Historical accounts of Benedict Arnold and artifacts associated with the revolutionary war general in his new fictional thriller. [applause] so heres where were going to have some fun tonight, right . Weve got kids in the front row, and that means chaos, people. Right . [laughter] two, weve got cspan here, lets hear it for cspan, right . Right . We love cspan. [applause] there is no better nerdier crowd than the washington, d. C. Metro area. [laughter] in fact, all the viewers of cspan, i think, are in this room right now. We love you. We watch on a regular basis, i mean, the regular viewers, of course. We welcome everyone to cspan. But theres a couple other things were going to do nowhere else, and were going to do here. First, im going to tell you about difference between history and destiny. And we all know what history is, right . Its what happened, but destiny is what must happen. And this is true. I cant believe this is happening, but my father, may he rest in peace, was struck by lightning. His father, my grandfather im not joking was struck by lightning, right . That means dont stand next to me in a rainstorm. [laughter] and last week i was telling my son story and telling him, listen, my dad was struck by lightning, his dad was struck by lightning, and hes like, oh, my gosh, we could be struck by lightning. And as he says it im like, you wont be, but yeah, sure, you might be. Tonight, this is true, my son and my family, my wife and my kids were taking the amtrak train from new york city here to washington, d. C. For this event, and their train was struck by lightning. Be. [laughter] my son texted me, hes like you are not going to believe what happened tonight. [laughter] destiny, people. That is what we are witnessing here. So theyll come running in late. But this is itsny. So destiny. So a couple other things im going to king single out which e cant do anywhere else in the country. First of all, where is jim day . Jim, stand up for one second. This is jim who does so much work for the lost history and lego versions of me, so many other things. I love you, thank you for all you do. I assume you got rid of all of your stickers, and everythings gone. Find jim if you want a sticker of a lego version of me. If you need one, jim has one. Hes like a drug dealer of lego stickers. Youve got one . Oh, good. Thank you. [laughter] this is yours. So now heres the other person i want to thank, i wont get to do this anywhere else. Amy . Raise your hand, please. We call her amy wags. Amy, there was a couple years ago my history teacher contacted me saying that she was sick, and she needed a kidney or she might die. And we put it on my Facebook Page, and amazingly people actually said, you know what, brad . And i said this is the teacher who changed my life, gave me my love of history, could you donate a kidney to save her in and of all the people that i couldnt believe volunteered, there was one person who said, hey, brad, i volunteer, but i didnt hear from the teacher. I never heard back. And i was like, you know what . Youre going to hear back, dont worry, you know, shes really busy. For whatever reason, i took that email, and i forwarded it and said, listen, one slipped through the cracks, one we missed. And that person was amy. And what happened was when they got the email, they contacted her, and they said youre not going to believe this, that woman you sent us, she was a match. And so six months, what was it, six months . Just six months ago amy came down to florida where i live, and amy gave her kidney to my history teacher. [applause] and we no, im going to give you a better reason to clap. They checked that original weekend, it went to to to spam. It was gone forever. So, again, history and destiny. Lets hear it for amy who gave a body part to a stranger. Come on, people. Because. [cheers and applause] so if you want to be a better person, go donate a body part to a stranger. If you do, you get to be first in line tonight. [laughter] im just telling you, anyone who donates wheres that kid who had the playoff game . Thats you . So this kid right here, i get an email on facebook today, this is true. This kid has a Championship Little League game tonight. He said he is skipping his game dont ruin the story. [laughter] the world series of Little League tonight [laughter] he says hes skipping it because he wanted to come here to the book signing. And his mom told me that his dad is the coach of the team, that true . Dads the coach of the team. Dad is so mad tonight. [laughter] his son is here tonight with mom coming to the front of the line. Lets hear it for the kid whos actually skipping Little League. [cheers and applause] you hear that applause . Thats what a literacy gets you. [laughter] its true. Not sports. And whos here is, oh, whos here from the National Archives . I know someones here. Someone told me they were here. Theyre in the back, theyre going to raise their hand, but theyre shy. Archivists are shy. Thanks to my friends from the national be archives. National archives. Thank you to everyone who helps with these books. And to my wife and my kids who faced lightning to get here, again [laughter] if you want to be a better person than amy, then you have to fight lightning, and if you do, you also get to the front of the line, and now in this will bring us here to the house of secrets. We talked about destiny, lets talk about history. This book was written by myself and solid goldberg. And people always and todd gold berg. To me, a good idea is a living thing. And someone once told me that a good idea, that if you dont do it, eventually someone else will do it. And that terrified me because i had this idea for five years that stuck with me. I didnt know how to get rid of it, but i was like this is going to keep going, we have to figure this out. We have to do this story. And the story started for me when i was in the National Archives, and i was in what they call the treasure vault. And the treasure vault is where they keep all the really good stuff, not open to the public. They took me in the back room, they handed me this sheet of paper that looked like a paperback book if you turned it sideways, and on this seat of paper, it was an oath of allegiance that George Washington gave to his top members of the military to sign, swear, i solemnly swear i will never betray these new United States. And he had numbered them. Number one, number two, number three, four, phi. And number five, the fifth one, was signed by a guy named Benedict Arnold. And in that moment be, its a name we kind of call each other, almost like a curse word for, you know, people who love history. But in that moment Benedict Arnold wasnt some name that you call someone, Benedict Arnold was a decorated officer who fought for this country, this fledgling country, and was rewarded and promoted and was part of that inner circle of George Washington. And Benedict Arnold wasnt a bad name anymore, he was a real person that put pen to paper on this sheet of paper, and i just couldnt shake that. And then i heard this story which really cracked the book open, it was the last moments between Benedict Arnold and George Washington are among the most heartbreaking in u. S. History because they were dear friends. They were like the bpfs of the revolutionary bffs of the revolutionary sect. Reportedly, its one of the only times George Washington is ever seen crying. And that image of George Washington, the father of our country, stuck with me. And then i heard this detail, that Benedict Arnold wrote a letter, and Alexander Hamilton he didnt deliver it in rap or song [laughter] but he did deliver this letter from Benedict Arnold to George Washington. And in this letter from Benedict Arnold he said three things. He asked for three things. He said, one, dont kill my wife, she didnt know i was a traitor. Two, he said dont kill the staff, i did this myself. And three, and in one of the craziest moments of letterwriting history, he says do me a favor, can you please send me my baggage and my belongings . This guy just put a knife in the back of George Washington, hes the most hated guy since judas himself, and he basically says, hey, can i have my stuff . [laughter] the amazing part is to this day nobody knows what was in that baggage that George Washington sent back to Benedict Arnold, but he did send it back. He sent the baggage back. And nobody knows what was in that baggage. Now, i do want to ruin i do not want to ruin chapter 85, but you will see my theory [laughter] and i couldnt shake that idea. For five years, over half a decade, i finally am like i gotta figure out how to do this idea, and thats where i met todd gold burg, my cowriter on this book. And when you pair with someone else to write, you have a choice, right . You can pick someone who you think is worse than you, someone who is as good as you and someone whos better than you. Thats your choice. And to me be, i was, like, i know who im picking. I want the guy whos better than me. I want the guy who can do something that i think i cant do, can accomplish things that i worry i struggle with. And todd is an amazing you know, they tried to give me, the publisher for years asked me to do a book, i had no interest, and they said pair up with a mystery writer, and there were some that i would have loved to work with but were busy. For the most part i thought, you know what . Theyre just going to give me more plot, ive got plenty of plot. I want someone who can do character like ive never seen before. Instead to i found a literary writer, i found todd whos amazing at character. Todds book gangsterland, highly recommend, it came out in six months after ours did. He lost to a guy named stephen king. And my publisher was like, who are you working with . Im like, i know, he is a killer. Trust me. What i love about this book and how its been received and the great reviews weve gotten, its because todd and i really together did something neither of us alone could do. What happened is i always knew the opening scene of this book, and it was going to the start with this girl named hazel who sits on her fathers lap and hears a story for the first time, a gruesome story. And she hears the story that at 6 years old, her dad hosts a conspiracy tv show [laughter] right . I dont write any books unless i live them, people. Thats the way it is these days. And he tells these stories to her that in the revolutionary times, there was a frozen body that was found. And he says this body, when they did this rudimentary autopsy, 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 this little 6yearold girl says, tell it again. Right . This girls different than everyone else. Hazels the kind of girl who puts her hand on the stove and burns it, and the next day she comes back and puts a different hand on the stove just to see and compare the pain. Different than all of us. So lets talk about the book. The book opens up, and hazel wakes up in the hospital. Shes now 30 years old. She has no memory. And she finds out theres been an accident, her fathers now dead, the host of this conspiracy tv show. And the fbi tells her that the last person her father was seen with, they found him dead. And when they cut open his body, they found and hazel says her first memory that she can recall is they found a book that belonged to Benedict Arnold. And in that moment she realized that those stories her dad told her as a little girl had truth to them, they had warnings to them, they had advice the them, and they were all just for her, almost like a training of his daughter all these years. And from there she finds guns that are in her house, she doesnt know how they got there. She finds scars on her body, she doesnt remember, cant recall those. And she quickly realizes that only by solving this murder can she figure out who killed her father and also who she really is. She is the mystery of this book. Right . To me, a great plot is great plot, but the best plot is a great character. And hazel herself is the character. She has no memory, and she cant remember people that she met. She has whats called motional memory loss. So its not be amnesia which is like a Koop Scooby Doo not, right . But she has emotional memory loss which means the people she was most connected to, shes forgotten them. So she can walk into a bar, and that guy that shes attracted to, she doesnt know if it was someone she loves or her worst enemy. And everywhere she goes she feels like maybe i wasnt a nice person. She meets people and they say, oh, my gosh, still dont start trouble again. She can restart her life, and i love that as a character, as for her character because everything becomes an adventure in that moment x everything is new. And think about it for a moment. Dont we all, if we could take a moment, knock ourselves in the held with a hammer and start over and have our lives anew, i would go pick out a really nice army, right . Its just an amazing idea. [laughter] to me, what i loved about it as we came up with it, it paired perfectly with this idea id been carrying around for five years, Benedict Arnold. We all think of him as bad guy of the story, but hes not the bad guy or the good guy. What Benedict Arnold is, like all of us, or hes a complicated man. We are all not good, were not bad. Were all good and all bad, but were all complicated. And i realize in hazel as she finds this life that he used to and this life that wasnt so good, she gets to be just like Benedict Arnold, judged like the rest of us, flawed like the rest of us. We are all amazing and all terrified, we are all brave and we are all cowards. We are all stupendous. Thank each other. Here is one of the things that happened. When i was researching the book i met a military Intelligence Officer and i said where does the United States get that information, where does the best intelligence come from and one of the things he said is this is a true story, he said years ago, there was a dictator who hated the United States, he said he hated them to their bones, when no one knew this dictator was one of the top lieutenants of the United States, a spy for america, i was like, you are paying money and they said the best reason of all because of family. We gave this young child information, gave him information about terrorist, helped us with financial investigations no one knew about. You get to explore hazel and this world and Benedict Arnold of course which is so fun because Benedict Arnold is amazing. And obviously that is really where the book starts. What i love to do is answer questions about the book because that is also the fun. I can tell someone has lots of questions. So you can ask anything you want. I am give you a moment to think about it. You can ask about the thrillers or the research but one thing, thank you barnes and noble and hosting but thank you to those who come. Lets get questions and explore more research. My buddy leo has a question for you. The question is did the amelia ernheart lego set come out. This is i am going to show you something. This is the lego set. We had someone built it for us and america is going to help us. Lego loved this idea and they had an idea you are not star wars. I understand that. I know clearly. We love this and we would love it on the web page. If 10,000 people vote for it we will consider make it. The how i met my mother set was built by the person woo built this. We have 2,000 people right now. I can see in this crowd there are over 200 people. So we better be at at least 2500. If you put the words lego amelia air heart in google this is the first thing that came up. Give them a fake email that you give the marketers and vote. The point was to give my kids real heroes. I love when they can play with star wars but i also love that i can give my kids a lego set of real heroes. I want to do a lincoln and einstein and rosa parks set. How great would it be to inspire our kids with great amazing heroes to play with. Thank you. Other questions . Yes, in the back. Now Everyone Wants their own lego set. She wants susan b anthony. You want eleanor roosevelt. Martin luther king, jr. I am telling you i love it. George washington. Right . This is what i want to do. This is what i want america to do. Tell your dad, dad if you love me you will go register for lego and if you dont register and vote you dont love me. You say those words and watch what you get. On the inner circle you had savenger hunts you talked about in the book. Do you have plans for that . I love hiding things in my book. I cant do a tv show called decoded without doing things decoded. I put a secret code hidden in there and if you crack the code in the hidden page of the intercircle there is a reward there. If you got to it and found it. I am not tell you where in america it was hidden but you got it. It took four years before someone finally cracked it and jim bay sitting here cracked it. It took him 40 years. Lets hear it for jim. Jim also loves a good little code. So jim was kind enough to put it back. It is out there. It is still there. It is hidden for the taking. If you want the treasure, it is hidden in the pages of the inner circle. I am not tell you anything else i did over the years. In the kids book, i am hidden in every book. I saw that. There is a guy that looks like me. You are laughing but there are so many things hidden in the kid book. You hide the 27. And i do hide it in the next kid book. What else . Child i dont hide that but we hide lots of fun things and the nu