Forbidden Sanctuary, The Fallen Grace Chronicles, Book 1: Received a 4+ star review, making it an IndieReader Approved title.
Forbidden Sanctuary, The Fallen Grace Chronicles, Book 1: Received a 4+ star review, making it an IndieReader Approved title.Following find an interview with author Layla Kara:
1. What is the name of the book and when was it published? Forbidden Sanctuary, The Fallen Grace Chronicles, Book 1. Coming out and available everywhere 15 March 2026.
2. What’s the book’s first line? “The sky did not weep. It roared and split apart by holy fury as two angels fell from grace, cast out like broken relics from a world that no longer claimed them.”
3. What’s the book about? Give us the “pitch”. This narrative lives in the merciless space between light and rot. It documents the survival of beautiful monsters and broken saints locked in a cosmic war. Grace operates as a crushing burden. Damnation offers the only true sanctuary. The story explores an obsessive, destructive love. Two souls would gladly watch all realms burn rather than relinquish their bond.
4. What inspired you to write the book? A particular person? An event? I never wanted to write safe stories. The grit of movies like Constantine and the rebellious themes of Lucifer (show) solidified my distain for anything gentle. The true turning point happened at age fourteen when I read Victor Hugo’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame. That book broke my perspective wide open. It taught me that love and monsters often share the same face. My imagination stayed in shadows ever since, I guess I am just a gothic soul at heart.
5. What’s the main reason someone should really read this book? I put this book into the public eye to find my people. Chasing light romantic tropes holds no appeal for me. I prefer to weaponize the dark. Readers looking for a story they can survive without a scratch are in the wrong place. Those who want an experience that bleeds through the page must read Forbidden Sanctuary.
6. What’s the most distinctive thing about the main character? Who-real or fictional-would you say the character reminds you of? Sera operates with her chest cracked open. The events of the sanctuary drag her through absolute darkness and blinding light, demanding she feel every agonizing second. That ruin suits her. Her messy, unapologetic existence channels a distinct piece of my own nature. She gives a voice to the instinctual, wild fraction of my soul that navigates the world purely by feeling its way around.
7. When did you first decide to become an author? The realization hit me four or five years ago. Tearing through different genres of literature made one thing glaringly obvious. The publishing world lacked the specific flavor of ruin my brain naturally provides. My imagination leans heavily into the macabre. Keeping those concepts locked in my own head felt like a waste of perfectly good chaos.
8. Is this the first book you’ve written? It is my debut publication. I keep several other projects active behind the scenes. The sequel is done and requires a final proofread. The third book is currently underway. And I also have a whole different story completed in drafts.
9. What do you do for work when you’re not writing? My day job is completely separated from the art world. I manage construction scheduling for a tech corporation. Keeping chaotic projects under strict control takes up most of my time. I genuinely love my job. Building a solid career gave me the comfort to chase a goal I set as a child in Baku, Azerbaijan, writing for others to read.
10. How much time do you generally spend on your writing? My schedule operates in extremes. I can draft a book in four weeks or wrestle with a single manuscript for two years. Forbidden Sanctuary demanded a brutal ten months. The first draft took seven months to complete. I realized the narrative needed a different direction and immediately gutted forty percent of the text. Reaching the final version meant writing three hours a day without skipping a single weekend. Taking weeks off is mandatory after a push like that. Immersing yourself in dark fantasy is suffocating work. Surviving it requires stepping away from the page.
11. What’s a great piece of advice that you can share with fellow indie authors? Research until your eyes bleed. Writing the actual book is a vacation compared to the brutal mechanics of publishing. You have to build a team that refuses to abandon ship when the process gets complicated. Going cheap guarantees a catastrophe. Paying massive invoices ensures zero miracles. Interrogate every single business choice you make. Gambling on yourself is the only wager worth making.
12. Would you go traditional if a publisher came calling? If so, why? I would sign a traditional contract under one absolute condition. I must retain total command over the creative anatomy of the book. The publisher must grant me final approval on cover art and ultimate veto power over manuscript edits. These stories are living entities. Handing them over to a corporate machine to be sanitized and repackaged is out of the question. I refuse to let my monsters be stripped of their teeth to match current trends.
13. Is there something in particular that motivates you (fame? fortune?) Fame and fortune hold zero appeal. My two sons provide the ultimate motivation. I demand exceptional effort from them. I refuse to require a level of dedication I cannot demonstrate myself. Showing them the mechanics of achieving the impossible is mandatory. They need to see firsthand that relentless work carves out any reality they choose. My own upbringing instilled that exact discipline and I intend to leave that same unbreakable foundation for my children.
14. Which writer, living or dead, do you most admire? I admire writers who do not hold back. Victor Hugo and Mary Shelley created the original beautiful monsters. I have to include Shirley Jackson for her masterful suspense in the fifties and sixties. Keri Lake, Jay Kristoff, and Joe Abercrombie keep me hooked on modern grimdark fantasy. Beyond traditional authors, I read a lot of ancient mythologies and sagas. That worldbuilding heavily influenced my own imagination.
15. Which book do you wish you could have written? If I had to choose one, I wish I had written The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Victor Hugo built a masterpiece of human tragedy. He captured the absolute cruelty of the world while maintaining incredible beauty in the prose. The architecture of that narrative remains flawless. Creating a story with that exact level of emotional devastation is my ultimate goal.