E.S. Raye

So, a few weeks ago I wrote a little about the next novel I’m going to work on: a sci-fi set during World War I, inspired by the claim Manfred von Richthofen–better known as the Red Baron–shot down a flying saucer over Belgium.

You can find that brief introduction here.

But why that? Why not a sequel to Gas Giant Gambit (coming out September 2025!), which I do intend on turning into an episodic series? Why not the epic, 7-book, superhero, sci-fi, cosmic horror, dark fantasy, alternate World War 2 history series I’m tentatively calling “The Cobalt Fist” that I talk about from time to time?

Call it “strategy.”

You see, I want writing (both novels and screenplays) to be my main career, and I don’t write the genre that sells big right now: romance. That means I probably won’t start seeing enough sales to go full time until I have several books out and (hopefully) some dedicated readers.

So, when it came time to choose a new project, I had to take a moment to think strategically.

My contract for Gas Giant Gambit stipulates that I have to pitch my next book to Alex Parker Publishing first. If they pass, I am then free to get back into the querying trenches on my own. With that in mind, my first thought was that a Gas Giant Gambit sequel was the obvious choice: they liked one, so they should be primed to like another.

However, I decided that–for my long-term goals–that wasn’t good enough, for reasons I’ll get into.

That inevitably led to me seriously considering tackling The Cobalt Fist. It was the idea that inspired me to become an author in the first place, and the characters have been rattling their cages in my mind for years. It seemed like a good opportunity to let them out. I even started outlining the series again, one book at a time.

But my thoughts turned back to that long term goal.

I read somewhere (don’t ask me for a link, ’cause it’s long gone, and this therefore may not actually be accurate) that book series sales tend to drop off after the first or second. People read the first one because it is, in essence, a stand-alone. They don’t have to know anything going into it. But then, for subsequent books, you usually have had to read the first to understand the next, and so on.

They chances of capturing new readers with the second or third book in a series drops significantly.

To me, that means spreading new readers out over several stand-alone novels first should create a foundation of “Constant Readers,” and Stephen King calls them, who will then be more likely to stay with me throughout a 7 book arc.

With that in mind, I still could start on Book 1 of the Cobalt Fist, then do something else before revisiting Book 2. But when I really thought about it, and accepted that all writers get better the more they write, I came to the conclusion that I’m not ready for it yet. I would like a few more novels’ worth of growth as an author before I start on what I hope will be something of a magnum opus.

However, since I had just done some outlining for Book 1 of The Cobalt Fist, those characters where fresh in my mind. And one character (the MC’s superior officer) was already connected to the idea of the Red Baron shooting down a flying saucer. I started browsing through the story ideas I’ve written down over the years with this already floating around in my subconscious.

One story prompt jumped out at me: the main character learns their best friend is an alien passing themselves off as human–a la Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy‘s Ford Prefect–when an alien bounty hunter comes to collect them.

It immediately seemed obvious to me that I could connect these two ideas with a couple of changes: instead of a best friend, make it a love interest so I can try out a romantic subplot, and make the whole thing about xenophobia, a sentiment that was rampant on World War 1 battlefields as well as our modern societies.

This immediately felt like the right choice.

It keeps me close to my characters, acting as a sort of prequel to The Cobalt Fist, but (if I can manage it properly) will stand alone and not be required reading for Cobalt Fist’s first book; it gets to be topical and explore political commentary (as, in my opinion, the very best science fiction always does); and it fulfills my plan to spread out my stories to entice new readers with each release for a while before driving down a particular set of tracks.

And that’s why I’m working on something I’d never talked about before a few weeks ago. The truth is, I did something similar with Gas Giant Gambit. I had been working on Cobalt Fist stuff for months when I got the idea for Gas Giant and I just went with it. And here I am now, with a contract signed and a release date for it.

I’m still in the early phases where most of the work happens in my head, and this week has to be spent working on the final episode of the web series horror adaptation I am also working on, but I plan on kicking it into high gear next week and really diving in with both feet.

I hope you’ll stick around for title brainstorms, character reveals, my outlining process, and writing progress!