Chad Grayson

Chad Grayson

The Mindset Trap

I’ve written before how hard the end of last year was for me. I’d accomplished a lot in 2022, but none of it seemed like it was going anywhere. Then I failed to place in a contest and, on the same day, got back some constructive criticism on my novella, and that was more than I could absorb at once. I realized something. There is an indefinable quality some people […]

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Activation Energy

               It has been a crazy couple of weeks. I have a lot going on right now, and life has been kind of chaotic. I have been babysitting my grandkids a lot, which usually means spending nights at my parents’ house. I was also in the process of preparing to move. My parents own my house, and needed to sell it, but my boyfriend and I decided, for a variety

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Things that are Making Me Happy, again …

Every once in a while, I write about the things I am enjoying, and good things that have happened to me. So, here is another installment of Things that are Making Me Happy Right Now Last Exit by Max Gladstone                Last Exit is an urban fantasy with serious Dark Tower vibes. Ten years ago, a band of young companions explored a series of parallel worlds. But things went wrong,

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Book Babies: a rant

Can we have a talk about the term ‘book babies?’ a book is not a baby. once you’ve created it and put it out in the world (a process that usually takes way more than nine months) you’re done. Other people’s relationship with it is none of your business. When you make (or adopt) an actual baby, you have a lifetime in which to fuck that person up ( and

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Portrait of the Writer as a (No Longer) Young Man

               50. Oof. It’s here. I didn’t believe it would actually arrive, or rather, I’d hoped it wouldn’t. I guess I’d hoped to stay in some sort of liminal space, not dying but not getting any older, either. Of course, that option is denied to us, and in that, I am not special.                And now that it’s here, I feel … fine? I did not, upon waking on the

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2023: Refinement, not Revolution

               The first day of the year is always a time for reflection, at least for me. Not for everyone. For some, it’s a time to recover from a hangover, but I digress. It’s my tradition to take a walk every January 1st and look back on the year that’s just passed and set some expectations/goals for the year to come. So, I did that this morning.                And really,

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How to keep going when things are falling apart

Things were going so well! I set a goal this year of writing 350,000 words, thinking that would be a stretch, but it gave me a goal to aim for. Halfway through this year, I found myself writing much more than I had expected, increasing my production from 2000 words a day to 3000. This got me much closer to my goal, and on Oct 31, I reached 350, 592

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The Sun and the Star and the 30-minute Ugly cry

I almost didn’t post this, but a confessional blogging style is sort of my brand, so I thought: fuck it! You’re welcome.                Yesterday, they released the cover for The Sun and the Star, which is Rick Riordan and Mark Oshiro’s Solangelo adventure they’ve been promising for a while. And when I saw it, I ugly-cried for thirty minutes. And my reaction surprised me, but I know the reason for

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Ahem ….

Between the Sacred Stars is now available for preorder! Everything Changes                Journalist Will Corwin and Doctor Amelia Warren have been apart for a month, while Will finishes building the school in honor of Father Morgan, the priest killed by hybrid alien terrorist Nod Corvus. But things get complicated when Amelia’s ex-boyfriend shows up out of the blue with an offer…he knows where Amelia’s father is—the man they need to

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