Fitz-Bradshaw's No. 12 Dodge will help promote Brad Meltzer's "Book of Fate" this weekend at Richmond.

Busch Series jump starts Book of Fate publicity

Brad Meltzer is a New York Times best-selling author and co-creator of the TV show Jack & Bobby. He also is the author of the critically acclaimed comic book Identity Crisis.

Raised in Brooklyn and Miami, Meltzer's latest novel, The Book of Fate, is about a young presidential aide, a crazed assassin, and the 200-year-old code created by Thomas Jefferson that ties them together. For authenticity, The Book of Fate was researched with the help of former Presidents Clinton and Bush.

	BRAD MELTZER •   Official Web site

Meltzer has played himself as an extra in Woody Allen's Celebrity and earned credit from Columbia Law School for writing his first book, which became The Tenth Justice. Before all of that, he got 24 rejection letters for his first novel, which still sits on his shelf, published by Kinko's.

The Book of Fate will be featured on the Fitz-Bradshaw No. 12 Dodge this weekend at Richmond.

As part of the publicity tour for The Book of Fate, several celebrities -- including Nextel Cup Series rookie David Stremme -- have taken on the role of interviewer:

David Stremme: What inspired you to utilize NASCAR racing as part of the first chapter of The Book of Fate?

Brad Meltzer: My son, who was 3 at the time. No joke, the boy came out of the womb in a multi-colored jumpsuit. He went as Dale Jr. for Halloween. So when it came time to write Chapter One, I was about to start with a baseball scene (for my dad), but instead picked a NASCAR race (for my boy). Plus, NASCAR guru and my pal Mike Calinoff e-mailed me and said he liked my thrillers, so now I had an inside track.

Stremme: What is the fastest you have ever driven in a passenger car?

Meltzer: Whatever I was doing when me and my high school buddies took Howie Robinson's car for a joyride and crashed it. In the end, the car was only slightly dented -- so we thought we got off easy. The next day, we found out we cracked the car's axle -- and we were so stupid, we didn't even realize that the car was six inches lower when we drove it home.

BOOK OF FATE In six minutes, one of us would be dead. None of us knew it was coming ...  So says Wes Holloway, a once-cocky and ambitious presidential aide, about the day that changed his life forever. On that Fourth of July, Wes put Ron Boyle, the chief executive's oldest friend, into the presidential limousine. By the time the trip came to an end, Wes was permanently disfigured, and Boyle was dead, the victim of a crazed assassin.  Eight years later, Boyle is spotted, alive and well, in Malaysia. In that moment, Wes has the chance to undo the worst day of his life. Trying to figure out what really happened takes Wes back to a decade-old presidential crossword puzzle, mysterious facts buried in Masonic history, and a 200-year-old code invented by Thomas Jefferson.  But what Wes doesn't realize is that The Book of Fate holds everyone's secrets. Especially the ones worth dying for.

When I told my Dad what we'd done, he looked me right in the eye and said, "You'll never be worse than I was as a kid. Don't tell your mother." The day Howie got the car fixed, a guy ran a stop sign and plowed into it, totaling his just-fixed car.

Stremme: How many speeding tickets have you gotten? ... Honestly.

Meltzer: Six. Plus 15 fingers worth of warnings. I always make the cops nice in my books -- so they let me off.

Stremme: Does (your wife) Cori ever tell you to "slow down?" Do you listen?

Meltzer: My wife thinks I'm a maniac and that I drive like I'm 16 years old. Which is probably fair, although at 16, I used to think every red light was the three seconds before they yelled, "Gentlemen, start your engines." Of course, that's what I like most about NASCAR -- on any given day, on any road, I can squint my eyes and pretend I'm in the race. And when you're driving where I live in Florida, you are in the race.

Stremme: What was your first reaction to seeing the Daytona International Speedway?

Meltzer: The thunder, baby. No doubt. That sound ... the way your teeth vibrate ... the roar of 200,000 people in one place, all screaming over the chainsaw of engines. At University of Michigan football games, 100,000 people was a massive roar of a crowd. But Daytona? Think of your biggest football stadium -- and you can put two of those in Daytona. Right now, I can close my eyes and still feel it.

Stremme: I have fun going fast. What's fun about being an author?

Meltzer: When I pull up next to Dan Brown on the highway and nod at him like we're friends, and then, when he least expects it, I tear the wheel to the right and bite his back bumper just enough to send his best-selling ass spinning like a helicopter as he careens into the cement wall, pissed at me, but already thrilled to plan his payback.