Austin Gragg's Blog

AUSTIN GRAGG

NOV 17, 2024

Folks have been asking how writing is going after the election. To be honest? It’s been fine. Great. Wonderful even. This is the work. This is what I do—what I was meant to be and why I was put on this Earth if you believe in some higher power who plans such things.

The election.

Ha.

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I have nothing to...

We’ll start with the good stuff. This is the petty drama edition of the email, I suppose. I’m giving you the good stuff because I suppose this is likely my last email of the year. If you know me, you know I sometimes like to get in a good fight—online, that is. It’s a character flaw I’ve NEARLY eliminated. (Well, okay. I was a martial arts kid. And as the new year approaches, I find myself practicing HEMA again and looking at club memberships… so maybe I do like a figh...

Well, well, well… THE DARK WELL is well—and has officially started its submission journey! What is submission, you ask? This is the penultimate step in traditional publishing. Well, it’s the penultimate step before a book deal—if a book is to sell. Some don’t. I’m trying really hard not to think about that right now, though. Submission is where a writer’s agent prepares a submission letter and a list of acquiring editors to send the manuscript to. We’re VE...

There’s nothing on the planet I enjoy more than being my daughters’ father. I find myself feeling out of place on this day, though. Of course, many of us deal with complex feelings around the holiday. Like many folks, my own father is no longer with us. These first few years I’ve celebrated the holiday have always been days of uncontrollable emotion. One moment I’m relaxed and happy and playing with my daughter, and the next I might be a total mess as I think about...

Austin Gragg

May 24, 2024

Last week I finally got together with some friends after a long while of “being busy” with responsibilities and… reading. But not the fun reading. The kind where you read the thing YOU wrote for what feels like the billionth time. Looking for mistakes, holes, errors. Places where characters don’t act quite like themselves. Where motivations could be sharpened, or dialog tightened. Or maybe you still had your head in the sexy scenes and chose not to give someone underw...

A quick look at why everyone thinks they can write a book, about how nobody thinks they have the time to do so, and how you absolutely do—and how to make it happen.

Everybody wants to write a book... one day. If you're a writer (or artist of any kind) you've probably had someone tell you something akin to “ohh I would love to write a book one day, if only I had the time.” If only they had the time. Writers hear this a lot. From family, from friends, and more often than not, from strangers ...

I wrote a response to an op-ed in the Star about the KC Chief’s behavior at the Super Bowl Parade and Rally — you can read it here: https://www.kansascity.com/opinion/r...

I recently read the short story "Recognition" by Victor LaValle and can't recommend it enough. If you're ready for art about the pandemic, it's excellent. The story is brief, simple and powerful, like a punch you see coming, but cannot fathom the impact of. You can find it in The Decameron Project anthology put together by the NYT Editors.

I've been avoiding pandemic related art because most of it seems like reactionary, short-sighted garbage and is. Time needs to wash the events for a clearer pi...

I crushed my writing goal last night and had time to build/kitbash some models! For those who've been asking lately: I'm still querying and feel great about the agents who have the manuscript at the moment (I'm eager to nudge when the time is right to let them know I got into the Ad Astra Institute!).

But my focus now is on the next novel, a dark fantasy titled "Magemaker" at the moment, which I'd currently describe as del Toro's The Shape of Water meets Clive Barker's Weaveworld in a "save the ...

I didn’t get to watch nearly as many movies as I wanted to this year, but with all the house projects, rearing a toddler, and the changes happening in my writing life, I guess that’s to be expected. Here’s a few films I really liked of what I did manage to see — not a top list by any means, but rather what happened to come to mind without thinking too hard about what came out this year.

CRIMES OF THE FUTURE