Endemic by Robert Chazz Chute Archives - All That Chazz: Your Brain Tickle Destination

October 14, 2025October 14, 2025

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!

December 9, 2024December 8, 2024

Tales of Humiliation

Recently, an author posted about how an up-and-coming writer’s book had failed to launch. The author claimed to be a bestselling writer, and boy, was she a scold! She was all up in her feelings about a self-published author’s debut that failed to sell many copies. Her core message was, “If only they’d done what I had done! If only she knew better!”

This demonstrates a fundamental misunderstanding some folks have about publishing books. There are too many variables outside the author’s control and no guarantees of success. You can do everything right, and still fail. In fact, trad or self-published, most books fail to find an audience. To become a bestseller in Canada, you have to sell a few thousand in a week. Less than 0.5% of the 100,000 hardcovers published each year make the New York Times Bestseller List. Novels have a spectacular failure rate (if your only metric is sales and reaching a wider readership. Some authors do not share those aspirations).

The bestseller criticizing the debut writer attributed her success to herself, her publisher, and her skill. There are many more factors than that. When people succeed, very few have the perspicacity to admit they were just plain lucky. Instead, they rationalize their genius moves after the fact.

You can optimize your chances of success, but the headwinds against you are enormous. The Netflix documentary featuring Fran Lebowitz was originally expected to air earlier than it did. Netflix put that off, and that turned into a happy accident for Lebowitz. That delay meant the show aired during the height of the pandemic. Many more people watched than otherwise would have because everyone was stuck at home.

Arrogance and ignorance can really drag an artist down.

During book promotions, many authors freely give away books to boost the store algorithms and garner more reviews. When my dentist asked about my work, I mentioned that I was running a promotion at that moment for my new book.

“You can pick it up for free right now,” I offered. Nice and generous, right?

“You’re giving it away?” His tone suggested I was making a rookie mistake in devaluing my work.

I still run into that attitude among some authors, but it’s a tried and true marketing tactic.

“Objection! Stephen King doesn’t have to do that.”

Ahem. You’re not Stephen King. Neither am I. There can be only one!

To be found, loss leaders are common and not at all shameful. It’s incredibly difficult to get people to review a novel, and harder still to sell a novel with few reviews. Many authors decide to give to get to increase their long-term sales. There are other approaches, but this is far from outlandish. Give a few hundred, and potentially gain a few thousand new readers and maybe a couple of dozen fresh reviews. Simple marketing, right? (It is, I’m not really asking.)

It gets worse.

On a Zoom call with fellow alums from my university, I discovered how I’d stumbled into a rather insulated clique. First, one woman didn’t believe I had attended our alma mater at all. “I don’t recognize you,” she said. It was a challenge. Amazing how casual some folks are about making an enemy for life, huh?

We attended a small university, but I wasn’t one of the cool kids. I recognized her from the cafeteria, but saying so would have made me feel even more inconsequential. She was active in clubs, at the bar, and getting lots of pictures of herself with friends she would keep for life. I was up in my dorm room reading and happy.

(Stay tuned. My humiliation continues below the graphic)

All that content solitude in university was one reason I got to do this:

It got worse.

On the same Zoom, an old friend said he had picked up Endemic for free. The other people on the call laughed at me. The friend asked if giving away books was worth it. In that moment, it sure wasn’t. I was in the wrong group, talking to the wrong people. Hurt feelings aside, I’ve never put hurt feelings aside.

Whatever you’re choices, there will be people who don’t know your journey, but they are certain you are doing it wrong. Don’t just agree to disagree. Disagree to disagree. Keep going, and do you, Boo.

January 11, 2024

The Year Ahead: How to Deal

I recently watched Things to Come, a movie from 1936 based on the work of HG Wells. It’s not a great film, but the subtext feels prophetic. The world of the 1930s devolves into a decades-long war that destroys civilization. Warlords take over. Scientific progress is lost. When a movement rises to bring a troubled hellscape back to modernity, those in power resist change. The good guys — in this case, an army of scientists — win. They improve on what came before the apocalypse and build a utopia. However, a hundred years later, angry mobs rise up to bring scientific progress to a halt.

At every tick of history’s clock, some people will try to hold back the hands of time. No matter how good the future might be, they want to return to a time when they thought things were better, perhaps simpler. The worst part is they want to choose for you, not just themselves. I’d prefer to order off the menu myself, thanks. Leave me and that bright, hopeful future alone.

HG Wells never watched a political debate on TikTok at 3 a.m., but he saw the anti-intellectualism coming. That’s been going on for a long time, of course, but the US election year will ramp up the nonsense, and plenty. We have a rough road ahead in 2024. I won’t list all the frets, but you’ve seen the news. You know what piles on the stress. We call it doomscrolling now, but we used to call it “watching the news,” or “being aware of current events.” You’re going to hear a lot more arguing. Don’t expect well-mannered debates on the road to truth, just stubborn parroting of propaganda impenetrable to facts. Motivated reasoning is not reasonable.

You’ll also get exposed to some happy, slappy messages about how everything’s fine or will be. When crises go on too long, misery becomes normalized. The worst is when you point out an injustice and some clod mutters, “That’s nothing new.” Yeah, ya lazy dick! We should have fixed it by now, huh? But we haven’t. I fear we won’t fix much of anything.

Whatever your cause, there’s a good chance some experts are working on it. Just as surely, a bunch of idiots are maintaining the status quo or wrecking the DeLorean’s transmission by throwing Time into reverse.

So, what to do? You’re going to go to bed each night, heave a heavy sigh, and say in a thick Southern accent, “Mama’s had a day.” I say that to my wife each night because we’re going to have to hold on to our sense of humor through it all. I don’t have a solution to the climate crisis, threats of war, or a (legal) way to convince flat earthers they’re wrong. Maybe afflict the comfortable and write letters to whoever’s in charge of the circus? In your off-time, rest and recover.

Here’s my rest and recovery protocol:

Guard your peace from those who would rob you of it.
The usual: Sleep, eat well, and exercise.
Put your phone down more often.
Avoid trying to reason with unreasonable folks. Helping anyone out of ignorance is noble, but fuckwits will just waste your precious time, and time is life.
Watch Stanley Tucci in Searching for Italy. This will reinforce your belief in the hope of a common humanity that is kind, curious, and appreciative.
Binge-watching Modern Family will ease your mind and bring you comfort.
If childhood was a better time for you, revel in nostalgia. I watched an episode of Barney Miller last night.
Read fiction. It will pull you out of the forest fire that is your existence, at least for a while.
Gather with the like-minded and enter the bar back to back, heads on a swivel.
Laugh at determined fools. When reason fails, laughter is often the more effective weapon.

Finally, and most importantly:

Read my fiction. Mama’s had a day, and I need money.

November 29, 2023

How 2023 kicked my ass (and what I’m doing about it)

Two hip replacements in a single year is no joke, but I am improving and a new novel is coming. Here’s my path back to health and happy productivity in 2024.

In less than a week, I have a follow-up appointment with my surgeon to confirm my recovery is on track. My physio is optimistic and enthused, but then, she is always incredibly upbeat. We are quite the contrast. She’s energetic, and I’m the grumpy old man from Up. I need to change some things, but short of a personality transplant, how?

I have some ideas (and the last one is probably the best)

I used to treat people with various pain conditions. I know the rehabilitation process. However, I’m impatient. Particularly on bad pain days, I must remind myself to simply do the exercises without being so attached to results. Rehabilitation of injuries is a little like writing a first draft. I have to trust the process.
Particularly after a terrible night’s sleep, I am exhausted of being me. I feel trapped in my body so I have to be gentler with myself. I could worry more, but would it help? I put my head down, have a rest, and do the exercises. It will all work out. Like tinkering with a manuscript, it all works out given enough time. “Enough time” is usually more than I would have hoped.
As a chronic insomniac with a busy brain, I don’t panic about missing a night’s sleep anymore. Instead, I sleep when I sleep. Nobody shakes off a double hip replacement in one year easily. When I feel a nap coming for me, I don’t fight it.
We can terrorize ourselves with shoulds. I should do more. I should do this, I should do that. But I can’t do it all and I certainly can’t do it all right now. What’s left? Acceptance.
Self-care takes many forms. Sometimes it’s a treat, a nap, a ride in the car just to get outside, chatting with a friend on the phone, or giving up for the day.
Medications, as needed. Right now, that’s usually nothing more than Aspirin, but sometimes it’s Lorazepam.
Once I’m cleared for more exercise, I’m looking forward to that outlet. The aims are to get my cardiovascular fitness back, improve my strength and achieve a higher quality of life. Aside from the stress relief more movement will provide, I’m in training to be able to sit still and write for longer periods.
As a news and politics junkie, I have sabotaged my mental health. I feed my busy brain with information I can’t use. I own two bone-conduction headphones, one for day, one for night. I wear them constantly to consume podcasts, audiobooks, and music. Nothing wrong with that in moderation, but I realize now how much is too much. I’m taking the headphones off to focus on reading more and writing more.

In short, my best and biggest change is to guard my quiet time. I already have a negativity bias. I don’t need to feed it a high-caloric diet of atrocities in the present and fears for the future. Until I get that Iron Man suit, there’s not much I can do about that. So…

PROTECT YOUR PEACE

I’m in training to get back to being me. RIght now, I’m plagued with my identity as a patient. Can’t wait to focus more on being a writer beloved by perhaps tens of people!

My next novel is a tale of vengeance that spans decades. Endemic was about how we change and how we don’t. This one is about how we won’t. Please stand by, and thank you for your patience.

Looking for a great award-winning novel that’s criminally underrated this holiday season? Look no further. Please add Endemic to your shipping cart.

Available in paperback, hardcover, and ebook.

August 24, 2022

The Readers’ Favorite Review of Endemic

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.
Book Reviewer Keith Mbuya

July 28, 2022

Endemic wins at the New York Book Festival!

Thank you New York Book Festival Judges!

Thanks goes out to Gari Strawn of strawnediting.com. She is my Editrix Supreme, and she always makes me better. Thanks to Pete, my friend who got me book doctoring work that financed the budget for applying for awards. Thanks also to 100covers for their work in putting together the graphics package for this novel.

For anyone who doubted, I have to say I feel exonerated and wonderful. Coming first in Science Fiction/Horror is a big deal to me. This is my ninth writing award, but since Endemic is an apocalyptic tale set in NYC, it feels extra special. I guess I got it right!

Frankly, I’ve felt that Endemic has been underrated, so maybe this award will help the book find more readers. That’s what happened with my bestseller, when This Plague of Days, so I’m hopeful. There’s a lot of hoping in this business, so this is a nice lift!

Endemic is available as an ebook, hardcover, and paperback.

January 26, 2021January 26, 2021

The Voice in My Head

For reasons foreign and domestic, last year was my time off from publishing. However, I didn’t stop writing completely. My focus now is bringing Ovid Fairweather to the world stage. Who’s that, you ask? Ovid was an introverted, somewhat neurotic book editor in New York, in therapy but feeling stuck. In the rat race of life, she’d crashed against the wall. Then the virus came and kept on coming. As an evolving virus decimates New York, Ovid finds herself in Hell’s Kitchen on a collision course with a small group of privileged survivors determined to control everyone else. Hounded by regrets and quietly seething with anger, she’s certain she has no future. To deal with dictators, Ovid Fairweather is going to have to learn how to get tough, and quickly.

She’s among the unlikeliest of heroines, but if you know my work, you know I love unlikely protagonists. From This Plague of Days and The Dimension War to The Night Man and the Jesus Diaz series, no matter the genre, none of my main characters are what they seem at first glance. They aren’t born heroes. They stumble, fall, get up, and grow into their roles. If you loved Jaimie Spencer, the mute kid on the spectrum in This Plague of Days, you’ll love Ovid. As a book editor, she shares his obsession with words, but the angle on this new book is a little different. Ovid has a voice in her head that chains her to the regrets and pains of the past.

Like Ovid, the voice in my head is unkind. Many writers have an inner critic that thwarts their progress. The voice in my head swears a lot and constantly reminds me of every mistake, every insult, every time anyone underestimated me. That’s what I share with Ms. Fairweather: an eidetic memory for pain. For me, it’s an albatross. For Ovid, that voice might prove to be the source of her power. I’m working on the novel now. It’s called Endemic and it should be ready in a couple of months.

In the meantime, I have a book recommendation for you. An author friend of mine writes a blog I love called Skeptophilia. Today (Jan 26, 2020) Gordon Bonnet penned a piece that hit me between the eyes and scalded my brainpan. The Cost of Regret is a blog post about the science of the road not taken.

Gordon gives you a view of the mindscape: That voice in your head obsessed with regrets and alternative paths? That’s called counterfactual curiosity, and there’s a paper on that in the journal Psychological Science. If you could know what would have happened had you made different choices, are you sure you’d want to know? Even better, there’s a new book about that voice in our heads. Chatter, by Ethan Kross, analyzes the inner voice, but also delves into how to manage it, quiet it, or even harness it to better ends. I can’t wait to read it! (Thanks for the recommendation, Gordon!)

If you purchase Chatter through the link on Skeptophilia.com, you’ll also support a very worthy voice of reason in a chaotic world. Don’t forget to subscribe to Skeptophilia while you’re there.

Gordon Bonnet has written 17 books. Check out his fiction on his Amazon page here.