Tell us about yourself!

Hey! Great to meet you. My name is Marc Secchia. I live and work in Ethiopia with my wife and four children. I’m a rabid fantasy fan, a word geek, an occasionally effective golfer and I play a range of woodwind instruments including flute, panflute and the Irish whistle.

I’m the author of 25 fantasy novels, ranging from Young Adult to Epic Fantasy and African Historical Fantasy. A number of my books are bestsellers on Amazon.

I was born and grew up in Cape Town. When I was younger the apartheid system broke down, but its legacy and my observations of living under such a fundamentally unjust regime have influenced my writing ever since; coupled with that, I have a deep love of the ocean.

Currently I live and work in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, doing writing work for a small NGO that aims to expand the footprint of literature and a reading culture amongst people here. I write on topics as diverse as technology, potato farming, and disability awareness.

I love Africa, the unsung, unappreciated continent with a visceral, abiding passion. That is why I chose to set some of my writing in Africa, and I often feature protagonists who are not standard Western/European stereotypes, but celebrate diversity in its different forms – from culture and colour to pure size! (My smallest human character is a Pygmy standing just 3 foot 11 inches, and my tallest, a girl measuring 6 feet 8 inches!) In my stories dragons feature hugely, and they are always intelligent, complex and complete characters in their own right.

What does NobleBright fantasy mean to you? Why is it important?

I believe that darkness begets darkness; put another way, what we fill our minds with is what we unconsciously become. There is far too much darkness in the world today – too much greed, a lack of compassion and understanding, and life is treated as cheap rather than the miracle that it is. I believe it is crucial therefore to saturate ourselves with what is good, wholesome, and upbuilding.

For me, NobleBright Fantasy encompasses themes that celebrate life and humanity. It is a conscious movement or reaching toward what nourishes a reader’s soul, be that diversity, justice, coming of age, nobility, making right choices, standing against evil, overcoming obstacles, and so on. This does not mean characters or plots do not explore dark themes, but that such themes are not needlessly glorified.

Ghandi said, ‘Where there is love there is life.’ I’m not talking about hippy love. I’m talking about real, raw love for our fellow human beings and the world around us. Being vulnerable. Caring deeply for one other. Working for a better future for those who will follow.

The tropes of fantasy (and science fiction) often explore the epic clashes between good and evil – think Lord of the Rings dealing with the corrupting nature of ultimate power, or ‘may the Force be with you!’ They explore the refinement of character and good decisions under great duress. This, to me, is the ultimate aim of NobleBright Fantasy – to shine light into our essential humanity.

How did you start writing?

I’ve always wanted to become a writer. I was the kid who when we were asked to produce a haiku, I’d write an epic haiku series in 16 stanzas. I wrote two and a half novels while I was in high school, which were an excellent training ground but also nothing I would want to put into the public eye. However the journey to becoming a published author wasn’t easy – I’ve a fine pile of rejection letters to show for it. In 2013 I decided to self-publish and haven’t looked back, 25 books and over 200,000 sales later.

I’d encourage anyone who has a dream for their life or a gift to pursue it. For me, changing from a 20-year career in big-business IT and service management to my first love of creative writing has been an amazing journey and one I am profoundly thankful for. If you’re reading this, I’d encourage you to take that first step toward realising your dream today. Big dreams start with small steps!

What are some of your favorite books/authors? Why?

Anne McCaffrey’s epic series about the Dragons of Pern has always inspired me with the courage of her characters, sometimes in the face of great odds – she’s my all-time favourite writer, and a master world-builder whom I aspire to emulate.

LOTR is the motherlode, setting the standard for rich background and historical detail, world building and a great storyline that pitches good against evil in an epic battle. In epic fantasy, Terry Brooks is awesome. I fell in love with his Sword of Shannara series and I think he’s a writer of great craft. I should mention George R.R. Martin, James Maxwell, Terry Goodkind, C.S. Lewis and Robin Hobb, and I have been known to spend hours chortling over a Terry Pratchett Discworld novel, and delving into ‘hard’ scifi such as Isaac Asimov, Carl Sagan, Larry Niven and Piers Anthony.

There are many treasures amongst the Indie publishing world as well, and to mention just a few, my favourites are Katy Huth Jones, H.L. Burke, Kandi Wyatt, Mike Shelton and Intisar Khanani.

There are some great novels out there and not enough hours in the day to enjoy them all! I should also add that I’m the kind of person who loves to read the old King James version of the Bible for its wonderful use of language. For example, try this for a description of depression my soul melteth for heaviness – I mean, doesn’t that just fire your literary heart with indescribable joy? Alright. I’m a nerd who browses a thesaurus for fun. That’s just me.

Please tell us about your world and your dragons.

Well, with 25 books out now I have many worlds – an oceanic fantasy world with old wooden sailing ships and sea dragons (IsleSong Series), the world of ancient Ethiopia (plus dragons of course – Shioni of Sheba), an immense forest realm (Feynard) and a world which is a maze of canyons (Whisper Alive). I am also planning a world made purely of light … but my best-known world is one in which I have set, to date, 12 bestselling epic dragon tales. Let me tell you about that one.

Imagine a world of islands above the clouds. A world where people travel by hydrogen dirigible or dragonback from island to island, and realm to realm. A world of many diverse human and draconic cultures, where a backdrop of lethal and fantastical beauty mingles with magic. This is the world of Dragonfriend, Aranya and The Pgymy Dragon.

The Simien Mountains of Ethiopia were one of its primary inspirations. The Simiens are a unique, jagged landscape of dark volcanic mountains, often partially covered in cloud. I travelled there when researching Shioni of Sheba. But for the purposes of creating a memorable world, I wanted to create something even more majestic, a huge and inspiring world where dragons would love to live. Imagine flat-topped Mount Roraima towering above the clouds in Venezuela. I have jagged islands rising over a league (3.45 miles) out of the Cloudlands, which are a permanent layer of clouds below the habitable levels of the islands. A preferred method of execution is to throw someone (Aranya) off a cliff into the Cloudlands!

In this world, Dragons inhabit every nook and cranny, from the fiery rifts in the floor of the world to canyons ten leagues (34 miles) deep, to the calderas of volcanoes and skies above. Dragons, Humans and Shapeshifters struggle for domination, form alliances, and go to war. Some cultures, such as in the Dragon Librarian, are mixed Human-Dragon cultures, whilst others stand alone.

As I said above, I love writing dragons that are intelligent, telepathic, and as complex as any human being. They love, fight, war, build and tear down, and are complete characters in their own right. The magical system is fairly straightforward, based on the archetypal dragon fire types (star fire, dark fire, earthen fire, white fire etc) and then by the colour and rarity of the dragon. For example, gemstone scales denote rarity. Red Dragons excel in fire attacks, Greens in Acid, while Blues exhibit ‘higher’ powers such as psychic attacks.

Do you have any works in progress? Tell us about them!

My Achilles heel is starting too many series at once, so right now, I have only one work in progress so that I can focus purely on completing the Aranya (Shapeshifter Dragons) series, in which two best friends start a war against a dominating empire. This fourth volume will be called Beautiful Fury. After that I plan to write the sequel to The Dragon Librarian, a coming-of-age tale about a blind girl who becomes a librarian in the greatest Dragon library in her Island-World.

Where can we find you online?

I’d love to hear from you! You can find me here:
Blog: http://smarturl.it/marcsec 
Facebook: http://smarturl.it/authormarc 
Twitter: http://smarturl.it/twmarc 
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/marcsecchiaauth
Amazon Author Page: http://smarturl.it/marcamazon
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7060641.Marc_Secchia