Tag: suspense

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See the AFTER Life for free

Today is the last day of the free promotion of AFTER Life, INFERNO. This trilogy doesn’t get enough love, but the story of how Artificial Intelligence takes over the world via brain parasites was a lot of fun to write.


mybook.to/AFTERLifeINFERNO

Where it Came From

A local photographer was a fan of This Plague of Days. The parent of two kids on the spectrum, he really dug Jaimie Spencer’s role in the zombie/vampire apocalypse. His hobby was to take pics of local artists of all stripes, so he reached out to ask to take photos of me. I still use one of his pics for my author photo.

When he walked into my chaotic office, he paused, maybe in shock. Surveying my many crammed bookshelves, he said, “This is an interesting creative space. Your mess says a lot about you.”

Me: “Uh…thanks?”

The Seed of the Idea

We started talking about end-of-the-world potentialities, and he told me an interesting story. He had a friend who worked on Toronto’s police force. The photographer said there is a viral research lab in downtown Toronto. The cop swore his priority in the worst-case scenario was “containment.” That meant that if a virus in the vault started infecting the research staff, he’d be tasked with keeping the infected in the lab. If any medical personnel tried to escape the vault, they would be shot in hopes of protecting the city.

AFTER LIFE INFERNO, PURGATORY, & PARADISE is Born

I attended the University of King’s College Foundation Year Program. It’s basically the history of philosophy and the survey course included everything from the Bible to classical literature and modern jazz. We’d sit around entertaining questions like, “What is the definition of the soul?” (My favorite answer: The essence of the whatness of the being.) That’s where I got introduced to Dante. Inferno is great. I didn’t enjoy Purgatorio and Paradisio as much, but Dante’s vision of Hell was fascinating. So, with that loose structure in mind, I sallied forth with my take on weaponized brain parasites escaping a military lab.

Setting it in Toronto, I brought Artificial Intelligence and the future of humanity into the mix. The trilogy puts an infected police officer and a brilliant research scientist on the same side, but maybe not for long. (Wink!)

I love how this story evolves as the AI goes from attacking and taking over humans to learning more about us. When you get to Paradise, the AI is out to invade America and improve us against our will. Humans are a problem to be solved, and the story winds up going to very compelling places.

Get your copy of AFTER Life, INFERNO today and it’s free. Get it tomorrow and it’s still ridiculously cheap!

Or get the whole series as a huge paperback (600+ pages!) or the e-box set here.

AFTER Life OMNIBUS
I've been featured on eBookDaily
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Hours and Hours of Cheap Entertainment

I know! I know! I should say “inexpensive” entertainment, but 99 cents is really cheap for great novels that can take years to create. For the next couple of days, I’ve got This Plague of Days in a Black Friday promotion along with a bunch of other horror books.

https://books.bookfunnel.com/black_horrorfriday/u3fmi96fzsOne of many to check out!

If you haven’t taken a chance on an author who is unfamiliar to you, this is your opportunity to jump in and find something to love.

Here’s the landing page for the Black Friday sale:

https://books.bookfunnel.com/black_horrorfriday/u3fmi96fzs

Click a cover, get a book, enjoy!

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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/

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Writing Retreat

This week, I’m outside my comfort zone, away from the blanket fort, and working on an epic fantasy. Strictly speaking, this is a new genre to me. However, there are so many commonalities with the apocalyptic and dystopian genres that it’s definitely adjacent. The writing is coming easily. I have always enjoyed creating worlds, especially those with philosophical or theological complexity. Amid the action and chaos, there is the reaction to action and chaos. That’s where the tears and laughter can really flow.

As I sit in this cozy cottage (our first vacation in many years), I’m grateful my wife insisted we get away. For a while, someone else can worry about the broken clothes dryer and that funny noise the air conditioner makes. This week is just for us, and of course, filling up the blank page with suspenseful stories full of swords and mayhem.

Each day, I write little daily updates about the work and my reading and writing life in my fan group. If you’d like to join my inner circle of people who dig what I do, join my Facebook group here:

Fans of Robert Chazz Chute

(Jokes and memes abound.)

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Facebook Takeover tonight!

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.

My Facebook page is https://www.facebook.com/robert.c.chute/. Let me know you want in and I’ll make it happen.

Have a great day. See you tonight.

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Literary Titan Reviews Endemic!

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.

To read the full review at Literary Titan, click here.

Literary Titan's review of Endemic


I WANT TO READ ENDEMIC NOW!