Written by contributor Arina N
An unyielding and vibrant tale of feminist resistance, Tasha Suri’s The Jasmine Throne unravels a story of magic, love, and the ruin of empires. This lushly passionate Indian-inspired fantasy about “morally grey lesbians setting an empire ablaze” will hits shelves today! Join us as we chat with the author about her latest release, her future plans, and what four books best describe her!
Hi, Tasha. Thank you so much for joining The Nerd Daily today, we’re really happy to have you! How would you describe your new novel The Jasmine Throne?
Thanks so much for having me!
I often describe The Jasmine Throne as a big, chonky multi-pov epic Indian-inspired fantasy about morally grey lesbians setting an empire ablaze. But I try and be a bit more detailed now for anyone curious to know more, so here’s another description: The Jasmine Throne is the story of a captive, vengeful princess and a maidservant with secret magical gifts who work together to bring down the princess’s tyrannical brother. It’s also the story of a vicious rebel leader, a cinnamon roll prince with a prophetic name, a demure noblewoman with secret past, and a mysterious illness that makes flesh grow flowers.
But wait we forgot about you! How would your characters describe you?
I don’t think I’d survive long in the world of my characters, so they probably wouldn’t have much to say about me! I’m a mild and serious librarian with a deep undercurrent of low-level rage, so maybe Malini and Priya – as two women with a lot of hidden rage between them – would empathise with me over that. But I’d keep well away from any adventures. I like hanging out in my house with my rabbits and my yowly, operatic cat.
There is a complexity of power and strength in The Jasmine Throne, embodied most strongly (though not uniquely) by your two core characters, Malini and Priya. Did you set out writing them seeking to explore the many kinds of strength that can exist differently in many kinds of people?
I’ve always been interested in strength and power that come in different and atypical forms, and I wanted to explore that through the different characters in The Jasmine Throne. Malini is a disgraced prisoner, stripped of her old power as a princess, drugged into compliance. But her strength lies in her determination, her cunning, and her willingness to use any weapon she has – even her perceived fragility – to achieve her goals. Priya is ‘just’ a maidservant, but her strength is her stubbornness and her unfailing kindness. Both of them have a kind of strength that I think is often typically coded as feminine, and accordingly denigrated – and that’s exactly the kind of strength I love to read about, and write about too.
What did the relationship between Malini and Priya, and between all characters in the story, allow you to explore?
There’s a big range of relationships in story from familial to friendship to fealty, and all of these allowed me to explore the ways the people we love or admire can still hurt us, or have terrible power over us. The limits of love, I suppose.
That sounds very dark, and I don’t mean it to be! The ways love can be complicated by, well – life – is fascinating to me. And in Priya and Malini I had the chance to explore a romantic love that is thorny and difficult but also allows both of them to be so much more than they believe they’re capapble of being. I love sapphic romances that are Complicated, and I got to write that.
Besides compelling characters, The Jasmine Throne has a fascinating magic system. Can you talk more about what inspired it and its place in this world?
I wanted the magic to be tied with the different faiths of the empire, and feel like something real and embedded in the world. So there’s water-based magic and plant-based; magic around sacrifice and magic in prophetic names, and all of it is real and recognised by the people of the empire of Parijatdvipa. I was inspired by real world beliefs – around nature spirits and ritual water immersion, and names decided by the stars you’re born under – and twisted them to my own terrible purposes.
From The Jasmine Throne to The Books of Ambha, you’ve built incredible worlds of Fantasy that are also unabashedly romantic. Romance has an equally important place in your world as magic and quests. What do you think is romance’s standing in today’s Fantasy scene and how does your work dive into it?
I think there’s a lot of Fantasy that doesn’t centre romance, but equally there are amazing books that do, that have received a lot of love from audiences and from critics. That’s what I love about Fantasy: it’s a huge genre with room for all sorts of books and readers.
My work often centres romance, and it’s certainly a big part of The Jasmine Throne. I find love stories really compelling, because they’re all about two people learning the truth about each other in ways that make them both vulnerable, bring out their worst and best selves, and forcing them to confront their own desires. Desire can be so fascinating because it’s not just about wanting a person – it’s about wanting a certain life, or future, or a certain way of being. When that kind of character stuff happens in an epic Fantasy context, where wants can change the fate of a world? Romance suddenly becomes even more high stakes, and I just love watching that unfold.
Emotive and spellbinding, your writing evokes such intensity. Each page pulls us in with its narrative, as well as its world. Do you consciously focus your writing on the sensorial experience or is that more instinctual?
Thank you so much! It’s instinctive. When I imagine a scene, I always naturally imagine how the moment must feel to the characters – the colours, the sounds, the emotions they’re feeling. I always feel like all I want to do is capture that in a meaningful way when I write, so I’m really glad the intensity comes through for you!
Speaking of your way with wor(l)ds, can you walk us through your research process? Do you research what you want to put in your books or does your research unearth things you then must build into your worlds?
A little bit of both, really. If I’m stuck on something, I’ll go and research about it. For example, I did a lot of research on weapons for The Jasmine Throne, purely so I could have some throwaway lines about things like sword whips (which are incidentally extremely cool). But I also found just reading research books broadly about medieval and early modern India, and wandering around museums in the Before Times, gave me little pieces of inspiration that I stitched together into something new once I began planning the book. Often the most random bits of research are the most inspiring.
Taking a cue from Twitter trends, how would you describe yourself in 4 books?
Ooh, a tough one! Let me think:
- Witches Abroad by Terry Pratchett (because my final form will be a cantankerous witch, and I like a practical approach to fairytales)
- Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte (sometimes I like to yell in fields)
- The House on the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune (I’m soft)
- Honey Girl by Morgan Rogers (I just related greatly to this; also you should read it, it’s wonderful)
Publishing can be a harsh, draining process, especially at times like these. What inspirations and ambitions keep you on this path?
Part of what drives me is practical. I took a badly timed break from full-time work right before the pandemic hit, so publishing is my major source of income. But when I feel like I’m struggling, it’s my love of stories that keeps me going. Sometimes I read a book or watch something and just feel this absolute love of stories – and getting to make my own! – overwhelm me. It always makes me feel happy to get writing again.
Do you ever look at your rabbits and they remind you of the Rabbit of Caerbannog scene?
I had to Google that… Cough. So, not often.
In my defense, my whole family love Monty Python, but I’m clueless! I also haven’t seen all the Star Wars films, one day my geek card is going to be revoked, and it’ll only be right and proper.
Lastly, in honor of The Jasmine Throne and the gospel of Sappho, what other sapphic books are you looking forward to this year? And what other stories are you cooking for the future?
I’m so excited about Zen Cho’s Black Water Sister, because Zen’s writing is always blisteringly good. (It’s out already in the USA, but it has the same release day as The Jasmine Throne in the UK, so it counts as something to look forward to for me!) She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan, which owns my whole heart already, and is out in July. And A Lesson in Vengeance by Victoria Lee is a book I’m aching to read, too, and it’s out in August.
I’m working on the sequel to The Jasmine Throne right now, which I’m very excited about, and will hopefully cause you great pain! I also have a YA remix/retelling of Wuthering Heights coming out in 2022.
