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Reflexive Fire got published on Amazon even faster than I thought it would. The book has it’s first five-star review on the Amazon page from a pre-release copy I sent out. It was cool to see that Hank picked up on a number of things I attempted to accomplish with this book. The literary world of Thrillers, especially those about military or ex-military types, is highly politicized, no getting around it. When I wrote Reflexive Fire, I really spent some time thinking about who the villains should be. What is the biggest threat facing America? Islamic terrorism is real, I’ve seen it up close, but less Americans die from terrorism each year than from being struck by lighting. I decided not to write yet another novel about stereotypical Arabs running around with towels on their heads and shouting “Allah Akbar!”
The villains in Reflexive Fire are those who occupy hidden centers of power such as large international lending institutions like the IMF and the World Bank. The individuals who meet in secret to make foreign policy decisions for America at the Bilderburg Group and the Council on Foreign Relations. I made a real effort to cut through the childish notion of left and right wing politics to home in on who is really destroying America and American freedom.
As Hank wrote in his review:
“I’ve learned to avoid political thrillers, and ordinarily wince, groan, roll my eyes and grit my teeth when the author of any novel starts to portray their naive concept of how back room politics play out. This was another pleasant surprise for me. The author bypasses the two-party good-cop-bad-cop charade to tickle the truth hidden behind it. A few years ago, to even mention the workings of the shadow government was to invite ridicule and worse. Maybe this has changed as certain evidence becomes more difficult to hide. Still, I admire the author’s courage to reject the blue pill publicly. “
I expect that this stance will cost me some readers but I feel good about the direction this novel took. For the type of reader who likes to google the things he reads in a book to see if they are real, I think they will find the information in Reflexive Fire to be authentic and shocking in many ways. I hope that you will read one of the early scenes in the book about Bohemian Grove and think that I wrote something over the top and ridicules. Look into if for yourself, I’m not that creative. This stuff is real!
See for yourself in this in-depth article about Bohemian Grove
Reflexive Fire 
Good Evening Jack,
Next….
Damn – RF is a great read. No need to develop characters in the old fashioned way. Deckard jumped right out of the pages about a hundred words in.
Awesome premise – I do like the finish, but I will not ruin it for your other readers. I believe the significant people in your life will have to become used to you bashing out tomes into the wee hours of the night……prepare many more acknowledgements.
Regards,
John
Wow, John, thanks so much. I’m glad you enjoyed Reflexive Fire. I have an interview coming up soon on a friend’s blog where I get into my approach towards character development and the nitty gritty about Deckard. The short story is that I plan on revealing a little more about him with each book. Besides, when you have a character who takes decisive action as he does, I think those actions tend to speak for themself. Worst case, I think that Deckard’s final words at the end of the novel leave no doubt as to why he does what he does.
I look forward to hearing more of your thoughts about the novel, I’m always interested to know what I can improve. Thanks for reading and now I suppose I should get back to writing the second issue of PROMIS since you’ve exhausted my (admittedly short) catalog.
You are welcome Jack,
You have got a great character going here – kind of the same thoughts as Creasy in “Man of Fire” (the book version, great movie, an even better book, though disturbing). Your finish had the cool traits of Earth (by D. Brin) and George Powhatan triumphing and the beginning and ending ties fit very well together. I think you have another hundred pages in the book with the supporting cast, especially Deckard’s handlers. With your bio as I have seen it here you look to have the next “Dogs of War” going without the bad ending. The hero is noble in his own way and there is alot of work worth doing. And the story is not mushy – defintely a revival of good storytelling without any psycho-babble. Deckard’s basic actions are easy to see as good – no need to elaborate.
As to your story it raised up the hair on the back of my neck several times. There are no coincidences in life – e-books – I get it.
I look forward to more stories – life imitates art.
John
That’s great John. I’m happy that you felt you got something out of the book. Unfortunately, I’m not familiar with all of the other works you referenced but since I liked the movie adaptation of “Man on Fire” and really loved David Brin’s “Startide Rising” I will certainly take that as a compliment!
If you have a moment, please consider leaving a book review on Amazon, every little bit helps!
As far as your hair standing on end…I will use this blog to elaborate more on the eugenics stuff that the villains of the book are into. If you are interested, I highly recommend the book I link to on the side bar of this site, “War Against the Weak” by Edwin Black. He gives a great account of the history of eugenics but fails to trace it into modern times. More to come on that front.
No worries on the other works – I did make a mistake though. The Brin reference was “The Postman” (the movie totally ruined the book) – my mistake (sheesh).
Let me see if I can do my thoughts justice out on amazon for your work. I frequently get ahead of myself writing and come back later to see how scatter brained my postings were.
I look forward to more.
John
And on to scatter brained thoughts…
The eugenics are scary beyond mention- but your locations gave me a very strong deja-vu feeling.
I’ll have to shake that tug in my head for the next week I feel.
Sign of a good writer that the undercurrent in a story can elicit a strong reaction like that in a reader.
Regards,
John