Katherine Neville - 2009 National Book Festival

from the Library of Congress in Washington DC and before women had enormous opportunities before they won the opportunities they have now in the workplace and society and politics and I can't imagine they'd be able to dream up a character or a career like the one Katherine Neville is enjoyed she's been both an a computer executive an oil executive a Bank of America vice-president she's been a professional model a professional photographer a painter that kind of character only exists in the pages of novels back back in the day and now that she writes novels have wrung the life that she and her husband Carl have built have made her a fantasy figure for myself I have houses in DC down the road in Virginia and out in Santa Fe but most of all she has a community of readers that we welcome a lot of you today and I introduced to you Katherine Neville hey make sure everybody can hear me can you all hear me okay just wave a hand if you can't hear me I am so jazzed to be here today I live in Washington DC and I have never ever been invited to the National Book Festival and I showed up and I'm really happy to to have been invited when we had a president that I absolutely I said I was gonna vote for Barack Obama before he knew he was gonna run for president oh gosh it's it's great and we all the authors were talking about that last night I for those who have not read any of my books and I'm sure there are quite a few here who haven't let me just say a little bit because I have to tag off of what Jody Picasso about school when I was in school and one of the reasons I had so many jobs by the way is not that I was so creative about finding jobs it was because I kept getting fired or laid off when I when I got out of college with a degree in business and a degree in English there were no jobs for a woman unless she could type and I couldn't type I still can't type you know I write my books like this with one hand so I had to take any job that I could possibly find and he left out Ned left out a few things like waiter and busboy that were part of my career and what happened was there was this brand new industry starting up called data processing and I had never heard of it I thought IBM was a clock because that's what it said on the wall clocks all said IBM and Honeywell was the thermostat and I it turned out that I tested the highest of almost anybody in the country on aptitude for computers so they all trained me I went to work in data processing and that took me all over the world because every time I get fired or laid off I have my resume someplace else and it ended up that I had a job one day and the mid was somewhere for one of those big CPA firms of the kind that have just been involved in all the scandals lately and I was a little depressed by what was going on in my company and I was about to quit and so the senior called me in one day and he said Catherine I want to talk to you and I said well I want to talk to you about something too so he says meet me in my office at 3:00 p.m. and so I went 3 p.m. and for some odd reason this is serendipity for you I said you go first and he said we have a new project starting up in Algiers and I said I'll go he said do you know where Algiers is I said no but I'll find it on a map so I ended up actually going in 1972 to Algeria on the coast of North Africa and about 6 or 8 months after I got there this little-known boys club called OPEC decided to declare a world embargo on oil and I was right there working for him so that became the inspiration for my first book the eighth eye I should say like Jodie I've been writing books since novels since I was 8 years old I mean almost every author if you ask them when did you really start wanting to be a writer start writing it's usually around 8 or 10 years old well the boys kick in about 14 or 15 but you know the girls the girls start earlier um so anyway I got the idea to write this book and for those who haven't read the book it is set during the OPEC embargo but it's about a fabulous gold and silver bejeweled chess set that once belonged to Charlemagne and at the beginning of the book it's been buried for a thousand years and it's dug up during the French Revolution by this bunch of nuns because soldiers are looting the Abbey's and monasteries and it's scattered all over the world and from that point in the 1790s during the French Revolution till the 1970s during the OPEC embargo everybody's chasing around trying to find this chess set and the entire book is a huge chess game with 32 historic characters and 32 modern characters and it's got puzzles and tales within a tale and very complex plots so obviously when I finished writing this book while I was working at the Bank of America in San Francisco I finished it and I thought no publisher in the world is ever going to buy a book like this because it was so different from everything I thought they'd look at the book and say what is this a map of intergalactic relationships in the universe or something you know this is not a novel is it well as it turns out it was bought 20 years ago as of last year 20 years ago by ballantine books which is part of Random House and that book is now in 40 languages it's been a best-seller in all 40 languages I mean I think we recently Bulgarian Latvian and so forth and and the book was voted a few years ago in a national poll by El Pais the big Spanish newspaper was voted one of the top 10 books of all time so it's been I in fact I just got back from Spanish book tour in January and we they had bongo drums out in the streets from my book signings they had they brought in the Spanish national chess champion to play a game of chess on this giant chess board with me they don't even call me Katherine they call me el otro oho will you sign my book so but it's it's been just a fabulous rollercoaster ride but when when the book first came out 20 years ago it was true everything that I feared was true people didn't know what to call it they were calling me at the female Umberto Eco the female Alexander Jamaa the female Charles Dickens the female Steven Spielberg it was a Washington Post said a feminist answer to Raiders of the Lost Ark and and they didn't know where to review it you know it was reviewed in locust magazine as science fiction it received the romantic times best historical mystery award you know it went on like this and um I feel that in a way I mean it's really nice to have a genre to write in but when I was coming here today John Colt they were trying to figure out at the festival what tent to put me in where should we stick her so I think that the the really fascinating thing about what's happened with the book is now I've written the sequel I have had two books in the middle and I've written the sequel to the ape the fire which is set 30 years later it's set in Washington DC the modern part is set in Washington DC the book starts at the dawn of the war of Greene Greek independence in Albania and with Ali Pasha and Lord Byron and you know they're all swashbuckling adventure novels and when I went out on Butcher with this book and the modern part is set I should say in the in the very week that the war in that we entered Iraq during during the war so and and it's in Washington DC and the heroine is the daughter of two of the previous characters so it was hard for me to write to write a book set in Washington DC because right after I'd started the book the first time the a little-known author named Anne something-or-other said he was going to set his next book and watch I can't remember his name he was gonna set his next book in DC and I thought oh my gosh and everybody knows that I always have freemasons and mystery and symbolism and stuff well luckily for me even though no one knew the name of the the category to put my book in I knew what my book was actually what my category it was it actually is the oldest form of literature I had to say this going all along on book tour that was that we have in print it's called a quest novel and you know we have you know Parsifal looking for the seeking the Holy Grail and and you know Jason and the Golden Fleece and Odysseus and Dorothy of Oz both both looking for home in different ways and so I went out talking about the fact that I was writing a quest novel and the oldest quest novel that we have was written in Baghdad well before Baghdad existed but in Sumer and it's called the Gilgamesh it's the story of the king of Sumer and all these adventures he goes out on and then finally he goes questing when his great friend Enkidu dies he goes questing after the elixir of life you know this is what all my books are about well now in the 20 years that have passed a lot of people have written quest novels including the Dan guy and so I was I was absolutely flabbergasted because I went out on tour people are asking me that about this and I was talking about the importance of question elbows and how we really need to feel not just so depressed about everything that's going on in the world we can get depressed by reading the newspaper or watching TV or just walking down the street but we really need some kind of inspiration of what can we do about it you know I mean what did other people do about it when times were really bad and so anyway I went out on tour and people started coming to me and saying look at this review of your book it says you invented this genre that it you know Dan Brown stands on the shoulders of a giant and all this come this that would be pretty heavy for me but um anyway it's been so fantastic for me to see that that people have opened up to accept this what really was one of the oldest ages old forms of literature in the world and that all of a sudden it's resurfaced and revitalized not just thanks to me but thanks to a lot of the people that are writing about it anyway let me tell you a little about the new one and then let me open this for questions because I see a lot of people out there I know and I know they have questions um the new book the fire it's set as I said in the in the in the in Washington DC and the very week that we went into Iraq but I didn't know that was the week when I was writing the book I didn't know that's what happened I had started the book I had thought up the idea for the book in 1992 when I was on a train from Switzerland to Prague and I was I just been injured the day the afternoon before I had fallen down a flight of steps in the dark in on Lago Maggiore and this bright brightly lit restaurant outside and I gone into the back looking for the powder room and they had those those Jimmer those lights that turn themselves off to save energy no lights so I thought I was going down a hallway and I just went one out into the air and I was going headfirst down this stairwell and so I'd injured myself and I was sort of bruised and everything so I'm walking up and down on the train for 16 hours from Switzerland to Prague and I came up with the idea how to write the sequel to the 8th that it would be set years later that the characters children would be the protagonists in the historic part and in the modern part and so I had the idea and I started writing the book but each time I tried to write it something would happen that would prevent me from writing it and the most recent thing that happened was a plane flew into the Pentagon right across the river from my apartment in Washington DC and I I mean Carl and I had just heard we had just been at the travel agents we were supposed to go to Spain the next day and we just heard a plane has flown into the World Trade Center and our travel agent turned on the TV and said look there it is an instant replay the plane is flying right into the building you can see it hitting the building and the voice-over said and I said what's that plume of smoke coming out of the other building over there and the voice-over said a second plane has just hit the second tower so all the phones were jammed everybody you know we didn't know if we were going to Spain or if the airports would be up so we went back home about five blocks in our little town in Virginia walked in the front door we had the radio on for our little bird Judy who liked to listen to classical music all day and they said we interrupt this classical music program to say that a third plane is just hit the Pentagon and I said to Carl I mean the first thing out of our mouth was are we at war with somebody the second thing out of my mouth was I'm not writing the book that I thought I was writing I was supposed to be writing my book literally you know you can't write the sequel to a book about OPEC and oil and the middle-east and Islam and all this if it's happening around you you're like in the eye of the tornado and you you can see what's happening sort of but you don't know the big picture from outside so I waited I waited and when I started writing the book I decided to set it in this particular week in 2003 and I did and I was more than halfway through the book I had a deadline the book was supposed to be published last October and it was but I got an email from someone and he said mr. Neville I admire your book so much I read the 8th when I was over in Kauai you know I get a lot of letters from from you know armed service people and he said and it inspired me so much to learn to play chess you know I knew how to play chess but it inspired me to master chess and I went you know to study with chess masters and I really have become a good chess player and I would like to meet you I'd like I found out you live in DC I'd like to host you to come down for lunch or dinner and a private tour of the bunkers underneath down here at US Treasury and it's signed chief of staff of the United States Treasury so I am going right this is an email right I spent 22 years in data processing security you know and some lady said well obviously I'm booked her said and all you have to do is send you a bank account number in and you you two may restore a Nigerian prince to his rightful throne so I wrote this really polite letter and said thank you very much you know that's very I'm it's wonderful that you love my book I'm not writing about Finance right now that was another book of mine but you know I'll come down sometime and then three months later I get this message I'm still under deadline it says so when can we set up that lunch down here at Treasury so by then I had looked him up he really was the the chief of staff of the youngest chief of staff that they had had under secretary Paulson and so as chance will have it I had been invited to to speak at thriller fest in New York the international thriller writers on a panel of people about financial thrillers so I said well maybe I'll come down and so I called his assistant and said okay can you set up the lunch and she said fine all we'll need is your social security number the Secret Service has to have your social security I guess they need to see if you've paid your taxes before they let you into Treasury so I did go down and the end of this story is which was really astonishing and this is I heard somebody asked Jodi about how do you write you know what what is your inspiration type of thing this is it this is the serendipity we call it serendipity writing on the wall you know and I really think it's the most important thing to be able to listen to this kind of thing when it happens we're sitting there I saw secretary Paulson's office I met a lot of people at Treasury we I found out I saw the secret bunkers and we're sitting there after lunch overlooking the gardens outside Treasury and I said to him we're all alone the chief and I and I said to him aha how was it that you happen to be over in Kuwait what you know what were you doing there and and learned to master chess over there and he said oh no no I read your book while I was in Kuwait but I actually learned to master chess in in Baghdad I was the second person into Baghdad I said who was the first person into Baghdad he said my boss Tommy Franks I said how you know he seemed kind of young you know how did you happen to be working for Tommy Franks he said oh no I was just loaned to him by my real boss Condoleezza Rice so it turns out he had been an assistant to Condoleezza Rice it was great and I said I just sat there and I said you know I realize now I wasn't down here to find out about Treasury I was down here to find out about Baghdad I mean it just clicked that was the week the week I was writing about that's what we did what was the big event that week so I went back and I called up I called up my my editor and said my book is gonna be a little bit late guess what just just dropped into the plot and so we did we revised the direction that it was going so that we could put in the connection because and I said this to the chief while I was down at the Treasury I said you know this is so weird because at the very end of the 8th when when the whole story ends of the chess game and everything we find out that the chess set that we always refer to it as the chess set the belong to Charlemagne we find out that actually it was designed by a real person al-jubeir urban Haiyan in 775 AD in what was then the brand-new city of Baghdad Baghdad had just been invented in 7th 765 or something and that was a real living person I invented the chess set but he was a real person and he was the father of Islamic alchemy so the whole book is about alchemy and I said you know it's so weird because you know Baghdad the modern part of the book is set and it's my book one didn't want me to find out about Treasury it wanted me to come down here and find out about Baghdad and the chief said I know I thought that's why you really want to talk to me so he did a huge amount of research for me because he'd actually been on the ground and and you know the hands of Saddam Hussein holding the swords up and this kind of thing and it was extremely high at the very this is the fire is the only book I've ever written where I have a huge acknowledgement section at the back and I didn't acknowledge people like thanks to my husband thanks to my dog thanks to you know people I've worked with thanks to my publisher it's all thanks for people actually like that did research for me just because they were on the ground they knew they were they loved what they're doing and I had so many of them that I had to do it by topic I have like Albania aviation and I have really incredible people who are able to to sort of further the book and so I say in the book it's like that fairy tale when you know you're walking along the road and you the you know so people always kicking this Rockets in the middle of the road why is that rock in the middle of the road and they kick it out of the way and but always the some boy comes along and he picks up the rock and says someone might get hurt and when he moves it he finds a pot of gold under there or he finds a map to the pot of gold or the map to some other treasure and I think that's the secret for writers that really if you're gonna write a book that is really realistic to people you have to be able to you know pick up pick up the rock and go for the pot of gold so anyway I'm gonna stop thank you very much and we have a question period I think right now we have a question yes I I work for the Library of Congress I think that's a very big advantage for someone who was a fledgling writer like myself you work for the Library of Congress yes I do I I spent eight years writing a novel that I think has turned out very well I spent about a year and a half trying to find a literary agent a publisher I'm a woman who is a published author has told me don't take it too seriously the economy is in a shambles right now and the literary the publishing industry is suffering very badly I'm just wondering if that's really true if our things starting to look up again on this questions about the publishing industry right now which happens to be something I know a lot about because I've just been on a 30-city book tour and my publisher reorganized while I was gone so we had to find all the players when I got back everybody's really scared right now and I don't understand why because I think this is the best period really you know people don't realize that when my first book came out 20 years ago there were 40,000 new books new titles every year now there are 90,000 new titles every year so it's a much easier time to publish a new book but it's a much harder time to get your head above the water and have people no notice you and know who you are and I I want to say this because I think probably a lot of people out here are aspiring writers and you really need to know this and I I've done this myself right now for this book because as I said my books I've got 10 million or more copies of my book set in the streets in in 40 different countries languages I've got I've got as many countries and languages as David Baldacci and and the thing is I still feel the need it's like having a child you've got to go out there you don't just say okay kid get out of the house and go get a job and support your mom you know you have to actually go out and support your book and what I did this time because when I came back from this lengthy book tour which took something like seven months because I had to go to France Spain everywhere else and I found out that they'd reorganized the people in charge of certain things like my website weren't in charge of it anymore what I did was I said I had a big meeting i went to new york i said i want everybody at the table i'll write the check you tell me what to do and i literally it's not that i had to spend a lot of money i just didn't know what to do as an author because I'd never done it and when I started doing it redesigning my website we're still in the middle of it and started running little sponsorships here and there for nvi things and stuff and and going to festivals as Jody said a lot of us don't usually go to festivals and that's who our readers are at festivals you know and my publisher never used to send authors to festivals they wanted you in bookstores so you could sell the book immediately and instead of talking to the readers and thanking the readers so I think the biggest job of being either an aspiring author I still think of myself as an aspiring author because I aspire to have my next book read by people but I think the biggest thing to think of is a big part of the of the job is has fallen on the shoulders of the author which i think is where it should should have been in the first place I mean that's my big answer but I can answer you more later if you want to see me afterwards yes you had a question I am a little bit nervous talking my son's read the 8th and he's looking forward to reading the fire he just took it out of the library how old you see he's 12 oh good and he's interested in writing and I wanted to ask you yeah the connection between reading and writing he's a great reader what kind of books you read and when you knew you wanted to be right okay when I started out I hated the books I was a really bad student okay I was the kind of student who wished you know we had those desks where the thing came up and folded over so you were like trapped like slaves in a galley ship and I kept wishing that Walt Disney animals would sail their ship down and put the gangplank down and outside my classroom window and take me off to Neverland or something you know and I loved I hated the books we had to read I didn't even like Tale of Two Cities because it took us two semesters to read it and we had to go over every single detail of you know physiognomy and whatever he's got in there Anna and the books I like to read were swashbuckling adventure novels you know I like Captain Blood and Raphael Sabatini and all that stuff and so I'm gonna say right now I think that we owe more to one woman who got tens of millions maybe hundreds of millions of children all over the world to read 700 page books and not just to read them yes let's give her a hand not not just to not just to read them but they retain them they know I read the hair I read all the Harry Potter's they know which one the giant spider is in which one is the Prisoner of asthma Ken which one is the unicorn and I think that's really important so I am a big supporter also a Virginia Center for the book and festival of the book and I was down there yeah we have to cheer everyone here that selling books and getting people to read and so I was down there last week for their kickoff meeting and I was talking to a gentleman who runs the school a private school where the emphasis is on writing and he told me I said so what are they reading and he told me oh they're reading Virginia Woolf they're reading this reading that John Updike whatever very literary stuff you know and I said oh I I can't read those books I said so what is it what are the girls reading what are the students reading do they he said well I'm not sure I said do they read Stephenie Meyer he said yes so I said you know I think I feel I haven't read Stephenie Meyers books yet but I think as just as Jodi and others who are saying you know if it's something they love to read it's gonna inspire them to read and to write and I don't think they're I'm not saying that any particular books are passe I think we need all of the different kinds of books in the world but if if a child is a certain age like 9 or 10 years old and what lights their match I have I have a little niece and she was getting really bad grades in English but she took me up to her room I said what are you reading what do you like to read and she recommended all these books like the woman who wrote The Princess Diaries and all those books she's got every single book and she's read them all so yeah I think it's - I would never have been a writer if I'd had to try to copy this style I loved somerset mom but i couldn't copy his style you know so yeah i'm all for inspiration what is carl might I live with a famous brain scientist they always think what is it one ounce of inspiration is worth 20 pounds of perspiration or something yeah thanks and come up and talk to me afterwards too if you want should we have another one no more questions oh my gosh I'm ahead of time well thank you guys very very much this has been a presentation of the Library of Congress visit us at loc.gov

Channel: Library of Congress

Views: 3,531

Rating: 4.8857141 out of 5

Keywords: library, congress, national, book, festival, authors, reading, literature

Id: AlOTui4ASyg

Length: 28min 32sec (1712 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 05 2009