Ehsan Ahmad and Shakil Ahmad are the authors of Wild Sun: Unbound (February 16, 2021; Uproar Books) and Wild Sun (2020; Uproar Books). They grew up in New York City as the first-generation American children of immigrants from Pakistan.
We had the pleasure of chatting with the brothers about their new release, Wild Sun: Unbound, book recommendations, writing, and more!
You can find the pair on Twitter, Instagram, and at their website.
Hi, Ehsan and Shakil! Tell us a bit about yourselves!
As brothers, we grew up in New York City as the first-generation American children of immigrants from Pakistan. Growing up with two separate cultural pulls on us was tough, but it galvanized a unique perspective on our lives that has affected how we tell stories and their meaning to us. As we got older, we went in different directions in life–whether it meant traveling across four continents to meet the people of countless cultures and hear their stories firsthand, or it meant seeking a deeper understanding of human nature through degrees in psychology and social research. In our late twenties, we reunited in Pennsylvania to start a wedding film company that specialized in going beyond capturing a single event and instead telling the story behind it. One of us spent those years writing lyrics and playing guitar for an alt-rock band, recording three studio albums. In our thirties, we sold the film company and moved to Brooklyn, where we now work for separate tech startups and never stop collaborating on screenplays and novels.
When did you both first discover your love for writing?
We simply love the art of storytelling—as audience or creators. Regardless of the medium, we’re enraptured by those creators that are able to provoke one’s feelings, viscerally or otherwise, by connecting to us to their characters. Specifically, film has always been a medium we’ve wanted to break into. As we began to build a universe of characters and stories, a novel seemed the most appropriate way to truly capture the depth that we were looking for in this stage of our creative journey.
Wild Sun: Unbound is out now! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?
Freedom is not victory, Cerrin.
Now tell us a little more! What can readers expect?
No longer bound to a life of forced labor in the enemy’s mines, Cerrin leads a small band of escaped slaves in search of a new home in the ancient forest where she was born. And death is never far behind. Soldiers of an advanced and ruthless empire are forever at their heels. Leading the pursuit is Count Talazeer, a vicious nobleman driven by a personal vendetta against Cerrin… and a desperate need for redemption in the eyes of his family and his people. Each day of survival is a victory. Turning to fight their enemy remains an impossible dream. And yet, even as death claims them one by one, the former slaves hold fast to faith in their gods and, above all, in Cerrin. And now, Cerrin will discover strange new allies–and enemies–are waiting for her people amidst the trees in the forest and beyond the stars.
What was the inspiration behind this novel?
Jeanne d’Arc was a major influence for us. We’ve always been captured by stories of human grit and determination that it takes to upend steep, oppressive forces. There are indelible characteristics of those that are willing to sacrifice everything for their own beliefs – even if those motivations are as simple and innate as the desire to be free or as complex as being compelled by the divine.
Do you have a favourite character, scene, or setting that you enjoyed bringing to life?
Cerrin is a standout character for us. It was important to us that Cerrin didn’t come across as just your average warrior type. There is a massive grey area in individuals, that governs right and wrong and balances opposing psychological forces. It’s not all as binary as we’d like it to be. That’s what we wanted to explore with Cerrin – that you can have all of these forces grappling for your identity and in the end, nothing gets tied with a ribbon. She’s both fierce and vulnerable. Dimensionality is critical and so we had to push her to the edge of her limits.
As a character, she’s carrying pretty heavy themes on her back – of slavery, colonization, loyalty and leadership. We really enjoyed telling the story through her eyes.
What was the writing process like?
We usually start off by talking about themes and what this story should ‘feel’ like. Writing a novel is a long journey, so we’re conscious about giving ourselves a profound motivation for writing the story so that we’re in a strong place to flesh out deep characters.
Collaborating on two novels now has certainly been interesting. A bunch of idiosyncrasies have developed for us both. We fire emails back and forth, meet in person for ideation, and despite busy schedules, we force ourselves to have purely creative sessions of discussion and writing. We get up very early with a pre-set agenda we want to tackle, and one of us gets behind a computer, and the other paces around in the background.
What’s next for you both?
Two major projects on our agenda for the coming year. We’re working on a novella about one of the main characters from Wild Sun which will serve as a companion piece to the Wild Sun series. That will most likely be released Summer 2021. In late summer, we begin the writing process for the third book in the Wild Sun series.
Lastly, do you have any book recommendations for our readers?
We’ve been reading Shogun and Tai-Pan by James Clavell. The entire Asian saga is an intricate and immersive journey. There really does not seem to be a sentence out of place in these books.
