E.S. Raye

Back at the beginning of April, I wrote a blog post titled Writing News & April Anticipation. And now that it’s May a lot of that anticipation has paid off, so I thought it was time for a follow up!

Contest & Awards

Laramie Awards

I won’t bury the lead, and will instead jump into the big news:

Gas Giant Gambit won the Laramie Award for Adventure Caper!

What an absolute honor and complete validation of all my work. In order to make outer space feel like the old west, I dove into pioneer and civil war history and cowboy media with both feet. I spent hours taking notes from websites and documentaries to elarn the history as well as watching old movies to learn the tropes and narrative language.

All that effort has been proven justified when my decidedly science fiction version of a western won an award designed for historical fiction and contemporary westerns.

To say I am overjoyed is an understatement!

NYC Midnight Short Story Challenge

“Lines of Demarcation,” my technoir short story (and sequel to “The Stuff Legends are Made Of” in Rare) earned second place in my group and got me a spot in Round 2! I plan on expanding this story to at least twice its length and make it a true successor to “The Stuff…”

For Round 2, I was promptly assigned Romance–yet again. I have done several of the NYC Midnight writing challenges, including the short story challenge, screenplay challenge, and flash fiction challenge. I have done them over many years. Somehow, Romance has risen to the top as the genre I am assigned most frequently. And it’s not even close.

Oh well.

I took the opportunity to write an origin story for a pair of villains for my 1930s/40s superhero’s rogues gallery. Even if I don’t move on to the third round, it was fun, and I have two know characters to play with later.

Second round results will be announced in early June.

Writing News Update

Short Story in Blood Moon Rising

My short story “The Séance” is now live in Blood Moon Rising Magazine #103. Get the issue for free for the rest of the month of May!

And as a hint for what you can expect from “The Séance”:

A young woman is unwillingly dragged into a roadside psychic’s storefront, and learns an ancient secret from her family’s past that forever changes the way she sees the world.

Other Tales

In my April Anticipations blog, I mentioned that I had submitted a story to a serial sci-fi anthology that accepts only one contemporary short story per issue–the rest is made up of classic sci-fi and fantasy tales.

I am excited to report that “Athenaeum 496” has been accepted and will appear in Other Tales Issue VI, in both print and audiobook, with a projected release date of June 5th!

“Athenaeum 496” is a sort of sequel to Gas Giant Gambit, and follows and adult Hector Vega as he goes on an adventure to save Las Ráfagas from a natural disaster, only for his quest leads him into an unexpected moral dilemma.

Look for it June 5th!

Finishing Shallow Trenches/Open Skies

Last month I tempted fate and predicted I would have the first draft of Shallow Trenches/Open Skies done by now.

I do not.

It feels like I’m crawling through the manuscript. But I am making progress, even it if it slow. Hopefully I can finish it up this month.

Outlining The Cobalt Fist

Of course, part of the reason I haven’t progressed as rapidly with Shallow Trenches as I had hopped was because I shot myself in the foot when I gave myself permission to start working on Cobalt Fist stuff again.

The Cobalt Fist is my happy place, and I love playing in that sandbox. The problem is, once I’m in there, it’s hard to get back out. I’m always thinking about it, even when I really should be doing something different.

But, I have made some real progress with the lore and narrative structure, so I think it’s worth it, even if the speed with which I finish Shallow Trenches slows down some.

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That’s all for now! Good luck in your endeavours, and I hope you’ll wish me the same!