How far is too far in Christian publishing?
There is a dichotomy in Christian fiction. There are things you can’t do: You can’t use language. You can’t use sex. Somehow, violence is okay if it’s not too graphic. I use certain words—his body has become a wick for this conflagration, and all that, and I go on about the heat being so bad, he screams a lot, and all that. But it could be told a lot worse. I think how Steven King would have told it—he would have the tissue melting and dropping and the sound and the smell. There is a line, and I realize I can’t cross the line, but violence is real. The Old Testament is full of violence and graphic violence. I’d like to think one of my hallmarks of fiction is realism. I don’t want to write a book like a comic book. People will suspend disbelief as long as you don’t take them past a certain point. I’m saying, Okay, 45 years from now, if religion is outlawed and the punishment is death, what would they do? And I run it right up to that line.
