History and destiny. And we all know history, its what happens, but destiny is what must happen, this is true, i cannot believe this is happening by father was struck by lightning, his father, my grandfather, im not joking was struck by lightning, that means dont stand next to me in a rainstorm. Last week i was totally my son the story and telling him, my dad was struck by lightning, his dad was struck by lightning and hes like oh my gosh, we can be struck by lightning and as he said that i make you wont be but sure, yeah you might be, this is true, my son and my family, my wife or my kids were taking the amtrak train from new york city to here to washington, d. C. To this event and the train was struck by lightning, my son texted me and he said youre not going to believe what happened tonight. Destiny, thats what were witnessing, you will see them coming in late but this is destiny, a couple of things i will say that we cant do any rows in the country, first of all where is jim, jim stand up one second, hes done so much work for the lost history and all these other things and he gets to be her, i love you and thank you for all that you do, i am assume you covered all your stickers, find jim if you want to sticker of a legal version of me. When you meet him, hes your man hes like a drug dealer of lego stickers. That does look like me, this is yours. So now heres the other person i want to think, i dont do this anywhere else, raise your hand, this is amy, we call her amy wagoner, it was a couple years ago, my history teacher contacted me saying she was sick and she needed a kidney or she might die so we put on my Facebook Page and people actually said you know what, i said this teacher changed my life for the love of history, could you donate a kidney to save her. Of all of the people that i could not believe volunteered, there was one person who said hey brad i volunteer but i did not hear from the teacher, i never heard back and i said you know what youll hear back commodore shes really busy but for whatever reason i took the email and i forwarded and i said one slip through the crooks, one that we miss in the person that we missed was amy, what happened was when they got the mother contacted her and said youre not going to believe this, the woman who said that was a match, so it was six months, just six months ago amy came down to florida where i lived and she gave her kidney to my history teacher and we actually checked with the original email and they said it went to spano was gone forever. So again, history and destiny we need a cheer for amy and dave. [cheering] if you want to be a better host than me go donate a body part to a stranger, you get to be first in line tonight. , wears a kid with a playoff game, this kid right here i get an email on facebook that this kid has a Championship Little League game tonight and he said he skipping his game. [laughter] the world series of Little League tonight, he said he skipping it because he wants to come here to the book signing and his mom told me that his dad is coach dad is so mad, son is here tonight with mom coming to the front of the line. [cheering] lets look at the National Archives, i know someone is here, in the back, archivist or shy, i know who they are but thanks to my friends who are from the National Archives, they email me as they were coming out and they said the sin, theyre coming, thank you. To my wife and my kids who faced lightning to get here again, if you want to be a better person, give up a kidney then you have to fight lightning and if you do you get to the front of the line and that will bring us to the house. Now we talk about destiny, lets talk about history, this book was written by myself and todd goldberg, where are the book ideas coming from, a good idea is a living thing, someone told me that a good idea, if you do it eventually someone else will do it, that is terrifying, for five years and stuck with me, i did not know what to do with it, kept sticking with me and im like this is going to keep going, we have to figure this out, we have to do the story and the story started for me when i was in the National Archives and i was in the treasure vault, the treasure vault is a lot of good stuff, not open to the public and they took me to the back room and handed me a sheet of paper that looks like a paperback book if you turn it sideways and on the sheet of paper, there was an oath of allegiance that George Washington gave her top members of the military to sign, i solemnly swear i will never be traded into the United States, number one in the top corner, number two, three, four, five and number five the fifth one was signed by a guy named Benedict Arnold and in that moment it was a name that we call each other, we say dont be a Benedict Arnold, sometimes occurs word for people who love history but in that moment Benedict Arnold was not a name that you called someone, was a decorated officer who fought for the country and was rewarded and promoted in part of the circle of George Washington and he was a rope person who put on the paper and i cannot shake that, i heard the story which really cracked the book open, the last moment between Benedict Arnold and George Washington are among the most heartbreaking in u. S. History because they were bffs of the revolutionary and what happened was when Benedict Arnold traced George Washington they say its one of the only times George Washington was seen crying. In the image of George Washington in our country stuck with me and then i heard this detail, Benedict Arnold wrote a letter in Alexander Hamilton didnt deliver and rapport somebody deliver this weather from Benedict Arnold to George Washington and in this letter he said he asked for three things, one, dont tell my wife she did not know i was a traitor, too, dont tell the staff they did not know i was a traitor either. And three, one of the craziest moments of history he says do me a favor, can you please send me my baggage and my belongings and this guy put a knife in the back of George Washington, the most hated man since judas himself, he said can i have my stuff in the amazing part is to this day nobody knows what was in the baggage that George Washington sent back to Benedict Arnold, and nobody knows what was in that baggage, i do not want to ruin chapter 85 of the house of secrets but on chapter 85 you will see my theory and i cannot shake that idea, the five years, over half a decade i finally am like i got a figure how to do this idea and thats where i met todd goldberg, my cowriter on this book, when you was someone else to write, you can pick someone who you think is worse than you, someone who is as good as you and someone who is as better as you, better than you, that is your choice and to me i know who im picking, i want the guy who is better than me and could do something that i think i cannot do, and things that i struggle with, he is an amazing, they try to get me for years and they said the mystery writer to parapet with a thrill writer, 70 would like to work with, the most part i said theyre going to give me more plots, i went someone who can do character like nothing ive ever seen before and instead i found a literary writer who is amazing a character, he kills a character and what i love a wonderful book that i highly recommend in the six months after we were working together and it got nominated, book of the year he lost to a guy named stephen king and my publisher was like who are you working with an eye mike i know, hes a killer, trust me and what i love about this book and how its been received in the great reviews its gotten, because todd and i really together did something that neither of us alone could do, what happened i knew the opening scene of this book, it was going to start with a girl named hazel who sits on her fathers lap and heres the story for the first time, a gruesome story and she heres the story that six years old, her dad hosted a conspiracy tv show. [laughter] i dont write any books unless i listen to people. And he tells the stories to her that in the revolutionary time he was a frozen body that was found and he says that this body when they did the autopsy they opened it up and inside the body was a block of wax that contained something and they cut open the wax and in there is a priceless book, a book that belongs to Benedict Arnold and the 6yearold girl says tell it again, its different than everyone else, hazel is the girl that put their hands on the stove and burned it in the next day she comes back up with the different hand on the stove and burns it again. Different than all of us. Lets talk about the book, it opens up and hazel wakes up in the hospital, shes 30 years old and shes in the hospital and has no memory and she finds out theres been an accident and her father is dead, the host of the conspiracy tv show and they say the last person that her father was seen with, they found him dead and when they cut open his body they found their first memory that she can recall, they found a book that belonged to Benedict Arnold, in that moment she realized the stories are told as a little girl had truth to them, they had warnings to them and advice and they were all just for her, one was a training of his daughter all these years. And from there she finds guns that were in her house, she does not know how they got there, scars on her body and she cannot recall those and she quickly realizes only by solving this murder could she figure out who killed her father and also who she really is, she is the mystery of this book, not a great plot but the best plot is a great character, hazel is the character, she has no memory and she cannot remember people of emotional memory loss, is not amnesia, no one gets amnesia but she had an emotional memory loss which means the people she was most connected to she has forgotten them, she can walk into a bar and that guy that she is attracted to she does not know if it was someone she loves or her worst enemy. And now everywhere she goes is an adventure, everywhere she goes she think maybe i was not a nice person, and shes echo my gosh dont start trouble again, again, she has a moment where she can relive her life, she will restart her life and i love that as a character because everything becomes an adventure in that moment and everything is new and think about it for a moment, if we could take a moment and knock ourselves in the head with a hammer and start over and have our lives new, i would pick out a new hammer, its an amazing idea, what i loved about it we became perfectly with an idea that i be carried around for five years, is Benedict Arnold, the fun of it, Benedict Arnol arnold is thk of the story but is not the bad guy were the good guy, Benedict Arnold is like all of us, the complicated guy, complicated man we are not good, not bad, but we are all complicated, i realize in hazel as he finds his life he used to have, its like i wasnt so good and he had a chance to suddenly be good and on sundays it is good and some days it is bad just like the rest of us we are all amazing and we are all cowards and stupendous, some of us all in the very same day, that is who we are as people in todd and i read in this character and in this plot we can explore not just hazel but the stories of Benedict Arnold and what it means to be good and be bad and what this is really about. The fun of it for the real history i always love that stuff and by the way have the resources i have are hidden in the crowd and i see a couple of them, look around, judge each other completely, washington, d. C. , heres one of the things when i was researching the book, i met this it was his best intelligence that came from. And she said years ago there was a dictator who hated the United States, the dictator who did the United States, he hated us to their heart into their bones right into his heart and his bones what no one knew is a dictator with a top lieutenant that was actually working for the United States, he was a spy for america, i was like why, do pay money for the very best reason at all, because of family. What happened was a top lieutenant who needs medical attention that only the United States could give and so we gave this young child our attention in exchange for a dictator and kept the hands out of the extremists and you will see in the book, you will ask yourself, i did not make it up, it is real, it happened, i get the feel the book with details like that, thats why the house of secret oats opens and you get to explore hazel and you get tix for this world and if shes good and Benedict Arnold is amazing. And that is where the book starts, what i would love to do is answer questions about the book shes trying to get my attention and you can ask about the thrillers but i will tell you the one thing i need to say here thank you for hosting lets get some questions and looks for summer research, my buddy leo has a question for you. I am ready. To the millionaire heart lingo set come out, if you havent seen, this is where im going to break your hearts heres the thing, and i were putting on tv so makers can help us you not star wars, not marvel, but i did not need you to tell me that, i know very clearly, and if you get 10000 people to vote, we will consider making it and how the ghostbusters that was made is how i met your mother set, how i met your mother set was built by the woman who built this. And if you put the words, right now we Just Launched this, we have 2000 people, i can see the crowd is over 200 people here, we better be 2500 tomorrow and if you put the words lego a millionaire heart in google, this will be the first thing that comes up, go to the page, give them the fake one that you give all the marketers. [laughter] and vote. In 11 they comply star wars, you know everybody has more in this room and i also love that i can give my kids a lego set of amelia earhart, of real heroes and if we can do that i want to do in Abraham Lincoln set in Albert Einstein and every set that we can do and how great would it be if we can inspire our kids with a real amazing toy to play with, please thank you, i appreciate it. Thank you, legos for amelia earhart, go, other questions. Yes in the back. What about a Susan B Anthony lego set. Now Everyone Wants their own lego set. Dont worry, i promise. She wants Susan B Anthony, who did you want. Eleanor roosevelt, this is what you kid Martin Luther king jr. From the kid who speaks Little League. George washington, right, this is what i want to do, this is what i want to see america do, tell your dad, if you love me you will register tonight, and if you dont register and vote, you dont love me dad, you say those words and watch what you get. The inner circle you have the Scavenger Hunt that you cited in the book, do you have bigger plans for doing Something Like that. As you know, i love hiding things and all my books, i cannot do a tv show called the coded without playing some decoded, one thing we should talk about is kind of conspiracies, first a few things, on this question, on the inner circle i had a secret code that was hidden in there and if you crack the secret code that is hidden in the pages of the inner circle, there is a reward that was there, if you founded the reward was hidden and are not told you where in america it was hidden and hes sitting here and cracked it, he was sitting here for four years. [applause] jim also loves a good code, he was kind enough to put it back, if you want the treasure, ten in the pages of the inner circle, and in the kid books, i am hidden in every book. I saw that. So the guy who looks like me, you will see, you think im yours, there were so many things hidden the kids book, i had my number 27 and i do hide in the next kids book we had lots of fun things in the number 27 is special to me and anyone watches it will know as well. , here is the thing, right now i hosted four years of conspiracy tv show they were really on the french, and with conspiracy would sit with a garage with a comic book. You are a fringe group and in a holiday somewhere once a month and so on every screen and every television, is the same thing with conspiracies, they are now mainstream, used to live in a world where you had to be talking about conspiracy and now you have donald trump talking about ted cruzs dad being involved with lee harvey oswald, and hillary say shes going to release records on ufos if she gets elected, the two main candidates running for the presidency are literally talking about major mainstream conspiracies. They are not just the fringe things anymore, what happened and what i love that we do, one of the fun parts of writing about egg you sticks for what it was like i realized over time that people tell me secrets in the department of Homeland Security called me and bring me in, i had the president of the United States write me letters, i went with george h. W. Bush who wanted to spend the week in houston and people from fort knox said they want to talk to me about whether theres gold in fort knox anymore, in fact i got one day through the lawyer, the family who shot Abraham Lincoln, tracked me down. And said to me, it was an amazing moment that this is a family and everyone knows if you read any history book, the 12 days after Abraham Lincoln was shot, john was then killed, this is his family and they actually escaped and they have the proof, do you want to hear the story . [laughter] yes, i want to hear that story, i want to hear that story, to me i love the people tell me the secrets, i went to a private lunch in the white house and walked in and had private lunch in the president s private dining room, where they telling me secrets, i write thrillers for living, and hosted a tv show about conspiracy and i realize im the perfect by, i am, the thing is the more i insist, the more you laugh and the more you say maybe hes telling you the truth, thats what i just want you to think. That is it, i have the perfect cover, i can go anywhere and everyone thinks im making fun research for another thriller and i said how do i not use that idea and the next book, the house of secrets creates a in the fun of it is the other side of what maybe work on this and what happens, when conspiracy becomes so mainstream, when you have president ial candidates talking about a, there is a true industry of conspiracy, that is wellwritten now, true industry and you can a lot of people who regulate do it and they do in the most odd ways and although its not fear mongering and the government sought to get you in hardest thing of all to the american people, hues of the kurdistan dog, the best story about, the true story and when we first started filming, one of the producers said the last fact that you had, the more scary. [laughter] thats industry of conspiracy, that is sad to me, i will never do that show, i never want to be part of that show and when you read the house of secrets, youll see what its like from the inside of what its like to be one of these people who gets to host a conspiracy tv show, i wanted to be regularly involved and because of that people come to me and i had someone sign an event in all of these Amazing Things just because of the job that i have and i love that i get to do that and obviously secrets and all of those things are forever a part of this project and all the projects that i work on. Yes. She said i watch things that i dont like it i dont know why. Questions of tv shows and movies, she wants to talk about that, so for those of us who love law history and the History Channel, we love doing history for the fate of lost history, everything it was supposed to do, and really did, we were so happy with the readings and the performance, the only issue, im sure you realize on your cable channel is that h2 which we were on, History Channel actually got changed over the network, they just change the channel and rebranded it, thats where we went, we love working with a History Channel and i will tell you it looks like will film special for the end of the year end were very excited to be doing that, we will hopefully have Something Back soon and as for movies and things like that, i cannot say anything but lets just say hide my fingers crossed for something to announce about the house of secrets very soon. Im all excited for that one. How is that for ministry. Can you tell us where use got started with storytime. I love a good story, anyone who follows me a facebook, we started realizing facebook rolled out and now on everyones Facebook Page was doing live video and use but to do anything, what youre eating for dinner, short life in him i want to see that and you know what we could do the technologies tell stories, remember on sunday nights, sunday nights was a family night and i love the idea that on sunday nights you can bring back the lost art of telling stories we use this technology and i just got on facebook on 8 00 oclock on a sunday i would read stories to people in the first time i did it we had about 200 people watching and then we had 300 people watching and then by the time we got to the end, we had 2000 people watching live in when we were done we had 100,000 people to watch the video when it was finished, the point where we had captain underpants himself, he came to my house and he was like this is what youre doing with the waynes world of literacy, or just do it in my house, he sat there with me in my sons favorite book, captain underpants and we had that and we had 50000 people, it was incredible, it was an amazing thing and we plan on doing more stories during story time and ill tell you that is a film was someone so famous it is insane, i wont say who it is but it is someone who is current or past in the white house the end it is a funny storytime i promise to oversee and we are editing and putting it together because you want to save it for special moment but it is coming back so check on my Facebook Page and youll see us. How did you go from writing to yourself how do you go from writing to yourself and then submitting and publishing the book, i will tell you that when you sell writing you dont ever imagine youre gonna be sitting here in cspan will be here in italy like doing 50 of her closest friends, you write because you have a story to tell, it is so pure and beautiful, i started writing because a job that i went to did not work out, i went to boston to move my stuff to boston in the week i got to boston, my mentor took me under his wing, he lost the job, i thought i wrecked my life, i did what anyone would do when you think you wrecked your life, i sent them going to write a novel. That was the most logical thing i can think of and i did not know what it was doing, i tell my story for myself and that first novel got me 24 rejection letters, there were only 20 publishers and i got 24 rejection letters, that means some people were making sure i was getting their point, in that year i fell in love and i said is been on my book and im going to write another and if they dont like that all right another, the answer in terms of submitting your book, you go to brad meltzer. Com and youll see who wants to write and publish the book, all you have to do is get one person to say yes, one person tells you yes, one editor in your published author, your job is to find that person, i look back on the experiences say i have 24 rejections and i was right and they were wrong and haul on them, thats another way to look at it, another way, life is suggested, whatever you do with your life whether your teacher, stay home, lawyer, doctor, the military, whatever you do dont let anyone tell you no, dont let anyone tell you no, if you love it, keep doing it and then youll submit it and then you find someone who will say yes and your job is to find them, keep going, keep going, keep going. Other questions . Real quick did you tell yourself off in the book. Just a second, i know you went to michigan. The first one is did you kill yourself in the book because your character and you said you hosted tv shows, i did, i totally did, had the opportunity, the character in the book youll see in the house of secrets what happened to the character who is supposedly me but has nothing to do with me but the fun part of writing a book where you have a job, i wont look at her, no. Thats actually my favorite part, that person who feels so bad. What i love that we get to do when you do Something Like that is we really do get to put myself in this world under the microscope and you will see in the book the fun part with the conspiracies, with the business of telling conspiracy stories, every once in a while you have to solve one, if you dont the audience think youre full of it, you gotta bring a truth, fact, solution and if you dont eventually you will lose faith and they go somewhere else. What is wild when watergate happened, every dream and every nightmare that everyone had about the government was real, the government was not out to get you, they were lying in the president really was into your house at night, all of her fears became true, in that moment every conspiracy felt like water and sunlight for every other horror story that would come after that, especially so close to jfk, to me thats an interesting part about conspiracy, we get to in the pages and even though its a thriller you get to pull apart what it makes and the second one was about michigan, the more i think about whats happening in flint and no one is in favor of the disaster but also you the one of my greatest moments in my entire life took place just a couple weeks ago because i got to go back, i went to ann arbor michigan, the university of michigan, think in the back, they asked me too deliver the commencement address of the Michigan Law School in the amazing part was, i really gave a speech before because when i was 22 years old living in washington, d. C. , my mentor eli siegel gave me that job and hired me and he actually was a speechwriter for americorps for the president s National Service program in one of the first speeches that he asked me too work on for him was his commencement address at the university of Michigan Law School and here i was when i was 24 years old, now i was back there at six years old, and all those years later, the amazing part was, i talked about in the speech, i think it was a really good and important thing that i need to say, one of the hardest things in the greatest risks that you will ever take any life is we know what we want but we need to admit, its hard for what you want because if you do you might not get it, you might fail but the way you know what you want, you have to admit what scares you and you have to admit what brought you here in the first place. When i was doing the speech and i remember told the story, i got talked about about your fear, when i used to work at the haagendazs ice cream in florida and i remember this woman came monday and she kept snapping her finger at me and she was like serve me and we actually convinced the owner of the store when we were 17 to make us a manager of the store, then friended me, we worked there for so long and i worked there since i was 15 and so we were the managers of the store and this woman is not unto snapping her fingers and i said ill be with you one second she said you will serve me now and i said maam when youre rude like that i will not serve you and she snapped her fingers some more and says they want to see the manager and i said ill get the manager for you, can i help you and she says youre not the manager and i said i am and i said im still not going to serve you because youre being so rude and she said youre going to work at this miserable Ice Cream Store for the rest of your miserable life and i said maam if i was here for the rest of my miserable life, youre still never getting your ice cream. And i tell that story but as i sat there and i should say there i had a really rough time with money and i thought i was never going to succeed, it made me feel like my life was a limited and oneway, even though that is irrational, was not about wanting money or success like that, it was the fear of real problems that was going to be brought on and i was terrified of that, i realized in that moment when i knew what i fear, i also knew that that year drove me to succeed, and drove me too do everything at the reason that im here today, but my rocket fuel into me, i feel like it so important to say, youll see in the pages of the book, it is right there in the book, it is for all of you, your greatest friend there was a greatest weakness, its also a great strategy, find what scares you and let it be your fuel, as for this, when i got to the end of the speech i went back and looked as my mentor eli when i worked on windows 24 years old in washington, d. C. , i tracked down the speech and i wanted to see this was the speech that i had words that i may not have written and i cannot remember the truth is i had no idea when he wrote the speech how long i wrote and i did not read, that is lost in history, what i did find was the lines the said this, is said to all of you who are sitting here today that i hope in 33 years from now that one of you is lucky enough to be sitting appearing giving the speech, whoever it is in the audience, you are just that, you are lucky and as i was reading the speech i was in my office crying because im like oh my gosh, he is talking to me, i couldve written the line i didnt even know it was like i was talking to myself, i was in a time machine and i feel like i need to leave you with this, i feel here today in this town and where he started writing for the first time, i feel so lucky to be here and thank you for supporting me with the kids book, i thank you for supporting me with the thrillers it means so much, ill take one final question we can go from there. Who is your historical figure that you most identify with and why and also who is a historical figure over the centuries and the millennial that you most are inspired by. Who do i of historical figures identify with and who inspires me, you know what that is what the core of it is, my values, for those of you dont know i was tired of my own kids looking at Reality Tv Show and loudmouth athletes and thinking the best of the heroes, if sony better heroes for them so we started with a millionaire heart, Abraham Lincoln, we have done i am Albert Einstein, im jackie robertson, im rosa parks, i wanted my daughter to have an entertainment hero that was not just famous for being pretty and not to say that its okay to be different but is spectacular to be different and i am helen keller when she goes by the pages of the book goes black, this is how i see the world, cover your ears heres how here the world, when she learns to read braille, i am helen keller, this is my name, my name is helen and it says what is your name in the real braille alphabet is in the book, i love that helen keller never stops, each book is not about a person when theyre bored but a moral lesson into me helen keller that says i will know no limitation or i will know no bounds, it is absolutely always always being curious, those are my answers, thats who i admire, Abraham Lincoln is the one, he is the one for me hes the one that lives up to the hype every time in his book he will always choose kindness and speak up for others. This is what it says, on the front, the most important part of the book is not whats on front, its a moral lesson which would benefit in the book, it says i will always speak my mind and speak for others, that is something to aspire for kids and i will tell you in september we are doing i am George Washington and there were doing i am james which im super excited to do. [applause] its great, i will say this, and the house of secrets we do a lot of George Washington, when we did i am George Washington i said in putting the closeup of the kids books, there is no carrier tree, led to the writing given this information, i would put this in their and say this is how George Washington and the secret code name was 711 and my editor said we need to put this in here and i said we totally need to put this in here, and i refuse books for my son and invisible ink, i said thats so cool, editors, when i get to high am George Washington we will see in one copy, how awesome would that be, with my phone number that will come up. Not that it didnt happen, im saying that it would happen, then we actually would tell you that we also are doing six more books, we will delete 18 of these now. With that said, im not going to tell you, it is the best person that comes after George Washington and james goodall, i cant wait to share with you, it just has to get to a clearance because theres so many things to be clear, i promise if you think with that said, thank you to everyone for coming tonight and i really, really appreciate supporting the house of secrets and thanks to cspan for hosting us all, i really appreciate it. [applause] really quickly can we give him one more look round of applause thank you. Coming up on this afternoon present Trouble HoldingNews Conference on the white house, will have live coverage starting at five eastern on cspan2. Also Available Online at cspan. Org or listen with the free cspan radio app. Weeknights this month for future book tv programs as a preview of whats available every weekend on cspan2, tonight starting at eight eastern, york times journalist reported on a girl scout troop living in a homeless shelter in your city and she offered her thoughts on why some americans are moving away from traditional religion, later journalist Erica Barnett looked at addiction in america and discussed her own struggles with alcoholism. Enjoy the tv on cspan2