Spotlighting local author: Eric Wilson (Part 1 of 2)

May 19, 8:50 PMNashville Authors ExaminerPaige Crutcher

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With the mind of a detective, Eric Wilson, author of FireProof and Field of Blood, uses his love of history and exploring mystery to skillfully craft the worlds in his novels. With the precision of a surgeon, he painstakingly reroutes his penchant for perfection into making his stories the best that they can be. The result is transporting a reader from this reality to the next.

 Eric Wilson

Eric’s childhood was one for the storybooks. It involved traveling overseas, going from Belgium to India alongside his parents, who were involved in smuggling Bibles during the time of the Iron Curtain. He and his brother were part of the cover as a family traveling in Eastern Europe. Just your regular holiday, a little sightseeing, family bonding and smuggling Bibles to Christians under prying communist eyes.

Because of his unique early youth, Eric spent a lot of the time “stuck in small places and so consequently reading.” The love of reading, coupled with extraordinary experiences at an age when most kids only experienced ‘real life’ in the movies, have helped give Eric a storytellers voice.

Eric doesn’t necessarily view himself as the best storyteller. Being a New York Times Best Selling author for his novelization of the film FireProof ought to give him a hint, but he prefers to think of himself as a writer, rather than great teller.

During college Eric ended up coming full circle, returning oversees to China, and smuggling Bibles. Another momentous happening occurred: his articles began to get published, and reprinted. The world began to open to his talents.

Eric then met and married his wife and faced the decision that many writers must make. Does he “continue trying to live the dream, or get a job with corporate America?” He credits his wife with pushing him to keep going forward in his writing career. “Her attitude was for me to write what I want, and be spontaneous.” Her supportive and more carefree attitude benefited his perfectionist tendencies. He could let go of the reigns a little and allow his words to follow.

Being an author isn’t an easy job. The reality is that when it comes to being published, and selling your work, well, “commercially, it’s not always the people who are (technically) the best that sell well – because the average person isn’t focused on the art as much as the feeling that the story gives them.” For Eric, part of the art is the technical aspect, merged with the emotion.

Keeping the Faith:

In fact, Eric feels he has many novels that are “better than the NY Times bestseller, but they don’t have the time in.” Those novels aren’t supported by a movie version and have consequently been less publicized. This isn’t to say he doesn’t love FireProof. It’s just an illustration that there are novels that the masses don’t ever see that are just as amazing.

This thought is one which prompted Eric to be a reviewer for Amazon. “Except for sales, you’re in a black hole.” An author spends “so much work on your baby, getting it all pretty and putting it out. Then you have to wonder, will anyone notice it?” 

“FireProof has sold a quarter of million copies. But, there are only 44 reviews on Amazon.” As far as he knows only 44 people have read the novel. As he says, “You just have to hope that it’s being read and enjoyed.”

Eric recognizes that “there are many great NY Times bestselling authors, but there are also amazing authors of similar genres who are not recognized.” It’s a hard road to travel and it can be daunting and frustrating. But, Eric keeps the faith in his ability as well as in the other writers in the community.

In fact, faith opened the door for him during a bleak period when he almost walked away from writing.  There was a time Eric felt like his wife and kids were "getting punished" by his career "and the struggles that go along with it."

Fear and concern for his loved ones almost forced him to quit doing what he loved. He “flipped off the sky, yelled at God, went through a long crisis of faith” and decided he was going to set a time frame. He told his wife, “If something doesn’t happen by the end of February...” he was going to "sell out the American dream, become a corporate pawn and that would be that.”

Toward the end of January he got signed for a new series. He asked his wife what she thought, and she told him, “If the door opens…” he knew he had to follow through. Three weeks later, Eric received the offer to do the novelization for Facing the Giants which lead to FireProof.  He had the deadline of a month to write it.

He knew, “there are no guarantees.” He could “be back working at Kinko’s if something doesn’t come" his way. But, there are no guarantees in life and sometimes you have to follow your gut and let your faith in yourself be your roadmap.

The novelizations for Facing the Giants and FireProof presented new adventures for Eric because the movies had already been created. He had the opportunity to “create subplots in Facing the Giants that explained things missing in the movie.”

One example is for why in one scene decals are missing on the players’ helmets, but not in another. Without an explanation given in the film, Eric decided the decals are missing because “the team was going to get new decals, and so the players scraped off the decals they had in anticipation, only to find that the new decals weren’t coming” this helped further illustrate teamwork.

Eric’s dedication was such that “every facial expression in the movie is studied” so in the story he could write to explain why. “It was an organic process that took on its own life” – balancing itself and finding its own rhythm.

Article Continued in Part 2 of interview with Eric Wilson.

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