Dear Rebels, I have a problem. Apparently, I may have to travel all the way to Sweden for bubble tea.

The person responsible for this international beverage crisis? Lacunae, naturally.

Yes, Rebels. Today’s guest has somehow inspired an increasingly ambitious search for bubble tea across Slovakia, Austria and possibly Poland. Should those countries fail me, Stockholm is next.

For bubble tea.

Of course, while discussing this extremely important investigation, we also considered taking a black magic course together.

All perfectly reasonable things to discuss before an author interview.

Lacunae and I had already spent weeks chatting, exchanging jokes and discussing everything from books to rather questionable ideas. When we finally sat down to record, the biggest challenge was remembering that we were supposed to be interviewing someone.

Listen while you read

Press play.

Lacunae joins me for books, video games, storytelling, creative obsession, music, emotional damage and the usual Imperfect Rebel yapping.

Excuse Me. You Worked on Assassin’s Creed?!

Let’s begin with something rather important.

Lacunae is a professional video game level designer.

When I asked which games she’d worked on, she casually began listing titles from the Assassin’s Creed franchise.

Syndicate. Origins. Odyssey. Valhalla.

CASUALLY, REBELS.

She spent more than a decade working as a level designer, helping create environments and experiences for players to explore.

Her explanation of the profession was wonderfully simple: imagine an architect, but for virtual worlds.

Suddenly, everything made sense.

When I first visited the Perpetūra website, I genuinely couldn’t believe what I was looking at.

I thought I was visiting an author’s website. Instead, I discovered an entire fictional universe.

The woman responsible for building it was now sitting in front of me, explaining everything as though this were the most normal thing in the world.

Lacunae, darling. Some of us struggle to organise our bookshelves.

Two Books. Five Women. One Extraordinary Universe.

Rebels, I need to explain something about Perpetūra.

First, there are the books: The Ones Before and The Origin.

Five women, different historical periods, different places and stories that slowly reveal connections between them.

At the centre of everything sits a mysterious feeling that nobody quite manages to name.

Beautiful.

Complicated.

Exactly the sort of thing that makes me suspicious of every little detail.

The novels, however, are only one part of the project.

Lacunae also created an interactive fiction experience where readers can make choices, explore different paths, unlock additional stories and discover details beyond the books.

There’s a codex, an atlas, character information and an original soundtrack.

THE MUSIC CHANGES AS YOU PROGRESS.

Meanwhile, I was sitting there clicking things and wondering whether I’d accidentally entered a secret government database.

One detail I particularly loved was learning that Lacunae created routes where her female protagonists can choose themselves instead of a romantic partner.

We spent quite some time discussing the difference between choices in video games and novels. A player can influence the story. A reader trusts the author to make those decisions.

Lacunae has spent years designing experiences around choice, consequence and the relationship between people and the worlds they inhabit.

Seeing that knowledge translated into fiction was absolutely fascinating.

Those Bloody Hands!

I have a complaint, Lacunae.

After reading your books, I cannot look at people’s hands normally anymore.

Little gestures, repeated objects, the space between two people. Details that initially appear almost insignificant can become important much later.

In Perpetūra, a movement of someone’s hand can carry far more meaning than a page of explanation.

I told Lacunae that her books had made me pay much closer attention to body language.

Naturally, she seemed delighted.

Wonderful. Now I have to question everybody’s fingers.

The conversation eventually reached one of my favourite things about The Origin: it changes the way you interpret what you’ve already read in The Ones Before.

Lacunae explained how carefully she planned those connections and why she prefers allowing readers to develop their own interpretations.

Of course, I wanted to know whether the next book would change everything again.

Then I remembered that spoilers exist.

I immediately decided we were entering dangerous territory.

I HAVE QUESTIONS, LACUNAE. MANY QUESTIONS. BUT I ALSO WANT TO READ THE BOOK!

An Architect and an Engineer Walk Into a Podcast

Here’s where the conversation became particularly interesting to me.

Lacunae comes from video game design. I come from quality engineering and crisis management.

Somehow, two women who spent years working in highly technical environments ended up writing fiction.

We talked about planning, research, structure and the relationship between creativity and discipline.

Lacunae researches historical periods, locations, cultures and social structures before building her fictional worlds.

I write my ideas, processes and research in notebooks before developing my stories.

We both seem to enjoy making complicated things even more complicated.

Except we call it planning.

Very professional.

We also discussed mistakes, constructive criticism and why feedback is such an important part of creating something worthwhile.

One thing became rather clear: you can leave engineering and game development behind, but the technical brain comes with you.

Whether you invited it or not.

Then Lacunae Took Over My Podcast

You already know the Imperfect Rebel tradition.

My guest gets to ask me three questions.

Lacunae came prepared.

She wanted to know what I’d brought from my crisis-management career into writing, what makes a book stay with me long after I’ve finished reading it, and which decision was the most unreasonable ever approved by the deeply unqualified committee in my head.

That last question was particularly dangerous.

My answer?

I really need to review that committee’s qualifications.

Preferably before it approves another project.

Apparently I Emotionally Damaged My Guest

REBELS!

Remember when I celebrated selling one of my first copies of Before October Ends?

Well.

Guess who bought it?

LACUNAE!

She waited until she’d finished reading before telling me.

Meanwhile, I was happily celebrating my mysterious buyer, completely unaware that it was the very woman I’d been chatting with.

Hearing Lacunae describe her reaction to Elisabetta’s story was something special.

She told me about lying on her bed after finishing the book, wondering WHY.

She also loved Pina.

Of course she loved Pina. Everybody needs a Pina.

During the Quickies, I asked Lacunae to rate the emotional damage caused by her own books.

We settled somewhere around five or six out of ten.

Then Before October Ends entered the conversation.

FIFTEEN, REBELS!

I think I may need to send an apology card.

Or perhaps a box of tissues.

Still, hearing another writer speak so affectionately about characters I created made me incredibly happy.

Thank you, Lacunae. Genuinely.

Another Keyboard Person. Wonderful.

By the time we reached the Quickies, we’d already established that neither of us was particularly good at keeping conversations short.

Lacunae prefers music while writing, especially instrumental music that helps her enter the atmosphere of a story.

She enjoys planning, with a little chaos thrown into the mix.

Very sensible.

She would invite Rain, one of her favourite Perpetūra characters, to dinner.

Remy, however, would be refused entry to her house because he’d judge absolutely everything.

Fair enough.

Then came my favourite question.

Notebook or keyboard?

KEYBOARD.

Of course.

Another one.

What is happening to the world, Rebels?!

Lacunae even admitted that she sometimes buys beautiful notebooks and then refuses to write in them because they’re too pretty.

LACUNAE!

THEY ARE NOTEBOOKS!

Somewhere around this point, she suggested that I probably needed more sleep than she did.

Naturally, I accused her of calling me old.

She protested.

Very suspicious.

We May Have Accidentally Planned a Live Podcast

There’s another reason I wanted Lacunae on the podcast.

She has a new book coming: Pantheon.

Its release is planned for 1 November 2026.

I’ve already had the pleasure of reading it and following some of the creative work behind the project.

Rebels, I have questions.

SO MANY QUESTIONS.

Naturally, I invited her back.

During the conversation, we started discussing something even more exciting: recording a live episode to celebrate the release.

Our first live Imperfect Rebel Podcast!

The idea is to let you Rebels join us while we talk about Pantheon.

I’ll share the confirmed arrangements once everything is organised.

Knowing the two of us, I suspect the greatest challenge will be remembering that other people are listening while we laugh at our own jokes.

HAHAHA!

All This Because of an ARC Request

I started this podcast because I wanted to talk to writers about their books.

Somewhere along the way, something rather wonderful happened.

I’ve started making friends.

Real friendships with people who live in different countries, create extraordinary things and somehow understand the peculiar way my brain works.

Lacunae and I spent weeks chatting before recording this episode.

Books, writing, websites, music, strange ideas and the international availability of bubble tea.

When the conversation finally ended, I realised that one of the loveliest things about becoming an independent author is meeting people I might otherwise never have known.

Thank you, Lacunae, for your books, your extraordinary imagination, your friendship and that unforgettable emotional damage rating.

I’ll treasure the last one forever.

Rebels, I really encourage you to explore the Perpetūra universe.

The combination of literature, history, interactive fiction and music is an experience worth discovering.

As for me?

I now have another book to look forward to, another podcast to plan and a rather serious logistical problem.

If I find excellent bubble tea in Vienna, I’ll have to invent another excuse to visit Stockholm.

Actually, I suspect the black magic course is still available.

LOVE YOU, REBELS!

Lupe