For those of you that follow me regularly on social media, especially Instagram, you are aware that I have a secret project in the works. My historical novel 'At Peace' was expected to debut at the end of the year. After some long periods of consideration, I have decided that 'At Peace' will come out in June 2022.

The main reason for this push back is that I will be returning to my former job (before Covid-19 turned my world upside down and I got laid off from my job). More importantly, I am planning to move overseas for a new position at the end of December, so that will be my primary focus for the next few months.

I do apologize to my fans for this major inconvenience. I am aware that many of you were excited for my new book, but I thought it deserved the respect it deserved by pushing back the premiere date. It is more important to me to put 100% of my effort, time and focus into this novel, rather than rushing through the process and diminishing its value to the reader. 

On a happier note, I am planning to partner up with a indie artist on Instagram for the book cover. If you want a sneak peak of the kind of art that will be displayed on the front cover, please visit her Instagram page @heafjaart

Thank you for your patience and understanding. 'At Peace' will be my longest novel to date, and the most heart-wrenching romance in my opinion. You can expect some more updates on my latest novel in the coming months.

Thank you once more,

Peter

For the life of me, I will never understand how people are able to publish books with the title: "How to Become a Writer." It puzzles me exceedingly, and probably will until my dying day.

My favourite poet of all time, John Keats, once said "If poetry comes not as naturally as leaves to a tree, it had better not come at all."

In my opinion, you cannot teach a person how to write. They simply are a writer! The act of writing is like walking or swimming, yes you can teach a person how to do it, but some will develop it more naturally than others, perhaps even excel at it enough to make a living.

Writing comes naturally to me, it is a form of art that I have nurtured ever since I was a child. My mind was filled with endless daydreams. For hours I would sit at home, stare at the sky, and see a world of imagination before me. To this day, even if I find myself waiting at the doctor's office or for the next train, I can feel my mind developing a new plot-line to keep me entertained. But we should return to the title of this blog post "How to Master Intuitive Writing." Firstly, to be an intuitive writer you must learn how to listen to the inner voice. We all have a voice inside of us, mostly represented by the media as an angel and devil on our shoulder, but I am not referring to the inner voice of our conscious mind. No, it is a far more elusive one! It is the voice that suggests decisions on a daily basis. The one that decides whether you should save your money this morning or drive over to Starbucks for a nice pastry and an iced caramel macchiato. It is that voice that I use when writing a story, except I rely on it so heavily that I never plot it out from beginning to end. I listen to the voice as it naturally whispers over my shoulder, suggesting a sudden plot-twist or to suddenly kill off the character. It is the voice of the unexpected, of pure creativity, of madness!

Henceforth, to master this style of writing you need two things: a strong sense of intuitive thinking and a wild imagination. They act as a sort of yin and yang, a perfect balance of harmony that will allow you to craft a story. To become efficient at this style of writing may I suggest you practice writing prompts. There are tons of them out there on the internet, a simple Google search and you will have a list to last you the year. For example, "The custodian walked into the classroom, alarmed at the sound of..."  Wait a second. Let your imagination give way and fly to new heights. What was the sound that the custodian heard? A chilling laugh of madness, a painful scream, the painfully familiar voice of his ex-wife? Can't you see the endless worlds of possibilities? So, to master this style of writing, I suggest you practice using writing prompts until you develop the natural ability to story-tell without a detailed plot-line placed in front of you.

One final piece of advice I will leave with you is to develop a visual board. My preference is Pinterest, as you can see by the screenshot image above. On a weekly basis, I choose images that stimulate my creative mind and pin it there, continually referencing to them as I write a story. Keep the ball rolling, everyone! Always search for inspiration! Take up a pen, scribble on paper, and with some hard work and a little bit of luck you will create a masterpiece.

QOTD: Would you be interested if I created a "Peter Gray" Pinterest account for you to follow?

 A great power lies inside of you. Close your eyes. Be still. In time you will feel it, like a low  frequency that connects you to this universe. There is a power in stillness, and for writers it can become their greatest weapon.

I never plan out my story-lines. Instead, I let the idea naturally come to me and then like a tea bag steeping in water, I let these thoughts naturally grow in strength over time. Once an idea is formed in my mind, I finally sit down to put pen on paper, but even then, these "ideas" are not concrete nor are they set in stone.

To be a good intuitive writer you must listen to your gut- always. This style of writing is similar to a spiritual person that utilizes their third-eye after long periods of mediation to effectively sharpen their intuition. In this same way, I use my "gut feelings" when crafting a story.

In short, intuitive writing is a style that only a few authors adopt, most of them are self-professed introverts with their heads constantly in the clouds. This style of writing is a scary process because there is no end game in sight, you never know how your story will end. I would say it is like gambling, but it does not replicate that high that is often associated with such a risky past-time. Rather, it is like walking around a darkened room while squinting your eyes into tiny slits and having your arms carefully spread out in case you happen to fall upon the cold, hard floor. It can be an exhilarating feeling, especially when you gain inspiration from your subconscious thoughts, natural surroundings, or random people that you happened to encounter when you are at the peak of your writing process. Suddenly, crazy plot-lines pop up inside of your head when you are engrossed in tedious, quotidian tasks, such as washing the dishes, driving to work, or taking a shower. A sudden epiphany strikes like lightening and then you rush over to your notebook to write it down. I often have this experience with potential character names or their physical appearances at random times of the day, it is as if the story is building by itself inside of my head with little effort on my part.

Now imagine you and your friends set up the game of dominoes. Picture it in your mind's eye. You can see the long line, the beginning and the end, don't you? It is universally acknowledged that when you knock down one piece then the rest of them will follow. Now, with most writers they set up their novel like a game of dominoes.  Intuitive writers are significantly different, we set up the game while the dominoes pieces are still falling. Crazy, isn't it? Except we knock down the pieces in slow motion, while placing the next dominoes at the perfect time to have it knock down another one. It is like a rat race, a whirl-wind event, but that is the most exhilarating part about it!

If you want to learn more about intuitive writing and how to master it, I will share a few key tips in my next blog post. Make sure to subscribe to blog or follow me on Instagram @petergray_writer to learn more.

There came a point in my life that I was so good at writing sex scenes that I could be penning it in a middle of a University lecture, even on the subway ride home. After a while I grew tired of it, and decided that when I become a self-publisher I wanted to experiment writing and publishing clean romances as well. It would mean not having a book cover with a hot sexy man bare chested with abs, or a steamy photo that would send young woman flocking to Amazon to buy it.

Now, do I miss writing steamy romances? Certainly, the desire is still there to produce them. At the same time I have learned (much to my satisfaction) that a slow burn has just as much fighting power. When I penned "The Tragic Tale of Teddy Woven" and "Awakening," there was a clear intent to create a slow burn where the main characters did not kiss until the very end of the novel. Why? Because I know that the reader deep down inside desires it. They can't take the sexual tension seething between the two characters and want the instant gratification of seeing them finally giving into their desires.

So, a valuable lesson I learned this year is that sex does sell, but so does a good slow burn.

Part three of Real Talks will be revealed this upcoming Saturday, so check my blog or Instagram for the latest updates.