Ken Nelson

I didn’t interview him… Writers Digest did.

Brad Thor writes popular action-thrillers including this years NY Times Bestseller ‘The Last Patriot”.

I’ve read all of Thor’s books. They are an easy and interesting read. I generally read them when I travel.

The interview will be different from what you normally would read from an author because it focuses on his writing approach. Writing a novel is tough work. And it can be hazardous if you piss off Islam:

What has bothered and angered radical Muslims is that I’m a non-Muslim writing anything at all about Islam. But this is fiction, and I don’t think Islam is above criticism or fictionalization any more so than Judaism, Christianity, Mormonism or Hinduism is.

The threats were so bad he had to sell his house and move to a safer undisclosed location.  But he would do it again:

The other side is that we’re getting soft and lazy in this country, and if we’re going to back off every time somebody gets offended, we’re going to give up a lot of our rights that men and women bled and died for. I live in America. I have the right to write whatever I want.

He points out that free speech works both ways:

And it’s equaled by another right just as powerful: the right not to read it. Freedom of speech includes the freedom to offend people. What you hear coming out of the radical Muslim community is that freedom of speech doesn’t mean freedom to offend. Well, yeah, it does.

Keep up the good work Brad!