Today we are celebrating the release of Cello’s Gate by Maurice Africh! This book takes us on an adventure into the skies! Book one follows Captain Grey and his crew to do the impossible – steal seven rocks of godlike power. Laura was lucky enough to interview Maurice online, please see below for an exciting look at the author and his new book!

• What made you want to be a writer?

I think that desire started young. My dad was a ferocious reader and passionate nerd, and I don’t know whether he passed that down to me or it just came, innate, as an integral part of my programming.

I started writing stories when I was a kid, after my friends and I decided to try to write our own video game. It was called “Twin Destiny,” and it would’ve been sick had we not been 12 years old and the idea ever made it past conception. Flash forward, I was a theatre/debate kid throughout high school and college, which sparked my love of character. I got really into slam poetry around the same time, both as a consumer and as a performer, so that triggered a newfound love for the rhythm of words. Honestly, I think I’ve always been drawn to so many types of art—music, theatre, poetry—but writing stories is the one that has always been around.

No matter what I was doing in my life, I always had a book that I was planning, drafting, working on, and thinking about as I fell asleep. I’ve always been restless with ideas. I’ve written five books in my lifetime so far and started/half-written countless others. It was only a matter of time before I finally decided to commit to one and run with it.

• What books/stories inspired you to become a writer and how did they inform your work in fantasy?

I grew up playing Final Fantasy and watching Star Wars. Those are the biggest inspiration points for the type of books I want to write, probably (alongside Firefly, of course). Fun, adventurous stories with a ton of heart set in futuristic, sometimes gritty worlds with a healthy blend of magic and tech. I’ve always been connected to work in the science fantasy genre.

But, of course, you can’t be a writer if you aren’t a reader. Even if you have great ideas, you need to know how to get them down. So, I started reading. A lot. Here’s a small taste of some of the series/authors who inspire my writing:

1. “The Malazan Book of the Fallen” by Steven Erikso
2. “Red Rising” Series by Pierce Brown
3. “First Law” Series by Joe Abercrombie
4. “Kings of the Wyld” by Nicholas Eames
5. “The Broken Earth” Trilogy by N.K. Jemisin
6. “Dungeon Crawler Carl” by Matt Dinniman
7. “Saga” by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples

These are just a few of my favorites, and all of them have taught me something about writing, creating characters, and telling beautiful stories.

• Tell us a little about your book! 

My book is about a crew of sky pirates who are hired by an ancient immortal to locate and steal a mythological stone from an uncharted island that is protected by a mysterious guardian. It has gunslingers and knights and sword fights; magic and mayhem and wild, fantastical creatures; twists and turns and last-second reveals. It’s everything I like to read and play and watch, all crammed into one little epic fantasy book!

• What excites you most about your characters?

One of my favorite tropes is found family. But more aptly, it’s books following a crew or a team or a large group. I love ensemble casts, especially in epic fantasy. You can probably blame Final Fantasy for that.

But if you want to create a large cast that people actually care about, you have to do it right, and that means making their relationships a little complicated. Adding depth. Showing that these are people, not just vehicles for a story. They need to leap off the page. They need to have rich backstories. They need to feel real.

And I think that’s what excites me most about my characters. All the things that make them real—at least, to me. 

• What excites you most about your story?

This one’s easy. I’m a sucker for cool fight scenes and battles. So, I think the parts that excite me most in this story are the fights—both big and small. Though, as I said above, I filled this book with all the things I love about fantasy, so there are a lot of things on that list that I could justify choosing.

• Is there something with your characters that you struggled with while writing?

I think I had the hardest time not making the crew all love each other unconditionally. I had to give them flaws. I had to make some of them prickly. I had to make some of them wrestle with authority and moralism and trust. In my view (and my editor’s view), if you want to write a found family story, you have to earn it. You can’t just tell the reader these people are a family. You have to show them becoming a family. So, that’s the plan.

• What is your world-building process like?

My world-building process is chaotic. My files may be organized, but the contents of those files are not. I probably need to do some consolidating, actually, but that’s beside the point.

I create in huge bursts. When I think of something or when the story calls for it. I’ve built things into this world that no one will ever see. I have folders stuffed with documents that I’ll never open again. There’s so much baked into this world. But it’s all there if I need it, if I want it.

Since I write “secondary world fantasy,” I couldn’t just write about Earth. So, I needed to create my own planet with its own moons and maps and geographical features. I needed religions and social movements and a vast history to pull from. That’s what it takes for me to make a place real enough to write in. And that process has no rhyme, no rhythm. It’s just chaotic brainstorming and list-making and map drawing until I have enough in my head to work with.

• What made you want to go into Indie Publishing and/or Traditional Publishing? 

I queried over 100 agents with my book before I decided to pursue self-publishing. My book was too long, I knew that, but I did it anyway. I welcomed the heartache and the imposter syndrome and the endless rejection (mostly in the form of no responses). This wasn’t my first rodeo, either. I’d already queried another novel unsuccessfully. Over 100 agents that time, too.

I used to believe that becoming a traditionally published author was the only way to become truly successful. I believed that in order for me to make my dream of being a career author a reality, I needed industry validation. I have since learned that none of that is true. The only thing that matters is how many books you sell. And whether you’re traditional or self-published, that is incredibly difficult to do.

I don’t know… At some point, after battling over whether I should shelve the Sky Pirates and write something that would appeal more to literary agents, something that would be easier to sell to a publishing house, I decided to stop waiting for someone else to open that door for me. And I created a door for myself. I hired a developmental editor, an illustrator, a line editor, and a proofreader, and I got to work. And it wasn’t easy—sorry, it isn’t easy. But it’s worth it. I wish I’d done it sooner.

• What’s something you’re reading, watching and/or enjoying? 

Oh my gosh, I am currently watching Severance, Ted Lasso, Arcane, and The Traitors. I’m neck-deep in the First Law, currently reading the last book of the series. I’m listening to the Rivers of London audiobooks. And I’m playing in three separate D&D games every week (one as a DM, two as a player). And I am loving every second of all of it!

I’m going to have some serious whiplash when it all ends.