Heroes of Reighja: The Tale of Achyut the Gallant follows a prince and princess who discover a book detailing the last adventure their ancestor went on before he vanished and their land fell into the Collapse. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?

Heroes of Reighja: The Tale of Achyut the Gallant is the third novel I’ve written for Heroes of Reighja, although my first novel published and canonically the first in the series. I had so much trouble trying to publish my initial (now subsequent) novels, Heroes of Reighja: Second Dawn and Heroes of Reighja: The Precipice of History, through traditional means, I decided to self-publish a stand-alone novel to showcase my imaginative prowess and writing commitment by telling the story of the Collapse and how the wheels of history were set in motion, creating the problems the Dynasty of Lamaru face in the present-day. Yet I still wanted the characters in my ‘stand-alone’ novel to connect with the rest of the series while having to tell a story that happened 150 years apart. History, myths, and legends in our world have always transcended ages through books and by introducing and following along with younger versions of the main characters in my next novel, I checked all of the boxes for my story structure while differentiating early and present day Reighja to the reader. Lastly, by introducing a younger Amira and Naemin than their age in the main series, I hope their first appearance (in the main series) will be all the more impactful; readers will instantly recognize them, see how they’ve grown, and see how Achyut’s story has influenced their own values, abilities, and approach to life.

I find the world you created in this novel brimming with possibilities. Where did the inspiration for the setting come from, and how did it change as you were writing?

I’ve always loved all forms of media portraying epic fantasy and sci-fi such as Star Wars, The Lord of the Rings, The Legend of Zelda, Fire Emblem, X-Men, the Dresden Files, the Xanth novels, The Chronicles of Narnia, countless anime and manga, while dabbling in my own headcanon. During the 2020 quarantine, a brother of mine and an award-winning author, Jordan Hampton, convinced me to really crank out something fun and exciting to read. I researched a variety of topics but when looking at fictitious and non-fictitious histories to draw inspiration from, I noticed a distinct lack of Southern and Southeast Asian influences.

Most everything I knew came from either Europe or Japan, so I decided to change that. I studied such civilizations as the Persian and Gupta Empires, the Bengali Sultanate, and the Islamic Caliphates, learning about various foods, clothes, music, and cultures from this expansive region of our world and respectfully incorporating them into my novels with a pinch of fantasy magic. I tried to stay true to this core, modeling each of the regions in Lamaru after a different region of southeast Asia. My inspiration has changed little as I continue to write, with the exception of learning more about our world and its rich histories to incorporate into the other Pillar Civilizations.

What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?

One of the main themes addressed in Achyut’s story is the importance of empathy and multiple perspectives. As someone with a background in animal training and psychology, I’ve learned how reflective people’s actions and mindsets are of their own struggles. By showcasing this through the internal thoughts of multiple characters and abilities such as soulsharing, I hope to better equip readers with the tools to engage others through emotional intelligence. This also ties in with another theme of the novel, personal freedom versus social duty. During COVID and subsequent quarantines, I grew astounded and angry at how apathetic people could be toward strangers while lamenting the same personal losses (due to COVID, housing, work, etc) they endured themselves. So many trivial problems arose because of people’s insecurities and greed. As such, multiple conflicts within the novel (and in future novels) mirror a similar cognitive dissonance, both between characters and in their relationships with the prevailing governments.

However, the most important theme for me in this book is the recognition of the joys and burdens of unconditional love and the acceptance of and ability to cope with grief, an emotional state and harsh reality that every single person who has lived and will ever live shares. I wrote a story recognising this universal experience hoping to provide multiple outlooks and assistance to anyone unable to move forward. While writing this story, my grandmother passed away, and nothing could soften the pain of losing one of my columns of strength, a person I always revered and loved, who had always supported my dreams and adventures. Her death broke me more than anything I had experienced in my life thus far. Around the same time, I separated from a woman who, at the time, I could see myself building a future with, and had experienced, for the first time, one of the most beautiful and emotionally gut-wrenching stories in a very popular anime. Writing Achyut’s story allowed me to process my emotional turmoil and reshape my pain into something beautiful with the ability to entertain and help others going through similar situations.

Is this the first book in the series? If so, when is the next book coming out, and what can your fans expect in the next story?

As of now, Heroes of Reighja: The Tale of Achyut the Gallant is both physically and canonically the first book in this series. I hope to release my next book, Heroes of Reighja: Second Dawn, in May/June of 2024. Second Dawn takes place a couple years after Princess Amira and Prince Naemin discover Achyut’s story and focuses on their own troubles, both due to the Collapse and the political strife flourishing between Reighja’s Pillar Civilizations. It introduces three new main characters; Alex, Emma, and Daryl, refugees from a fallen kingdom, and their role in helping Amira avert open war due to extreme water shortages and environmental degradation, heavily influenced by past and present conflicts in our world.

Readers will be happy to know I have plenty of new animals, characters, civilizations, mysteries, minna constructs, and adventures to make the next volume as enrapturing as The Tale of Achyut the Gallant, including many more Easter eggs to some of my favorite media and my first novel, building on the foundation of an overarching plot tying all planned six novels together. However, the stories of Achyut, Katria, Mona, Rakiba, Lilith, and Uriel are far from over, and while the majority of the series will focus on the adventures of Amira, Alex, Naemin, Emma, and Daryl, I’ve already received many many requests to continue writing from the past perspective, both before and immediately following Achyut’s story and the heralding of the Collapse.

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