Today we are very excited to share an interview with Author Raj Sidhu (Thrash Force)!
Meet the Author: Raj Sidhu
Raj Sidhu grew up as an Indian American kid who dreamed of magic powers and vanquishing evil. As an adult, he is a proud fantasy nerd and a successful education entrepreneur. With these powers combined, he hopes to tell tales that kids will love for years to come.
About the Book: Thrash Force
Seventh grader Riley Singh is a smart kid—smart enough to know that he could be an exceptional student in school if he wasn’t always playing Dungeon Brawl: a role-playing game where he and his friends embark on radical adventures to slay demon lords and rescue the occasional village.
The only problem is that Doomface, the villain of their newest adventure, is listening in on their game and may just be maniacal enough to pull four middle schoolers through the folds of reality to satisfy his ego.
Stranded in a strange world with magical powers and alter-ego bodies, Riley and his friends will have to find a way to defeat Doomface. And Riley will do whatever it takes to get home before his parents realize he’s missing—even if that means dooming his friends along the way.
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~Author Chat~
YABC: Is your main character like you?
One of the big breakthroughs I had while editing the book was realizing that Riley and I are two very different people. But I wouldn’t be telling the truth if I didn’t admit that we share quite a few flaws. For starters, neither of us were particularly good students in the seventh grade.
YABC: How do you know when a book is finished?
Not to be too melodramatic, but for Thrash Force, I felt it in every fiber of my being.
My (superb) editor and I went back and forth for months, and I was tearing semi- metaphorical tufts of hair out of my head as I tried to understand her feedback. Draft after draft went back and forth between us. And then one night, after a particularly difficult road trip back from San Francisco, the epiphany I needed to finish the book hit me like a truck.
I made some big changes to the manuscript the very next day. And within a draft or two of edits from there, we reached the finish line at last.
YABC: When did you know you wanted to be a writer?
It was in Mrs. Hall’s fourth grade class. We all had to write a poem, and I think that it may have been one of the first creative writing assignments of my life. I enjoyed it so much that I decided then and there that I wanted to be a writer.
YABC: How do you keep your ‘voice’ true to the age category you are writing within?
A good friend of mine gave me very excellent advice when I was writing one of my first drafts of Thrash Force: kids, he told me, want their intelligence trusted. I don’t think I’ve heard a truer statement since. So, when I’m writing, and I’m considering pulling a punch, I just go right ahead and completely ignore that instinct. Kids of a certain age are extremely tenacious and determined individuals who are capable of a great deal more than us adults often give them credit for.
YABC: What type of scene do you love to write the most?
What a wonderful question. You may not know this from reading the book (that’s a joke), but I absolutely love writing over-the-top descriptions. I am what they call a ‘ham,’ and as such I think it’s only fitting to want to give my readers a feast of metaphors, piles of personification, and quite a bit of consonance.
YABC: Which character gave you the most trouble when writing your latest book?
I wish it was a more interesting answer – like a side-character that no one would ever suspect of being hard to write – but alas, it was Riley, that little pain-in-my-rear! In fact, Riley gave me so much trouble over the years that I frequently wanted to implode.
I think that our brains can be rather sly about sneaking things onto the page that we don’t really intend to be there. Why? Because our brains are used to being ignored, and writing a book seems like an awfully good way for it to make itself heard.
To make a long story a little shorter: it took me years to realize what my brain was trying to get across to me about Riley. And when it finally happened, it was rather like swapping out a woolly blindfold for a good pair of reading glasses.
YABC: How do you plan to celebrate the launch of your book?
Now that I’m thinking about it, I think what I’d like to do most is go to the nearest bookstore and buy a fresh copy of someone else’s book: after all, I’ve spent an awfully long time with Riley and the gang. Once they’re safely in the hands of a few new readers, it’ll be a delight to see what everyone else’s characters have been up to.
YABC: What hobbies do you enjoy?
You may not know this from reading the book (that’s another joke), but I love games that I can play with people around a table. There’s nothing like an adventurous night of Dungeons & Dragons with your friends or loved ones.
Title: Thrash Force
Author: Raj Sidhu
Illustrator: Billy Yong
Release Date: 07/15/2025
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Genre: Middle Grade
Age Range: 8-12
