E.S. Raye

I’m a little late with this, but I was completely wiped out with a migraine all last week.

But now I’m better, so I’m pleased to announce that I have finally finished the first draft of my World War 1 set sci-fi novel Shallow Trenches/Open Skies.

I had originally thought I would finish in December of 2025.

Missed that mark by a hair.

The simple fact is, this one was harder to write than Gas Giant Gambit. And I think that’s because I tried to rush it. I didn’t know my characters as well as the folk of Las Ráfagas, nor did I have as strong a connection to the story or theme.

But, I know them now, and I have built my sandbox. Now I get o play in it.

Truthfully, writing the first draft the only part of the process I struggle with. Outlining and world building is easily my favorite part of any writing project, but editing a first draft into something fit for human consumption is definitely a close second.

This time around promises to be a much more in-depth process.

There are so many new elements I need to incorporate, from character quirks to multiple, whole, thematically meaningful scenes. But I am looking forward to it more than I did any single day of writing.

But, I can’t start yet.

I need time away from it first. I need the story to both digest a bit–and be a little forgotten. I find starting the next leg of the process with some distance from the last makes cutting and changing things much easier–the emotional connection to certain things wanes and darlings become far easier to kill.

So, in the meantime, I plan on finishing up the upcoming issue of Perseid Prophecies (all the stories have been chosen and it’s now just down to formatting and picking a cover), and–what I am most excited for–brainstorming, world building, and outlining the next novel!

I don’t have a title yet, but it’s gonna be a weird one, leaning much further into horror than either Gas Giant Gambit or Shallow Trenches/Open Skies even hinted at. But if you’ve read some of my short stories (specifically “SSID,” “Mortem Moratus,” and “The Séance”–and “Thirsty,” but you’ll have to wait until 2027 to read that one) you may have an inkling of what I’m about to dive into.

I’m thinking comic horror, eldritch monsters, cults of personality, and alternate dimensions. All set during the 1950s, in an era of religious expansion with the rise of televangelists, beat culture, and the threat of thermonuclear war looming over ever afternoon.

I don’t know much more yet, but that’s were the fun is!

Once that outline is complete, I’ll return to Shallow Trenches to bust out a second and third draft. At that point it may be time to go to beta readers, or perhaps straight to my publisher–they have first right of refusal for this manuscript but I’m not sure at what part of the process they want to see it.

Regardless, it should be a fun summer!