The initial spark, the image I built the entire story around, was a scene from the FromSoft game Echo Night where the player must return the eye of a large fish mural. It’s not a particularly important part of the game, but I found the concept charming and wanted to turn it inside out.

I have always been fascinated by Yoruba mythology, especially the many untold stories it contains. Eshu is a god who isn’t represented enough in the few stories that draw inspiration from Yoruba myths.

I’m excited by all the books by African writers that have come out in recent years, we need more of that. I would love to see more work drawing on African story forms and indigenous knowledge systems, especially from southern African countries.

loved the idea of a civilization that deliberately nurtured a singularity for the short-term gain of clean energy, knowing they were handing an inescapable nightmare scenario down to their descendants.

I was thinking about dragons and capitalism (as one does) and wondering why dragons—at least European dragons—are always depicted as greedy and hoarders of treasure. They can’t use it, after all, no matter how shiny.