Books Right Now Presents:
I’m so excited to feature Alysha Rameera on Books Right Now! I absolutely love her romantasy debut, Her Soul for a Crown, and I’m honored to have had the opportunity to interview her.
Intro
RD: For anyone who hasn’t read Her Soul for a Crown yet, how would you describe your book in one or two sentences?
AR: I describe my book as a slow-burn romantasy that is based on Sri Lankan history and mythology. We follow a young woman with a penchant for poisons who wants to end the reign of evil rajas in her kingdom, and she is willing to do a lot of things to make that happen, including selling her soul to the Blood Yakka, Reeri.
A Deep Dive into Her Soul for a Crown
RD: What inspired you to write Her Soul for a Crown?
AR: Back in 2019, I came across an article about the first queens of Sri Lanka, and I had never heard anything about Sri Lankan queens before, so that piqued my interest immediately. In the article, Anula, the first queen of Sri Lanka, was being compared to Cersei Lannister because she poisoned six husbands to reach the throne, and then the history books moved on from her after just one sentence. I thought, wait – there is a story here.
My first thought was that if she did all of these bad things, did the kings before or after her do bad things. None of that is talked about in the history books. Also, what if she knew she could do a better job? What if she was saving the kingdom from terrible rulers? And Her Soul for a Crown was born from that idea.
RD: What did your research and drafting process look like?
AR: I thought it would be simple because this was the ninth book I’d written on my path toward becoming an author, and I felt like I had my process down. I started researching, and I absolutely love research, history, and learning about things that I don’t know. I wasn’t just researching for my book and characters, but this was all directly connected to my grandfather and mother’s home country. I stopped a lot to ask for stories and to ask questions about when they lived there.
My research was a mix of finding as much as I could online, reading books by Sri Lankan authors, and asking my family questions to fill in the blanks, even just to describe Sri Lanka in general, life there, and what they loved most about it. I also bonded with my grandmother over our shared love of saris, jewelry, elaborate dances, and elaborate dinner parties.
At the six-month mark, I had to tell myself I had too much information and needed to figure out what the story actually was and what research would truly inform it. I outlined for twelve weeks, and then I started drafting. I work in a four-act story structure, and in the first full draft, by the end of Act 3, I realized everything was wrong. The main characters were too unlikable and too mean to each other, and the pacing was too slow. So I outlined again, rewrote constantly with critique partners, and most of Act 1 was written on draft 6 to 10.
I sent it to my agent, got feedback, deleted everything after Act 1, and started over. Finally, the version that is published mainly came from that rewrite. Everything after that was polishing with my agent and working with my editor to extend emotion and tension.
RD: What was the hardest scene to write, and what was the easiest?
AR: The hardest scene in the published version was the chapter right after Anula poisons Reeri for the first time. He has an emotional reaction, but the logic of his emotions has to hit a certain way for the romance to still happen. I rewrote that scene a lot because I had to emotionally get him there, to make it logical and feel real.
The easiest scene was Anula’s backstory. I saw it clearly in an early draft, and once I understood her more, it flowed out naturally. That part stayed pretty close to my original draft.
RD: Who would be your dream cast for a film adaptation of Her Soul for a Crown?
AR: Simone Ashley, of Bridgerton fame, would make an excellent Anula. She could get the facial expressions, anger, and the strength of a woman down. Plus, she’s gorgeous in a sari.
Nikesh Patel, whom I first saw in the BBC period piece Indian Summers, would be my choice for Reeri. He hooked me from that first scene he was in, and he has that chiseled jaw.
RD: What songs would feature on Anula and Reeri’s Spotify Wrapped (if Spotify or streaming or cell phones existed in their world)?
AR: I actually made a public playlist for Her Soul for a Crown, which can be found on Spotify. The number one song that encompasses their emotional turmoil is Darkside by Neoni.
RD: What’s one Disney movie that you think that Anula would love?
AR: Anula would probably really enjoy Frozen.
Meet the Storyteller
RD: What were your favorite books growing up?
AR: I started with the OG fantasy books like The Chronicles of Narnia. Then, as I got older, I got into horse books. I was a horse girl. I read more Saddle Club and Thoroughbred books than I can count (there are approximately a thousand of them). Eventually, I found my way back to fantasy.
RD: Who are your favorite South Asian authors?
AR: A couple of them have been my favorites for a while. Sabaa Tahir is one of the first authors where I saw myself and my relatives represented in her books. The same goes for Roshani Chokshi. For really sweet romance, I also love Sangu Mandanna’s The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches series.
RD: How do your culture and your identity influence your writing?
AR: I’m multicultural, and I identify as Sri Lankan, German, and American. I struggled a bit when I was younger to identify as anything other than American because this is where I was born and where I grew up, and I felt like I wasn’t enough of anything. But now that I’m older, and after doing therapy and inner work, I am able to identify as each of my cultures because they did impact me.
I grew up in a home where my mother, grandmother, and grandfather, who were all from those other countries, raised me. The food they cooked for me was German and Sri Lankan, often all together on one plate. When I write a story set in a specific country, I want to bring forward what I love most about that part of my culture and share it with the world, but no culture is a monolith, and I also want to bring a different perspective as my lived experience is vastly different from another’s.
RD: What advice would you give to someone looking to start writing stories rooted in mythology?
AR: My one piece of advice would be to find the one aspect of the myth you love the most and make it the heart of your story.
RD: What is the most important thing you’ve learned during your writing career so far?
AR: I started writing towards a career as an author back in 2012. The biggest thing I’ve learned, and the thing I still remind myself on bad writing days, is to keep believing in myself.
RD: What is the best book you’ve read this year (apart from your own of course)?
AR: One of the best feminine rage and mythology books I read is Terror at the Gates by Scarlett St. Clair. I listened to the audiobook, and the voice actors were amazing,
I also had the pleasure of reading the ARC of An Arcane Inheritance by Kamilah Cole. I put it on my Kindle before a flight, and even though I usually nap on planes, I could not fall asleep because I was blowing through the book. It was that good. It comes out in December instead of January now, which makes total sense because librarians and booksellers were demanding it be out sooner.
What’s Next
RD: What’s next for you? I’d love to learn more about any other projects you may be working on.
AR: My debut deal was a two-book deal, so another book is coming. Her Soul for a Crown is a standalone, but the next book in my deal is set in the same world, following a different queen. It’s still historical, and I found more mythology to play with. One of the side character Yakkas from Her Soul for a Crown might become the main character in the next book.
Thank you for reading! This interview has been edited for length and clarity. The full version of this interview is available on Spotify.
More About Alysha Rameera
Alysha Rameera is a Sri Lankan and German American author who writes about little-known historical figures, romance, and magic, preferably altogether. On non-writing days, you can find her baking at home or traveling the world with her husband.
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