1.- Could you introduce yourself to Jamreads’ readers?
Hi, I’m R.R. Virdi, a SFF writer of around a dozen novels at this time (published or soon to be), and I’ve been publishing since 2013. I’ve written urban fantasy for the longest time before moving to epic fantasy. 

2.- What made you start writing?
It was the summer before college and I was feeling lost and depressed. A friend of mine decided that we should try writing a fantasy book like those we grew up with (particularly in the high fantasy/sword and sorcery vein). We worked on one together, and while the end product was terrible beyond all measure, I fell in love with the process!

3.- Your career starts with The Grave Report series, a detective urban fantasy proposal. Why did you choose this particular genre?
I grew up with a large amount of urban fantasy. Obviously, Jim Butcher is a large influence, but then coming up, a great number of authors started publishing in the genre. It led to a great variety to read from. The 2000s was a boom for urban fantasy. It felt a natural place for me to start, and I still hold a massive love for the genre. 

4.- You’ve always talked about how Jim Butcher has been a big influence in your life, calling him a lifesaver. Could you explain more about it?
I’ve struggled with depression for most of my life, and along with it suicidal thoughts. They compounded one day where I felt there was no way out but one – a dark one. But it’d free me from pain forever. Jim talked me out of that space. He spent/gave time where not many had at that point in my life, and he gave me the encouragement to keep going. 
I’ve done my best to listen, and try paying it forward. 

5.- You’re currently working in the Tales of Tremaine series, whose first book, The First Binding, was released in 2022; how was the original idea behind this project?
The idea was birthed out of another project similar in concept, a frame narrative about a character of infamous stature that is slowly revealed. That one was a standalone novel, but the storyteller was a character in that piece who happened to know the truth about the protagonist, being able to glean one’s true story. Over time, he began to steal the show, and Tales of Tremaine grew out of it as a narrative to explore, compare, comment, and reference other narratives in a love letter to the history and art of storytelling along a fictional silk road analog and through a South Asian lens. 

6.- It is said that big epic fantasies are not trending in the market, so I would like to ask you how you pitched and sold your idea for such an ambitious project?
I never actually pitched it per se. And, sadly, yes, big fantasies are not in the popular zeitgeist right now. I think that change happened more so through the pandemic than anything else. But, originally, this was styled to be a radio play for Audible, episodically at first chapter (or episode by episode) at first. Eventually it ended up in the hands of a TOR editor before I had an agent who wanted to offer on the series. It was a random series of lucky and unpredictable events to be honest. 

7.- Could you tell us a bit about the influences that are reflected on the Tremaine’s world?
The obvious ones are the Vedic/South Asian influences on the surface as well as where the Golden Road (my nod to the silk road) end along Etaynia (an analog amalgamation of: Spain, Italy, Portugal). But there is also a massive about of P.I.E or Proto Indo-European mythos and influences inspiring the series as those myths were spread across so much of the world and continued to evolve and permeate countless cultures leading to massive similarities in some myths, to barely noticeable, albeit still there, similarities in other stories or epics. I loved the idea of share stories/storytelling and how tales traveled and were co-opted by other cultures. This lets me do something very meta referential to other fiction novels, to myths and cultures, and then if done right, within/to the novels/series itself! 

8.- Which are your plans for Tales of Tremaine as a series?
Ideally, I’d love to do the full ten books plus I had proposed and developed. The reality? We’ve sold three, and I have to get the greenlight from my publishers to continue. I’m going to do whatever I can on my end to ensure we get to go forward. But some things are sadly out of my control. 

9.- In your social accounts, we can see you have two passions apart from writing, cars and mythology. How would you explain such different hobbies?
Both are products of my childhood. I grew up multicultural and at a time some early tv shows through the 90s tackled mythology, though, the only ever really did the well-known Greek and Roman myths. But it cultured my mind and passion, that’s for sure.
Cars is an easier answer. I grew up in a neighborhood that was built pop-up home style, likely for Korean war veterans, as many lived there, during that time. So…many had classic American muscle cars from that era. I lived across a gentleman who had an Oldsmobile Cutlass 442 supersport. Red with white racing stripes. Gorgeous machine. I grew up around the scene, working on cars, my father was a cab driver, so I’d ride with him too and end up in cab shops where they always worked on more than just fleet vehicles. Some cabbies, friends, associates, would all bring personal cars too. I’ve just always been around tools and vehicles. 

10.- What can we expect from R.R. Virdi in the future?
Hopefully more books sold and published. I know that’s a bit short of an answer, but where I’m at right now, I’m mostly waiting on legal documents/publishing contracts to sort things out and fully know what I’ll be allowed to write or not and the next steps of my career. It’s less of a transitional phase, and more of a sit and wait phase. Something I’m not exactly fond of.