E.S. Raye's Blog, page 4

General Writing Update

I’m a day late with this week’s blog due to some household hectic-ness over the first half of the week, but this are slowly returning to normal. A lot has happened in the last little while, so I thought I’d share some general updates. Buckle up! Gas Giant Gambit Let’s start off with the big […]

Aquascaping

I don’t usually talk too much about my hobbies here (last week’s post on my upcoming dieselpunk PC build notwithstanding), but something happened this morning that has turned my mind back to one of my hobbies: aquascaping. What is Aquascaping? Aquascaping is basically a cross between a building a terrarium and having a fish tank. […]

I’m Building a Dieselpunk PC

I’ve been hesitant to talk about this project for a long time because it always seemed just out of reach. But that’s all changed, and it has become an inevitability now, so I think a project primer is in order! Dieselpunk First off, let’s define our terms. What, exactly, is “dieselpunk?” The best way to […]

A Difficult Week

I’m a little late with this week’s post–at least, later than I generally prefer. And that’s because the last week has been particularly difficult. So, please bare with me, but this week’s blog is going to be a bit of a short catharsis session for me. Tahlula To start, last Wednesday, our beloved cat Tahlula […]

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! It’s been a whirlwind, and […]

Thoughts on 40

Today is my 40th birthday, and I have some feelings about that. Is my life what I thought it would be by the time I reached 40? In many ways, no. But at the same time, I never knew what my life would look like at this point. Many kids know what they want to […]

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 what I mean by that. […]

Gas Giant Gambit Cover Reveal!

Let’s get right to the point: I’ve got the finalized Gas Giant Gambit: A Tall Tale From Beyond the Cygnus Rift book cover to reveal! The cover has been one of my biggest concerns since I started the process of publishing Gas Giant Gambit. I knew that if I didn’t find a publisher I would […]

Characters vs Plot: What Inspires Me First?

I’ve seen this question come up several times among writers: do you think of characters or plots first? I can’t speak for every writer, but for me, it’s both. Character First The story idea that inspired me to become a writer (and is still rattling around in my head waiting for me to get around […]

Goaltending: How Hockey Has Helped Me As A Writer

I struggle with blog topics nearly every week. And so, nearly every week, I scour Google for some new topic inspiration to get me started. And every week, I see the same suggestion to talk about hobbies outside of writing. But I have resisted writing on this topic since I started keeping a blog, mostly […]