Exclusive: Chelsea Abdullah talks The Stardust Thief, oral storytelling, and more

This week marks the release of The Stardust Thief, an Arabic-inspired adventure fantasy novel from American-Kuwaiti author Chelsea Abdullah. Though it’s Abdullah’s first published novel, The Stardust Thief is a powerful and polished debut. It’s the tale of a mismatched group of heroes braving the desert in search of a magic lamp, a journey filled with peril and magic and heart. I was totally swept away by it; you can read my review of The Stardust Thief here.

To celebrate the novel’s release, Abdullah stopped by WinterIsComing to talk about the process of writing The Stardust Thief, how it honors oral storytelling, what lies ahead in the series, and more. This is a spoiler-free interview, so proceed without fear if you have yet to read the book.

DANIEL ROMAN: Thanks so much for joining us, Chelsea! To start things off, how would you describe The Stardust Thief to a reader who’s never heard of your work before?

CHELSEA ABDULLAH: The Stardust Thief is an Arab-inspired quest story that follows a merchant, a prince, a thief, and a jinn on their journey to find a mythical magic lamp. On the way, they’ll have to outwit a legendary jinn queen, survive hordes of undead creatures, and face a mysterious hunter… and those are only some of the perils awaiting them!

DR: The main cast of characters is so awesome in this book. I’ve seen you talk in interviews before about how Loulie and her jinn bodyguard Qadir popped into your imagination, but I’m curious: can you tell us a little about how Mazen and Aisha came into existence?

CA: Absolutely—so happy to share more about these two!

In the beginning, Loulie was the only POV I had planned for this story. But then Mazen, cowardly prince, appeared in my head. At first, I didn’t intend for him to be a POV character. The first out-of-context scene I conceptualized for him had him wandering around a marketplace. I had to mentally rewind that scene a few times before I found an entry point for Loulie and figured out how and why she would meet Mazen.

With their meeting scene planned out, I went into the novel fully expecting to write everything through Loulie’s perspective. And then, immediately after wrapping up her first chapter, my mind drifted. I was too curious about Mazen’s life to stay in Loulie’s head, so I let myself write Mazen’s introduction in his own voice. The minute I wrote his opening chapter, I gave up on making The Stardust Thief a single-POV story. Mazen’s voice was a breath of fresh air, and I felt his naïve tenderheartedness was the perfect balance to Loulie’s snarkier voice.

Aisha, on the other hand, is and always has been a bit of a wildcard. I didn’t plan her introduction into the novel at all—she simply appeared. At first, she was a very minor character with little page time. But as the plot evolved, so too did her narrative. As I continued drafting and revising, I added more and more of her, slowly but surely getting a handle on her narrative voice.

And then I signed with my agent, and one of her first suggestions was, more or less: Add MORE Aisha. So add more Aisha I did! Out of all the characters, I’d say she’s surprised me the most, simply because I didn’t anticipate that she would become such a central part of the narrative. Now, I’m a little baffled she was ever “minor” at all!

DR: One thing I loved about The Stardust Thief is how many Arabic cultural touchstones and phrases you’ve folded into it. Can you talk a little bit about your decision to include those Arabic words? Did it affect the editorial process at all?

CA: Since this is an Arab-inspired fantasy and language is a central part of any culture, I knew from the beginning that this story would include Arabic words and phrases. Technically, that’s the language the characters are speaking, so it’s always made sense to me! I think everyone on my publishing team understood that; I was never asked to take anything out or clarify further. But I think (hope!) many of the phrases can be inferred from context for those who don’t speak the language.

As far as affecting the editorial process: I had to consider transliteration of the Arabic into English letters, which I’d never really done before. During copy edits, I compared various spellings for the Arabic phrases and ultimately went with the ones that felt closest to the dialect I was familiar with. I fussed over it for quite a bit!

DR: The Stardust Thief is such a fun book, but it also has some serious emotional gut punches. Without spoiling anything, was there any particular scene that was exceptionally difficult or fun to write?

CA: Two come to mind immediately. There was one mid-novel story arc I rewrote probably around 5 or 6 times before it felt right to me. I was stuck on it for months before I untangled the specifics of how each of the characters would need to work alone and then together to escape their dire circumstances.

The hardest scene for me to write by far was a specific Loulie and Qadir scene. It’s one of the more emotionally charged moments in the novel, and the first time I wrote it, I was overwhelmed by the visceral reactions of the characters. I had to go back and tweak the scene over many drafts to make sure the execution matched what was in my head.

DR: Your first draft of The Stardust Thief was roughly twice as long as the finished book. What was the process of trimming it down into the final version like?

CA: It was an exceptionally convoluted process! My first draft was 297,000 words so, like you said, I knew I needed to chop it down by at least 50% to be able to query it at a reasonable word count. It was incredibly intimidating to start—especially because I’d never tried editing a novel for publication before—so I took baby steps. I started with a reverse outline, which is essentially an outline you write after the first draft is complete to give yourself a road map for revisions. It helped me see, at a glance, what content was superfluous and what big picture things didn’t make sense.

From there, I wrote a second draft outline, keeping in mind all the comments I’d written for myself as I reread for my reverse outline. I then rewrote the second draft from scratch, keeping the original document open and rewriting the scenes that did work into the new draft. I chopped about 60% of my word count in that second draft alone, and only because I knew how to cut the story down to its heart after I reached the end of it. (It’s as they say: editing a rough draft is easier than editing a blank page!)

I did additional rounds of revisions after that, passing each new draft by beta readers whom I trusted to give me constructive feedback. After development and line edits, I got the novel down to 122,000 words. That’s the word count I queried at, but the novel has since expanded again in its final form, which I’m glad for!

DR: Following that thread, is there any particular scene or thing that was cut out that you wish could have made it through to the final draft?

CA: I’m satisfied with the content that made it into the final draft but the hardest bit for me to cut was the fourth POV I originally had. I hung onto that POV for a very long time, so taking it out of the story was hard for me at first. While I think the novel meanders less with the fourth POV absent, I still have a soft spot for this character’s deleted chapters.

He still exists in the novel as a minor character, but he played a much bigger role before, giving the readers insight into what was happening in a particular location. I still love those chapters, and would love to share them as bonus content someday!

DR: The Stardust Thief features stories within stories and feels like a love letter to oral storytelling. How did you decide when to pull back from the main narrative to utilize those tales? Did you write the side stories separately, or while you were working through the main draft?

CA: Because oral storytelling was always such an important theme in the narrative, I knew from the beginning that I wanted to incorporate interstitial stories into the narrative. I never planned where to put them, however—I just wrote them into the draft when it felt natural. Every tale in the narrative is prefaced in the main story, so I wove the stories-in-stories in as it became clear the characters would be sharing them. This means I wrote each tale while working through the draft rather than separately.

DR: So, without getting into spoilers, what can you tell us about book 2 of The Sandsea Trilogy? You’re working on it right now, right? Because you kind of left things on a serious cliffhanger.

CA: Lots of elements will doubtless be shifting as Book 2 is still a work in progress, so I’ll keep this as vague as possible! Book 2 has got:

• Sort-of-maritime travel
• An unfortunate number of birds
• More complex magic
• Flying carpets
• Nods to the Sinbad tales (and other 1001 stories)
• New characters, many of them jinn

DR: What books or stories have you been really enjoying lately? Extra points if they’re recent releases!

CA: I’m currently reading two soon-to-be-released novels! R.R. Virdi’s epic fantasy, The First Binding, and Megan Bannen’s rom-com fantasy, The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy, both of which I’m enjoying immensely!

DR: It says in your bio that video games are one of the ways you spend your down time, so I have to ask: what are your top three favorite games of all time?

CA: This question never fails to stump me! But I suppose if I have to choose only three, then…

• Final Fantasy 7 (the original PS1 version!)
• Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker
• Persona 5

DR: Ok, last question! If you were choosing characters from other fantasy stories to undertake a desert-spanning journey into the Sandsea in search of a magical relic, who would you want in your party?

CA: Another difficult question! Hmm, perhaps…

• Jovis from Andrea Stewart’s The Bone Shard Daughter
• Nahri from S.A. Chakraborty’s The City of Brass
• Touraine from C.L. Clark’s The Unbroken

Jovis would be a great traveling companion, I think. He’s got a good heart, is conversational—and his impressive strength would come in handy. (Not to mention, he’s got Mephi, best animal sidekick!) Nahri is practical, determined, and crafty; a good person to have around in circumstances both dire and complicated. And Touraine is, put simply, a badass. Every ragtag group needs a competent warrior!

DR: That would be an awesome traveling group. Thanks so much for stopping by the site and discussing your work!

The Stardust Thief is out now from Orbit Books! You can find our full spoiler-free review here:

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