WEBVTT - EITM interviews Brad Meltzer 0:00:00.040 --> 0:00:04.120 Please welcome our friend, mister Brad Meltzer. Oh so happy 0:00:04.120 --> 0:00:08.600 to hear the song. Can I ask you this? Can 0:00:08.640 --> 0:00:09.280 I ask you this? 0:00:09.280 --> 0:00:12.119 This song makes an appearance in the book. The way 0:00:12.200 --> 0:00:14.520 that it makes the appearance in the book is hysterical. 0:00:14.720 --> 0:00:19.000 I love it is that real, like at some point 0:00:19.040 --> 0:00:21.240 where you and all your jackass friends trying to figure 0:00:21.239 --> 0:00:22.800 out what's the last song you listen to? 0:00:23.480 --> 0:00:24.799 Well, that's my life. 0:00:25.040 --> 0:00:27.800 Oh no, no, but like no, I do think I 0:00:27.880 --> 0:00:30.560 actually do think that in the scene in the book, 0:00:30.560 --> 0:00:33.720 it doesn't ruin anything, but it's all about, like you know, 0:00:33.720 --> 0:00:36.159 it's a book about looking backwards or looking forward and 0:00:36.280 --> 0:00:38.879 realizing that if you look backwards you look at regret, 0:00:38.920 --> 0:00:40.839 and if you look forward, you look at anxiety. 0:00:40.880 --> 0:00:41.600 What's going to happen? 0:00:41.760 --> 0:00:41.960 Right? 0:00:42.040 --> 0:00:44.160 And the only way to be really present is of course, 0:00:44.200 --> 0:00:47.599 to be in the present. But in my house there 0:00:47.680 --> 0:00:51.440 is a constant fight of music, right, And I firmly 0:00:51.479 --> 0:00:53.479 believe that if you just sit and listen to your 0:00:53.520 --> 0:00:56.160 old music from when you were like seventeen years old, 0:00:56.760 --> 0:00:59.800 it's like it's old music death. 0:01:00.080 --> 0:01:01.920 It's like definitely it's a miserable thing. 0:01:01.960 --> 0:01:05.360 And if you're not constantly like transforming and engaging with 0:01:05.400 --> 0:01:06.440 something new and growing. 0:01:06.959 --> 0:01:09.440 And I was like, I got it. I got it, 0:01:09.480 --> 0:01:10.240 and the only question. 0:01:10.720 --> 0:01:12.840 But what I love about it is that the last 0:01:12.840 --> 0:01:15.800 scene is is they play you know, he plays. 0:01:15.600 --> 0:01:17.240 Zig plays for Nola Betty Davis. 0:01:17.520 --> 0:01:18.959 She's like, let me see the last song that was 0:01:18.959 --> 0:01:21.080 on your thing and he plays it for it. And 0:01:21.120 --> 0:01:23.000 the thing that I do like, She's like, this sucks, 0:01:23.720 --> 0:01:26.399 but it's great like that, and I just love that 0:01:26.480 --> 0:01:29.080 she likes it and I can't. I didn't plan that. 0:01:29.120 --> 0:01:31.400 And I was just like, no, she's good. Because every 0:01:31.400 --> 0:01:33.520 by the way, when you started playing it, every head 0:01:33.560 --> 0:01:35.959 in this room here we were all of course, it's 0:01:36.640 --> 0:01:37.080 still got. 0:01:37.080 --> 0:01:39.840 That book is still a killer, by the way, And 0:01:39.880 --> 0:01:40.959 I did. I will confess. 0:01:41.040 --> 0:01:42.800 I sent bradda text when I was reading the book 0:01:42.840 --> 0:01:45.120 over the break and it had been four years, and 0:01:45.160 --> 0:01:46.640 I told you, I think the last time we talked, 0:01:46.680 --> 0:01:47.440 I was very nervous. 0:01:47.440 --> 0:01:51.120 You haven't written a novel in a loris the you 0:01:51.560 --> 0:01:52.400 You didn't miss a beat. 0:01:52.520 --> 0:01:56.840 The book is fantastic, fantastic. 0:01:57.320 --> 0:01:58.680 And the other the other. 0:01:58.560 --> 0:02:01.160 Thing that I was concerned about is it's the third 0:02:01.320 --> 0:02:02.000 in a series. 0:02:02.000 --> 0:02:05.200 It's a Zig and Nola novel. So how long ago 0:02:05.320 --> 0:02:07.040 was the first one? How long ago was the first one? 0:02:07.080 --> 0:02:09.359 I was like twenty eighteen, I mean a long time ago. 0:02:09.520 --> 0:02:12.160 Yeah, and so then the last one was four years ago. 0:02:12.400 --> 0:02:14.800 So if everybody hasn't read both of them, my concern 0:02:14.960 --> 0:02:17.640 is you don't know who Zig and Nola are. Is 0:02:17.639 --> 0:02:19.680 that you would start and go like, I don't know 0:02:19.680 --> 0:02:21.519 who these people are and be lost. 0:02:21.840 --> 0:02:23.280 Does it help? Yes? 0:02:23.600 --> 0:02:26.520 Are there things that you can kind of flash back to? 0:02:27.040 --> 0:02:30.160 I don't remember everything from one four years ago. 0:02:31.000 --> 0:02:33.560 My wife was proofing the book and she's like, I 0:02:33.600 --> 0:02:35.920 don't remember what happened. She's married to me and had 0:02:36.000 --> 0:02:38.679 children with me, So of course I write every book 0:02:38.800 --> 0:02:41.440 is you do not need to read anything? Right Literally, 0:02:41.440 --> 0:02:43.480 the blurb they put on the cover of the book 0:02:43.520 --> 0:02:46.440 for the best some best selling author says the perfect 0:02:46.480 --> 0:02:47.600 place to meet Zig and Nola. 0:02:47.800 --> 0:02:49.440 Yes, and it's grace, It is great. 0:02:49.800 --> 0:02:52.040 What is the And I know because you've done this 0:02:52.120 --> 0:02:55.840 in the past, what is the best thumbnail for the book? 0:02:56.080 --> 0:02:58.840 Because there are here here is you've been on book 0:02:58.840 --> 0:03:01.600 tour this week, right here is here is what nobody 0:03:01.639 --> 0:03:03.280 has said to you at a book tour. And I 0:03:03.320 --> 0:03:05.840 know people will read the book and finish it quickly 0:03:06.160 --> 0:03:07.920 and then show up at the book at the book 0:03:07.919 --> 0:03:10.400 tours and meeting you and they'll talk to you about 0:03:10.400 --> 0:03:12.640 the whole book. Nobody has said this to you on 0:03:12.680 --> 0:03:14.519 the book tour, oh I saw that coming. 0:03:15.080 --> 0:03:18.960 Yeah, thing, nobody will ever say that to you for 0:03:19.000 --> 0:03:20.720 this book. At the ending of this book has a 0:03:20.760 --> 0:03:21.120 twist that. 0:03:21.240 --> 0:03:23.200 By the way, forget the ending of a book. There 0:03:23.240 --> 0:03:24.520 is so much that happens. 0:03:24.800 --> 0:03:27.560 Like you get the main story, there is so much 0:03:27.600 --> 0:03:28.160 that goes on. 0:03:28.560 --> 0:03:30.200 Nobody nobody has said. 0:03:30.000 --> 0:03:32.280 To you oh yeah, oh yeah, I would have I 0:03:32.520 --> 0:03:33.800 would have done that I had. 0:03:33.919 --> 0:03:36.440 I have people who and you know, people my my reader, 0:03:36.520 --> 0:03:38.760 they're smart right like they are. They they do not 0:03:38.960 --> 0:03:40.960 want to get to the end and be like I guess, 0:03:41.080 --> 0:03:45.400 but they are coming and they're like dude, dude, oh yeah, 0:03:45.520 --> 0:03:47.960 And I love that. Like that to me when I 0:03:48.000 --> 0:03:50.960 write a book, I'm like, if you guess the ending, 0:03:51.040 --> 0:03:53.520 you win, but if you don't, I win. And I 0:03:53.600 --> 0:03:55.320 and and that's why I am. When I read a book, 0:03:55.360 --> 0:03:57.800 you beat everybody. In this book, you will beat everybody. 0:03:57.840 --> 0:04:00.560 Love the ending of this book. Can I ask you this? 0:04:00.800 --> 0:04:03.160 And from people that are reading it, has anybody has 0:04:03.200 --> 0:04:07.480 anybody confessed to tearing up during the Oh yeah, okay. 0:04:08.600 --> 0:04:09.840 Well because it's a really person. 0:04:11.280 --> 0:04:13.560 But it's a person, you know, and I do think 0:04:13.920 --> 0:04:17.000 and I'm just you know, it's super personal this one. 0:04:17.360 --> 0:04:20.360 And I mean that in the way it's a weird 0:04:20.360 --> 0:04:22.240 thing to say, but I'm going to say, supers, I'm 0:04:22.240 --> 0:04:23.000 going to tell you why. 0:04:23.120 --> 0:04:23.640 Here's why. 0:04:24.279 --> 0:04:26.320 So the book, you know, I never I never know 0:04:26.440 --> 0:04:27.960 the full quote unquote theme. 0:04:28.279 --> 0:04:32.680 Right, I'm not like the setup. Let's just do this up. 0:04:32.760 --> 0:04:36.279 So a man walks into a funeral home carrying his 0:04:36.320 --> 0:04:37.200 favorite blue suit. 0:04:37.440 --> 0:04:37.640 Right. 0:04:37.800 --> 0:04:40.000 He has got a terminal disease, and this is the 0:04:40.000 --> 0:04:41.560 suit he wants to be buried him. 0:04:41.640 --> 0:04:42.440 But here's the thing. 0:04:43.160 --> 0:04:45.680 If you go into your local bank and you open 0:04:45.760 --> 0:04:49.000 up a safety deposit box, then the paperwork is filed, 0:04:49.200 --> 0:04:50.839 and that means the government could eventually find it. 0:04:50.920 --> 0:04:51.240 Same thing. 0:04:51.279 --> 0:04:52.680 You go to the ups store, you open up a 0:04:52.720 --> 0:04:57.560 po box, right, But if you secretly sew something into 0:04:57.600 --> 0:05:00.280 the lining of your suit and you hand that suit 0:05:00.360 --> 0:05:04.080 over to your local funeral director, you have the ultimate 0:05:04.680 --> 0:05:07.640 untraceable hiding spot. And so the man goes back to 0:05:07.640 --> 0:05:09.400 his hotel. There is a guy with a gun waiting 0:05:09.400 --> 0:05:11.600 and says, where is it? Man says, I don't know 0:05:11.640 --> 0:05:14.679 what you're talking about, shoots the man dead. That suit 0:05:14.800 --> 0:05:16.840 is still in the funeral home. You won't believe what's 0:05:16.880 --> 0:05:19.760 hidden inside it or who's about to find it. Right, 0:05:19.839 --> 0:05:20.680 that's chapter one. 0:05:20.520 --> 0:05:23.200 Of the Viper. Yeah, no, that's how it starts. Chapter two. 0:05:24.600 --> 0:05:27.200 By the way, where did that idea? Where was that 0:05:27.240 --> 0:05:29.120 idea born in a funeral home? 0:05:29.160 --> 0:05:32.400 Because I'm frigging only I love funeral homes, So I 0:05:32.520 --> 0:05:32.960 go to this. 0:05:32.960 --> 0:05:33.480 This is great. 0:05:33.520 --> 0:05:36.040 I go to this funeral home with my buddy in 0:05:36.080 --> 0:05:39.320 Pennsylvania and usually go to the funeral home and you're like, 0:05:39.480 --> 0:05:41.000 for the wrong reason, you don't want to be there. 0:05:41.040 --> 0:05:41.760 This is light a day. 0:05:41.800 --> 0:05:44.120 And he's showing me, like, here where the urns are, 0:05:44.200 --> 0:05:47.360 and here's where all the scalpels are and the bone 0:05:47.400 --> 0:05:48.640 saws and these gruesome things. 0:05:48.920 --> 0:05:50.520 But then there's this one door. 0:05:50.600 --> 0:05:53.640 That has this giant padlock on it, and I'm like, well, 0:05:53.680 --> 0:05:55.880 what's that? And that's of course all I care about now, 0:05:56.040 --> 0:05:58.320 and he's like, oh, watch this, and he pulls out 0:05:58.360 --> 0:06:00.440 a key, undoes the padlock, opens it up. The door 0:06:00.480 --> 0:06:03.839 swings wide, and there's like all these clothes that look 0:06:03.920 --> 0:06:06.240 like your grandparents what they wore to your wedding, your 0:06:06.240 --> 0:06:08.680 bar mitzvah or whatever, like like the fancy affair. So 0:06:08.720 --> 0:06:13.280 it's like pinstry suits and like sequin gowns, and if 0:06:13.320 --> 0:06:15.960 you're old and you have no family, you pick out 0:06:16.000 --> 0:06:17.320 what you're gonna wear to your funeral. 0:06:17.440 --> 0:06:18.880 So that is true. That is true. 0:06:19.120 --> 0:06:21.679 And the craziest part is is there's like Jets jerseys 0:06:21.720 --> 0:06:23.960 in there. There's like a guy who's got a cowboy 0:06:24.000 --> 0:06:26.120 hat in there. Someone's like and he said, I'm like, 0:06:26.160 --> 0:06:27.880 what's the cowboy hat. He's like, yeah, this guy. I 0:06:27.880 --> 0:06:30.640 have a client, he said, my ex wife hates his 0:06:30.720 --> 0:06:34.120 cowboy hat. Make sure it's on my body, in my coffin. 0:06:34.520 --> 0:06:36.760 Like he's determined to the end to like put the 0:06:36.839 --> 0:06:37.400 knife in her. 0:06:37.520 --> 0:06:38.440 And people are crazy. 0:06:38.480 --> 0:06:40.480 But I looked at that and right there was like, 0:06:40.839 --> 0:06:42.880 this is the best hiding spot I've ever seen in 0:06:42.880 --> 0:06:43.160 my life. 0:06:43.240 --> 0:06:45.720 No, really, is it? Really? Till you die, no one 0:06:45.760 --> 0:06:48.119 will find what you put in there. Right by the way. 0:06:48.279 --> 0:06:51.320 I love that. That's true. I love that. 0:06:51.680 --> 0:06:53.479 But you know it's true, right like when you see 0:06:53.480 --> 0:06:55.080 it and I say, oh, there's clothes but you pick 0:06:55.080 --> 0:06:57.200 out to me, You're like, there's something that hits you 0:06:57.240 --> 0:06:59.880 in the chest that goes that seems real to me. Yes, 0:07:00.040 --> 0:07:02.000 and that's what I and that to me is always 0:07:02.000 --> 0:07:02.800 where we start off. 0:07:02.880 --> 0:07:05.880 So so go back to So why the the personal? 0:07:06.000 --> 0:07:06.520 Is it personal? 0:07:06.560 --> 0:07:09.160 Because you've already donated your clothes to the funeral hallway? 0:07:09.360 --> 0:07:12.000 Well, you know, I got to pick out my Superman 0:07:12.040 --> 0:07:14.200 outfit too. Can I tell you? 0:07:14.240 --> 0:07:17.760 Though I've never told you about this, my father, May 0:07:17.760 --> 0:07:18.600 he rest in peace. 0:07:18.640 --> 0:07:20.600 And this is also where the idea comes from. 0:07:20.800 --> 0:07:23.480 My father is the only guy I think in the 0:07:23.520 --> 0:07:27.200 whole universe who convinced the Florida DMV when he went 0:07:27.240 --> 0:07:28.920 to get his driver's license, and you got to take 0:07:28.920 --> 0:07:31.760 that serious picture. It's a government picture to let him 0:07:31.800 --> 0:07:35.000 wear a baseball cap in it. Okay, shut up, I 0:07:35.080 --> 0:07:37.040 promise you it is true. I have the physical proof. 0:07:37.080 --> 0:07:39.600 And I'm like, Dad, how and he's like, ah, the 0:07:39.640 --> 0:07:41.680 woman liked me. I'm like, so my father when we 0:07:41.760 --> 0:07:44.600 buried him, is buried in a baseball cap that says 0:07:44.680 --> 0:07:48.200 best pop ever. And I was like, and the people 0:07:48.240 --> 0:07:49.880 are like, they gotta put a something like my my 0:07:50.000 --> 0:07:51.680 dad didn't want to wear a suit to it. There's 0:07:51.720 --> 0:07:53.960 no way I'm putting a Yankee old you know, Jane 0:07:54.000 --> 0:07:55.560 yild sit on my dad. I'm like, he's wearing a 0:07:55.600 --> 0:07:57.600 baseball cap in his grave. I'm like, that's awesome, which 0:07:57.640 --> 0:07:59.360 is all I'm so, you know, I'm picking it. So 0:07:59.760 --> 0:08:02.560 but this so, why is this personal? So the opening 0:08:02.920 --> 0:08:04.560 page of the book, the very first thing you read 0:08:04.800 --> 0:08:07.440 is this great military quote and it says, I don't 0:08:07.440 --> 0:08:10.640 believe in closure. I'm not sure we ever get over anything. 0:08:10.720 --> 0:08:12.840 Okay, that's before chapter one, you're right. 0:08:12.880 --> 0:08:15.000 But because the first line is these were the last 0:08:15.000 --> 0:08:16.320 sixteen minutes of his life. 0:08:16.440 --> 0:08:18.160 I love that opening line. Yeah, no, I do too. 0:08:18.280 --> 0:08:18.800 I did too. 0:08:18.920 --> 0:08:20.640 But I know what you're talking about right by that 0:08:20.680 --> 0:08:23.239 opening little quote that you see, and it's about closure 0:08:23.320 --> 0:08:25.920 and and it's the last thing I put in the book. 0:08:26.040 --> 0:08:27.720 When the book was done, I found that quote and 0:08:27.720 --> 0:08:29.360 I was like, why is this It hit me like 0:08:29.400 --> 0:08:31.160 a harpoon in the chest, and I'm like, why is 0:08:31.200 --> 0:08:34.920 this closure quote hitting me? And here's the thing is, 0:08:35.559 --> 0:08:37.520 you know, we know each other a long time, and 0:08:37.559 --> 0:08:39.640 you know I have a complicated relationship with my father. 0:08:39.720 --> 0:08:41.200 I buried my mom and my dad and I spent 0:08:41.240 --> 0:08:43.440 a lot of books trying to figure out, you know, 0:08:43.480 --> 0:08:45.440 how to get over my parents' deaths. And so my 0:08:45.480 --> 0:08:48.160 mom died. I wrote a book about a character who 0:08:48.160 --> 0:08:50.439 lost their mom. My dad died there about character lost 0:08:50.480 --> 0:08:52.640 their dad. I'm a very complex person, right, like you 0:08:52.679 --> 0:08:56.640 can never crack my code. But when I was working 0:08:56.679 --> 0:08:59.840 on this, I so I'll just tell you the story. 0:09:00.160 --> 0:09:02.000 When I was at Michigan, and I was in my 0:09:02.120 --> 0:09:04.160 senior year at Michigan, I go to a register for 0:09:04.200 --> 0:09:07.959 classes and they say to me, you're kicked out of school. 0:09:08.000 --> 0:09:09.520 I'm like, what are you talking about. They're like, your 0:09:09.520 --> 0:09:11.240 bills aren't paid. No one paid your bills. And my 0:09:11.280 --> 0:09:14.360 first thought is like dad, and I know it's my dad. 0:09:14.440 --> 0:09:17.080 My dad was you know, not educated, always bad with money, 0:09:17.160 --> 0:09:19.080 like just created a lot of chaos in our lives. 0:09:19.679 --> 0:09:22.080 But I go downstairs. They give me some loans at 0:09:22.120 --> 0:09:23.840 one percent. They're really nice to be like, let that 0:09:23.880 --> 0:09:25.679 we will graduate on time. Like thank you to these 0:09:25.679 --> 0:09:27.560 strange you know, the woman and the bursters in the 0:09:27.559 --> 0:09:31.480 registruge office. So now I graduate, I move and you 0:09:31.520 --> 0:09:34.120 get your you know whatever, you get your mail all 0:09:34.120 --> 0:09:35.960 sent you at your new address. So now my real 0:09:36.480 --> 0:09:38.560 mail from home is coming to this new address I have, 0:09:39.280 --> 0:09:42.920 and in the mail Eliott comes forty thousand dollars of 0:09:43.040 --> 0:09:46.679 credit card debt on credit cards that I did not open, right, 0:09:46.760 --> 0:09:49.040 And that's how my father was paying for my college. 0:09:49.080 --> 0:09:50.959 He was taking out illegal credit cards. You know those 0:09:50.960 --> 0:09:52.880 ads to every college kid says, sign up for a 0:09:52.880 --> 0:09:55.480 new credit card. My dad signed up for all of them, 0:09:55.840 --> 0:09:58.240 every single one. And they said to me, the only 0:09:58.280 --> 0:10:00.319 way you're getting out of forty thousand dollars there's a 0:10:00.360 --> 0:10:03.120 debt is you got to prosecute your father. You got 0:10:03.120 --> 0:10:05.679 to say, because it's fraud, you have to testify against him, 0:10:05.760 --> 0:10:07.440 or otherwise all its debts on you. And I'm like, 0:10:07.559 --> 0:10:10.400 I'm not ratting out my own father, right, So of course, 0:10:10.440 --> 0:10:12.280 we make some peace with the companies. 0:10:12.320 --> 0:10:12.960 We give them money. 0:10:12.960 --> 0:10:15.640 And it's such a dumb plan too, because a credit 0:10:15.640 --> 0:10:17.600 card is a twenty two percent interest rate. My dad 0:10:17.600 --> 0:10:19.920 could have a one percent loan, So it's just so dumb. 0:10:20.200 --> 0:10:23.120 But again, we calm everything down and the ground gets 0:10:23.200 --> 0:10:26.200 normal again. But eventually, if you keep getting hit in 0:10:26.200 --> 0:10:27.760 the back of the head, you start looking over your 0:10:27.760 --> 0:10:30.920 own shoulder. Right, here's the part I missed about that story. 0:10:31.040 --> 0:10:33.840 And I told this part of my dad's funeral. When 0:10:33.880 --> 0:10:36.880 my dad was a kid, his father used to beat 0:10:36.920 --> 0:10:38.640 him up. He was a boxer in the military. He 0:10:38.720 --> 0:10:41.240 used to hit my dad. I know for sure my 0:10:41.320 --> 0:10:43.880 dad jumped in front of his younger brother to take 0:10:43.920 --> 0:10:46.439 the hits for him, for his younger brother so he 0:10:46.480 --> 0:10:48.560 won't get hit. I know my dad jumped in front 0:10:48.559 --> 0:10:50.800 of his own mother, my grandmother, so she wouldn't take 0:10:50.800 --> 0:10:55.400 the hit. And what I didn't realize is that that's 0:10:55.400 --> 0:10:57.600 what my dad was doing for me. He was trying 0:10:57.679 --> 0:11:00.600 to take the hit for me financially so that I 0:11:00.600 --> 0:11:02.560 could be the first of my immediate family to get 0:11:02.600 --> 0:11:04.840 out and go to a four year college. But I 0:11:04.880 --> 0:11:08.240 couldn't see that part of the story because I was 0:11:08.320 --> 0:11:10.839 so focused on my hurt and my pain and look 0:11:10.880 --> 0:11:12.560 what you did to me and me, me, me, me, 0:11:13.280 --> 0:11:16.040 And I couldn't see that he was trying that. And 0:11:16.720 --> 0:11:18.600 it goes to this one thing in the book, and 0:11:18.640 --> 0:11:20.560 I didn't until I got to the end. And again 0:11:20.600 --> 0:11:22.720 it won't warn anything, but there's this word at the 0:11:22.760 --> 0:11:26.720 end of the book in the viper called pentimento, and 0:11:26.840 --> 0:11:28.480 pentimento is a painting term. 0:11:28.559 --> 0:11:31.200 Can I can I tell you this just I couldn't 0:11:31.200 --> 0:11:33.080 pronounce the word it was. 0:11:33.200 --> 0:11:36.480 No, I knew, I knew what it wasn't but pimento. 0:11:36.600 --> 0:11:38.840 That's what I did. That's how I read it. You 0:11:38.880 --> 0:11:41.960 read it, of course like, all right, well, I guess 0:11:42.000 --> 0:11:43.200 arts used pimento. 0:11:44.679 --> 0:11:45.960 But I found this one. I didn't know what the 0:11:46.000 --> 0:11:48.199 word was. Pentimento. I never heard a word in my life. 0:11:48.280 --> 0:11:50.319 It's a it's a term in painting. When the paint 0:11:50.400 --> 0:11:53.599 gets so old and dry, it becomes transparent. 0:11:53.640 --> 0:11:54.480 You could see through it. 0:11:54.840 --> 0:11:57.640 And so what happens is is that you can actually 0:11:57.679 --> 0:12:01.560 see the artists, the original underneath the pencil lines that 0:12:01.600 --> 0:12:04.280 are on the canvas before it, before they paint it, 0:12:04.280 --> 0:12:05.760 so like you know, and that's what they do. They 0:12:05.760 --> 0:12:07.600 sketch it out, so a tree or a woman's dress. 0:12:07.600 --> 0:12:10.080 It's swaying one way. They change your mind, it sways 0:12:10.080 --> 0:12:12.120 the other way. So what you're seeing is the rough draft. 0:12:12.160 --> 0:12:14.000 You go to see a Davincian in a museum, you 0:12:14.000 --> 0:12:15.880 see there's like the kind of pencil lines in them, 0:12:16.320 --> 0:12:19.960 and those rough drafts, like all rough drafts, have regrets, 0:12:20.000 --> 0:12:21.680 they have mistakes, they have things you wish you could 0:12:21.679 --> 0:12:24.160 take back. And it dawned on me when I learned 0:12:24.160 --> 0:12:27.960 this word that we are all rough drafts. We all 0:12:27.960 --> 0:12:31.400 have past versions of ourselves that are filled with regrets 0:12:31.440 --> 0:12:34.880 and filled with flaws. And the thing is, though, you 0:12:34.920 --> 0:12:37.760 can't make a masterpiece without them, right. So to me, 0:12:37.920 --> 0:12:41.040 closures overrated. I think, what you have to do And 0:12:41.080 --> 0:12:44.360 this is what the whole book gave me is I 0:12:44.520 --> 0:12:46.720 finally realize you just have to love yourself for who 0:12:46.760 --> 0:12:49.200 you are, your good parts, your bad parts, your family parts, 0:12:49.240 --> 0:12:52.120 those things. And I finally this book for me, what 0:12:52.160 --> 0:12:55.760 the Viper did is it let me find some forgiveness 0:12:55.760 --> 0:12:59.960 for my dad and welcome to my free therapy. 0:13:00.240 --> 0:13:01.320 Really, that's what it was. 0:13:01.400 --> 0:13:03.560 And that and and so I realized as I was running, 0:13:03.559 --> 0:13:05.880 I'm like, those things that are affecting Zig and those 0:13:05.880 --> 0:13:08.480 things that are affecting Nola, it's nothing I made up. 0:13:08.480 --> 0:13:10.400 I was like, oh crap, that's what I've been dealing 0:13:10.400 --> 0:13:12.520 with for the past two years, trying to figure this out. 0:13:12.760 --> 0:13:15.680 And I was carrying that that that heartache and pagn 0:13:15.720 --> 0:13:18.439 that he caused me around and and I was when 0:13:18.440 --> 0:13:20.000 you let it go, man, it lightens you up. 0:13:20.320 --> 0:13:22.680 I gotta tell you, I when I when I read 0:13:22.679 --> 0:13:24.400 the book, I didn't get any of that. 0:13:24.840 --> 0:13:27.120 Yeah, you didn't get well, you have to come to 0:13:27.160 --> 0:13:31.200 therapy with me. It's way more fun. No, But like, 0:13:31.240 --> 0:13:34.240 do you feel better about I? Actually do? I mean that? 0:13:34.640 --> 0:13:37.720 You know I always say it because I'm being complete? No, no, no, 0:13:37.760 --> 0:13:38.480 you can't know that. 0:13:38.720 --> 0:13:40.720 You would have no idea, Like I read the book 0:13:40.720 --> 0:13:43.160 and I wasn't like, wow, I feel really enlightened, right, right, 0:13:43.200 --> 0:13:45.719 But what you do feel really enjoyed the book. 0:13:45.600 --> 0:13:47.640 Of course, But but I hope what you feel when 0:13:47.679 --> 0:13:50.320 you do it is that book is about kind of 0:13:50.679 --> 0:13:54.160 trying to accept yourself. Right, Like Nola will never let 0:13:54.280 --> 0:13:57.079 Zig get closer, I never like do anything. 0:13:57.080 --> 0:13:59.960 That's and and again not running the end of the book. 0:14:00.040 --> 0:14:02.320 But the whole book is about dealing and making peace 0:14:02.360 --> 0:14:02.960 with your past. 0:14:03.400 --> 0:14:03.559 Right. 0:14:03.600 --> 0:14:06.120 It's Nola's mother's dead. She's got to find out who 0:14:06.240 --> 0:14:06.959 killed her mother. 0:14:07.480 --> 0:14:08.040 Simple thing. 0:14:08.360 --> 0:14:10.840 And that is literally the code. And for me, that 0:14:10.960 --> 0:14:13.160 is like, my dad is dead. How do I make 0:14:13.200 --> 0:14:15.160 peace with that? Because it's not Nola says, I don't 0:14:15.160 --> 0:14:15.880 care who killed my mom. 0:14:15.920 --> 0:14:16.120 I don't. 0:14:16.160 --> 0:14:19.680 I didn't like my mom. She but she has to 0:14:19.680 --> 0:14:21.440 make peace with it. And that's what she's doing. 0:14:21.440 --> 0:14:23.360 The whole book. The Hey, can I ask you this? 0:14:23.440 --> 0:14:26.480 So the funeral home thing is is real. 0:14:26.520 --> 0:14:29.320 You went to a funeral home and you saw the suits. 0:14:29.000 --> 0:14:33.280 There's the thing and the prob Well, anyway, this whole 0:14:33.280 --> 0:14:35.760 group of kids, Nola's mom and her friends and all 0:14:35.800 --> 0:14:37.760 of that, what are they called the Breakfast Club? 0:14:37.840 --> 0:14:41.240 Yeah, breakfast breakfast club if you are like gen X 0:14:41.320 --> 0:14:44.080 or millennial, like they have been coming out and drove 0:14:44.160 --> 0:14:46.280 to the book signing and they're like, I am seen 0:14:47.320 --> 0:14:49.440 Like this is a book that opens with halland Oates, 0:14:49.640 --> 0:14:52.840 ends with Betty Davis eyes and the gang in the group. 0:14:52.680 --> 0:14:55.640 Is called the Breakfast Club. But is that based on? 0:14:55.920 --> 0:14:58.120 So the whole thing was when they were in school, 0:14:58.360 --> 0:15:00.760 they would go to like people's houses for parties and 0:15:00.800 --> 0:15:03.160 they would run it through the house and they would 0:15:03.160 --> 0:15:06.280 steal stuff from inside the house from their friends, which, 0:15:06.280 --> 0:15:07.640 by the way, I grew up with a bunch of 0:15:07.680 --> 0:15:08.400 hoodlum friends. 0:15:08.640 --> 0:15:11.320 We never did that. We never did that. 0:15:11.560 --> 0:15:13.760 We did take a door off a hand and put 0:15:13.760 --> 0:15:16.440 it through a glass table, but we never stole from 0:15:16.480 --> 0:15:20.320 the person's house. Did Brad Meltzer, as a child in 0:15:20.440 --> 0:15:22.680 high school steal from their friend's house. 0:15:23.080 --> 0:15:25.160 First of all, I was the poorest kid. I would 0:15:25.240 --> 0:15:27.680 never steal from their houses. I was always like, how 0:15:27.680 --> 0:15:29.880 do you have stealing from your house? And no one 0:15:29.920 --> 0:15:32.760 want to crap in my house? My my Kenwood stereo 0:15:33.120 --> 0:15:35.240 like that was like I got a deal for like 0:15:35.280 --> 0:15:37.400 one hundred bucks. I thought I was rich, and like, 0:15:37.920 --> 0:15:40.160 no one stole from me. I would never steal from anyone. 0:15:40.240 --> 0:15:44.600 But here's the part that's true is and I won't 0:15:44.600 --> 0:15:46.120 I'm trying to say it without running that part of 0:15:46.120 --> 0:15:50.280 the book. We did very much find something illegal in 0:15:50.360 --> 0:15:51.160 someone's house. 0:15:51.280 --> 0:15:52.760 Did you realize, yes. 0:15:52.520 --> 0:15:57.880 I'm gonna guess it's not what's aggressive. 0:15:57.160 --> 0:15:58.880 It was very aggressive. 0:15:58.920 --> 0:16:02.360 But you know, when you go to someone's house, you 0:16:02.440 --> 0:16:04.680 see stuff, right, you see how people live. I remember 0:16:04.680 --> 0:16:07.080 going to people's houses and again they had two cars 0:16:07.080 --> 0:16:08.920