This is one for all you Ted Dekker fans. We’re ramping up for the release of The Bride Collector, which means it’s time for interview requests to start rolling in. We learned a long time ago that he answers the same questions over and over, so before a new book goes out we try to put together a FAQ for media outlets. This time I thought I’d share it with you first. If you have a blog or book review site feel free to post this “interview” along with it. Some of the questions will be familiar to you, while others aren’t. Hope you enjoy it.
Q: In your novel, the Bride Collector leaves his victims arranged in very specific, ceremonial positions. Where did the idea come from? And how did you put yourself inside the mind of someone who is so evil, so psychotic and so certain that what he is doing to his victims is justified?
A: The antagonist Quinton Gauld arranges his victims as angels on the wall, beautifully made up wearing only a bridal veil, consistent with his understanding that he is sending them to God as his bride. Tapping into the mind of such a person is painfully easy for all humans—evil isn’t so strange to any of us, I only put it on the page where most would not dare.
They say that writing about evil is much easier than writing about goodness, and it’s this latter exercise, making good as fascinating as evil, that consumes me the most. Enter Paradise, an innocent woman in the book who is for me the most fascinating character by a long shot. I adore Paradise. Continue Reading…
