Makes it sound like I’m storming Zuckerberg’s mansion with a bunch of ninja commandos, doesn’t it? It’s 5% less awesome than that. For one night only, I’m taking over a FB group dedicated to science fiction and fantasy. I’ll be at Destiny’s Lighters from 5:30 pm to 10 PM EST tonight, Saturday, July 16.
Here’s the group:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/lytonians/
Want to come see what I think is wrong with a bunch of apocalyptic fiction? Or what’s right? I’ll even tell you who cares. To get in, all you need is an invite and I give those out freely.
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.
When we are feeling rudderless, the mental health gurus encourage us to find your why. Why are you a writer? If you’ve been at this a while, you may ask yourself, “Why am I still a writer?”
For many of us, getting into the brain tickle business doesn’t feel like a choice. It’s more likethe profession chose you. It’s a calling, right? As a kid, you loved to read. Writing books seemed like the next natural progression.
Here’s what I want you to know:
There are many paths up the mountain, and there are a lot of twists and turns ahead:
The lightning bolt of success will strike, but maybe it won’t hit you.
Others will succeed. You will read their books, and you shall be mystified by their success.
Some who appear successful really aren’t.
Some who don’t appear successful really are.
You may learn something from the success of others. You may not.
There are many moving parts you can’t see and variables you can’t control.
Other people’s success or failure has nothing to do with you. Don’t be jealous.
You may achieve early success, but it won’t last.
You may achieve success later. That probably won’t last, either. (People are obsessed with the new, even if it’s not as good as the old.)
You may be writing to achieve a legacy, but in the end, despite your best and better efforts, you’ll probably be known for just one thing. Scary thought. huh?
You’ll get bad reviews for something in your book you thought was innocuous.
The stuff you thought might piss off some readers will sail by without fireworks.
You may write a brilliant book. The market does not necessarily reward brilliance.
Writing and marketing are two separate activities. A good marketer can outpace a great writer.
Odds are against it, but you could hit it big with your first book or first series. It might have been a fluke, so don’t go around thinking you’re a genius too soon.
Being gifted is great, but it can set you up for disappointment later. Just do the work and ease up on the unrealistic expectations. Unrealistic expectations is what the lottery is for.
Hard work and consistency often outpace talent.
Elementary skills, solid craft, and dramatic chops are important, but not everything.
Marketing skills are important, but not everything.
Gurus will act like they have all the answers. (A) Taking their courses without acting on their advice is a waste of money you could have used for a writing retreat at an Air B&B, and (B) they don’t have all the answers, but acting as if they do is Salesmanship 101.
Influence, advertising, presence, and followers can be bought. If you don’t have the cash, you aren’t sprinting from the same starting line as those who have the moolah.
You can do everything right, and still fail.
You can do everything wrong. That’s probably your first book, the one that should have stayed in a drawer.
I’ll tell you what many won’t: luck and timing are factors and they are beyond your control.
Advertising, celebrity endorsements, and/or a nod from a social media influencer can make a bad book sell. (I know of an author whose books are not at all grammatical. His first language is not English. He needs translator and an editor. Because of endorsements, he’s getting sales on terrible books.)
Life’s not fair. You knew that already, but as cruel as life can be, the market can be meaner.
You and your readership may disagree on which are your best books.
You will have a baby that you’re sure is the cutest, and yet it will squat there on your sales page, mostly unreviewed and unloved.
That new shiny idea you chased might turn into a book series. Hurray! Hitch your wagon to a star! At some point, you’ll sit at your keyboard feeling like you’ve hitched your wagon to a stump. You’ve got newer, shinier ideas, but you feel like you can’t move on.
Unless you’re a psychopathic narcissist, you will have doubts, and worries about your writing career. That doesn’t go away, it just ebbs and flows.
Writing more books gives you more shots on goal, but failure is normal. Failure is so common, huge publishers put out big lists of books so the few successes pay for the rest that get remaindered.
These are not all happy, happy, joy, joy things to say, are they? So here’s the good news:
Contrary to what you may have thought, you do have a choice. Yes, you could quit. It may be a calling, but you don’t have to answer that call.
Alternatively, you could let it go to voicemail while you reevaluate your assumptions, rejuvenate your mind, and rethink your strategy. Or you could just plunge forward, full steam ahead, damn the torpedoes.You will probably do exactly that. I’m not here to discourage you. I just want you to know you are not alone sitting there in doubt and frustration as you stare at the horrible, impatient blinking cursor wondering if you’ve made an irreversible mistake.
You haven’t made one mistake. You’ve made plenty and you’ll make more. But someday, maybe, all those mistakes will contribute to your creation of something glorious for all to see.
~ I am Robert Chazz Chute and I’ve written a lot of books. Here’s the one I’m most proud of, but what do I know? You decide.
While Endemic climbs the charts and gathers more and more happy reviews, my newest anthology just launched. Our Alien Hours is now available on Amazon!
The Mortchallin watched us for decades, waiting for their time to strike. A global electromagnetic pulse like no human has ever seen marks their beginning and our end. In this anthology of seven connected stories, you will experience the invasion from the point of view of ordinary people facing fate.
When the alien conquistadors arrive, our actions in the face of death and danger reveal everything about what it means to be human.
Robert Chazz Chute is the award-winning author of This Plague of Days, AFTER Life, Amid Mortal Words, and Endemic. With the publication of Our Alien Hours, he adds new short stories to his readers’ armory of apocalyptic binge-reads. If you enjoy this one, try the first in this anthology series, Our Zombie Hours.
As the United States falls to disease, killers and thieves rule New York. Bookish, neurotic, and nerdy, Ovid Fairweather finds herself trapped in the struggle for survival.
Bullied by her father, haunted by her dead therapist, and hunted by marauders, Ovid is forced to fight.
With only the voices in her head as her guides, an unlikely heroine will become a queen.
Fun, surprising, and suspenseful, Endemic is the new apocalyptic novel from the author of Citizen Second Class, This Plague of Days, and AFTER Life.
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.
