Clandestine D.C.: David Baldacci

Express contributor Jessica Milcetich caught up with Virginia's own best-selling scribe.

EVER SINCE HE WAS YOUNG, David Baldacci has embraced the idea that we don't know all the details and sometimes aren't getting the whole truth. The author's brought the concept to fictional life with the 2005 best-seller "The Camel Club," named after a group of four men who have dedicated their lives to discovering the truth behind what the government is really telling the public.

In Baldacci's 2006 hit book, "The Collectors," The Camel Club was back in action, with the help of Annabelle Conroy, a con artist who helps the men unravel the mystery behind the assassination of the Speaker of the House.

Baldacci's next book, "Simple Genius," comes out April 24, and features characters from "Split Second" and "Hour Game." Here's the description from Baldacci's well-appointed Web site:

A three-hour drive from Washington, D.C., two clandestine institutions face each other across a heavily guarded river. One is the world's most unusual laboratory, whose goals and funding are a mystery. The other is an elite CIA training camp shrouded in secrecy. Now Sean King and Michelle Maxwell are about to run a gauntlet between these two puzzle factories, straight into a furious struggle to exploit a potentially world-shattering discovery — and keep some other secrets under wraps forever.

Express caught up with Baldacci before his chat at Alexandria's History Museum Wednesday in hopes of shedding some light on where his ideas for all the governmental scandals come from and what's next for the members of The Camel Club.

» EXPRESS: After going to law school and practicing law for a few years, what caused you to make the switch to writing full time?
» BALDACCI: I'm sort of a writer who happens to be a lawyer. I've been writing since I was a kid. I've always enjoyed telling stories. I told a lot of good yarns when I was kid, mostly to get out of trouble. My mom gave me a notebook to let it all out, and I never really stopped. All through high school I wrote. In college, I wrote screenplays when I was practicing law.

» EXPRESS: Where do you get the ideas for your books?
» BALDACCI: One of the tools that a writer needs, an essential tool, is being curious about the world that's out there. Even though I write fiction, I write a lot of real-life situations. You have to have the possibility to see a story. You can see a potential scene in front of you that other people might not have seen.

» EXPRESS: Do you work out the conclusion first and build the book from the end, or let it come to its own conclusion, writing it in the order it is read?
» BALDACCI: It varies. I just finished a script for a feature film and knew the ending before I sat down to write. Most of the novels I'm not quite sure what the ending's going to be. It starts to evolve and takes a harder shape about 100 to 150 pages in when I get into the meat of the novel. A lot of my writer friends use very precise outlines. I've never been able to do that. Sometimes I use miniature outlines — I'll map out 20 pages ahead — but spontaneity is never a bad thing when writing fiction. If it surprises me going in a different direction, it's certain to surprise the reader.

» EXPRESS: How do you get inside the inner workings of the government when you write about a lot of ploys and scandals? Do you have a specific source or do exorbitant amounts of research?
» BALDACCI: I've become a journalist. I go out and talk to people. I get names of people. I get as many resources I possibility can. You can read books, but they don't give you the nuances. For that, you have to go into the field to talk to people. I have friends, people, resources that I've cultivated over the years and I'll say, "Here's something I'm thinking about doing." People love to share their expertise. People in the FBI or Secret Service, they read my books. I play fair and try to be realistic. There's an element of trust involved.

» EXPRESS: Do you base any of your characters off real people or draw on any of your old cases from your days as a lawyer?
» BALDACCI: I think most writers admit they pull from people that they've met in their lives. I've never really taken everyone whole cloth and plopped them into novel, but I've taken bits and pieces of people I've found interesting. I love to just sit and watch people interact and talk. It's difficult to write interesting dialogue. Also from being a lawyer I learned everyone lies and to take everything with a grain of salt. You have to read clients' looks to understand that people don't talk so much in A-B-C-D-E-F-G back and forth dialogue. The most interesting thing they might say might be completely not verbal. That's real and you have to put that into the novel. Everyone can innately sense when it seems to be wrong or unrealistic.

» EXPRESS: I've noticed you've been writing not sequels, per say, but books with continuing characters. Is that a trend we'll continue to see?
» BALDACCI: My first 10 or 11 books had no recurrent characters. I guess it started with "Split Second." I liked the chemistry the protagonists had, and I felt I had more to say. It was interesting for me to allow them to evolve. In "The Camel Club" came along these guys who were just a lot of fun to hang out with. What I found with "The Collectors" is you can add characters.

» EXPRESS: Do you plan to continue the storylines of both sets of continuing characters? (Michelle Maxwell and Sean King from "Split Second" and "The Camel Club.")
» BALDACCI: Yes, absolutely. The Camel Club in particular. They're just too good to let go. Every book you read about they're all the same, from the insider's perspective. I don't know, maybe it was how I was brought up, but I like the outsider's perspective. Most people in Kansas or Nebraska don't follow D.C. like we do here, but people are interested in it. They have a sense that there's a lot more going on. The Camel Club gives a peek inside from an outsider's perspective.

» EXPRESS: Which book have you enjoyed writing the most and which of your characters do you most relate to?
» BALDACCI: I've written a couple of non-thrillers, "Wish You Well" and "The Christmas Train." "Wish You Well" was the most joyous experience. I didn't have to worry about plotting. There are a couple characters in that novel I relate to: a little boy named Diamond Skinner, like a Huck Finn on steroids, and a lawyer named Cotton Longfellow, who is sort of the epitome of the friend we'd all like to have when we sort of need a friend. ["Wish You Well" will be re-released on April 3 with a new letter/essay from Baldacci along with family photos, a book-group reading guide and tips on how to start researching your own family history.]

» EXPRESS: "Absolute Power" was made into a movie. Are any of your other books heading toward that future?
» BALDACCI: We've had talks about "The Winner" and developing "The Camel Club" into a network TV series. Hollywood's a crapshoot. Nine times out of 10 comes to naught.

» EXPRESS: What can we expect after "Simple Genius"?
» BALDACCI: "The Collectors" really ended on cliffhanger, and I've gotten tons of e-mails from people saying if I don't write another book they're going to beat me to death. A sequel to "The Collectors" should be out sometime next year, so we'll tidy that up.

» Lyceum, Alexandria's History Museum, 201 S. Washington St., Alexandria; Wed., 7:15 p.m., $5; 703-838-4994. (King Street)

Photo by John Foley/Warner Books

Posted By Express at 11:00 PM on March 6, 2007 Tagged in Arts & Events , Books , King Street

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