Grayson Bell's Blog, page 8

Launching My First Novel

Tomorrow my first novel, Coffee-to-Go officially launches in both ebook and paperback formats. I couldn’t be more excited. I’ve dreamed of having a published novel for a long time and I am now realizing my dream. While this is the first novel I am publishing, this is not the first story I’ve written. Since I began writing fiction in 2015, I have completed sixty fan fiction stories. A few of those were also novel-length. I also have a science fiction novel that I’ve been working on since 2015...

Launching my First Novel

Tomorrow my first novel, Coffee-to-Go officially launches in both ebook and paperback formats. I couldn’t be more excited. I’ve dreamed of having a published novel for a long time and I am now realizing my dream. While this is the first novel I am publishing, this is not the first story I’ve written. Since I began writing fiction in 2015, I have completed sixty fan fiction stories. A few of those were also novel-length. I also have a science fiction novel that I’ve been working on since 2015...

Coffee-to-Go is Available for Kindle Pre-Order

Leo shouldn’t have run after the customer who left behind his coffee in a rush. He should have looked where he was going. He should have seen that car coming…

When Leo wakes up in the hospital, he recognizes his nurse as the handsome customer he rushed after … the customer he’s had a crush on for nearly a year now. Coffee-to-Go. When Andy awkwardly flirts with Leo, it becomes clear that the attraction is mutual.

Before anything can truly spark between them, Leo’s life is thrown into chaos whe...

Using Beta Readers

All novels need editing. Never publish a first draft because no writer is ever perfect. For authors who are lucky enough to land an agent and/or publishing contract, they will assign a professional editor to them. Even with the help of a professional editor, I’m sure we’ve all read novels that still had grammar and spelling errors.

Independent authors don’t get the opportunity to have a professional editor assigned to them. We want our novels to be just as close to perfect as traditionally pu...

How Explicit is too Explicit?

When it comes to writing purely erotic romance novels, explicit sex scenes are to be expected. However, if the novel revolves more around romance, sex scenes less obligatory. However, I’ve found there is some debate among romance writers as to how explicit the sex scenes should be.

When I first set out to write Coffee-to-Go, I had intended it to be a fun, sexy, erotic romp between my two main characters. As the plot began to develop,  it became more of a romance novel than erotica. I still wa...

Coffee-to-Go Update

I am proud to report that I have completed the first draft of my debut novel, Coffee-to-Go. So what’s next? Right now the manuscript is in the hands of my alpha readers. They will give me their first impressions for the story before I begin to edit. I plan to edit the novel extensively before I even considering to publish, so it may still be some weeks (maybe months) before it’s available.

On that note, I don’t want to keep people waiting forever, so I present to you the opening scene of the...

Why Write Gay Romance?

Romance is arguably one of the most popular genres in literature. So, why would an author limit themselves to only writing gay romance? The obvious answer is the fact that I happen to be a genderqueer author. However, the reason why I write gay romance goes deeper than that.

Representation

First of all, I feel that there needs to be more representation of LGBTQ+ characters across all genres of literature. True representation, not just the fantasies of straight, cisgendered female authors. I h...

Writing Fan Fiction

When I first began to write fiction, I started with fan fiction. The video game series Dragon Age inspired me to write stories more than any other fandom had before. To date, I have written fifty-six fan fiction works, ranging in size from 100 words to 87,000 words, for a cumulative of over 700,000 words.

What is Fan Fiction?

Fan fiction stems from the desire of various fans of a particular movie, television series, book, or video game to see certain storylines play out. If you have ever been...

Writing Erotic Scenes

I’ve seen this question arise frequently in the writers’ groups that I’m in: how do I write an erotic sex scene? The answer may seem obvious to some, but I thought I’d share my approach.

Read

I’d recommend reading erotic stories to see how other people write sex scenes. Some will be well written, some will be poorly written, but it will give you a sense of how such scenes are played out.

I would further recommend focussing your reading on the type of sex scene you want to write. Will your cha...

LGBTQ Love and Inclusion

As a genderqueer individual, I strongly believe that we need more LGBTQ representation in literature. I’ve spent the last three years writing a lot of gay fan fiction stories in a variety of fandoms–from the video game Dragon Age to the TV series Supernatural, Teen Wolf and Merlin.

I had many reasons to write fan fiction. It was a great way for me to improve my writing, while also writing gay storylines that weren’t being included in the fandoms I enjoyed. Many of these fandoms like to tease...