Interview with Danny Knox and His Debut Novel: Speak and Evil Bound: On Earth as it is in Heaven

 I interviewed Danny Know on 18/09/19 on another blog, now defunct.

Today, I am interviewing debut novelist, Danny Knox about his recently released novel, Speak and Evil Bound: On Earth as it is in Heaven. I discovered this novel on Amazon and I was intrigued by the theme of its description, 

Imagine if the Lord literally answered the prayer that he encouraged his followers to pray – “Let your kingdom come and your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven”. Imagine he actually did “deliver us from evil”?

I contacted the author and offered to highlight this novel. He chose to be interviewed.

So sit back and let's see what motivated him to write this intriguing novel with a theme that is important and relevant to our Christian walk and being a disciple of Christ.

Welcome, Danny, thanks for stopping by!

Let’s start with you telling us a little about yourself?

As a computer system’s professional, I don’t come from a career that typically leads to fiction writing. This is not the first career change that was by God’s design and not my own.  My degree from college was in agriculture mechanization, but I did not work in that field for many years before discovering my true passion. I have been working in corporate information systems for over 35 years. I recognize God’s leading in my life and follow the opportunities. It seems this time it has led to writing a book.Even my wife was surprised to see that side of me emerge.

I have three daughters in their twenties and a granddaughter. They are all close by and we visit often. I have been married for 28 years. I am very involved in my church in Austin, Texas, in various roles including nursery care, technical lighting of services, a small-group leader, leading disaster relief teams and wherever I am needed.

Thanks, Danny, now let's see what your novel is about:

Imagine if the Lord literally answered the prayer that he encouraged his followers to pray - "Let your kingdom come and your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven". Imagine he actually did "deliver us from evil"?

Is it possible that everyone has an innate understanding of their relationship with the Creator and has a suppressed understanding of the potential that it holds? This story challenges the dogma of science, society and religion and presents familiar scriptures in a light you may not have considered before. You may find there is profound wisdom in having faith.

Take a refreshing break from dramas about dystopian societies, betrayal, terror, hate and crime. Experience realistic examples of joy, hope and accomplishment that materialize in unexpected ways. The story is fiction, but it's very important to consider.

What inspired you to become an author? Has it always been a desire of yours to write?

I was surprised to find such great satisfaction in writing. I had some things that I wanted to be able to say to my adult kids about the times that we are living in.  I consider it very reasonable to believe that God is involved in all aspects of life, continuously. There is a lot of pressure to buy into the post-modern perspective that intelligent people do not believe that. In order to be able to make myself clear, I started trying to write out how I could best express myself. A long-time friend, Steve Solmes, suggested making my message into a story and then it became a novel.  Steve suddenly passed away earlier this year, so I was compelled to dedicate the book to his memory because it was by his urging that I took on such a big project.

This is your first novel. Have you always had a desire to do something like this?

I was surprised to find that I enjoyed writing. It was just about a year ago, I began to try to write down some effective ways to communicate with my children and their friends about my Christian perspective and why it is reasonable to have faith in God. I know there is a lot of pressure to buy into the post-modern perspective these days. Especially on college campuses. I needed to be able to communicate in a way that they would be willing to hear what I was saying and not dismiss my comments as coming from an uninformed, out-of-touch older person. 

What was the surprise about finding joy in writing?

Writing became a surprising joy when I first started trying to write fiction in 2018. It was a release from the frustration of seeing society decline with hopelessness to make a difference. The escape to the fantasy world was a relief, but then it became encouraging to think that a story may also change minds about what should be considered acceptable. Although it is considered an artistic effort, it expresses passion for change. There have been other fictional books that made a significant social difference.

You make reference to your story being realistic, but biblically relevant. Can you give an example?

I start each chapter with a Bible verse that seems to be relevant to situations in the storyline. The story takes place in the period of the Millennium Kingdom. The attempts at creating a utopia on earth have been catastrophic with horrible consequences in our history. Without giving too much of the story away, I imagined God answering the Lord’s Prayer to “deliver us from evil.” When evil is bound, the Millennium Kingdom is the utopia because it is governed by the Spirit of God from within each individual with sovereignty over all governments.

The Amazon description for this novel states,

Imagine if the Lord literally answered the prayer that he encouraged his followers to pray - "Let your kingdom come and your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven". Imagine he actually did "deliver us from evil”?

Is it possible that everyone has an innate understanding of their relationship with the Creator and has a suppressed understanding of the potential that it holds? This story challenges the dogma of science, society, and religion and presents familiar scriptures in a light you may not have considered before. You may find there is profound wisdom in having faith.

Take a refreshing break from dramas about dystopian societies, betrayal, terror, hate, and crime. Experience realistic examples of joy, hope, and accomplishment that materialize in unexpected ways. The story is fiction, but it's very important to consider.

Is this what motivated you to write this novel? What further background can you provide?

This novel was a labor of love for my family. It is fiction and so it is meant to be entertaining, but it is also intended to be thought-provoking. The characters in the story are meant to be familiar to the reader in their life circumstances and their perspectives. Through the examples of interactions in the book, I hope that the reader becomes more confident, against the pressure to suppress expressions of faith these days.

I could not understand the Speak and Evil Bound part of the title. It seems to conflict with the “On Earth as it is in Heaven” part of the title. I ask this as I consider that if I question the meaning of this part of the title, others might as well. Can you explain this and how you came up with this title?

 I am really glad you asked that question. I thought of it as a working title for a long time, but I got confirmation to keep it from several people once they understood what the book was about. “On Earth as it is in Heaven”, as the subtitle, is meant to help clarify the meaning by observing that evil has no participation in heaven. The title may not be clear immediately, but by the end of the third chapter, it is clear that it is in reference to Revelation 20:2 in which that ancient serpent, Satan, is bound for a thousand years.

If you have had any readers read this before publication, what have their responses been?

 I asked a church leader from the megachurch that I attend to read it and give me feedback. After he read it, he was very enthusiastic and asked me to speak to his large class of mature couples about the book’s message, last Sunday. I also asked the people in the homegroup that I lead to read it and give me feedback, and they were also excited for it to be released.  A church sceptic that is a friend also read it and his feedback was that the story was entertaining and caused him to think about some things that he would not normally have taken the time to consider.

 What other Biblical themes or messages have you included?

Evil does not express itself only in the horrors that we see on the evening news. That is not the evil that we need to be delivered from. The evil that we are unable to escape is in our human nature. Maybe our selfishness, greed, lust, hate and deceit are primitive characteristics that caused our ancestors to thrive in competition with others. My argument against that scientific wisdom is that there must be an even more primitive nature before evil possessed us that prevents those characteristics from destroying us, which can be revealed. If we were created in the image of God, those characteristics are not really representative of who we are. It requires God’s power to escape them and then the full potential of being like God can be revealed. We are missing out on the reason for life by not pursuing that relationship more enthusiastically.

Let's take a break from this interview so readers can preview an excerpt you have provided. You also why you chose this excerpt:

I chose this excerpt to represent Speak and Evil Bound because it conveys the underlying theme of great confidence that God is participating in the moment and demonstrates the uncertainty that adds tension to make the story compelling and a page-turner. The story follows very believable events that echo scripture in both the Old and New Testaments. The characters are intended to be recognizable as people that you may know, if not yourself.



Setup for the excerpt: David was on a business trip to Chicago. A long-time Christian, he began noticing that his interactions with people were very different on this particular day. Since he was always considering how God was involved in every activity, he realized that the Spirit was making a big move in the world. He responds enthusiastically by heading for the most unlikely place in Chicago that people would acknowledge the living God. The discussion is a snippet of a longer conversation with a cab driver.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Start of Excerpt ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

He continued, “I think you are probably going to get murdered today. Is there another way?” We had arrived at the church parking lot.

“I am not going to try to do anything to get killed,” I said, “but I am firmly convinced that this is what needs to be done right now. If I do experience violence, then I know that a life cut short serving God is a fuller life than living many years serving myself.”

I handed him the money that the meter indicated, plus a generous tip, but he put up his hand and shook it back and forth. “I will pay your fare,” he insisted. “That is my way of participating in God’s work that you are doing.

You are talking like a jihadist if you were talking about the Muslim faith. You must be expecting a big reward in heaven.”

I replied, “Oh, there’s that selfish perspective that characterizes evil that I was talking about. I don’t have any anticipation of what I will receive as a reward. I can’t imagine what heaven will be like, but I trust God completely because of the example of all he has given me that I did not earn. Maybe I have the conviction of a jihadist, but not the hate of a militant. I will leave it up to God to deliver his wrath on evil. My role is to show the limitless mercy and love of the Spirit.”

When I stepped out of the cab I was struck by a definite chill in the air. There were sirens in the distance. I wasn’t sure which way to go but trusted the Spirit to guide me. I walked down the sidewalk between the deteriorating row houses, toward some people I could see one block over. Some small kids were playing in a yard with a high chain-link fence around it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ End of excerpt ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

What kind of reaction are you hoping to receive from readers?

 I wrote my book as a novel because I considered it important to entertain the reader in order to get them to hear my message. I hope that I am able to create a desire for a world that doesn’t exist and to understand that the only way it could exist is by the power of God to rescue us. There is a nihilistic perspective that is evident in popular entertainment choices, rampant depression, drug use, suicide and violence. I would like my readers to consider other possibilities and to see examples of responding differently and to become more hopeful.

 What was the hardest part of writing your novel?

 Developing the story and writing was a real pleasure and very satisfying. Thinking about publishing and making it available for everyone to read caused me to recoil many times. I have always been shy. I am uncomfortable exposing myself in my writing for everyone to see what is going on in my head.  As a first-time writer, I had my doubts about many things, but I got the editorial help that I needed and am very proud of the end product.

Who is your favourite character in Speak and Evil Bound

There are a lot of characters. Many of them represent me at different stages of my life. My passion is representing how good God is despite how broken we are. Ace is a character who is easy to hate at first, like Paul in the New Testament. When he realizes his relationship to the Creator of the universe he struggles to become different and then ends up accomplishing great things.

This is your first novel, did you plot it all out before you started writing (plotter) or did you write as it came to you (pantser, as in writing by the seat of your pants)?

I did not follow a traditional plot, but I knew the end message of what I wanted the story to accomplish. There were many sections in the book that took me by surprise in the way they developed. When I sat down to write a chapter, I was pretty sure how it was going to be laid out, but often had to work to make the tension and pace appealing and that is where surprises came in.

How has writing and being an author impacted your relationship with Jesus Christ or vice versa?

I’m surprised at how easy it is to talk about my faith with anyone now, because everyone is interested in the fact that I wrote a book. As I describe the story, I am really demonstrating my faith that God is participating in the moment. I have found myself in conversations that I would not have started before.  Trying to explain the storyline is an opportunity to talk about how having a relationship with God is only possible by rejecting our embrace of the evil nature and accepting God’s grace. He really wants that relationship with you that leads to meaning in life.

What can we look forward to in the future from you?

I have started a book that is related to Speak and Evil Bound. It may seem like Speak and Evil Bound should be a series, but I am reluctant to commit to that for several reasons that would require possibly sharing too much about the story in this interview. I would like to write some short stories relating to Speak and Evil Bound and put them on my website to establish community with the readers. I love being in this story and I am hopeful there will be a demand from readers to hear more about it.

Where can readers find you? What are your social media platforms:

My website is CrossedFeathers.com

My author Facebook page is www.fb.me/AuthorDannyKnox

I am available by email at Danny.Knox@CrossedFeathers.com

Any closing comments before we go?

Thank you for this opportunity, Peter. I look forward to following your blog and seeing what God is doing through your blog and other Christian writers.

Danny, it has been my pleasure and I have enjoyed interviewing you. You are welcome to stop by at any time to discuss any future novels or anything relating to your writing. 

If any reader would like to investigate this novel further, click on the image below:

Readers and reviews are an author’s best asset, so I encourage any reader, to consider reading Speak and Evil Bound: On Earth as it is in Heaven, and submit a review on Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes and Noble and on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest (or any other social media you subscribe to).

Reviews help promote an author’s novel to potential readers and encourage the author to keep writing. Reviews also help get the author’s message (and God’s message) to the reader, whether Christian or not, who may need encouragement and support in their lives while being entertained by the story.

Please note: As an Amazon Associate, I am required to disclose that book cover images or titles of novels in this post are paid links if they are linked to Amazon and result in a sale.