Last Updated October 2023
If you have a question that isn’t answered here, please do drop me a line: writer at leonawisoker dot com ….
When will you be at a convention as a panelist again?
I’m starting to show up again! So far this year, I’ve stopped by RavenCon as a general attendee, ConGregate as an actual guest, and I’m scheduled to be a panelist at ConVivial and RavenCon in 2024.
What are you up to lately? What have you written? Where will you be next?
Let’s see. I have a short story, The Silver Tree, out in Abyss & Apex Magazine online; I’ve published Nothing Changes, a collection of short stories and miscellaneous information set in the world of Children of the Desert; as notes, I was at ConGregate as a panelist; I’m going through one last overhaul cycle for Lies of Stone, the first novel in the next series, due to launch in January. See previous question for 2024 plans.
Past Updates:
Here’s my 2020 Decade In Review post: Wait, It’s WHAT Year Already?!
More recently, I’m working on twisting fairy tales around into new iterations; adding side bits to the Children of the Desert series; developing the sequel series to same; taking on editing and typesetting jobs; shifting the household to a more sustainable, lower budget structure; learning as much basic DIY as possible; bushwhacking overgrown woodlands; creating a variety of videos on topics (from writing to garden tours to housework tips); and (still) getting comfortable with Zoom.
For chronologically earlier answers, there are posts about my mom’s passing in April 2017 — it still guts me, and drops me down a black hole now and again:
I think the titles of those posts pretty much give the short answer.
What happened to the ebooks? I can’t find them!
Mercury Retrograde Press, the original publisher of the Children of the Desert series, changed from a small press to a self-publishing model in early 2014. All rights to the series have reverted, and Barbara Friend Ish has been extremely generous in her support of the transition. The entire series has now been republished through ReAnimus Press, and the ebooks are once more available.
There are ebooks available through Smashwords as well, for the three side stories I self-published: A Small Price To Pay, Fallen City, and Salt City.
What’s the latest news on the fifth book?
The fifth book, Servants of the Sands, is FINISHED AND PUBLISHED in its new, 2 book iteration. There’s extra content and notes, and I’ve just realized I really need to write one MORE closing chapter… *sigh*
IF YOU BOUGHT A PRINT VERSION OF SERVANTS OF THE SANDS AND ARE UNHAPPY WITH THE FONT SIZE, I will send you a replacement set of the new, 2 book version at NO CHARGE. (Although I’d really appreciate it you could cover shipping costs!)
I love that artwork. Who is the cover artist?
For Secrets of the Sands, Michael Sullivan is the man to thank for the amazingly cool cover. Aaron B. Miller is responsible for the artwork of Guardians of the Desert, Bells of the Kingdom, Fires of the Desert, and Servants of the Sands. (Please do check out Aaron’s PATREON! And you can buy prints and such of his art at the shop on his website.)
How long did it take you to write Secrets of the Sands vs. later books?
Somewhere between five and ten years, depending on whether you count actual writing time or include the slack time when I wasn’t actively working on it. Each of the books took at least three years of writing, revising, re-writing, and re-revising, not to mention heavy editorial cycles of at least three to six months. And I still think I may have rushed Fires of the Desert out a little too quickly. Servants of the Sands, the fifth book, felt like it took a ridiculously long time: I believe it wound up being about three to five years investment overall. I think the extra time will prove to be well worth it! (Although as noted above, I’m still finding things I should have put in…)
Is this based on/set in the real world?
No, it’s not. I drew a lot of inspiration and guidance from culture, history, and geography all over our world, but I created an entirely fictional world to tell my stories in.
Are the southlands part of the kingdom?
No, actually, they are entirely independent. Several people were confused over this, and I can understand why; but here’s what happened. Civilization began in the southlands; after the Split, a group of people moved north of the Horn and began building themselves a kingdom. The first few years were a bit chaotic, as the tribal structure was still strong, and King Ayrq needed to be a touch stern with bringing them all under one banner (his, of course).
In the end, the Northern Kingdom claimed the lands north of the Horn (Wezel’s followers later claimed all lands north of the Hackerwood, but that’s another story). The desert Families are each their own entity, rather like feudal lords, with a complex interdependence system and network of understandings kept viable through frequent Conclaves.
The Northern Kingdom used to have much closer ties to the southlands; recent events (such as unbalanced kings with psychopathic advisors whose decisions are heavily influenced by mysterious, quasi-parasitic creatures from the dawn of time) have weakened those connections and widened the political gap between the two areas. Hmmm. I think I’ll have to post a history soon….
Why isn’t Cafad Scratha in Guardians? I liked him!
I’m honestly surprised by how many people really liked Cafad Scratha! The answer is, though, that this series was never meant to be about Cafad; it’s about Idisio, and Alyea, and has branched off to include some other characters along the way.
Servants of the Sands does feature Cafad as a POV character, along with his friend Azaniari Aerthraim and her twin brother, Allonin. If there’s enough interest, I may produce a series of side stories/novellas detailing Cafad’s full journey from childhood to maturity and the eventual end of his story arc, along with the intersecting stories of Azaniari Aerthraim, Allonin Aerthraim, and Nissa of Sessin, as well as Lord Evkit of the teyanain and Lord Irrio. All depends on what people speak up and are willing to pay for. 🙂
Why did you choose to swap out different characters throughout the series?
Just like real life (and real politics), the overarching story is awfully large, and complicated; no one, or two, or even three viewpoints really do it justice. Also, keeping the same character point of view throughout forces the reader into a one-lane street: either she agrees with that perception or she doesn’t, in which latter case she is quite possibly going to stop reading. By changing points of view, I hope to allow the reader to decide which perspective best resonates with his own ethics and beliefs, and so make it possible to enjoy the story even if he doesn’t like Alyea’s impulsiveness or Deiq’s indifference in a given situation.
Is this series suitable for children?
No. Over fourteen is probably all right for the first two books, but they do get very adult (and grim, with various flavors of violence) quickly after that point. Keep in mind that I was reading Jean Auel and Samuel Delaney in sixth grade, so my perceptions on this may be a touch distorted. There is swearing (see below), and very adult situations (ditto). But parents must judge for themselves. I always recommend reading a book first before deciding if it’s suitable for your kids.
What made you decide to use swear words common to our world? Isn’t that a little anachronistic?
I did invent a number of swear words and insults to suit the setting; however, writing is about communicating. Imaginary swear words never resonate with me as deeply as “real world” swearing does, and there are times I needed to provoke a gut reaction from the reader. I’m very careful with where I put the stronger cuss words, and try to use them as sparingly as possible. But “ta-karne” doesn’t always convey the same effect as “you @**hole!”–which is, after all, what ta-karne means.
As for anachronism, not really. The concepts of “hell” and “damnation” are very much alive in the Northern Church; most southerners, unless they spend a lot of time up in the northern areas, don’t use those terms. The southern religion does not assign sinners to a fiery fate. And in my view, the word “fuck” is just too concisely sharp not to use. Here. Read this.
Finally, in some spots the story deals with mercenaries and sailors; and those are expected to swear heavily. Northerns, especially, wouldn’t use the southern terms very often: so, as I deliberately patterned the common kingdom tongue after English, I had to use common English swear words.
When you say “adult situations” — are you talking about sex?
In some cases, yes. I see no need to go into grotty details, but I don’t always politely fade out before the action starts, either. But mainly I mean that there’s quite a bit of vivid violence and terrible things happening throughout the books. It’s not a sterile world, nor an innocent one. If you’re sensitive to topics like rape, child abuse, slavery, and so on, this might not be a good series for you to read. Several of the characters have been through some ugly stuff, and they think about it on occasion, or talk about it when necessary. So it gets hard to read, at times, even for folks without trauma in their own backgrounds.
If you want to read stories that aren’t quite so dark, I suggest taking a look at my shorter fiction, in anthologies like Cats In Space, The Society For The Preservation of CJ Henderson, Galactic Creatures, Sha’Daa: INKED, and Sha’Daa:PAWNS.
Um. Actually, those are kind of dark too, now that I think about it. Well… *shrug* It’s how I write. I had every intention of creating goofy silly funny stories, believe it or not, but somehow it never quite turns out that way….