Look and Listen

Biography

Fantasy Author Sandy Lender began writing stories as soon as she learned to string words together on the page, entertaining the folks in her great grandmother’s apartment building with tales of squeaky spiders and mice picking berries. Awards for short stories and writing projects in high school lead to an interest in journalism, thus she found herself proofreading, editing, and writing for trade publications after she graduated from Truman State University. Now Sandy serves as the editor of a magazine and writes fantasy novels in Southwest Florida where her love of sea turtles and all things related to the Gulf waters keeps her imagination growing. Her debut novel Choices Meant for Gods is available from ArcheBooks Publishing, with the intense sequel Choices Meant for Kings coming soon. You can get more information from her blog at Today the Dragon Wins http://www.todaythedragonwins.blogspot.com.

Inspiration

When it's time to sit down and write, I bring inspiration to mind at a moment's notice: Charlotte Bronte; baby sea turtles; Beowulf in the original Old English; the memory of Grandma reading my spider story to Ruby down the hall; fabulously cheesy '80s music; cold chocolate cake; a shiny new sword; the map my artist friend Megan Kissinger created for the Choices trilogy; the winds of Hurricane Wilma; my teacher Mr. T telling me "nothing anyone writes is every stupid - let me read it"; a good Anglo-Saxon warrior poem; a powerboat ride off the coast of Nassua; Kibby at the Dolphin Research Center; being surprised by a pink and blue flying fish off the coast of Hawaii; the rush of takeoff when you get pressed against the back of your seat; watching a movie where the hero or heroine dies; watching birds pick through seaweed on the shore... I'm inspired by just about anything that makes me sit down and write. Heck, I wrote the first few chapters of Choices Meant for Gods in a mechanic's shop waiting for my tires to get changed and balanced - and there shouldn't be anything inspiring about Goodyear, should there?