C.A. Pettit
Dystopian and Apocalyptic Fiction
Chad Pettit is an author, educator, poet, and spends way too much time alone. Well, not entirely alone. The voic–characters in his head keep him company. He’s not really a hobby guy. You can usually find him working, in some capacity.
Some Random Things
Favorite movie: The Martian
Favorite book: The Hobbit
Two time combat veteran. PTSD survivor in recovery.
Four kids, one of whom is a college graduate. Yes, Chad is older/younger than you might think.
Live Bearded
Chad gets asked about his beard almost daily. He’s a proud ambassador of the Live Bearded brand. Learn more (affiliate link)
Chad’s Writing Journey
Where to start? Chad began writing before he can remember. The jury is out on when he actually read his first novel, but he’s pretty sure it was a Roald Dahl book, probably Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. He’s always wanted to write, and every time his life gets off track, the thing that centers him again is his writing.
After serving in the military and writing mostly poetry, Chad decided to focus more on stories. At the time, he’d been sucked into pretty extreme fundamentalism, so he wasn’t sure if writing fiction was something that would displease God. Especially since he wanted to write fantastical stories. That led to him pursuing strictly Christian-themed books written for a Christian audience.
Chad published independently in 2016 and 2017. Both books were biblical fiction novellas.
He pitched his book on Twitter and got a two book contract with a small Christian publisher. He published those books and later realized he wanted to write grittier works with more creative control. He started rewriting his books after recouping the writes to his books.
The COVID-19 Pandemic hit and derailed everything. When the world was turned upside down, so was Chad. There was a crisis of faith, and he separated from his local church. He’s still working through that, but along the way things got pretty dark. He struggled for a long time and didn’t write for a year. When he came back to it, the passion was gone.
That moment was what Chad needed to realize he’d allowed outside influences to put him in a box. Finally, in June of 2023, he decided to tear down the walls he’d created for himself and reboot his writing career. He’s now focused on writing in the dystopian and apocalyptic genres, which he believes are the best stories to grapple with life’s most difficult questions and our current, tumultous world.
He unashamedly shares first drafts of “proof of concept” stories on his blog and encourages readers to provide him with feedback.
He hopes you’ll join him on his journey!