Hello Loves and welcome back to another Inside the Nation blog. I have been asked a lot over the years about my choice to write about Judas. Some people wanted to know if I was indicating that he was not the betrayer, while others wanted to know if I sympathized with him. Today I decided to write about what attracted me to the story of Judas and why I was compelled to write it as a historical fiction.
It started in 2005 while I was watching a piece on the history channel. I don't remember the name of the episode, but it was about villains in the Bible. When they hit on Judas it was a mixture of some experts saying he was preordained to commit the act of betraying Christ and others saying he was the ultimate betrayer. I figured the facts were somewhere in between. I didn't start off thinking I would write a book, I simply wanted to know more about it. I reread the Gospels in the Bible and quickly realized it was one-sided. There were a few indications that Judas was destined to betray Christ, but for the most part, he was deemed the worst of the worst. So, I started researching (surprise, surprise). I looked up any and everything I could find on Judas Iscariot and let me tell you, it all looked bad. Halfway through my digging, I figured it was a lost cause. No one had anything good to say about the betrayer. He was the everything they said he was and more. Right before I called it quits I found something interesting. I read an article that led me to some not so popular writings from 33 A.D. I followed that vein and low and behold, I found more very similar writings. These talked about Judas being the main confidant of Jesus. They spoke about Jesus and Judas having formed a plan to show the world that Jesus was the Son of God and that he would rise from the dead. I was shocked. I also ran across The Council of Nicea and how they left some books out of the Bible as well as pieced some books together. Once I emerged from the tons of research I decided that it would make a good book. I knew that I didn't want to write a non-fiction book so I choose to write a historical fiction. I asked myself what would Judas be doing in the present day. What if he somehow became immortal, would he have held a grudge, would he be working for the side of good or evil? So I wrote a draft just answering the questions. I wrote it all from Judas' pov at first. How I thought he'd feel about God, how the disciples had turned their backs on him, things like that. When that was finished I reread it. I enjoyed it, but it didn't "feel" right so I rewrote it in 3rd person. I gave him a mission and teamed him up with the devil. Then the questions changed to 'what would they be doing in the present day'? Would they try to destroy the world as we know it, would they be the cause of the Apocalypse? After answering those questions, I wrote the first draft of 30 Pieces of Silver: The Soul Collector and that was much better. I'd hit what I wanted. Many, many drafts later I had the 1st book. I wrote the second book, 30 Pieces of Silver: The Betrayer, less than a year after the release of the 1st, then I was stuck. In the 1st book, Judas had been working with the devil to collect souls for the war of wars. They had been building their army for over two-thousand years and they were ready, the only problem was, Peter and Mary Magdalene had started an organization to stop him. In the 2nd book, Judas was having doubts about the path he had taken. He knew that he was wrong, but he was not willing to say so out loud. Then he did the one thing he swore never to do, fall in love and the woman he fell for worked for the Order. They were working on different sides, but love didn't care. Would she change him, would he convert her, it was the perfect climax. Once I had them working together trying to right the wrongs on both sides I was at a stalemate.
Fast forward 12 years and I knew what I had to do. It took me a while to come up with the finale because I wanted it realistic, or as realistic as I could make a historical fiction book with an immortal Judas. I wanted his struggles and doubts to be warranted, to make sense. And if I'm being honest, I wasn't ready to let the series go. It was my 1st and I was holding on with both hands. In the end, I realized it was time to put Judas to rest, to allow him to move on no matter the outcome. So here we are with 30 Pieces of Silver: Redemption coming in April. I have enjoyed his journey and I hope you all have as well. This last installment is filled with twists and turns, ups and downs. It has quite a few surprises and some changing sides. Although it took me longer than I may have liked to bring this story to an end, it was worth it. It gave me a chance to grow as an author and Judas a chance to grow as a character. I cannot wait to share this with all of you.
I hope this answered some questions for those of you that had them and as always, I wish you Happy Reading!