Brad Meltzer Highlight

Kendra Young.

New York Times best selling author Brad Meltzer has written masses of thrillers, a handful of nonfiction conspiracies, and comic books. He has a TV show where he tracks the locations of missing historical artifacts. He can even say the alphabet backwards! I managed to catch a glimmer of free time with Meltzer before he began his 10-state book tour to understand the “how” and “why” of the impressive feats in

his career.

I wanted to start by understanding the author’s personal writing process. Because many of Meltzer’s books are either nonfiction or closely-based off reality, he performs extensive research before writing. Meltzer says he gathers most of his research as primary sources; if he’s writing about the Dover Air Force Base, he will directly go there to see it; if he’s writing about The White House, he will reach out directly to former presidents. This kind of primary research allows him to write detailed stories that immerse the reader into a setting they're probably unfamiliar with. More importantly than having the most accurate research prepared, Meltzer believes that the most important element to developing a good novel is the characters you create. If your story has captivating characters, the rest of the plot will naturally evolve beautifully.

Meltzer is connected with his writing authentically; the money that follows his career is not the driving factor. I asked Brad if he focused on the thriller genre because of personal interest or if it was because he saw market-niche potential. His response - “The truth is, those are just the types of books I like. I think that’s how you have to work. You have to write what you love.” Meltzer also incorporates his life into his books by basing characters loosely off of people in his own life. With that real-life association, I wondered if killing off a character affected him at all or if it’s simply literature. Meltzer responded that, quite obviously, “Killing an imaginary character doesn’t compare. But you do oddly, strangely miss these imaginary friends you make.”

To new or pursuing authors, Meltzer has some words of wisdom. His first piece of advice is to never take “No” for an answer. He received 24 rejection letters on his first novel before it was published. Persistence and confidence are necessary because not everybody will have faith in you, but you need to have faith in yourself. When he struggles with writer’s block, he doesn’t force himself to be creative, because that doesn’t allow for good ideas to flow freely. Instead, he just walks away for a while; “The phone only rings when you’re in the shower,” Meltzer says.

This was only a nugget of an introduction to Brad Meltzer. His website bradmeltzer.com is updated with all of his publishings, media highlights, and Q&A’s. Meltzer just published another novel, The Lightning Rod” two weeks ago. He is a talented author to follow and I hope this month’s author spotlight can be an introduction to his work. If you begin reading Meltzer’s work, lookout for Joel Westman, a character who appears in the background of every novel.