Tag: suspense

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New Cover Reveal!

I’m going to be real with you. I love Dream’s Dark Flight, but it’s one of my least-read books. It’s in the Haunting Lessons universe, but it’s a stand-alone only tangentially related to the original trilogy. I’ve tried a couple of different covers. Last night, I settled on this one. Will it suddenly take off and become a bestseller? Not without a huge push, but this cover is better. I hope the new cover encourages a few more readers to give this novel a try (because, still real with you) it’s awesome. 🙂

Have a look at my pitch below the image to see why.

https://books2read.com/u/bPdG2Y

If you dare to fall asleep, you’re a target.

At a resort hotel in Dubai, bodies are found crushed beside their beds. A village in France fills with corpses. Each night, the terror builds. As nightmares become reality, lucid dreaming may be the only way to fight the threat invading our minds.

The doctor doesn’t believe the waking nightmares.
The physiotherapist just wants to go back to her normal life.
The NSA agent has very little time to solve the mystery that’s killing people around the globe.
The stakes are nothing less than human extinction.

From the author of This Plague of Days, AFTER Life, and Endemic comes a unique mix of science fiction and the paranormal. Leave the light on. You’ll be up all night, turning pages, afraid to sleep.

BUY NOW
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Anger, Humour, and Spite

Let’s pull back the curtains and open the kimono. What goes into writing a book? I’ll just talk about inspiration and craft here. There are many more moving parts than what I could jam into one post.

  • My life. All fiction is autobiographical, from the knife held to my throat when I was a kid to all the other injustices for which I have an eidetic memory.
  • Environment. Growing up in Nova Scotia, I was in a target-rich environment for hearing interesting dialogue. My next thriller is set in Maine, and I take great delight in putting fresh spins on familiar idioms. (My dad had a hundred weird expressions. “That smell would drive a dog off a gut wagon,” for instance.)
  • My major was journalism, and my minor was philosophy, but I had better chances to feed my work. My first year of university was a survey course called The Foundation Year Program. A unique offering, it’s been described as the history of philosophy or the philosophy of history. FYP seemed to cover everything, from classics of literature to classical music and jazz. I read a lot of stuff I wouldn’t have read otherwise. It was a great opportunity to discover how much I didn’t know. To quote Ted Lasso, “Be curious.”
  • University isn’t for everybody, and a decent library would suffice. However, I’d worked for my family’s business since I was thirteen. My main goal was to stay out of the workforce for four years. (University was insanely cheap, then, lest you think me a brat. Besides, I kept up with my studies just fine.) University was best for the gift of time. I used those four years to read, and read, and read. I’d read a lot of science fiction through my teens. Most of my spare time in university went to American writers. I remember reading Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood in one go, only stopping briefly to nap and eat.
  • My obsession with reading didn’t stop. Usually, I’ve got ten books going at once, though lately, I’ve turned more to audiobooks as a time management strategy. Everything feeds my work. Astute readers will note the parallels between This Plague of Days and The Stand. William Goldman’s prose was my awakening to how I plot a story to provide delightful surprises to readers.
  • Movies. One of my family’s companies was a video store, so I got to watch everything. I love movies and bring that sensibility to my writing. If you think my action scenes are cinematic, that’s probably why. When you’re reading my books, I want to put a movie in your head.
  • Wikipedia and assorted trivia. At my last dental cleaning, I blurted some obscure fact to the dental hygienist. She said, “How do you know that?” I know lots of useless factoids. A doctor once asked me if I had medical training. I replied (putting on a Southern accent because I’m funny), “I’m an educated fool, suh! Born to high privilege and of low station, beyond the delightful and obscure, I am otherwise useless to society.” (That didn’t help the psych evaluation, I can tell you!) However, interesting factoids are woven into my narratives, and readers appreciate them.
  • I have help. My editor, Gari Strawn, is a gem to whom I am so very grateful. My prime beta reader, Russ, has quite an eye for detail. Last night, he messaged me about whether there are hubcaps on Lincoln Continentals. This morning, he messaged me with suggestions for alternative classic cars the villain could drive in Vengeance Is Hers.
  • Anger, humour, and spite. Some people who could have been mentors, more helpful, or at least kind, told me I had delusions of grandeur. Fuck ’em.

My writing space has three desks, and I feel very lucky to have this writing life.

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This is my first novel with a disclaimer

My next novel, Vengeance Is Hers. is packed with ways to wreak vengeance upon your many, many enemies! May righteous vengeance be yours!
But wait there’s more (and caveats)!


As previously stated (see previous blog post), I have a problem with forgive and forget. Forgiveness is nice in theory, and it’s good for you, of course. Without contrition from the offender, however, I fear this high-minded principle turns people pleasers into doormats.


As for forgetting? What? Like a lobotomy? I have an excellent memory, and I know what you did!

The novel kicks off with a disclaimer for all my well-researched mayhem:

This is not an instruction manual.

All acts of vengeance detailed herein were performed by fictional trained sociopaths.

Do not attempt.

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Forgive and forget? But how?

“I don’t have to be so angry about the past, anymore,” Molly said.

“Really?” Dylan’s doubt was evident.

“Oh, yeah! It’s time to get angry about the future.”

~ A snippet from Vengeance Is Hers

It sounds wise and peaceful to tell someone to forgive and forget. But is it really helpful?

I know it’s the healthier choice, even as I carry my heavy grudges around my neck in a bucket. I’m still angry, or at least annoyed, with people who are long dead or otherwise oblivious to my ire. They have forgotten their trespasses against me. I can’t.

A friend once insisted I make up with someone. “It’s called learning,” I replied. “They treated me badly, and I won’t give them more opportunities to repeat the offense.”

I remained obstinate, especially since the offender expressed no remorse and failed to apologize. They were drunk at the time, and their anti-social behavior was habitual. They may not even have the courtesy to remember they passed my standard for assholery.

The best I could hope for might be an insincere apology followed by the observation that I am overly sensitive. In which case, their penance shall be a throat punch.

Advising someone to forgive and forget is easy, but how do you do it?

When Tony Stark meets Bruce Banner for the first time, he’s intrigued by how he controls himself. Banner doesn’t allow his anger to turn him into the Hulk. Iron Man asks, “You’ve really got a lid on it, haven’t you? What’s your secret? Mellow jazz, bongo drums, huge bag of weed?”

But we all know Bruce Banner’s secret. As he tells Captain America, “I’m always angry.”

I await your helpful suggestions and judgemental comments.

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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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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.