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.
“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.
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 apocalypticworks (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 inBigger 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.
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.
As my prime beta reader goes through the WIP, I’ve realized how peculiar some East Coast speech patterns and expressions are. He grew up on the West Coast, so we’re Canadians separated by vast distances and vastly different experiences.
SWMBO (She Who Must Be Obeyed) is from Toronto and enunciates every word. That influenced me, and I began to slow down and enunciate more. However, the East Coast came back easily in the dialogue in Vengeance Is Hers. It’s fun, but I won’t let the dialogue become inaccessible.
When I visited Bermuda as a kid, I loved the locals’ long vowel sounds. I spoke fast and in the back of my throat, so much so that a lovely Bermudian shopkeeper said slowly, “I dooon’t undahstaaand you.”
She spoke English. I spoke in Nova Scotian.
Today’s agenda:
1. Continue David Gaughran’s book marketing course.
2. Negotiate with the designer over the cover for the WIP.
3. Review beta reader suggestions.
4. Add to my author blog. (Ooh! Did that one, here and now! The bionic implants are working and my hip pain is gone, so you’ll see me much more active here from now on!)
5. Prep angry posts that reveal I’m empathetic because *we’re* trying to have a Star Trek future.
I am now on BlueSky. Find me @robertchazzchute.bsky.social
In Endemic, the protagonist is Ovid Fairweather, a neurotic book editor who becomes an urban farmer in the viral apocalypse. Guided by her dead therapist, she has to deal with the many dangers other survivors pose, but deep down, this is about how we change and how we don’t.
Endemic has won the Literary Titan Award and earned first place at the New York Book Festival and the Hollywood Book Festival.
Bulletin! This is just in!
“We are excited to inform you the following title is included in the Prime Reading program on Amazon.ca from 1-Dec-2022 to 1-Jun-2023.” ~ Amazon
SoEndemic is in PR now! They said it would be three months, but apparently, this goes all the way to June! In case you’re wondering, the internet goblins can define the situation for us: “Prime Reading is a benefit for Amazon Prime members that makes over a thousand eBooks available for borrowing, at no extra cost. You can keep up to ten eBooks at a time and there are no due dates.“
Some readers have asked me what the power and the curse is in the subtitle to Endemic. It’s the same element: memory. Our experiences make us who we become. Our memories burn us and forge us.
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.
