Children of the Desert Q&A—Part I: Inspiration, Influences, and Inception

Answering your burning questions about my Chinese fantasy trilogy, starting with world-building and initial concepts!

This series took me seven years to write, and I learned so much from writing my very first fantasy trilogy. It's been a year since the third and final installment came out, so what better way to look back (and celebrate) than to deep-dive into the writing process?

In this blog series, I'll address the commonly asked questions and share some insights into my writing process.

There’s so much I would like to share about my process of writing this series, and social media doesn’t quite offer the space for a deep dive (I foresee myself yapping a lot). So I’ll be covering each aspect—world-building, character arcs, magic system, etc for each book—in depth in subsequent posts.

Welcome to Part 1!

First, here’s a brief introduction of Land of Sand and Song (Children of the Desert #1).

Synopsis

Legend has it that a magical spring lies dormant in the heart of the Khuzar desert. Said to be a gift from the gods, the spring holds the cure to all mortal woes.

As mercenaries from everywhere try in vain to find the mystical spring, 17-year-old Desert Rose is on the run after her chieftain father is overthrown and captured by rebel clans. Now out for revenge, she sets out alone to the Oasis Capital to assassinate the person instigating the rebellion: the corrupt Emperor Zhao, who will stop at nothing to possess the elixir of life from the spring.

To infiltrate the Imperial Guard, Desert Rose must pass a series of trials to test her wit, mettle, and her loyalty. But the real test lies in navigating the cut throat court politics with no ally but a rogue prince and a latent magic stirring in her – magic that can bring a kingdom to its knees or destroy her from within.

Now let’s get into the questions!

Q. How did it all start?

It was really the image of a girl running across the desert on a pitch-black night. I knew she was being persecuted, but I didn’t know why. Why was she running? Who’s after her? Who will she have to leave behind? What will happen to her? With that, I wrote the very first scene of Land of Sand and Song, with Desert Rose fleeing for her life in the desert on the darkest night of the year.

It also started with the notion of a paranoid emperor who would stop at nothing to acquire immortality. The question was then—again—why, and how that affects his governance, and his relationship with his family. Repeatedly asking led me to developing the story and central conflict, a magical spring in the middle of the desert said to contain the elixir of life.

From there, it was a matter of fleshing out the world, creating the other characters and figuring out how their paths (and agendas) would cross.

Q. What books/shows influenced this series?

Sound of the Desert

This Chinese period drama stars Eddie Peng, Liu Shi Shi, and Hu Ge. It’s about a desert girl raised by wolves (played by Liu Shi Shi) who meets a gentle crippled merchant (played by Hu Ge) and a young general (played by Eddie Peng, who is reason enough to watch the show) on her way to Jian An capital (in Han Dynasty China).

There’s no magic or fantasy in the story, which focuses on her experience in the capital, which may sound boring, but the romantic tension between the leads, as well as court politics and General Wei’s battles, is enough to keep the entire story going. (Also, Eddie Peng played General Wei so well it triggered a celeb crush on him.)

Rebel of the Sands — Bookshop.org | Amazon

This YA fantasy trilogy by Alwyn Hamilton is about a feisty desert girl who attempts to escape the dead-end town and gets swept into a war between immortal beings and political turmoil. Along the way, she meets a mysterious stranger trying to forget his own fate and discovers some powers lying dormant in her.

This is hands-down one of the best YA fantasy series I’ve ever read. Sweeping, romantic, epic, steeped in mythology and folklore, with beautifully woven prose and the found family trope. Alwyn is a master. I would read anything she writes.

Scarlet Heart: Ryeo (AKA Moon Lovers)

This is the Korean version of the wildly popular C-drama Scarlet Heart (based on the books by Tong Hua), which needs no introduction. It’s about a girl who time travels into the Goryeo period and tries to stop the rise of a supposedly ruthless emperor, but ends up falling in love with him. Court politics, romance, LOADS of tension in every single scene, and fully fleshed out characters and character arcs. Plus, the cinematography and OST! This is one of the best K-dramas I’ve ever watched.

These were the main influences because they’re just so mind-blowingly good they’re the first that pop into mind every time someone asks me.

Q. Is the Children of the Desert trilogy based on real historical events?

I didn’t set out to write historical fiction. The series is in no way historically accurate. I took lots of creative liberty to create a setting inspired by ancient China, Mongolia and Tibet. Like Leigh Bardugo’s Grishaverse, this world I created is loosely inspired by places and events. I’m too paranoid to write historical fiction, in case some history major comes after my books with a fine-toothed comb waiting to point out the historical inaccuracies.

That said, the seed of the story idea did begin with one emperor’s obsession with finding the elixir of life, and that was inspired by Emperor Qin Shi Huang’s obsession with immortality and Emperor Qianlong’s obsession with jade. The latter I learned about from this book called The Stone of Heaven by Adrian Levy and Cathy Scott-Clark, which is quite possibly the first non-fiction historical book I’ve ever enjoyed so thoroughly. I mean, just look at the prose!

Q. How do you go about establishing your world and its systems?

I knew that I wanted to write about a walled city from the beginning, a kingdom that is very isolated and insulated so that the people have little to no engagement with the outside world and are therefore more easily manipulated. Magic is kept out because the founding emperor was afraid of it, and that fear is how the entire line of rulers keep the people under their thumb and maintain their power. (And of course, a kingdom like this would have a caste system to rank its people.)

All this contrasts with the wild, open desert and its diverse tribes. Desert Rose, who belongs to one of these tribes as the chieftain's daughter, naturally has a free spirit and a hard time adjusting to the stifling and rigid rules of the Oasis Capital. Out in the desert, magic flows like windblown sand, fluid, ever-changing, alive. In the Capital, there is control, order, and oppression.

This embrace versus rejection of magic, freedom versus control, formed the basis of how I structured these two societies.

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More questions on character development, names, romantic subplot, magic system, writing process, and more will be answered in subsequent posts! Let's get this Q&A series rolling. If you have any questions about craft or story, feel free to drop them in the comments or DM me and I'll do my best to answer them all. 

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Interested to read this sweeping romantic fantasy about a desert girl forging her own fate in a treacherous world of court politics and ancient magic? 

Buy the Children of the Desert trilogy: 

#1: Land of Sand and Song — Bookshop.org | Amazon

#2: Kingdom of Blood and Gold — Bookshop.org | Amazon

#3: Empire of Gods and Beasts — Bookshop.org | Amazon

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