It is once again my privilege to bring you another interview with an outstanding indie author. This time I’ve had a conversation with Cheyenne Brammah, author of The First Sin, an epic dark science fantasy chonker with an incredible cover that you absolutely should check out.
Tell me a bit about yourself. Who are you and what do you write?
I’m a dark science fantasy author from Cochrane, Alberta, Canada. I’ve been writing for most of my life and even spent some time as an editor in the early 2000s. My health in my late 20s and early 30s kept me from working seriously on my writing, so I’ve just started my personal publishing journey in my 40s. When I’m not writing, I like to crochet and knit, play video games, and enjoy nature.
What’s your favourite genre? Is it the same as the one you write in?
I enjoy science fiction and fantasy as both a reader and writer, especially when they’ve been blended. In practice I’ve had trouble finding science fantasy books that satisfy my tastes, and when I read, I seem to gravitate more toward fantasy than science fiction right now.
What do you do for inspiration?
I daydream while listening to a lot of instrumental music. I have a visual mind and music often sparks scenes, just like having a mini movie in my head. I also use The Story Engine Deck, Deck of Worlds, and The Lore Master’s Deck. When it comes to other media, I tend to find inspiration in TV shows and movies from the 90s and early 2000s more than more modern stuff. Sometimes going for nature walks helps too. Ideas just… appear.
How do you approach building your worlds?
Right now, I only really have one “world”, the Akrodaxis. This fictional universe holds my current and future stories. Building something new for it generally comes from necessity: I have a new idea, or something came up in the writing, so I need to flesh it out. I try to think first about what basic parts are necessary to make the idea work. From those basic concepts come more questions, and it spreads from there like branches in a tree. I enjoy deep worldbuilding so I might flesh something out (like the history of a currency, or a timeline of evolution) even if it only gets an offhand mention in the story.
What comes first? Characters or plot?
Overall, plot. When ideas for the Akrodaxis started forming, I knew generally that it would involve a prophecy about the destruction of a civilization. The characters have come out of answering questions like, “Who starts the ball rolling?” and “Why does this species hate that species?”
What was the hardest thing you’ve ever had to write?
If we’re talking about skill difficulty, anything short is hard. Short stories, and especially flash fiction? Not for me. Blurbs are difficult as well! But if we’re talking about emotional difficulty… I have made myself almost cry while writing, sometimes because the subject matter was actually sad (and I had sad music playing) but also out of frustration because my brain knew what I wanted to write but I didn’t have the words. In particular, my third book deals with genocide and one of the characters had to articulate his feelings in the face of it. That was hard because it’s such a heavy, sensitive topic.
What’s your favourite/least favourite thing about the writing process?
My favorite part of the writing process is probably the worldbuilding. I get excited about new ideas and figuring out how they fit into my existing canon. It’s like watching flowers budding up and then blooming. It’s so much fun, especially because I have a very worldbuilding-minded husband who enjoys brainstorming with me!
My least favorite activity is naming anything. I struggle to find titles, character names, place names… All of it. Hate it. Even though there are excellent tools available (like the Fantasy Name Generators) I still spend way too much time fumbling around trying to choose.
Are you able to share any short snippets from the cutting room floor?
I don’t often cut content completely. I’m primarily a plotter so what goes into the story tends to be what needs to be there. Having said that, I do have a few things that came out simply because the outline changed and the specific scene as written didn’t work anymore. For instance, in my first book the main characters originally went to a safehouse to recover from some ordeals. The primary MC has a quiet and introspective moment with a secondary character that both I and my early readers really liked. The safehouse itself ended up cut in a later draft but most of the conversation still survives in a different scene. I’d share it, but… it’s not short.
What is your absolute favourite piece of your own writing? Could be a short scene, a bit of dialogue, a character or even the tiniest piece of worldbuilding.
This is a really tough question! I feel like saying Book 4 (which I haven’t started writing yet) will be my favorite book in the All Our Sins Saga because what will be in this book was the story I originally started with years ago when the Akrodaxis was in its infancy. Back then the story was not good, but I feel I can do it justice now and am really looking forward to that. But as for something more tangible, I think the ending to The First Sin (Book 1) is pretty high on my list. It’s not an ending most readers expect and the final line is what clinches everything together for the series. I enjoyed writing the final chapter and the epilogue a lot.
What are you promoting at the moment?
I’m a fairly new author so I’m still promoting my debut, The First Sin (All Our Sins Book 1) as well as Book 2 of the saga, Children of Wrath. Book 2 releases October 22, 2026, and I’m pretty excited to get it out into the world!
The First Sin is about an alien clan guard named Tårik who tries to regain his honor after being exiled for surviving a disastrous battle—all while ignoring signs he is the harbinger of the empire’s apocalypse.
Children of Wrath follows Senmatu, who takes her people to the stars to wage a holy war of vengeance against Tårik’s people. But the galaxy is not as she expects, and Senmatu quickly finds that waging war is more complicated than she realized.
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