AUTHOR INTERVIEWS – VOL 1
Interview Hint.
This interview centres around what being an author entails.
Michael Celestine E. Aka. E.C Michaels is an author and we would be learning much from him on being an author.
MMM Interviewer
Please, may we meet you?
Michael Celestine
My name is Michael Celestine Echezona, with the pen name, E C Michaels. So whenever you see or hear that name, holla, it’s your boy. I graduated from the University of Abuja, B.A Theater Arts. I hail from Akpo, in Aguata Local Government Area of Anambra State. I am the third and last child of my awesome parents. We are all boys and sometimes I wish for a sister, a younger sister.
I am a writer, as you already know. I write novels and scripts, and when I am not writing, I am binging on a fantasy TV series or reading works from other authors.
I love J K Rowling, Stephen King, George R. R. Martin, Chinua Achebe and Chukwuemeka Ike. I awe at their creativity and aspire to be more than them in the future.
MMM Interviewer
Why do you write?
Michael Celestine
Not like I am John Maxwell or Robert Kiyosaki, but my writing came as I result of my zeal to influence people. I feel like my little amateur voice could help correct many social vices in the world. But as a chronic introvert, talking to people or even expressing myself was a hard thing for me, so I got despaired, feeling that I couldn’t help the world like I wanted to. Lost in my thoughts one day, I was like, why bother talking when you can write them all down? So I started writing; novels, articles, poems, anything. I was so shy about my first novel that nobody read it except my Mum, and after she sat me down and for hours talked about how good the piece was. I didn’t take her praises to heart, I mean, I am her son, if she doesn’t like my work, who will? Like she knew what I was thinking, she told me to get someone else to read it, that people could learn one or two things from it. Her encouragement pulled me out of the box and I started showing my works to people. That’s how I started writing for the public if I could say that.
I just want to influence people with my writing, correct various social vices and uplift the virtues which are going down the drain. I believe in entertainment, but I believe more in entertainments that educate. If it doesn’t educate, then it’s not entertaining.
MMM Interviewer
What’s your writing genre?
Michael Celestine
I write thriller, drama, satire, and Tragic-comedy. I would have added fantasy but I am yet to complete my fantasy novel titled, Bi. The work is pushing two years now and I am stuck in a place where I can neither stop nor continue. But I hope to complete it someday and add it to my CV.
MMM Interviewer
Where have your works been published?
Michael Celestine
Dawn to Dusk was published on OkadaBooks, but I lost the publication trying to edit the work. I was frustrated that I didn’t bother republishing it. But the PDF copy is available on my website, ecmichaels.wordpress.com. And I hope to get it published again and also my upcoming religious thriller, Mocks and Monks.
MMM Interviewer
What inspired your first book ‘Dawn to Dusk’
Michael Celestine
But it isn’t my first book. It is my first published book. I have written several novels and plays before that. Dawn to Dusk mirrors the stressed life of James Osakwe, a chartered accountant who got tired of his parents’ annoying control over his life and decides to stand up for his rights. But what he doesn’t know is that to be a man is really not a day’s job. The story chronicles the most confused 24 hours of his life, within which he lost his arranged wife and his job, his eleven months old son got hospitalized and his love interest who is also his son’s nanny commits the most shocking murder and ends up in jail. It was messy for him but whether he survives or how he survives is a topic to discuss after you have ordered a copy.
About what inspired the story, I wanted to advise our parents, especially wealthy and influential African parents who love to match make their children with children of their business partners and associates to allow their children make marriage decisions themselves. Although the book centres on the decision of marriage, it cuts across other things like career choice and parental upbringing. I understand that parents have the best interest of their children at heart, but they should also consider how those pure and loving intentions might be ruining their children’s lives. I mean it’s the child’s life; they are meant to only advice and allow the child make his or her decision.
Dawn to Dusk also tells young people to be decisive- make a choice, good choices and stand on it, know what you want and go for it, no matter what and who is involved. I am not saying disobey your parents, but give them the reason why certain things have to be your way. I am sure they will understand.
MMM Interviewer
Describe your writing style in one word?
Michael Celestine
I pick my motto: Edu-tainment.
MMM Interviewer
If you were to pick any writer from among your Facebook friends whose works inspire you the most, who would it be?
Michael Celestine
I love Tomi Adesina. She wrote George’s Pieces of Me. Her writing style is unique. Whenever I am reading her work, I don’t go off till I am done, even if my phone is about to go off. Currently, an awesome series is running on her blog: In Search of Forever, and trust me, it’s the only reason you need to power your phone every Thursday. She is great and I hope she is reading this because I would like to meet her one day.
MMM Interviewer
What’s your relationship status? If you don’t mind.
Michael Celestine
You are lucky I don’t mind. I’m in a very strong relationship with an amazing queen who means everything to me.
MMM Interviewer
What has been the best part of your writing journey?
Michael Celestine
Every part of the journey is the best because writing gives me this natural fulfilment that I can’t explain, but when a reader told me that Dawn to Dusk changed his thinking, I almost choked with excitement. I was like small tiny me, changing someone’s thinking? I drooled over it for weeks. The feeling was fulfilling. Then another finished reading the novel and compared me to Chinua Achebe. I couldn’t take it. I shook my head and told her to rephrase because that comparison is something I don’t deserve.
MMM Interviewer
If you were to be in a gathering where you are to address first-time writers/authors what would you say to them?
Michael Celestine
Well, writing is a very hard and unfair profession. Unfair in the sense that you might have all it takes; the creativity and the grammatical inclinations yet no one will read your work. It’s bad that sometimes you see works which you would call bad making millions of naira. Then what do you at that point? You write, write and write. It might not make sense at that point, the only thing in your head might be to give up, I have been there, but you don’t give up because you are not a quitter. The beginning of a writing career is harder and frustrating than anything you can imagine. Is it the stress of garnering readership or putting your work on paper, it’s frustrating but I am glad Electronic Book has taken over the reading market and I hope to one day provide a better E-book platform where authors and readers would feel at home.
Again, if your first novel does not make a dime, it’s okay, don’t freak out, in fact I spent more than what I made from Dawn to Dusk, but I didn’t give up because nobody said it was going to be easy and because I didn’t give up, you shouldn’t. Your persistence, patience, originality and of course God’s grace, will one day make your name known that all you need is to put blank pages together, give it a title and it becomes a bestseller. Don’t take that literary, please. No matter how good you are, you still need to write something.
MMM Interviewer
Any last word for your fans?
Michael Celestine
I want to say a very big thank you to all who truly believe in me. I am just an amateur writer and I know that I am not close to what you all expect now, but I believe that with your support and prayer, I will be more than you expected. Keep visiting ecmichaels.com, dent the pages with your presence and I will keep delivering. And one more thing, I’d very much like to hear your thoughts on my works, criticisms, praises or anything. It kind of makes me smile. Thank you.
Michael has created another gripping fictive world with his dazzling creativity and literary charm in his upcoming novel, Mocks and Monks. In this story, he takes his readers through the unspoken truths of monastic life, proving once again that he is not a novice when it comes to exposing and weaving societal issues into a very intriguing story. We have read all the released episodes, waiting anxiously for the release of the complete book and confidently, we can tell you that something big is about to hit the readers all over the world.
You can read all of his stories on ecmichaels.com
Interestingly, Michael is the Editor-in-chief of making Monday Mild and we are pleased to have him share his experiences with us.
If you read up till this point, we applaud your efforts.
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