Wake Forest Magazine December 2002 - Past Issues - Wake Forest ...

Doubleday permits me to be their token Christian novelist
only because they are certain I sweat blood on the page.
They check to make sure. The so-called easier works are
sort of like Graham Greene’s night writing. For those of
you who don’t know Greene by name, he is the father of
the contemporary thriller. I guess, oh, eight of his books
have become films, including “The Third Man” with Orson
Welles, “Our Man in Havana,” and so forth. Greene used
to write his tough literary works in the daytime. Then at
night he would do the books he lived from. My life is not
so segmented. Thankfully both my
literary works and the others are
doing well. But I love to do both. I
spend six to eight months researching
a new book. During that time I
will also usually write another book,
possibly two, from these less-taxing
concepts.
WFM: Even with that explanation, two
dozen books in 10 or 11 years seems
pretty prolific.
DB: It doesn’t seem that way to me,
but I’ll take your word for it. It just
seems the correct pace at this point
in time.
The height of my productivity came
back before the books started really
flying off the shelves. Back then it
was either produce or get a real job. I had written seven
books in nine years while running the state’s (North
Carolina’s) European operations, and that had me in as
many as four different countries every week. I’d get up at 5
a.m., work for three hours, then head to the office. So what
if I had to sweat a little over the books? At least I was doing
what I had always dreamed of and getting paid for it.
Panic helps, of course. In one 18-month period I wrote 11
different novels, all of which have been published. Oops, I
goofed there. It’s not two dozen books. It’s four dozen.
Under four names. But never mind. Let’s say two dozen.
The national reviewer Booklist criticized me when
“Drummer in the Dark” came out for writing another book
that same year. Hah. I decided not to tell them it was actually
three other books that year, or rather, two books and a
feature-length screenplay. But never mind. Booklist did not
criticize my writing. They just said something like, hey, if
he can do this and still do another, imagine what he’d do if
he did just one. Become stone-cold petrified with sheer
boredom, most likely.
30 W ake Forest Magazine
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Doubleday
permits me to
be their token
Christian novelist
only because
they are certain
I sweat blood
on the page.
I love to write. It is my passion and, I feel, my calling. I
waited nine long years to get published and another nine
years to get reviewed. So if Booklist thinks I’m writing too
many books, hey, no problem. I’ll take the only option
available. Start another pen name.
WFM: Is there a greater appeal for Christian fiction since 9/11?
DB: Here we go. Those trick questions that threaten to
unstop the steam. I can’t tell you about Christian fiction
specifically. But fiction with a moral–entertainment that is
not violence-driven, or hate-driven,
where the evil character is the only
character that is well molded–has
been seen to increase. How long this
will last is anyone’s guess. But it has
happened.
All we can say for the moment is that
there has been an increase in a trend
already in existence. Too many people
in gatekeeping positions within
the industry feel “entertainment” and
“moral” are two mutually exclusive
terms. I cannot disagree more. I was
in New York City on 9/11. My second
crossover, “Drummer,” was released
that Thursday. What a day. What a
day. Just one of 5 million people in
New York who have been branded by
that day. It will go into a book. How,
I’m not sure. But it will go.
WFM: You’ve delayed your admission to the Wake Forest law
school for almost 30 years. Any chance you’ll enroll any time
soon?
DB: Too late. My wife has pre-empted that role. And done
far more with it than I ever could have, I am happy to say.
Maybe you could stop by the admissions office when
we’re done and tell them to circular-file my application? I’d
appreciate that.
Kerry M. King (’85)
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