E.S. Raye

I’ve finally done it! After 40+ submissions of short stories and the Gas Giant Gambit manuscript, I finally did it.

My short horror story “SSID” was published by Alex Parker Publishing on February 1st last week.

This is not only the very first time one of my stories has been published; it is the very first short story Alex Parker Pub has ever published! Regarding a content warning, the ending gets just a tad gory. You can read SSID for free here.

But, with this in mind, I wanted to discuss the story and the publishing process this week.

The Inspiration

“SSID” is (and I feel a little weird describing it like this myself, but there is no other word for it) Lovecraftian. It delves into themes of curiosity, forbidden knowledge, and the price one must sometimes pay for not heeding the warnings of others.

In a nutshell, without giving away too much of the plot, it centers on a supposedly cursed Wi-Fi network at none other than Miskatonic University, Lovecraft’s own fictional Massachusetts institute of higher learning and medical school. As a big fan of Lovecraft’s work (though not necessarily the man himself, who was a bigot and racist of the highest order), I’m beyond excited that my first published work fits nicely into the mythos.

The original inspiration for “SSID” was one of Lovecraft’s lesser-known works, but one of my favorites, “The Music of Erich Zann.” In this short, a young man becomes enthralled by the strange music he hears from his usually quiet neighbor’s apartment. The story takes some bizarre turns as the main character learns there is much more to Mr. Zann’s music than the sounds coming from his violin.

I wanted to write something similar but with a more modern flare, and I thought, “What better than Wi-Fi?”

Of course, in the end, “SSID” ended up being nothing like “The Music of Erich Zann” at all! And that’s okay. Where we start doesn’t have to dictate where we end up!

The Process

Having never had a story published, I wasn’t totally sure what to expect from the process, but the people at Alex Parker Publishing were kind enough to hold my hand through the process and make it as painless as it could possibly be.

The whole thing started, of course, with my submission of “SSID” to their website. From there, it was a few weeks of waiting, and then, the acceptance letter. There, they told me they enjoyed the concept and wanted to publish the story on their website – if I was open to a few changes, none of which would be changes to the story itself, they assured me.

I had expected this, as publishers have their own editors and would want the very best version of any story they publish so it reflects well on them.

Of course, I agreed.

When they got back to me with the suggested changes, they amounted to fleshing out the main character a little to make their motivations more apparent. I appreciated the suggestions and got to work applying them immediately. In fact, the only reason I hadn’t done more of that initially was because I was trying to keep the story beneath 1000 words, as a challenge for myself. But with no word count limit for Alex Parker, I relished the opportunity to give my main character a more explicit reason for doing what they did.

I finished up the changes and sent the new draft back.

Then, the holidays hit, and everyone took a well-deserved break.

Shortly after the new year, I heard back again: they were doing minor copyediting but were on track to publish it on February 1st. At this time, I was sent a straightforward contract awarding Alex Parker Publishing the rights to publish the story for one year and ensuring I retained all rights to the story and characters—pretty boilerplate stuff. I signed and sent it back, and shortly after that, I received a copy with their signature as well (I plan on framing it. Some people mount animal heads, and I plan to mount acceptance letters and signed contracts).

A few days later, I was supplied with “SSID” in Google Docs with their suggested copyedits. These were minor changes of a word here or there and a sentence or two reworded for clarity – nothing major and nothing I would consider “changing my words.” They even had a few questions about a passage or two but seemed satisfied with my explanation and agreed no changes were needed.

With that done, “SSID” was ready for publication. It appeared on their website on time on Thursday, February 1st, and they even made a little TikTok video to promote it, which they shared with me to paste all over my social media.

All in all, I could not ask for a better first experience with publishing a story!

And hey, if you’ve come this far, why don’t you go read it? You can find it here; keep in mind it does get a little dark at the end and describes some pretty unethical medical procedures.

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