We have just been informed that Ray Daley—author of the story “You Have Summoned a Demon,” which will appear in our Spring 2024 issue, releasing tomorrow—has passed away.

We first met Ray when we published his piece “All Clued Out” in our Autumn 2021 issue (Issue 4). Aside from its technical excellence, the story’s subtext deals with the universal anxiety that sometimes, yes, the worst can happen to each of us. Its world is beautifully rendered, we see its narrator in ourselves, and we’re viscerally struck by its bang-up of a twist ending.

Ray was meticulous about his work, and took much joy in not only his writing, but in sharing others’ writing and pieces he loved with others. He was quite accomplished, with at least one hundred pieces published in a myriad of speculative publications.

Sadly, it is always true that nothing gold can stay. Ray will always be part of the 34 Orchard family, and a piece of his passion will always stay with us. It’s a 34O tradition to have a release cocktail/mocktail hour on Zoom. At this issue’s event, we will raise a toast in his memory. We offer our deepest condolences to his family and friends, and we are grateful that we got to know him and could share some of his work with the world.

We’ll miss you, Ray. We hope that wherever you are, there is a room full of the books you love most, an endless supply of paper and pens, and finally plenty of time to finish that Hitchhikers fanfic you’ve been working on for decades.

Kristi Petersen Schoonover, Founding Editor