Meet Jacob: Fantasy Writer

Let us introduce you to Jacob Moger, Gothic story writer and now, author in his own right. Jacob recently got one of his stories (called ‘Four Years’) published in an amazingly creepy anthology from Flame Tree Publishing called ‘Pirates and Ghosts short stories’. Since we are die-hard book lovers – especially for ones with ghosts and pirates in them – we asked Jacob to tell us a bit more:

Q: First of all, congrats! Can you tell us what your story Four Years is about?

A: So yeah, Four Years is about Dalia Primrose, a young woman in the Caribbean. Her husband was a privateer for the East India Trading company who went missing four years ago. The story revolves around the mystery of his disappearance and her journey to find him.

Q: Well, that sounds really intriguing, who would you say is your favorite character of Four Years and why?

A: I really like Dalia, I feel like I hit the nail on the head with her character and it showed that she was very strong throughout the story. I could do the cop-out answer and say all of them haha. I really like a lot of the different characters for different elements they bring to the story.

Q: Where did the inspiration to start writing pirate-ghost stories come from?

A: I ended up picking the genre specifically for the anthology as their submission guidelines were for stories about Pirates, Ghosts, or both. I went with the third option. A lot of the inspiration comes from the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, as well as my favourite novel series “The Belgariad” By David Eddings.

Q: Are you a fan of Gothic fantasy? If so, do you have any recommendations for us?

A: I do really like Gothic fantasy, stories like Van Helsing are some of my favourites. If I had to make one recommendation right now though, it would be Night of Knives by Ian C. Esslemont. The world that book is set in is one of the most well developed I have read in a long time and the characters are great.

Q: Did your passion for writing start early on or was it something you developed later in life?

A: I’ve been writing here and there since I was a little kid. When I was homeschooled we used to do assignments on writing short stories. I think my first story ever written was about a little plane who lost his friends and had to find them. It’s probably hiding away in my papers. Only in the last year or so have I started writing more seriously.

Q: Have you had any other stories published before or is Four Years the first one?

A: I have a short Horror Story called Harvest that was the first story I ever started to submit. That one has yet to find a home but with Four Years I was incredibly lucky to have it published as I wrote the whole thing in 4 hours and it only had one round of editing before being sent in. This was due to the fact that I found out about the anthology 2 days prior to the submission date, so I scampered to get something together cause I love pirates and I love ghost stories.

Q: Wow, 4 hours, that’s impressive! Are you currently working on any other stories?

A: I currently have two other projects on the go. One is for an upcoming anthology which is themed around Robotics and Artificial intelligence. The other is my own novel set in my world of Kadra.

Q: Do you have any advice for people who may want to become a writer?

A: Best advice I can give would be to write, constantly. Even if you think the end result is awful. It’s like I say to myself “You can’t say you are a writer unless you actually write”… as I take way too many breaks between writing sessions.

Can’t wait to read Jacob’s story? Get it here!