Tag Archives: apocalypse
This is not a poem…exactly. It’s the table of contents to a coming episode of This Plague of Days from Season One.
Here we sit in Death’s Cafe
We are the zombie’s reluctant buffet
The deepest wounds are those unseen
Between what we were and where we’ve been
Be killed or kill in days like these
Pray for God’s mercy or the Red Queen’s disease
Say farewell to your comfortable home
Goodbye to tea, clotted cream and scones
The fruit of war, the wages of sin
You don’t yet know what it will take to win
Or even half of the trouble we’re in
Save your strength for the fight
Use your rage. Defy the night.
(Getting close to finalizing the cover art, hearing back from the last beta team members and getting this bird off the ground.)
Leave a comment | tags: aombie fiction, apocalypse, apocalypstic fiction, book, cover art, ebook, fiction, horror, robert chazz chute, serial, This Plague of Days, World War Z, zombies | posted in apocalyptic fiction, the book, the serial, This Plague of Days
Coming soon!
Family matriarch Jacqueline Spencer on the existential abyss that is the plague:
How deep would Sutr reach down into the fabric of what had been and tear with unforgiving teeth? How resilient was that fabric? Was civilization just a thin sheen of varnish over shiny, black claws of primal aggression? She knew Theo thought so, but she hoped her husband was wrong.
On a scavenging trip to the mall, a little band of explorers from the Spencer family encounters a wall with notes and graffiti:
A little further on stood several memorials. “Olivia, you were a good wife,” read one. That was in white and, unlike the others, writ large to fill the height of the wall for several concrete panels. The tribute had been painted with a wide brush by a tall man.
Another simply read: Andrea. Why?
Here and there, fading pictures of missing loved ones dotted the wall and fluttered in the breeze. A phone number was listed below a picture of a stunning redheaded woman wearing cat’s eye sunglasses. Heather Pritch, 29, separated at hospital. Came back for you. Will wait at train station. Tara.
The flyer, fixed to the wall with a scrap of twisted duct tape, looked like it would lose its tentative hold with the next breath of wind.
There were also a few with directions and warnings:
Todd, Meet Us At Deb’s, Love Beth.
Go around Chicago!
Detroit’s Burnt DOWN!
Army’s taken over Tahoe. They shoot all who approach.
Another read: Michigan has militia! but it wasn’t clear if that was a warning or a hopeful sign that somewhere there was order.
A more informative message read: Refugee Camps at NIAGRA FALLS has gone X. Many dead. Stay home and indoors. God bless.
Just before a gap in the wall ahead, a green winking ghoul admonished them with a pointing finger. ‘We want you!’ was scrawled over its grotesque head. Below a smeared wagging finger were the words: Not to Litter! Burn Your Evil Dead! It was signed, The Ungrateful Living.
At another spot, a column of numbers from one to 24 stood, each number exed out. The next number in the series jumped to 26. Beside the column were the words: Tally of Looters shot.
2 Comments | tags: apocalypse, book, ebook, horror, plague, robert chazz chute, serial, tasters, teasers, This Plague of Days, world flu pandemic, zombies | posted in apocalyptic fiction, the book, the serial, This Plague of Days
Worldwide distribution of plague infected animals 1998 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
When I began writing This Plague of Days, it wasn’t about zombies and, in a way, it still isn’t. It’s about people in desperate circumstances trying to survive extinction. Also, the infected are not the walking dead. It’s more of a 28 Days Later, humans with rabies sort of situation. Things happen that may be paranormal or they may have a rational explanation. (I won’t spoil it.)
I will say that my horror serial begins with one plague that spirals society down as the virus mutates. The Sutr-X virus evolves, things get worse and, of course, the world will never be the same. There are great human losses to both strains of the virus. Jaimie and his family face illness, death, danger and betrayal. Worse? The pandemic wasn’t an accident of Nature. There’s an awesome villain and a group spreading the virus for purposes they consider noble, right and true. As the book unfolds, terrorism and the plague’s evolving horrors stretch across the world. A new strain of Sutr-X rising in Britain puts vast forces on a collision course with the little family from America’s midwest.
The serial evolved into a big book that started with a character study. TPOD started in 2009/2010 with a small seed of an idea, my fascination with the world flu pandemic and a daily visit to Starbucks to write. I was so passionate about the project, I lost a job over a key health and survival issue that pitted me against the bureaucrats that employed me. I told them they were endangering healthcare workers and their families. They didn’t appreciate my input. (I take a chapter in TPOD to show those same bureaucrats how wrong they were, but that job loss and the issues around it are for another blog post on another day. I’ll get into that background when I publish that episode, no doubt.)
I began the book exploring the mind of the main character. It is an ensemble cast, but everyone loves sixteen-year-old Jaimie Spencer:
Autism spectrum (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
1. He’s on the autistic spectrum.
2. He is a very shy, selective mute who must hold his father’s hand when they go out in pubic.
3. He sees auras.
4. His special interest is Latin phrases and English dictionaries.
5. He’s in his own world.
6. Jaimie is a boy who sees significance in every detail and every word. He often gets lost in those details and so seems oblivious to danger.
When the Sutr plague strikes, stress and circumstance bring Jaimie closer to our world in surprising ways. When worlds touch, they ignite sparks that let his family and the reader glimpse his mind and true abilities.
But why pit this strange boy against a world filled with nasty survivalists and infected, rage-filled cannibals?
I could tell you that high stakes and steep odds matched against a charming underdog in a tough conflict makes for a compelling story. But you already know that. The simpler answer is, I’m a bit strange, too. I do not have Aspergers Syndrome. I do, however, see the world askew and you’re going to love the odd word excursions almost as much as the zombie attacks, evil villain and my strange plague apocalypse.
This Plague of Days launches soon. I love surprising readers. I will.
12 Comments | tags: 28 Days Later, apocalypse, Asperger syndrome, aspergers, autism, autistic, autistic spectrum, character study, fiction, flu pandemic, job loss, List of Latin phrases, on the spectrum, plague, post-apocalypse, robert chazz chute, Starbucks, Sutr, write, writer, writing, writing at Starbucks, zombie, zombies | posted in apocalyptic fiction, the book, the serial, This Plague of Days, world flu pandemic
English: A multi-volume Latin dictionary (Egidio Forcellini: Totius Latinitatis Lexicon, 1858–87) in a table in the main reading room of the University Library of Graz. Picture taken and uploaded on 15 Dec 2005 by Dr. Marcus Gossler. Español: Diccionario de latín (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
I’m getting some nice feedback on the advanced reading copies of This Plague of Days. Expect lots of cliffhangers to keep the pages turning.
Excerpt
Jaimie awoke to yelling downstairs. The lamp on the nightstand still shone and the Latin dictionary lay open by his head. The last phrase he had read was an interesting one: ubi solitudenum faciunt pacem appellant. They create desolation and call it peace. To the boy, the words tasted soft and were as pleasing to his eye as they were black and dangerous.
and this…
Jaimie looked up the word quarantine. He thought the word beautiful. The q tasted sugary and uaran struck Jaimie as the essence of a firm avocado. Best of all, the word ended with –tine, the sound of a little silver bell.
Yes, this serial has some odd angles for a zombie apocalypse. Buckle up!
1 Comment | tags: apocalypse, bibliophiles, Dictionaries, horror, latin dictionary, List of Greek and Latin roots in English, logophiles, serial fiction, This Plague of Days, Vocabulary Lists, Word Games, word lovers, word nerd, zombie apocalypse, zombies | posted in apocalyptic fiction
I just ran across a great website called Survival Cache!
Follow this link to their 100 suggestions about stuff you need and what disappears first in a disaster.
It’s a thorough and fascinating list. In the first four episodes of This Plague of Days (to be released soon!) the Spencer family is under siege from the world flu pandemic.
Until the Sutr Virus hits here, you could read these books by Robert Chazz Chute. Just sayin’.
They stock up on what they can as prices soar and canned goods are flying off the shelves.
I’ve seen that happen personally on a small scale. During the SARS crisis, you couldn’t buy a bottle of hand sanitizer for any price where I live. The supplies were all gone in the worry and panic over SARS.
Then, at the end of the first season of This Plague of Days, the crisis shifts. Over the next four episodes, The Spencer family loses a lot, including much of their cache of emergency supplies. Once they’re on the run, they can’t take everything they need. Then they can’t carry everything they need. When traffic jams block all escape routes, survivors have to get innovative.
So we need to think carefully about our go-bags.*
What do we absolutely need and what luxury will feel like it weighs a ton by the fifth mile of our hike to safety? Individual capacities will vary. Maybe you’re a Marine who can huck a heavy ruck 25 miles a day, but what weight can your ten-year-old daughter carry? Is the weight in the harness rig on your dog balanced? Can grandpa walk out of the flood zone unassisted or should he stay behind and hope for a helicopter? Do you have alternate escape routes and fallback positions? What’s the backup plan behind the backup plan behind the backup plan?
What’s in your backpack?
When many people think of prepping, they picture a fortress, panic rooms, a bunker, a defensible Wal-mart or a castle with a moat. They picture infinite supplies and relative comfort. But what if the hurricane takes away your supplies and screws up your plans for holing up and waiting out the flood, fire and armies of crazed zombies?
To be zombie-ready, we have prepare to be mobile, too. Get out your clipboards, pack and repack and weigh. Start crossing stuff off your awesome list. Figure out what gets packed in the basement, the family van and what you can carry on sore, aching shoulders to safety.
*More on go-bags in a coming guest post by friend and fellow author Jordanna East.
1 Comment | tags: apocalypse, apocalyptic fiction, contagion, disaster, disaster prep, emergency preparedness, fiction, Hand sanitizer, Infectious disease, plague, post-apocaypse, preppers, prepping, SARS, Severe acute respiratory syndrome, This Plague of Days, world flu pandemic, zombies | posted in apocalyptic fiction, emergency preparedness, flu pandemic, Prepping
From this morning’s revisions of This Plague of Days.
Grant Ave. in Chinatown, San Francisco. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
It seemed it was already too late for most cities. However, many small towns that had survived the plague by brutally defending their borders, shooting trespassers and discouraging strangers. Successful survivors rooted out contagion and walled it off quickly, staying apart from the infected and shooting anyone who would compromise their security. That’s why the hospitals were dead. They took people in. The VA hospital on his own base had become a death house before word of the plague had spread through the forts’s hometown of Helena.
Similarly but on a grander scale of destruction, Carron knew San Francisco had been forced to billet soldiers returning from the Middle East when all the troops were recalled. San Francisco had fallen first and fastest than any American city for that reason. Citizens had welcomed the veterans (some of whom already had Sutr before they deployed from the ships) and so everyone died of compassion. San Francisco had been too kind to survive the New World.
From the safety of a military bunker in Montana, Lieutenant Carron had read the reports, watched the world fall, and passed the incoming intelligence reports to his superiors until his superiors fell sick, too. Some lived through Sutr’s fevers. Most died. Lieutenant Francis Carron didn’t so much as catch a cold and he would not give a sliver of compassion the chance to infect him.
6 Comments | tags: apocalypse, book, contagion, ebook, fiction, infection, Middle East, New World, post-apocalypse, quarantine, San Francisco, serial, This Plague of Days, United States, Veterans Health Administration | posted in apocalyptic fiction, flu pandemic, This Plague of Days, world flu pandemic
From tonight’s revisions:
Farther north, they saw their first lynchings. Women and men alike hung naked from overpasses. Their crimes were carved into their torsos. The knife writing was opaque crytography to Jaimie as they passed under the bodies.
However, if the birds didn’t get in the way and if the flesh was not rotted through or torn too badly to decipher, Anna read aloud: “Looter…thief…Adulterer…looter…looter…killer…carrier…looter…thief…fool.”
And this…
“I’ll turn around. We’ll find another road as soon as I see a spot for a U-turn.” But there was no such spot and no time.
Ahead, a man in camouflage stood on an armoured personnel carrier. He wore a gas mask. The large glass circles for eyes made him look like a bulky praying mantis. He pointed his machine gun at the line of cars.
Jack felt a long icicle of fear pierce her diaphragm. “Anna, switch places with Jaimie! Quickly!”
~ Robert Chazz Chute is the author of This Plague of Days. His friends call him Mr. Sunshine.
4 Comments | tags: apocalypse, Arts and Entertainment, ebooks, fiction, Looting, novel, post-apocalyptic fiction, robert chazz chute, serial, This Plague of Days, writer, writing | posted in the book, the serial, This Plague of Days
As I work away on the revisions for my coming serial, This Plague of Days, I have a key supporter in my corner. Kit Foster is the multiple award-winning graphic artist behind KitFosterDesign.com and he does the covers for all my books.
To encourage me to work faster (and because he loves creating art so much) he sends along ideas he’s noodling with for the serial art and advertising. Isn’t this cool? I particularly love the distressed type and the treatment he did with the foreboding sky. The tiny daisy is a nice accent, too. Or do you like the darker version below better? (I grabbed the type to slip into the header for this page, too.) As we go forward with this book, I don’t just see book covers. I see movie posters.
And now, with this goose to my bum, I’ll get back to work. Won’t be long at all before the release is here. Click the pics to check out more of Kit Foster’s excellent art portfolio.
4 Comments | tags: apocalypse, apocalyptic fiction, art, Book cover, book promotion, books, design, Graphic designer, illustration, Kit Foster, KitFosterDesign.com, Plague of Days, post-apocalypse art | posted in apocalyptic fiction, the book, the serial, This Plague of Days
Preppers are assumed, often, to be paranoid losers. However, contingency plans are smart, not dumb. A lot of smart people think so:
An aerial view of the flooding near downtown New Orleans. The Superdome is at center. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Disease experts tell us we’re overdue for a devastating world pandemic.
Economics experts tells us we’re no safer from economic collapse than we were in 2008. None of the the banksters who cratered the economy and stole billions went to jail. They’ll do it again. (Can we even afford to bail them out again or next time will the money go to people, not banks? Will we do the smarter thing and do what Iceland did and send the bad guys to jail? I hope so.)
Despite what Exxon tells us, they’re preparing for global climate change disasters, along with the UN, FEMA and the Pentagon.
Climate scientists predict extreme weather patterns will continue.
You don’t have to believe in a zombie apocalypse or become an NRA member to be a prepper. You believe in weather, right? In case you missed it, the destruction of a good chunk of New Jersey happened recently. Much of New Orleans is still a shambles. Expect more trouble as the planet continues to heat up.
Oh, and then there’s a bunch of billionaires who are spending big money to get ready when the poop hits the ceiling fan. Read about that on Salon here.
Only in the mainstream media, it seems, is being prepared for emergencies seen as a paranoid delusion.
1 Comment | tags: apocalypse, climate, disaster preparedness, economic collapse, extreme weather patterns, Federal Emergency Management Agency, Infectious disease, Prepper | posted in emergency preparedness
English: Schematic of a deadfall or cage trap. The schematic was based on a schematic found in the book “SAS Survival Handbook” by John Wiseman (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The last episode of this season of The Walking Dead captured the problem perfectly: If you’re going to survive, you have to depend on other people and bring them together. The notion of the lone survivor is a dangerous and common fantasy. Preparedness has greater value than toughness. Community will save you and being a loner will kill you.
Sure there are mountain men out there who do survive alone…sort of. The problem with the lone survivor model is first you have to eliminate the psychotics and schizophrenics who are running around in the woods, but not really out of a rational choice they made. Next cut out the people who don’t slip in and out of civilization for supplies and rely on technology (bullets, radios, canned food, MREs, etc.,…). Those animal traps last forever, but unless you’re fashioning a wooden trap, somebody smelted the steel somewhere and at some point you might want to use a little WD40 instead of beaver skin grease.
Who does that leave? That family in Russia who spent generations out in the cold eating bark and didn’t know about World War II. Not optimum for most people. Still think you’re a tough guy? Who’s going to do the hunting and gathering when you twist an ankle or come down with a fever?
I think I’ve established how we need people, but what does emergency preparedness really mean?
Start with yourself: How’s your cardio? Can you change a tire without getting winded? Do you know how to do something useful other people don’t know how to do? One of my favorite post-apocalyptic novels is World Made By Hand. The hero is a musician (so he can provide entertainment) and but he’s most valued as a carpenter. The novel chronicles the conflicts that rise when a community is forced to go it alone, pool resources, trade and adapt to changing times in a world without an oil supply. (Check it out. Lots of interesting ideas in there, including the benefits of an outdoor kitchen when summer heat waves come.)
One of the lessons my family of survivors in This Plague of Days learns too late is that they’re better off working together, not just among themselves but with whoever else is left. Instead of defending just your home, you’ll do better and live longer working collaboratively to defend a neighborhood. The SAS Security Handbook has it right: the young and the very old are good for watching for strangers and dangers. Everyone else is on patrol duty. Instead of spending thousands of dollars fortifying your home to make it safe for a short time, get to know your neighbours, establish a sense of community, get some exercise and develop skills. Become a person of value to your community. When your wood stove burns your house down, you’ll have somewhere to go.
In building a network of friends and allies, you’ll be healthier. One of the predictors of a long and happy life is to be embedded in a caring, compassionate community. When one of those lone survivors shows up looking for supplies and trouble, he’ll be met with a group. And instead of shooting him, maybe he can show why he should be taken in. You don’t build a future out of endless violence. That’s civilization falling, not getting back up.
~ I’ve written eight books. My post-apocalyptic/plague/coming-of-age/Aspergers thriller, This Plague of Days, will be published soon.
3 Comments | tags: apocalypse, disaster prep, emergencies, Emergency management, Federal Emergency Management Agency, post-apocalypse, post-apocalyptic fiction, survival, Walking Dead | posted in emergency preparedness
This Plague of Days 