Writing international thrillers was never on my five-year plan. I was busy analyzing infrastructure loans in Madagascar and drafting policy memos in Washington, D.C., hardly the résumé of a future spy fiction writing enthusiast. Yet somewhere between dusty airstrips, late-night Excel sheets, and a fateful family visit to Kuwait, an idea grabbed hold and refused to let go. Here’s the real story of how a globe-trotting development consultant with an economics degree became the creator of The Ahriman Legacy.
I grew up on construction sites and culture shock. My architect parents shuttled us from India to the Middle East, Europe, and North America before I finished high school. By the time I earned my undergraduate degree at the University of Pennsylvania (and later a public-policy master’s split between Sciences Po Paris and the London School of Economics), I’d visited more than sixty countries. Passports and boarding passes felt as ordinary as homework, perfect fuel, it turns out, for spy fiction writing that spans every continent.
My father’s bookshelf was a training ground: Tom Clancy’s tactical puzzles, Frederick Forsyth’s political chess matches, Robert Ludlum’s breakneck twists. I tore through those paperbacks during layovers and long drives, wondering why so few protagonists looked like me or set foot in Tehran, Muscat, or Kigali. I carried that question into adulthood, even while my day job steered me toward spreadsheets rather than spycraft. Those early reads laid the groundwork for what became the Ahriman Series.
The turning point came during a family holiday in Kuwait City. Parliament was locked in yet another battle with the Emir, and every café TV glowed with heated debate. I couldn’t stop thinking: What if a single covert act tipped this delicate balance? That “what if” snowballed into a plot about an ex-CIA operative, a mysterious Iranian assassin, and a country on the brink. I opened a blank Word doc and typed the working title Ahriman: The Spirit of Destruction. Suddenly, all those years of travel and policy work had a fictional purpose. And the Ahriman Series was born.
I’d never tackled a full novel, so I joined National Novel Writing Month. Fifty thousand words in thirty days felt insane, exactly the jolt I needed. I wrote on planes, in hotel lobbies, and once on a rattling bus across rural France (every pothole became punctuation). The draft was messy, but the bones were there: Petra Shirazi, a Muslim American spy; Kasem Ismaili, the assassin known as “the Ahriman”; and Kuwait’s unique mix of monarchy and democracy as the stage. The story cemented my passion for spy fiction writing, rooted in real-world geopolitics.
Revising meant pairing adrenaline with accuracy. I dug into Gulf-region politics, interviewed friends in intelligence, and pored over Zoroastrian mythology for Kasem’s code-name. My consulting assignments helped, too: a week in Burundi later shaped book four; meetings in Paris colored Petra’s safe-house scenes. Authenticity, whether it’s the scent of cardamom coffee in Shuwaikh or the hum of a drone over Lake Tanganyika, became my obsession and a hallmark of the Ahriman Series.
When Ahriman: The Spirit of Destruction was released in 2014, readers asked what happened next. I couldn’t let Petra and Kasem go either, so a trilogy became five books:
Each novel pushed farther afield, Paris, Tehran, the African Great Lakes, mirroring my travels and curiosity. Along the way, the series hit bestseller lists and landed me on TV segments, podcasts, and, yes, more red-eye flights.
Petra’s main arc reached a turning point in book five, but the world of spy fiction writing I’ve created still buzzes with untold stories. I’m sketching a spin-off that follows a side character into new territory (literally and morally). Meanwhile, I continue consulting part-time because the best story fodder often arrives disguised as work.
The Ahriman series wasn’t born in a quiet cabin; it sprang from crowded airports, policy documents, and the restless urge to see and share the world. If you’ve got a story tugging at your sleeve, start where you stand. Write between meetings, on lunch breaks, during turbulence. You might surprise yourself with the thriller hiding in your passport stamps.
Want more behind-the-scenes insights, writing tips, and travel-inspired intrigue? Subscribe to my newsletter and join me on the next adventure. You can also check out my books on Amazon to explore my stories.
Warmly,
Puja
Hey there, Be the first to know about pre-orders, new releases, behind-the-scenes info, and exclusive updates!