Thank you to Alison Barlow for giving me beautiful books to read and for teaching me how on earth taxes work. Heartfelt thanks also to Shekar Bhatia for the wonderful author photo and to Gordana Radich-Pattni, who listened to all my stories for years and years without complaint. I hope you enjoy this one.

My final acknowledgment goes to my chosen family. Carly, thank you for believing in this book and in me. I couldn’t have done it without you.

EXTRAS

extras

MEET THE AUTHOR

meet the author

Shekar Bhatia

TASHA SURI was born in London to Punjabi parents. She studied English and creative writing at Warwick University and is now a cat-owning librarian in London. A love of period Bollywood films, history, and mythology led her to write South Asian–influenced fantasy. Find her on Twitter: @tashadrinkstea.

INTERVIEW

interview

When did you first start writing?

I’ve been writing for fun since I was pretty young. Apparently as a kid I had a full-blown tantrum when I learned about full stops, because I was mad no one had told me about them earlier, and now I had to fix all the stories I’d already written because they were wrong. You’ll be happy to know I’ve become a little more relaxed about editing since then.

I’ve only been writing seriously for publication since leaving university in 2011. I wrote one book that wasn’t very good but taught me a lot, and then I started working on Empire of Sand.

Who are some of your most significant authorial influences?

Juliet Marillier, Jacqueline Carey, N. K. Jemisin, Catherynne Valente … They’re all very different from each other, but they’ve all had a huge influence on my writing. Valente’s prose is gorgeous; Jemisin’s books always rip my heart out and make me love it; Marillier’s Sevenwaters Trilogy will always hold a special place in my heart; and Carey somehow manages to make giant, sweeping epics feel deeply personal. I feel like I’ve learned a lot from all of them.

How did you come up with the idea for Empire of Sand?

I’ve always wanted to write a fantasy that draws on India’s history and epics and myths. I love Mughal art and architecture, and Mughal-e-Azam—a classic Bollywood film set in the Mughal court—was one of my childhood favorites. So finding inspiration for the setting was easy, really.

I’m not really sure how the plot and characters came together, but I do remember reading lots of books about the Mughal emperors and being fascinated by the women in their lives: their daughters and mothers and wives, who wielded huge power behind the scenes. The rest of the idea just came together, in its own time, like magic.

What, if any, research did you do in preparation for writing this book?