I know! I know! I should say “inexpensive” entertainment, but 99 cents is really cheap for great novels that can take years to create. For the next couple of days, I’ve got This Plague of Days in a Black Friday promotion along with a bunch of other horror books.
I was pleased to be informed today that the Hollywood Book Festival chose four of my books for awards and recognition! Endemic took first place in the science fiction category (just as it had at the New York Book Festival) while the This Plague of Days Omnibus won runner-up. The Night Man placed first in the genre category and Amid Mortal Words received honorable mention in sci-fi.
Writers work long hours in solitude and obscurity. Novelists toil away at keyboards making shit up, often not knowing where we’re going and doubting what we’re doing. Reviews and fan letters fuel our fervor. Recognition of our work by book contests gives a rare and wonderful boost.
We celebrated the wins with a feast of Chinese food. The shrimp har gow and sweet butter coconut buns were delicious.
Endemic has been entered into the Readers’ Favorite Awards. In addition to the entry, they review. This review bodes well for Endemic’s chances in the contest.
Robert Chazz Chute’s Endemic is a great piece of work. Robert had me hooked on his book, flipping through page after page to the end. This is a must-read for lovers of action-packed dystopian novels. The narration hinges on an unraveling tale of childhood trauma, family feuds, power, and ultimate survival. There is espionage, looting, hiding, running, fighting, guns, and so much more.
This intriguing plot unfolds through short, twisted, and succinct sentences. The choice of words gives the book a professional touch. The storyline has ingenious and mind-blowing plot twists. The depictions of the scenes were tremendously vivid and dramatic. The author shows the character traits and emotions of wonderfully developed characters impressively, forging a great sentimental depth through his words. This created a deep connection between me and Ovid the protagonist, feeling how wronged and left out she had been by the people around her just because she was different.
First off, many thanks for all the congratulations that flooded in for Endemic winning its category at the New York Book Festival. I treasured every note and email. I also discovered how often my posts and tweets are utterly ignored. Folks I hadn’t heard from in years popped up to say hi! That was nice. This is also your friendly reminder that I’m a scintillating delight all the time, not just when I win a literary award. (wink!)
Second, I have a fresh interview about Endemic over at Literary Titan. It’s about the demands of writing relatable apocalyptic fiction in the middle of a pandemic. There I was in my blanket fort, masked up and hypervigilant, washing groceries, and as paranoid as a squirrel on cocaine. What to do? What to do? Write the drama and trauma, of course!
An actual viral apocalypse was on like Donkey Kong. Bodies were filling freezer trucks outside my local hospital. In hindsight, it might have been cheerier to try a different genre. Sweet romance might have been easier to sell when readers were looking for a cheerier escape. However, the themes of Endemic run deep. Although I wrote a fictionalized bio of my criminal exploits in New York (Brooklyn in the Mean Time), it is Endemic that claims the prize of being my most personal book.
This week, I’m outside my comfort zone, away from the blanket fort, and working on an epic fantasy. Strictly speaking, this is a new genre to me. However, there are so many commonalities with the apocalyptic and dystopian genres that it’s definitely adjacent. The writing is coming easily. I have always enjoyed creating worlds, especially those with philosophical or theological complexity. Amid the action and chaos, there is the reaction to action and chaos. That’s where the tears and laughter can really flow.
As I sit in this cozy cottage (our first vacation in many years), I’m grateful my wife insisted we get away. For a while, someone else can worry about the broken clothes dryer and that funny noise the air conditioner makes. This week is just for us, and of course, filling up the blank page with suspenseful stories full of swords and mayhem.
Each day, I write little daily updates about the work and my reading and writing life in my fan group. If you’d like to join my inner circle of people who dig what I do, join my Facebook group here:
Endemic by Robert Chazz Chute follows Ovid Fairweather as she tries to navigate a world ravaged by a disease that turns people essentially braindead. As with any collapse of society, a power vacuum develops, and various individuals group together to seize that power….Can Ovid find a way to survive in a world that aims to take whatever she has left? And can she do it while reconciling with her troubled past?
Ovid endures a great deal in her past and present life. The author does a fantastic job incorporating her past experiences into the main plot points, thus keeping readers guessing and gasping as they read. I would be happy to read more from this setting, and its characters in the future, so here’s hoping there’s a sequel on the way soon.
Endemic is a suspenseful and thrilling science fiction novel with a dystopian twist. Readers will be drawn into the world that at times is almost too real and plausible and left with an eerie feeling of could this happen to me.
There is an apocalypse coming no one talks about. Try to guess which end of the world scenario I’m not writing about before you get to the end of this post.My books will help you with the process of elimination.
Endemic (coming soon) is a nerdy and neurotic person combatting sociopaths while trying to survive a viral apocalypse.
Citizen Second Class is about poverty and starvation amid a climate catastrophe and greed.
AFTER Life is about artificial intelligence weaponizing medical technology to take over the world.
This Plague of Days is a zombie apocalypse (and other species evolving to take over the world).
The Night Man is about PTSD, societal failure, family drama, war, poverty, and regret.
Wallflower is a time travel novel about second chances after a lot of bad decisions.
The Dimension War Series is a coming-of-age story amid a war story.
Amid Mortal Words is about the loss of control and taking chances on a better future.
Brooklyn in the Mean Time is about vengeance, absolution, and redemption.
Robot Planet is about technological revolution and failure versus the human spirit.
The Hit Man Series is about violence, vengeance, and escape amid a broken America.
All Empires Fall is an anthology of five end-of-the-world stories and the common denominator is dealing with other people while everything falls apart.
Have you guessed the missing apocalypse yet?
Climate wars are a big deal, but I touched on that in Citizen Second Class. We could talk about the Misinformation War or new civil war scenarios, but Endemic has that covered. I dealt with extinction by killer asteroid in All Empires Fall. If you guessed the nuclear threat, Amid Mortal Words has that, too. You might have guessed the looming threat of antibiotic resistance. But, no, I’m thinking of something utterly devastating to the future of humanity. It’s close and almost no one ever talks about even beginning to deal with this extinction-level event.
The apocalypse that haunts me is this: In 60 years, Earth will have insufficient viable topsoil to grow 95% of all crops.
Read that last sentence again and ponder its significance. My kids will be alive for this. Coffee, bananas, and almonds will disappear first. Then everything else.
Sixty years and we aren’t dealing with the threat. There are no massive contingency plans. Unless helpful aliens are waiting to swoop in, no one is coming to rescue us.We’ll probably run out of soil before we run out of usable water, but it feels like it’s all a race to the end, doesn’t it?
So…call me Mr. Sunshine and read my books now, while you still can.
COMING THIS MONTH!
What happens when a pandemic never ends? Find out in Endemic.
Neurotic and nerdy, former book editor Ovid Fairweather is trapped in New York as everything falls apart.
All her life, she’s been a nail. To survive the viral apocalypse, she’ll have to become a hammer.
