About the Author

Maurice J. Gallagher is a professional writer who has experienced and achieved much in the last few years.

Hailing from the town of Cumbernauld, Scotland, located 15 miles outside of Glasgow, Mo (Maurice – born December, 1986) was always a student who placed logic before creativity, and gained exceptional grades before enrolling at the University of Strathclyde. Graduating in mathematics and economics, his first real career move was – as you would expect – to be a travel writer based in a town quite literally on the opposite side of the world: Napier, New Zealand.

From an early age, Mo had been an avid fan of reading, specifically horror stories. His earliest memories of reading focus around the R.L. Stine collection of Goosebumps books, as well as the Spinechiller range and Christopher Pike novels. As he grew, his taste expanded to include popular sagas such as J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter, Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials, Stieg Larsson’s Millennium, Michael Crichton’s Jurassic Park, and George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire, not to mention being inspired by fellow Glaswegian and legendary comic book writer, Mark Millar, creator of Kick-Ass, Kingsman, Wanted, and Marvel’s Civil War among many others.

Out for a pint in Glasgow with legendary comic book writer, Mark Millar

Over time, however, it was the genre of fantasy – particularly fantasy with connections to the real world – which captured his imagination most.

Mo’s first experience with such a story beyond the mediums of books and film came in 1997 in the form of the bestselling Squaresoft videogame Final Fantasy VII. Falling in love with this epic tale of revenge, self-discovery, tragedy, and redemption, it became his inspiration when asked in later years to compose short writing pieces for school assignments. Despite his dislike of English studies, he came to realise that he enjoyed scripting the events of the videogame, and soon began authoring Final Fantasy VII as a hobby. By 2007, draft copies of his first two novels were posted online in a fan-based forum under the alias “S and G”. Almost immediately, he began to receive glowing feedback and encouragement from individuals across the world – not to mention over 10,000 hits on a single site within 6 months – but was limited to further writing due to university and other commitments. However, he continued to be an active member of the online community, occasionally posting thoroughly-researched articles which are still the basis of niche fandom knowledge today.

Throughout his studies, his employment experience included being responsible for tens of thousands of pounds daily for a well-known high street retailer at the age of 17, temporarily running a store of a globally-renowned fast food chain at 18, and working in a number of various managerial positions before the age of 21. Following his graduation, Mo wished to travel so as to broaden his views of the world. As well as visiting more than 25 countries, he has since lived for spells in locations on 4 different continents (Glasgow, UK; Los Angeles, California; Georgetown, Malaysia; Napier, New Zealand). His adventures would bring him to work for New Zealand-based tourism company, Citywalksz, where his writing skills were recognised by the owners, and utilised to create exciting and informative cultural tours of coastal destinations around Oceania, North America, and Europe. His eventual role as project manager further boosted his CV with experience in editing, graphic design management, public relations, international management, web development, web maintenance, film directing, acting, sound production, and more.

Upon his return to the United Kingdom, Mo opted to further his career in professional writing. While continuing his employment with Citywalksz, he redrafted and self-published his first not-for-profit novel, Final Fantasy VII: A New Threat, in November, 2012. Within 2 months, he had been recruited as lead screenwriter for the volunteer fan-made Final Fantasy VII: The Web Series thanks to his contributions to the fandom as well as the standard and overall popularity of his novels. By February, 2013, he was one of 3 producers. It was on this very project that Mo and Alroy were introduced for the first time in London, England. However, after differences in opinion with other members of management, he left his post on the ill-fated production to focus on other work, including Axtelera Ray™.

In May, 2013, the duo agreed that Mo would take on the role of author of the first novel, The Chronicles of Astrone, working from the story template created by Alroy. The book has been in development ever since, with a preview edition released in May, 2015 to a succession of five-star reviews.

To date, Mo’s unofficial Final Fantasy VII novels have amassed a significant following on fanfaction.net and Facebook, with hits across various websites of more than 250,000, and have even been featured on the world’s leading videogame blog site, Kotaku.com. The sequel to A New Threat, titled The Man in the Black Cloak, was self-published in December, 2014, while work commenced the third volume, The Cetran Legacy, in November, 2016, currently being released as an ongoing web serial. All are available to read online or download as free eBooks from Mo’s Patreon account here.

Signing novels at KupoCon: MInd the Pom in London, 2017

To coincide with The Cetran Legacy‘s undertaking, Mo was invited to attend KupoCon – a Final Fantasy fan event – in London as a special community guest in March, 2017. Paperback copies of A New Threat were given to premium ticket holders, and he was on hand for book signings and to chat with those interested in his work. In February, 2018, he returned as a guest to the follow-up event where premium tickets received The Man in the Black Cloak. As well as signings, Mo read a short excerpt from the novels to an audience of 500 people, and partook in an on-stage interview with event hosts.

His next public appearance will be at KupoCon: Birmingham in September, 2018 where he’ll be launching his exclusive FFVII novella, The Nibelheim Incident, a fan collaboration with artists Crimson Sun and A.J. Hateley.

Until then, Mo will continue to juggle parenthood, a day job working for the British Government, and authoring The Chronicles of Astrone, The Cetran Legacy and The Nibelheim Incident. Please support his writing endeavours if you can by pledging a small monthly tip to his Patreon, and get loads of cool rewards in return.

He currently lives in Glasgow, Scotland with his partner, Aimée, and is the father of three beautiful children, Violet, Theo and Finn.