Half-way through writing The Horse Master’s Daughter, I already knew—there was going to be a sequel. Originally I’d intended The Horse Master’s Daughter to be a standalone story, a gift to Nordun, my Tibetan niece whose father (my brother-in-law) refused to let her ride a horse. However, in the unguarded moments between writing Nordun’s story and living in the mundane world, my mind was already flying ahead, spinning new tales, new
adventures for Nordun. Suddenly there was so much more happening on the page than I’d foreseen. The little tale I had in mind became a first full-fledged historical novel, and the seeds of a sequel had firmly planted themselves within me.
A pilgrimage to Lhasa was the obvious next journey for Nordun—pilgrimages have long been an essential part of the Tibetan B
