← Feed

Posts

• View post

  Stop me if you've heard this one. A nameless void-drifter, a robot farmhand with a shady past, and a washed up old marshal walk into a bar on the edge of human occupied space... Gas Giant Gambit is available now. https://esraye.com/gas-giant-gambit/ #spacewestern #scifiwestern #scifi #books #bookstadon

• View post

  In 1999, Counting Crows released This Desert Life. At 14, I chuckled at the line, "They're gonna make a movie from the thing that they find crawlin' 'round my brain," on the track "I Wish I Was a Girl." My dad said, "They could make one from the things they find crawling around your brain, right?" At 41, that hasn't quite happened yet, but I've got 1 novel published, another drafted, a 3rd outlined.....

• View post

  No matter how much time passes, or how far into the black we travel, petty tyrants will always act the same. Get Gas Giant Gambit now. https://esraye.com/gas-giant-gambit/ #spacewestern #scifiwestern #scifi #sciencefiction #books

• View post

  This one creeps me out. Did you know there is fungus growing in the Chernobyl exclusion zone that use radiation in the same way most plants use sunlight? They grow TOWARDS radioactive material. Now, how could I POSSIBLY use that fact in a cosmic horror story set during the late 1950s? 😏 #cosmichorror #horror #radioactive #books #bookstadon

• View post

  I'm running late this week, partially because I spent Monday (the day I usually write my blog) finishing up the refurbishment of my old '80s era record console into a more MCM vibe, and the perfect computer case for my vaguely "Doctor Who, if he were a '40s era PI" office theme. And I've got photos of the whole process! https://esraye.com/2026/10/15/edie-update/ #mcm #midcenturymodern #midcenturyfurniture #custompc #pcbuild

• View post

  There we go. Absentee ballot all filled out, placed in an envelope, stamped, and waiting by the door to be dropped in the mailbox when I run errands tomorrow afternoon. I have, essentially, voted--like I have done every election cycle since moving to Canada 21 years ago--by mail. I may not live in the US anymore (nor ever plan on going back), but you can take my right to vote (by mail or otherwise) when you pry the envelope from my cold, dead fingers.

• View post

  The trouble's comin'. Ain't no stoppin' it. Only question is: will you turn heel, hunker down... Or ride out to meet it? Gas Giant Gambit is available now. https://esraye.com/gas-giant-gambit/ #scifi #scifiwestern #spacewestern #books #bookstagram

• View post

  After a week off from writing to let my brain reset, I'm switching from one of the five works-in-progress I've got going to another. Try to keep up. https://esraye.com/2026/10/20/wip-updates/ #writer #writing #novel #shortstory #books

• View post

  Look! A wild Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy reference! Gas Giant Gambit is available now! https://esraye.com/gas-giant-gambit/ #scifi #scifiwestern #spacewestern #sciencefiction #bookstadon

• View post

  Okay. Here we go. Shallow Trenches/Open Skies - Draft 2.docx #amwriting #amediting #writer #author #novel #novelist #scifi #sciencefiction

• View post

  From the very first draft, I knew the chapters of Gas Giant Gambit would reference the movie titles of Westerns. But Shallow Trenches/Open Skies has a wildly different tone, and the chapters in draft 1 are just numbered. But now I'm thinking World War I soldier poetry... #amwriting #amediting

• View post

  To be blunt, morphine addiction really wasn't treated in any meaningful way. Alcoholics Anonymous was only 20 years old in the mid-'50s, and NA was literally in it's infancy. Many men came back from the horrors of war, only to get caught up in the horrors of addiction, with little help available to overcome it. #books #bookstadon #writer #amwriting

• View post

  There's no time for sleep when beamslinging action is at hand! Stay up turning pages with Gas Giant Gambit. 🔗⏬ #scifiwestern #scifi #spacewestern #books #bookstadon

• View post

  A friend saw someone reading Gas Giant Gambit on the bus today. Is that an author milestone? It feels like an author milestone.

• View post

  I've ways found quarries to be inherently creepy places, and that still, often lifeless water has never helped improve that perception. #author #writer #cosmichorror #horror #books

• View post

  First draft of my superhero-adjacent romance "Crème Brûlée," for the 2nd round of the @nycmidnight #shortstorychallenge2026 is finished. Editing tomorrow, but this ended up becoming a fun origin story for a pair of baddies for my Cobalt Fist superhero, and I had a blast writing it!

• View post

  The last time we went to the moon, it sparked the golden age of #sciencefiction. Returning now has me feeling thing and thinking thoughts. If you're new to scifi, or haven't given it a try yet, now might be an ideal time to dip your toe in those galactic waters. https://esraye.com/2026/04/14/artemis-ii-science-fiction/ #scifi #artemis #artemisii

• View post

  When a young woman is unwillingly dragged into a roadside psychic's shop, she learns an ancient secret from her family's past that changes the way she sees the world, forever. Read my short story "The Séance" for free in issue 103 of Blood Moon Rising Magazine, out now! https://www.bloodmoonrisinghorrormagazine.com/ #bloodmoonrisingmagazine #horror #horrorshortstory #ectoplasm #shortstory

• View post

  Although the sinking of RMS Lusitania happened years before Shallow Trenches/Open Skies takes place, it looms large over the main character, 2nd Lt. Bernard "Griz" Behr. #wwi #worldwari #amwriting #bookstadon #books

• View post

  I lost yesterday's writing to time to (planned) vehicle maintenance before Jessie drove up to see her mother and grandmother today (7-ish hours away). I am currently losing today's writing time because she left at a different time than I was expecting and it threw my rhythm off. Gotta get to it! #amwriting #writing #writer

• View post

  With quick-draws, and stand-offs, and jailbreaks galore! But also aliens, and robots, and spaceships aplenty! Gas Giant Gambit is available now! https://esraye.com/gas-giant-gambit/ #bookstadon #books #scifi #western #spacewestern #sciencefiction

• View post

  Working hard to stay distracted tonight. Gas Giant Gambit is a finalist for the Laramie Awards, and the winners are being announced tonight! But the ceremony in in Washington state, and I'm in Toronto. Gonna be a late night mashing that refresh button. #books #scifi #sciencefiction #writer

• View post

  I managed to get myself an extra writing day this week, and I'm using it to dive into the (stack of) notebooks containing the lore for my as yet unwritten genre defying seven book series set during World War II. Coming back to this headspace is always so exciting. I've got some big plans here. #scifi #horror #fantasy #superhero #amwriting #write #writing #books

• View post

  Life in the clouds of Aeolus ain't for the faint of heart. The wind and visibility are the most obvious concerns--not to mention the prospect of a core-bound fall--but far from the most dangerous... Gas Giant Gambit: A Tall Tale From Beyond the Cygnus Rift is available now! https://esraye.com/gas-giant-gambit/ #scifi #scifibooks #books #sciencefiction #spacewestern

• View post

  A short story that I've been shopping around for years just got accepted by a paying publication. It was my second most rejected story (13), and was also called "excellent" by one of those rejections (the editor loved it, but felt it wasn't right for their audience--fair enough). But it's times like these I remember my favorite Ray Bradbury writing quote: "You have to learn to take rejection not as an indication of personal failing but as a wr...

• View post

  80K+ words, and I'm gliding into the third act of Shallow Trenches/Open Skies. Probably another 25K or so to go, but it's gonna be a hell of a ride. #scifi #amwriting #writing #sciencefiction

• View post

  To quote one of my all-time favorite scifi properties, "Big bada-boom!" #boom #explosion #scifi #amwriting #writer

• View post

  I fell down a deep well of lore for my 7-book scifi/fantasy/cosmic horror/superhero/alt WWII history series the other night. Literally thousands of years of history for the antagonistic forces. I wrote it a few years ago now, and I had forgotten some of it. --Enough that it's making me rethink certain details in my current WIP, which is a sort-of-prequel to the series. I have some brainstorming to do if I want it all to fit together properly. #amwriting #writer #sifi #sciencefiction

• View post

  Moe, the cobbler rob(ot) turned green-bottle jelly wrangling farmhand, is without a doubt one of my favorite characters. He's suffered to get where he is, and he's not about to give it up without a fight. Gas Gisnt Gambit is available now! #sciencefictionbooks #scifibooks #bookstadon #scifi #spacewestern

• View post

  Yes, Shallow Trenches/Open Skies takes place in Belgium during WWI in 1918, but scifi can take you to some pretty strange places. This one in particular also lends itself to the elements of body horror appearing in the manuscript... #scifi #sciencefiction #booksky #amwriting #scifibooks