Tag: fiction

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Crime Thrillers are a Different Kind of Apocalypse

I’m happy to be working on a thriller about vigilante justice (see the post below). The apocalyptic genre has much cooled. This Plague of Days provides many solid tips for doomsday preppers, but fewer readers are inclined to read end-of-the-world stories when they fear they’re about to actually experience them.

If you enjoyed my apocalyptic works (TPOD, AFTER Life, Citizen Second Class, Robot Planet), you’ll still groove on Vengeance Is Hers. Besides retaining my voice and sense of humor, all my writing is about societal failure and seeking safety. My crime fiction is about finding ways to deal with suspenseful chaos (as seen in Bigger Than Jesus, Higher Than Jesus, Hollywood Jesus, Resurrection, and The Night Man). Whatever I write, you’ll get a dab of hope and a bunch of heart in the end.

But about those end-of-the-world scenarios outside your window

While immunologists worry about H1N1 jumping species to humans, RFK wants to freeze immunization research and remove mandates for common vaccines (which is absolutely not how herd immunity works). He thinks the solution to depression is simply to send the afflicted to farms where they have no access to processed food.

Last night, Bill Maher hosted a Stanford-educated doctor who claims med school taught her nothing valuable and that eliminating processed foods is the answer to all metabolic problems. So, “Doctor,” aside from the problematic classism in that stance, you’re telling me that RFK has all the answers, and Trump supporters everywhere will breathe a sigh of relief when you take away all their hamberders?

There was one powerful person who advocated healthy eating, and they condemned her as a fascist. Remember? Her name is Michelle Obama.

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COMING IN 2025

If you can’t forgive and forget, what’s next?

When the school bully attacks a fellow student, the authorities in Poeticule Bay, Maine, prove useless. Molly Jergins knows life isn’t fair, but she’s determined to make it so. Enraged, she launches a campaign of vigilante justice against the school bully.

As threats and vandalism escalate to a war ending in death, the line between right and wrong blurs. Molly tries to be good, but if you’re hunting monsters, the safer route is to become a better monster.

Is revenge the best success?

Robert Chazz Chute is a former speechwriter, magazine columnist, and crime and science journalist. A graduate of the University of King’s College and the Banff Publishing Workshop, Robert has won fifteen awards for his writing. He pens suspenseful crime fiction with muscle and apocalyptic tales with heart. Robert’s hidden headquarters is a blanket fort in Other London. Vengeance is Hers is his twenty-ninth book. 

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Aiming for the next book launch in January

As my prime beta reader goes through the WIP, I’ve realized how peculiar some East Coast speech patterns and expressions are. He grew up on the West Coast, so we’re Canadians separated by vast distances and vastly different experiences.

SWMBO (She Who Must Be Obeyed) is from Toronto and enunciates every word. That influenced me, and I began to slow down and enunciate more. However, the East Coast came back easily in the dialogue in Vengeance Is Hers. It’s fun, but I won’t let the dialogue become inaccessible.

When I visited Bermuda as a kid, I loved the locals’ long vowel sounds. I spoke fast and in the back of my throat, so much so that a lovely Bermudian shopkeeper said slowly, “I dooon’t undahstaaand you.”

She spoke English. I spoke in Nova Scotian.

Today’s agenda:

1. Continue David Gaughran’s book marketing course.

2. Negotiate with the designer over the cover for the WIP.

3. Review beta reader suggestions.

4. Add to my author blog. (Ooh! Did that one, here and now! The bionic implants are working and my hip pain is gone, so you’ll see me much more active here from now on!)

5. Prep angry posts that reveal I’m empathetic because *we’re* trying to have a Star Trek future.

I am now on BlueSky. Find me @robertchazzchute.bsky.social

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Writing Again!

Behold! Me, dithering endlessly over word choices at my local coffee shop.

For years, I struggled with insomnia. Exhausted after maybe six hours of fitful sleep, my busy night brain interfered with each day’s productivity. Sleep hygiene didn’t really work. Sleepy teas and warm milk? Nope! New pillows? Nah. What has helped me most to get nine hours of sleep each night is THC + CBD + Zoplicone (a prescription sleeping pill.) Working alone, the prescription didn’t work, but between that and visits to the dispensary, I’m finally back on track.

I’m working away on a fresh draft of She Once Made a Man Swallow a Key. Stay tuned, and in the meantime, please do give my many other books a try.

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A Little Update for My Readers

Almost four weeks ago, I became a cyborg. Recently, I detailed my tribulations in a blog post called Waiting for Dawn on the Comeback Trail.

For those who missed it, here is the short story: My surgeon implanted me with a new left hip. Arthritis has plagued both my hips for more than a year. It’s a genetic thing. Other members of my family have also had total hip replacements. I will have the right hip replaced someday, as well, but that’s a Future Me problem. Please! Screw Future Me. Present Me is still dealing with the recovery process.

However!

I am getting better. Yesterday I entered our shower for the first time without using a transfer bench. I’ve walked around two stores in the last few days. Those adventures were brief, but I am building my stamina. The improvements feel incremental, but I do notice positive changes almost every day, and I am fanatical about performing all my rehab exercises. (Shout out to Melissa at Old North Wellness for her excellent skills as a physiotherapist!)

So:

I last pounded the keys on my current work in progress on March 30. (It’s a tale of revenge with lots of surprises, strategies for vengeance, and multiple endings.) My ordeal of reengineering my anatomy occurred on March 31. Today is April 30. Tomorrow, I will start writing again. I have been down, depressed, and anxious post-surgery, but I’m still in the game. Please stand by.

Dawn is coming.

~ In the meantime, geez, see all those books to the right? I have a bunch of great stories in my catalogue you will love. Award-winning stuff! Socks and shoes flying off and whatnot! Some may make you ugly cry, but there’s (almost) always a sprig of hope in each narrative bouquet. Click a link, read a book, be transported and transformed.

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Endemic Wins the Literary Titan Book Award

Literary Titan reviewed Endemic very favorably recently. Now it’s won their Silver Award.

From their website:: The Literary Titan Silver Award is bestowed on books that expertly deliver complex and thought-provoking concepts. The ease with which ideas are conveyed is a reflection of the author’s talent in exercising fluent, powerful, and appropriate language.

After just winning its category (Science Fiction) at the New York Book Festival, this is a nice boost for Endemic. If you haven’t read it yet, it’s the story of a bookish and withdrawn woman finding her way through New York’s viral apocalypse. Haunted by her past and guided by her dead therapist, Ovid Fairweather must rise against her enemies. She was a nail. She will be a hammer.

Find it on your Amazon store here. Enjoy!

Endemic is live on Amazon!
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Why Endemic Went Viral

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.

I wrote Endemic because I had to.

Read the full interview here: https://literarytitan.com/2022/07/31/the-real-demands-of-the-end-of-the-world/