Thursday, April 5, 2012

All About Djinns and a Giveaway!!!


And the WINNER is... Dana.  Look for my email, Dana!!!!



Mina Khan, Paranormal Romance Author



We have a special guest this week for Faerie Friday and I couldn’t be more excited.  Mina Khan, Author of A Tale of Two Djinns and The Djinn’s Dilemma, is here to talk about Djinns.  I don’t consider Djinns to be faeries exactly but they are sometimes referred to as such in some of my reference books.  I find that the term faerie, demon or spirit is used almost interchangeably in some texts.  It doesn’t matter what you call them; they are still part of the lore of Middle East and beyond. 


I had intended on writing a post about them at some point, but when Mina said she would be happy to write one for me, I was thrilled.  Who better to talk about them than someone who actually grew up listening to stories about them? 
To add icing to the cake, Mina is giving away 50% of the proceeds of her sale of A Tale of Two Djinns to UNICEF's new Schools for Asia initiative.  So buy a copy for yourself and one for a friend, or ten.  It's for a good cause not to mention a good read!  Check out her reason why this is so important to her on her blog.

Oh, and make sure to leave a comment.  One lucky reader will win a copy of both of her novellas.  Yes, both.  I'm feeling generous.  Contest ends on April 5th at 12:00 pm EST.  Good luck!

Take it away, Mina!


Usually when I mention I write about djinns, people think I’m talking about the liquor (yes, djinn is pronounced gin), so I quickly add “genies.”

Then people smile and imagine something blue and funny…



Or something saccharine cute…



According to the djinn mythology I grew up with, God first created angels, then djinns and finally humans (erm, even the wildlife came before the humans). In other words, djinns are sort of trial beings created before humans and the two have many things in common. Both djinns and humans have free will and can be good or bad, they can fall in love and raise families, or be vengeful and destructive. Djinns live in a parallel dimension with their own governing system, cities and architecture. The only time you’ll find a djinn living in a bottle is if they have been imprisoned in it.

What exactly are djinns? They are supernatural powerful beings created from smokeless fire. They are more powerful and more intense than humans. Catching the attention of djinns is often dangerous for humans.

So the djinns of my imagination tend to be dark and dangerous, sexy and otherworldly. I’m happily picturing Bollywood actor Hrithik Roshan here:




Um, yeah…what was I saying? Right, djinns…sigh…isn’t he djinn-licious!
 
Part of the reason my idea of djinns is so different is because once I neared puberty I heard djinn stories that carried lessons and warnings intended for young girls. According to many a story, a careless pretty young girl (yes, she would have to be pretty, and careless…virginhood was implicitly implied) who would unfortunately attract the attention of a djinn. The djinn would fall in love. He’d watch her and surprise her with gifts. All very nice, until the girl tried to have a normal life –like get married to a human.

The powerful and insanely jealous and possessive djinn would react by making her speak in different languages, act crazy, or even violent if a human man approached her. In other words, make her entirely unsuitable for marriage.

Lessons: young girls should not walk around with their hair loose, their laughter should not be heard aloud to attract attention and they should be in the house before dusk. Somehow, I never dwelled on the lessons part.

Maybe it was teenage hormones, but the idea of a djinn lover didn’t scare me. I secretly found the idea delicious, and I still do…except now, I share my djinns in my stories.



You can get your very own copy of A Tale of Two Djinns:




Giveaway Rules:  Leave a comment about the creatures/mythical figures of your childhood that left a lasting impression on you and your email address so I contact you to tell you that you won.  Don’t worry, I won’t use it to sell you Avon products or something. 
I’ll go first:  Bigfoot.  It’s a long story.

About Mina: Mina Khan is a Texas-based writer and food enthusiast. She daydreams of hunky paranormal heroes, magic, mayhem and mischief and writes them down as stories. Between stories, she teaches culinary classes and writes for her local newspaper. Other than that, she's raising a family of two children, two cats, two dogs and a husband.




She grew up in Bangladesh on stories of djinns, ghosts and monsters. These childhood fancies now color her fiction. Her debut novella, THEDJINN’S DILEMMA was published November 2011. A second novella, A TALE OF TWO DJINNS, came out March 2012. She had a lot of fun writing her djinn heroes.




You can find her at:

Facebook Author Page: http://www.facebook.com/Mina.Khan.Author



Twitter: http://twitter.com/SpiceBites

21 comments:

  1. Thanks Buffy, for hosting me today and for your very kind introduction! Now, you've got me curious about Big Foot. Deets please!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I grew up in a neighborhood that was a hotbed of Bigfoot activity. I never saw it myself, but I heard weird stuff and I've heard a lot of stories. Google Abair Rd, Whitehall NY and Bigfoot. Yeah, I grew up with a bunch of drunk farmers in the hood.

      Delete
    2. Lol! Love the "drunk farmers in the hood" bit! :)

      Delete
  2. Interesting, Mina! The stories from my childhood were ghost stories. My dad knew a lot of people who had seen or heard ghosts. I can't say the stories have influenced my writing a huge amount yet. I do have one ghost/time travel romance under the bed and not yet published. :) author (at) vondasinclair (dot) com

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for visiting Vonda! While I love to read and read all kinds of books, I love stories with a serving of paranormal thrill :D One of these days, I hope you give your book under the bed another look.

      Delete
    2. Ghost stories were always my favorite growing up. There was this huge gothic mansion on a mountain in my home town. There is a story about the Mansion (called the Skene Manor) about a crazy woman that was buried verticle on the side of the mountain.

      Delete
  3. For me it was the boogeyman. When we lived back east I had a closet door in my bedroom that led to an attic. That door would be shut before bedtime but it would always open in the middle of the night. Your inspiration is a hottie and I can't wait to read the stories. Do you have any other mythological creatures you plan to write about?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oooh, that door story sent a chill through me! Wow. And glad you enjoyed the mancandy :) As for other creatures...I'm thinking of trying my hand at a werewolf because I love to read a good werewolf story and I love dragons too!

      Delete
    2. In elementary school, our librarian read us a story about a creature called the Tailypo. Scared the heck out me. I still don't like tangling my foot over the edge of the bed. I'm 33 years old!

      Delete
  4. Ohhhh, do the dragon story, do the dragon story. LOL. I do so enjoy dragon tails. But anyway, I'm Dana (dmyles3784@yahoo), nice to meet you.

    I've been mispronouncing Djinn this whole time. I didn't know the 'd' was silent, lol. I cut my teeth so to speak on horror stories. Witches, ghosts, demons, etc. I fell in love with Dracula and the vampire mythology, and short of dragons, vamps (the scary kind, not the sparkly ones, lol) are my fav.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I personally miss the days of the heartless, soulless vampires. The have been too sanatized for my tastes. Though I do like the occasional vampire romance. But the vampires better be badassed!

      Delete
  5. Oh how silly...should have been dragon "tales" wow..

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Dana!

      Nice to meet you too! Personally, I thought dragon "tails" was kinda punny :D Thanks for visiting!

      Delete
  6. Nice! I love the djinn too, and I worked with them a lot back when I was a screenwriter for a computer game :)
    As for mythical creatures with lasting impression... Hungarian folktales have a Winged Wolf. I kinda like that idea :)
    e-mail: csenge at zalkacsenge dot hu

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for the comment. I've never heard of a Winged Wolf. I will have to check that out@

      Delete
    2. I just love all the different mythic creatures that exist all around the globe. @Buffy -- enjoying reading & learning through all your different blog posts! :D

      Delete
  7. I was scared of the man in the dark. My sister had me convinced that there was a killer who waited in the shadows for me to fall asleep so he could take my soul.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ah, sisters! I have one too & she loved scaring the bejeebers out of me too :)

      Delete
    2. I was the big sister so I got to do this to my sister. :-)

      Delete
  8. Woot! Congratulations Dana! I hope you enjoy my djinns :D

    And thanks again Buffy! You're a wonderful host! Sending you cyber chocolates delivered by sexy djinns....

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It was my pleasure! Cyber chocolates are perfect for a girl on a diet! And sexy djinns... yay!

      Delete