David Baldacci knows a thing or two about stealth. In fact, his debut legal thriller, "Absolute Power," not only sneaked up the best-seller and movie box office lists within months of each other, but took most of his family and friends by surprise as well.

Until his name suddenly appeared in bookstores and on marquees from coast to coast, Baldacci was known, if at all, as a tenacious trial lawyer for the Washington, D.C., law firm of Holland & Knight. But for more than a decade before that, in the late-night hours when he would deliver papers as a kid growing up in Richmond, Va., Baldacci was secretly transforming himself into the next John Grisham.

From that heady start, Baldacci's star has continued its ascent. His 13 novels, mostly best-selling political thrillers such as "The Camel Club," "Hour Game" and his latest, "Stone Cold," have been published in 40 languages. Baldacci's spot-on portrayals of the modern CIA have been so convincing that top-secret government agencies have contacted him to help them theorize potential terrorist scenarios.

In 2002, Baldacci and wife, Michelle, (they have two children, daughter Spencer, 14, and son Collin, 11) founded the Wish You Well Foundation to fund family literacy programs. It recently partnered with America's Second Harvest to collect new and gently used books and make them available at food banks in a program called Feeding Body and Mind.

Bankrate tracked down the hardworking Baldacci at his Reston, Va., offices for a chat about fame, sudden fortune and the importance of a paper route.

Bankrate: You don't hail from a long line of well-heeled lawyers, right?

David Baldacci: No, not at all. My parents grew up without a whole lot of money and they had to scrimp and save for every dollar. They hated debt and I hated debt as well, so I never really stretched beyond what I could afford.

Bankrate: Did that instill in you a strong work ethic?

Baldacci: Undoubtedly. I played sports and everything in high school, but between the time I was 11 until I was 18, I got up every day of the year, 365 days a year, at 3 o'clock in the morning to deliver newspapers. If that doesn't instill discipline in you, I don't know what will. After that, I worked my way through college, did all sorts of odd jobs, and worked through law school. It was a work ethic our parents instilled in us and we all did that; we got out of college and law school with no debt because we paid for it as we went along. It was just the way you did things; you didn't borrow the money.

Bankrate: Were you good at handling your money?

Baldacci: I think so. For years, I didn't have much of it (laughs), so there wasn't much to handle. But I think my legal background further underscored that, because I represented a lot of clients who hadn't done that very well and that's why they had legal problems. You could see the pitfalls of living beyond your means.

To this day, we live a very nice life and we have pretty much everything that we could possibly want, but sometimes my money people call and say, "You know, it would be nice if you spent a little more money sometimes." But for me, I have all the things that I'd like to have. We have a nice home and a beautiful lake house that we go to and enjoy in the summer, but we're not the private jet and 200-foot-yacht people.