Power of Fiction: A Guest Post by Russell Blake

Please welcome to Feed My Need, the incredibly talented author, Russell Blake!

The Power of Fiction

When fiction is well written and executed, it has the ability to transport the reader to a different reality - the one that exists in the author's mind. It can excite, alarm, amuse and titillate.

And occasionally, it can teach.

One of the hardest things to do with a fiction novel is to leave the reader with more information than they came in with and get them to think about things differently. And I'm not talking about hackneyed morality tales or thinly-veiled social commentary or agenda mongering. I'm describing where a novel shifts the reader's paradigm and forces them to confront difficult issues - issues they might not have been aware of or cared much about before reading the book.

My name's Russell Blake, and I've just released a new police procedural thriller. Silver Justice features a female FBI agent heading up a task force that's hunting a brutal serial killer who is killing financial industry bigwigs. The plot has all my usual twists and turns and the characters are three dimensional, but what makes the novel a departure for me is the underlying subject matter. Silver Justice tackles an explanation of why the 2008 financial crisis that continues to devastate millions, actually happened.

It's couched as fiction, but many months of in-depth research went into developing the theory that is the basis of the book. Readers will either love it or hate it, depending upon their worldview coming in. I understand that some will despise the conspiracy that is set forth in its pages because it challenges deep seated convictions about how the world works. Others may find it provocative enough to do their own research. Still others will nod and think, "I knew it."

However readers react, Silver Justice attempts to be that rarest of fiction books - one that imparts a chunk of meaningful information in entertaining fashion couched as make believe. My hope is that it will touch most that read it and spur a sense of outrage. If it does, then I've done my job.

Writing thrillers in the Robert Ludlum vein isn't the most weighty of careers, I know. It is creating diversions, little bits of surrealism to make a plane trip or a late night at home more bearable. But Silver Justice is different. It explains without being preachy and hypothesizes without being kooky. And in the end, entertains.

Russell Blake was named one of the most popular indie novelists of 2012, and is the bestselling author of the thrillers Fatal Exchange, The Geronimo Breach, the Zero Sum trilogy (Wall St. thriller), King of Swords, Night of the Assassin, Revenge of the Assassin, Return of the Assassin, The Delphi Chronicle trilogy, The Voynich Cypher and Silver Justice. Non-fiction includes the international bestseller An Angel With Fur (animal biography) and How To Sell A Gazillion eBooks In No Time (even if drunk, high or incarcerated) parody of all things writing-related. Blake lives in Mexico and enjoys his dogs, fishing, boating, tequila and writing, while battling world domination by clowns.


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