E.S. Raye

I’m currently working on one horror feature film screenplay we want to shoot next spring/summer. I’ve got another my production company is shopping around for funding, but it needs major rewrites. I’m also working on a horror adaptation web series we hope to start shooting in January. And finally, I’ve signed a contract for my novel to be published in September 2025, so I am currently waiting to hear back from their editor about developmental edits.

So, this seems like the perfect time to start a new project, right?

In fact, despite all the active projects, I’m in a waiting phase for each of them. Waiting on feedback, waiting on green light status, waiting on edits.

So, It actually is a good time to start something new, especially something a bit longer that will take some time anyway. So, I’m starting on my second novel!

If you’re a regular reader, you may expect me to talk about my epic, 7-book superhero/cosmic horror/scifi/alternate WWII history series I’ve tentatively been calling The Cobalt Fist.

But I’ve actually decided to keep the pin in that one for now.

Nor am I returning to the space Beyond the Cygnus Rift to follow Gus on an adventurous sequel to Gas Giant Gambit (although, I do already have an idea for the next one!).

Instead, I’m going to write a sci-fi that takes place during The Great War, likely set in 1917 or ’18. And while this is going to read as a stand-alone, it will also act as a prequel of sorts for The Cobalt Fist.

One of the key elements of The Cobalt Fist will be the unit the MC is attached to. “Dark Company,” a fictional division of the 502nd Parachute Infantry is something akin to Fox Mulder’s X files or the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense from the Hellboy comics.

But the MC of The Cobalt Fist doesn’t run D Company–he’s just their star soldier, being a former superhero and all.

My next novel will be about the man that does run D Company, and how he gained the experience that made him the only person who could.

The idea for this character came about when I was originally doing research for, and outlining, The Cobalt Fist. I discovered a claim that Manfred von Richthofen, the Red Baron himself, shot down a flying saucer over Belgium in 1917. The report also alleges two “beings” fled the crashed ship, running into the Belgian woods.

My MC for this story (I had named him Captain Pyke in my original notes–an intentional reference to Star Trek–but this was before Strange New Worlds came out, so I’ll likely change his name now) will be tasked with investigating this claim and keeping any recoverable technology out of enemy hands.

He will meet one of the “Martians” who escaped, disguised as a human woman. And as he tries to protect her from the horrors of the First World War, he will learn she needs protection from a more galactic threat as well.

I can’t say much more yet, as I have only begun my initial research phase, but I am planning on including my very first romantic subplot, and making the main theme centered on xenophobia and ethnocentrism, problems that were extreme during World War I, and are again today.

It should be a lot of fun, so stick around for updates on this, and everything else I’m waiting around for!