Kathy Pinna
David Baldacci
When he was 8 or 9, David Baldacci's mother gave him a notebook to write in so he would keep quiet.
Now 55 years old, Baldacci has 30 best-selling novels to his name, and the words show no signs of abating. His latest young-adult novel, "The Keeper," will be available today.
Baldacci, who still likes to talk and ask questions, will give the keynote speech Thursday night at Reynolds Auditorium to open the 11th Bookmarks Festival of Books and Authors. It will be followed by a Q&A and a book-signing.
He grew up in Richmond and practiced law in Washington for nine years after getting his law degree from the University of Virginia. He wrote short stories and screenplays for more than 20 years without success, until "Absolute Power" became an international best-seller in 1996. "I found that I couldn't not write," he said. "Writing is a perfect form of evolution, and people who are in it for the long haul are that way. If you love it, it's almost like you are wrapped in body armor. The rejection stings for a little bit, and you just keep going." "Absolute Power" was made into a popular movie in 1997 with Gene Hackman as a corrupt U.S. president and Clint Eastwood as an aging jewel thief who brings him to justice. Eastwood also produced and directed the film. William Goldman wrote the screenplay.
Baldacci said he was satisfied with the film treatment. "I know the challenge of taking a 500-page novel and making it into a shooting script," Baldacci said. "And it had a great screenwriter."
Goldman wrote the book "The Princess Bride" and the screenplay. Since then, several other Baldacci novels, including "Wish You Well," have been adapted for film and television. His young-adult novel, "The Finisher," is in development, and his books have sold more than 110 million copies worldwide. They have been translated into more than 45 languages.
Baldacci and his wife, Michelle, created the Wish You Well Foundation 15 years ago to support family and adult literacy in the United States. In 2008, the foundation partnered with Feeding America to start Feeding Body &Mind, a program to deal with the connection among literacy, poverty and hunger. Through Feeding Body & Mind, more than one million new and used books have been collected and distributed through food banks to families in need.
The Second Harvest Foodbank of Northwest North Carolina doesn't participate in this program. Family is important to Baldacci. Of all his accomplishments, he said that raising his two children with his wife is his greatest achievement. "I married way above my pay grade," he said, laughing. "I was 34 when I sold 'Absolute Power.' I was set in my personality, so success was not going to change me.
"It was Jackie Kennedy who said, 'Whatever you do in life, if you mess up your kids, you're a failure.' They are the significant extension of my wife and me. I tried to be there for the important events in their lives." And, after all, his mother, Joyce Rose Baldacci, put him on the path to success by giving him that first notebook.
"I was one of those kids who loved to talk and argue," he said. "My mother gave me a journal to shut me up. She said, 'I love you, you are my son, but sometimes a mom needs peace and quiet.'
"Immediately for me, putting words down on a piece of paper was wonderful. I thought, 'I can write the kind of story that I would want to read.' My parents took us to the library every weekend. The first time I cracked the pages of a book, I loved reading. I liked reading about famous people and about their childhoods. I loved mystery and fantasy."C.S. Lewis, Eudora Welty, Flannery O'Connor, Agatha Christie and Arthur Conan Doyle were among his favorite authors.
Baldacci said that sometimes his plots come first; sometimes it's his characters. "I do little outlines, but I never know what the end will be," he said. "Fiction should be erratic and spontaneous." Some of his books feature tough guys and macho men, such as John Carr, a rogue CIA agent in "Divine Justice." "I'm not the characters that I portrayed in my books, but I knew a lot of those people living in D.C., and I had friend at Fort Benning, and I tried some of the things that my characters do, like rolling over a Humvee and shooting on the sniper range." He started writing fiction for younger readers as a way to stay fresh.
"As a writer, if you don't stretch you wither on the vine," he said. "I loved fantasy growing up. In fantasy, you can create the world from scratch, and I wanted to see if I could pull it off." This will be his first trip to Winston-Salem. "I've been all around North Carolina," he said. "I was in Charlotte a few months ago, in Raleigh and Cary. Our main house is in Northern Virginia, but our lake house in the mountains is only an hour away from the North Carolina border."
Now 55 years old, Baldacci has 30 best-selling novels to his name, and the words show no signs of abating. His latest young-adult novel, "The Keeper," will be available today.
Baldacci, who still likes to talk and ask questions, will give the keynote speech Thursday night at Reynolds Auditorium to open the 11th Bookmarks Festival of Books and Authors. It will be followed by a Q&A and a book-signing.
He grew up in Richmond and practiced law in Washington for nine years after getting his law degree from the University of Virginia. He wrote short stories and screenplays for more than 20 years without success, until "Absolute Power" became an international best-seller in 1996. "I found that I couldn't not write," he said. "Writing is a perfect form of evolution, and people who are in it for the long haul are that way. If you love it, it's almost like you are wrapped in body armor. The rejection stings for a little bit, and you just keep going." "Absolute Power" was made into a popular movie in 1997 with Gene Hackman as a corrupt U.S. president and Clint Eastwood as an aging jewel thief who brings him to justice. Eastwood also produced and directed the film. William Goldman wrote the screenplay.
Baldacci said he was satisfied with the film treatment. "I know the challenge of taking a 500-page novel and making it into a shooting script," Baldacci said. "And it had a great screenwriter."
Goldman wrote the book "The Princess Bride" and the screenplay. Since then, several other Baldacci novels, including "Wish You Well," have been adapted for film and television. His young-adult novel, "The Finisher," is in development, and his books have sold more than 110 million copies worldwide. They have been translated into more than 45 languages.
Baldacci and his wife, Michelle, created the Wish You Well Foundation 15 years ago to support family and adult literacy in the United States. In 2008, the foundation partnered with Feeding America to start Feeding Body &Mind, a program to deal with the connection among literacy, poverty and hunger. Through Feeding Body & Mind, more than one million new and used books have been collected and distributed through food banks to families in need.
The Second Harvest Foodbank of Northwest North Carolina doesn't participate in this program. Family is important to Baldacci. Of all his accomplishments, he said that raising his two children with his wife is his greatest achievement. "I married way above my pay grade," he said, laughing. "I was 34 when I sold 'Absolute Power.' I was set in my personality, so success was not going to change me.
"It was Jackie Kennedy who said, 'Whatever you do in life, if you mess up your kids, you're a failure.' They are the significant extension of my wife and me. I tried to be there for the important events in their lives." And, after all, his mother, Joyce Rose Baldacci, put him on the path to success by giving him that first notebook.
"I was one of those kids who loved to talk and argue," he said. "My mother gave me a journal to shut me up. She said, 'I love you, you are my son, but sometimes a mom needs peace and quiet.'
"Immediately for me, putting words down on a piece of paper was wonderful. I thought, 'I can write the kind of story that I would want to read.' My parents took us to the library every weekend. The first time I cracked the pages of a book, I loved reading. I liked reading about famous people and about their childhoods. I loved mystery and fantasy."C.S. Lewis, Eudora Welty, Flannery O'Connor, Agatha Christie and Arthur Conan Doyle were among his favorite authors.
Baldacci said that sometimes his plots come first; sometimes it's his characters. "I do little outlines, but I never know what the end will be," he said. "Fiction should be erratic and spontaneous." Some of his books feature tough guys and macho men, such as John Carr, a rogue CIA agent in "Divine Justice." "I'm not the characters that I portrayed in my books, but I knew a lot of those people living in D.C., and I had friend at Fort Benning, and I tried some of the things that my characters do, like rolling over a Humvee and shooting on the sniper range." He started writing fiction for younger readers as a way to stay fresh.
"As a writer, if you don't stretch you wither on the vine," he said. "I loved fantasy growing up. In fantasy, you can create the world from scratch, and I wanted to see if I could pull it off." This will be his first trip to Winston-Salem. "I've been all around North Carolina," he said. "I was in Charlotte a few months ago, in Raleigh and Cary. Our main house is in Northern Virginia, but our lake house in the mountains is only an hour away from the North Carolina border."
