INTERVIEW WITH DAVID WILSON FROM TheCelebrityCafe.com ARCHIVES
DM) How did you get started in writing?
DW) I have always called myself a writer. I won a contest in high school. The Illinois Women's Literary something-or-other had a poetry contest. Each student submitted a booklet of work, and I won second place.
Problem was, I won first, too, but the poem that won first place I had given to my best friend. So that was my start. I wrote for years after that, songs for bands I was in, poetry, and a story here and there. It wasn't until I got serious, in about 1986, and took the Writer's Digest "Writing to Sell Fiction" course under J. N. Williamson, that I focused in and began the climb up to respectability. Writing, I guess, isn't something I set out to do, but something I just have to do.
DM) How did you come about winning the Women's Literary contest, David?
DW) My Creative Writing teacher, Mrs. Wiseman, who probably STILL teaches at Charleston High School, in Charleston, Illinois, submitted all the poetry to the Women's Literary contest. It was an Illinois Women's lit society who judged the contest.
DM) But wouldn't that literary contest be only for... women?
DW) (Laughs) Yes, and I never said I joined the society. The contest is something they sponsor for kids in Illinois schools. They are not a "feminist" type of group, promoting women's fiction, but a group of ladies promoting literature. Now, whether or not Charleston High School poetry notebooks qualify, I wouldn't hazard a guess.
DM) Which of your books are you most proud of?
DW) That is easy: This is My Blood, just out. The other five novels were all set in someone else's universe, White Wolf and the World of Darkness claimed four, and Star Trek claimed the fifth. TIMB was the first novel I sold, but it was canceled by the publisher. That publisher's contract ran out. It took four long years and a lot of heartache to get this novel in print. It spans more than one genre: historical fiction, spiritual fiction, and vampire fiction. A hard sell, but from the reviews (including Publisher's Weekly), it works. There is a great deal of me in both main characters, Judas and Mary Magdalene (as fallen angel).
DM) Are they based on the actual Judas and Mary Magdalene?
DW) Yes, somewhat. Mary was never really explained, and Judas got a bum rap. I tried to keep the entire novel as close to the original tale as possible and only ad-lib in moments that seemed less than clear. Judas ... if he was TRULY destined to do what he did, was hardly to blame.
DM) What have religious scholars said about your book?
DW) Other than Robert Bisang, who first contracted the novel, I'm not aware that any "biblical scholars" have read it. I would be particularly interested to find out what people from different faiths find in the work. Obviously, most orthodox beliefs would put the novel in the realm of blasphemy. On the other hand, many who have read and reviewed the book believe that it is a re-affirming work, that it reminds people of why they followed the Christian faith in the first place. I've often considered sending copies to people like Pat Robertson and the Pope, but I'm not naive enough to believe they'd ever read it. Perhaps a biblical scholar will read this review and take the time to satisfy both our curiosities.
DM) Which of your books is the most autobiographical?
DW) That would be sort of a tie. The aforementioned This is My Blood and Judas and Mary carry a great deal of my heart and philosophy. The words they share focus on things that are important to me. But in Except You Go Through Shadows, which I wrote for the "White Wolf World of Darkness in Their Wraith" series, there is a character named Love Constantine, who is basically me. In the novel in progress, Brandt, the protagonist, is another side of me. The "Wraith" novel is based on David Koresh, though I don't call my character by his name. My false prophet is named Fontana, and he literally leads his followers to a kind of "hell," life after death, where the truth of his spirituality, and their own strength, become both obvious and relevant.
DM) How much research did you do for the characters?
DW) I have studied the Bible all my life. The characters Judas and Mary are extensions of myself. I was studying for a long time to be a minister in the Church of Christ, a fundamentalist Christian sect. A lot happened to end that period of my life, and the experiences of that period are reflected in the novel as well. I guess, in a sense, my entire life has been the research, and it is a continuing study in the bizarre.
DM) From what you've written, I find it hard to tell whether you see the Bible as myth or fact. Which do you feel?
DW) I consider myself a spiritual man, but not a Christian. I don't believe in the Bible as fact, or even really as myth. It is a great novel, spanning so much time that it is staggering to read it, bound together. There are wonderful poems, magnificent allegorical commentaries, philosophies that span generations and situations, and historical facts, all intermingled and left to the interpretation of a host of learned men. It is a way of life, an answer for many. For me, it is a book, like many others, though more powerful and romantic and fascinating than most.
