Magic, a prized resource, is the only thing between peace and war. When magic runs out, four estranged royal siblings must find a new source before their country is swallowed by invading forces. The first in an Indian-inspired duology.
We had the pleasure of chatting with debut author of Akshaya Raman about The Ivory Key, along with writing, book recommendations, and more.
Hi, Akshaya! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourself?
Hi! Thank you so much for having me! I’m the author of The Ivory Key which is my debut YA fantasy out now from Harper Collins. I grew up in the Bay Area and after graduating from UC Davis with a degree in biology, I worked in education until I decided to focus on writing. In my spare time I love to bake, travel, and watch too much reality tv!
When did you first discover your love for writing?
I always loved stories and I was a voracious reader as a child, but it never occurred to me that being a writer was a real job. It wasn’t until middle school when I met friends who were writers that I began to explore the idea of writing myself. I began to scribble snippets of stories in the margins of my notebooks in school, and eventually realized that this was what I really wanted to do.
Quick lightning round! Tell us the first book you ever remember reading, the one that made you want to become an author, and one that you can’t stop thinking about!
I don’t know if I remember my first book but a lot of my early reading memories are of Nancy Drew and The Babysitters Club. The books that made me want to be a writer were probably Ella Enchanted or Inkheart, which were my first introductions to fantasy. And a book I can’t stop thinking about from my childhood is probably Pride and Prejudice. I read it for the first time when I was 13, and I had to literally read it with a dictionary beside me to understand it back then. And it’s a book that I still revisit every few years.
Your debut novel, The Ivory Key, is out now! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?
Magical family drama treasure hunt!
What can readers expect?
Readers can expect dysfunctional siblings, secret societies, slow burn romance, regional Indian food, puzzles and ciphers, ancient architecture, and magic that’s a mined resource!
Where did the inspiration for The Ivory Key come from?
The book was inspired a lot of my favorite childhood adventure stories, but two especially big sources of inspiration were the puzzles and mysteries in movies like Indiana Jones and National Treasure and the complicated family dynamics of shows like The Originals.
Can you tell us a bit about the challenges you faced while writing and how you were able to overcome them?
The hardest part about writing this book was definitely juggling multiple point of views and keeping track of time. Vira and Kaleb’s storylines were pretty easy to figure out but Ronak and Riya were much harder and took several entire rewrites to nail down. And because the book has characters doing different things in different locations, it took me multiple timeline charts and calendars to make sure that the same amount of time was passing for each character in the chapters where they weren’t all together.
Were there any favourite moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?
In terms of side characters, I had so much fun writing Surya. He’s a pretty minor character in book 1—he comes from a group of mercenaries who are responsible for some pretty bad things, so he has a lot of answering to do for his involvement there! I’m looking forward to delving a little deeper into his backstory in book 2. I also really loved getting to incorporate so much regional Indian cuisine in the book.
What was the road to becoming a published author like for you?
My journey was long and spanned nearly six years. I started writing seriously toward publication in 2014 but it wasn’t until the summer of 2016 that I wrote the first draft of what would become The Ivory Key. I wrote that draft in just three weeks in a flurry of inspiration, but I knew that there was a lot of work that needed to be done. I spent the next two years rewriting the book entirely from the ground up several times before I found an agent. And then we spent another year and a half doing heavy revisions together before the book sold—exactly one week before we went into lockdown in March of 2020.
What’s next for you?
I’m currently working on the sequel to The Ivory Key. I can promise more adventures, more family drama, more secrets, and of course, more romance! I also have a short story in an upcoming paranormal romance anthology, Eternally Yours, which will be out later this year.
Lastly, do you have any 2022 book recommendations for our readers?
There are so many books I’m really excited for!! Some that I’ve already read or preordered include The Girl Who Fell Beneath The Sea by Axie Oh, Some Mistakes Were Made by Kristin Dwyer, Once Upon A K-Prom by Kat Cho, Kaikeyi by Vaishnavi Patel, and Blood Scion by Deborah Falaye.
