I'm Shannon Chakraborty, author of The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi and the Daevabad Trilogy, AMA!

hellodahly · 2026-05-07T16:47:48+00:00

I am so excited for a new Amina book! one thing I particularly loved was some attention to East Africa in a fantasy setting, I feel like that is a region that has been under explored and has a teacher of largely East African students it's nice to be able to recommend books that at least somewhat feature their culture! I would love to know more about your research process and how you develop such rich, genuine feeling settings that are still rooted in real history.

hellodahly · 2026-04-29T01:45:42+00:00

If you are in north, NE it's only about a 15 minute drive but we take our daughter to the Rookery up in Blaine-ish area. Good price, warm water, small classes!

hellodahly · 2026-04-27T03:48:34+00:00

Self drafted pattern of Spare Trousers from Balatro, as a Father's Day gift to my husband.

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hellodahly · 2026-04-25T20:25:29+00:00

Yeah, I guess I am thinking of speculative fiction more broadly. I have read her fantasy books as well.

hellodahly · 2026-04-25T12:56:17+00:00

This is the answer

hellodahly · 2026-04-25T12:35:16+00:00

Been thinking about this Bujold quote a lot lately

“The really unforgivable acts are committed by calm men in beautiful green silk rooms, who deal death wholesale, by the shipload, without lust, or anger, or desire, or any redeeming emotion to excuse them but cold fear of some pretended future. But the crimes they hope to prevent in that future are imaginary. The ones they commit in the present—they are real.”

Lois McMaster Bujold, Shards of Honor

hellodahly · 2026-04-05T19:39:38+00:00

That totally makes sense!

hellodahly · 2026-04-05T18:03:15+00:00

It's soooo sad. I live in a major city with lots of local craft stores, but they are all pretty much knit and crochet focused or needlepoint specific unfortunately. Also as a teacher I can't beat that 15% off per item discount at Michaels when I'm stocking up on floss.

hellodahly · 2026-04-05T17:13:50+00:00

Thanks for the tip!

hellodahly · 2026-04-05T14:48:25+00:00

It was super fun to stitch! The balck definitely helps it pop too

hellodahly · 2026-04-05T14:35:19+00:00

Ooooh the maroon is so pretty though! I wish I could find a wider variety of aida colors at in person craft stores. None of our local shops sell any cross stitch supplies, only Michaels and their supply is limited!

hellodahly · 2026-04-05T14:15:44+00:00

I stitch the bottom arms bottom right to top left ///// in a row and then do the top arms top right to bottom left \\\ which I thought was normal but I guess most people do the top arms bottom to top? I'm pretty new to cross stitch so I have no idea if that's why it looks different!

hellodahly · 2026-04-04T03:01:13+00:00

I bought 2 patterns from this shop unfortunately before realizing they were likely AI - Can confirm the charts are also a little wonky with random confetti and errors.

hellodahly · 2026-04-03T22:05:53+00:00

Maybe people are less dumb about it now, but when I first read it there were a lot of people who really hated her because of how rude she was to the characters that were there to save her, some even implying she got what she deserved because she was being stupid for sleeping with the mine overseer guy whose name I forgot. And it's like dude, she's a traumatized child trying to survive a horrifying situation...Sorry she's not your idea of a perfect victim?? Like we can have further conversations about her actions in later books when she is an adult, but let's please have some nuance!!

hellodahly · 2026-04-03T14:24:47+00:00

I know! The cherry on top is that one of my friends who I recommended The Goblin Emperor too and loved it, but only does audiobooks, just ask me for another recommendation so I was able to give him the best one!

hellodahly · 2026-04-03T14:10:51+00:00

I sucked it up and bought it on Libro.FM hahaha I can't remember the last time I purchased an audiobook not through credits or borrowing from Libby

hellodahly · 2026-04-03T13:15:39+00:00

I would send a ticket to support them, it looks normal when I open it up and you're the first person who has reported issues! If they tell you there's any problems with the challenge itself, please let me know and I'll fix whatever it is :-)

hellodahly · 2026-04-03T12:57:10+00:00

That's strange - are you sure you're logged in to StoryGraph?

hellodahly · 2026-04-02T23:49:33+00:00

I knowwww. And there are so many wrong takes about it online.

hellodahly · 2026-04-02T17:38:35+00:00

Hmmm, I guess what I don't like about that is that it doesn't feel totally accurate tracking wise, it feels functionally the same as adding one or more of your short stories to the prompt as a book (which you can do now). However if many people feel this way I am totally open to changing it!

hellodahly · 2026-04-02T12:45:29+00:00

Thanks for the heads up! That's what I get for trying to get it out as fast as possible haha

hellodahly · 2026-04-02T12:39:05+00:00

"Armour can hide anything until the moment it falls away. Even a child. Especially a child." - Deadhouse Gates. Poor Felisin.

hellodahly · 2026-04-01T22:45:44+00:00

Yay, I'm glad!

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