I had a chance to interview Ralph Reed this afternoon about his new political thriller, "DARK HORSE". Following are a few excerpts:
MATT LEWIS: You are a former Executive Director of the Christian Coalition. When you write about something fictional with sex and violence, how do you write something wholesome but also cutting edge? Did you put any thought into this when you put it together?
RALPH REED: I wanted to write an authentic story with integrity that was true. I wanted to write about things that I had seen in seven presidential campaigns and in the Christian coalition. I am not a kiss and tell kind of guy. I am probably too loyal or too young to write a memoir. I will not violate confidences. I could never do what McClellan did. Everything in this book is true. Lines of dialogue and things that happened… There are specific meetings that are very well disguised that you would never know who it really was, that actually happened. I am peeling back the onion and letting the reader get into the smoke filled room and almost be like a fly on the wall and see what it’s actually like. That was a very important thing.
When I went about writing this book I wanted to write something that I felt comfortable with as a reader. There is no profanity, I wrote a book about a presidential campaign where phones are snapping and people are throwing hammers at each other and there is no profanity. I felt that I could do that authentically. When I worked on the Bush campaign I traveled all over the country. In the President’s campaign I can count on one hand the amount of profane words that I’ve heard from anybody. And I’m not exaggerating. Some people thought that this wasn’t realistic because people weren’t being mean and dirty. Put there is plenty of a realistic pull. I just didn’t feel comfortable with the profanity and there is no explicit sex. There is sex…because sex is part of real life. But it is done tastefully.
... MATT LEWIS Why did it take 30 years for you to publish this book?RALPH REED: I never forgot about the book. I outlined it and had written the first chapter … I had to get educated ... I went to college and then graduate school and then to the Christian coalition -- I didn't feel like I could write a book about Evangelicals bolting the Republcian Party when I was trying to do the opposite. And then, I worked on both Bush campaigns I couldn’t write about an Independent when I was trying to elect a President …
Listen to my entire interview about "DARK HORSE" here:
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