January 10, 2024 • 9 mins
James Patterson is one of my favorites and how honored to be able to chat with him, have him read an excerpt from his new book and hear his thoughts on books, getting kids to actually love reading and his New England roots! Enjoy the interview, I wish we had more time!
Holmes, Marple and Poe now available by James Patterson and Brian SittsTaken from James Patterson:Brendan Holmes—The Brain: Identifies suspects via deduction and logic. Margaret Marple—The Eyes: Possesses powers of observation too often underestimated. Auguste Poe—The Muscle: Chases down every lead no matter how dangerous or dark. The agency’s daring methodology and headline-making solves attract the attention of NYPD Detective Helene Grey. Her solo investigation into her three unknowable competitors rivals the best mysteries of Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle, Agatha Christie, and Edgar Allan Poe.
Holmes, Marple and Poe now available by James Patterson and Brian SittsTaken from James Patterson:Brendan Holmes—The Brain: Identifies suspects via deduction and logic. Margaret Marple—The Eyes: Possesses powers of observation too often underestimated. Auguste Poe—The Muscle: Chases down every lead no matter how dangerous or dark. The agency’s daring methodology and headline-making solves attract the attention of NYPD Detective Helene Grey. Her solo investigation into her three unknowable competitors rivals the best mysteries of Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle, Agatha Christie, and Edgar Allan Poe.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
All right, ladies and gentlemen.You know how excited to get about my
authors and I'm always talking about myWomen's Murder Club, and James Patterson happens
to be the genius behind all ofthose, one of my favorite authors on
the entire planet, taking time outof his day to chat with us.
Hi, James, how are you? Hey? I'm good. You know
when you're in a lot of myterritory. I kind of grew up in
Lexington, mass spent a lot oftime on the Cape as a kid,
(00:24):
and my our son went to Brownso we spent a lot of time in
Providence. So a lot of NewEngland stuff in our blood. Well,
ah, my sisters in Maine.Yeah, yeah, absolutely, listen.
We even have something closer that youdon't even know about. So I unfortunately
had to have Ah, this isridiculous, just gloss over the surgery part,
but I ended up having to haveeye surgery. And you were coming
(00:45):
to the Mark Twain House and myfriend Jacques was putting it on and I
was supposed to be there and Icouldn't go, and I was heartbroken.
I had my tickets and everything becauseyou are literally so she got you signed
a book The Eleventh Hour. Yousigned it for me and I have a
yeah, yeah, man, thatwas great. You know, Mark Twain
is terrific. Well, and thatbrings me, you know, to the
current thing, which is similar likeif you wrote a book about Mark Twain.
(01:08):
The idea of Holmes, Marble andPope. I took it out to
Hollywood and I said to him,I said, you all ought to just
buy this on the title Marple andPoe, and they did. But you
think about it as a crime solvingteam, Oh my god. You know,
Alice Cross will go out of theWomen's Murder Club and they're they're really
good at it. But when youget you know, Sherlock Holmes level of
(01:29):
quality, Miss Marple and then andthen Edgar Allan Poe, and they're all
descendants of not of the fictional characters, which would be kind of bizarre but
interesting, but they're you know,Holmes is a descendant of Arthur Conan Doyle,
and Marple in the books is adescendant of Agarthur Christie, and then
Poe obviously a descendant of eded Grelland Pope. But it's really it's a
great crime solving team, and it'sif you like the Women's Murder Club.
(01:53):
I think you love it. It'sit's a really cool uh team, and
they and they're together and they theyall live in one building, which is
interesting, and they have this wonderfullibrary which has all of everything that all
the show like called stuff, allthe christy stuff, all the you know.
So it's just fun. And obviouslyI'm excited about it because I'm babbling.
Well, no, you babble away. And now it was just released
(02:15):
on the Ace, so it's verynew to everybody. Holmes, Marple and
Poe by James Patterson and O'Brian Sits. And I'll tell you what, I
am so excited about this book thatI am a a. I have to
hold a book in my hands,so I will buy the hardcover and I
will enjoy it and I will betaken away as you always do with your
(02:37):
your readers. James, you foundthat that key, that magical key that
unlocks just theater of the mind,which is why it's what is your process?
I have to ask you? Andin combining this trio of like legendary
and iconic names together, where onearth did this came? We start with
(02:58):
I always start with the idea thatI I find interesting that I'm excited,
that I'm passionate about about moving itforward. And then I'll do a long
outline I just finished. When it'sone hundred and ten chapter outline, it's
about seventy pages. That's just theoutline, you know, So that's where
I start. That's just you know, in terms of the way I tell
stories, and it's always just sceneafter scene after scene after seene, which
(03:23):
you know, for me, itmakes it a little easier. And you
know, like for this one,I might you know, like put on
a couple of pieces of paper allthe potential home scenes and all the potential
Marble scenes and then the ones we'rethere together, and you know, and
and then ultimately it's almost like youbeing in an editing room if you're editing
a movie and you take all thescenes and decide what the strike, you
(03:46):
know, what the order should be. So it's interesting that you have all
of these characters combined. And wenever want to give anything away, obviously
we want people to read the book, but I do have to ask you,
how did you or how were youable to weave them all together,
because they're all leading characters. Yeah, well that's the fun of it.
But they're friends, I mean interms of the book, and they get
(04:11):
along well, and they start awell here's a little piece from from the
book which in terms of homes MarklingPaul investigations, he said, you plicked
a business card from his wallet withthe flare of an illusionist. Samantha took
it home s Markling poet. Shesaid, Is that a joke? Holmes
leaned over the desk. Absolutely not. We're private investigators, the best there
(04:34):
is, you know, And that'sthat's a little spirit of it. You
know, it's I just got goosebumpsbecause when you have your favorite author reading
to you, it's kind of likea moment to savor. But you know,
with all of your books and throughall of the years and all of
the different characters, and you alsowork with a lot of people, what
(04:54):
is it like to collaborate and howimportant is it to you in your career
to share some of your success andand bring people along with you. I
obviously I couldn't do all of thebooks that I do if I didn't have
some help. And it's really importantthat the people I work with that we
get along. I've never had anargument with any of them honestly, which
(05:16):
is which is interesting, Like PresidentClinton, no problems, Dolly Parton,
no problems. I just finished one. Uh well, Michael Crichton is deceased,
but his estate came to me tofinish a book about a volcano in
Hawaii. It's it's great, it'scoming out in June. You know.
Obviously no problems. But the estatealso it didn't give me any problems.
So so yeah, and it's AndI always want to work with people that
(05:42):
that that I that I enjoy itand I want to stimulate them, and
they stimulate me, so it's good. Let me ask you a question,
So do you do you still liketo hold a book or have you moved
on to where you're okay with digitalreading. I'm I'm mainly a hold of
book person a case only. I'llread something online or on ebooks or you
know, I do emails and stuff, but I for the most part,
(06:05):
I want to hold the book.I want I want to. I have
a copy of host Marble Paul righthere in front of me, and it's
it's still a joy. It's stilla thrill. It's just a cool thing
to me. I'm lucky I grewup in a small town and a blessing
for me is I still see theworld through the eye. So that's the
kid in that small town. I'mlike, this is cool. I'm doing
(06:27):
radio. I'm on radio today.Yay. I wrote a book. Yay.
That's fun. Uh yeah, well, and let's you know, I
know we're talking about Holmes, Marpleand Poe, now available by James Patterson.
I'll have all the links up andI will be reading this. I
promise you that. But I'm justyou know, I love your your foray
into children's books. I love thatyou love animals. I'm a huge uh
(06:49):
animal advocate here in our state.And I love your your your writing for
children. And where how do youswitch that? Like? What's that which
where? Okay, there's not amurder scene. This is a child's book.
Thinking about the kids. Books thatI do, most of them are
are are humorous. So that's that'sit. That's the cool change. And
(07:10):
to be able to write, youknow, life funny or something. If
it's serious it is called life funny. You better better be moderately funny.
There are middle school is the worstyears of my life, which is funny
title. So you know, Ihave a few more going. We have
one time travel twins. I thinkit's this year for kids. So that's
that's very funny too. So that'sa nice thing for me to be able
(07:30):
to do some comedy. You know. I look at reading, and I
look at the way we are now, and I do. I go to
schools often and I do some reading, and I love to see the I
want to give a real nice,big props to our teachers here in Connecticut
and New England because the schools thatI'm going to even making it more important
for reading now and holding books andI'm still doing that in the classrooms at
(07:53):
a young age. You know,obviously, this is your life, this
is what you've You've built your yourcareer and your passion on and reading and
being an author. But just howimportant you was reading growing up? It
wasn't Weirdly, my mother was ateacher, and you know what it is.
And this is I think also importanta lot of places, the schools,
(08:15):
the school boards, whatever. Ifthe objective is to get kids reading,
if that's the objective, okay,and it's it's a noble objective,
then don't give them books that they'renot going to like. And that doesn't
mean dumb down. That just meansgood stories. There are a lot of
really really good books, really useful, very valuable books that have stories.
But if you give books, kidsa lot of books that they're just going
(08:37):
to I hated, I didn't reallylike it. That's it just defeats the
purposes. No so, And that'sa little what happened to me in Catholic
school growing up. And then youknow, weirdly I was I worked my
way through college at a mental hospitaland in Lexington, man or not Lexington,
in Belmont, and I started readinglike a crazy person during those years.
(09:00):
I mean we went to Cambridge threeor four times a week and just
pick up books. It was allserious stuff. But that that really just
turned me on. But but ifyou want to turn kids off, just
keep school boards, keep giving thembooks that they go I hate it.
That'll that'll stop them from reading.And it's so stupid. It's just you
just want to go and shake thesepeople a little bit. Now I'm gonna
(09:20):
I know, I don't have alot of time with you, and I'm
getting I know I'm gonna have towrap soon. But I do want to
go back to homes marble and postI think we actually have to wrap because
I'm heading out west now. Iwant the next one. No, listen,
I appreciate you, and I can'twait to chat again, and I
can't wait to read Holmes Marble.And thank you, thank you, thank
you, Renee, Bye bye
All right, ladies and gentlemen.You know how excited to get about my
authors and I'm always talking about myWomen's Murder Club, and James Patterson happens
to be the genius behind all ofthose, one of my favorite authors on
the entire planet, taking time outof his day to chat with us.
Hi, James, how are you? Hey? I'm good. You know
when you're in a lot of myterritory. I kind of grew up in
Lexington, mass spent a lot oftime on the Cape as a kid,
(00:24):
and my our son went to Brownso we spent a lot of time in
Providence. So a lot of NewEngland stuff in our blood. Well,
ah, my sisters in Maine.Yeah, yeah, absolutely, listen.
We even have something closer that youdon't even know about. So I unfortunately
had to have Ah, this isridiculous, just gloss over the surgery part,
but I ended up having to haveeye surgery. And you were coming
(00:45):
to the Mark Twain House and myfriend Jacques was putting it on and I
was supposed to be there and Icouldn't go, and I was heartbroken.
I had my tickets and everything becauseyou are literally so she got you signed
a book The Eleventh Hour. Yousigned it for me and I have a
yeah, yeah, man, thatwas great. You know, Mark Twain
is terrific. Well, and thatbrings me, you know, to the
current thing, which is similar likeif you wrote a book about Mark Twain.
(01:08):
The idea of Holmes, Marble andPope. I took it out to
Hollywood and I said to him,I said, you all ought to just
buy this on the title Marple andPoe, and they did. But you
think about it as a crime solvingteam, Oh my god. You know,
Alice Cross will go out of theWomen's Murder Club and they're they're really
good at it. But when youget you know, Sherlock Holmes level of
(01:29):
quality, Miss Marple and then andthen Edgar Allan Poe, and they're all
descendants of not of the fictional characters, which would be kind of bizarre but
interesting, but they're you know,Holmes is a descendant of Arthur Conan Doyle,
and Marple in the books is adescendant of Agarthur Christie, and then
Poe obviously a descendant of eded Grelland Pope. But it's really it's a
great crime solving team, and it'sif you like the Women's Murder Club.
(01:53):
I think you love it. It'sit's a really cool uh team, and
they and they're together and they theyall live in one building, which is
interesting, and they have this wonderfullibrary which has all of everything that all
the show like called stuff, allthe christy stuff, all the you know.
So it's just fun. And obviouslyI'm excited about it because I'm babbling.
Well, no, you babble away. And now it was just released
(02:15):
on the Ace, so it's verynew to everybody. Holmes, Marple and
Poe by James Patterson and O'Brian Sits. And I'll tell you what, I
am so excited about this book thatI am a a. I have to
hold a book in my hands,so I will buy the hardcover and I
will enjoy it and I will betaken away as you always do with your
(02:37):
your readers. James, you foundthat that key, that magical key that
unlocks just theater of the mind,which is why it's what is your process?
I have to ask you? Andin combining this trio of like legendary
and iconic names together, where onearth did this came? We start with
(02:58):
I always start with the idea thatI I find interesting that I'm excited,
that I'm passionate about about moving itforward. And then I'll do a long
outline I just finished. When it'sone hundred and ten chapter outline, it's
about seventy pages. That's just theoutline, you know, So that's where
I start. That's just you know, in terms of the way I tell
stories, and it's always just sceneafter scene after scene after seene, which
(03:23):
you know, for me, itmakes it a little easier. And you
know, like for this one,I might you know, like put on
a couple of pieces of paper allthe potential home scenes and all the potential
Marble scenes and then the ones we'rethere together, and you know, and
and then ultimately it's almost like youbeing in an editing room if you're editing
a movie and you take all thescenes and decide what the strike, you
(03:46):
know, what the order should be. So it's interesting that you have all
of these characters combined. And wenever want to give anything away, obviously
we want people to read the book, but I do have to ask you,
how did you or how were youable to weave them all together,
because they're all leading characters. Yeah, well that's the fun of it.
But they're friends, I mean interms of the book, and they get
(04:11):
along well, and they start awell here's a little piece from from the
book which in terms of homes MarklingPaul investigations, he said, you plicked
a business card from his wallet withthe flare of an illusionist. Samantha took
it home s Markling poet. Shesaid, Is that a joke? Holmes
leaned over the desk. Absolutely not. We're private investigators, the best there
(04:34):
is, you know, And that'sthat's a little spirit of it. You
know, it's I just got goosebumpsbecause when you have your favorite author reading
to you, it's kind of likea moment to savor. But you know,
with all of your books and throughall of the years and all of
the different characters, and you alsowork with a lot of people, what
(04:54):
is it like to collaborate and howimportant is it to you in your career
to share some of your success andand bring people along with you. I
obviously I couldn't do all of thebooks that I do if I didn't have
some help. And it's really importantthat the people I work with that we
get along. I've never had anargument with any of them honestly, which
(05:16):
is which is interesting, Like PresidentClinton, no problems, Dolly Parton,
no problems. I just finished one. Uh well, Michael Crichton is deceased,
but his estate came to me tofinish a book about a volcano in
Hawaii. It's it's great, it'scoming out in June. You know.
Obviously no problems. But the estatealso it didn't give me any problems.
So so yeah, and it's AndI always want to work with people that
(05:42):
that that I that I enjoy itand I want to stimulate them, and
they stimulate me, so it's good. Let me ask you a question,
So do you do you still liketo hold a book or have you moved
on to where you're okay with digitalreading. I'm I'm mainly a hold of
book person a case only. I'llread something online or on ebooks or you
know, I do emails and stuff, but I for the most part,
(06:05):
I want to hold the book.I want I want to. I have
a copy of host Marble Paul righthere in front of me, and it's
it's still a joy. It's stilla thrill. It's just a cool thing
to me. I'm lucky I grewup in a small town and a blessing
for me is I still see theworld through the eye. So that's the
kid in that small town. I'mlike, this is cool. I'm doing
(06:27):
radio. I'm on radio today.Yay. I wrote a book. Yay.
That's fun. Uh yeah, well, and let's you know, I
know we're talking about Holmes, Marpleand Poe, now available by James Patterson.
I'll have all the links up andI will be reading this. I
promise you that. But I'm justyou know, I love your your foray
into children's books. I love thatyou love animals. I'm a huge uh
(06:49):
animal advocate here in our state.And I love your your your writing for
children. And where how do youswitch that? Like? What's that which
where? Okay, there's not amurder scene. This is a child's book.
Thinking about the kids. Books thatI do, most of them are
are are humorous. So that's that'sit. That's the cool change. And
(07:10):
to be able to write, youknow, life funny or something. If
it's serious it is called life funny. You better better be moderately funny.
There are middle school is the worstyears of my life, which is funny
title. So you know, Ihave a few more going. We have
one time travel twins. I thinkit's this year for kids. So that's
that's very funny too. So that'sa nice thing for me to be able
(07:30):
to do some comedy. You know. I look at reading, and I
look at the way we are now, and I do. I go to
schools often and I do some reading, and I love to see the I
want to give a real nice,big props to our teachers here in Connecticut
and New England because the schools thatI'm going to even making it more important
for reading now and holding books andI'm still doing that in the classrooms at
(07:53):
a young age. You know,obviously, this is your life, this
is what you've You've built your yourcareer and your passion on and reading and
being an author. But just howimportant you was reading growing up? It
wasn't Weirdly, my mother was ateacher, and you know what it is.
And this is I think also importanta lot of places, the schools,
(08:15):
the school boards, whatever. Ifthe objective is to get kids reading,
if that's the objective, okay,and it's it's a noble objective,
then don't give them books that they'renot going to like. And that doesn't
mean dumb down. That just meansgood stories. There are a lot of
really really good books, really useful, very valuable books that have stories.
But if you give books, kidsa lot of books that they're just going
(08:37):
to I hated, I didn't reallylike it. That's it just defeats the
purposes. No so, And that'sa little what happened to me in Catholic
school growing up. And then youknow, weirdly I was I worked my
way through college at a mental hospitaland in Lexington, man or not Lexington,
in Belmont, and I started readinglike a crazy person during those years.
(09:00):
I mean we went to Cambridge threeor four times a week and just
pick up books. It was allserious stuff. But that that really just
turned me on. But but ifyou want to turn kids off, just
keep school boards, keep giving thembooks that they go I hate it.
That'll that'll stop them from reading.And it's so stupid. It's just you
just want to go and shake thesepeople a little bit. Now I'm gonna
(09:20):
I know, I don't have alot of time with you, and I'm
getting I know I'm gonna have towrap soon. But I do want to
go back to homes marble and postI think we actually have to wrap because
I'm heading out west now. Iwant the next one. No, listen,
I appreciate you, and I can'twait to chat again, and I
can't wait to read Holmes Marble.And thank you, thank you, thank
you, Renee, Bye bye
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