The World of Djinns

Thanks for hosting me on PYN Kirsten! I love mythology of all kinds and appreciate the foundation they provide for modern storytellers.

My paranormal stories feature djinns, also known as jinni or genies. I grew up in house supposedly built at a crossroads of the djinn and human world, nourished on skin-tingling tales about these otherworldly supernatural creatures with awesome scary powers. Just as vampires are popular in the Western world, djinns are popular in much of Asia, Africa and Middle East.  Djinn stories are part of my writing psyche.

In those stories, djinns are not demons but beings similar to humans, except they are made from smokeless fire and are prone to stronger emotions and have power to grant wishes, change forms and create havoc (that’s the dangerous part.)

The idea of djinns existed before pre-Islamic times and were often closely associated with nature – they caused dust storms or traveled as menacing tornadoes, and had power were over oceans, winds and fire.

Instead of being scared as a young girl, I was fascinated by these dark and dangerous otherworldly beings. So for my first novella, THE DJINN’S DILEMMA, I made my hero a djinn assassin who falls in love with his human target. I had a lot of fun bringing some of the spine-tingling chills and the elemental powers into the story. Even better, I enjoyed exploring the emotions – of a djinn who loves with his whole heart and of a modern female journalist who wants facts and is scared of what can’t be explained.

As part of writing Rukh, my djinn assassin, I had to give him a backstory and part of it involves the djinn world. One glimpse, and I was intrigued. According to the stories I grew up with djinns live in a parallel dimension with their own governing system, cities and politics. The only time you’ll find a djinn living in a bottle or a ring is if they have been imprisoned in the item. I decided to imagine this world further in my next story.

So A TALE OF TWO DJINNS is set mostly in the djinn world. It’s a Romeo and Juliet story that pits water djinns and earth djinns against each other in a generations-old fight for water. I had a lot of fun exploring politics, economics and gender relations using the two factions.

*Fifty percent of the proceeds from the sales of A Tale of Two Djinns are donated to UNICEF*

Find them on Amazon:

A Tale of Two Djinns

The Djinn’s Dilemma

A Christmas Wish (a Djinn World Novella)

About the Author

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.

You can find her at http://www.facebook.com/Mina.Khan.Author