Hey! Chazz here! Thank you for reading the AFTER Life trilogy. Authors live and die by reviews so if you dig my sling, please leave a happy review wherever you purchased my work. Cheers for that! I sincerely appreciate it. No, really, I do! Leaving a review is easy but it’s always a big deal for me to read you.
Normally I would ask you to pay no attention to the scribe behind the curtain. I’m an introvert pretending to be an extrovert. However, I do get email from readers (at expartepress@gmail.com.)
If you don’t care about FAQs, hey, man, I’m not here to assign homework. I get it, you’re just here for the fiction. Do turn the page for more reading options and sorry if I bothered you. However, if you’re curious, here are my answers to frequently asked questions:
1. After you wrote This Plague of Days, you said you were done with the zombie genre. What changed?
TPOD is my most popular series and it took a long time to write. Season One came about in two stages and overall, it took about two plus years to write three monster books, no pun intended. Since that story was so sweeping (going across the globe and incorporating so many elements of mysticism and SF exploration) I honestly felt like I’d said all I had to say in that genre. I didn’t know what else I could bring to it that would be at all new, or at least newish.
As I mentioned at the end of the first book in this series, a fan told me some details about a lab in Toronto that got my wheels smoking. When I played with the idea, I found something I was excited to write. I hope you’ve found it an entertaining, compelling read.
2. You’ve referred to NEXT since Book 2 and Robot Planet features “The Next Intelligence.” Is there crossover between AFTER Life and Robot Planet? Is AFTER Life a prelude to Robot Planet?
When I wrote Robot Planet, I had no inkling of AFTER Life. However, you’re right about using NEXT. It did seem an appropriate acronym but this evolutionary branch of Artificial Intelligence went in a different direction from the AI in Robot Planet.
One of these versions of AI might even come true. I’m hedging my bets.
For crossover of ideas, if you’re interested in the possibilities of the Collective Unconscious, I would invite you to read Dream’s Dark Flight. I explore a similar idea — the Unus Mundus — in depth. DDF is a fun ride that is Book 4 in the Dimension War Series. Though it’s part of a series, it can be read as a stand-alone.
3. What’s your writing schedule and workspace like?
I have a standing desk which I try to use when I’m at home. It’s healthier than the sedentary lifestyle. Sitting is the new smoking and all that. However, I get the most done at Starbucks because I find fewer distractions there. My son teases that I do that because I am a writer and I want people to see me doing it.
As for my schedule, if I can dive in first thing in the morning, I’ll get more done. After two to four hours (depending on the complexity of the work) I get burnt out and have to do something else to recharge. I write every day.
4. Which do you enjoy writing more, the killer thrillers or the SF?
The science fiction is more detail-oriented. The thrillers tend to be easier to write. I’ve got a head for crime. The pacing I used in AFTER Life mirrors the thrillers most closely, though, so the creation of this series skipped along nicely.
5. This Plague of Days and AFTER Life are both about the zombie apocalypse but they’re somewhat different. TPOD had more details on prepping. What do you think these series have in common?
Both series raise philosophical questions for the reader to ponder and have a note of hope sifted in. The common root is that you see how the plagues begin. I wanted an explanation for how it could start and what that said about us as a species. I liked the beginning of The Walking Dead and loved 28 Days Later but I’d prefer to witness the world’s collapse instead of having the main character wake up from a coma in the middle of it.
Readers of both series will also notice the odd bits in the chapter breaks that eventually come to mean something in the end. I know it’s weird, but I like that value-added stuff. It adds to the mystery of where the story is headed and I’m always striving to do something unexpected.
The major difference with AFTER Life is that the action is so claustrophobic and unfolds at a faster pace. This Plague of Days raised many religious questions and several scenes got quite surreal. AFTER Life is very much about the science and the character’s concrete experience (though that scene with the Penn & Teller tribute got pretty surreal, didn’t it?)
6. Your stuff is funny but it’s also pretty dark. Are you optimistic about the future of AI?
Artificial Intelligence has amazing potential to help or harm. I think we’ll do very well if we survive long enough as a species to fulfill AI’s potential. Given all that’s going on in the world, we’ll be lucky if we get to find out which way it will go.
7. As an SF writer, do you consider yourself a futurist?
Despite the advanced tech I write about, my books tend to reflect more about the world as it is, not the way it might be.
Years ago, somebody got a panel of SF writers, engineers and other assorted thinkers together to try to predict the future. I think Isaac Asimov was in the mix. The SF writers were the most conservative (pessimistic?) about how much change was on the way. Their predictions turned out to be more precise.
8. There seems to be a lot of social commentary in your books. Do you set out to do that from the beginning? I like what you’re doing but I’ve been told writers should avoid taking political stances.
I know what you’re saying but I gotta be me. Much of the fiction I love has sociopolitical underpinnings. Doesn’t everything?
I could crank down on my worries about society’s ills but the outcome would be lifeless and I’d be less engaged with the story. Love it or hate it, readers would be less engaged, too. I don’t set out to write a theme or a polemic. Characters drive the story and the story always comes first. Themes emerge organically.
9. Of your books, which is your personal favorite? Which do you think is funniest?
You may as well ask which of my children I love more. I dig them all for varying reasons. Statistically, readers love This Plague of Days most. From a technical standpoint, some of my best writing is in the anthology, Murders Among Dead Trees.
I love Tamara Smythe’s voice in the Dimension War Series. She’s fun and the dialogue is snappy, especially when the Patton Oswalt lookalike shows up in Fierce Lessons. On the other hand, in my time travel book, Wallflower, Ray is a comedian and that sure comes through. I love bouncy dialogue!
I’m failing to pick out one. Sorry. It’s an impossible question.
10. Which of your books is most personal and is closest to the real you?
Most personal has to be Brooklyn in the Mean Time. I’m the protagonist in that thriller and with the hostile family dynamics … ooh. I’ve said too much.
11. When can we expect the next book in the Hit Man Series?
Later in 2018, expect New York Punch. It’s written, I just need to revise it. I have more books in that series started. Sorry for the wait. I had to complete other projects first.
12. Are you a Walking Dead fan?
I was, yes. I still have Netflix but I got rid of my TV in 2017. I don’t find I miss it much. Unfortunately, I’m not up to date on what’s happening with Rick Grimes versus the walkers.
The Walking Dead delivered a lot of great moments and I found it quite compelling. I really liked the graphic novels, too. However, I needed more jokes. I like roller coaster stories with more than one tone. I need amplitude instead of a relentless grim note. I found myself asking, “Why are these survivors fighting so hard to preserve such a miserable existence? What do they have to look forward to?”
If you’re a fan of TWD, please understand, I’m not knocking it. It just wasn’t for me. Not everything has to be for me (he said, grinding his teeth in frustration that not everything is for him).
13. What’s next?
New York Punch, probably, though I have a couple projects with other authors I have to launch. I’m also in the middle of writing an action thriller called The Night Man. (As I write this, it is 8:57 a.m. Three hours ago, a very detailed idea for a new series popped into my head and insisted on keeping me up so I could work out plot points and plans. Writing is kind of like always having homework to do. Fortunately, I enjoy the work. Thanks to readers like you, I can continue to do this for a living. Thank you very much for helping to make my dreams come true.
Peace,
~ RCC
September 2018
PS I’ve reconsidered Question 9. Here’s what I’m going to do instead:
I love This Plague of Days for the opportunity to write from the point of view of a mute character on the spectrum. The scale is epic and the details are twisty. The NSA agent in Dream’s Dark Flight is also on the spectrum. The way he thinks and copes with challenges is really wonderful.
I love Jesus Diaz, my funny Cuban assassin. He relates to films as I do and his journeys read like a Coen brothers’ movie.
I love Tamara Smythe in the Dimension War Series for her quick wit and her bravery. She’s misunderstood so we can all relate to her. I look forward to completing that series. Epic battles are planned.
I love Wallflower because Ray is hilarious and one of my heroes, Kurt Vonnegut, shows up as a guide for the time traveler.
I love Robot Planet for the George Orwell tribute and the fact that the resolution to a conflict that spans decades is so elegant and optimistic.
I love the anthologies because I started by writing short stories. There’s a lot of variety and punch in writing short.
I love Brooklyn in the Mean Time because it’s such a fun adventure. That book exorcises some demons I cannot discuss until everybody involved is dead.
Hope you found this to be the better answer!