It's time for the second week check-in of the To Bargain With Mortals anniversary readalong!

This week, I've got a GIVEAWAY for you guys, another quiz, more insights from R.A. Basu, and perhaps a bit of a tease of...something...

For our giveaway, Bindery marketing mastermind CJ recently let us know that we had a handful of the Bargain VIP influencer boxes remaining, so I asked her to hold on to a few to give away here! These were the PR boxes we specifically designed for the book to send out to influencers ahead of release, filled with an early reader copy of the book and a handful of items we sourced to go with the story. If you want to see exactly what's in it, check out this post here.

To enter the giveaway for one of five of these boxes, just drop a comment on this post! Where are you at in the book? Are you staying on schedule or did you blast through to the end? Reading for the first time or doing a re-read? I'll pull winners just before next week's check in!

Next up is this week's reading quiz!

I think this week is actually a little bit easier than last week's, but you'll have to let me know. As a reminder, the person who scores the best across all four weeks' quizzes at the end of this readalong will win a one-of-a-kind hand-annotated copy of TBWM annotated by R.A. Basu and myself!

Take the Week 2 quiz here!

And finally...

TBWM insights with R.A. Basu:

Chapter 11:
I love this chapter. Originally, Hasan kidnaps Poppy when she gets home from Welkland. In that draft, her arrival home is not something she does spontaneously, but a planned and highly publicized return, so he prepares and pretends to be her chauffeur. When she gets in the car, a sedative gas flows out of the vents and knocks her out. The kidnapping at the engagement party was way more fun to write. 

"He wondered if Poppy considered herself pretty, or if she felt disappointed every time she looked in the mirror and found she was not yet white." 

Probably one of my favourite lines in the book. It's been here since the earliest draft. 

Chapter 12:
This chapter is based off of the infamous Jimin second person POV fanfic text. IYKYK. If you don't, well, the long story short is my friend Zoulfa Katouh (yes, that one) used to send me pictures of BTS members back when I didn't know them and I would write short one-shots based on the vibe of the image and what I thought was going on. Jimin's 2021 Grammy red carpet look was giving mafia vibes to me, and so I wrote a mafia one-shot where the daughter of a politician wakes up to find out she's a hostage to a mafia boss. 

Chapter 14:

The Samina confrontation here doesn’t happen in earlier drafts, but when I changed the prologue I had to move that content to elsewhere in the book, and this scene was born. I really like the Poppy/Samina dynamic in this book, and this exchange introduces that to the reader. 

Chapter 16: 

I debated having Richard POV chapters. He’s obviously not a good guy, and why should the villain get a voice? Ultimately, though, I needed Richard in order to convey to the reader things that would be outside Hasan and Poppy’s ability to know. I also think it makes it explicitly clear what Richard’s values are and how he feels no conflict or guilt for them. Not every villain needs to be redeemed. 

Chapter 17:

They crossed Morning Bridge into the Welkish side, then turned toward the arts and entertainment district.

Not chapter specific, but the origin of the name Morning Bridge comes from an older version/worldbuilding idea I had that the Welkish had renamed everything to make it easier to pronounce. Marnapur would have been Morning Pool, with the bridge named for the city. I ultimately discarded the idea of white-washed names because it would have been confusing and would require extra concentration on the reader’s part (and mine) to keep them all straight, and I’d rather that energy be spent elsewhere. 

Chapter 18:

The Museum chapter has had many iterations since the first draft. The intent behind having them meet at the Museum (versus any other public place) was that originally, I had wanted Hasan and Poppy to discuss colonial history and expand the world for the reader. However, while it might have been the right place, it certainly wasn’t the right time. This is a hostage exchange, not a field trip, after all. That discussion was chopped up, the information scattered elsewhere. 

Chapter 19:

As he leaned heavily against her, the wet warmth seeped into her dress, blooming in patches like the flower she’d been named for.

I dressed Poppy in all white for this scene for maximum drama when Hasan bleeds against her, though the colour also works well for both bridal and death subtext depending on which culture you’re viewing it from. 

Hasan. So that was the Jackal’s name, Poppy thought.

You guys have no idea how hard it was to not accidentally use Hasan’s real name in the Poppy POV chapters up until this point, especially bc in earlier drafts he just gives her his full government name (you can tell I’m no criminal mastermind). 

Chapter 22:

She’d been served a small thali with dhal, behndi, rice, and chicken. To his amusement, she was eating each one separately, with a spoon. 

For those unfamiliar, you’re supposed to use your hands / mix the foods together when eating a thali. Also, some South Asian/Indian readers may note that I have put foods from all regions of South Asia in my worldbuilding. This is because Viryana is not modelled after a specific region. All the foods in this book are foods I like to eat. 

Also, since we’re on the subject of what influenced Viryana’s worldbuilding, I would say that a lot of the descriptions come from my previous visits to India. While I’ve been to different cities and provinces, most of my visits to India have been in Mumbai/Bombay, and so that was the biggest influence for Viryana. When I sent images to the cover artist I picked older photos of Mumbai, and when I was asked for input on audiobook actors, I wanted actors who had Indian accents, particularly what I think of as the “Bombay” accent. The audiobook actors crushed it, by the way — they sound exactly how I wanted.

that's all for this week! We're halfway through our readalong and halfway through Bargain. As we approach the end of the month and the actual anniversary date of release, I'm thinking a lot about how far we've come and where we're going from here. So much so that maybe, perhaps, there might possibly be some kind of announcement of some sort on that anniversary.

For absolutely no reason at all, Subscribers might want to keep an eye on your emails this weekend. ;)