Fictional Corruption Meets Real Life Corruption

What happens when your novel comes to life? The arrest of Governor Rod Blagojevich recently gave a political satirist an unexpected boost in sales.

Novelist Scott Simon published his novel of political corruption earlier this year, but his satirical version of Illinois came uncomfortably real when Blagojevich was arrested for allegedly trying to sell a Senate seat.

Over at The Daily Beast, Simon describes the surreal experience, delivering a primer on writing political dialogue at the same time:

“Over the course of the story, there are sting operations, sex scandals, bribes and a suicide. I would have drawn the line at having a governor try to sell a Senate seat, as if he was hawking a stolen widescreen TV from the back of a truck. In these days of email surveillance, wiretaps, and the 24-hour news cycle, who would believe such a thing?”

For more political/literary inspiration, here is a video of Rachel Maddow finishing the Rudyard Kipling poem that Blagojevich read at a recent press conference.

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