Chaplin's first book, Joyride (Coward, McCann & Geoghegan, 1982), is a novel stemming from his experiences in Southeast Asia both as a reporter in Newsweek's Saigon bureau and as an editor on the Bangkok World in Thailand.
There he became involved as a fundraiser and project consultant with the foundation Niparaja,[3] a non-profit group seeking to preserve the marine and coastal areas of the Gulf of California and the Pacific coast of Baja.
[4] His memoir, Dark Wind:: A Survivor’s Tale of Love and Loss (Atlantic Monthly Press, 1999) details the tragedy of their next voyage, which ended with Susan’s death in a typhoon in the Marshall Islands, halfway across the Pacific.
As a research associate at the Academy, he is a co-author of two resulting scientific studies, "Assessing 50-year changes in Bahamian Reef Fish Assemblages: Evidence for Community Response to Recent Disturbances?
[14] Chaplin's most recent book is another novel, Paraíso (Skyhorse Publishing, 2016) set in Todos los Santos, about a gringo brother and sister who whose long estrangement ends in a spectacular rescue.