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Articles by Akshaya Raman
#BookReview: THE IVORY KEY by Akshaya Raman
Brought into the world by: Akshaya Raman Series: The Ivory Key Duology #1 Published by Hot Key Books on January 4th 2022 ISBN: 1471410730 Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult Pages: 384 Format: Paperback Source: the publisher I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
Akshaya Raman on creating the fantasy map for the The Ivory Key duology
I’ve always loved a good fantasy map, so when it came time to design one for The Ivory Key duology, I was really excited to get to do something fun with it: the map of Ashoka that readers get to see is the same one the characters in the book use to navigate their world. I call The Ivory Key a “family drama treasure hunt” because at its core, it’s a story about a dysfunctional family having to work together to follow clues left behind by an ancient secret society.
THE CRIMSON FORTRESS
A satisfying finale to a tale of magic, self-discovery, and family. Reunited siblings Vira, Riya, Ronak, and Kaleb finally possess the legendary Ivory Key, only to discover that it unlocks a centuries-old secret that could lead to everyone’s demise in this follow-up to the 2022 series opener.
The Crimson Fortress
But finding the Ivory Key, her one hope of discovering a new source of magic, has only led to more mysteries to unravel. So when her own Council turns on her, Vira once again needs her siblings' help. As Vira and Riya head into the forest on the trail of magic, their brothers Kaleb and Ronak infiltrate the Lyrian court.
The Crimson Fortress|Hardcover
Akshaya Raman fell in love with writing when she wrote her first story at the age of ten. Though she graduated from UC Davis with a degree in biology, she gave up pursuing a career in science to write books. She is a co-founder and contributor to Writer’s Block Party, a group blog about writing and publishing, and has served on the planning teams of several book festivals.
Review | NetGalley
Review by Kelly M, Media/Journalist Last updated on 9 Jul 2022 The Ivory Key is a book that sweeps you away into an intricately built and very vivid world full of magic and wonderful characters. The focus of the story is on four siblings who don't have the best relationship and are estranged. But each is a character with whom you fall in love with.
THE IVORY KEY | Kirkus Reviews
From the Ember in the Ashes series , Vol. 1 by Sabaa Tahir ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 28, 2015 A suddenly trendy trope—conflict and romance between members of conquering and enslaved races—enlivened by fantasy elements loosely drawn from Arabic tradition (another trend!). In an original, well-constructed fantasy world (barring some lazy naming), the Scholars have lived under Martial rule for 500 years, downtrodden and in many cases enslaved.
Read an Excerpt From The Ivory Key
Vira, Ronak, Kaleb, and Riya may be siblings, but they’ve never been close or even liked each other that much… But in a quest this dangerous, working together is the only way to survive. We’re thrilled to share an excerpt from The Ivory Key, the epic YA fantasy debut from Akshaya Raman—available from Clarion Books on January 4th 2022. Vira, Ronak, Kaleb, and Riya may be siblings, but they’ve never been close or even liked each other that much.
By Akshaya Raman.
The Ivory Key By Akshaya Raman. Jan. 2022. 384p. Clarion, $18.99 (9780358468332). REVIEW. First published November 1, 2021 (Booklist). Since the murder of the maharani of Ashoka—the country that controls all magic—the relationships between the royal siblings have fractured. At only 18, Vira has ascended to the throne, a role few in her council believe her capable of.
The Ivory Key | HMH Books
★ “Slow-burning romance, BIPOC and queer representation, family drama, and a country under threat of war—the first in Raman's duology does not disappoint.”—Booklist, STARRED review “Raman’s immersive, enchanting world is rich in Indian cultural influences….
Thoughts on Creating Conflict
My favorite part of writing is creating conflict. Well, my true favorite part of writing is angst but really good angst stems from really good conflict. So what is conflict exactly? Conflict is basically what keeps a character from getting something that they want. Without it, the character would just go on living their life without anything happening.
AAPIHM Spotlight: Sarena and Sasha Nanua
We’re so excited to have Sarena Nanua and Sasha Nanua for this week’s Author Spotlight to celebrate Asian (American) Pacific Islander Heritage Month! I put *American* because Sarena and Sasha are Canadian and this month is for celebrating all API diaspora writers! SISTERS OF THE SNAKE is out on June 15th and you can find more information and preorder here! Give us a quick pitch of Sisters of the Snake! Sisters of the Snake is a YA fantasy story following twin sisters separated at birth—one...
Outlines Are Lighthouses, Not Destinations
As a mostly pantser who desperately wanted to be a plotter, outlines have long been my nemesis. I was so envious of people who would just know a whole story upfront without going through the trouble of writing the whole thing wrong multiple times.
3 Questions To Ask Yourself For A Stronger First Chapter
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Building Tension in Stories
We’ve written about pacing before and specifically pacing with multiple POV books, but today we wanted to talk about something a little different though it goes in hand with pacing: tension. This post is cowritten with Ashley Burdin. What is tension anyway? There’s an interview between Francois Truffaut and Alfred Hitchcock that we love where they discuss suspense in storytelling, and it’s one of the most succinct explanations of tension.
Writing A First Draft After Revising Forever
I know my first drafts are messy. As hard as it can be to accept, I know that no matter how much time I spend brainstorming or outlining, until I have that draft written, I don’t fully know how the story is going to turn out or how to fix it. But writing that first draft after spending years revising and polishing a previous WIP?
Artist Spotlight: Mai K. Nguyen
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Tips to maintain a totally rad writer group (& how to set boundaries)
We are often asked how we cultivated and maintain such a “large” critique group. When we started out, most of us didn’t have agents or book deals. As the years have gone on, many of us have moved on to different stages in our publishing careers.
Pub Life #6: Publicity
Through our Pub Life posts, Writer’s Block Party will be hosting guests and contributors who talk about their jobs within the publishing industry. There are many more career paths in publishing than a lot of people realize, and we’re so excited to spotlight a few of them for you guys! Today, we’re super excited to share our interview with Cassie Malmo, a Publicity Manager at Simon & Schuster! Note: opinions are her own. 1.
Picking The Right POV
My favorite part of starting a new project is getting to write new characters. Usually I go in already knowing what POV (or POVs, since most books I write have multiple) the book will be told from. But recently, as I started to brainstorm a new idea, I realized I was trying to choose between one and… uh, four perspectives. So today I thought I’d briefly talk through my process of selecting which perspectives to include. Shoutout to Mara Fitzgerald for helping with this post.
Tips for Writing a Well Paced Book
For the longest time, pacing was my craft nemesis. I would write books that were basically all beginning, with a rushed middle, and then they would just END. And I could tell something was totally off about my structure, but I couldn’t for the life of me figure out how to fix it. It took me several years (and several trunked novels) to find that balance—to know when to speed up (my beginnings), but also when to slow down (my endings). Here are a few thoughts on how and when to tighten pacing.
Writing Queries for Multiple POV Books
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Info Dumping Isn’t Always Bad
Once, when I was at a conference, I heard an author say the first hundred pages of a book teach you how to read that book. I love that so much, but the sad truth is, sometimes a reader won’t wait around for a 100 pages. And especially in YA fantasy, where things generally tend to be fast paced, readers want to get to the good stuff: the cool magic system, the irresistible romance, the epic best-friendship.
The Physiology of Poison
A while ago I was talking to a friend about pop culture pet peeves–those things that really bother us when we’re watching or reading something. And when she asked me what mine was, my answer was immediate: poison. Specifically when someone eats or drinks a poisonous item and collapses 3 seconds later. And today I’m going to talk about why and how to avoid it in your own writing. For some background, I was a bio major–specifically a neurobiology and physiology major.
What We’re Reading: Pride Edition🏳️🌈
June is almost over, and we hope all you Writer’s Block Partiers had a wonderful Pride Month! Here are some of the books we’re reading in celebration: Twelve-year-old Caroline is a Hurricane Child, born on Water Island during a storm. Coming into this world during a hurricane is unlucky, and Caroline has had her share of bad luck already. She’s hated by everyone in her small school, she can see things that no one else can see, and — worst of all — her mother left home one day and never came back.
Pacing with Multiple POVs
One of the toughest things about writing multiple POVs is figuring out how to structure your book. If you’re adhering to basic story structure, then you know you need a few key plot elements — an inciting incident, a dark moment, a climax. But with multiple POVs, each character’s storyline has to map onto this story structure AND make sense together. Now you have multiple inciting incidents, multiple dark moments, and maybe even multiple climactic scenes.
In A World…: Intercultural Communication
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The World Isn’t Wide Enough For My Book (Or Is It?)
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Author Spotlight: Julie C. Dao
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