Today it is my pleasure to Welcome author Lucia Damisa to HJ!
Hi Lucia and welcome to HJ! We’re so excited to chat with you about your new release, A DESERT OF BLEEDING SAND!
Hello everyone! I’m happy to be here.
Please summarize the book for the readers here:
In a glittering Sahara Desert palace, many have come to die…
Zair, a reviled half-aziza with magical powers, is determined to stop the traitors attacking her academy and kidnapping its students—especially as her beloved sister is targeted. Sent to the palace during the king’s coronation, her mission is clear: unmask the culprits behind the disappearances. But when she crosses paths with Dathan, a rival spy from another academy, his hidden motives complicate everything.
As danger escalates and more students vanish, Zair and Dathan realize they must join forces to stop the looming threat. As they close in on the traitors, a shimmering attraction pulses between them, threatening to unravel their focus. In a palace where everyone covets power and night magic guards its halls, Zair must save her fellow students—and protect her heart from the one person she cannot afford to trust.
Please share your favorite line(s) or quote from this book:
“You know, the world shines brighter in the eyes of dreamers. It doesn’t mean you’re delusional. Far from it. Rather that you find beauty even in dark things and don’t let sorrows kill your spirit.”
Please share a few Fun facts about this book…
- The first draft was initially void of fantastical elements but then my younger sister that if it’s to be a fantasy book, it should be MORE fantastical. I let my imagination erupt and now, I doubt anyone can tell that magic once wasn’t so thoroughly entwined!
- I changed so many names into fantastical ones so secret service agents don’t bust down my roof and appear in my house once day hehe…
- Two books that inspired me are The City of Brass and Dance of Thieves.
What first attracts your Hero to the Heroine and vice versa?
Dathan is first drawn in by Zair’s fierce independence.
Zair is first drawn in by his acceptance of her, when everyone else reviles her because of her heritage.
Did any scene have you blushing, crying or laughing while writing it? And Why?
So many. One of them is when Dathan sees Zair with the aziza soldier for the first time and jealously calls him “Lord-I’m-so-intense-look-at-my-fancy-arrows.”
Readers should read this book….
If they like spy rivals to lovers, sentient desert palaces, academic rivalries, gritty high stakes, court intrigue, and more.
What are you currently working on? What other releases do you have in the works?
I’m currently working on the other books in the A DESERT OF BLEEDING SAND series!
Thanks for blogging at HJ!
Giveaway: A $20 Amazon gift card
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Excerpt from A DESERT OF BLEEDING SAND:
I grabbed the door before it shut. My heart rattled as I shoved my face between the door’s crack, but the figure on the other side pulled the knob, determined to shut me outside.
The guards know I am here.
Those words thundered through me even as I fought the lingering effects of the barghest’s poison. The guards would rip the place apart to find me. I knew the drill. I tugged harder at the door, inching it open.
Shock jarred through me as Zair’s alarmed face tilted up to mine from the other end of the door. Her eyes widened, my astonishment reflected in their brown and gold pools.
Was my vision deceiving me? After the vase broke, a figure had streaked past the corner of my vision to this door. It had moved so fast that had it not paused by the door to manipulate the lock, I would have almost dismissed it as a trick of poor sight. But the dark clothes selected to blend into the darkness, the urgency, and precision in lock picking told me otherwise. It was another spy. And all I’d needed to race to the only room in the vestibule and share the shelter.
Now Nergal’s student gaped at me from the other end. I resisted the urge to rub my eyes, in case the barghest’s poison was still distorting my vision. The poison was finally wearing off and it was Zair.
“Summon the other squad,” the Second Advisor ordered grimly. “Carry out a search on this entire wing!”
Her shock quickly gave way to resolve. She made to pull the door shut in my face. I gripped it tighter and pulled it wider. She wasn’t getting rid of me that easily. It seemed like forever until she glowered and shoved the door open. Just enough for me to dive into the musty space without knocking her over. We shut the door a second after an unsheathed adasword glistened into view.
Stars from an open window cast dim light in the carpet closet. Outside, adaswords zinged out of their scabbards. Drapes swished. Vases screeched against tiles. Orders were hissed. I held the hilts of my knives. Zair gripped a piece of cloth in her hand.
“Spread out!” the sub-head guard said in Mhese.
If the spy was indeed from another kingdom, they wouldn’t have him understanding their intentions. Thalesai’s guards, though, regardless of tribe, were fluent in the four tribal languages and taught to speak them at the military academies.
My heart pounded in my ears as footsteps reached our door. Barghests snarled, claws scraping hungrily at the door.
“Pick the lock,” a guard ordered.
Blast it! Zair took slow steps backward. I kept my attention on the chaos outside the door, clutching my blade tighter. The beasts would sniff her out in half a second hiding in those carpets. She hissed out panicked words I couldn’t make out amid the barghests’ snarls. The lock clanked under the guard’s expert hands.
Zair gasped. I glanced at her and… she was kneeling on a musty, handmade carpet. An emerald-green tapestry that floated. Her fingers glowed white as she gripped its fringes, like she was just as startled.
The carpet moved.
An escape.
I swerved and dived atop it without pause. The taut fabric dipped like a mattress under my knees. And like a gliding bird, it carried us out the window, speeding for the sky as the door slammed open. Winds ripped at us, howling like a thousand wolves. The stars grew closer while the palace shrunk smaller than my fist. The soulmate stars of King Abeel and Queen Sepner, Thalesai’s first rulers, dazzled close enough to touch.
How in sheols was this happening?
Braced on her knees beside me, Zair angled a vicious expression at me. “Stop following me!”
“Haven’t you heard of student solidarity?” I retorted over the winds.
She pulled her dagger and launched at me. Her blade glowed like a deadly piece of the constellations as it neared my throat. In a swift move, I caught her wrists before she could have me where she wanted, at her mercy, and pressed them to the carpet. One with a blade, the other with a cloth. She tried to slam her forehead into my jaw. I swung my head to the side and yanked on her elbows, throwing off her balance.
She fell forward against me, her soft curves pressing against my body, her silky hair brushing my neck. Awareness jolted through me.
Jerking, like she felt the jolt too, she lurched as far back as I let her.
I pulled a lid over the feverish sensation in my skin and focused on her astounded face.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Book Info:
In a glittering Sahara Desert palace, many have come to die…
Zair, a reviled half-aziza with magical powers, is determined to stop the traitors attacking her academy and kidnapping its students—especially as her beloved sister is targeted. Sent to the palace during the king’s coronation, her mission is clear: unmask the culprits behind the disappearances. But when she crosses paths with Dathan, a rival spy from another academy, his hidden motives complicate everything.
As danger escalates and more students vanish, Zair and Dathan realize they must join forces to stop the looming threat. As they close in on the traitors, a shimmering attraction pulses between them, threatening to unravel their focus. In a palace where everyone covets power and night magic guards its halls, Zair must save her fellow students—and protect her heart from the one person she cannot afford to trust.
Book Links: Amazon |
Meet the Author:
Lucia Damisa is a fantasy and romance writer who discovered a passion for writing at age 13 and has amassed stacks of notebooks filled with handwritten stories. After attending an Air Force boarding school and serving in the Navy, she graduated college with a BA in Mass Communication and has experience as a journalist and freelance writer for websites around the world. When she is not hanging out with her fictional friends and world building, she is reading or taking photographs of nature. She also runs the Path2pub website where she interviews publishing professionals to inform aspiring authors. Visit her online at luciasfiction.wordpress.com and on Instagram, TikTok, and X @LuciaDamisa
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Mary Preston
If the word SHEIK is in the title I have no doubt enjoyed.