You ever have one of those dreams where you have to do something but something else keeps getting in the way? Maybe you’re running from a monster but you’re waist-deep in mud? Something like that happened to me last night. I hosted a party at a remote farm. The setting was perfect for a sorority party massacre a la bunches of bad ’70s slasher B-movies. As the last car was leaving, I called to the woman in the landrover, “Can I get a ride back to civilization?” She nodded but waved for me to hurry. That’s when it turned into a nightmare as the last-minute tasks were loaded up. If I didn’t finish locking up quick I would lose my ride.
As I recall, the list of scenarios was something like:
1. Check the barn for lit lanterns. 2. Check the house to make sure the water was turned off. 3. Solve the Mystery of the Old Mill with the Hardy Boys. 4. Confront a huge monster lurking in the cattle stalls. 5. Wash and dry the dishes and put them away. 6. Deal with a snake in the basement.
The tasks went on and on and, always in the background, the pressure built. I was going to lose my ride and be stuck on this Hell Farm of Eternal Night. The woman waiting in the landrover really amped up the tension and put a clock on the plot. It’s conflict and tension among believable characters that get the story engine chugging.
Anyway, all that nonsense got me thinking about the underlying themes and worries beneath the main action in my books. What’s the big fret our heroes and heroines have to deal with when other missions and side-missions are done?
Here’s my list:
1. This Plague of Days: How’s a mute kid on the spectrum going to save the world from a global pandemic of zombies?
2. AFTER Life: What’s a SWAT officer and a nanotech research scientist to do when they tap into the collective consciousness of a zombie uprising about to invade the United States?
3. Brooklyn in the Mean Time: How is such a flawed protagonist going to solve the mystery of his father’s criminal past?
4. Bigger Than Jesus: How does a hitman get out of the mob and overcome his past?
5. Higher Than Jesus: How does a hitman get past his addictions to save the girl?
6. Hollywood Jesus: Can a hitman go legit? How does he become a hero when everyone, including the FBI, is after him?
7. Wallflower: How does a failed comedian go back in time to save the world?
8. Haunting Lessons: Why is it that a young woman can see ghosts and what does a secret society of assassins have to do with it?
9. Death Lessons: The woman who sees ghosts must return to her home town find a secret weapon to deal with unearthly forces? What’s the weapon?
10. Fierce Lessons: How does a secret society of assassins deal with incursions from another dimension?
11. Dream’s Dark Flight: Why are people around the world dying in their sleep in bizarre ways? How can an NSA analyst, a doctor and a physiotherapist stop the killings from an isolation tank at Berkeley?
12. The Night Man: When a wounded warrior returns home searching for a life of peace, how can he untangle himself from dirty cops, bomb plots and the criminality of his own family?
13. Robot Planet: When the last few humans combat a robot uprising powered by the Next Intelligence, how can they win against such a powerful enemy?
14. All Empires Fall, Self-help for Stoners and Murders Among Dead Trees: How can a writer sell anthologies? Sure, there are several award-winning stories in the mix but literary anthologies aren’t huge sellers. (Self-help for Stoners is really kind of a novelty bathroom book that sells some paperbacks in the run-up to Christmas each year, so there’s that.)
15. Amid Mortal Words: If you had a book that could eliminate all the people who make the world a more dangerous place, would you? How many dead innocents would be acceptable to you?
~ I’m Robert Chazz Chute. In that dream I mentioned at the top? I missed my ride. Alas. I spend my waking hours writing apocalyptic epics, killer crime thrillers, and assorted science fiction and horror. Please click on the links to the right to pick up your next binge read. Cheers!
I’m on the wrong career track. I want to write for a living but I want to write stories that last.
What I learned at the Banff School of Fine Arts:
I’m much funnier than they gave me credit for in university. Maybe that was because I wasn’t so angry all the time as soon as I got out of journalism school.
What I learned in my 20s:
I used to believe a bad thing: Pay your dues. Be patient. Wait your turn.
(What was implied: “This has nothing to do with keeping us up by keeping you down.”)
What I learned in my 30s:
I wanted to be a spiritual person for the comfort. It didn’t stick because I looked honestly at all the suffering.Also, I unlearned the lesson from my 20s. Underestimating me and keeping me a second-class citizenwas always about fulfilling other people’s dreams.
What I learned in my 40s:
My kids redefined love for me. They expanded my capacity.
What I’ve learned in my 50s:
Not everyone who acts like a friend really is. Unfortunately, learned that lesson before but I think this time I really get it. Betrayal sucks and sticks.Not everyone you meet along the way will stay by your side. For those who do, we cherish and support each other. We stick together.
What I know now:
Dream bigger. Ask for help. Work like hell to make it happen.
I have yet to learn:
Forgiveness. Yes, I hold grudges. In AFTER Life, the flawed hero admits that he supposes he must have forgiven somebody once but he can’t think of a single example of having done so.That’s me. I’m not sure that forgiveness is something I want to learn, either. If someone treats me badly, shouldn’t heightened vigilance and isolation simply be called learning? People can make mistakes and I’ll let that go, of course. (I’m Canadian.) But when malice is involved? Hell, no.
Physically, 2019 has been hard on me. I’ve spent most of this year sick with one thing or another. I usually devote March Break to taking care of taxes. This year I spent it on my back with a terrible sinus infection. I’m still recovering and can’t do everything I need to do yet. However, I’m finally a bit more mobile. It’s been awful but also an opportunity to reevaluate where I’m steering my writing career and my meat wagon.
The first time I went into writing full-time was in 2011. I took a couple of years off from my day job to devote myself to writing and publishing. That was a productive time but my life was out of balance. I spent far too much time sitting. That’s an occupational hazard, of course. However, I took it beyond reason, often working on books 15 or even 18 hours a day. Crazy times. Also, my time management was so skewed that my family made a lot of sacrifices for Ex Parte Press. And by that, I mean they made financial sacrifices for me. I also didn’t spend as much time with them as I should have.
I wasn’t making any money then. I lived off an allowance from my sainted wife. $60 a week. I felt pressure to get on track financially, of course, so I became a workaholic. Money pressure doesn’t go away. I still feel it though it’s not the panic it once was (just constant, low-grade anxiety that makes me feel I have to prove myself and catch up for the lost years!) The dream is to get comfortable enough that I can take the family on a tropical vacation. I’m Canadian. I spend a lot of the year yearning for sugar sand beaches and palm trees.
I’ve been writing again full-time since July 1, 2018. I have rules about when I stop working each day now. I try to move more. Late last year I went through a boot camp in which I lost a lot of weight, ate healthily and got on track. It felt great. Then a few health issues hit and the stress eating began and I got off track. Well, okay, I flew off the track and killed all the spectators in the stands.
A while back, I finally got through all my medical tests. I tested negative for the health issues I thought I had. It was quite a relief but then I got hit with more illnesses and generally felt like crap all the time. I also fell back into some bad habits of overwork. I am currently working on a Lovecraftian novel called Amid Mortal Words. This one will be a stand-alone novel. I’m very happy with it but in my current condition I can’t pump it out to market as fast as I’d like. I’m working on the manuscript steadily again but now I expect it will be released sometime in April. Apologies to my wonderful editor for the delay in the publication schedule. I’m a bit furious about it but I’ll come to accept reality any second now. Yeah…any second…suuure.
Health and the habits that promote it have to come first. I learned that lesson before and let it go so I have to repeat the lesson again. I just got back from the grocery store, loaded up with healthy choices. No bad carbs, lots of vegetables, bone broth and hope that 2019 will ease its grip on me. I’ve had quite enough of feeling like shit all the time, thank you very much.
I write full-time and control my schedule. It’s still cold but no longer terrifying to go outside. Therefore, I have no excuses not to visit the gym daily. Diet and exercise will allow me to live longer and write longer. That’s how I’ll catch up: steady work and playing the long game.
When tragedy strikes someone, I send my condolences but I usually add, “And please take care of yourself.” In times of trouble or even just dealing with the daily grind, we often make ourselves a low priority. To take care of others, we have to take care of ourselves first. It’s not selfish. It’s smart. It should even be obvious but in the drive to succeed, we often sacrifice the wrong things or abandon long-term priorities for the urgent moment.
Lying on my back and being miserable for a week has reminded me about the order of my priorities. I’m back to playing the long game again because this is it. I write full-time for a living now. There is no going back to the day job. I love writing for a living. To live to write, a good diet and a healthy dose of exercise must be part of my writing regimen.
~ Hey! I’m Robert Chazz Chute. Sign up for my newsletter to get updates and deals on new books, buy my tomes of epic delight and twisty suspense (pretty please with a thunderous thank you) and happy reading!
What if mere words could erase all the bad people in the world? What if billions of innocents would also die in the cull? On a night train bound for Chicago, Lt. Col. Zane Salvador meets an odd stranger who leaves behind a dangerous book. Now the future of the human race is in Zane’s hands. You’re in danger, too, Dear Reader.
Quick update:
Fighting a cold, I’m busy writing and revising my next apocalyptic thriller, Amid Mortal Words. Unlike the others, this one is a stand alone. It should be out next month. This is really fun and as the plot unfurled I figured out, hey, this falls under the categories of Lovecraftian/cosmic horror. I’m putting up excerpts in the private Facebook group, Fans of Robert Chazz Chute if you’re a reader who enjoys sneak peeks.
Does anyone remember John Carpenter’s In the Mouth of Madness? My story is very different but at its heart is a book that drives people mad. There lies the connective tissue.
I’m off to dive back into more revisions. I love this story. I think you will, too. In the meantime, enjoy this look back at a sorely underrated Carpenter movie:
Here’s the promise: You’re going to love the escape you feel when you read The Night Man.
Earnest “Easy” Jack Jr. is a wounded warrior with harsh history and a very uncertain future. He returns home from war to his father’s house on the edge of Lake Orion, Michigan. His father raises guard dogs and works as a long haul trucker. When Easy’s mother got sick, Easy Sr. began smuggling to make ends meet. That’s how the trouble really started.
This novel is packed with witty dialogue and plenty of action and plot twists. However, the narrative has some things to say about the decay in Middle America, too. The root of Easy’s problems rest in fertile soil: the failures of late-stage capitalism, the gig economy and the trap we’re all in. Just about every character in The Night Man feels trapped. The only one who doesn’t feel trapped is a monster.
Don’t get me wrong: This crime thriller is fueled by tons of surprises, fascinating characters and fun dialogue. But I feel trapped sometimes. A lot of us do. Even fun escapist fiction can have a subtext that addresses what’s real. That’s important in fiction. A real context helps readers suspend disbelief.
As I write this, it’s Saturday, January 12, 2019, and The Night Man ebook is available to download for free. If you’re reading this too late, it’s still a very inexpensive and compelling read that will keep you entertained and smiling for hours. Enjoying a good book is one of the few ways we have to escape the trap.
Enjoy The Night Man and all my books by clicking the links to your right. Thank you for being a reader.
Last night I was writing late. It was New Year’s Eve. At midnight, I got up from the keyboard very briefly to hug my wife. Then back at it. It is tempting to make resolutions but habits are better. Mornings are for coffee and writing. Afternoons are for revisions and marketing. I try to eat clean, cut back on the carbs and get to the gym.
Those are the basics and they don’t vary for holidays. Rain or shine, I’m at bat, swinging for the fences. I love to read fiction and write fiction. This is my happy heaven. I have several manuscripts to revise and new thrillers to publish so 2019 will be a very busy year.
I hope you have a heaven on Earth, too. It’s a tenuous state. Going through some scary medical tests, I ate my feelings and soothed myself with too many carbs. That didn’t help, of course. (Actually, it did help but the soothing endorphin effect was temporary.)
I’m back to the routine. “Routine” sounds boring, but the writing life is never boring. I’m creating worlds, reflecting this world and listening to the many voices in my head have fascinating and funny conversations.
Wherever you are, I hope you have a reading life and I wish you a fantastic 2019. There’s much work to do, but it’s not all grim grind. We can work toward saving the planet and escape into books when we need a break from being superheroes.
Cheers!
Chazz
PS Speaking of heroes, my new crime thriller, The Night Man, launches later this week. This roller coaster is packed with action and jokes as we delve into intrigue and betrayal is rural Michigan. Watch this space (and subscribe!) Thanks.
Since Dec. 21, Bird Box has been viewed by over 45 million Netflix accounts (as I write this). Judging by some of the reviews I expected a movie with more gore. Perhaps because of that expectation, I was pleasantly surprised by how suspenseful it was. I also don’t expect to see a lot more properties like it anytime soon.
They did several things right with Bird Box. The key to a great monster movie is not to show the monster until you absolutely have to. They hit that target better than any horror movie I can recall. Also, the acting is great. John Malkovich and Sandra Bullock are only two actors but they make up a dozen reasons the movie did well. Though I predicted how the story would end, I thought it ended well enough.
The movie had some of the creepiness and imagination I enjoyed in last year’s Annihilation. However, don’t expect Bird Box to kick off a powerful uptick in apocalyptic movies. Unforgiven is a great movie, too, but it did not herald the return of a bunch of Westerns.
Bird Box was fun and profitable, but it’s a blip. Don’t expect another huge franchise to emerge from it. Here’s why:
The apocalyptic genre is in trouble
Bird Box is a successful movie, certainly. (Good on you, Netflix!) I could easily see this being made into an ongoing series like The Walking Dead. Unfortunately, that would probably beat the idea to death. There’s a trend afoot: people might enjoy a taste of horror like Bird Box or The Haunting of Hill House or Stranger Things. However, they don’t want too much of it.
In recent months I’ve been made aware that the appetite for apocalyptic stories is dwindling. A fellow author who has been very successful in this genre is going back to the day job. I have several apocalyptic/dystopian epics* and I’ve seen sales decay over the past year. This Plague of Days is my most successful series but most of my IPs are taking me on a wander outside the apocalyptic genre as I hunt for my next hit.
Why is this happening?
The wax and wane of trends in consumer tastes has always been opaque to me but I think I’m beginning to get it. There are several possibilities why this is happening to apocalyptic narratives now. Here are a few:
Most books in the genre are too repetitive. I’ve noticed that even among the positive reviews of This Plague of Days, some reviewers mention that they love it because it defies expectations of the genre. The tropes are there but it’s not the same story over and over (I’m looking at you, Walking Dead.) Readers get tired of a steady diet of the same thing, even if they liked the taste in the beginning.
Speaking of The Walking Dead, times are tough and, until recently, TWD didn’t offer much hope. The relentlessly grim and humorless tone is probably why viewership of the series has lessened. Times are tough right now and a real climate change apocalypse is here and/or coming (depending on where you live). With all the bad news, people want something to cheer them up or allow them to forget real-world dangers. Instead of confirming their suspicions that most of humanity sucks and deserves a grisly fate, readers want a different kind of escapism.
Zombie and apocalyptic horror don’t necessarily have a huge fan base. It’s historically a vocal and devoted following but it’s not as big as we might hope. If it were as big as I’d like, there’d be as many zompoc movies as there are mystery/suspense movies with titles with “Girl” in the title. (Note: Those aren’t girls. They’re women. Catch up!)
The popularity of genres has always waxed and waned naturally and it goes in cycles. Some of those cycles are long and others are short. There’s even a strange hypothesis out there that zombie and vampire stories are more or less popular depending on whether the Republicans or the Democrats control the US government. Hardboiled, as a genre, hit its peak with Mickey Spillane. Elmore Leonard kept the coma patient on life support with Chili Palmer. Westerns used to be huge but they really haven’t recovered from John Wayne’s death. In my lifetime, the vampire genre has been declared dead repeatedly. That alarm is always false. Vampires always come back. That might be the next trend. I’m counting on it, actually. I have a big vampire book in the works.
If you’re a zombie fan, what can you do?
Give fuel to what you love. If you dig apocalyptic fiction, keep on buying it, reviewing it and tell your friends. The fanbase for any genre never completely goes away but if you want more of what you love, you have to double down and support your love.
Give new writers a chance and if they delight you, please do spread the word.
If you’re a creator, be excellent and also dare to be a little different. The joke in the horror writing community is that there are no horror writers anymore. They’re all called science fiction writers now. Consider crossing and mixing genres to find new readers. (For instance, the engine that fuels my latest zombie apocalypse (AFTER Life) is nanotechnology. So yes, it’s a sci-fi zombie trilogy.
What’s next?
That’s kind of the point: No one really knows. As my writing idol, William Goldman famously said, “Nobody knows anything…… Not one person in the entire motion picture field knows for a certainty what’s going to work. Every time out it’s a guess and, if you’re lucky, an educated one.”
But what’s my educated guess?
My next book that is apocalypse-adjacent will be a big stand-alone book about a vampire cult. Meanwhile, I have two crime thrillers coming out in the next month. (Watch for The Night Man, releasing next week!)
I know there are writers trying to find underserved markets in which they enjoy writing. When writer Chris Fox wrote Writing to Market, he enthused about the need for more stories that take place in space. He is successful writing his own books that way. Using his research methods, he determined a niche where readers had a big appetite but not enough books.
Rather than follow his advice and do research to find their own unique niche, a lot of writers only sort of followed Chris’s advice. They wrote a ton of books in the genre that was his example. Boom! Space marines and covers featuring spaceship ass everywhere!
Some writers dream of making a big play and doing something new, forging ahead and breaking trail. They point to JK Rowling’s astonishing success with the Harry Potter books. It is indeed an amazing series. The next few years after Rowling hit it big, tons of knock-offs appeared that tried to follow the magic kid trend. Many mimics, but no duplicates. I actually have no objection to that. All those hungry Harry Potter fans naturally found something more to feed their new addiction to apprentice sorcerers. Nothing wrong with that as long as the attempt is not cynical. There is still joy and profit in smaller niches if those readers can be reached, their brains tickled and their hearts touched.
As for me, I have a lot of books in my editorial pipeline at Ex Parte Press. Are they written to market? I can only say that they are what I want to write. Will any of them hit big? No one knows and the market will decide. Hitting singles is much more common than hitting home runs, but I’m at bat and I take a lot of swings. This is not a three-strikes-and-you’re-out situation. This is a keep-swinging-for-the-fences situation.
Is this the end of the Apocalypse? I don’t think so but I’m not betting as big on it as I did in 2012. I don’t know where all the zombie readers went and what they’re enjoying as I write this. However, books are forever. Genres do come and go but they never fade away entirely. These are lean times for the genre but we’ll still be here when a wider readership decides their new tastes have become old and stale. We’ll be here when they’re ready to come back. In the meantime, we write and write and write.
*I’m Robert Chazz Chute, suspense writer and maker of fine salmon sandwiches. My apocalyptic epics are This Plague of Days, Robot Planet, The Dimension War Series and AFTER Life. You can find all my books through the affiliate links to the right or click here for the universal book link. Thanks for reading and please do subscribe to my newsletter for more.
