Slade Grayson – Page 2 – Vintage City Publishing

August 11, 2019August 25, 2019

New Fiction (and Commentary)

For those of you clamoring for new fiction from me (all five of you), here’s the first chapter of an unpublished novel. Every few weeks, I’ll post another chapter along with my author commentary. I hope you like it. And if you don’t…well… just keep scrolling.

VICIOUS CIRCLE

by Slade Grayson

Chapter One

A year ago:

In a Northern New Jersey strip mall, Charlie Grace sat at the brass-railed bar of Kelsey’s Food and Sprits and sipped his drink—a mixture of Kahlua and cream. It tasted like chocolate milk but had a decidedly stronger kick. The cream gave his stomach a thick coating to buffer the alcohol, which was good because Charlie had been having stomach problems, probably the start of an ulcer, although he refused to admit it. He resolved to lay off Mexican food for a while and maybe chew some Tums. He thought thirty-six was too young for a man to have to worry about his diet, but he didn’t relish the thought of going to a doctor either. What if it wasn’t an ulcer? Thoughts of stomach cancer nagged at him and kept him awake at night. Charlie also thought thirty-six was too young to have to worry about ulcers and cancer.

April 16, 2019April 16, 2019

VINTAGE CITY AT AWESOMECON 2019!!

DO YOU LOVE THINGS THAT ARE AWESOME!?!?

Continue reading “VINTAGE CITY AT AWESOMECON 2019!!”

April 3, 2019April 13, 2019

Tattoos And The People That Love Them (a.k.a. This has nothing to do with writing.)

I always liked tattoos.

My brother’s friend had two full sleeves, and a few on his chest and back. The running joke was, he couldn’t walk past a tattoo shop without stopping inside to get one.

An exaggeration, of course, but he did have a lot of tattoos. So many, they blended together on his arms into a swirl of Jackson Pollack-type images and colors.

I thought that was too many. I like tattoos where you can tell what the individual image is. It stands apart from the others, like a panel in a comic book. My brother’s friend had so many on his arms, they were a blur.

March 19, 2019

Interview With Author Timothy Johnson

1. What made you want to be a writer?

It was probably a mixture of narcissism, masochism, and the right teacher in the right class telling me I had potential in something when I felt I had potential in nothing but had to decide what I was going to do for the rest of my life.

I took a creative writing class in college when I didn’t have a major, and when I started writing, I thought I was brilliant. At the time, I had been writing songs, so it seemed natural that I’d become a poet (because that’s a practical decision in this world). Then I was in a room with friends who literally laughed at my work, and I realized I wasn’t good.

February 21, 2019

SLADE 2.0 (a.k.a Children Are The Future)

My six year-old son and I play a game he calls “Voices.”

It’s called Voices because I do different voices of different characters, and it developed from when I would play with him with his stuffed animals. I gave each animal a different personality and they, along with my son (as himself), would get involved in various adventures.

January 26, 2019January 28, 2019

GLASS is a good movie and anyone who disagrees is wrong.*

*If you haven’t seen the movie and are planning to, you probably want to stop here. Come back after you’ve seen it.

Now…

Full disclosure: I’m a fan of UNBREAKABLE. I liked it better than THE SIXTH SENSE. I’ve watched it probably six or seven times. And every time I’ve watched it, I manage to pick up something new I missed the previous times.

November 30, 2018November 30, 2018

Judging A Book By Its Cover

“You can’t judge a book by its cover.”

Sure you can. Most people do. And the thing is, it doesn’t matter if their assessment is right, because they’ll never know.

If someone looks at a book cover and judges it to be of poor quality, or not interesting, and they believe the contents of the book are the same, what are the chances they will read the book to see if they’re right? Zilch. Nada. Because there are too many other books out there, books with far more interesting covers that will draw their attention, and ultimately their reading time. Continue reading “Judging A Book By Its Cover”

September 7, 2018October 7, 2018

The State of Publishing (a.k.a “Same as it ever was.”)

NOTE: I wrote this a few years ago after attending the Writer’s Digest Writer’s Conference. I was working as a temp for a retired literary agent who was there promoting a software program to help writers construct book proposals. Or something. Whatever. Doesn’t matter.

The important thing is… Since I wrote this, the publishing world hasn’t improved.

Attending the Writer’s Digest Writer’s Conference the weekend of January 21st through the 23rd, I was struck by more than one “sad but true” revelation:

1) Writers are desperate, needy, and borderline delusional;

2) Literary agents are egotistical and condescending.

Wait, wait, wait. Yes, I am making generalizations about a large group of people, some of whom I did not have opportunity to speak with on a one-on-one basis. And yes, there are exceptions to every generalization made, especially ones made by an opinionated bastard such as myself. But for the most part, my descriptions are apt.

Continue reading “The State of Publishing (a.k.a “Same as it ever was.”)”

July 19, 2018October 7, 2018

Books (Part 2)

More of my favorite books that didn’t make the top 5, but were pretty damn close:

A HEARTBREAKING WORK OF STAGGERING GENIUS

Dave Eggers’ autobiographical account of how he lost both parents within a matter of weeks, then had to raise his kid brother while barely out of childhood himself. It’s funny, brutally honest, and written in a hip, smart way that makes you want to read it slowly so you can absorb every word. It’s like being at a party where someone is telling hilarious stories and you don’t want to leave.

Continue reading “Books (Part 2)”