Chad Grayson

The Trunk

Most Authors have one. It’s very rare for a writer to write their first book, and have it published,  especially in the years where traditional publishing was the only game in town. In this day and age, where indie publishing is a viable option, I suppose more people might be publishing their beginner work. This is usually a mistake. Your first efforts at writing novels are almost without fail, terrible. […]

The Trunk Read More »

In Which I Get Knocked on my Ass

I’m on record as saying that 2025 was, for me personally, a really great year. I released four books and started finally finding my audience. I wrote two complete books. I started working professionally in editing and graphic design, including making all my own book covers, making new covers for many of my older books in the process, as well as covers for friends. I created an author career plan

In Which I Get Knocked on my Ass Read More »

You Will Have to Make Your Own Path

About a year ago a super famous author spoke to my writer group (Apex Writers) during a zoom meeting. This man has sold millions of copies of his books and he’s a household name at least in the SFF world. Now, our group is made up of a lot of different writers at various levels in their careers, to people just starting out to people like me who’ve published 10+

You Will Have to Make Your Own Path Read More »

Craft 101 – Satisfying Installments

A while back on Threads (of course) I saw a craft-related comment that went something like this: People are leaving one and two stars reviews on my book because they say the plot wasn’t resolved, but it’s clear this is the first book in a series. Of course, the plot is not resolved! How do I get my readers to be more patient? And, like, bold of you to assume

Craft 101 – Satisfying Installments Read More »

Craft 101 – Writing ‘Filler’ Scenes

A 101 Level Craft question I see all the time! I see a lot of mostly newbie writers asking version of this basic question: How do I write filler scenes, or scenes in which nothing important happens but feel necessary (for some reason) to pad out the word count and not make everything seem rushed? How can I make those scenes interesting? and my sibling in Christ I’m going to

Craft 101 – Writing ‘Filler’ Scenes Read More »

Progress Report!

Welp, I had high hopes for starting out this year. I wanted to hit the ground running with The Radiant Tomb (The Circle and the Shadow Book 2) and really make great progress through the book In January. But when the very first workday arrived, I came down with some sort of Respiratory virus, which basically ate a week and a half of my productivity. But there’s the thing: This

Progress Report! Read More »

New Body Manifesto

One thing I need to do in the new year, is to take care of myself better. Specifically, take care of my body. I know this seems like a weird statement coming from me because I’ve written several times about my successful fitness journey over the last year or so, but there are still some things out of balance. And I’m going to be super honest about this with you

New Body Manifesto Read More »

Slow Burn, Long Tail

I’m already on record, stating how 2025 was a banner year for me. I feel kind of weird stating that, since it sucked so bad for so many other people, but for me it went really well (effects of the national and international shitshow notwithstanding). I had four releases, wrote two entire novels, moved into graphic design professionally, and established a work and life schedule that was productive and, more

Slow Burn, Long Tail Read More »

2025 Year in Review

2025 was kind of a big year for me, even if it wasn’t in any major groundbreaking way (I did not crack the USA Today list, sorry to say). However … I published 4 books: Beneath the Silent Stars (Broken Stars Finale)Ghosts of Exile and Other Stories (My first short story collection) World Enough and Time (Standalone Contemporary Sci-Fi romance) The Lion and the Sparrow (Standalone Fantasy Romance) I ended

2025 Year in Review Read More »

The ComeDown(tm)

As humans, we have the tendency to frame things in terms of future circumstances. I’ll be happy when … After this week things will calms down … when I finish these projects I can finally relax … Once these three things happen, I will be satisfied … and this feels true to us, because why wouldn’t it? And to a certain extent, when the goals are centered on removing obstacles

The ComeDown(tm) Read More »

Scroll to Top