In the concluding installment to the Wrath of Ambar duology from masterful author Tanaz Bhathena, Gul and Cavas must unite their magical forces―and hold onto their growing romance―to save their kingdom from tyranny.
We chat with author Tanaz Bhathena about Rising Like A Storm, writing, book recommendations, and more!
Hi, Tanaz! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourself?
Hi! I’m a young adult author of contemporary and fantasy fiction. I was born in India and raised in Saudi Arabia and Canada. I currently live in Mississauga, Ontario. My books include A Girl Like That, The Beauty of the Moment, Hunted by the Sky and most recently, Rising like a Storm, which releases on June 22.
How is your 2021 going in comparison to that other year?
In terms of activity, things still aren’t very different and, in that sense, 2021 is still an extension of The Year That Will Not Be Named. We’ve been in lockdown here, in Ontario, since December. But on the plus side, many of us have received our first vaccine shots, which is a relief.
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!
First book: Fairy Tales for 4 year Olds (Or that’s what I think it was!), A book that made me want to be a writer: A tiny bit embarrassing to admit, but it was probably a Sweet Valley High book, where Elizabeth Wakefield waxes poetic about being a writer, LOL! A book I’ll never forget: The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy. It completely changed the way I looked at writing.
When did you first discover your love for writing?
When I was eight years old and wrote and illustrated a story about three girls who went to visit a witch on a mountain. I don’t know what happened to them—I never finished that story—but that was the first of many little incomplete story bursts I would have until age eleven when I would finally finish a short story about a werewolf at a girls’ boarding school.
Rising Like A Storm is the final installment in your The Wrath of Ambar and it’s out June 22nd 2021! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?
Everything is gonna blow up!
What can readers expect?
They can expect to see more of Gul and Cavas and the Sisters of the Golden Lotus from the first book, along with a new, deadly tyrant queen. They can also expect to see more of the Pashu, who are a race of part-human and part-animal beings, who do some pretty cool magic!
Can you tell us about any challenges you faced while writing the sequel and how you were able to overcome them?
Funnily, maintaining the momentum of the plot wasn’t as much of an issue as I thought it would be. The main challenge was remembering what I’d written in the first book. Sometimes I forgot certain things and had to go back and re-read. Having a brief chapter by chapter summary of the first book helped a lot. There were also instances when I needed to fix things in the first book so that the story made sense in the second.
Were there any favourite moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?
I really loved the progression of both Gul and Cavas’s characters through the series, I enjoyed writing them both in very difficult situations. I also really enjoyed writing the new tyrant queen in Rising like a Storm. She wasn’t supposed to be a POV character in the series, but at the end of book 1, I knew something was missing, that the story risked having a one-dimensional villain if I didn’t put in her perspective. In terms of scenes, I love the climax of Rising like a Storm—it was one of the toughest scenes I had to write, but when it fell into place, I was so proud of it.
What’s the best and the worst writing advice you have received?
Best advice: Butt in seat. The book won’t write itself.
Worst advice: You don’t have the imagination for fantasy. Focus on contemporary fiction.
What’s next for you?
A project I can’t quite talk about yet, but it will also be in the fantasy genre.
Lastly, do you have any book recommendations for our readers?
I recently read Accidentally Engaged by Farah Heron, which was wonderful. I was also fortunate to read early copies of Sisters of the Snake by Sarena and Sasha Nanua and Radha & Jai’s Recipe for Romance by Nisha Sharma—both of which I highly recommend.
