Horror's Greatest Hits
Phily loves to devour books asked this question about A Desert of Bleeding Sand (A Desert of Bleeding Sand #1):
I think your book is magnificent and I’m convincing all my friends to read it! On the world building topic —because your world in ADOBS is so intricate, how do you decide which names to make up in a historical fantasy, and which to use as is? Also, which are the real places that exist? Thank you!
Lucia Damisa Hiii!

Amazing question! So one of the reasons why writing ADOBS was so fun and in a teeny way, easy, was because it really is historical and it was fas…moreHiii!

Amazing question! So one of the reasons why writing ADOBS was so fun and in a teeny way, easy, was because it really is historical and it was fascinating to have bases to build upon, instead of having to create places out of thin air like with other stories I’ve worked on. For book 1, I wanted to tell this part of Nigerian youths’ story and to keep things as real as possible, to be able to point and say ‘look these horrible things happened and I didn’t just make them up’. Basically I didn’t want the facts and grit to be buried under fancy madeup magical places. (Not that there’s anything wrong with fancy madeup places; I have written and love a bunch of them myself! And book 2 also takes that turn in a way!)

I wanted to keep the realism as much as possible. So even for the other, magical kingdoms I write about, they truly are places that oppressed Nigerians in nearer history (around 1800-1900s). Some before Nigeria’s tribes amalgamated just as it happens in the book. I just used their historic names—when they were still kingdoms instead of countries, and ruled by kings instead of presidents, when they were still colonized instead of independent.

Historic names that they’re no longer known by, even though some are easily recognizable and others I had to dig really deep to find. So it’s heavily a historical fantasy.

I dug deeper for some place names because these —slavery, colonialism—are things their earlier rulers and people did and not people of the 21st century. And I want to avoid scenarios of people feeling attacked because, as I said, they and probably not even their parents did these things. I wanted to keep focus on the message of the book. So I recreated that conflict while also keeping the history true. And bringing the message to the forefront that sure, these kingdoms/nations might have magic/technology that Nigerians don’t, but rulers, don’t discount us youths. Even with limited resources we still have the passion, the brain, and determination to do great things if we just get the chance :)(less)
flag
More questions about A Desert of Bleeding Sand…
Image for A Desert of Bleeding Sand
A Desert of Bleeding Sand
by Lucia Damisa (Goodreads Author)
Rate this book
Clear rating
1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars

About Goodreads Q&A

Ask and answer questions about books!

You can pose questions to the Goodreads community with Reader Q&A, or ask your favorite author a question with Ask the Author.

See Featured Authors Answering Questions

Learn more