AMoRaR Interview – Millie Abecassis

A Month of Rain and Reads Interviews4 months ago15 min readAdd comment

Welcome to A Month of Rain and Reads, a celebration of self-published and indie SFF throughout the entire month of November. To find out how you can take part and view the whole list of content, visit our introduction post.

Today we have an interview with Millie Abecassis, author of the recently (October 21) released gothic, sapphic, historical fantasy novel A Legacy of Blood and Bone.

I’m not in the message business; I’m in the “Once upon a time” business.”

Describe yourself like you would a character in one of your books.

Millie was a short woman with pale skin that burned too fast in the sun, brown hair she had to wash too often to her liking, and blue glasses she couldn’t take off without finding herself surrounded by blurriness. Her average look was balanced by her less-average personality, a blend of determination, kindness, and jadedness, the last one often manifesting itself at the funniest of times with her close friends. Despite her chronic desire to lie in bed all day with her cats, Millie managed to get up in the morning every day to take her meds, write stories, and enjoy life with her spouse—who was also the best person on the planet.

Our theme for November is A Month of Rain & Reads. Do you subscribe to the idea of curling up with a good book while the rain pours down outside. What book would you read? Would you bring tea and a blanket? What would make the moment perfect?

100%. I live in the SF Bay Area in California, where it doesn’t rain enough, and while I love the weather, I miss the rain sometimes and am extra happy when it’s pouring outside. I’m not a mood reader, so I would read whatever’s next on my tbr pile, and hide under one or two blankets. My cat cuddling with me on the couch makes it perfect!

What else do you want our readers to know about you?

While I spend a lot of my time writing, I also have a full-time job in the pharmaceutical industry. Most of my colleagues know about my writing and keep asking me when I’m going to quit to become a famous full-time writer. I love their optimism, ah! Also, when I’m not writing or reading, I love playing video games. I started playing video games before I knew how to write, so it’s my first love. Writing comes close second.

Why did you decide to publish with small publishers, and what has been your biggest success so far?

I’ve always wanted to be traditionally published. Self-publishing is a lot of work and also, if you want to do things well, a non-negligible sum of money to invest upfront. I have a lot of respect for self-published writers (some of my favorite authors are self-published!), but it’s not for me. At least, not as the main route; I may self-publish some of my stories in the future.

So traditional publishing it was, but I decided to go with small publishers for a few reasons:

I mostly write novellas, and big publishers will rarely publish a novella from a new author, unless they’ve already published a novel by them first. Hence, literary agents very rarely accept queries for novellas. So I knew that until I had an agent, if I wanted to get my novellas published, I had to go the small publisher route.
My writing is often in between genres, or not what’s the most commercial right now. Big publishers tend to have very specific expectations, while small/indie publishers publish more original works. I didn’t want to sacrifice the core of my stories, so I chose to go with small publishers who are more likely to accept my stories as they are.
You get the best of both worlds! A publisher supporting you, paying for expenses (edits, cover, etc.), helping with advertisement, and also a lot of creative control. For example, I’ve been deeply involved in making the covers for my book, sometimes even working directly with the cover artist and choosing everything myself.

My biggest success so far is probably my debut novel A Legacy of Blood and Bone, which was released in October 2025 at Row House Publishing. This is the novel of my heart, and Row House Publishing has been such a delight to work with. I love their mission and what they publish, so I’m proud to have a book part of their catalogue. I’m also very excited about the audiobook, which is produced by Spotify in partnership with Row House.

You’ve also launched the pitch event #SmallPitch. Can you tell us a little about that?

As a former querying writer, I participated in a lot of online pitch events, but all of them are geared toward literary agents. Small publishers can participate, but are often overshadowed by the participating writers’ desire to land an agent (no blame on them!). Since there was no pitch event centered on small presses, I decided I would create one!

My goal with #SmallPitch is to help writers actually seeking to work with a small publisher to find one + break the binary of Big 5 vs. self-publishing. There are many routes to publishing and all are valid. I wish more people would know about indie/small presses and perhaps consider them for some of their work.

Since launching the event on Twitter in early 2024, I’ve recruited two amazing writers to help me run the event and we moved away from social media, to our own platform. We’ve had over a dozen success stories so far (and counting!) and our platform has been received so well that other pitch events are reaching out to us to adopt it.

People can learn more about it on our website at https://smallpitch.org/

I noticed from your author bio that you were born and grew up in France, but you started learning English at an early age, and you now live in the US. I’m assuming that at least originally, you considered French your first language. What are your thoughts on writing in English as a second language? What advantages and disadvantages have you experienced?

French is indeed my first language, and while I started learning English at a young age, I didn’t grow up bilingual. I started writing in French and made the transition to writing in English in 2020, after years reading in English almost exclusively and deeming myself ready to make the switch.

I made that choice for a few reasons:

Reach. English is the most spoken and read language in the world. Writing in English means I can reach more readers.
Genre. If you think adult fantasy and sci-fi aren’t well respected genres in the English-speaking literary world, it’s ten times worse in French. In particular for fantasy, which is often considered a genre for children only.
Also, most of the adult fantasy books sold and read in France are… translations from English. I have technically more chances of getting my work published in French as a translation than if I had written it in French originally. Sad but true.
I love the language and the way we write in English, which is so different from how we write in French. It isn’t the language only, but also conventions.

Overall, I don’t think I’ve experienced many disadvantages, but it’s definitely a bit more difficult in some regards. The mistakes I make in my manuscripts are often related to my brain thinking in French at times, or me confusing French and English words (which isn’t helped by the fact that the two languages have a lot in common). Thankfully, my agent and my editors know it and find it amusing more than anything else.

What themes are important to you, and how are they reflected in your writing?

I like to explore many themes in my work. I don’t think I have a favorite and sometimes the theme doesn’t emerge until I’m halfway through drafting the book. A few themes in my books I’ve enjoyed writing about are feminism, bodily autonomy, sorority, the importance of fact-based, scientific information over politics and personal opinion, and the importance of collective action over individual heroics.

Those themes are usually reflected in the plot itself in a speculative way that echoes our real world. This being said, I like to keep things open to interpretation and not tell the reader “here is what this means and what you should understand” but it doesn’t mean my work doesn’t have a theme. I just like to abide by Philip Pullman’s saying of “believing in the democracy of reading.” I’ve sometimes been surprised by some interpretations of my work, and I don’t think readers are right or wrong. If my work speaks to them in a way I didn’t expect, then it means that I have achieved even more than I anticipated, and it’s a great thing.

In case you are curious, here’s the full quote from Philip Pullman that you can find on his website:

“As a passionate believer in the democracy of reading, I don’t think it’s the task of the author of a book to tell the reader what it means.

The meaning of a story emerges in the meeting between the words on the page and the thoughts in the reader’s mind. So when people ask me what I meant by this story, or what was the message I was trying to convey in that one, I have to explain that I’m not going to explain.

Anyway, I’m not in the message business; I’m in the “Once upon a time” business.”

You also mention you’re a fan of Franco-Belgian comics. It’s my understanding that comics are more respected as a medium in that part of the world than they are in, for example, the US. What sets these comics apart from American comics or Japanese manga? What are some of your favourites? Do comics influence your writing?

I am indeed a big fan of Franco-Belgian comics, also called “bandes dessinées” in French or BD for short. I think the reason why they are often more “respected” is that BDs can be anything from serious non-fiction for adults to humorous stories for children. We also use the term “roman graphique” for “graphic novel” but it’s seen as pretentious, as if the author didn’t think BD was serious to begin with. Which a lot of people disagree with. BD is a format, not an audience or a genre. I think this diversity and this unique word for all audiences/genres is what sets it apart. In English, I feel like to a lot of people “comics” are superhero stories, and the serious stuff is “graphic novels.”

It doesn’t mean everyone values BD the same in France or Belgium. Some people still believe BDs aren’t real books and children shouldn’t read too many of them and should prioritize prose fiction. I’m fortunate that my father was a big BD lover and my mother loves poetry and novels, so I got exposed to both growing up and never thought of one as superior to the other.

Side note, manga are extremely popular in France. For a while, France was the second biggest market for manga after Japan. (Now, it’s the United States.) Some manga are only available in Japanese and in French! I read a lot of manga growing up.

I am indeed influenced by BDs (and also manga and English comics/graphic novels) in my writing. Some influences, also favorites of mine, are:

Arthur de Pins’s Zombillénium, an urban fantasy story featuring a theme park but with real monsters.
Riad Sattouf’s L’Arabe du Futur (The Arab of the Future), a memoir in multiple tomes about the author’s childhood between France and Syria.
Enki Bilal’s Nikopol Trilogy, a dystopian sci-fi story set in a fascist Paris during which the Egyptian gods are real and come back to Earth in their spaceship (!!!) – a classic for a reason.
Another big influence and favorite is actually a comic book series, Bill Willingham’s Fables that I discovered after playing The Wolf Among Us. I always loved fairytale retellings, so of course I loved Fable. I own all the 15 deluxe edition books, and while searching how many books there were I just realized there’s a sixteenth book that was released last year and how did I miss this??? (it happens to me all the time with music bands and authors I love and… sigh)

What are you working on next? Can you tease us?

So many things… I’ll try to keep it short and sweet.

I’m right into the middle of developmental edits for my second novel, The Color of Time, coming out May 2026 at Shiraki Press, a new indie press specialized in hopepunk fiction. Think “Donkeyskin meets Dune with a sapphic twist and a hopepunk vibe.”
I just finished the first draft of a new novella called Nightbloom. It’s a dystopian sci-fi story set in the far future on a planet called Aurea, with aliens! The protagonist is a woman in her fifties.
My next big project is A Promise of Flesh and Skin, the sequel to my debut novel A Legacy of Blood and Bone. I hope to make this historical fantasy story a duology!

And a few quick questions. What’s your favourite…

…book (including comics), in recent times?

Very recent as it isn’t published yet by the time I am writing this, but I was fortunate enough to read the ARC: The Floating Castle by L.N. Holmes, coming out November 1, 2025 and self-published. Amazing political fantasy with a great cast.

…game, in recent times?

Monster Hunter Wilds. I’m a huge fan of the series and this latest installment is absolutely fabulous. For curious minds: I play bow, and have played this weapon as main since Monster Hunter Generations. I used to play dual blades before that game. My favorite monster of all time is Vaal Hazak, because of its creepiness.

Bonus joke: the best Pokémon game is Monster Hunter Stories.

…writing advice?

Diversify your sentences (their length and structure). It’s the key to prose that flows well. Read your text aloud to hear it. Rewrite until it sounds good.

…advice for someone who wants to publish their own book?

Do your homework. Self-publishing is more akin to being a business owner than only a writer. You will have a lot of things to manage, but first you need to learn about the market, the industry and its different actors, from editing to distribution, etc. Then, find your people: fellow writers who are following a similar path than the one you want to take. Bond with them and go through the madness together! Community is important and can help you achieve more than being alone, especially as a self-published author.

…source of inspiration?

It’s going to sound cliché, but it’s true: my dreams. Half of my stories started as a dream. The end result is far from the original dream, but the dream was the seed!

…way to clear your mind when everything gets a bit much?

Go hunt some monsters in Monster Hunter. Nothing like hitting a fictional big beast with giant arrows.

Do you have any last words? Any shoutouts to authors who have supported you or whose books have inspired you?

Shout out to my writing friends who support me and are the best people to hang out with (non-exhaustive list and I apologize to anybody I may forget): Florence Chien, Morgan Wodring, Elle M. Stewart, T. A. Chan, Julia Vee, Christina M, Victoria Shi, Zara Marielle, Maria Johnson, and many, many more.

Millie Abecassis

Millie Abecassis is a French-American author of adult speculative fiction born and raised in France. She is the founder and host of #SmallPitch, a pitch event centered on independent presses, and the co-founder of the Small Spec Book Awards. Besides writing, Millie works in the biotech industry, has two cats, and loves playing video games whenever she has the time between two manuscripts.