A Demon’s Touch
30-06-2021
Hi, this is Rehan. Welcome to this month’s update. First off-the-bat, let me announce what I know many of you have been waiting for – the name of the third book in the Chronicles of Will Ryde and Awa Maryam Al Jameel.
It’s called…A Demon’s Touch. Now that sounds rather mysterious and at the same time quite ominous. Who is the Demon? What does it touch? Who is affected by it? So many questions. Yet the clues of who the demon is, resides in Book 2 of the trilogy, which is A King’s Armour. I’m not going to give any more away for now, suffice to say that in Book One and Two our heroes journeyed out to far distant lands where they encountered terrible danger and deathly encounters. This time, that danger is coming home to the capital of the Ottoman Empire.
I’ll drip feed more information as we get closer to the launch. For now, the manuscript is complete, and my publisher will be taking it for typesetting and cover design. I should get a version back in a month or two, when I can do a final review and check everything is in order. After that the book goes into a black box as far as I’m concerned, as the publisher-printer-distributor do their stuff. What that exactly is I don’t really know. Other than at the end of this alchemical like process, out pops a novel in bookstores and in electronic format.
In terms of what I’ve been reading this month. Well I took on the task of getting through the very dense, but highly informative, witty and at times morose history book by the William Dalrymple, called The Anarchy: The Relentless Rise of the East India Trading Company. As my parents are from India, I had obviously heard about the notorious reputation of the East India Trading Company, which was incorporated in 1600 as a joint stock holding company during the reign of Elizabeth I. However,I didn’t realise the extent to which the tentacles of this toxic octopus stretched and the intense suffering the company caused on the Indian Subcontinent and elsewhere.
I’ve had the pleasure of seeing William Dalrymple speak live, when he was in Dubai at the Emirates Literature Festival and he is a great advocate of this period of Indian history. I’ve also read one of his earlier works called City of Djinns, which is a travelogue and discussion on the history of Delhi. Both The Anarchy and City of Djinns are brilliant reads.
Finally, if you are struggling with your concentration levels and are constantly getting distracted, but don’t know why it’s happening, I have a new book out on the topic. It’s called Distracting Ourselves to Death and is available through all bookshops and online. It’s helpful for workers, teachers and students. You can find more details on the link provided below.
https://www.rehankhan.org/books
In the meantime, keep well, let me know if you have any questions about any of my books, or you have any questions about writing, and I will do my best to come back to you. Bye for now and peace be upon you.
