Monday Interview: Ted Dekker
by Dick Donahue -- Publishers Weekly, 4/20/2009 7:51:00 AM
An interview with Ted Dekker, whose novel, Boneman’s Daughters, was published last week by Center Street.
PW: Boneman’s Daughters seems to be moving in a different direction than your earlier fiction; perhaps in a more strictly thriller mode? Why is that?
TD: My first seven novels were contemporary spiritual novels, my next nine had strong elements of fantasy, and now I’m writing thrillers, more as a choice to spread my wings than anything. Writers, like good wine, should mature with age.
PW: Thrillers have become increasingly popular, with many hitting bestseller lists, etc.; whats their appeal?
TD: Thrillers provide the reader with a safe escape into a dangerous world where the stakes are as high as can be imagined with unpredictable outcomes. It’s a perfect genre in which to explore hard issues of good and evil, a mirror that allows the reader to see both the good and not so good in themselves.
PW: Early in the book, your protagonist is captured by insurgents in Fallujah; is this in any way a reflection of your feelings about the current conflict?
TD: Only on the human element, which is this: loosing a daughter is hell no matter where you live. The one who takes your daughter becomes BoneMan and most fathers will stop at nothing to crush BoneMan for the sake of their daughter.
PW: Your plots are always intricately detailed; where and how do you come up with your ideas?
TD: My idea for BoneMan’s Daughters came from the loss of my own daughter when she left home to live with a monster at age 18. I wanted to throttle the man, but she was in love, so all I could do was hope, pray and cry. She came home in tears 60 days later and we learned that the monster had abused her. Experiences like this are the genesis for my novels. But of all of my experience during these 46 years of life, perhaps growing up in the jungle with cannibals was one that informs my writing the most. But that’s another discussion altogether.
