Roshani Chokshi's Blog

Lately, I have had no concept of time. It ceased to proceed in a linear fashion the moment I heard my daughter cry. Since then, I feel like the clock is always 3:22 in the morning. There is always a lump in my throat. Sometimes I am entranced by the sculptural perfection of my daughter's toes. Sometimes I feel off balance, the strain in my shoulder blade from bouncing, bouncing, rocking, rocking transforming into an anchor that is trying to pull me into the earth where, maybe, I will sleep for a century. I'm told this time is fertile ground for creativity; that one day, stories will root their way to the light of my thoughts and every broken, sleepless hour will be revealed as a seedling. But I am not in that season. Not yet.

I am thinking of seasons now that autumn is haphazardly spitting gold and scarlet onto the trees. There was a season of grief where even time could not reach us. In the end, as with all grief, it never died but found new life in new shapes. For us, a piece of it lives in the shadows of my closet where I keep the positive pregnancy tests that did not become a baby. A thread of grief lives in the shirt I wore to our IVF transfer, hope sewn into every thread. The greatest fragment of it settled into letters, sentences, pages and became
THE SPIRIT GLASS.

It is difficult to overstate how important that book is to me. It began as a tribute to my Filipino heritage, a love letter to the many stories my mother told me. I threw myself joyously into research and history and was excited to write a ghost story. Over the course of years, THE SPIRIT GLASS became so much more. I leave it for you to discover. If you need it, I hope it finds you. I hope it haunts you. I hope that the love in your life is never a ghostly specter, but vividly, and defiantly, alive.

Thank you, always, for allowing my stories to find new homes in your heart.

Roshani

1. Q & A With Roshani Chokshi

2. Washington Post Recommends The Gilded Wolves

3. Paramount Lands YA Novel Aru Shah And The End of Time

4. First Draft Podcast, Episode 173 with Roshani Chokshi

5. Read Riordan Webcast, The Making of A Myth is officially live!

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I had such a wonderful time chatting with Rick about Aru Shah and The End of Time, middle school and, naturally, demon pigeons. I hope you guys enjoy this behind the scenes look at what’s coming your way March 2018!

Hooray! The cover for ARU SHAH AND THE END OF TIME is officially here! Many thanks to Entertainment Weekly for hosting the cover reveal along with a fun chapter excerpt. The cover artwork was done by the fabulously talented Abigail Dela Cruz. You can visit her site and learn more about her illustrations here. I could not be happier with this cover, and I am so excited to share this book with you guys when it releases on March 27, 2018! In the meantime, ARU is currently up for pre-order at Barnes & Noble, Amazon and IndieBound. More fun giveaways are heading your way soon. Newsletter subscribers get first dibs, so sign up today!

I recently got back from traveling in Portugal. I had an incredible time, and it was all the more momentous because THIS happened

 

11 years ago, I heard about a boy moving into our neighborhood. He was so built up in my imagination that I thought I knew him before I met him. So when I saw him on the first day of 9th grade, the only thing I could say was this: “HEY! IT’S YOU! I KNOW WHERE YOU LIVE!” Not the most auspicious beginning, but it always felt like a fairytale to me. Today, he took me to a fairytale castle nestled in the hills and full of labyrinthine grottos, figures of myth and gardens suffuse with magic, and asked to start a story together. I couldn’t dream up a better “Once upon a time…”

A post shared by Roshani Chokshi (@roshanichokshi) on Aug 9, 2017 at 6:57pm PDT

During yesterday’s ALA conference, the fabulous Rick Riordan introduced and read aloud a snippet of ARU SHAH AND THE END OF TIME. If you’d like to watch the video (about 5 minutes!) you can find it here! We announced ARU awhile ago, but I know there’s been lots of questions. Rick wrote this very detailed post to help answer your questions, including “What’s an imprint?” “What’s his role?” I’m so grateful that Aru’s story will launch this imprint, and I can’t wait to read the other authors’ works! ARU SHAH AND THE END OF TIME releases on April 3, 2018. You can add it on Goodreads here! To get the news first, be sure to sign up for my newsletter

A CROWN OF WISHES is out!!!!

I can't thank you all enough for your support, fan playlists, enthusiasm, art, and all around EXHILARATION throughout the year. It means so so so much to me. A CROWN OF WISHES was the kind of book that demanded scraps of my soul, chunks of my sanity, and 1000% of my heart. It was a joy to write, and to those of you who read it, I hope you feel transported and gilded with wonder by the end. It's now available for purchase at Barnes and Noble (http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/a-cro...) , Amazon (http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/a-cro...) , and IndieBound (https://www.indiebound.org/book/97812...) ! If you read, I'd really appreciate if you could leave a review on retail sites! It helps readers find these titles.

And onto the Ish-List!

1. Writing-Ish: It's been hard to cobble together enough time to write with touring and release, but I've been hacking away at two projects (one of which is secretttt!). I've been revising THE GILDED WOLVES, which means that placeholder text like has changed to paragraphs dedicated to the soul-scraping clarity of someone's green eyes. Lolzzz. It's weird how sometimes certain scenes I can't stop writing *about* (LIKE NEAR-KISSING SCENES!) vs. actual plot points and I'm like "meh meh meh...words...structure...can we get back to the kissing..."

2. Book-Ish: I'm in the middle of THE DARK DAYS CLUB by Alison Goodman. So far, it is satisfying my love of regency and paranormal, and I am lovinnnng it.

3. Life-Ish: TRAVELING! TOURING! I've been running around the country, and have had the chance to meet so many of you! I couldn't be happier <3

4. Miscellaneous-Ish: Recently, I was blessed to have the experience of my false lashes sticking together. It was bad. I was laughing from a joke, but also crying. From laughing. And then before you knew it, the glue discombobulated and MY EYES SHUT. And I was like "AHHHHHH!!!! HELP!!!" but in the back of my head, I realized that I was ridiculous and started laughing, and eventually I just had to sit on the ground and laugh-weep until my eyes unseamed. The end.

5. Another Miscellaneous: I love false lashes to death (I affectionately call them my artificial bamboozling caterpillars...) but it does seem like all of my horrific socializing moments stem from my false lashes deciding to declare mutiny from my eyelids and escape from my face. For example, once I was having a conversation with someone and they just started STARING intently at my eyes, and I was like yesssss ahahahahahaha revel in my ELOQUENCE AND MESMERIZING EYEBALLS.....but then, ah cruelty, ah fate...I realized it was because one of my eyelashes was straight up VERTICAL and trying to shimmy down my cheek.

And that concludes the Ish of April.

Much love to you all, as always <3

Rosh

SOMEHOW…and I really don’t know *how* this happened…but there’s only TWO months left until A CROWN OF WISHES releases! Upload your pre-order receipt by March 14th to receive a 100+ page e-novella that is all about Maya and Amar’s first meeting. Those who pre-order will receive the novella a month early than its slated release date of 5/2/2017. And right now, A Crown of Wishes is ~$11 on lots of retailer sites including Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Can’t wait to share it with you! In the meantime, take a look at the gorgeoussss cover for Death & Night, and the blurb!

Before The Star-Touched Queen there was only Death and Night.

He was Lord of Death, cursed never to love. She was Night incarnate, destined to stay alone. After a chance meeting, they wonder if, perhaps, they could be meant for more. But danger crouches in their paths, and the choices they make will set them on a journey that will span lifetimes. Discover how Maya and Amar first met and fell in love, and don’t forget the next Star-Touched novel, A Crown of Wishes publishes on March 28, 2017.

I’ll be doing more giveaways via my newsletter in the upcoming months, so be sure to subscribe!

So, I think my love for Stephanie Garber’s debut novel is pretty obvious. I shout about CARAVAL constantly because this story is AMAZINGGGG. If you haven’t pre-ordered it already, it’s available on Amazon, B&N and IndieBound! It’s sexy, decadent, and imaginative. It will change your dreams, it’s that good. In honor of her upcoming release (January 31st!!!), I came up with this look