Reflections on an Evening with David Baldacci

by Megan Wessell

On Tuesday, December 2, the Gaithersburg Book Festival hosted an event with bestselling author, David Baldacci, at the Gaithersburg Library. Baldacci has written many books and perhaps is best known for his gripping thrillers. The event was moderated by Bethanne Patrick, a wonderful book reviewer for Washingtonian Magazine. Local favorite, Politics and Prose, was there to sell several of Baldacci’s books, including his latest release, “The Escape.” There was a great turnout and the crowd was incredibly fired up about seeing Mr. Baldacci speak. The night promised to be a lot of fun.

While I am a fan of David Baldacci, I had never had the chance to hear him speak before so I was quite excited to see what he was actually like rather than trying to figure it out through his writing. He is an incredibly congenial and passionate guy with a great sense of humor. His conversation with Ms. Patrick covered a variety of topics from the funny to the serious. One of the big topics that he covered was his Wish You Well Foundation. This Foundation was started by Baldacci and his wife, Michelle. The idea behind this organization is to promote family literacy through giving out books through the same channels as many of the Feeding America food banks throughout the country.

Baldacci spoke at great length about how important he and Michelle both felt literacy was and how it could help to ease some of the socioeconomic issues that our country faces. He deeply believes that the ability to read can open many opportunities that may have not been open otherwise. It was energizing to see how passionate Baldacci is about the power of literacy and books. The organization has donated over two million books to those in need! Books for the Wish You Well Foundation were also collected at this event.

Not all of the topics that Baldacci and Patrick discussed were serious. Baldacci talked about his friendly rivalry with fellow author, John Grisham. He also told a very funny story about being mistaken in public for John Grisham. This led Ms. Patrick to ask a question about if he says anything to people he sees reading his books in public. Baldacci told a hilarious story about going up to a guy at the baggage claim that was reading one of his books. The guy did not recognize him and definitely did not want Baldacci to sign his book. After that, Baldacci decided that maybe it was better to not go up to people reading his book in public. Lesson learned!

Of course, Patrick also wanted to ask about Baldacci’s books. Baldacci definitely seems to be one of those writers where the words must just flow from his pen with as many books as he has published. One part of the conversation that I particularly enjoyed was about Baldacci’s female characters. He writes incredibly strong female characters that are definitely no shrinking violets. Baldacci said he doesn’t write damsels in distress because he doesn’t know any in real life.

Baldacci also spoke a lot about the research that he does to write his books. He has able to get a front row seat to a lot of the more secretive places that he writes about it. He is also not afraid to get his hands dirty when it comes to trying to understand what his characters are feeling and what they have been through. For one of his books, he had an opportunity to train with military paratroopers. His philosophy seems to be “anything to write a good story.” You have to appreciate his want to make his stories authentic!

After his talk, Baldacci signed books for everyone who wanted their books signed and made a point to stay to sign books for everyone that waited in line. He had kind words for everyone and took a lot of pictures with event attendees. Not only did I get three books for myself and one for a friend signed but I also got to get my picture taken with Mr. Baldacci, a perfect keepsake from a great event!

Overall, the event attendees seemed to really enjoy the event. There was a lot of excitement about having such a big author right here in Gaithersburg. I, for one, hope that there are many more of these kinds of events in our community soon. Baldacci was an incredibly engaging speaker. This event definitely drummed up excitement for the 2015 Gaithersburg Book Festival! Hopefully May 16 will get here quickly!

Megan Wessell blogs about books at A Bookish Affair.