Lucia Damisa's Blog
October 8, 2025
A Winter Fantasy Book of 2025: Interview With Lucia Damisa
The Fantasy Mr & Mrs Smith are back in A Winter of White Ash. This time, they are not only colliding as rival spies but as thieves sent on a lethal heist across the Western Continent.
In this interview hosted by Maddie (@Bibliophilebindings on Instagram), Lucia shares an inside look into the creation of this inventive, 2025 winter fantasy book! Keep in mind that this will include mild spoilers.
Maddie : You’ve mentioned A Desert of Bleeding Sand was inspired by the Bring Back Our Girls movement, what inspired you to write A Winter of White Ash?
Lucia : I knew from the beginning that I wanted it to be a series, but while I always knew Book 1 would be inspired by the Bring Back Our Girls movement, I took a longer moment to find the base of the following books. Eventually, multiple things inspired AWOWA, but one of them was the civil war Nigeria underwent in 1967. The tribes that amalgamated to form Nigeria dealt with splitting and a war broke out—which is essentially the foundation of A Winter of White Ash.
In the book series, we see a lot of politics and clashes happening between the tribes in Thalesai. It can be hard to merge different people like that, especially when some people refuse to integrate. So following the historical thread of Book 1 and needing to retain certain heartfelt themes, I grew inspired to explore the hardships that come with an amalgamation as the foundation of Book 2!
Maddie : A Desert of Bleeding Sand is steeped in history and magic, the former usually requiring some level of research. Did you have to conduct any research for A Winter of White Ash? If so, did you come across anything interesting during your search?
Lucia : Yes, there was A LOT of researching for A Winter of White Ash, but it was a lot of fun. World building and all that comes with it excites me!
There were many interesting historical events I encountered, and one of them is the history of the Dahomey Amazons! I’d heard about them vaguely over the years, and exploring Dahomey in the series, I just had to include the legendary women. I read about them and they were SO unbelievably awesome! An elite force of women who protected their king and could take down men? Yes please.
Maddie : Is there a character in A Winter of White Ash that you connect with more than the others?
Lucia : There are two of them: Zair and Dathan. I often had to dig into myself to find ways to connect to their emotions so I could hopefully bring them to life on the page. Being able to find that connection always drew me closer to them, making them feel like actual people!
Maddie : What might readers not know about the book just by reading it?
Lucia : Hmmmm. Your questions are so awesome and thought provoking, Maddie! A couple of things come to mind, but I would say that the final line of A Winter of White Ash holds sooo much meaning. I wonder if readers are picking up on it. Since I don’t read reviews, I don’t know yet, but I hope they are! If not, it’ll still be so fun when they find out the meaning in Book 3!
Maddie : What would you like readers to take away from A Winter of White Ash?
Lucia : This answer means so much to me that I made it the dedication of the book: I hope that anyone who’ve felt unworthy and insufficient and insecure like Zair come out knowing that they are significant and worthy <3
Maddie : The different tribes in your story have such rich cultures, what inspired each of them?
Lucia : Thank you! They’re mostly inspired by the tribes in Nigeria. Nigeria actually has hundreds of beautiful tribes, but for A Desert Of Bleeding Sand, I combined them into five with certain tribes being more prominently represented in them. Every now and then, however, I make up stuff or draw from other cultures around the world. It’s just an enjoyable merge of many things, but I also keep track of these cultures to keep them consistent!
Maddie : And finally, are there any Easter eggs nestled within A Winter of White Ash for what the next book will be about?
Lucia : Yes! I already mentioned the last line of the book. There are also many others that, of course, I can’t spoil that I’ve been planting since Book 1 and pulled through Book 2. I’m excited to see readers reactions to all of it. Planting Easter eggs can take extra effort, but the payoff is worth it!
Where To Find The Books
You can now read A DESERT OF BLEEDING SAND and A WINTER OF WHITE ASH on Amazon and Kindle Unlimited!
In this interview hosted by Maddie (@Bibliophilebindings on Instagram), Lucia shares an inside look into the creation of this inventive, 2025 winter fantasy book! Keep in mind that this will include mild spoilers.
Maddie : You’ve mentioned A Desert of Bleeding Sand was inspired by the Bring Back Our Girls movement, what inspired you to write A Winter of White Ash?
Lucia : I knew from the beginning that I wanted it to be a series, but while I always knew Book 1 would be inspired by the Bring Back Our Girls movement, I took a longer moment to find the base of the following books. Eventually, multiple things inspired AWOWA, but one of them was the civil war Nigeria underwent in 1967. The tribes that amalgamated to form Nigeria dealt with splitting and a war broke out—which is essentially the foundation of A Winter of White Ash.
In the book series, we see a lot of politics and clashes happening between the tribes in Thalesai. It can be hard to merge different people like that, especially when some people refuse to integrate. So following the historical thread of Book 1 and needing to retain certain heartfelt themes, I grew inspired to explore the hardships that come with an amalgamation as the foundation of Book 2!
Maddie : A Desert of Bleeding Sand is steeped in history and magic, the former usually requiring some level of research. Did you have to conduct any research for A Winter of White Ash? If so, did you come across anything interesting during your search?
Lucia : Yes, there was A LOT of researching for A Winter of White Ash, but it was a lot of fun. World building and all that comes with it excites me!
There were many interesting historical events I encountered, and one of them is the history of the Dahomey Amazons! I’d heard about them vaguely over the years, and exploring Dahomey in the series, I just had to include the legendary women. I read about them and they were SO unbelievably awesome! An elite force of women who protected their king and could take down men? Yes please.
Maddie : Is there a character in A Winter of White Ash that you connect with more than the others?
Lucia : There are two of them: Zair and Dathan. I often had to dig into myself to find ways to connect to their emotions so I could hopefully bring them to life on the page. Being able to find that connection always drew me closer to them, making them feel like actual people!
Maddie : What might readers not know about the book just by reading it?
Lucia : Hmmmm. Your questions are so awesome and thought provoking, Maddie! A couple of things come to mind, but I would say that the final line of A Winter of White Ash holds sooo much meaning. I wonder if readers are picking up on it. Since I don’t read reviews, I don’t know yet, but I hope they are! If not, it’ll still be so fun when they find out the meaning in Book 3!
Maddie : What would you like readers to take away from A Winter of White Ash?
Lucia : This answer means so much to me that I made it the dedication of the book: I hope that anyone who’ve felt unworthy and insufficient and insecure like Zair come out knowing that they are significant and worthy <3
Maddie : The different tribes in your story have such rich cultures, what inspired each of them?
Lucia : Thank you! They’re mostly inspired by the tribes in Nigeria. Nigeria actually has hundreds of beautiful tribes, but for A Desert Of Bleeding Sand, I combined them into five with certain tribes being more prominently represented in them. Every now and then, however, I make up stuff or draw from other cultures around the world. It’s just an enjoyable merge of many things, but I also keep track of these cultures to keep them consistent!
Maddie : And finally, are there any Easter eggs nestled within A Winter of White Ash for what the next book will be about?
Lucia : Yes! I already mentioned the last line of the book. There are also many others that, of course, I can’t spoil that I’ve been planting since Book 1 and pulled through Book 2. I’m excited to see readers reactions to all of it. Planting Easter eggs can take extra effort, but the payoff is worth it!
Where To Find The Books
You can now read A DESERT OF BLEEDING SAND and A WINTER OF WHITE ASH on Amazon and Kindle Unlimited!
