Questions about Selah and the
Sword, a Historical Fiction Novel by David Drury
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How
much of the book is fiction and how much of it is true?
Drury: Most events
and all of the major characters in Selah
and the Sword are from the histories found in the Hebrew Bible. Much of the dialogue is fictional but usually
involves setting up some event or dialogue that we know and have record
of. The fictional portions of the book
fill in the cracks between the lines of truth that we already know. The style of this historical fiction is high
fantasy—so I’ve tried to cast these epic events in a deservingly romantic and
legendary light. The most foolproof way
to know what parts are fiction and what parts are true history is to read 1st
& 2nd Samuel and 1st Kings. Those familiar with those books will see the
departures and the places where I’m directly quoting the Bible.
What
kind of creative license have you taken with the facts of Bible in
fictionalizing these stories?
Drury: I
have made myself a simple plausibility rule: do all I can to enliven and expose
what likely happened, and if at all possible I do not write anything that could not have happened. In this way my hope is to provide stores that
are at least possible if not probable to have happened in just the way they
happened in history. Of course, most of
these things we cannot know—and so they are my complete speculation. In some cases I’ve extended the story of a
biblical character to long before they show up in the Biblical record so they
can be a “witness” of events we read about.
This gives that character, who most likely was a witness to those
events, more involvement in the story and we can better know their motivations
and understand who they were. The
chapters on the Mighty Men, Bathsheba, Goliath and the Witch of Endor are
perhaps the best example of introducing a character earlier than they show up
so we can know them more. Again, the
events shown in their chapters could have happened but we just don’t know. This is a fictional book of course so I’ve
taken as much creative license as I could get away with considering my little
plausibility rule.
There
are many episodes in the book that are quite violent or depict scenes of sexual
encounters. Is that appropriate to
describe?
Drury: The
Bible by itself is a book that depicts a great deal of sex and violence. Some of the violence is described quite
starkly, and we tend to “read over” these parts and not consider what that
violent act was really like. It can be
disturbing to see how violent these times were.
But it is a window into what it was really like. Also, the book of Song of Songs was considered so sexual and erotic in nature that
for many years the Jews did not allow their children to read it till they had
reached a certain age. So you might say
that this book as a fictionalized history of those times is also a bit
“PG-13.” It is not a book of bedtime
stories. But it is realistic. I wonder if we
have tried to tame the Bible and make it all nice and pretty—far more mundane
mauve and lazy lacy than it really is.
If you struggle with the sex and violence then I encourage you to read
one of the many other books out there on the Bible that will not make you
uncomfortable.
Why
did you choose to write from the perspective of the characters in Selah and the
Sword?
Drury: I
have always been best engaged by fiction that used multiple-character
viewpoints (also called “Point of Views” or POVs). So often with scripture we forget that these
stories are about real people—so I wanted to get into the heads and hearts of
these real people as much as I could to understand how it felt to be
there. And for me, it’s important to
follow some relatively minor characters like Uriah as well as the obvious major
ones like David. Most of us are minor
characters in life anyway, so at times the minor ones are easier to relate
to. In a similar vein, I think it’s
important to understand that the evil characters in the Bible were also real
people, not just one-dimensional villains.
That’s why I’ve tried to engage those characters with some sense of
context and empathy just as I would approach the characters that are more
obviously heroic and good. But I’m
reminded that even David had his evil side.
The heroes aren’t one-dimensional either. That’s one of the greatest things about the
Bible. If someone thinks it’s a story of
perfect goody two-shoes types they haven’t actually read any of it. Nearly every human being in it is messed up
and a lot like we are today.
Do
you plan on continuing the stories of the characters in Selah and the Sword?
Drury: Yes. The story has just begun where this one
leaves off.
What
motivation do you have for writing historical fiction based in biblical times?
Drury: The
Bible can sometimes be a hard book to penetrate and too many give up before
they’ve really tried to understand it.
The history books of the Bible are often looked on as the “boring” parts
as well. I’ve attempted to show that
these events were anything but humdrum.
They are on par with the most fascinating epic war novels ever
created. The biggest difference is that
this epic is true. My primary motivation
is that readers will gain a greater appreciation of what an amazing world is
found within the Bible. My greatest hope
is that after reading this book readers would pick up the Bible and see what
happens next. The Bible is no secret.
Is
this a Christian book?
Drury: I
am a Christian writer, but I think this book has a larger scope than just the
Christian worldview. In many ways this
book is more Jewish than Christian, in that most of the characters are Jews and
the events told involve their ethnic history.
It is not my history, it is theirs and I have a great deal of respect
for it as an outsider examining it and retelling it. But readers coming from beyond the
Judaic-Christian worldview can access the book as well—since it is not
applicational or preachy about its themes.
In East of Eden, John
Steinbeck said, “…there is one story in the world, and only one, that has
frightened and inspired us... Humans are caught—in their lives, in their
thoughts, in their hungers and ambitions, in their avarice and cruelty, and in
their kindness and generosity too—in a net of good and evil. I think this is
the only story we have and that it occurs on all levels of feeling and
intelligence… There is no other story.”
Yes—what Steinbeck said. That’s
what I mean.
Do
you have a publisher for this book?
Drury: Not yet. I am in the process of writing much of the
manuscript first. I have not had any
fiction yet published and fiction is a very difficult field to break into (I’ve
heard some writers and editors say it’s ten times harder than non-fiction,
which is already hard enough). So I
don’t know if this book will be published anytime soon. However, it is on my heart and in my head and
so it’s my hobby on the side these days to write it. Writers write. Some people make model cars. Some people watch reality TV. I just happen to write. Thanks for reading. A writer is just keeping a journal if he has
no readers. If you know of a publisher
who may have interest in this book let me know at [email protected]. I’ll follow up.
What
sources have you used in the work?
Drury: I
typed every page of this manuscript with my Bible open, so that is my only
direct source. From time to time I use
commentaries on the context of certain passages or to discover how a certain
item would have been used in that day. I
also inquired of the original Hebrew language in places where I was confused by
the English translations. In reality,
the sources I used would be similar to what a preacher would use in preparing a
sermon—a process I have some familiarity with as a pastor.
What
books would you suggest people read that are similar to Selah and the Sword?
Drury: Francine
Rivers’ book The Prince about
Jonathan is a work of historical fiction set in the same time period and life
of one of my key point-of-view characters.
Although it is quite different in style it has some significant
parallels to this story. I did not read
it until I had started this work but after I did I was encouraged to stay the
course. I cannot over-recommend Walter
Wangerin’s Book of God. When I first read his rendering of the entire
Bible as a novel I was stunned and couldn’t put it down. I think I’ve read the whole thing three times
and some portions over and over again.
You may want to buy two copies of it because you will no doubt want to
give it away as a gift to others as I have multiple times. That book is a gift to us all as is Wangerin
in general who, as you can tell from my gushing, I consider to be the patron saint
of biblical historical fiction. I also
highly recommend the works of J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis for the best of
Christian high fantasy. In non-Christian
high fantasy Philip Pullman & George R. R. Martin are both worth reading. I learned to love high fantasy writing from
Tolkien. I learned how it can influence
people from Lewis. I learned how fun it
can be from
© 2006 by David Drury
Publishing information:
To inquire about publishing this or other copyrighted pieces in your publication simply contact David Drury at [email protected]
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