 Tell
us a little about yourself.
I’m the founder and director of Eternal Perspective Ministries
and the author of over twenty-eight books, including
Safely
Home and six other novels and my nonfiction works
The Treasure
Principle,
The Grace and Truth Paradox, and
Heaven. My wife Nanci and I are the parents of two married daughters and we
have four wonderful grandsons. I enjoy hanging out with my
family, biking, tennis (I help coach high school boys),
research and reading. You can visit my blog at
www.randyalcorn.blogspot.com.
What was your motivation behind this
project?
Deception had been on my mind, off and on the back
burner, for ten years. It was fun—but a lot of hard work—to
finally write it. The many letters I got from those who’d read
my previous novels Deadline and Dominion served as a big
encouragement to write this semi-sequel. It’s really fun to
have the end product now, and to feel good about it. I’ve
enjoyed the encouraging responses.
What do you hope folks will gain
from this project?
First, a story that entertains them. If that doesn’t work, the
theme or underlying message won’t work either. That underlying
message is that there is an unseen realm and that things are
not as they appear. I want to leave my readers with the sense
that to follow Christ is not only right, but it’s smart and
ultimately in their best interest. To not follow him is a form
of self-destruction, even though we don’t typically think of
it that way. If we have eyes to see, we’ll realize that God’s
calling to us, the life he wants us to live, and the rules and
principles of Scripture are like guardrails. The purpose of
guardrails on a winding mountain road is not to mess you up;
it’s to prevent you from being hurt. So if you dent your
fender on a guardrail that kept you from going off a cliff,
you don’t curse the guardrail – instead you say, “Thank you to
whoever put that guardrail there, because it just saved my
life!” I think readers of Deception are left with a sense of
God’s providence and protection, and also a sense of the
choices he leaves us with, whether we’re believers or
nonbelievers.
How were you personally impacted
by working on this project?
Though publishers and readers have asked me to, I’ve never
in my previous six novels felt I wanted to go back and use the
main character again as such in a subsequent book. I know it
would be easier in some ways, but I’ve felt like each person
gets one book on center stage. Ollie Chandler is the first
character that has made me feel different about this. When I
started Deception I thought this would be it, no more stories
centered on Ollie. But once I got inside his head, things
slowly changed. I thought, I like this guy, I like his quirks,
his sense of humor, the gruff exterior and the soft heart, the
head-butting toughness and the vulnerability of a lifetime of
hurts. So, depending on the response to Deception (because
I’ll find out whether readers really like Ollie), Lord
willing, there may well be one or more other Ollie stories to
come.
Who are your influences, sources
of inspiration or favorite authors / artists?
Those who read Deception will see that I have a special love
for Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories—every chapter begins
with a Holmes quote. In Deception, I also pay tribute to the
Nero Wolfe mysteries by Rex Stout. I've read or listened to
most of the forty-seven Nero Wolfe books.
Anything else you'd like readers /
listeners to know?
On the New Earth, I want to meet people whose lives were
touched by my books, and hear their stories. And I want to
thank all the people whose writing touched my life. On the
present Earth, I want to be remembered as one of God’s
grateful errand boys. I want my life and my writing to have
said, “It’s all about Jesus, not about me.” I won’t leave
behind much of an inheritance to my children and
grandchildren, but I hope my wife Nanci and I leave a deep and
abiding heritage. |
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