This Plague of Days, Season One preview
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.
Boom!
AFTER Life INFERNO, the first book in the trilogy, is free today and tomorrow.
AFTER was a medical miracle. Researchers weaponized it.
Deep in an underground vault, the weapon is waiting.
It wants out.
These are the numbers as I write this.
Thanks to everyone who downloaded their complimentary copy. If you dig it, please review it and enjoy Purgatory and Paradise!
Or enjoy the AFTER Life Omnibus in paperback.
My Top Five Books
Never ask a writer which is the best book they’ve written. That’s like demanding they choose their favorite child. It’s mean. However, gun to my head, here are my personal top five (and why):
This Plague of Days
The global pandemic begins with a killer flu that brings down civilization as we know it. You’re shown how our systems collapse in a very real-world scenario. (This is also my most popular series.)
It’s a slow burn as the virus continues to evolve. New species rise and things get weird. The supernatural toys with the survivors of the cull and our champion, Jaimie Spencer, is a radical departure from the usual heroes in the genre. He’s a selective mute on the spectrum whose special interest in dictionaries and Latin proverbs.
As battles between Good and Evil go, this is genre-bending. TPOD is complex and expansive. No red shirts!
The Night Man
Everyone who reads this prodigal son story loves it (but many haven’t read it). On a medical discharge from the Army, Ernest “Easy” Jack returns home to rural Michigan to train German Shepherds with his father. His high school sweetheart needs help. His dad’s on the shady side of a conspiracy involving dirty cops and a murderous real estate mogul.
The Night Man‘s plot is packed with action, but it’s Easy’s complex issues with war wounds, PTSD, and a checkered family history with his hometown which makes the story work on every level. If suspenseful thrillers are your thing, please do read this next.
Citizen Second Class
This makes my top five now because, though it’s set in a near-future dystopia, the story feels too relevant to what’s going on in the United States today. Kismet Beatriz comes from a military family but her nation has forgotten them. Democracy has collapsed and the hyper-wealthy (AKA the Select Few) have turned the Atlanta into a fortress.
Against a backdrop of food shortages, unemployment, secret police, and massive income disparity, Kismet must journey to New Atlanta. All she wants to do is feed her family, but fate has bigger plans for her.
Despite the grim premise, Citizen Second Class has funny and hopeful notes. The book I’m writing now is in the same world, earlier in the timeline. The next novel is darker, more like Crime and Punishment set at the end of the world. I’m often cynical and paranoid. Given the events of 2020, I wasn’t cynical and paranoid enough.
Amid Mortal Words
Man, this was fun to write, and it’s fun to read! A powerful book falls into the hands of an Air Force officer. Passages from the book can punish the guilty and work wonders for the innocent. This one book could set the world right. It might also condemn humanity to destruction.
This is twisty and fun, but readers often find it thought-provoking. If you’ve ever dreamed of being king or queen for a day, Amid Mortal Words is your next binge read.
AFTER Life
Readers often identify me as a zombie writer, but I only have two zombie trilogies. This Plague of Days was the first. After TPOD, I thought I’d done everything I could do in the genre that would feel fresh. Then along came AFTER, and I received new inspiration.
Artificial Facilitation Therapy for Enhanced Response was supposed to be a medical miracle based in nanotechnology. Weaponized, we get zombies.
The twist: The AI infecting our brains is evolving and wants to understand and improve humans. The action is non-stop, but underneath it all the infected are still conscious humans, horrified at what they are forced to do.
This Plague of Days is a supernatural horror epic. AFTER Life is the journey where science fiction curves right as humanity goes awry. It ends up in a fascinating place at the end of the trilogy. Love it! I hope you will, too.
~ I am Robert Chazz Chute. I write killer crime thrillers and suspenseful apocalyptic epics. My faves might not be identical to yours and that’s okay. I’m proud of all my work.
Also, I must add that I love my children equally and that fact drives them both crazy.
Free on Amazon. Today only!
If you can’t remember your sins, are you still guilty?
A long time ago, I ran away from home. Coming back is going to be murder.
On the run from bad debts and dangerous people, petty criminal Chazz Chute tries to start over and do things right. However, his father doesn’t know him anymore and his brother wants him dead.
The mystery grows as bodies fall in this action-packed suspense thriller.Â
Free today, July 22, 2020, only!
Solutions to the Mess We’re In
AKA Better Safe Than Sorry, Part III
If the mortal threat is not real until the pandemic affects you personally, that’s a failure of empathy and foresight. I don’t know if empathy can be taught. Leading by example is good (wear a mask!) but we must fine selfish assholes who refuse to comply for no other reason than performative belligerence.
Feel no urge to protect the herd? Pow! Here’s a ticket. Still no mask? Pow! Here’s another ticket. How’s your wallet feel now? Still nothing? We’re impounding your car. Ready to participate in society, be a hero and save lives yet? No? I’m taking your phone and you’re grounded. Go to your room.
What else can we do when science is not believed? I have some ideas.
Appeal 1: Patriotism
This is a war. We’ve suffered casualties. For this conflict, rifles and Blackhawk helicopters won’t help. We’re all drafted and on the line, saving lives. Your mask is your armor. Gear up, Citizen Soldier!
Appeal 2: Self-interest
The life you save might be your own. Do you care for somebody? Anybody? You could spare them pain, suffering or death, too.
Appeal 3: Vanity
New Zealanders can do something you can’t? Wimp.Â
Appeal 4: Religion
You may not want to wear a mask because if you die, you’ll just get to heaven sooner. Cool, but wouldn’t Jesus want us to look out for each other? Do unto others, etc.? If someone dies before they know Jesus because you found a mask too inconvenient… Well, do selfish assholes go directly to heaven? Or do they have to wait in shame for a while at the back of the line?
Appeal 5: Shunning
You broke the social contract. We are enforcing our mask policy. No, you cannot enter the store. No goods or services for you.
Make the crisis personal. Shun them until they feel enough social pressure to save lives.
Appeal 6: Conspiracy theory
“Don’t wear masks to defeat Bill Gates’ contagion and tracking vaccine. Wear the mask to defeat facial recognition technology.” And/or: “The globalists don’t really want you to wear a face covering. It’s a fake out. They created and released the virus to kill you so they can steal your vote. Besides, masks destroy the effects of 5G. It’s been documented.”
Note: A conspiracy theory doesn’t have to make sense. You don’t have to science it up. Just tap into the sap’s need to feel targeted and victimized. “They’re out to get you so you have to do X, Y, Z,” is a reliable formula.”
Appeal 7: Economics
I get that you want to get back to normal and get the economy going again. Me, too!
Mass death and the looming threat thereof seems bad for the economy, though, right? It’s not enough to declare it’s safe for everybody to go back to work. It has to actually be and feel safe. Put a ref on the field and get the rabid tigers back in their cages or we aren’t playing.
Appeal 8: Civility
We wear masks here because we care for each other. Pretty please?
Appeal 9: Sexiness
Damn! You’re lookin’ like a snack in that mask! Those eyes! And looking so mysterious and alluring! When the pandemic is over and the borders open, I want to make sweet love to you in Paris.
Or:
I pledge to never bless anyone with my fine naked self if they refused to be a decent person during a global pandemic. I’ve got too much self-respect to even deal with anyone so careless.
No glove, no love. No mask? Don’t even ask.
Appeal 10: Fear
As the Facebook meme goes, if you don’t like wearing a mask, you’re really going to hate the ventilator. Drowning on land is a horrible way to die. And even if you survive, COVID-19 is a nasty, cold-hearted bitch. The painful effects can last a long time, maybe for the rest of your miserable life.
And if I survive, I’ll be your Meals on Wheels angel every day. I’ll bring you soup at noon and with every goddamn sip and dribbling slurp I spoon feed you, I’ll utter those same dreadful words, “I told you so.” Scared yet?
Last-ditch attempt:
It’s okay to be ignorant. Just don’t stay wrong.Â
If you refuse to believe in science and continue to look for ways to deny the obvious, that’s a human failing. You don’t want to be told what to do. You don’t want to be wrong. Nobody likes to admit they were wrong about anything.
Me included!
In 2010, when I wrote This Plague of Days, I believed that the protective barrier masks provide would be made useless after 20 minutes of respiration. That was generally believed right up to early this year! The science changed because more research was done. Findings change as the science improves.
Wearing masks dramatically decreases transmission of coronavirus. We have to improve alongside the science. The willfully ignorant use motivated reasoning to condemn Dr. Fauci and the CDC on this point. Yes, he was wrong about something in the past. That doesn’t mean he’s wrong now.
Rather than changing and admitting a past mistake, some double down on being wrong in the present. That’s a formula for more grieving and loss.
The way things are going, particularly in the US and Brazil now, we will all know someone who has died of COVID-19. We’ve already had too much unnecessary death and pain. Let’s stop making more. Please, wear a mask.
The most tragic last words I’ve heard were reported this week.
A young woman about to be put on a ventilator gasped her last with, “I think I made a mistake. I thought it was a hoax.”
She had not acted on better safe than sorry. Then she was sorry too late.Â
~ This concludes the Better Safe Than Sorry series of three posts I had to get off my chest. If you missed the first two, here are the links:
Better Safe Than Sorry Part I