Tag: fiction

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Publishers Weekly Review of Vengeance Is Hers

(This is a big deal to me.)

Chute’s thought-provoking crime thriller tells the story of Molly Jergins, a bright, restless teenager who grows up in the small town of Poeticule Bay, Maine, a tight-knit, picturesque village floundering and long dominated by a single powerful family. When Keith Faun, the town’s hockey star and the son of its most influential businessman, brutally assaults a younger boy and escapes punishment, Molly finds herself consumed with revenge fantasies. Her petty pranks soon escalate into a campaign to drive the Fauns out of town: she sabotages their family business and publicly damages their credibility, with each act calculated to chip away not only at their sense of untouchability but also the broader community that enables it.

At its core, this novel is an exploration of the insular dynamics unique to small towns—blind loyalty to old families, unthinking hostility toward outsiders, and reflexive protection afforded to their golden boys. What stands out most are not the creative revenge sequences but the way cruelty is normalized: a principal who dismisses violence, a sheriff more concerned with reelection than law enforcement, neighbors who carry on like it’s business as usual. Here, Chute (author of Endemic) pushes readers to consider whether such institutions can really be trusted with justice—or if it falls to individuals to enforce it.

This ethical dilemma is embodied most clearly in Molly herself. While she obviously cares about fairness, her obsessive tendencies leave readers questioning whether she is driven by justice or simply by her power to deliver it. The story’s pace sometimes falters under the sheer number of revenge plots, with these convoluted sequences limiting Molly’s character development—but she remains a complex, morally gray protagonist who readers will want to follow, if only to see how far she will go. Overall, those who are drawn to dark small-town noir will enjoy the clarity with which this gripping tale examines power and complicity.

Takeaway: Dark small-town thriller examining the blurred line between justice and obsession.

Comparable Titles: Gillian Flynn; Paula Hawkins.

My book got a Publishers Weekly review!

Click here to be taken straight to your country’s Amazon store for a great tale of revenge.

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Have you reviewed yet? Please do!

Here’s how to leave a quick review on Amazon:

Just in case you’re not sure how, it’s easy, free, and helps me immensely:

  1. It doesn’t have to be long.
  2. Please, no spoilers. You don’t have to recount the plot at all.
  3. Just a brief paragraph of your opinion is plenty.
  4. Let others know how the story made you felt while reading the novel.

    And that’s really it! Fast and uncomplicated.

    Here’s where to find the button you’re looking for:

On Amazon, click the book you want to review.
Scroll down to the box that reads:
“Write a customer review” and there you go! Done like dinner!

Bonus points:

It’s not required, but if you want to post a picture of the book, or of you holding the book, that gets more attention.

A video gets even more attention if you’re so disposed, but again, it’s not required.

Examples:

Hint:

Of all my work, Vengeance Is Hers is the most recent and needs more reviews. Thanks!

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The link between lemurs and goblins

When I started my Vocab Menace series, the idea was to find fun words, define them, and challenge viewers to slip those exotic or rarely used words into casual conversation.

I don’t know how many people are actually making that attempt, but I do enjoy finding these words. We use words to tell a story, but the stories behind the words are often interesting, too.

Some folks are concerned we are losing words or adding silly ones. Remember the furor over the elimination of the distinction between regardless and irregardless? I know that sticks in some people’s craws, but language is constantly evolving. It’s an organic thing that can grow in unexpected ways. You can resist, but you may as well try to empty the ocean with a sieve.

We could try to freeze our level of communication at some arbitrary stage, I suppose. With enough teaching, torture, and torment, we could all speak as if we are upperclass eighteenth-century Brits. I doubt that would fly, though.

Some lovers of the English language would clutch their pearls and retreat to their fainting couches if they knew the truth. Most newspapers are written at the sixth-grade level. That’s not a disaster. It’s meeting and reaching more readers where they are.

I am a word nerd, but I don’t beat readers over the head with my research (at least in my novels, I don’t). However, I must admit, I loved using Latin phrases in This Plague of Days. I made it work by translating said phrases and aphorisms. There was never any doubt what was meant and the use of a bit of Latin was integral to the protagonist’s character development. Jaimie Spencer is a selective mute on the spectrum with a special interest in his dictionary. When the world ends, Jaimie finds comfort in the old wisdom of Latin words.

My 1939 Webster’s was the inspiration for the dictionary Jaimie carries around the apocalypse. She’s a thick one, eh?

Webster’s Dictionary of the English Language, 1939

If you are a word nerd, too, subscribe to my Substack for fun, new vocabulary explorations each weekday.

For links to all my apocalyptic epics and killer crime thrillers, check the links to Amazon down the right-hand side of this page. Enjoy!

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Long Story Short: Better Days Ahead

About Better Days Ahead

Deborah Goodwin wakes up in her tiny basement apartment in Toronto. It seems like it’s going to be just another day in her anonymous corporate job chained to a desk. But something is wrong with her cell phone. The device tells Deborah to power down and turn it back on to “reset.” But it’s not just the phone that is reset. It’s Deborah and the world.

To get peace, first there must be chaos.

This short story is for subscribers only. Subscribe and I will send you a link to the Bookfunnel landing page. You can download the short story or read it in your browser. Enjoy!

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My New Web Series

Find out more about today’s Vocab Menace video post PHARO and PHAROS below.

In almost every interview with a writer, the interviewer will ask, “Where do the words come from?”

They’re always talking about “the muse.”

My answer is “My brain assembles factoids into narratives. Oh, and childhood trauma. Also, adult trauma. And….” Then I gesture vaguely around, alluding to all the nonsense that pervades our common experience. The news, social media, and falling down rabbit holes on Wikipedia provide plenty of raw material to construct delightful fictional conflict.

When I think about where words come from, I take a more literal approach. I own a huge Webster’s dictionary from 1939 (pictured). I forget how it came into my possession, but I’m sure it must have come from a library sale or used bookstore. This particular edition was the inspiration for Jaimie Spencer’s beloved dictionary in my apocalyptic trilogy, This Plague of Days. I had to apply duct tape to keep it from falling apart.


My kids have big vocabularies. Partly, that’s osmosis from growing up in a home packed and stacked with books. Also, we always spoke to them as if they were little adults. As babies, they were no doubt confused at times. Nonetheless, I figured they’d catch up and eventually understand my words and sense of humour.

Recently, I decided to make a video series out of my fascination with words.

It’s easy to post on social media with rabid urgency, “BUY MY BOOKS! BUY MY BOOKS!” Easy, but not effective. I’m always looking for new readers, of course. Every author is. However, I’m allergic to marketing. I do it, but I don’t enjoy it. Exploring the meanings of words and where they come from, though? That gets the happy neural juices flowing.

Vocab Menace was born.

Why call it Vocab Menace?

  1. Words can be fun and interesting.
  2. Your challenge each day is to slip these rare or unusual words into casual conversation as if it’s no big deal.

Imagine the satisfaction you’ll derive from all that simmering, smarmy, and artificial sense of superiority!

Where to find Vocab Menace?

Hey, man, it’s 2025. Ya gotta be everywhere! I post on Substack, Medium, YouTube, Instagram, Threads, Bluesky, TikTok, LinkedIn, and Facebook. (I don’t post on X. Fuck that. X sucks.)

Like, subscribe, and share. All that stuff is sexy.

PLEASE NOTE: I’m away from social media next week (July 28-August 1).

I’m taking a deep dive into isolation to work on my new novel, but Vocab Menace will continue after that brief hiatus.

About today’s post: PHARO and PHAROS

In today’s video, I promoted Lighthouse Legacies by Chris Mills.

Description:

Imagine living your life perched on a tiny island, without electricity, exposed to the fury of the sea, and always at the service of the mariner. This is how lightkeepers and their families spent their lives, even up until the 1960s. We are very close to losing the last of the people who lived this isolated life and experienced the heyday of lightkeeping in Canada. Lighthouse Legacies lets us share in the memories of those who kept the lights.

These stories are presented largely in the words of the people, with context and history by author Chris Mills. Each chapter deals with an element of lighthouse life and is complemented by photos from lighthouse family collections, the Coast Guard and Mills’ own collection.

You can purchase Lighthouse Legacies directly from Nimbus publishing here. (You’ll also find it on Amazon.)

My novel, AFTER Life Inferno, is free to download until midnight tonight! It’s the first in the AFTER Life trilogy about weaponized AI escaping from a genetic engineering lab in downtown Toronto. The fate of all humanity is at stake.

(The basis of the tale was inspired by a fan’s story of how authorities are ordered to handle a lab leak!)


Scan down the right-hand side of this page and you’ll find links to all my apocalyptic epics and killer crime thrillers. Enjoy!

And thank you for being a reader. Thor knows we don’t have enough of them.

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I was in a war with AI before it was cool

Get ready to fight to the death. You might even have to fight beyond death.

AFTER was constructed to save us. When the medical biotech is weaponized, AFTER becomes an agent of warfare. Infected humans transform into rampaging killers. No one is safe.

Task Force Officer Daniel Harmon has one job: Stop the epidemic before it escapes a military research lab. As the body count rises, he’ll discover a dark conspiracy that will change our fate forever.

They will call this Apocalypse. We call it Revolution. On which side will you fall?

From the author of This Plague of Days comes a fresh zombie trilogy about technology gone horribly awry. It will feel too real.

GET YOURS NOW (AFTER Life: Inferno is free to download from Amazon.com until Thursday, July 24, 2025.)

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Sometimes, you can ignore the best writing advice.

Everybody’s best writing advice was, “Never kill a dog in your story.” Then along came John Wick, and even that tried-and-true nugget was thrown out the window. To tremendous success, I might add. This reinforces (for the umptimillionth time) that William Goldman was right. “Nobody knows anything.”

Solid writing advice was passed on to me from a film producer:

“If it plays, it plays.”

Some things will work, and some things won’t. When it comes to fiction, often we don’t find out what works best until it’s tested in the marketplace. In The Night Man, truth be told, I killed off some dogs, but I hedged my bets. I saved a couple who became integral to the story.

But what’s the story?

In The Night Man, Easy Jack is a wounded veteran with a bum knee and a bad dad. When he returns home to Orion, Michigan, he plans to go back to training guard dogs. Unfortunately, he discovers the town has a long memory of his past deeds and his high school sweetheart is in deep trouble. Worse, dirty cops pull him into a billionaire’s bomb plot.

But how do you make the hard turn acceptable to animal lovers?

I love dogs. I get the aversion, but I did a few things in this thriller to make the conflict more palatable.

  1. It’s not gratuitous. I don’t care for gore, so the worst stuff happens out of the hero’s (and the reader’s) view.
  2. It makes sense for the plot. I didn’t throw it in there for shock value alone.
  3. This loss ups the stakes and steels the protagonist’s spine.
  4. There is revenge and redemption to be had following the hero’s loss.
  5. Two treasured dogs survive and are an ongoing presence through the thriller’s twists and turns.

    So, you love dogs. I love dogs. Trust me, you’re in good hands when you decide to try The Night Man.

    FIND OUT MORE AFTER THE JUMP:

Your universal Amazon link: https://books2read.com/u/3RMPDx

The bad guys have money, power, and a jet packed with explosives. To make his stand, our hero is armed with quick wit and a Smith and Wesson. Easy Jack also has a loyal German Shepherd named Sophie by his side. To combat the shady side of small-town America, this wounded Army Ranger will have to enter the darkness he hoped to leave behind.

From the author of the Hit Man Series comes a killer thriller. The Night Man won first prize in the genre category at the Hollywood Book Festival!

“You’re guaranteed a mighty fine read.” ~ Claude Bouchard, USA Today Bestselling author of the Vigilante Series.

Easy Jack isn’t a bad guy, but to survive, he will have to act like one.

Returning home after serving his country, Ernest “Easy” Jack hoped his family’s reputation had been forgotten. No such luck in Lake Orion. Small towns have long memories. Grudges run deep. Worse, his high school sweetheart is trapped in an abusive marriage. Family bonds, love, and loyalty will be tested when a sociopathic billionaire and a dirty cop conspire to use Easy in a deadly bomb plot.

Escape is unlikely. Easy’s odds are not even.