When Cafad Scratha was a child, someone murdered his entire family. People have questioned his sanity ever since. As the last Scratha, he's dedicated his life to catching the murderers. Now a desert lord, one of the mysterious elite of the southlands, he stands above every mundane political imperative and rule of courtesy--or so it seems until the king of the northlands tries to bring Scratha to heel. Scratha's bizarre reaction throws the independent southlands into chaos: he hands temporary control of his family lands over to the king, takes on an assumed name, and sneaks out of the city. The king sends Alyea, a young noblewoman, to hold the ceded prize: but while she understands kingdom politics, she's quickly out of her depth in the byzantine world of the southlands. What she thought was a quick ticket to power turns out to be a dangerous assignment that may well lead her to a literal dead end. Just as trapped is Idisio, the orphaned street-thief sent by a chance encounter into Scratha's service. As his new and throughly unstable master goes undercover, Idisio finds himself drawn into the mysterious world of the desert lords and their secrets. Idisio's growing comprehension of the world he's stepped into doesn't just change his beliefs; it leads him to an unsuspected truth about himself that will change his life forever.
Leona Wisoker is the author of the fantasy novel Secrets of the Sands, Book One of Children of the Desert. Her work is fueled equally by coffee and conviction; she has been known to take over the entire dining room to deconstruct a difficult novel-in-progress. Addicted to eclectic research and reading since childhood, she often chooses reading material alphabetically rather than by subject or author. This has led her to read about aardvarks, birds, child-warriors, dragons, eggs, faeries, ghosts, horses, and many other
random subjects.
Secrets of the Sands is Leona's first novel. It is set in a world which has known neither King Arthur nor Christianity; a world still struggling through a number of basic moral and developmental issues. The story focuses on two main characters: a young thief, Idisio, whose disturbingly accurate flashes of intuitive insight land him in deeper trouble than he ever thought possible, and Alyea, a king's emissary whose beliefs and strengths are tested to the limit as she enters a foreign culture that plays by vastly different rules than those of her home.
Following books expand not only the story but the characters, illuminating a complex world in the process of breaking free from its own Dark Ages. The final result leaves room not only for serious questions but moments of laughter, and inevitably involves coffee.
Leona Wisoker's short stories have appeared in Futures: Fire to Fly and Anotherealm; she is a regular reviewer for Green Man Review and Fantasy Magazine. She has lived in Florida, Connecticut, Oregon, New Hampshire, Las Vegas, Alaska, California, and Virginia; has experienced the alternate realities of Georgia, North Carolina, Arizona, New York, Long Island, and Italy; and believes that "home is wherever my coffee cup is filled."
She lives in Virginia with an extraordinarily patient husband and two large dogs.
