Sandy Lender Stops by The Book Pedler!

Have I got a treat for all of you today!

Many of you will remember the review I wrote for Choices Meant for Gods by Sandy Lender. If you don’t remember the review, you can always read it by clicking right here:

http://thebookpedler.wordpress.com/2007/04/24/choices-meant-for-gods-by-sandy-lender/

The review doesn’t even come close to telling you how amazing this novel is. But I tried! Choices Meant For Gods really re-writes an entire genre, transforming it into something readable, exciting and fantastic. But don’t just take my word for it!

I’ve got a special guest at The Book Pedler today! The author of Choices Meant For Gods herself, Sandy Lender! Say hi to everyone Sandy!

SANDY: Good morning, Everyone. Good morning, Jamieson.

THE BOOK PEDLER: Now, after reading the review, I’m sure the readers know what it’s about. But I always like to hear it from the author’s point of view. Why don’t you tell the readers in your own words what Choices Meant for Gods is about?

SANDY: First and foremost, Choices Meant for Gods is the story of Amanda Chariss and her responsibility to protect a god and save a society from domination by an evil dragon goddess. But there are a few other plotlines going in there. I’m sure you caught onto the romance between Nigel Taiman and Chariss. Well…that’s problematic for a variety of reasons, and those reasons influence the main plot. Then there’s the lovelorn Abigail Farrier over in Bellan who has a conniving streak a mile wide. Then there’s a war brewing. Oh, and there’s a god who’s losing His followers.

TBP: Now I know that a large amount of the novel concerns magic. How did you go about creating a new kind of magic that had never been seen before? Where did the idea come from?

SANDY: This is kind of an odd concept for some folks, but I believe in the Bible where it teaches that sorcery comes from an evil source. Ya gotta be careful with that kinda schtuff. So I didn’t want to write a book where these “good” characters who are supposed to run around saving the day use magic and sorcery for fear that I’d perpetuate the confusion of youth (and some adults) in our society. So I needed to call the power that my characters possess something else. (Yeah, walking a fine line there, but, hey, it’s fantasy and it’s my world, so I just made up what I wanted to.) So I took the concept of the genie, and all the derivatives of that word, and the “gifted” that you see some authors call those who have magic, and I started playing with those words. You’ll see on my blog for the duration of this tour that the Word of the Day each day explains a different fantasy word that I coined or developed for use in Choices Meant for Gods. Well, one of those words is “geasa” and the people who possess it who are called “Geasa’n.” It’s not entirely magic, per se, and its source, in my fantasy novel, is the gods in Mahriket (good).

What’s intriguing is the people who possess the geasa (the Geasa’n) are often shunned because this power is seen as negative by those who don’t possess it. People fear what they don’t understand in all societies, don’t you think? In fact, in my fantasy world, Geasa’n used to be hunted and killed for their difference. The Taiman family was instrumental in changing that mindset. So I’m using the Geasa’n to make a statement, if readers pay attention and catch it, about tolerance and acceptance. I’ve got a press release going out about that subject.

TBP: As well as rewriting the mythology of magic, you’ve also rewritten the mythology of Dragons. How did this come about? I know that you have a certain love of dragons (anyone who visits your blog at www.todaythedragonwins.blogspot.com  is aware of this), but how did you make your dragons in Choices Meant for Gods different and unique?

SANDY: Oooh, we have to be careful here, my villain, or we’ll give away one of the novel’s secrets. Hmmm. I think I’ll leave it at that…if that’s okay.

TBP: You also created your own world for the setting of Choices Meant for Gods, the magical Onweald. How did you go about creating your own land? Did you imagine it all in one piece or did Onweald develop and grow the more you wrote?

SANDY: Building a fantasy world takes a lot of sticky notes. I have a sticky note literally taped to my phone here in my writing den that reads: “Lenors—on the continent to the north” because I cannot for the life of me remember that the Lorens ended up on the south island and the Lenors on Onweald when the lesser goddess Katherine Fair split the Southlands during their civil war 500 years ago.

You see, creating the world for a fantasy cast involves laying out their political system (such as the ofersey’n council that you see meet and crown Darne Wold III in Anthelme), their religious system (such as the gods in Mahriket with the nobility that serves them), their monetary system, their rivers and mountains and oceans, their sky (for instance, there are two suns and two moons), and their history. I have the characters tell a few stories early on in the novel about Tiatha and Jareth Kiev in Pesch Dell returning to the Southlands, about Troilus and Criseyde (which is lifted straight out of Chaucer, by the way), about Hrothmund ending the Second War, about Misha and Minkel (oh, wait, I think I edited that one out for pacing considerations), about Arcana Scheld, for the purpose of giving some history so the reader would be familiar with some of the important aspects of the society that get referred to throughout the novel.

All of these things require notebooks and nicely organized computer files. I have a big desk calendar with an insane amount of notes sticking off of it that say things like “Godric’s confrontation with Chariss” and “Chariss rescues Sorne today.” That calendar also tracks the phases of the two moons in my fantasy world because I need both moons full on the night Kora gives birth in the second book. There’s a pretty special announcement around that birth and the clouds part and the moons shine full on the scene. It’s cool. But it wouldn’t work if I had one of the moons at a quarter phase.

And, last but not least, I have this amazing map that local artist extraordinaire Megan Kissinger created for me. I took her this 8 ½ by 11 piece of notebook paper with the continent of Onweald sketched on it. The major rivers and major cities and mountain ranges were drawn in (poorly) and I asked her if she could make it look real for me. Holy cow did she knock my socks off! This woman is incredible. The end result is in black and white on the interior pages of Choices Meant for Gods and in color ghosted behind the testimonials on the back cover. I’m having posters of it made in color. It’s just amazing. But let me tell you, that map has saved me much searching on more than one occasion. When I can’t remember how to spell a city’s name, or I can’t remember which side of a river it’s on…pow…pull out the map.

TBP: Now, oddly enough, the villain in Choices Meant for Gods shares my name. For the readers who do not know, Sandy and I met through Dorothy Thompson’s fantastic writers group The Writersville Gang.

Sandy didn’t believe me at first that my name was Jamieson as the name of her villain is Jamieson Drake. I assured her, however, that my first name was indeed Jamieson and marvelled myself at the coincidence. What are the chances that someone with the name of her villain would join the writers group? Slim to none, but, as illustrated in Choices Meant for Gods, Fate works in mysterious ways.

Could you tell the readers how you went about choosing Drakes name? Indeed all the characters in your novel have very unique names. How did you go about finding a name that fit each character? How did you know you had the right one when you found it?

SANDY: I guess this is the part where I get to talk about the sexy boys from Duran Duran? Let’s see. First, Jamieson Drake is my veiled attempt at hiding the fact that I am a Jameson Parker fan. “Who?” you ask. Jameson Parker played the role of A.J. Simon on the WONDERFUL tv series Simon and Simon in the early ’80s. He was the blonde with icy blue eyes that drove the arrest-me red Z28 Camaro. Ow.

Now…the other characters’ names stem from a variety of sources. You can get a Duranie to come in here and theorize on Nigel Taiman. Amanda Chariss is so named because of my Barry Manilow obsession. Yep, I’m a freak just all over town. I have adored the song Mandy since I was, oh, 5 years old. So I wanted a character with the name Amanda. What I found interesting was that I didn’t realize that was her name. She’s been Chariss for years. Originally, I called her Sharlee. I cringe just thinking it now because it’s so wrong. Master Rothahn’s name got an extra H put in it one day after I’d been at the book store, picked up some fantasy novel and saw that the character was named Rothan. Doggone! I was so miffed. But I like Rothahn better now anyway. It’s more Anglo-Saxon in appearance with the extra H, and so much of the book is influenced by Anglo-Saxon that it’s more appropriate that way.

Loetha used to be Leeta, but, again, I wanted something that appeared more Anglo-Saxon. Hrazon used to be Razon. Kora is named after a Greek goddess. Jorin is just a name I’ve always loved. Some with Kaylin. There’s a bit character named Charlotte Anne, which is a song by Midge Ure and a nod to the Brontes, in case any Bronte fans are paying attention. Oh, and after chapter 22, all the Bronte fans will be paying attention. Brendan Naegling is named after Beowulf’s sword (not Hrunting that he used on Grendel, but Naegling, the one he used on the dragon). Godric is named after the moron in Old English history who turned tail and fled, leaving Hadrad in trouble. Hrothmund is named after the guy who DIDN’T turn tail and flee, but who stuck it out and ended up giving his life for his king.

I’m sure there are a few other interesting ones that I should mention and I’m just not thinking of them right now.

TBP: How about you tell everyone where they can find you on the web? I know you have several blogs and spots on the internet. Do you think that online promotion is important for new and established authors? What kinds of promotion do you do online to try and get the word out there about Choices Meant for Gods?

SANDY: I have six blogs, but the two I keep up pretty well are www.todaythedragonwins.blogspot.com and http://sandylender.blogspot.com. I think online promotion is important for a variety of reasons including AMAZON. Think about it. With book stores closing every day; with Amazon taking so much of the market share; with approximately 400 titles being released every day vying for space on the shelf at the brick-and-mortar stores that are left, turning to the internet is just logical. For my online promotion, I’m learning all I can about blogging and how to manipulate the blogosphere to get traffic to view my sites and figure out that the person hosting The Dragon is selling a book from a nice little publishing house that doesn’t have money for marketing me. So I’m doing my online book tour from May 21 to July 21 and putting all the resources I can into the venture of telling the world about Nigel and Chariss.

TBP: Thank you so much for stopping by The Book Pedler today,
Sandy. It’s been a blast to have you here!

SANDY: It’s been a pleasure, Jamieson. Thank you for hosting me for the day. I look forward to seeing what comments we get.

TBP: Now, don’t forget to pick up a copy of Choices Meant for Gods. You can get it from Barnes and Noble:

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?z=y&EAN=9781595071651&itm=1  You can also shop online at Amazon to get the free shipping option at  

http://www.amazon.com/Choices-Meant-Gods-Sandy Lender/dp/1595071652/ref=dp_return_1/104-9089752-5140754?ie=UTF8&n=283155&s=books&qid=1175821346&sr=8-1.

And if that’s not cool enough, you can even get the book directly from the publisher’s web site with a 25% discount:

http://www.archebooks.com/BookIDX/Indexes/Fantasy/CMG/CMGDesc.htm

Is there anything you want to leave the readers with, Sandy? A piece of advice or a wise phrase or two? Anything you want them to know before they continue with their day?

SANDY: Some days, I just want the dragon to win.

TBP: Well said! Now, Sandy will be around for questions today. So if you have a question, leave it in the comments section for this post and Sandy will make sure to get back to you!

Thanks for stopping by, Sandy!

SANDY: Thank you, Jamieson. I’ll check in shortly!

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