To shelter. [laughter] how many nonfictions have you written . I dont count. Probably four or five. The first one was a jeffrey epstein, filthy rich which is now i think it just dropped the video today it is a fourpart like on the 20th of the month or Something Like that. And Erin Hernandez did that and then this when i have a jon lennon coming out in the year which is really interesting. This was connected to a house that jon and yoko owned. Theres actually a bridge between these two houses. So who used to live in your house . Nobody famous. It is a disgustingly big house. They were here for a while and he held on for a while after she was killed. Host another Famous Family why did you choose to write about the kennedys . Guest it seemed to me this was the Great American family story. Their family such it is its the american crown in my opinion. What i wanted to do is write about the whole family there plenty stories about jfk and robert et cetera. But in the same way with the crowd through Queen Elizabeth is good to tell the story to the Kennedy Family these characters are a lot more interesting than Queen Elizabeth was. She is a great lady the book starts with a scene that sets the tone in my opinion. Joe senior has had a stroke, he cant communicate very well he cant speak hes in the house he is really, really cold he finally gets the attention of one of his nieces that he is cold. She goes rummaging around the bedroom and the first thing she finds that she can cover joe with is a flag she covers him with this flag and the flag she covers him with is the flag that covered jfks coffin. That is like a great scene and thats what this book as it scene after scene after scene to tell the kennedy story. Host mr. Patterson we think of the Kennedy Family beginning with joe but really began with the grandfather pj . Guest one of the interesting things is he died 105 years to the day that jfk was assassinated. But patrick and my story the story that i tell pretty much begins with joe, joe senior. And then it just goes to the whole thing people talk about the kennedy curse and has to do with all of the tragedies in the family. But on some level i found it curse it was an unintended one. I think joe and rose to some extent created it and that they pushed all of these kids to be the best they can be. They were all super motivated including port rosemary who could not live up to that. She was a little slow and had been an accident when she was born. And in trying to deal with that in sort of get her up to speed, they brought her in for an operation which was considered promising back in those days. It was a lobotomy. Chin up institutionalized for the rest of her life. Yet these people incredibly motivated but also big on take a risk, climb that tree dont worry if you fall down and break your arm climate again. That is sort of the real kennedy legacy. Go out there take the risks be great can be the president we have four president s of the family thats as it should be. Host what was his motivation . I think he was driven. My grandmother used to always say the hungriest dog eats best. I think he was a hungry dog i think he wanted all of the kids to be that way. Host was there a desire to rise above . Cement yes when he originally got involved with rose that was the first halfstep he was more established in terms of society, still halfstep down because he was irish, but a higher station than what joe senior came from. Host aware did his money come from . A lot of it came from but the things with joe, to have a guy like that winding up running internal revenue, one point fdr this is really pretty amazing. Joe was sent over to be invested in england, right . And fdr was breaking his chops and he said you want this job right . Well pull down your pants and got to look at your legs because your legs and butt he knew joe is not an trent knock kneed. That was the thing in English Society up to show your legs shorts and whatever. More than anything else theyre just having fun with joe. Host those liquor sales he made his money legal or elite or illegal . Guest illegal for the most part. Host what did the boys bring from joe as far as motivation . Guest i think the same thing ironically once they went to world war ii he wanted to protect them they had the fathers desire to go out there and do it, take risks they both end up doing Dangerous Things finally got i try to deal with each kennedy in the book the three or four chapters on young joe intake summary has the tragic accident he winds up on that very famous pt one oh nine. Both of them put their lives at risk student were joe junior and jack different people . Guest oh yes and pretty competitive. He was very sickly as a kid and continue to be sickly, one thing to another terrible bad back, he had been hospitalized even as a student. Its not like what kids are going through now he was homeschooled a lot. Host James Patterson, what was roses role . I wish i had gotten more, were working with barbara hall. She was the showrunner on madam secretary. She wants to do this notion of the american crown. I think as she treats that she will make more of rose i kept trying to get more and more, and oral histories and whatever are available. Could not get enough on rose. She was the mom, she was behind the scenes once again it was a different era she was strong in her own way and certainly influential in terms of them being driven as much as they can be. When youre working on the house of kennedy we are so multiyear a chance of writing a thriller . Along this wall there are all of these stacks of manuscripts, there is like social backyard not making it up at the kid kids books. As another nonfiction thing im doing now. Matt was the actual member the movie black hawk down he was the actual sgt he went on to become a first sergeant, ranger Training School et cetera. We are doing a book now walking in my combat boots which is an interview with people going into combat and then you take these interviews into five or six pages. Arent mentioned is if you went to combat, these guys got it right. Youre one of these people you think you know about what people say they read a salve no idea. But we can all see again and again people come back and they dont talk about. Host how my interviews will you do for that speech is pretty much done we did a couple hundred interviews, we didnt use all of them. Steve only talk but all those manuscripts sitting around you wake up with an idea . Yes this morning i did. I was in here about a quarter till five. My wife is like where you going . A while back, not too long ago i bought the rights, you know only the shadow knows for sure . I bought that and i had an idea about something to do with that character that would make the character a lot more relevant. In this morning, i think i woke up at four something in mulling these couple of scenes that i thought were important. And also in new york in the era that this would take place i rushed to the room, this term, this computer and started playing with that. Host is that computer offline . Oya statements are no one can access what youre doing . I hope not. Probably they can. What is the difference between writing a nonfiction and a fiction book . Guest not supposed to make things up. Heres a weird thing about nonfiction, bill bryson dealt with this he wrote a book about shakespeares a great short book for him especially, and that he talks about the fact that nobody knows anything about shakespeare. Nobody knows anything for it we know the plays we have the place is like what images that kind of in the way he looks there is one piece out of a Court Proceeding and that is it. There are hundreds of books about shakespeare, are you kidding . Where are these are they all novels and fiction dont know anything about shakespeare, bizarre. Anyway the hard thing for me is i cant make things up. Its really one of the first ones written about king to i wanted him to live. [laughter] one of the things i learned in the house of kennedy was the number of years they spent in new york. Guest and in london the family was in london for your half or so. Doing several years the bronx. Guest yes there down hereto. When he was pitching george magazine he had a magazine he put out before he died but he would go around to mainly older investors. He would say the weird thing is, you all knew jfk, i didnt. And then is an interesting thing about this book two. You know, a lot of people, people who live through it would say oh my god i thought i knew everything about the kennedy, i had no idea there so much i didnt know. But for a lot of people they dont know anything. Younger people they dont read history now, they dont know any of the stuff it is an extraordinary story. I hope a lot of younger people read i mean under 40. Host James Patterson what is it like to have a book come out in the middle of what were going through right now . Guest well, theres been nothing like this certainly in my lifetime, ive nothing to compare it to. I guess the closest of this a be before me is what was going on a world war ii by the sink writable number of males out of the country in danger, foreigner 20000 americans died during world war ii. But even that probably was not as extreme as whats going on now. Books are doing fairly well actually. My books are doing well because people can or member my name and they go online and they say who do i remember the name they sell patterson. We are doing fine, this book is doing one of the cool things this goes to show you about around the world, this is the sunday times its the london times, front page in the london times six pages inside thats how interested in england they were in this book. Which is really it was extraordinary to me. New york times in here not so much. [laughter] host do miss the book tour do not enjoy those anymore . Guest i did a big home with president clinton, that was fun, really big audiences. We might do another books will probably do another big tour. I will do speeches now its more big groups of librarians or teachers i did one right after President Trump was elected it was about 3000 librarians in indiana. You can imagine that librarians are be a small number and President Trump fancied want to go into a dead room like at 8 00 oclock the next morning that was interesting. I am sure will be doing more in some way, shape or form. You come to my office still moved love to take a tour of your office sometime too. [laughter] guest not right now yeah, yeah, yeah. Host do you consider yourself a historian . Guest historian . No. I consider myself a storyteller. With kennedy and jon lennon to some extent a lot of information is out there but has not been put in one place. One of the things about nonfiction, an awful lot is written for academics or people worried about was got to get every single i happen to like the thousand pages on u. S. Grants. But a lot of people its more that they want they dont want 1000 pages of u. S. Grants. This is more the house of kennedy reads more like a novel. Its very readable really moved its not everything about the kennedys but is an awful lot. As i said people that know the story say theres a lot i didnt know a really reminded me of a lot of the stuff i didnt know. Host how did you get into childrens books . Guest had a kid it had a boy, jack. He is an interesting little dude. And heres 45 are going to l. A. And he said even a miss me . And he said no not really. I was kind of taken aback and said love means you can never be apart. I was like wow party told him right there if you Say Something in our house, i now own that line. You can use that in my book et cetera. Nice i am still that way he is still that way but he was not big reading is a kid but not a bright reader. My wife and i assume, when he was eight we said hes going to read that summer. People should be doing this now. Got about a dozen libraries and looks for him with that would really turn him on. They range to a wrinkle in time we have to unless you went to live in a garage. With that we had books to turn them on by the end of summer hed read a dozen books when he took his sat got perfect score in reading. Not every kid thats gonna happen, but they are all going to get a whole lot better. Right now in this country, more than half the kids in this country do not read at grade level. That is disgusting. That should be in every president ial debate that should be dealt with every day. Everyone should be talking about half the kids this country dont read at grade level . That is correctable. I work with the university of florida were trying to work with the governor right now they have a program they have that number, university of florida has it up to the mid 80s. We can correct this. I dont know how to collects Global Warming i dont how to influence that as an individual. We can actually solve a lot of this with kids reading at grade level. Kids watching at unity of their kids and grandkids. I think my kids books are my best books by the way. Im doing one now, we want kids around the world to know about Albert Einsteins scientific theories. They very smart as you expect that you have to make it entertaining. I said so all i have to do is write about Albert Einstein and make it entertaining for little kids . And they said thats it. Stomach think the series of books are very entertaining i can guarantee anybody watching if your kids read one of those, by the end of it they will be entertained they will love the book they will know more about einstein than you do wish the pretty cool promise. But because of that, muhammad alis estate came and they we would like you to do a book when mohammed was a little kid in louisville. I went out and approached a good friend of mine and so we did a book together which is going to come out i think in november about him. Remembering or becoming muhammad ali is the name of the book. It is a combination, i write the pros and he writes poetry is very accessible poetry. We tell that story and how he became muhammad ali. It answers a lot of stuff, its fun and exciting. Keeps me going during this mess. Host is that one of the goals . Guest absolutely thats to make it easier for parents and teachers to find books that will turn their kids on. Which is important. A lot of times when out to a Hardware Store i dont want to ask for dont look like a fool i know i need nails but i dont know what kind of nails i dont to be made fun of by the person at the counter prayed lot of people feel that way about bookstores they dont know what kids book and they dont want to look stupid until they dont go they dont go and they dont ask thats terrible is not their fault necessarily, parents and grandparents, it is your responsibility to get your kids reading its your responsibility. You dont let them come in and track mud all over the living room floor, you make them sit down at the dinner table for at least a meal and then you need to get them reading. They are not reading at grade level you got to take that on your own shoulders its a terrible burden for the kids if they go through school and they are not reading and they are not competent readers and make school so, so hard. Host are you of the school we see kids on your phones and you shake your head . Guest i try not to get too crazy about it but sure absolutely. Stomach adults, kinda maybe a little bit. Im not crazy about it i dont get angry about it, but you do a little bit you like okay new world. But its the same with adults. You will see people, three people at dinner theyre all on their phones youre like oh my god there are people there at the table in the old days member when we used to go to dinner . It used to be fun. Host i vaguely remember that. During this current situation, mr. Patterson, if also been active in helping independent bookstores. What if you been doing . We reached out i got involved with Reece Witherspoon who is also very concerned about authors, bookstores and books. We established a help bookstores. Com i guess weve raised about a million seven that will be distributed to bookstores all of it no handling fees no nothing. I put in a half a million. Thats a good thing that will help. If nothing else, its not going to solve their problems they will get some money and they will go okay, people believe in us and there is hope. That made my day a little better today. Hopefully now, as things start to open, hopefully in a lot of these places they will understand that bookstores are as essential as Liquor Stores and gun shops. Once again, there should be a reasonable way to take therefore people into a bookstore and everyone can wear their mask and stay apart and you can pick out a book. Hopefully we can do it in a knife and trent nice, safe smart way. To bookstores start opening up again now. Until that the same way and im sure they will still do it in the same way. Host does a bookstore owner applied to a grant . Other Strings Attached . You have to do this or that . Guest we did it through a group i am so bad, they will distribute it. There are a couple thousand independent bookstores that are on our list. The money will go out within the next couple of weeks. Host its just purely a grant . Yes here it is. God bless you and hopefully this will help and if you can bring a couple of your employees back. I do think we will have a fair number of bookstores opening in the next few weeks or month. Host are you a fan of amazon . Guest madonna and trent amazon does a lot of good things i dont think they did great things for publishers or books in the beginning. They do a lot of good things i think they could do better ive talked to them about it, especially with kids can really get kids reading it could really do a number if they want to do, that would be a very useful, terrific thing to do is valuable as anything they could do i think. Host you have worked with bookstores not just during this crisis but with scholarships and awards correct . Guest we have 400 some scholarships for teachers now and 37 universities so we do that. I work with scholastic, with bookstore libraries im sorry not classroom libraries. And my mother was a teacher. Her library she bought all of the books for her classroom prayed we didnt have a lot of money so the strain on the family. Im really aware on that. With scholastic we put out a call and said we want to help were going to pay for your Classroom Library we got 82000 please for help. We helped 18000. So