John Gray Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

John Gray is an Award winning columnist and author who has for a long time reported for the “Capital Region Living Magazine,” the “Saratogian” and the “Troy Record.”

While he is best known for his debut novel “Manchester Christmas,” he started out writing children’s fiction. Gray always wanted to write a novel but he never expected that he would get to do it so soon. While working as a reporter and columnist, he just assumed that he would get to retire once he was retired.

In an interview with “The Daily Gazette” he said that he believed he would have more time once he was retired. His debut novel’s idea came from a vivid dream and afterwards, he just could not stop thinking about it.

However, it would take more than a year of writing, editing and looking for a publisher before he published the work in 2017.

Gray has always loved writing ever since he was in the fourth grade and still remembers when he got an A after writing a story that he then read to the class. It was quite an experience and a memory he can not let go.

He would go on to work on school newspapers through college and high school as he always wanted to find a career in something where he would get to write. Looking back, his biggest influence was the Lasalle Institute English teacher who taught him in the seventh grade.

Mr. Dave Kissick encouraged him a lot in his quest to become a writer. As a thirteen year old, his teacher had pulled him aside and told him something that has stayed with him to this day. He said that while he had the opportunity to read a lot of student work, John Gray’s writing stood out and he should consider saving it.

His teacher also gave him a folder that he could use for his writing and he still has that folder four decades later. Having someone tell him that he was a good writer and have belief in him was just what he needed to take the path that he did.

John Gray would go on to become a successful award winning TV journalist even though writing has always been what would give him most joy. He usually writes a column that gives observations about his life in “Capital Region Living Magazine.”

While he finds writing columns fun, what he really likes is fiction writing as he likes to create something out of nothing and have people enjoy his creations. For Gray, it is not about money as he writes because he loves to write with the money being secondary.

His work as a journalist has hurt as much as it has helped with his writing. Since he has been writing for TV for quite some time, he knows how to turn a phrase and move a story along. However, it has hampered him as a fiction author since he tends to tell a lot more, when fiction demands that a writer show.
But he is still adapting his writing and given the success of his debut novel, he has not done too badly for himself.

“Manchester Christmas” by John Gray introduces a young writer named Chase, who is looking for a fresh new start in New England with a big story. She ends up in Vermont a few days after Thanksgiving and starts living at what used to be a church that has been converted into a private residence.

All that remains of the original features and furnishings of St. Pius Church are the stained glass windows. They bizarrely keep changing and somehow alert Chase of dangerous things in the future.

She is immediately adopted by the community and soon after catches the eye of a local farmer. With Christmas coming up, she gets involved in the holiday festivity, hoping they would take her mind off the painful events of Manchester.

It is a perfect fun story that will bring a smile to your face and a tear to your eye. Gray comes with several cliches you would find in a Hallmark Christmas movie including a big city girl moving to a small town setting where she has to deal with gossipy townspeople and a handsome love interest.
It is written in such an endearing and honest way that one cannot help but be drawn in.

Chase Harrington had managed to find success with her first novel and in “Chasing Manhattan,” the second novel of the series by John Gray she is hiding in the Big Apple. She assumes she has left her past behind and has taken a new assignment only to find herself in a perplexing mystery.

It involves Sebastian Winthrop the deceased billionaire and the Briarcliff Manor. The dead man had left behind a letter that brought to light three secrets about the manor that she now calls home.

Soon enough she starts getting messages asking her to help her loved ones who may be in danger. One of these is a war veteran dealing with PTSD and a deaf child that had been totally isolated from the world.

Working with Gavin, her handsome boyfriend and Scooter, her faithful dog, she sets out to unl9ock the many secrets of the manor house. It is a story full of astounding turns and twists, mystery, romance and kindness.

“Keller’s Heart” by John Gray is a very different kind of love story from the usual princess trapped in a tower, dragon and castles story. Nonetheless, the work has a fluffy knight and a girl who rescue each other.

Raven is a deaf young woman who has had a rough time at school as the other children will not play with her believing her too brittle. The fluffy knight is deaf dog that had been abandoned by the roadside as a puppy.

Right from the moment of their first meeting, they get each other and Raven takes him home to ask if she can adopt him. Since she only recently read about Helen Kellerthe the xtraordinary blind and deaf woman who had achieved so much as she decided to name the dog Keller.
Raven soon teaches the dog sign language and the two soon become best friends showing people around them that everyone needs a friend and that it is fine to be different.

It is a wonderful story that introduces children to the world of being different and aspects of kindness.