Category: Tropes

  • What You’ll Find in My Writing

    What You’ll Find in My Writing

    With Gas Giant Gambit out now, as well as several of my short stories, including the sci-fi/noir “The Stuff Legends are Made of” in RARE, and my followup novel Shallow Trenches/Open Skies well into its initial draft, (not to mention a larger audience as of late) perhaps it’s time to…

  • The Freudian Trio

    The Freudian Trio

    Before I get into the meat of this topic, I have some exciting news to share! Both RARE: A Dark Anthology of Unusual Secrets (featuring my sci-fi/noir short story “The Stuff Legends are Made Of”) and Gas Giant Gambit were submitted to the American Writing Awards by Alex Parker Publishing;…

  • Guest Takeover: Blazing the Space-Western Frontier with E.S. Raye

    Guest Takeover: Blazing the Space-Western Frontier with E.S. Raye

    This week’s blog comes to you from the Alex Parker Publishing website, we’re I’m in the middle of something of a takeover this Gas Giant Gambit release week! # Hi! I’m E.S. Raye, and my debut novel, Gas Giant Gambit: A Tall Tale From Beyond the Cygnus Rift, came out on…

  • Gas Giant Gambit: Ray

    Gas Giant Gambit: Ray

    When I’m figuring out my main characters, I like to fall back on one trope in particular: the Freudian Trio. Once you’re aware of this trope, you start to see it everywhere, but perhaps the best example of it is Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock, and Dr. McCoy. McCoy is the…

  • Gas Giant Gambit: Themes

    Gas Giant Gambit: Themes

    Over the last six or seven weeks, I’ve been spending a huge amount of my time back in Las Ráfagas, the central setting of Gas Giant Gambit. I completed one round of developmental edits, and practically before the second round was finished, we’d already begun on copy and line edits!…

  • My Favorite Thing to Write: Genre Mashups with a Historical Bent

    My Favorite Thing to Write: Genre Mashups with a Historical Bent

    Wow. Yeah. That’s a mouthful. But as I look over the original projects I’ve got coming out over the next few months, as well as the projects I’m currently working on, this is undeniably true. I really love writing genre mashups that have a certain (if varying) historical element. Here’s…

  • Writing Outside Your Genre 2: Electric Romance

    Writing Outside Your Genre 2: Electric Romance

    Almost a year ago I wrote a blog about writing outside your genre. At the time, I was waiting to hear where I had placed in the first rounds of NYC Midnight’s 2024 Short Story Challenge and Screenwriting Challenge (I made it to the second round in both contests, but…

  • Gas Giant Gambit: A Space-Western Heavy on the Western

    Gas Giant Gambit: A Space-Western Heavy on the Western

    This week, I had my very first guest appearance on a podcast! I spoke with Glen Weatherhead of the Creative Writing Wizard website and podcast (if you missed it, you can check it out on YouTube and Spotify [it may also be elsewhere, I’m not sure all the places Glen…

  • Writing Outside Your Genre

    Writing Outside Your Genre

    For the last two years, I have participated in a couple of NYC Midnight’s writing challenges, specifically the Short Story and Screenwriting Challenges. Last year, I made it to the second round of both contests. Right now, I’m waiting on results from the first round of each contest to see if I…