the first four pages utilize this is going nowhere. The famous line in the business is i read your manuscript and it was both good and original. Apparently what was original was not good and what was good was not original. I have maybe 40 years of writing, five or six letters i have recommended to publishers. Writers block, do you have it . Never had it. Hes going to bring the microphone over to you. Who is your favorite author and what is your favorite novel . Steve israel is my favorite author. [laughing] maybe you should run for congress. You have all the skills evidently. You know, i dont have a lot of time to read. I try to read like contemporaries because they are my contemporaries. I dont result book. Book. I dont pretend to. I want to see what theyre doing at the our friends. I want to see whats going on, what they are writing and why they are huge sellers. I tend to do that bus mens holidays type of thing. I read so much nonfiction for research i dont have time to read fiction unfortunately. I used to love reading. But when i do sit down to read something just to come on the beach, i always take an older book ive already read because i dont want to be unpleasantly surprised. I will take agatha christie, Dorothy Sayers and ill take Graham Greene who i love and ill take hemingway why think is a great writer and i read these 20 or 30 years ago but im going to read them again. Probably because i i love the l and i can learn more from reading their fiction than my peers because my peers, you dont want to be influenced by your peers. You want to read the older stuff for pleasure and subconsciously maybe that informs your own writing without it being too derivative. If you want to leave everybody with one thought about the book, what would it be . The the cuban affair . Yes. That was not suspected. You already bought it so i can say whatever what i want. The reviews have been great. I mean, you know, its like four and half stars on amazon. I dont care about the reviews usually except when theyre bad of course, but i have seen 15 great reviews and you dont normally get that kind of consistency. The only review that was a little our hometown newspaper where i came from, but its not the review per se. Anyone who reviews as a professional and also they saw Something Different in the book. It wasnt the same kind of review. They saw Something Different. They like the book for different reasons. Some of them love the characters, some of them love that you Political Part of it. Some of them love the romance. Chapter 23 is where the sex starts, chapter 23. [laughing] usually start earlier in my books but they didnt know it each other that well. Then you read the reviews which are important to me because these are regular readers. These are people who bought the book. Readers on amazon. Again, i think everyone would get Something Different out of the book, also you should know one of my shortest books. Some of them are like this. Some are like this, a quick read, 12 hours. Scott did a wonderful job, hes my john corrie character but he want to do this. I think his audio rant about 12 or 13 hours. I think you can knock this book often todays. Mac maccormick, the cuban affair, you will love this book picky want to buy more for your friends and family. Ladies and gentlemen, Nelson Demille. [applause] dolby assigning and reception in the cafe. Just come out and go down the hallway. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] join us this weekend for booktv live at the texas book festival in austin. Coverage begins today at 11 a. M. Eastern and includes what we saw in the Trump Campaign was this longstanding tension between kind of conflicts within a capitalist economy, between big guys and little guys, and so on. And as a candidate trump got a lot of mileage out of taking the side of the smaller folks, and that might be workers who lost jobs or it might be companies that are on the smaller side and cant compete with these big global interests. As president we see evelyn bit of a shift in that to some of more traditional conservative positions, which are really quite in favor of global trade and Exportimport Bank and these things. I think it is a great example. Its also an example of something that to be honest runs throughout American Business history which is profound conflict between business interests. If we have a tendency in the kind of when we talk about the politics of business today, to assume that the major conflicts are between business and nonbusiness, business and society, or business and Public Interest movement, or the environment or workers. And while those stanchions are real, theres a lot of long history of Different Industries vying with each other trying to use government as a sort of tool to secure their own benefit against others, you know, in this book, for example, i take this story all the way back to the closed area or the early national. When you have debates between sort of jeffersonian farmers who wanted free trade across the atlantic and clashing with people like Alexander Hamilton who wanted to protect northern factory owners through tariffs and two other legal actions. In a lot of ways we are seeing similar types of debates today, little businesses, small inches versus larger global ones. This weekend cspan cities tour takes you to sioux falls, south dakota, name for the falls of the Big Sioux River and will help of our Cable Partners we will highlight the history and literary life of sioux falls. Today at 6 p. M. Eastern on booktv a look at the history of native american citizenship in the u. S. With author frank palmer shine. Tribes have what is known as sovereignty. They have the authority from their preconstitutional existence of selfgoverning sovereign and thats a position the tribes take that there selfgoverning sovereigns within their territory. If you are caught stealing a horse, for example, if you are take away from any settlement of ranch country, they would hang you. So that happen quite frequently. That was what you call front to justice are rough justice. On sunday at two p. M. Eastern on American History tv we will tour fort dakota to e tv we will tour fort dakota to explore the story of the u. S. Militaries role in the west. The fort at sioux falls was called fort dakota, was really one of many forts established throughout the region and it was really i think established to provide a sense of safety and security for those settlers here. And will take a driving tour of the sioux falls. We are on one of the main thoroughfares of sioux falls, south dakota, phillips avenue, named for one of the first settlers of dakota territory, josiah philips. Watch cspans cities tour today at 6 p. M. Eastern on cspan2s booktv and sunday at two p. M. On American History tv on cspan3. The cspan cities tour working with our Cable Partners as we explore america. [applause]. Good evening. I had the great honor of being the president of the institute and its my pleasure to welcome you here tonight