Grayson Bell's Blog

Lacking Spoons

I haven’t posted anything in a while, and I thought I’d update my followers on what’s been going on in my life and where I want to go from here.

Struggling with Chronic Pain

About two and a half years ago, I woke up with debilitating pain radiating from my lower back, across my hip, and down to the front of my right knee. It was so severe, I could barely get out of bed and had to crawl on the floor just to use the toilet.

Since then, it’s been a long struggle to find long-term relief an...

Cycles of Revelation Progress Report: Spring 2025

I know those of you who have read “Artifact of the Dawn” are eager to read the next book in the series. I must apologize that I did not keep my promise of publishing “The Medellan Conspiracy” in 2024, so I would like to share my progress with a timeline of what’s been happening and what my plans are going forward (TL;DR, yes I still plan to publish “The Medellan Conspiracy”).

Originally, I hoped to have “The Medellan Conspiracy” published before attending my local Comic-Con as a vendor in...

When Reality Surpasses Fiction

There have been a few times after I’ve written a scene in a story when I would doubt the believability of the scenario I have concocted, only for a real-life scenario to make my fiction far more believable than I would have ever predicted.

Take, for example, the first novel I ever published, Coffee-to-Go. In it, I depict a corrupt Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency. My main character, Leo, gets detained and threatened with deportation because he can’t immediately prove he’s an A...

Uncertainty

The uncertainty of the future makes it difficult to move forward. How can I plan anything in these uncertain times?

I don’t normally dive into the political in this blog, but with everything going on, I feel I must. Now is not the time to be making hopeful updates about my upcoming novels, or offer sage advice on writing or self-publishing. No, now is the time to sound the alarm and make preparations. Whether those preparations include fighting back and standing our ground, or fleeing for our...

Reflecting on 2024

As another year comes to a close, it’s time for me to reflect on 2024.

Progress (and the lack thereof) on “The Medellan Conspiracy”

At the start of the year, I had planned to finish the rewrite of the second novel in my sci-fi series, The Medellan Conspiracy. Unfortunately, because of health issues, it took me until the end of June to complete the rewrite, five months later than I’d hoped. By then, I knew my beta readers weren’t going to be able to get me feedback in time for me to edit a...

The End of a (Brief) Era: Kindle Vella Shuts Down

I blogged about Kindle Vella when I first joined the platform back in 2021, and have mentioned it a few times since. Sadly, it was just announced on October 28, 2024, that Kindle Vella will officially shut down in February 2025. The only reason given was that the platform hadn’t “caught on as they’d hoped.”

The platform had a lot of promise and I really enjoyed posting my stories there before repackaging them as novels. The audience unfortunately remained small, despite my best efforts to...

Buying an ISBN from Bowker Does Not Get You Copyright Registration Protection in the US

I recently participated in a discussion in a writers’ group on Facebook regarding US copyright protection. I was appalled to find that so many self-published authors believe that purchasing ISBNs for their novels somehow counts as copyright registration protection. It absolutely does not. Let me explain how ISBNs and copyright protection work.

What is an ISBN?

An ISBN, or International Standard Book Number, is a unique identifier, often used with an associated barcode, which allows the com...

The Cycles of Revelation Progress Update: Autumn 2024

For everyone who has read “Artifact of the Dawn,” and is looking forward to the next book in “The Cycles of Revelation” series, “The Medellan Conspiracy,” here is an update on my progress. I completed the rewrite of the manuscript in early June and sent it off to my beta readers. I received their feedback a couple of weeks ago and am about to begin making the next round of edits and rewrites based on that feedback.

The good news is that the feedback after the rewrite wasn’t as extensive as I...

NoMoreWriMo: Why I Left NaNoWriMo Behind

Since I have long participated in NaNoWriMo and wrote many of my novels during this November event, I feel the need to post my thoughts about the latest controversy.

Recently, the NaNoWriMo organization posted its stance on the use of generative AI in writing, which rightfully upset many people. Aside from the fact they won’t deem the use of generative AI to win NaNoWriMo as cheating, they went so far as to call the condemnation of generative AI as classist and ableist.

From what I co...

Meet Me at Fort Collins Comic-Con

If you are anywhere near Northern Colorado in mid-August, drop by Fort Collins Comic-Con, drop by and say hello. I’ll be in the vendor room selling and autographing copies of “Artifact of the Dawn.” (Unfortunately, “The Medellan Conspiracy” has been delayed, but will still publish later this year).

This year the Fort Collins Comic-Con has some fantastic guests, including Dr. Erin MacDonald, an astrophysicist, writer, speaker, producer, and currently the official science advisor for the St...