Emily Graves spoke with Kerry Cole about her new novel, the reality of the supernatural and the consequences of our choices.

Kerry: I think it is quite unique. Although it sits within the paranormal romance and they have even put it on the Ghost section on Amazon, which we didn't actually put it in, we just put it under paranormal romance, but I suppose it has to be slotted in somewhere and there is a spiritual figure in it that could be a ghost. I think what is unique about it is it works from oppression and dark issues towards light, whereas an awful lot of books out there in that section, like vampire books, are probably quite the reverse; they don't lead out of what they are, but tell a story around what they are in.

Emily: So within pastoring, have you experienced anything where you found people go from that place of dark into light?

Kerry: Yes, when Chris and I were doing a home group years ago, we went into a time of prayer and worship and there were a couple of young girls who were probably about 16 years-old and they started to manifest and there was an oppression that was really heavy. They were upset in this time of prayer and we prayed for them and I just knew they'd been involved with an Ouija Board at school and I said this to them and we prayed for them and they were beautifully released from this oppression. One of the girls took a note out of her back pocket and it was a suicide note and she was planning on going off and committing suicide after the meeting and she said that she had felt so oppressed and heavy and depressed after doing this with the Ouija Board. There's many other stories like that, just what we have picked up through pastoring people over the years.

Emily: You used the term manifest then. What do you mean by manifesting?

Kerry: It was simply looking uncomfortable and showing signs of distress when mentioning about the spiritual issue of the Ouija Boards, so just showing a physical sort of expression. Does that make sense?

Emily: Yes, so this type of thing is a common issue nowadays, when it comes to people engaging in things like Ouija boards.

Kerry: Yes. People go into it and they think it is a game; they think it's fun. People want power and there is power there, but it's just seeing that there is a consequence to the choices. We have all got free will and what we choose to put our will into, we open doors. I say that all of us have got a door inside of us and who and what we let in makes all the difference. I've seen people who have had very serious consequences through things that they've done and then how do you get out of that, what is the answer? I believe the only way to freedom when you have opened a door and you're oppressed in that way is Jesus Christ, because he is the only name able to deal with that, the only power to deal with it.

Emily: Which character do you relate with in the book and why?

Kerry: There's quite a few female characters in the book and I would say there's little bits of me probably in all of them. I relate very deeply to them because a lot of it would be made of struggles and thoughts and things that I have wrestled through and found answers to over the years. I have written it from a very deep place, so often I would be in tears really connecting and feeling what my characters have to go through.

Emily: Where did you get your inspiration from for the book?

Kerry: Years ago, people might not know, that Cross Rhythms although it's very involved with radio and website, we used to run festivals and they were brilliant festivals. We would get musicians and speakers and artists and have a wonderful rich spiritual fun time in a field together. It was during this time that I was able to develop some of the artistic productions that communicate deep messages. The first festival we ever did, I got a bunch of teenagers together and we did a gothic drama sketch to Glenn Kaiser's song "Shadows", which is about a haunted young man who committed suicide due to oppression and drug use. Then at another festival I did the Creation Fashion Show, which was based on the theme of creation and took 40 models and loads of outfits, funky music and great choreography and the show depicted six active days of creation. It culminated in this big backdrop that was released that said "Worship the Creator". Then that same evening as I was putting my head on the pillow I had a vision of this purple veil structure out on an open field and I wrote a poem called The Purple Veil that discusses mankind's journey and search for love. The Purple Veil isn't a great place to stay in or arrive at; it was like this four posted structure and I wrote this poem all about searching for intimacy and love and how we look for that in each other. The scripture came from Romans 1 that they exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshipped the creature rather than the Creator. I could see how even in my own life I had looked to guys especially, to fill the void within me, hoping that I might find the perfect relationship one day that would be a knight in shining armour and all the love needs would be met and sorted. We used rock anthems and it looked at the very emotive subject of broken relationships, people's search for love and it got quite a reaction from the audience. So Exit Darcus is a culmination of all those three things; the brokenness, oppression, suicidal kind of stuff and looking at how we relate to our Creator. The sub-title of Exit Darcus is 'faithfulness just got very sexy' and without going over the edge, it is quite a raw book, looking at giving yourself away in sexual relationships. Like I say, it is not explicit, it's not erotic, but it is sexy, in that it doesn't avoid the depth of that with relationships.

Emily: This isn't the first book you have written, so how did you find writing this one compared to your previous book?

Kerry: My previous book was the poem, The Purple Veil. I got an artist to do 12 oil paintings to illustrate every line of the poem and then I expanded the text. The Purple Veil is quite a unique art book with these pictures and this poem about peoples' search for love. It came from a long journey of putting on The Purple Veil as a stage production. I wasn't expecting to write Exit Darcus. It came upon me. I saw my character, this lovely young woman, who was a 19 year-old named Alice and in my mind she had long black hair and Gothic clothes and she had tattoos and her marijuana. I saw this character sitting on the wayside in my mind and I thought I've got to write about her. I started and then I knew the end; I knew all the major things that were going to be like signposts along the way and the major parts of the story - like the building blocks - but I didn't know how I was going to get there, it was just a journey and it was so exciting. I knew things like, she's got to go into this house now, but I didn't know how she was going to get there, what her feelings were going to be on the way, what was going to come up, what was going to be in the house, or what was going to be around the corner on the house. I just got on this journey and it was so much fun. It took me a year. I'd write between mainly eleven o'clock at night and three in the morning. There is this silence in that time and I would go into a zone. I never used to drink coffee until I wrote this book, I had to have it to stay active in the day, but it was the most amazing journey, I really enjoyed it.

Emily: So I'm presuming you have got your sleeping pattern back then?