Interviewing Roshani Chokshi, author of ARU SHAH AND THE END OF TIME!

Today, I'm interviewing Roshani Chokshi over at Broadway World! I'm REALLY excited to share our chat with you guys. I have a been a fan of the author since THE STAR-TOUCHED QUEEN debuted. When I heard that there was going to be a Rick Riordan Presents line with publisher Disney Hyperion and that she was one of the three chosen authors, I was SO excited. Especially when I found out that her series would launch first! Granted, I wanted all three books and thought they all sounded great, but I especially wanted ARU SHAH.

The series starter ARU SHAH AND THE END OF TIME came out yesterday and I'm so happy to say it didn't disappoint! I was enamored with the world-building and the characters and have already been introduced to so much new mythology! It also feels like a great new series to recommend to kids who couldn't get enough of the Percy Jackson series. There's only so much I can give them in the children's department, and I love that ARU SHAH had all the humor, all the emphasis on friendship, and, of course, all the fun real-world questing that the Percy books have. I am so excited to continue Aru's journey as well as read the other books in the line because if they all capture the spirit of Riordan's own books and are as compelling and engaging as Aru Shah has been already, then I need to own each and every single one.

I feel really fortunate and lucky that I was able to chat with Roshani about the book's release for BroadwayWorld. From talking about world-building to favorite myths, to, of course, working with Rick Riordan, it was so much fun!

Here's a snippet of what you'll see in the full interview.

And you can check the full interview out here! ♥

Being a pre-teen can be so hard, especially when you don't quite fit in! I really like the way you chronicled middle school life in a way kids will relate to. What was middle school like for you? Did that shape how you wrote Aru's experience at all?

LOL. Yes. Writing ARU has been sorta therapeutic because I got to exorcise a lot of my middle school demons. Like Aru, I was a notorious liar with no obvious talent at anything. I loved writing, but I failed 7th grade English (my 8th grade English teacher changed my life though ♥ . I loved telling stories, but I hated the books we were reading. I desperately wanted to be beautiful, but there was no mainstream context for 1st generation immigrant kid beauty. So it was a lot of not finding spaces to exist and trying to force my way into them.

~*~

O F F I C I A L   I N F O:

Title: ARU SHAH AND THE END OF TIME

Author: Roshani Chokshi

Release Date: March 27, 2018

Publisher: Disney Hyperion

SUMMARY:

Twelve-year-old Aru Shah has a tendency to stretch the truth in order to fit in at school. While her classmates are jetting off to family vacations in exotic locales, she'll be spending her autumn break at home, in the Museum of Ancient Indian Art and Culture, waiting for her mom to return from her latest archeological trip. Is it any wonder that Aru makes up stories about being royalty, traveling to Paris, and having a chauffeur?

One day, three schoolmates show up at Aru's doorstep to catch her in a lie. They don't believe her claim that the museum's Lamp of Bharata is cursed, and they dare Aru to prove it. Just a quick light, Aru thinks. Then she can get herself out of this mess and never ever fib again.

But lighting the lamp has dire consequences. She unwittingly frees the Sleeper, an ancient demon whose duty it is to awaken the God of Destruction. Her classmates and beloved mother are frozen in time, and it's up to Aru to save them.

The only way to stop the demon is to find the reincarnations of the five legendary Pandava brothers, protagonists of the Hindu epic poem, the Mahabharata, and journey through the Kingdom of Death. But how is one girl in Spider-Man pajamas supposed to do all that?

 ~*~