Blog Tour, Guest Post & Giveaway: THORN by Intisar Khanani



THORN 
by Intisar Khanani 
Date Published: March 24, 2020; Hot Key Books
Young Adult, Fantasy, Retellings, Romance, Fairy Tales

 About the book:
A princess with two futures. A destiny all her own 

Between her cruel family and the contempt she faces at court, Princess Alyrra has always longed to escape the confines of her royal life. But when she’s betrothed to the powerful prince Kestrin, Alyrra embarks on a journey to his land with little hope for a better future. 

When a mysterious and terrifying sorceress robs Alyrra of both her identity and her role as princess, Alyrra seizes the opportunity to start a new life for herself as a goose girl. 

But Alyrra soon finds that Kestrin is not what she expected. The more Alyrra learns of this new kingdom, the pain and suffering its people endure, as well as the danger facing Kestrin from the sorceress herself, the more she knows she can’t remain the goose girl forever. 

With the fate of the kingdom at stake, Alyrra is caught between two worlds and ultimately must decide who she is, and what she stands for.



A SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT FROM AUTHOR INTISAR KHANANI:

On March 24th Thorn will be releasing from Hot Key (UK) and HarperTeen (US/CA)! To celebrate, I’m offering some amazing Thorn goodies to everyone who … 

• pre-orders/orders a copy of Thorn before March 31st at 23.59.
 • OR requests it from their library (library hold / suggested purchase) before March 31st at 23.59.

Here’s what’s up for grabs: 
Physical goodies (US/UK):
• A Thorn Bookmark 
• A set of Chibi Stickers featuring Thorn characters 
• A Signed Bookplate


PLUS Digital goodies (worldwide): 
• A PDF of Brambles – a Thorn prequel short story so you can jump into Alyrra’s world now! 
• A PDF of The (Annotated) Goose Girl – the original fairytale with annotations from yours truly in the margin 
• A coloring page of three Thorn-themed bookmarks 

All you need to do to enter is send a proof of purchase (or screenshot of your library hold), your name and address to khananipreorder@gmail.com. T&Cs apply! 

UK entrants: Hot Key Books rocks and can mail you physical goodies as well as the digital. Check it out here: http://hotkeybooks.com/thorn-pre-order/ 

Non-US/UK entrants: I really, really wanted to offer you the physical goodies, but postage is a bear. If you would like to cover the cost of an international stamp ($1.20), I can absolutely mail you the goodies as well. E-mail in your proof/screenshot for your digital goodies, and I’ll link you up so you can do that. 


The universal book link for purchasing Thorn is: www.books2read.com/thorn


A DAY IN THE LIFE OF Intisar Khanani
- by  Intisar Khanani

You know, it’s probably a good thing I put off completing my guest post requests until this past week, because a day in my life now looks a lot different from a day in my life two weeks ago. Self-isolation is real, folks. ;) 

So here’s my new routine, which is still in flux and developing: 
~ 7 am: Wake up for early morning prayers (I’m Muslim), attempt to sleep again. Don’t always succeed. Use that quiet time to secretly plot (I love being able to see that), play out dialogue, and imagine all the “what if” scenarios in my current work-in-progress. 

8:30 am or so: Get buried under a pair of giggly girls. Haul myself out of bed, have breakfast (husband has already fed the girls), make a plan for the day with my two little minions. 

9:30 am – noon: Either work while the husband takes the girls to run around outside / play music on their instruments / generally enjoy themselves, or do something with the girls myself while he works.

12 – 1 pm: Lunch! Usually something simple, like sandwiches or quesadillas 

1 – 3:30 pm: The opposite of whatever I did in the morning – so if I was with the girls, now I’m working, and vice versa. This will change again in the coming week, as my husband starts teaching online classes and my kids start online with their school. So, honestly, no idea what that new reality is really going to look like, but we’re prepping for the possibilities. 

3:30 pm – More outdoor fun, possible quiet play, possibly watch “Lunch Doodles with Mo Willems” and doodle with my kids. Or set up a virtual playdate with one of the girls’ friends and sneak in a bit more work time. May also attempt to cook a real meal around now, often roping in the girls to teach them “life skills.” 

5 pm – Dinner and end of day routines – reading together, etc. My kids are growing, so if they dinner at 5 pm, at about 7 pm they ask for “second dinner.” Which basically means that from 5 to 7:30 pm, there’s a lot of time at the table. We should maybe try audiobooks during second dinner. 

8 pm – The husband gets the kids in bed and I grab my laptop to keep writing. At this point, my creative juices are usually pretty low, so unless I’m itching to write or have a deadline, I catch up on social media (including author forums), plan posts for the next day, and work on marketing efforts.

~11 pm – midnight – Realize I’ve stayed up too late and rush about trying to complete my own end-of-day routine so I can crawl into bed. 

As you can see, I squeeze writing in where I can, but try to be mentally and emotionally present with my girls when they’re my responsibility. I also try to build in unstructured time for them to play, read, write, and do whatever they like. It’s a literal thing I schedule, and I don’t mind capitalizing on that time to do my own writing, but I make sure I’m not overdoing it, and that they have the tools and resources they need to be able to do what they want (e.g. painting with watercolors definitely requires parental prep!). 

Two weeks ago, my writing day would have started when I dropped the kids off to school (they go 3.5 days a week because, yeah, I really do like for them to have unstructured time, plus time to explore the world together with me). Those days they didn’t go to school, I’d really only write for about an hour during the day, and then at night. So I’m actually getting more home writing time now than I ever used to… but not quite as much overall writing time. But we’re doing our best to care for ourselves, our elderly parents, and our neighbors / those around us. It’s all about balance and trade-offs. 

I hope you are all staying well and keeping safe.  <3


Author Links:  Website     Goodreads     Twitter     Facebook     Instagram

Intisar Khanani grew up a nomad and world traveler. Born in Wisconsin, she has lived in five different states as well as in Jeddah on the coast of the Red Sea. She first remembers seeing snow on a wintry street in Zurich, Switzerland, and vaguely recollects having breakfast with the orangutans at the Singapore Zoo when she was five. She currently resides in Cincinnati, Ohio, with her husband and two young daughters. 

Until recently, Intisar wrote grants and developed projects to address community health with the Cincinnati Health Department, which was as close as she could get to saving the world. Now she focuses her time on her two passions: raising her family and writing fantasy. Intisar’s debut novel, Thorn, was picked up by HarperTeen and will be re-released in Winter 2020. In the meantime, she’s hard at work on the remaining books of The Sunbolt Chronicles.


1st Prize: Win a book of your choice from Bookdepository (INT*) 
2nd Prize: Win a THORN swag pack (stickers, bookmark, and a signed bookplate) [INT]



FOLLOW THE TOUR!

 March 24th 
The Unofficial Addiction Book Fan Club - Welcome Post

March 25th 
My Bookish Escapades - Guest Post
Mythical Books - Review
Moonlight Rendezvous - Review + Favourite Quotes
Marzie's Reads - Review
MaBookYard - Review + Favourite Quotes

March 26th 
L.M. Durand - Review
The Everlasting Library - Review
Book-Keeping - Review
Foals, Fiction & Filigree - Review + Favourite Quotes
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Elisabeth Wheatley - Review + Playlist + Dream Cast

March 27th 
Kait Plus Books - Guest Post
Utopia State of Mind - Review + Favourite Quotes
Here's to Happy Endings - Review
The Laughing Listener - Review
Bookishly Nerdy - Review + Favourite Quotes
Books_n_sunshine - Review + Favourite Quotes + Dream Cast

March 28th 
A Book Addict's Bookshelves - Interview
Books.Bags.Burgers - Review + Favourite Quotes
Gwendalyn’s Books - Review
The Layaway Dragon - Review + Favourite Quotes
Fanna Wants The World To Read - Review

March 29th 
Fangirl Pixie Blog - Review + Playlist + Favourite Quotes
Sometimes Leelynn Reads - Review + Dream Cast
La La in the Library - Review
Hauntedbybooks - Review + Favourite Quotes
Biblioxytocin - Review + Favourite Quotes

March 30th 
To All The Books I've Read Before - Interview
A Dream Within A Dream - Review
Happily, Hedy - Spotlight
Dazzled by Books - Review + Favourite Quotes
inkstains.and.dust - Review
theanxiousbookworm_ - Review + Favourite Quotes





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