In the Wake of Golgotha follows the reincarnations of Judas and Pilate through present-day New York as a crucifixion-obsessed killer forces them to confront guilt, justice, and whether any betrayal ever truly ends. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?

‘The greatest story ever told’ is one full of hope, promise and redemption; however, it is also one of violence, betrayal, pain and punishment. It is this darker side of religion and history, one that too often gets glossed over and painted as mythology and ceremony that I felt was worth a second look. In the Wake of Golgotha is not a story about religion or the Bible, it is a story about bloody fates, damned choices and selfless second chances. It is a story about the death of legend – physically, practically, culturally & ideologically  – in both ancient times and in the modern era. If indeed there are two sides to every story, I thought it worthwhile to take a closer look at who was actually responsible for enabling the ‘greatest’ story, why they were chosen, and what price did they pay for their roles in man’s most significant ‘betrayal.’ 

How did you balance the procedural realism of crime and death-row law with the novel’s spiritual and mythic elements?

When we intellectually and culturally consider capital punishment, we inevitably think in terms of modern era morality and relative to the humanity (adjective, not noun) of crime and punishment. Historical capital punishment is deemed barbaric and neatly banished to museums and mythology. However, despite the cross dangling on billions of necklaces worldwide over the ages, we rarely truly consider the most (in)famous capital punishment: the tortuous and bloody crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Ironically, and fortunately, the cross has become a symbol of peace and harmony; yet as a vessel of crucifixion it was anything but. I wanted to place the act of this particularly painful path of execution in the context of crime and punishment, so believers and non-believers alike would consider the act, the sacrifice, and the men responsible for the ultimate death-row tale. Additionally, I wanted the little we know about the historical elements of the actual trial to be juxtaposed with contemporary criminal trial and death row procedure. While the processes vastly differ, the end result is unequivocally, and frankly unimaginably, the same. Blind faith is a pivotal concept (and trap door) in In the Wake of Golgotha – legally, spiritually and otherwise.

Balthazar’s violence is graphic and ritualized. What role did discomfort play in how you wanted readers to engage with questions of punishment and mercy?

Discomfort is paramount in In the Wake of Golgotha. It is a story about reassessing uncomfortable histories and uncomfortable choices, as well as questioning comfortable mythologies and comfortable beliefs. Religion, and Christianity in particular, essentially is a history of graphic ritualized violence. A bloody history that all too often gets glossed over because of its inherent ‘happy ending’, yet Christianity’s most pivotal chapter and moment is a graphic ritualized act of violence that occured on Calvary Hill, aka Golgotha. My suggestion is that if we are to embrace what happened on that hill, and the divine aftermath, then we must acknowledge the violence that had to occur to fulfill the prophecies and scripture, and acknowledge the men and souls that enabled His bloody fall and ultimate rise. In the Wake of Golgotha casts a shadow about the uncomfortable struggle between God and the Devil, and the impact this eternal confrontation has had on everybody stuck in the middle between them.

When writing scenes of quiet restraint versus lush excess, how conscious were you of pacing language itself to mirror the characters’ inner states?

In the Wake of Golgotha is intentionally paced like a fever dream. Religion (not faith) is a balance of quiet restraint and lush excess  – it is a tale of extremes from the lush Garden to the barren Desert. History’s, and literature’s for that matter, greatest and most tragic characters are journey’s into and about the extremes of a soul’s inner states. Ego & Id. Alpha & Omega. Darkness & Light. We all struggle with the shadow we cast in the pursuit of hope and joy while fleeing from regret and despair. Whether in ancient Jerusalem slipping from the pre-dawn stillness of Gethsemane into the gluttonous chaos of Herod’s Court and Temple and up the ragingly sorrowful Calvary Hill, or in modern-day New York stepping from the unnatural hush of an execution chamber into the timeless vacuum of a confessional booth and into the quietly colorful halls of an art gallery – the wildly diverse pacing of time and language relative to calm and chaos is meant to capture the wildly erratic climate of the characters inner states that are caught in a damned timeless maze of moral limbo.

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