Instant recipe for a book you won’t be able to put down: sharpshooting, mythology, an irresistible heroine, and an electrifying love story. Introducing Rebel of the Sands, a desert fantasy that will have you craving for more as soon as you turn the last page. Here to tell us about the mind behind the masterpiece is author Alwyn Hamilton!

Name: Alwyn Hamilton 

Novel: Rebel of the Sands 

Available: 8th of March 2016

Who’s your favorite author, living or dead? So hard to chose! But I’m going to go top 3 from childhood who have the most important place in my heart: Tamora Pierce, for the Alanna Quartet. Patricia C. Wrede, for the Mairelong Duology and Dealing with Dragons. Sherwood Smith for the Crown & Court Duology. And it’s cliché, but, as part of the generation that grew up with Harry Potter, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention J.K Rowling.

What’s your favorite thing about your book? The mythology. I was really excited when I built a world with a mythology propping it up that made sense and which helped build some of the major twists of the story around it, because I had always struggled with that. And I also love getting to weave in some of the ancient myths and story in with the central plot.

If you could spend one year on a deserted island with one character from literature, who would you choose? Jack, from Blood Red Road. That’s a tough world, so he’s gotta have some skills that would help keep us both alive. And has enough good banter I feel like it could last us a year. Plus (SORT OF SPOILERS BUT NOT REALLY AHEAD) but he’s one of the only male characters who I swoon over but would not feel bad about stealing from the series heroine.

Where do you write? Cafes! My 2 favourites are close to my house, but far enough away that getting there is a little bit of a walk so I can’t just give up and pop home if I’m struggling to get words on the page. The best one for drafting is a café Nero, a chain coffee shop, with an upper floor and a terrible internet connection. I have been known to sit there for 6 hours straight on a single coffee and no distractions.

Who is your favorite hero or heroine of history? I have a soft spot for Charlotte Corday, the 24 year old woman who murdered Marat in the bath and went to the guillotine for it. The most famous painting of the event is by Jacques-Louis David and shows Marat looking like a martyred saint. Charlotte Corday is removed to make her “The Sinister Absent presence” as one essay called her. I wrote my dissertation on depictions of Charlotte Corday as they evolved through history, and she went from being a murderess to a martyr herself, as politics moved on in France. Charlotte Corday is fascinating to me because she is a young woman from the countryside with an agency that no one fully understands. No one knows very much about her, even what she looked like (she gets blonder and blonder in paintings as she starts to become saintly) and while we know she declared that she did what she did for France and what her politics were, no one has a fully grip on what made this one particular girl, who was no one in particular as far as politics went, travel to Paris with a mind to murder, and ready to die for what she believed in. I don’t know if she’s a heroine in everyone’s eyes but I will never not love a young girl with a weapon fighting for her country.

Do you tweet? What’s the funniest thing you’ve ever tweeted? I do! A lot! (@AlwynFJH) The thing I’ve found the funniest recently was not in actuality that funny, but I was delirious because I’d woken up at 5 a.m to go on a school visit. Halfway to Birmingham on Train 1 of the day my UK Publicist, Hannah, and I noticed we were dressed the same and that we looked like creepy Victorian ghost twins a la Diana Arbus/The Shining (photo attached). No one thought this was as funny as we did at 7 a.m on a train. But twitter did. Cut to that evening, 2 school visits later, and between trains 4 and 5 of the day and the exhaustion and delirium fully took hold and we dissolved into madness in Preston Station, and started simultaneously tweeting creepy twin stuff at anyone unlucky enough to cross our twitter path (screencap attached of when my agent, Molly was the unlucky recipient). It culminated with us tweeting a picture of the other one appearing dead on the last train of the day. We thought we were HI-LARIOUS at the time.

What is your favorite season? Summer. Hands down. I love just opening all the windows in my apartment when summer hits and clearing the winter out. I love that London seems to come back to life in the sun and life just spills out into the streets and parks and everything and everyone seems more open and welcoming. I love going to restaurants and sitting outdoors. I love going to open air cinemas in London Parks. I love that I am not constantly having to undress and redress myself with a million coats as I travel around the city. Summer in the city is my favourite thing.

If you could teleport anywhere in the known universe right now, where would you go? I was going to say my parents’ house for a visit, but now that we’ve gotten to talking about sun, I would kill for some of that. I’ve just googled “Where it is Hot in February” and Thailand comes top of the list. And I’ve actually been there in February before, and it’s true, it’s blissful. So I’d teleport myself to Koh Samui.

Do you have any writing rituals? I don’t know if it’s a ritual but when I’m drafting I put the same song on repeat and listen to it on my headphones for hours and hours on end, on loop. It helps erase the outside world. I also tend to get an almond croissant for my breakfast. Which was a fine ritual when I was writing only on weekends. But now I write full time is not so sustainable…

What is your idea of earthly happiness? A guilt free reading day, accompanied by a latte and a pastry, in an apartment of my own, with a dog, on a day my hair looks salon wash and blow dried good (for no real reason) and then having pasta for dinner with a group of people I love (family or friends). Alternatively (she says glancing down at the next question): Being part of Taylor Swift’s Squad.

What is the best concert you’ve ever been to? Taylor Swift, 1989 Tour Concert in Hyde Park in Summer 2015. Again, I love anything I can attend in an outdoor space, and the stage they build there is amazing. It’s a huge fake tree (picture attached). And also I am not so low key obsessed with miss Swift.

What are you currently working on? Edits on “Rebel of the Sands 2: This Time it’s Palatial” (Not the Real Title, obviously!) It’s due out in 2017, followed by the third book, last in the trilogy in 2018.

Thanks, Alwyn! We can’t wait to hear more about the sequel to Rebel of the Sands!

Find Alwyn on Twitter!

Start reading Rebel of the Sands here!