Blake Anderson joins Mookie in the Science Fiction and Fantasy Factory to talk about The Great Awakening, his debut novel built around an amazing premise: every person on Earth shares the exact same near-death-style dream overnight, wakes up transformed, and watches the world's tribalism dissolve into universal empathy. Blake traces the idea back to a debate he watched between Ben Shapiro and Alex O'Connor about religion and open-mindedness. As an atheist, he started asking himself what kind of message would actually convince him God was real, and he landed on the premise driving the whole book, a single unmistakable dream reaching every person on the planet at once. Mookie and Blake dig into how fast that utopia curdles once security, control, and a group of "Unawakened" holdouts enter the picture, and why that fictional bargain, suffering traded for a manufactured paradise, mirrors real anxieties about AI right now. Both trace the same pattern through the internet, mobile phones, social media, and now AI: each wave arrives promising connection and enlightenment, and each one ends up cutting the opposite way once it takes hold. The conversation also covers Blake's own road to writing it. After thirty years at Microsoft across Xbox, Azure, and Office, he retired, started a life and wellness coaching practice, and only found the story once he forced himself to actually stop and rest for the first time in decades. He and Mookie compare notes on using AI as a brainstorming partner without letting it anywhere near the actual prose, a line both writers insist on holding. Blake also shared his best practices on how he's getting his book seen as an indie author, including running a Goodreads giveaway to build reviews before pushing paid promotion, prioritizing podcasts whose audience is into speculative fiction, and using compelling marketing tools to gain attention with hopes for an adaptation. Meanwhile, he's got a sequel in mind, with the first two acts mapped out and the third still waiting to arrive the same way the original idea did. For an engaging and thought-provoking read and a fresh take on the often tainted core of "positivity," Mookie recommends the novel. The Guest Blake Anderson writes at the intersection of consciousness, transformation, and speculative fiction. His work explores what happens when identity dissolves, belief systems shift, and individuals are invited into deeper awareness. Beyond fiction, Blake is also a transformational coach, helping individuals navigate personal awakenings, life transitions, and purpose-driven growth. His coaching work mirrors the core themes of The Great Awakening—clarity, inner alignment, and conscious evolution. Born and raised in the Pacific Northwest, he earned a B.S. in Mathematics from the University of Washington and spent thirty years in the tech industry, including more than two decades at Microsoft across Office, Bing, Xbox, and Azure teams. He's also the founder of Honu Perspective, a life and wellness coaching practice. The Great Awakening won the Literary Titan Book Award. https://blakeandersonauthor.com/ Want to be on the show? Have feedback? Send Mookie a text! Support the show
