Spotlight on: Gray Williams
Hi, I'm Gray Williams and for the past couple of years I've been writing a pair of books called the Black Market Magic series. They're both supernatural thrillers. The first, The End of the Line, came out July 2019 and the second, Strange Ways, came out June 2020. They're both published in ebook by Canelo and in audiobook by Bolinda Audio (narrated by the fabulous Nneka Okoye). They're set in a world much like ours except for one crucial difference: magic is real but outlawed in the UK. The books follow a professional heist artist, Amanda Coleman, as she works in the criminal underworld, working with (or, a lot of the time, against) magic-wielding gangsters, zealous politicians, murderers, thieves and even a supernatural entity or two. They're fast-paced thrillers with a supernatural edge, in fact a magazine recently described the series as Supernatural meets Jessica Jones, which summed it up perfectly!
What’s the first novel you remember completing and was this the first book you had published?
I wrote my first book when I was twenty-one (I'm in my mid-thirties now). I was at Bath Spa University studying, wait for it, Geographical Information Systems and Remote Sensing, with a minor in Creative Writing (probably the only person in the country to do that one). In the summer before my third year, I finally got serious about writing and resolved to write 500 words a day. And boom! My first novel was written. It was called Angelwatch. It was set in a world much like our own (sound familiar?) except for one crucial difference: angels had come down from heaven to take a direct hand in human affairs. It was a detective story with a detective (who might have hated angels? I can't remember) who had to investigate the murder of an angel - an impossible crime. Dear me, it was terrible. At one point, the detective uncovered a case-breaking clue, he stood up and said 'My God, of course!' and then... he went for lunch?! Truly awful, but it got me in the habit of writing every day and I proved to myself that I could write a novel.
There were four other novels between that and The End of the Line, but each was better than the last and really helped hone my writing skills. I'd throw them all in a bottomless pit now, and hope no one will ever read them, but I'm glad I wrote every single word of them. They got me to where I am today.
What’s one piece of advice you have from your own experience submitting to agents?
That's a tough one. You'll see a lot of authors advising you to make sure to research the agents you send to in order to ensure they take on the kind of book you're writing and that you should make sure your pitch is the best it can possibly be, and those are very, very true. On top of those, my advice is that once you send off those queries, you should start thinking about your next project. I was 20,000 words into a new book by the time I started hearing back from agents when I was submitting The End of the Line. The wait for feedback can be excruciating, it can take months and you'll put yourself through hell the whole time. Having another project to work on not only helps take your mind off it, but it also can help take the sting off rejection. You can tell yourself, 'Damn, they didn't like that one, but I'm already working on this even better thing! Maybe that will be the one'. And if you do get an agent, great! You have a new project already underway that you can pick up later!
What has been a highlight of the publishing process so far?
There are quite a few to choose from. Getting my first round of feedback from Juliet was amazing! Someone who really got my story and had all these great points on how to make it even better was such a great feeling. Hearing my words narrated as an audio book was incredible as well, that was when being published really started to feel real to me. And doing my first event, getting on stage and reading aloud to an audience was such a terrific experience.
What are you writing next?
Right now I'm deep in a new project, separate from the Black Market Magic series. I don't want to say too much, but it's a fantasy and it involves dark gods, evil cults, corrupt business moguls, shadowy streets, dust storms, the horror of the trenches, speakeasies, murder, kidnap, monsters, ghouls, rituals, fencing, and a whole lot of fun. I'm having such a blast writing it. From the chapter titles on down, I'm really pushing myself to give readers something that surprises and delights them on every page, I can't wait to share it with people.