Olivia Abtahi, author of contemporary novels Perfectly Parvin and Azar on Fire, just released a new book and this time it’s a fantasy. We’re so glad that she was willing to answer a few questions about Twin Flames.
Summary: On estranged twins Leila and Bianca’s eighteenth birthday, Leila suddenly gains a djinn’s superpowers, and the twins realize that their town can only survive the djinns’ secret plans if they learn to work together as sisters. An action-packed YA fantasy!
Twins Bianca and Leila could not be more different from each other. Being both Argentinian and Iranian in a small town has always been hard, but with Leila shunning her heritage and Bianca embracing it, the two walk very different paths. They run in different circles of friends, and barely talk anymore. Leila’s a homebody who loves to craft and plans on marrying her high school sweetheart. Bianca’s more anti-establishment and plans to get out of Dodge as soon as humanly possible.
But on their eighteenth birthday, the neighbor’s barn mysteriously burns down. When Leila encounters a monster arising from the fire, a djinn, suddenly she gains strange powers–and can no longer touch iron.
What do these djinn want with Leila–or other people in town, for that matter? Can the twins learn to rely on each other–and their cultures–to banish them? It’ll take a sisterly reconciliation for the girls to find out and to save their hometown in this New Visions Award-winning fantasy adventure.
Thank you so much for sharing with us today. Your bio says that you’ve been devouring books since your school days. What kind of books moved you or influenced you when you were a young adult?
Hi Crystal! I read a lot of sci-fi and fantasy as a kid. I was up to my eyeballs in Dune and Ender’s Game in middle and high school. A book I loved was The House of Scorpion by Nancy Farmer and I was obsessed with the Sabriel series by Garth Nix!
Can you tell us a little bit about your filmmaking and how that and writing novels are
related or ways that they are different?
I think they are similar in that they are both storytelling mediums. It feels like the same part of
my brain is being exercised, just with a different tool. The freeing thing about writing though
is that I don’t have to convince anyone to tell my story with me; all I need is a word processor
or a pen and paper. With film, you need a lot of outside buy-in to make it happen, and I didn’t
have the temperament for that.
I just finished reading Twin Flames and really appreciated the dynamics between the
twins. How do you typically arrive at your characters and what did you enjoy about
Bianca and Leila?
Bianca and Leila, are, at their heart, just different sides of my myself. For better or worse, I
am a character-driven author. I have to picture the protagonists in my head before I can
really put words to paper. For Bianca and Leila I would scour IMDB to find actresses who
embodied what I was going for and took it from there. I loved writing Bianca’s snark, but I
loved writing Leila’s hopes and dreams as well. They were really fun to bounce between.
Bianca and Leila encounter a wide variety of djinn. Were they all types you were familiar
with or did this involve some research?
I feel like I barely scratched the surface on all the types of djinn! The sleep paralysis djinn
was one I had grown up with (I had it often as a child) but others were in my periphery, I had
just never looked them up. Also, the ones I grew up with are unique to Southwest Asia and
North Africa, while there are even more in Southeast Asia. It’s pretty cool and I loved
researching them and even got scared at times reading about people’s run-ins with djinn!
Do you have any interesting tidbits that you wanted to include in the book, but had to
leave out for any reason?
So many. This was the first book I ever wrote and I really had to kill my darlings! A lot of the
things I had to remove were family scenes, from an in-depth analysis of the spark plug issue
their father was working on, to the reason why their mother had to leave Argentina. There are
pages and pages of backstory that just never made it in, along with some even creepier djinn.
Your own family of origin was similar to that of the twins. Were there specific challenges
or rewards in writing something that mirrored your own life in that way?
For sure. A lot of the time I would just ask myself “Do I need to explain this?” From
having the feast of seven fishes at Christmas, even though the mom is Argentinian, to
explaining what Esfand herbs were. Taking off their shoes at the door, pickling things at
home…these were all moments where I wasn’t sure if I should expand on them because
they were just unspoken truths in my upbringing. Sometimes, writing what you know is
even harder!
Is there a question you wish I had asked about the story or your writing process?
The title. I didn’t realize that “Twin Flames” was such a huge part of people’s spiritual beliefs.
I had just wanted to write a book about twins who literally had djinn flames inside of them.
Whoops.
What is next in your writing journey?
I have a picture book publishing in January called THE INTERPRETER. It follows Cecilia, a girl who is torn between her normal life of being a soccer-loving kid, and her not-so-normal life of interpreting English to Spanish for her parents. It is very close to my heart!
Thanks again for taking the time to answer questions about Twin Flames. We’re glad it’s out in the world for people to enjoy.
Growing up in the DC area, Olivia devoured books and hid in empty classrooms during school to finish them. Her debut novel, Perfectly Parvin, was published in 2021, receiving the SCBWI Golden Kite Honor, YALSA Odyssey Honor, and numerous starred reviews. Her sophomore novel, Azar on Fire, was published in August 2022 and a SLJ pick. Olivia’s third novel, Twin Flames, is a New Visions Award winner. She currently lives in Denver, Colorado, with her husband and daughter.