Ask the Author: Intisar Khanani
Answered Questions (33)
Intisar Khanani
I am! :)
Goodreads refuses to let me post this answer as such, telling me, "Sorry, your answer is too short. Longer answers are more popular with readers, and even “yes or no” answers are more interesting with more detail." I hope this made my answer more interesting! XD
Goodreads refuses to let me post this answer as such, telling me, "Sorry, your answer is too short. Longer answers are more popular with readers, and even “yes or no” answers are more interesting with more detail." I hope this made my answer more interesting! XD
Intisar Khanani
Hi Eden! Unfortunately, I don't. My agent is currently shopping Riha of the Woods to my UK publisher to see if I can get an "international" (non-US/North America) deal. They (the publisher) are taking their time, and I'm not pushing it too hard because i've been focused on getting the next Sunbolt book out. I would *love* to get it out in the next year or so, but there are so many unknowns, I can't promise anything other than that I do hope to publish it one way or the other. Thanks so much for reading!
Intisar Khanani
Hi Lenora! I would love to give Niya and Bean each a book, so I do hope to circle back to the Dauntless Path one day. I'd also love to give Kirrana, the tax clerk who disappeared in Theft, her own book. Right now, though, I'm focused on finishing the Sunbolt Chronicles (and maybe also getting a secret project done on the side too!). Thanks so much!
Intisar Khanani
Ha! I love this question! So, Bren himself is not exactly sure how old he is thanks to his tragic backstory (TM), so neither am I. In thinking about his age during the writing process, I drew from my own grandparents' background (and even some of my uncles) whose births were generally recorded as "the summer of the typhoon that swept away so-and-so's house" or the like - but when their families were uprooted, suddenly there was no community memory of what year that was, and so they only have an approximate knowledge of their age. It's close but not precise. (I still remember when one of my uncles was trying to pin things down and managed to work out that he was actually two years older than he thought--he was not happy!!) XD Bren also lost his home community, and so any estimate of his age would be just that. I would guess he's in his early twenties, not too much older than Rae. :)
Thanks so much for reading, and for this question!
Thanks so much for reading, and for this question!
Intisar Khanani
Hi Miracle! Nope, they're in different worlds. The next books after Thorn follow a continued storyline with some of our beloved characters crossing over, so I definitely recommend finishing the Dauntless Path series first. Happy reading!
Intisar Khanani
Hi Ale!
Thanks so much for this! The general reading order, with short stories included, is as follows (short stories have asterisks, and are completely optional):
*Brambles
Thorn (Book 1)
*The Bone Knife (included at the back of Thorn)
*The Tears of a Dragon
The Theft of Sunlight (Book 2)
A Darkness at the Door (Book 3)
Thorn is a slower paced story that is more about the internal journey my heroine goes on. If you're interested in a faster paced story, you can also start with Book 2, The Theft of Sunlight. Theft features a different heroine, and while the story has depth, it's a twistier read. If you start with Theft, there's enough of a recap that you'll be able to follow references to Thorn, though they will certainly mean more if you've read Book 1. But it's not necessary.
I would also encourage you to check content notes if you have material you find triggering, as my stories do deal with some serious topics including, but not limited to, surviving physical and emotional abuse, violence against women, animal death, and human trafficking.
I hope this helps! :)
Thanks so much for this! The general reading order, with short stories included, is as follows (short stories have asterisks, and are completely optional):
*Brambles
Thorn (Book 1)
*The Bone Knife (included at the back of Thorn)
*The Tears of a Dragon
The Theft of Sunlight (Book 2)
A Darkness at the Door (Book 3)
Thorn is a slower paced story that is more about the internal journey my heroine goes on. If you're interested in a faster paced story, you can also start with Book 2, The Theft of Sunlight. Theft features a different heroine, and while the story has depth, it's a twistier read. If you start with Theft, there's enough of a recap that you'll be able to follow references to Thorn, though they will certainly mean more if you've read Book 1. But it's not necessary.
I would also encourage you to check content notes if you have material you find triggering, as my stories do deal with some serious topics including, but not limited to, surviving physical and emotional abuse, violence against women, animal death, and human trafficking.
I hope this helps! :)
Intisar Khanani
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Intisar Khanani
Thank you so much for this - I'm so thrilled you love Thorn so much, and have enjoyed my other stories!
To answer your questions:
1. I did not have Theft's plot in mind while writing Thorn, but at some point in my revisions I got a grasp on what Rae's duology was about, so I was able to weave in what I needed at that point.
2. I have really enjoyed W.R. Gingell's Two Monarchies sequence (a series of retellings with some very original twists) and Kate Stradling's Brine and Bone (a novella-sized retelling of the Little Mermaid told from a new POV that is hands down my favorite version of the story).
3. Yes! Given where Niya is headed off to at the end of Darkness, I kind of need to follow her. ;) I also have a good chunk of story written for Kirrana (the tax clerk who disappeared in Theft). I also have a story I am sharing a chapter a month with my newsletter called "Riha of the Woods" - it's the basis for the folk tale that Rae loves so much, and predates the Thorn storyline by about 400 years. Once I've finished sharing that with my newsletter, I'll likely revise it one final time and release it widely, but you can read the in-progress version now if you'd like!
Thanks so much for writing!
To answer your questions:
1. I did not have Theft's plot in mind while writing Thorn, but at some point in my revisions I got a grasp on what Rae's duology was about, so I was able to weave in what I needed at that point.
2. I have really enjoyed W.R. Gingell's Two Monarchies sequence (a series of retellings with some very original twists) and Kate Stradling's Brine and Bone (a novella-sized retelling of the Little Mermaid told from a new POV that is hands down my favorite version of the story).
3. Yes! Given where Niya is headed off to at the end of Darkness, I kind of need to follow her. ;) I also have a good chunk of story written for Kirrana (the tax clerk who disappeared in Theft). I also have a story I am sharing a chapter a month with my newsletter called "Riha of the Woods" - it's the basis for the folk tale that Rae loves so much, and predates the Thorn storyline by about 400 years. Once I've finished sharing that with my newsletter, I'll likely revise it one final time and release it widely, but you can read the in-progress version now if you'd like!
Thanks so much for writing!
Intisar Khanani
Oh, this is a tough question, in large part because every writer comes with their own personal context, including how their brain is wired to tell stories.
My advice, therefore, is to figure out how story works for *you* - do you tell stories better when you have time to let them grow through daydreams before writing anything, or do you do better if you sit down and outline the whole story, or do you actually do better with a combination of both - or something else entirely? You're the only person who can answer that question. I would suggest keeping a small notebook / document / what-have-you, and whenever you have a really good writing day, pause and look back at what the context was that led to that. I've found that I literally need time to daydream; if I don't have that, when I sit down at my computer, the story is simply not there. So figure out what you need, and do that.
My other bit of advice is to ignore the advice that doesn't work for you - including mine. So much writing advice seems to assume that everyone works the same. "Write every day. If you're stuck, make an outline. If you don't know what you're doing, read a book on craft." Literally none of these have helped me. XD So... you do you. I guess the most important thing is to keep believing in yourself and the stories you have to tell. Give yourself the space and grace to tell them, and try to enjoy the process. I'm cheering you on!
My advice, therefore, is to figure out how story works for *you* - do you tell stories better when you have time to let them grow through daydreams before writing anything, or do you do better if you sit down and outline the whole story, or do you actually do better with a combination of both - or something else entirely? You're the only person who can answer that question. I would suggest keeping a small notebook / document / what-have-you, and whenever you have a really good writing day, pause and look back at what the context was that led to that. I've found that I literally need time to daydream; if I don't have that, when I sit down at my computer, the story is simply not there. So figure out what you need, and do that.
My other bit of advice is to ignore the advice that doesn't work for you - including mine. So much writing advice seems to assume that everyone works the same. "Write every day. If you're stuck, make an outline. If you don't know what you're doing, read a book on craft." Literally none of these have helped me. XD So... you do you. I guess the most important thing is to keep believing in yourself and the stories you have to tell. Give yourself the space and grace to tell them, and try to enjoy the process. I'm cheering you on!
Intisar Khanani
Each of my stories has a different genesis / starting point. Some began with a single dream-like image that I had to play with and unpack (Sunbolt), some are based on a classic fairy tale (Thorn, others I haven't published yet), some started from having a sense of a character and setting, and then coming across a particular detail in my life that brought the full plot into focus (The Theft of Sunlight is a good example).
As with the genesis of each story, the writing has also been different. Sunbolt was a dream-concept that haunted me for years, and then poured out of me in the space of a couple of weeks. Thorn I wrote as a writing exercise to see if I could actually write a novel--at a chapter a week, the draft took the better part of a school year, and I went through around 16 rounds of revisions to bring the story to where it is now. The Theft of Sunlight was somewhere between the two--it took a few months to write, a year to revise. Nothing poured out of me, but the writing itself was stronger, so revisions took less time.
I suspect every book will be it's own journey for me. I have a book that has been incredibly difficult to revise (Sunbolt #3)--it's the book that has made me question my abilities as a writer because I simply can't get it "right." That's okay, I realize now. It just needs more time, needs to be processed differently, needs to develop on its own timeframe, and so that's what I'll do. I won't give up, but I won't tear myself apart over it either.
I hope this answers your questions. Thanks so much for reading!
As with the genesis of each story, the writing has also been different. Sunbolt was a dream-concept that haunted me for years, and then poured out of me in the space of a couple of weeks. Thorn I wrote as a writing exercise to see if I could actually write a novel--at a chapter a week, the draft took the better part of a school year, and I went through around 16 rounds of revisions to bring the story to where it is now. The Theft of Sunlight was somewhere between the two--it took a few months to write, a year to revise. Nothing poured out of me, but the writing itself was stronger, so revisions took less time.
I suspect every book will be it's own journey for me. I have a book that has been incredibly difficult to revise (Sunbolt #3)--it's the book that has made me question my abilities as a writer because I simply can't get it "right." That's okay, I realize now. It just needs more time, needs to be processed differently, needs to develop on its own timeframe, and so that's what I'll do. I won't give up, but I won't tear myself apart over it either.
I hope this answers your questions. Thanks so much for reading!
Intisar Khanani
Thank you so much! I'm so thrilled you enjoyed The Theft of Sunlight. I am working on drafting the second (and final) installment of Rae's story right now. Writing that cliffhanger was a lesson in humility--I dislike cliffhangers as a reader, so realizing that I could not find another ending that did the work the ending needed to do was distinctly humbling. But I also promised myself not to leave readers waiting for the rest of the story longer than necessary, so I'm putting my all into completing this story.
As for an actual publication date... right now, my UK publisher has bought Theft #2, and is poised to publish it as soon as it can be got ready, ideally spring of next year (2022). However, my US publisher has yet to decide if they want to offer for it; they are watching Theft's initial sales before making their decision. (So your early support is very much appreciated!) If they offer, the timeline to publication will be set by them, and we'll be lucky if it publishes by late 2022 - the larger publishing houses are a bit less nimble. If they don't offer, then I'll be independently publishing the story for the North American region, and working with UK publisher for the rest of the world, in which case, a spring 2022 publication is still possible (since they're impressively nimble).
Hopefully that isn't too much detail! The short of it is, I'm working on this story, and I'm very hopeful that it will come out in 2022. I'm also holding my breath, hoping my US publisher makes the offer. We'll see how it shakes out!
As for an actual publication date... right now, my UK publisher has bought Theft #2, and is poised to publish it as soon as it can be got ready, ideally spring of next year (2022). However, my US publisher has yet to decide if they want to offer for it; they are watching Theft's initial sales before making their decision. (So your early support is very much appreciated!) If they offer, the timeline to publication will be set by them, and we'll be lucky if it publishes by late 2022 - the larger publishing houses are a bit less nimble. If they don't offer, then I'll be independently publishing the story for the North American region, and working with UK publisher for the rest of the world, in which case, a spring 2022 publication is still possible (since they're impressively nimble).
Hopefully that isn't too much detail! The short of it is, I'm working on this story, and I'm very hopeful that it will come out in 2022. I'm also holding my breath, hoping my US publisher makes the offer. We'll see how it shakes out!
Intisar Khanani
Oh yay! I'm so thrilled you loved Osman Bey so much! I don't have plans for him to show up in Book 3 right now (though sometimes my drafts surprise me as they develop). However, I do have high hopes of seeing him in the final book, Sunbolt 4. :)
And, as you can tell, I'm definitely planning on finishing Hitomi's story. Book 3 has been a bear, but I'm finally starting to feel like there's hope. XD I'm planning on another round of revisions this summer, trading off with my Dauntless Path books. So, hopefully, some good news in the not-so-distant future.
Thanks so much for reading!
And, as you can tell, I'm definitely planning on finishing Hitomi's story. Book 3 has been a bear, but I'm finally starting to feel like there's hope. XD I'm planning on another round of revisions this summer, trading off with my Dauntless Path books. So, hopefully, some good news in the not-so-distant future.
Thanks so much for reading!
Intisar Khanani
I'm so thrilled you found Thorn in such a special way, and that you enjoyed it so much! The next book (The Theft of Sunlight) and its sequel don't have a fairy tale inspiration behind them, but I have other stories I'd like tell in the same world that do (including, possibly, a Red Riding Hood adaptation, and possibly, Beauty and the Beast!). But those will be a ways in the future. I'm hoping to build this world with a mix of retellings and my own stories. :)
Intisar Khanani
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Intisar Khanani
Thanks so much for your interest in Thorn! I feel like I can't judge how different indie versus traditional publishing might be quite yet for me, as Thorn hasn't come out from HarperTeen. I do know that Thorn sold very well as an indie book--which means primarily e-book sales versus print.
However, judging from friends' experiences, with the right book and promotion, you can be as big with an indie book as with trad pub... your sales just look a little different. You'll sell a lot more e-books rather than print, and it's a lot harder to get into libraries (*sad panda*). But you can still have massively popular books. So I guess I'm just saying that both avenues can allow books to effectively reach readers, thought it will look a little different from one context to the other. In both cases, the author definitely has to put on their marketing hat and do what they can to help folks find their books.
Hope this is answers your question!
However, judging from friends' experiences, with the right book and promotion, you can be as big with an indie book as with trad pub... your sales just look a little different. You'll sell a lot more e-books rather than print, and it's a lot harder to get into libraries (*sad panda*). But you can still have massively popular books. So I guess I'm just saying that both avenues can allow books to effectively reach readers, thought it will look a little different from one context to the other. In both cases, the author definitely has to put on their marketing hat and do what they can to help folks find their books.
Hope this is answers your question!
Intisar Khanani
Hi Helenia! Thank you so much - I love my book covers too! Sunbolt, Memories of Ash, and Thorn's indie cover were all designed by the talented Jenny Zemanek at Seedlings Design Studio. HarperTeen licensed the cover from her for Thorn's upcoming release, so it's still that distinctive cloaked girl on the cover. Jenny is an amazing designer, and I'm so grateful to be able to work with her!
Intisar Khanani
I am so thrilled that Thorn spoke to you so deeply! I too feel that Red Hawk has many stories to him--he will definitely be in the companion novel, "The Theft of Sunlight" featuring Rae. If you managed to pick up "The Bone Knife" before HarperTeen bought it, you'll have a chance a to meet her now. Otherwise... it will be 2020 before Thorn re-releases and with it, The Bone Knife. Rae's novel (expected 2021) will take her to the king's city, and she will most certainly meet a particular thief. I can't say more than that for fear of spoilers (and, frankly, I'm still writing it!), but I think you will really enjoy it. I probably will not write a full novel from Red Hawk's perspective, but we will definitely get to see a great deal more of him. :)
Intisar Khanani
Thank you so much, Skadoosh! I, too, am so excited to share "Thorn" with a wider audience. The content will change a bit - I'm currently working through revisions under the guidance of my editor at HarperTeen to improve some of the pacing issues around the middle of the book, and play with a few other elements. The overall story arc will remain the same, though, so hopefully it will be like meeting a dear old friend with a new hairdo. ;) As for the title and cover, I don't know! I did ask for the marketing department to consider the current cover, but it's hard to say what will end up happening. Publishers are pretty well known for making their own decisions on that front. We shall see!
Intisar Khanani
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Intisar Khanani
As a child and young adult, I was an inveterate bookworm. It's hard to say what books I loved a kid--I'm pretty sure I read the first few Little House books repeatedly, as well as "Ralph S. Mouse" and "The Mouse and the Motorcycle," but those were very much in my elementary years and I suspect just fed my love of good stories.
In sixth grade I discovered Robin McKinley's "The Hero and The Crown" and "The Blue Sword" in my school's library (in Saudi Arabia, no less). This was definitely a pivotal time for me--awesome girls wielding swords and magic and saving the day? Sign me up! I quickly found the only other such books in our library--Tamora Pierce's Lioness Quartet and a smattering of works by Anne McCaffery. Between those three authors, my love of fantasy was born. While I read widely in our little library, I came back to McKinley many times. This timeframe also saw my first stories written as well--all, curiously enough, featuring strong girls, magic, and (ha!) dragons. I've gotten slightly less dragon-obsessed as I've aged, but the remaining two aspects of my writing have remained unchanged...
In sixth grade I discovered Robin McKinley's "The Hero and The Crown" and "The Blue Sword" in my school's library (in Saudi Arabia, no less). This was definitely a pivotal time for me--awesome girls wielding swords and magic and saving the day? Sign me up! I quickly found the only other such books in our library--Tamora Pierce's Lioness Quartet and a smattering of works by Anne McCaffery. Between those three authors, my love of fantasy was born. While I read widely in our little library, I came back to McKinley many times. This timeframe also saw my first stories written as well--all, curiously enough, featuring strong girls, magic, and (ha!) dragons. I've gotten slightly less dragon-obsessed as I've aged, but the remaining two aspects of my writing have remained unchanged...
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