Interview – Author, Intisar Khanani
Q: What is a typical day like for you? Or are there no typical days?
A: I’m a stay-at-home mom, so most of my day is structured around my two little people (ages 2.5 and 4.5). The only typical part of each day is our meal and snack schedule and bedtime! (And, twice a week, preschool for the older one.) Of necessity, I write at night. As soon as the kids are in bed (~7:30 pm), I sit down at my computer and pretty much stay there till about 10:30 pm. In that three-hour segment, I try to get a minimum of 1.5 hours of straight writing done. This is also the only time I have for checking e-mail, engaging on social media, blogging, and generally relaxing, so 1.5 hours of writing is actually pretty decent. Two hours of focused writing is ideal.
Lately, I’ve had more trouble buckling down to write, so I’ve starting doing what I call “social writing.” I set up writing nights with writer-friends where we both get online at the same time, chat for a few minutes, share what we’re working on, and then get off line for about an hour to write. Then we get back online to check in and, if everyone is game, do a second shorter spurt. I’ve actually found this method to be amazingly productive for me, I think because I know I’ll have to report on how happy I am with my progress.
Q: What compelled you to write your first book?
A: I’d always wanted to write a novel, so my senior year of university I decided I’d better buckle down and try. I chose a fairy tale (The Goose Girl) to give me an over-arching plot and narrative structure, and then went to town with it. I really wrote it as an exercise to test myself, not intending to do anything with it when I finished. But, by the time I finished, I loved my characters so much that I ended up working through over a dozen revisions to take it from “writing exercise” to my debut novel, Thorn.
Q: What are currently reading?
A: I just finished two books pretty much at the same time. The first was The Pygmy Dragon by Marc Secchia, which is a fantastic story that follows a young girl from the age of eight, when she’s taken as a slave from her native jungle, on through to the age of fifteen where, wow, she has some seriously cool dragon-related adventures. I loved Secchia’s nuanced approach to racism, as well as just how spunky and smart our heroine is. Definitely recommend it!
The second book was Cairo, a graphic novel by G. Willow Wilson. This was a brilliant and humorous story set in, you got it, Cairo, where a group of unlikely characters come together around a jinn in a…hookah. Because, you know, the genie in the lamp is so last millennium, and really doesn’t do justice to jinn. And that’s only the beginning. Another book I definitely recommend.
Q: If you could live in one of your books, which one would you live in?
A: Definitely the world of my novella, Sunbolt. The story follows Hitomi, a young thief with a propensity to play hero when people need saving, and her nemesis, a dark mage intent on taking over the Eleven Kingdoms. Although there is a lot of darkness in Sunbolt, there’s also a lot of light. It’s a real world, in its way, and I love the diversity and vibrancy of the cultures and creatures that populate it. I’d have my choice of living in a tropical island sultanate reminiscent of historic Zanzibar, or among the nomadic desert tribes that eke out an existence alongside the cursed Burnt Lands, to name my two favorite options. Then again, there’s the decaying grandeur of the old capitol of a fallen empire that feels a lot like an Istanbul of old, right at the heart of the Eleven Kingdoms. Plus, I wouldn’t mind having shape-shifting friends and charms to keep my bread from burning.
Q: It’s one thing to write a book and another to edit it. How do you feel about the editing process? What was it like to edit your book?
A: Editing is the primary reason why I still have seven unpublished manuscripts on my computer. 
It takes me a lot longer to edit a book than it does to write that first, glorious draft. I know there are some writers who live for the editing phase. I’d die a happy author if I could skip it. To give an example, my initial draft of the book I’m currently working on, Memories of Ash, was about 60,000 words. The revised draft, which I am only about halfway through, is now about 80,000 words, which is average for a young adult novel. My file of discarded scenes and chapters? It’s about 55,000 words, and it doesn’t even contain everything I’ve deleted. I’ve written about 2/3 of a book (or the almost as much as my first draft on its own) and thrown it away just in the process of revision, working to get each scene and chapter right. That’s grueling.
Q: Do you have a favorite brand, flavor, type of coffee?
A: Hot Chocolate. All. The. Way.
I actually mix up my own spicy hot chocolate, including cinnamon and hot pepper, and it’s become a staple drink while writing.
Final thoughts?
If you’re interested in checking out my writing, I do have a free short story titled The Bone Knife, available at most major e-retailers. Although it takes place in the same land as Thorn, it introduces a new main character, so you don’t need to know anything about my writing to enjoy it.
Thank you so much for your time. I wish you the very best of luck! Let’s chat again soon.
A: Thank you!
Synopsis for Thorn
For Princess Alyrra, choice is a luxury she’s never had … until she’s betrayed.
Princess Alyrra has never enjoyed the security or power of her rank. Between her family’s cruelty and the court’s contempt, she has spent her life in the shadows. Forced to marry a powerful foreign prince, Alyrra embarks on a journey to meet her betrothed with little hope for a better future.
But powerful men have powerful enemies—and now, so does Alyrra. Betrayed during a magical attack, her identity is switched with another woman’s, giving Alyrra the first choice she’s ever had: to start a new life for herself or fight for a prince she’s never met. But Alyrra soon finds that Prince Kestrin is not at all what she expected. While walking away will cost Kestrin his life, returning to the court may cost Alyrra her own. As Alyrra is coming to realize, sometimes the hardest choice means learning to trust herself.
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Author Bio
Intisar Khanani grew up a nomad and world traveler. Born in Wisconsin, she has lived in five different states as well as in Jeddah on the coast of the Red Sea. She first remembers seeing snow on a wintry street in Zurich, Switzerland, and vaguely recollects having breakfast with the orangutans at the Singapore Zoo when she was five.
Intisar currently resides in Cincinnati, Ohio, with her husband and two young daughters. Until recently, she wrote grants and developed projects to address community health and infant mortality with the Cincinnati Health Department—which was as close as she could get to saving the world. Now she focuses her time on her two passions: raising her family and writing fantasy.
Intisar’s latest projects include a serial novella project titled The Sunbolt Chronicles, about a young thief with a propensity to play hero, and her arch-nemesis, a dark mage intent on taking over the Eleven Kingdoms. She’s also developing a companion trilogy to her debut novel Thorn, which will feature a new heroine introduced in her free short story The Bone Knife.
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