Payal Doshi has lived in the UK and US where she noticed a lack of Indian protagonists in global children’s fiction and one day wrote the opening paragraph to what would become her first children’s novel. She was born and raised in Mumbai, India, and currently resides in Minneapolis, Minnesota with her husband and two-year-old daughter. Rea and the Blood of the Nectar, the first book in the Chronicles of Astranthia series is her debut middle grade novel.