E.S. Raye

The last few days have been extremely exciting and I have a number of updates to share!

Developmental Edits

First and foremost, I have received the first round of developmental edits! Despite being assured at the beginning of the process that there were no plot or structural changes needed, I was still anxious about this. I’ve never gotten this level of professional scrutiny of my work before! It’s nerve-wracking!

But, the response from my editor was overwhelmingly positive. Every area I was concerned about, like dialogue and action sequences, received high praise, and you can see the editor getting more excited as the climax draws near.

What’s more, the suggested edits are impeccable and will undoubtedly make the story better overall.

And a major bad habit of mine has been laid bare. It’s so prominent my editor simply copy and pasted the same comment for every chapter: I do way too much “telling” instead of “showing.” To be honest, I wasn’t completely clear on the difference before. But my editor has done me an incredible service of not only wading through all of it and calling it out, but explaining the concept in clear terms that I now finally understand.

All my writing will improve because of my editor’s hard work on this.

I now have a date I need to complete these edits by, and while it is short and will arrive quickly, I work best with deadline! I get started this week, and I can’t wait!

Book Art

Cover Samples

With help from my publisher, we found an appropriate cover artist a couple of weeks ago. I’ve struggled with what the cover should look like for as long as I’ve worked on Gas Giant. I’m usually a fairly artistically minded person, but in this case I simply couldn’t picture it.

But, I’ve been collecting scifi and western book covers I like, and the artist provided a questionnaire about the book. And between all that, I’ve been provided with some sample covers.

And they are great!

The artist was really able to capture both genres in a way I was not expecting. It’s only the first round, so there were some details that needed working out, but I am excited to see what they do with my input.

Maps

That’s right! Gas Giant Gambit will have not one, but two maps! One of the story’s little corner of the galaxy, the Orion Arm, or simply “the Arm,” as the characters call it, and one of Las Rafagas itself.

I created my own, crude versions of these maps for my purposes while I was writing. I wasn’t sure I would even include them. But then I saw a social media post about how more books should have maps, a sentiment some of my closest friends shared. And I remembered how much I appreciate a good book map. So, I ultimately decided to include them.

My publisher was completely on board, an we have found an artist! It’s still the earliest phase (we’re only just sharing details now), but I expect to see a first draft based on my maps very soon!

Next Steps

I can’t really get into specific dates yet, but the next few months promise to be one exciting thing after another. I hope you’ll come along with me!