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And Now the News You Don’t Want

It’s interesting to watch things fall apart. This feels like our plane is falling from the sky while the pilot tells you, “This is for your own good, you know. Thank me.”

The news is hard to keep up with. While DOGE divulges national security secrets, the FDA suffers massive layoffs. If food safety was important to you, too bad. Not enough food inspectors. Everything that goes awry is blamed on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.

Pro Tip: Next time someone says they are against DEI, ask them which particular aspect they are against. Are they against diversity, equality, or inclusion? If they just say DEI, there’s a good chance they can’t define the term, and the slogan might just be shorthand for a slur.


As a Canadian and an author, naturally I’m concerned about the trade war. The blanket tariffs on Canada have been put off until Donald has another whim, an empty complaint or a non-specific demand. He has managed to do something no Canadian politician has accomplished: We are united against him. When you get Quebecois and English Canada working together against you, you know you’ve fucked up.

To their credit, many Americans are also feeling vulnerable and oogy. A handful of young dogebags with very questionable credentials are mining their personal data. These cadets for prison say they’re conducting audits, but there’s not an accountant in sight. If you only bring hackers to the job, the job is hacking.

On Boycotts

February 28, everyone is encouraged to buy local, and not give money to oligarchs. Will this make a difference? Probably not if it’s just one day. What’s more impressive and effective are the ongoing changes in buying habits. Canadians don’t have a lot of alternatives for streaming services, so most of us won’t give up Amazon Prime and Disney. On the other hand, Canadians are staying away from cross-border shopping.

Whenever I’ve nipped across the border, the cars in mall parking lots in Port Huron are filled with Ontario license plates. Not anymore, and those businesses are feeling the pinch. Likewise, Canadian tourism to the United States has plummeted so much that Air Canada has cancelled a lot of flights. Given the blanket firings at the FAA, many of us are leery of flying, anyway. Donald assured us flying was safe, except we’re all in danger from unqualified air traffic controllers and pilots…but we’re safe. What?

This White House is notorious for its muddled messaging. For instance, tariffs are great for America! How will we punish Canada and Mexico? Tariffs! What? Those little countries will put retaliatory tariffs on us? Terrible! How dare they?

Writing in a Dangerous Time

I love my readers, and most of them, by far, are from the States. I’ve entertained many citizens of the Divided States of America, and I bear them no ill will. It’s their government that’s the problem. Canada will not become the 51st state. If that were to transpire somehow, this grasping president would soon find out he doesn’t want what he thought he did.

So, how will all this affect my book sales? My sales will go down. That will occur, but not because of any mass animus on either side of the border. It will happen because our two countries are headed for a recession. When people can’t afford to buy eggs, have lost their job, or can’t pay the rent, they won’t be buying my delightful fiction. In times of trouble, fiction is an excellent distraction that soothes the soul. In times of disaster, you can’t read when you’re too busy running.

Should you boycott Amazon? Up to you. Consider two factors: (A) That’s my entire source of income, and (B) Jeff Bezos won’t care. Bezos has much bigger fish to fry and planets to invade. But seriously, it’s up to you. If you are boycotting Amazon and the other oligarchs, I really can’t complain. I’m buying Canadian products and support local retailers as much as I can manage. The universal tariffs aren’t on us right now, but the international trust is gone, and our friendship is damaged. Threatened with domination, Canadians don’t look upon America as kindly anymore. We were happy to be friends, but Donald insistence on gratitude has only angered us and strengthened our resolve to affirm our national identity.

To the Americans who don’t get it, I’ll simplify: Patriotism isn’t just for you. If China talked carelessly about annexing Texas, you’d lose your shit. See?

What about that trust we lost?

Canadians have long been the US’s biggest ally and solid trading partner. Now, my government is pushed toward expanding trade with other nations. China, Europe, and Brazil spring to mind first. A new trade agreement has been founded with Ecuador. While some Americans toy with the idea of attacking NATO allies, there’s talk of Canada joining the EU. Donald talks about how the American military protects us, but all we feel is a need for protection from the US military.

I’m tired of the media talking about a “budding” constitutional crisis in the US. It’s not coming. It’s here, and by the way, we’re all in more danger than we were a month ago. The Five Eyes shared sensitive information and surveillance resources to tamp down terrorist groups. Given that Donald has a habit of keeping top-secret documents in unsecured locations, it’s now the Four Eyes. They won’t share important information if they think it could be compromised so easily. Terrorist attacks will succeed in the next four years due to this sad lack of international cooperation and coordination. (There’s another reason to stay off planes.)

Information mismanagement is a huge problem (and possibly the plan) with this new administration. Abandoning the World Health Organization means less data pooling among researchers. No USAID? Diseases that were squelched fast in far lands will appear here.* Measles is on the rise. Bird flu is in the offing. Dismantling CDC pandemic response teams and installing RFK as chief quack means disease and disaster are dead ahead. And I do mean dead.

*For a shocking look at Trump’s death toll that’s already killing babies, watch the first episode of 2025 of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver. (No, I haven’t given up my HBO subscription through Crave yet, and John Oliver is the reason. His best joke about his own appearance: “I look like a parrot who works at a bank!” Damn, I love John Oliver.)

Look, I’ve written a lot of apocalyptic novels. The burden in fiction is achieving verisimilitude. It has to sound authentic. In this non-fiction scenario, we’re running headlong toward lethal folly. In a novel. I would never write what’s happened in the first month of the Trump presidency. It would sound too silly. Even the most hardcore of Donald Trump’s supporters must have at least struggled a little with his thoughtless layoffs of experts who ensure nuclear weapons don’t blow up in their silos. The regulators and safety inspectors work in the Department of Energy. I guess Trump and Elon didn’t understand that designation is really a misnomer. It’s less the Department of Energy and more the Department of Nuclear Weapons.

I’ll keep writing books because I have no other skills of note. I hope we all come out the other side of this healthy, horny, and perhaps wiser. I try to let go of what I can’t control. I’ll do what I can to resist. For instance, I’ll boo the US national anthem. Does that have any effect? Actually, yes, because it goes against the Canadian stereotype and shocks the senses of those who are, for one reason or another, trying to normalize the abnormal. Too many US citizens, brainwashed by decades of the American Exceptionalism virus, don’t see us as a separate nation. They don’t think of us at all, really. We either simply don’t matter to them, or we’re the butt of lame jokes. Sounds like Canada needs new close allies, doesn’t it? Donald’s the consummate bad boyfriend.

Some Canadians don’t agree we should boo the US national anthem. I considered their objection of “That’s not who we are.” Then I saw the comment: “The country that aims to annex us says booing their national anthem is impolite.” Yeah, I’m gonna have to go with booing.

I am a writer who wants to entertain my readers, but I was Canadian first, and I love that. We share many similarities with our neighbours to the south, but we are different. For instance, Canadian healthcare saved the vision in my left eye and gave me two hip implants that allow me to walk without pain. All I had to pay was parking. School shooting are a rarity here. Meanwhile, in the States, I have often confused this week’s mass murders with last week’s mass murders. No, I don’t ache to own an arsenal and call that freedom. No, I don’t want to be a vassal to a King who wouldn’t bother to piss on me if I were on fire.

What am I going to do for the next four years?

I‘ll keep writing books for anyone who will have me. When confronting chaos, I’ll try not to panic and use my voice to serve righteous causes. That’s probably about all the force I can muster. Given the larger forces at play, maybe I should learn the language of the newest sole superpower. Mandarin will be difficult, but well….

The better question is, why do so many Americans defy their history and great future potential to serve a king who thinks “groceries” is a new word?*

*Yeah, he said that.

The Empathy Deficit

Donald suffers from ED, Empathy Deficit. Donald does terrible things and calls it virtue. If he had empathy for others, he wouldn’t do the things he does. Apparently, that infection hit some 30 – 40% of American citizens. Some of his voters are now discovering their mistake, but too late. The next election is far off. Next time, do your research before the election. If you’re MAGA, just know it’s not all your fault. You’ve been tricked, probably because the amygdala in your brain is too big. (That’s the fear center of your brain, so no, that’s not good. Your fears are overcoming your neo-cortex, where the thinking happens.)

Last night, I listened to a political debate. The host pointed out that the MAGA guest’s taxes would soon rise by three percent. He also mentioned that defunding USAID would kill 20 million people. The MAGA guest panicked about the 3% tax hike. He didn’t react at all to the deaths of 20 million people. That careless disregard for humanity is the rot at the root.

Note: This sort of post won’t be a regular thing. I’ll touch base with current events from time to time, but I’ll also give you stress relief here. I prefer fiction to real life, especially now.

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Commonly Misused Words

The misuse of words grinds my gears. I have a short list of the worst offenders I’ve heard recently.

  1. “An exuberant amount of money.” No, it’s an exorbitant amount of money.
  2. “Pundint.” You mean to say, pundit, no second n.
  3. Erudite sounds like it looks: Air-oo-dite. It’s not “aeriodite.”
  4. You don’t “flaunt the law.” You flout it.
  5. Library has an r in it. Not “Lie-berry.”
  6. Elon Musk AKA Phony Stark, is not an inventor. He’s an investor who considers you not at all. (That’s not altogether fair. He thinks a lot of you are parasites.)

    Which misused words irk you?
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Not Every Vanity Publisher is Out to Scam You

Some people will not like this post, but I’m going to be real with you. Not all “vanity” publishers are con artists. Many writers call it evil to publish novice authors for money. They’re speaking from a privilege that doesn’t always address reality. If you reject nuance, this post won’t be for you.

We’ve all heard Harlan Ellison’s rule, “The money flows to the author.” It’s a solid principle in traditional and independent publishing. However, not everyone is playing the same game. That brush is painting a broad red stripe across innocent people who are trying to help the helpless. For flailing writers, paying to publish does make sense sometimes.

To find out if something on offer is a scam, I suggest consulting Writer Beware. It’s an excellent resource to identify dishonest actors across the publishing industry. I’m not talking about scams today, though. I’m talking about getting books to market that would never see the light of day otherwise.

See It from the Novice’s Point of View

On this subject, veteran writers are often eager to jump in with condemnations. Anything that smacks of pay-to-publish or so-called “ego publishing” offends them. “If it wouldn’t see the light of day otherwise, it should stay in the dark! Don’t publish!”

Would you say that to my dearly departed father and father-in-law? They published their autobiographies in their twilight years. They weren’t vying for the New York Times bestseller list. They looked back on their lives and wanted to leave a record behind for their families. True, they could have tried going through a local printer. That would have been more expensive than publishing a “real book” through Amazon. They got a kick out of seeing their memoirs on Amazon.

For my father-in-law, this project was particularly important. His childhood experience as a Japanese Canadian imprisoned by his own government during WWII spoke to his community. As his memory failed, his little memoir became dogeared. He went through it again and again, and would sometimes exclaim, “I know this story!” He passed away last year, but his memories are preserved. That memoir is still a comfort to our family.

Addressing The War on Fun


Let’s clear up one common objection immediately. There’s no such thing as “cluttering up” the digital marketplace if that’s your worry. There are a zillion blogs on Earth, but no one labels them clutter that gets in the way of discovering something more meritorious. Amazon is, first and foremost, a search engine. You won’t find these books unless you search for them hard, and that’s on you. Books that don’t sell are relegated to niches deep in the archive. You won’t see them, so no harm, no foul.

This is rarely a service I’ve provided to authors of multiple books. No one knows which book will take off and be a hit, but this kind of work is almost always a one-off. One IP ended up becoming a documentary and a movie, but that’s very rare. The author was new to book publishing, but he could write well and had unusual experiences to share.

Gatekeepers cry, “Learn the ropes! Take courses! You can do it all yourself! Learn how to do it like I did!” My dads didn’t have that kind of time. They had a lot of abilities in their fields of interest, but knew nothing about how to get what they’d written between covers.

I helped out my family for free, but I’ve been paid for it by others. I never called myself a vanity publisher, but that’s pretty much what it amounted to in most cases. I provided services to novice authors who were clueless about the book business. Most had neither the time nor inclination to make a career out of writing. It was for personal satisfaction. Publishing a book was a bucket list item to show off to their friends. For some, it was a business card to complement their business ventures and establish their expertise in the eyes of customers.

(Note: Everyone I worked with kept all their rights, no matter how much work I did. If you’re considering paying someone to guide you through the publishing process, hold on to your rights in the agreement. It will cost you more, but in the end, your name is on the cover.)

What does a Publishing Rabbi or a Book Shepherd do exactly?


I called it book consulting and project management. My services included educating novices about the publishing process, working with editors and graphic designers on the author’s behalf, and providing advice on covers, metadata, blurbs, and marketing. I’ve helped polish manuscripts for publication, sometimes ghostwriting. In other cases, my “edit” was really a rewrite to make a manuscript more salable, more organized, or more coherent. It was a lot of work that often took time away from my creations, so yes, without shame, I got paid for it.

Not everyone wants to write for a living. Not everyone can. That doesn’t necessarily mean they shouldn’t have a book with their name on it. It might be for their bookshelf and theirs alone. That’s okay. It’s not a scam if it’s what they always wanted to fulfill their heart’s desire.

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I’ll Never Be John Grisham

Until recently, I’d never read any John Grisham. He’s an incredibly successful novelist. He has entertained millions of readers and apparently has a net worth north of $400 million! Impressive. I’ll never have anywhere near that tier of success for one very important reason (at least it’s important to me).

Ken Follett’s cover quote is that John Grisham is “The best thriller writer alive.”

My incurable folly

I was on my way to Cuba. I needed something to take my mind off defying God by cramming myself into a flying death tube just to see palm trees. She Who Must Be Obeyed handed me Camino Island for the journey. This novelist is probably old news to you, but an unread book is always new to the uninitiated.

The story held a few surprises up front. I liked the heist very much. I love heist capers, and this was a clever one that made sense. I did have a quibble immediately after the first scene concluded, though. The cops arrive, scoop up a few drops of blood, and have the name of one of the perpetrators immediately. DNA analysis doesn’t work that quickly. That’s some CSI nonsense., but readers who value narrative speed over verisimilitude (and plenty do) won’t mind.

Fun note: I recently learned the most accurate forensic science show was Quincy M.E. It would be out of date now, but I was impressed the show didn’t use fake props. They bought real medical equipment and their forensic scientist actually had a role on the show.

I see the value and appreciate the lure of Grisham’s prose. It’s so straightforward, it makes for a fast read. I get it. The sentence structures are so simple to swallow: NOUN + VERB + OBJECT. Repeat. It’s as easy as an elementary school textbook. See Dick run.

A smarter writer would emulate the master’s success. I’m not a smarter writer. What I missed was interiority.

“Interiority is a writing technique that explores a character’s inner life, including their thoughts, feelings, and actions. It’s a way to show readers how a character processes information and makes sense of the world around them.” ~ according to the internet.

I read a good chunk of Camino Island, and not once did I get a glimpse inside a character’s head. The danger of overusing omniscience is the writer ends up telling instead of showing. Any writing teacher advises, “Show, don’t tell.” We don’t write, “She was nervous.” We write, “Betsy’s hands shook. Her heart raced and she could not slow her breathing.”

I’m all for showing, not telling. However, I love to explore motivations. My characters struggle to make sense of their worlds. I’m struggling with that all the time, too. So, I’m committed to failure in that I can’t emulate John Grisham’s style. Good for him, probably bad for me. He’s not wrong. We’re just different.

On the other hand, I visited a little specialty bookstore yesterday. They had a very small general fiction section, but it was well curated. I was pleased to find that I’d read many of the novels on their shelves. It gave me confidence that I’d find more great books to my taste there. Many other novelists have had success using techniques that explore characters’ inner worlds. Few novelists ever touch the heights of Grisham’s financial success and vast fan base, but I still believe there’s room for me on the Reader Ship. I might have to settle for cargo class, but I’m on the same boat.

I’ll never be John Grisham, but I have an excellent shot at being Robert Chazz Chute.

Not a single “he thought” or “she thought in italics here.” Alas.

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Energize Your Writing Life with Attack Mode

Years ago, I went to a one-man show put on by director Kevin Smith. Between the jokes, he talked about taking advantage of opportunities and making good things happen. One key takeaway was the Wayne Gretzky quote: “Skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been.” That advice proved timely. It coincided with meeting a harbinger of the future at a writing conference in 2010. The experience set me on the path to founding Ex Parte Press.

That harbinger? She was the first person I’d met who read ebooks exclusively. It was a glimpse of the imminent future. A new market had opened and was rapidly expanding. Growing pains and a gold rush lay dead ahead. I’d written a lot, and now I had a place to put it. Mostly, that meant Amazon.

That writing conference took place in Victoria, BC. The outlier was one of the conference organizers. She introduced me as “Roger” as I was about to perform a reading of a short story. I made a joke of it, beginning with, “You got my name wrong, but by the end of this story, you’ll know who I am and remember it!” Sure, I flirted with being obnoxious, but I was confident in my material. I didn’t just read that story about a fight with my dad over money. I attacked it. The reading was very well-received.

It was fun to meet other writers, pick up some tips, and even make a few allies. The thing I enjoy most about writing conferences is how energizing they are. In April, I’m headed to Toronto for a Writing Day Workshop. There will be lectures and discussions and wonky stuff about the book business. I will meet with four agents that day, and I am so excited.

ATTACK MODE: ACTIVATED

If you are curious about attending a conference, here’s the link.

If you need more motivation, here’s a link to their success stories.

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Why Become a Hybrid Author?

I spent the last couple of mornings working on a short story for a big writing contest. Between editing the new novel and beginning work on the sequel, I have found renewed purpose in my writing. After a fallow period, I’m in a creative frenzy again. The days fly by, and I’m always surprised how late it is when I come up for air. I’m having a great time here at Ex Parte Press world headquarters, but maybe it’s time for a change.

Then

I can’t remember a time when I couldn’t read or write. I always wanted to be a writer. I thought journalism was the way in and wrote for magazines and newspapers. By the time I finished journalism school, I’d become disillusioned with the newspaper business. I wanted something more creative. I freelanced for magazines and wrote a regular column. Speech writing was rewarding, but there wasn’t enough of it. I won a bunch of writing contests, but mostly, I wrote for myself. Often creating worlds long into the night, I immersed myself in the work. More compulsion than plan, I just had to write. There was no goal other than the work itself. Always focused on composing the next shiny word bauble, I did not submit anything to publishers or agents.

Why did I hold myself back? A character flaw. I haven’t had a boss since 1991. I always eschewed team sports. Even the word “submission” connotes many agents’ and publishers’ relationship with their stables of ink-stained wretches. “Spec” is another clue to the hierarchy. Working on spec, you are a speck. In short, I have a history of being a control freak. On the other hand, I’ve worked collaboratively multiple times and enjoyed it, so maybe I’ve grown.

Ancient History

After graduating from the Banff Publishing Workshop boot camp, I moved from the East Coast to Toronto and found myself in the publishing industry. I toiled in production, editorial, sales, and marketing. My exposure to the industry played a big part in how I felt about the establishment. I sat in meetings where authors, the backbone of the business, were openly disparaged. The choices of what was bought and sold often held a distasteful element of caprice and snobbery.

I entered the arena with such romantic ideas about publishing. I left with a greater understanding of the world. This is true everywhere, no matter the industry: Some firms court and hire geniuses, but every staff has a knob (sometimes several more than few). It’s not easy finding a good match with an agent or a publisher. And yet, here I am, contemplating the possibilities in earnest.

Why so cautious, though? The simple answer is plenty of authors have horror stories about their agents and publishers. For instance, back in the early days of Twitter, some agents used the medium to show their asses. These self-proclaimed sharks made fun of pitches they deemed unworthy. Whether it was foolishness, fatigue, or hubris, some made sweeping generalizations about what books were “acceptable.” Not just to their taste, mind you! Just, in their eyes, bad and wrong. “No characters with synesthesia! No divorced dads writing about being divorced dads!”

I understand agents’ need to curate, even discourage, the incoming avalanche over the transom, but the offenders’ tone was offensive. (Full disclosure: I’m not a divorced dad, but I did write a main character on the spectrum who also experienced synesthesia. It’s my most successful series.)

Now

Someone asked me what changed my mind about jumping back in the traditional publishers’ end of the pool. The reasons are multi-factorial, but here’s a peek inside the nutshell:

  • Political forces have changed. That affects my chances of getting read. Many are already boycotting Amazon. As the next four years progress, I expect more readers will opt to buy from other legacy publishing platforms. I’ve done well by Amazon in the past, but the Amazon gold rush has been over for years. It’s time to seriously explore ways to expand my readership.
  • I haven’t enjoyed the marketing end of the business. My experiments with going wide to other e-publishing platforms have consistently failed. Amazon marketed me best. They simply proved themselves better at selling my genres. It’s time to give going wide another try, but this time, I mean really wide. Bookstores, book fairs, book clubs. I’ll show up to the opening of an envelope if it means I get a chance to interact with readers and plug my book.
  • Like Batman, it would be nice to have some backup, so I’m looking for a solid partner, a Robin, if you will. I want more heft behind my next marketing push. Before someone chimes in, I know! I know! Most publishers offer very little marketing support. For sound financial and logistical reasons, even if you get hyped, it doesn’t last long. Most marketing still depends on the author. I have no illusions about that, but I’m also willing to do more on the marketing side than I have in the past.
  • The high commercial potential of my latest novel makes a big difference here. I find myself with an up-scale thriller that isn’t bogged down with the drawbacks of my usual genre choices. With an intellectual property that is easier to sell to a broader audience, it’s a good time to jump.
  • My wife had a health scare recently. We’re dealing with that, and it’s going well, but going hybrid makes more sense from a time management perspective. Despite my independent leanings, I’ve never really been a one-man band. I have great resources among my friends: my editor, Gari Strawn, my prime beta reader, Russ, my graphics people, and many supportive readers. The term self-publishing is a misnomer. I’ve never published alone. However, partnering with the right agent and publishing firm would spread some of the responsibilities around.
  • Perhaps most important of all my considerations, going hybrid now makes more sense because I have recently developed a shortlist of likely agents. My strategy is not to blanket the planet with pitches. I’m aiming at particular targets. If it doesn’t work out with literary agents whom I consider the A-Team, I’ll go it on my own as I have since 2010.
  • I’ve written a bunch of good to great to excellent novels. Don’t believe it? Just ask me. The writing quality is there. The visibility is not. I’ve long felt my literary stock is undervalued. By opening myself to options and trying something different, my work might finally get noticed.

    That’s my why of becoming a hybrid author. Now, to work on the how.
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What to Read as the World Burns

Today’s respite from the world’s slings and arrows was a wander through a bookstore. I found three gems I can’t wait to delve into. Part of this is for pure enjoyment, and part of it is research. End-of-the-world scenarios and tales of vengeance are my bailiwicks, so these purchases count as a tax deduction.

Given my budget, I was pleased to find they were all available at a major discount. That allowed me to rescue them from getting returned to the publishers. I was also a little sad (nay, shocked!) that they were all available at a major discount. This is particularly true of Survival of the Richest. I’ve heard the author on a podcast a couple of times. I’m intimately familiar with the material and want to know more. I once wrote a related essay (some might say a screed) on how apocalyptic scenarios aren’t the survivalist fun some fantasists think they are. There will be no lone survivors. Either we all count, and most make it, or civilization is fucked.

Step One:

Don’t opt out of the World Health Organization, dummies!)

Fight Against This Age should also be full price and on the bookshelf of every progressively minded person. Have we given up? Are we all just going to allow the oligarchy to run us down, run us over, and run us through? Maybe. I don’t see enough fight in the general populace yet. Perhaps public outrage won’t kick in until they personally feel the kick in the teeth.

Anyway, happy Wednesday, and may Thor help us all!

Got to work early at my favorite coffee office. There are many empty chapters to fill up with entertaining brilliance, but I’m excited about what lies ahead.

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