David Baldacci Photo: Supplied
Waking up at 64, David Baldacci's mind immediately plunges back to whatever thoughtful thriller story he's writing.
"It's not a job or even a passion. It's really what I identify as. If you subtracted that from me I'm not sure there'd be much left."
We live in a very anxious time, Baldacci told RNZ's Saturday Morning, and the desire to get more people reading fuelled his writing.
David Baldacci: Thrilling with thrillers
"Study after study has found people who read books are more open, they're more tolerant, they're less prejudicial, less bigoted, more empathetic and they're more inclusive. Those types of attributes lead to a better world."
This holiday, Baldacci is looking forward to re-reading the "portable magic" of American writer James Baldwin, whose work he revisited while researching another of his novels published this year - A Calamity of Souls.
The book was set in racially segregated 1960s Virginia, where Baldacci grew up and was marked for life by witnessing the casual acceptance of racialised hatred.
The library was where he could put this unfairness into some context, learning through books about other lives, cultures and places.
He began writing at eight when his mum gave him a journal and has not stopped since - even while working for nine years as a trial lawyer in Washington DC.
In his day job, using words to try and produce compelling briefs and arguments, Baldacci said he was effectively telling stories.
"I had the same set of facts as the other side I just had to tell a very different story from what the other side was telling."
In 1996, the success of his debut novel Absolute Power allowed Baldacci to quit being a lawyer. Twenty-eight years on, he is known as a master of thrillers that get people thinking.
db Photo: Supplied
To Die For, his latest and 50th book, centres on a government conspiracy uncovered by former army ranger - and recurring Baldacci character - Travis Devine.
"He's not a willing warrior in this battle. He's a confused guy who wrecked his first career and doesn't really want to do a second career. I throw him into all these different situations to see if he can survive or not."
Conscious of not "adding to the national angst", an AI-battling-humanity situation was one Baldacci said he would be reluctant to drop his readers into.
He said he did feel strongly that the law needed to catch up and better protect people from being exploited by this transformational technology, though.
The private research company OpenAI is currently being sued by Baldacci and 16 other writers, including John Grisham and Jodi Picoult, for use of their copyright-protected creative work which they say equates to "systematic theft on a mass scale".
Once Donald Trump's team claims the presidential office in January 2025, Baldacci fears they would actively work against AI's rapid development being held back by "legal guardrails".
"These are very wealthy people. They can make trillions of dollars off this and they don't really care about the consequences. They haven't thought about the consequences."
David Baldacci will appear at the Auckland Writers Festival on 30 January - his first-ever public event in New Zealand.
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