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We're taught to fear blood, maybe because it's so often tied to death and gore. In Toronto author Liselle Sambury's Blood Like Magic, blood signifies other
by A.M. Strickland May 18, 2021; Imprint
You had me at “pansexual bloodmage.” With her blue hair, Rovan Ballacra is easily recognizable as a bloodmage. After witnessing her father be executed for refusing to serve the king, she’s hidden her abilities. But when she is forced to use her powers to save a friend, she’s dragged off to the palace, bound to a shade who keeps an eye on her on behalf of the king, and is set to be married off regardless of her wishes. Somehow Rovan must figure out how to break free of the king’s shackles and expose his corruption to the world.
Sambury will publish her first novel,
Blood Like Magic, in June. According to her, it wouldn’t have been possible without the mentorship of Queen’s creative writing professor, Carolyn Smart.
Sambury majored in English at Queen’s and took Smart’s Poetry and Prose course in her third year before gaining acceptance into Advanced Creative Writing where a handful of talented students collaborate on an anthology called
Lake Effect.
“Having the class gave me a dedicated space to really focus on honing my craft and getting better,” Sambury told
The Journal.
“It was good to have that group critique environment. You read your work and then everybody says something about it, and you get that direct feedback. It can be harder to find once you’re outside of the school setting to find critique groups like that.”