Every Tuesday, get to know a bit about the stories behind the books you love, and discover your next favourite novel.

Zilla: When things feel hopeless, fiction can be the place to remind us that the community has the power to resist. That’s why I have Richie Billing here, to tell us about his fantasy novella, Together We Rise. Richie, can you start by sharing your blurb?

Richie: In the crumbling city of Pietalos, where corruption and poverty reign, the fires of revolution burn hotter each day. An oppressive government has bled its people dry for the benefit of the elite, but the citizens have had enough.

Eight lives—each scarred by loss, betrayal, and violence—intertwine as they fight for their own futures and that of the city.

Zilla: What inspired you to write this book?

Richie: Together We Rise is a story of a people’s revolution against a corrupt government—very timely given today’s political scene. I’ve been fed up with the state of politics for a long time. I’ve seen the worrying shift to the darker reaches of the right and felt quite helpless about things. Writing this story was my way of fighting that despair, and it provided a welcome escape too. Being something I’m passionate about, I loved every moment of writing and editing it and I can’t wait to share it with the world.

It’s a nice, short story (about 150 pages) with a unique structure. It’s split into eight parts, with each part featuring a different character. Working like a sort of literary relay race, each character takes the story up to a point and then hands it onto the next character.

The idea behind this was to explore the issue of rampant, unchecked capitalism from the points of view of the many different people it affects. My favourite TV show is The Wire, and part of the reason for why is its ability to look at a single issue critically from different perspectives (in that case, the war on drugs).

In Together We Rise, you can find the perspective of a healer, a worker, a street kid, a drug dealer, a guard (the equivalent of the police). It’s all set in a fantasy world, which gives it a unique spin, and something else I’ve done is incorporate an original soundtrack. Each character has their own song which mirrors their emotional journey in the chapter. You can scan a QR code at the start of each chapter to listen. Hopefully, it adds another layer of immersion to the experience.

Zilla: With such a wide-ranging cast, who’s your favourite character? If you can pick!

Richie: The roots of this story lie in a character called Tillia. I created her many years ago when I first started writing. She was a key part of a fantasy novel, set in the same world, and her part of the story was actually my favourite. I’d taken another big chunk of that novel and used it in another story I’m working on, leaving just Tillia’s story. I decided it was too good to waste.

You don’t see all of this in Together We Rise, but learn of it. Tillia is the daughter of a blacksmith (and also a master swordsman), but becomes ensnared by a deceptive evil man, named Vaso, whom she ends up wedding. Over time, he beats and abuses her, destroys her will, and the evil bastard also kills her father and destroys her childhood home. She’s trapped, powerless, helpless, until one night she happens upon a city guard assaulting a woman. She intervenes and ends up killing the guard, and she feels power like she hasn’t felt in a long time. It sets her on a path of vigilantism, taking out the bad guys on the streets and cultivating a murderous alter ego named Shadow. After a while of doing this, she realises it isn’t enough. She has to do more to fight the problems corrupting the city. And that’s when she decides to start planning a revolution. Together We Rise is the story of Revolution Day.

Zilla: I am so here for characters standing up to abusers and abusive systems. Would you say this story is more character-driven, then? Or plot driven? 

Richie: This particular story is very much character-driven. As mentioned, there are eight unique characters in this story, and while the plot is very much about a revolution against a corrupt regime, the thrust of the tale is about the internal revolution that each character goes through. That’s one of the key points of this story, that even when the world is rubbish and doesn’t feel like it won’t get any better, we all have the power to change things, but to see the change we want in the world, we maybe have to change some aspect about who we are first.  

Zilla: Thanks for sharing your story and your process. We’re looking forward to reading! Where can the Night Beats community find you and your book?

Richie: You can learn all about Together We Rise on Goodreads, or get it at this link.

Here are some other helpful links: