South of Heaven was my first solo fiction novel and kind of my baby. Or perhaps my darling. It follows Kat on her unexpected journey into the afterlife and explores what Heaven might really be like if the God of the bible really existed. Reign in Blood is the third and final book in this blasphemous and dark exploration of morality and the afterlife.
My own journey into the larger secular movement led to my non fiction book on humanism, critical thinking and debunking all flavors of pseudoscience, Expose Yourself. But the people I met along the way made me think a lot about the things I was taught to believe as a kid. I grew up thinking that if you're a good person, then you go to Heaven when you die. But as I asked more questions, I learned that it was more complicated than that. In fact, in most if not all flavors of Christianity, you can be a total shithead on Earth and still end up in Heaven. All you really need to do is pledge your allegiance to a certain deity, say you're sorry, and...poof! You're saved! Just ask Jeffrey Dahmer.
And that's how this series came to be. My imagining what Heaven would be like if the the only thing you really had to do was ask for forgiveness for any and all sins. God doesn't really seem to be all that interested if you are a good or bad person, if you hurt people, or are just an all around piece of shit. As long as you love and worship Him, you don't need anything else. In Heaven, everything is perfect. But who's perfect is it? It's God's perfect place where everyone kisses his butt and nothing else matters.
That would make Hell full of good people who refused to worship a selfish and sadistic deity, and Heaven full of sycophants and serial killers. Given that choice, where would you choose to spend eternity?