Category: Endemic

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Fight for Books and Revive Reading Culture

I’m worried about literacy. We don’t have enough of it. Too many people either don’t read, obsess over social media, or scan summaries instead of experiencing the immersion of pulling a book and getting movies in their minds. Fewer people make the time or have the patience to enjoy a book, and that’s bad for our brains. It’s bad for all of us.

I’m going to recommend three books. (I wrote two of them.)

One of books I’m enjoying recently is Anthony Hopkins ‘ autobiography, We Did OK, Kid. (If you listen to the audiobook, Kenneth Brannaugh narrates, and his voice work is, as you’d expect, excellent.) Hopkins reminded me of his role in 84 Charing Cross Road. Last night, I ran across the book and I bought it immediately.

This slim volume is an ode to a bygone time when books were valued so much more by many more people. It’s an epistolary story wherein a very literate and funny woman in New York has a back-and-forth with a bookseller in London, England. Beginning in 1949, she requests used books only they can procure to her satisfaction. If you love books, you’ll love the movie and the book.

As soon as I found it at the bookstore, I had to buy a latte and dig in immediately. It’s a funny, plotless book with an unambitious premise. It’s not about dark forces taking over the galaxy. It’s just letters back and forth by bibliophiles who, incidentally, will never meet in person.

And to be honest, I choked up a little. 84 Charing Cross Road takes place in hard times. It’s a time I never lived in, yet I’m nostalgic for: A time when more people loved books, discussed books, and fiction and non-fiction were more centered in the culture. Your phone is full of vitriol. Push back on the brain rot. Reject rage bait that seeks to anger you for clicks. Choose media that informs, entertains, and enriches.

How do we fight forces pushing literacy down? Read books. Make it normal to discuss books. Review books. Support authors. Join a book club. Don’t fall for censorship. Read banned books. Frequent your local library and little libraries. Read to your kids. Put down the phone more and pick up books instead. Make reading ubiquitous again. I don’t know how much we’ll improve literacy, but at least we can try to hold the line and not let reading fall by the wayside completely.

The next book I recommend is mine, and it’s on sale now.

It’s release week for my new psychological thriller, Where the Night Takes Us.

Dr. Simon Fethullah was the FBI profiler who put the Rainy Day Cannibal away. The cannibal’s back, and the madman coming for Simon and his family. Find out more about the plot here.

Or, even better, just do this:

BUY NOW for just 99 cents!

Another recommendation:

I have entered Endemic for the Booklife Prize. Endemic won the North Street Book Prize in 2022, so I’m hopeful. Part of the deal is that I received a review from a Booklife critic. Here’s what they had to say:

Title: Endemic
Author: Robert Chazz Chute
Genre: Fiction/Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Horror
Audience: Adult
Word Count: 99876

Assessment:

Plot: Set in a post-apocalyptic world, Robert Chazz Chute’s science fiction follows Ovid as she navigates a transformed society and searches for her place within it. Chute creates a believable setting that gives the story a strong sense of possibility and danger. Fans of apocalyptic fiction and detailed world-building will find much to enjoy.

Prose: Robert Chazz Chute opens in medias res, with Ovid on the streets of New York after a virus has ravaged the city and much of the world. For anyone who lived through COVID-19, the premise carries an unsettling echo of reality: a city under lockdown that emerges permanently changed. Chute’s vivid descriptions give this altered world a strong sense of place, while its specialized jargon reflects the communities that have formed without leaving readers struggling to understand them.

Originality: Chute gives the story its own identity through its attention to group dynamics and the communities that emerge after disaster. Its vision of a world that remains recognizable yet has been permanently altered makes Endemic a strong addition to post-apocalyptic science fiction.

Character Execution: For fans of science fiction and end-of-the-world stories, much of the appeal lies in seeing how people adapt when the rules of ordinary life disappear. Chute portrays the community Ovid must navigate with impressive detail, while making her survival something readers will genuinely root for. Her encounters and conflicts with the people around her reveal how this new world is changing her, making Ovid a memorable protagonist.

GET ENDEMIC NOW

~ Thanks for being a reader! I’m Robert Chazz Chute, the suspense writer who works from a blanket fort in Other London. It would help me immensely if you let me entertain you. Enjoy my books for hours of twisty fun. Books make great gifts, so buy in bulk. 😉

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Vengeance Is Finally Everywhere

My latest thriller!

A while back, I reevaluated the business side of my publishing experience. For most of my backlist, Amazon was no longer delivering. There are many variables to what makes books hit or miss. I’ve gone into detail about that before, so I won’t belabor that again here.

So I made a move, quite literally.

Most of my books are no longer exclusive to Amazon. You’ll still find them on Amazon, but you’ll also find them on book sales platforms across the planet. Think library services like Overdrive, and publishing platforms such as Kobo, Tolino, Barnes & Noble, and Gardners.

I have also added Vengeance Is Hers to a newish sales platform I’d only discovered recently. Laterpress is one way authors can sell their work directly. Check out Vengeance Is Hers on Laterpress here.

Vengeance Is Hers (and many more can be found on these services.)

Screenshot
The Night Man cover
http://ow.ly/1KcI50BVp04
This was not supposed to be a prediction or a prescriptioon.

Enjoy!

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Do you want to know how I got these scars?

Breaking news! Endemic has gone wide!

Everybody relax. This announcement is not about measles. I’m talking about my multiple award-winning novel Endemic, Within Each of Us, A Power and a Curse. Despite Amazon sabotaging the release of Endemic, it went on to win first place in the genre category of the North Street Book Prize.

Now, I’m doing something different.

This dystopian novel has been exclusive to Amazon since its publication. No more! I recently published it widely (hat tip to Draft2Digital for facilitating that release). After getting such a nice review from Publishers Weekly, I decided that I needed to expand my readership and also get into more libraries.

The list is interesting.

There are so many book sales platforms out there, and a bunch I’d never heard of! Aside from the familiar ones like Barnes & Noble, Overdrive, Kobo, Apple Books, Smashwords, and Baker & Taylor, Endemic is also available on Everand, Odilo, Borrow Box, Vivlio, Tolino, Cloud Library, Gardners, Palace, and Fable.

ENDEMIC’s UNIVERSAL LINK

Selling entertainment sounds like it shouldn’t be hard, but book marketing is hard. Having a book on sale everywhere in some ways adds to that difficulty. On the other hand, Amazon already betrayed me with this book from the start, so I want to give it another chance with new readers.

I’ve experimented with going wide in the past and always came back to Amazon because they knew how to sell books. My faith in their system has since faded, and it’s time to expand my reach to new venues and tactics. I’ve written a lot of apocalyptic epics and killer crime thrillers. To reach new readers around the world, I’m committed to keeping Endemic widely available beyond Amazon and will publish more of my novels widely in the near future.

If you’re curious about Endemic, it’s about an introverted neurodivergent book editor turned urban survivalist gardener caught in the midst of a disaster. Hounded by marauders, bullied by her father, and haunted by her dead therapist, Ovid Fairweather has to make her way in a fallen New York City. She was a nail. She will become a hammer.

That’s Endemic by me, Robert Chazz Chute, and now it’s available on Amazon, but now, it’s also available just about everywhere else!

You can get the ebook, paperback, or hardcover. If you dig it, please leave a review. I’m new to all these platforms, so naturally I’ve got no reviews on them yet.

To clarify: Endemic is still available on Amazon, but here’s the universal link to everywhere else: https://books2read.com/u/bQvkGP.

Thanks! Have a great day, or make it one!

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New Publishers Weekly Rave Review of Endemic!

Getting a good review from Publishers Weekly is a big deal. Getting a rave review feels amazing. When Amazon sabotaged my launch of Endemic, the pandemic was raging, and I was in a lot of pain that could only be fixed with eight pounds of titanium and ceramic implants in my hips. I was pretty down. Endemic has won several awards (the best and biggest was the North Street Book Prize). My hips are now fixed, I’m pain-free, and writing consistently again. A review from PW is icing on the literary cake. The PW review of Vengeance Is Hers appears in print mid-October, and PW’s review of Endemic is coming at the end of October.

THE PUBLISHERS WEEKLY REVIEW OF ENDEMIC

Chute is no stranger to dystopian fiction, and he uses Covid-19 as inspiration for this adroit thriller, reimagining New York City as an anarchic, post-pandemic fortress where the remnants of humanity are both brutally vicious and quietly resilient. Introverted and riddled with anxiety, Ovid Fairweather keeps her head down. She maintains a secret rooftop garden, trading produce for the necessities of survival—and small luxuries. Once a book editor, Ovid is the unlikely heroine of her own life, but this existence has cracked her protective shell, and she’s no longer willing to bow to oppressors.

Ovid’s first-person narration captures the bizarre banality of post-apocalyptic life, accompanied by the “voice in my head that spoke like a tough British man.” That wry running commentary plays out against marauders roaming the city streets and looting whomever they please. Everything is scarce (especially trustworthy people), but Ovid would rather fight in New York than flee to safety in Maine, where her cruel father beckons. She’s a protagonist who’s haunted by memories of being belittled and bullied but refuses to accept her past reactions in her present circumstances; when someone who knew Ovid before the pandemic threatens to destroy everything she’s built, she decides it’s no longer enough to outrun her past—she must kill the person she used to be.

While ratcheting up tension with the Memory Keepers, who impose a new level of tyranny and violence, Chute (Our Zombie Hours) keeps the plot focused on Ovid’s evolution. Along with the everyday terrors outside, she hears echoes from past therapy sessions and tries to piece together her fractured identity. But to move forward, Ovid must unleash a long-suppressed part of herself and commit acts she’s only read about in books. The virus in Endemic is a potent force eroding the underpinnings of society, but Chute celebrates the humans who, left to fend for themselves, decide that meek doesn’t mean powerless.

Takeaway: Pandemic ravages NYC but brings reticent woman roaring back to life.

Comparable Titles: Ling Ma’s Severance, Sequoia Nagamatsu’s How High We Go in the Dark.

Production grades
Cover: A
Design and typography: A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A

Writing Life Update

My wife and daughter are currently enjoying the sunny south of France and mocking me with photos of croissants. They sent me pictures of amazing views of Monaco and Nice, sure, BUT LOOK AT THOSE CROISSANTS!

Meanwhile, I am at home in rainy Other London, cocooning on a stay-at-home writing retreat. I start each day with a long writing session. I’m holding back on spending time on new Vocab Menace videos (just for ten days) to focus on the vaunted Work in Progress. I’m not sure where this thriller is going yet, but I’m enjoying the ride. I’m aiming for 65,000 words (or so). Lately, I’ve been writing BIG HONKIN’ TOMES, so I’m aiming for something that’s delicious but less intimidating to readers who are looking for a quick adventure between the sheets (sheets of paper, you pervs)!

Originally, I’d planned nothing but marathon writing sessions. Thing is, after a few hours at it from the early morning, I need to recharge. It’s turned into an unexpectedly eventful week in the off-writing hours. Yesterday, I had a coffee date and caught up with a fellow writer. I’m reading more, too.

I’ve been riding my bike and hitting the gym for one to two hours a day, cleaned the house, rented a carpet cleaner for the basement carpet, and got a chipped tooth fixed. In the past, I’ve chipped teeth sparring. That was exciting. How I did it this time, I have no idea, but it was expensive and less exciting. Tomorrow, I get to hang out with Russ (my favorite Mennonite, wise sage, and beta reader extraordinaire).

After today’s writing session, I’m spending the day with my son. Archery time is booked after catching up over lunch. I’ll take him for an exciting trip to a grocery store and maybe some temporary tattoos to freak out She Who Must Be Obeyed upon her return from France. I also slept on her side of the bed. She’ll hate that. Vengeance shall be mine!

And she better goddamn well bring me back a croissant. I mean, jeez! Look at those beauties!

There’s still time to work on another chapter. I’m on it. Have a week! (And read and review my books!)

~ Robert

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Endemic: A Survival Story of Strength and Identity

Endemic is an apocalyptic novel, but what is it really about?

Ovid Fairweather is a survivor in what remains of New York after the fall of civilization. A pandemic has killed billions worldwide. Many of those who survived their infection have reduced mental capacity. Marauders swarm the city hunting for Ovid because she has a secret garden and survival skills.

That description only addresses the plot, not the theme.

Many apocalyptic scenarios can be shallow. I’m not interested in watching a hyper-prepared former soldier mow down rivals for supplies. I initially enjoyed The Walking Dead, but the story lines became too repetitive and the tone too relentlessly grim, devoid of any humor.

All the protagonists in my books are underdogs. Ovid isn’t a soldier. She’s a bookworm. She’s intelligent, socially awkward, asexual, and on the spectrum. She could flee to the relative safety of her father’s farm in Maine, but her dad doesn’t understand her. She’s too stubborn to leave New York, and doesn’t want to deal with him.

That struggle with her father is where the theme of Endemic emerged.

Through adversity, Ovid grows stronger. Forced out of her shell by circumstance, she helps others. She’s been a nail all her life. The complications she faces will make her a hammer. Eventually, she’s destined to become a queen.

Ovid changes and improves, but in the end, she remains true to herself. She does not flee to safety. She stays to lead and to protect her found family. In the final analysis, Endemic is an action-adventure novel about how gradually people change and how they don’t.

http://mybook.to/TheEndemicExperience
BUY ENDEMIC NOW

And now it’s time for more coffee and a book.

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Read Banned Books

As my beta readers review my latest manuscript, I’m preparing for my next book launch. Some marketing gurus say authors should start promoting their books at least a year in advance, or the at the moment of conception, whichever comes earliest. That sounds like an exhausting marathon for both of us, but I’m cranking up the hype machine. In the meantime, there’s plenty of books to read while you eagerly await my next masterpiece. Right? Right?

There are many variables with these endeavors.

When I launched Endemic in October 2021, Amazon sabotaged me. Despite multiple calls to customer support, they wouldn’t allow me to run ads. It was obtuse, but my story about how people change and how they don’t was hidden from view. Oh, yeah, and the backdrop was New York, fallen to a pandemic. No doubt, the AI bots at Amazon suffocated my baby because of the title. They thought my sci-fi content could some misleading or controversial statement about the real world. It was fiction, not misleading, and possibly controversial to some pearl-clutchers.

Happily, Endemic went on to win the prestigious North Street Book Prize in genre fiction, a Literary Titan Award, and first place in science fiction at both the New York Book Festival and the Hollywood Book Festival. Vindication!

https://books2read.com/u/mVPPy5

Eventually, Amazon lifted the ban, but the experience left me bitter, gun shy, and feeling a deeper sympathy for authors of banned books everywhere. I’m assuming that, because my heroine in Endemic is asexual, the book would get banned if the censors were paying attention. (Looking forward to that! I’d be in good company.)

Given the state of the world, it’s significant that some of the censors’ favorite targets make political points. I’m with Stephen King on this: If they don’t want you to read it, add it to your reading list. Throughout history, the book banners have never been the good guys. Some examples of banned books I’ve read that I consider essential are:

  • The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
  • Animal Farm by George Orwell
  • Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell
  • A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
  • The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger
  • Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
  • Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
  • To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
  • The Color Purple by Alice Walker
  • The Giver by Lois Lowry
  • Lord of the Flies by William Golding
  • The Hate You Give by Angie Thomas
  • The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

This is not a comprehensive list, but if you haven’t read any of the above, I recommend you fill that gap. Or even read this one:

Ovid Fairweather is a neurodivergent book editor in New York when a deadly plague sweeps the United States. Bullied by her father, haunted by her dead therapist, and hunted by marauders, Ovid must find courage amid the chaos to become the person she was always meant to be.

She was a nail., She will become a hammer.

CLICK HERE TO BUY ENDEMIC
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The Neurodivergent Book Editor Wins


I’ve known this for a couple of months, but I can finally announce that Endemic has won first place in genre fiction from the North Street Book Awards. They say my story about a neurodivergent book editor overcoming childhood trauma in the viral apocalypse is a “fresh twist“ in apocalyptic fiction.

http://mybook.to/TheEndemicExperience

In addition to a cash prize and various goodies, I received a nifty T-shirt and a certificate.)


This is Endemic’s fourth win. It previously received a Literary Titan Award and first place at both the Hollywood Book Festival and the New York Book Festival.

One of the (possibly dubious?) benefits is a critique of the book via the judges. Note the huge difference in tone between the ominous word “critique” and the glorious word “review.”

For the most part, the critique is delighted and delightful. I had to giggle at one piece of commentary wherein a judge suggested she would have enjoyed Endemic even more if it were a completely different book. Also, in my estimation, the suggestion of a different cover would have hurt the novel. But these are niggles. Reading between the lines, it’s easy to appreciate how different readers will see a narrative through their particular lens . Obviously, they loved Endemic overall.

Congratulations to all the winners! You’ll find them all listed here.

You can buy Endemic in hardcover, paperback, and ebook here.