by
Yelena Mandenberg
 A large crowd gathered inside the PAC building on Tuesday, March 4.
David Baldacci, best-selling author of 16 novels, was scheduled to speak at
7:30 pm.
Baldacci was born and raised in Virginia, where he still resides.
He got his Bachelor’s degree in political science from Virginia Commonwealth University, and then studied law and received his degree from the University of Virginia. He originally started out working as a lawyer in Washington D.C., however, writing was his real passion.
He always wrote short stories and thriller novels on the side.
One day, he decided to take a chance and take his first novel, “Absolute Power,” to a publisher in NY, and was eventually turned into a movie starring Clint Eastwood.
His novels have now been translated into over 40 languages, and are being sold all over the world.
The crowd that came to see him speak at Kingsborough was made up of mostly senior citizen women, some there with their girlfriends, some dragging their husbands with them.
Most of them were talking amongst each other about Baldacci’s books which are generally of a serious nature, and his fans speak passionately about his work.
Baldacci came onstage after a short but glorifying introduction by Kingsborough president, Dr. Regina Peruggi.
Despite the serious subject matter of his books, Baldacci went up to the podium and opened with a joke and kept the audience interested and laughing for the entire hour he spoke.
He told a few entertaining stories about what his life is like now that he is a famous author.
He described a few funny scenarios about running into random people who are sitting outside reading his book, one of whom he almost got into a fight with at an airport because they did not believe he was the author of the book they were reading.
He also entertained the audience with a story about speaking to his daughter’s kindergarten class, observing that it is impossible to keep a 5-year-old’s attention for more than two and a half minutes.
 His fans are never too shy to ask him to write the strangest things at book signings (“Dear Debbie, we’ll always have Paris, love David”), and then there was Amy, the girl who wanted Baldacci to accept a marriage proposal for her through an inscription in the book.
He seemed to be a very down to earth guy, despite his success.
He joked about his life being very un-Hollywood, and what his kids think of his success.
He told stories of how his 3-year-old son ran down the block yelling, “My dad will sign any of your books for $2!” and his daughter tells people, “My dad writes stuff, all day. And people pay him, for some reason.”
He has a new book due out in April of this year, called Whole Truth.
The only time he took a serious turn during the lecture was when he talked about what triggered him to write this novel.
He came across as someone who had a very strong opinion about truth and how it was very easy to create and sell, even in this information age, which inspired him to write his latest book.
Besides being a writer and a family man, Baldacci also finds time to support many different charities.
He stressed his support of different literacy programs, including one he and his wife created called the “Wish You Well Foundation”.
He also described his work with America’s Second Harvest, The Nations Food Bank Network.
He also supports many other charities, such as the American Cancer Society, Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, and the Barbara Bush Foundation.
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