Are any of the characters’ issues personal or ones you have struggled with in your own lives?
RACHELLE: All of every character’s issues are personal to both of us at different times in our lives, including those we still contend with. Their specific issues are all just various aspects of the entire system of fear and control—the wisdom of the world that tucks us in at night and makes us believe we are safe while enslaving us still.
We all have red ropes that hold us captive, and if we could see the system of fear and control for what it is, we would be shocked. Here is a story that opens our eyes to some of those fears and the light of love and freedom beyond them.
What are the pros and cons of cowriting versus writing your own novel?
RACHELLE: We didn’t face many cons, if any, writing this novel together. Because we have very similar ways of seeing the world, we think similarly and the questions we find ourselves asking are the same. Are we all really slaves to fear? Is the wisdom of the world, which we believe keeps us safe, just fear tucking us in at night?
If we cannot serve two masters, then how can we love and be afraid? Because of this similar worldview, the work flowed naturally—in fact, maybe even easier than when working alone, because there was always someone else who knew the story intimately to go to when the path got foggy.
What are the challenges of writing a novel with fantastical elements while keeping it grounded in a biblical reality?
TED: We would say that The Girl behind the Red Rope points to reality, however metaphorical, just like much of the Bible does. There is no such thing as a “biblical reality” per se because the Bible itself is packed to the gills with fantastical, supernatural events, so much so that the supernatural becomes natural. The question that remains for us is how to interpret those many fantastical elements.
In many ways, this novel isn’t a work of fiction any more than the stories we tell ourselves about our own lives are fiction. We believe all the lies we tell ourselves about the darkness we live in and so blind ourselves to the light.
Do the Fury really exist? Yes, very much so, by another name. The Fury aren’t demons but the fear we create whenever we deny the light that we are. If that’s confusing, read the novel and you’ll see what we mean in this fantastical, not-so-fantastical novel.
Visit Ted Dekker’s author page:
https://www.familyfiction.com/authors/ted-dekker/
Visit Rachelle Dekker’s author page:
https://www.familyfiction.com/authors/rachelle-dekker/
The Girl Behind the Red Rope
Ted Dekker and Rachelle Dekker
Revell
Thirteen years ago, Grace and other members of her religious community glimpsed a prophecy of the destruction that would soon visit the earth. They relocated deep within the hills of Tennessee in order to avoid the impending evil and the scourge that would cleanse the earth. They felt they would be kept safe, pure, and alive as long as they followed every rule and stayed behind the red perimeter.
Her brother’s questions and the arrival of the first outsiders she’s seen in a decade set in motion events that have Grace questioning who she can trust and which path she must follow. Enemies rise on all sides—but who is the real enemy? And what will it cost her to uncover the truth?
The Girl behind the Red Rope ramps up the stakes with each new page and catapults readers into an intense action-packed ride through the most treacherous world of all.