Excerpt:

When the Sandman comes to visit you tonight, you need to listen closely as you close your eyes and drift off to sleep. He will tell you a story that you need to know. As he drops the soft grains of sand and dust once carried by the winds of the Gobi desert, you can hear the sand dunes whispering a bedtime story. It is a tale of the magic that lives in the desert, of buried ancient treasures, vanishing wild camels, forgotten people and the courage of a small unlikely warrior destined to be their guardian.

The story tells us of a mysterious waterless land the shape of a crescent moon surrounded by majestic mountains that guard some of the oldest secrets of all time. The land of wind and sun tells the tale of brave explorers, lost cities, and treasures and fossils buried beneath the golden sand.

Once an ancient inland sea, this desert holds the stories and bones of dinosaurs from eighty million years ago. If you let the desert wind dance across your face, you can hear their stories of how they lived and how they vanished.

The yellow brown dust of the Gobi desert is carried in the winds to spread the story of lands once traveled by Marco Polo who witnessed and heard the strange sites and sounds in the desert, the voices of spirits, the sounds of music, and the distant rumble of soldiers marching in the sand. Mysterious musical sounds rise from the vast dunes to welcome the few that dare to venture by.

The great silk road of long ago, once a busy path between east and west has all but vanished and reduced its remains to myth and lore. The bustling streets, wealthy cities full of gold and jewels and forgotten kings lie submerged in the vast desert waiting for the wind to expose them. Some say faithful desert gnomes guard the hidden treasures below.

The winds dance across the desert dunes hiding Mummies of ancient kingdoms as they whisper secrets so old time has forgotten them. Only the tiny grains of round stones know their stories of long ago.

It is a land few have traveled from beginning to end. There are places that man has never seen, where footprints have never been left behind.

The borderlands are filled with vanishing wild animals, harbingers of fate. The last remaining wild camels on earth live in the Desert of Lop, hiding away from the world of man, waiting for a chosen one to tell their story and change their fate.

They search for the one who has courage enough to venture into the blazing heat, face the sand storms, and who can listen to the haunting sounds of the desert and not be afraid.

The wild camels of the desert challenged the winds to travel the world to find him. A powerful dust storm gathered in the Gobi and the cloud found its way to Alaska and then traveled down the coast. The dust circled the planet once before falling from the sky. The tiny grains of sand once walked upon by ancient warriors and kings found their mark.

In a warm bed, an unsuspecting young boy who could only walk in his dreams awaited his destiny. This is the story of Bradford and his journey to the Desert of Lop. It is a story you must know. Copyright 2004 Dawn Van Zant, Wild Heart Ranch Books