Another Inspiring Thought for Writers
Or…Something besides the quotes from yesterday

Other than quotations, just mere settings and images can be inspiring. I bring this topic up for a variety of reasons. One, not everyone has the ability to hop in a car (or on a plane) and travel to some scenic venue like Niagara Falls and watch a fascinating vista until the muse starts scratching his or her nails against the chalkboard of inspiration. Some people have limited mobility, limited income, limited time, etc. So we writers take inspiration where we can. Two, we writers need to support one another in our writing habit. Three, I realize that just reading some nice quotes from famous (or anonymous) people doesn’t trip every writer’s trigger. Four, I find motivation and inspiration to write in almost every subject around me.

I typically have no problem with inspiration because I have Duran Duran’s entire catalog at my fingertips and a host of pictures of John Taylor on my computer. For those of you not obsessed to the point of psychosis with this band (or this fabulous man), you might need something else to get your creative juices stirring.

It will surprise no one who knows me that the So Red the Rose album inspired the Choices Meant for Gods trilogy. I can put that album on repeat in the CD player, light the candles scattered about my writing den, turn on the floor lamp and turn off the overhead lighting, and write for ten or eleven hours into the wee hours of the morning. Of course I listened to many more artists and many more albums during the composition and editing of the first two books, but that was the main one. I think it shows in the moodiness of the text. (And I like that. It works.)

What does it for you? Is it photographs of loved ones? Is it a freshly cleaned, dusted, vacuumed writing space in your apartment/home? Is it a sunny window with a watered and well-tended daisy on the sill? Maybe you’re a music aficionado and you must have Vivaldi streaming in the background while you type. Or maybe you must write the old-fashioned way—with pencil and paper (I have to resort to this practice in the car during rush hour).

So share! Some of your inspiring or motivating practices may help another writer get started in his or her good habit.

“Some days, I just want the dragon to win.”

Tags: Choices Meant for Gods, writing tips, inspiration, Duran Duran

Promotion Tip
Or…The Dragon’s sister sites get a mention next door

My friend Dorothy Thompson, whose name you’ve seen here at The Dragon before, posted an article at her blog Saturday (so you need to scroll) discussing the use of blogs for the characters in your novels. (And I think she's mentioning it again today, but Saturday's has some great info for you writers to check out.) You can visit http://pumpupyouronlinebookpromotion.blogspot.com/ to see the article. But don’t stop there. Dorothy has some other fabulous ideas at her blog to help you promote your writing online.

By the way, Choices Meant for Gods is being promoted at the sister sites of http://AbigailLovesNigel.blogspot.com and http://SandyLender.blogspot.com. These sites are run by Abigail Farrier and Nigel Taiman, respectively, two characters from the Choices Meant for Gods trilogy. I encourage you to check them out to get information you’re not finding here. This is a site that, yes, promotes the book, but is designed to give information to writers—you’re finding grammar tips, writing tips and promotional tips here. You’ll find some scenes out of Abby’s life on AbigailLovesNigel and information about me, the author, at Nigel Presents Sandy Lender.

Tags: Choices Meant for Gods, Sandy Lender, Dorothy Thompson, online book promotion

Word of the Day
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Smarmy (adjective) – Insincere earnestness, smug or self-righteous behavior, having an exaggerated display

Word in a Sentence: In my novel Choices Meant for Gods, Godric’s smarmy welcome of the emperor to his estate is enough to turn everyone’s stomach.

Your turn! Use it in a sentence!

“Some days, you just want the dragon to win.”

Tags: Choices Meant for Gods, Sandy Lender, grammar, word

Great Quotes
Or…What inspires the writer in You?

Inspiration comes in many forms. Wave a picture of John Taylor in front of me and I can write you a 20,000-word romance story in about three hours. (You think I’m joking, don’t you?) Lots of things motivated me during the initial formation of Choices Meant for Gods, but sometimes we need inspiration to do other than write.

Certain quotations through the years have moved me. There’s one that’s gone ’round the ’net with the name “anonymous” attached to it, although someone told me Erma Brombeck (and, yes, I’m sure I just butchered her name) authored it:

Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, chocolate in one hand, rum runner in the other, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming, “woo-hoo, what a ride!”

I had to modify it because the fabulous olives in martinis were migraine triggers for me (doggonit) and I prefer rum runners (for Duran-related reasons that a Duranie can explain to you in depth). Anyway, this quote has become my motto for life.

Another quote I’ve discovered recently that I also want to use for a life motto comes from the unlikely source of Mark Twain (I’m not a fan):

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails.

I like the concept behind it.

What quotes inspire you to write or paint or create in some other way? What words make you pick up your pen (or hit the keyboard) with renewed zeal? Or, you know, what quotes just help you get through a tough day?

“Some days, you just want the dragon to win.”

Tags:Choices Meant for Gods, writing tips, quotations

Word of the Day
Tuesday, February, 27, 2007
Plume (noun) – A feather (usually a large, fancy one for ornamentation) or cluster of feathers for ornamentation or to signify rank or importance; also a structure or form that is featherlike such as a plume of smoke; as a transitive verb the word means to decorate with plumes; or, when speaking about birds, it means to smooth or preen feathers (from Middle English and Old French) (if you want to talk about a small feather, you call it a plumelet)

Word in a Sentence: In my novel Choices Meant for Gods, when Nigel and Henry go to Bellan, they are practically overrun by ladies bedecked in plumes of various colors and sizes.

Your turn! What decorative sentences do you have in you today?

“Some days, you just want the dragon to win.”

Tags: Choices Meant for Gods, Sandy Lender, grammar, word

Writing Conference in Naples
Or…My Sunday

Yesterday I attended the Naples Press Club’s Writer’s Conference specifically to help my publisher move books. (Nigel blogged about this on the blog about me last night at http://sandylender.blogspot.com/.) Choices Meant for Gods is still slated for release in the next couple of months, so we didn’t have copies of it there, but I was still able to help other ArcheBooks authors move some of their books. I also had some fantastic opportunities to share ideas.

An author that I’ve mentioned on this blog before, Linda Bilodeau, who has the novel Stepping Through Seagrass available now, sat with Penny Lauer and me for a while discussing websites and blogs. When Prudy Taylor Board, author of Murder a la Carte, joined us, we came up with a fabulous idea for creating a traveling speaking group called the ArcheBook Divas that will pretty much take over the world by 2009. I will, of course, keep visitors to The Dragon apprised.

I also met a gal named Tina who will be starting her first work of fiction any day now. What’s intriguing about her story is she’s starting by learning the craft; the “rules,” if you will; the marketing and promoting; and what publishers want before she’s written the first word. I was very impressed by that and I hope I get to see her at the conference next year to see how all this technical information affected her writing process.

I also talked about my plans for DragonCon, which you all will hear a lot more about.

The NPC Writer’s Conference is the event where, last year, I met Bob Gelinas of ArcheBooks and gave my pitch for Choices Meant for Gods. That was where I handed him my proposal and synopsis and began the process of begging God to let this man ask for the manuscript. Three days later (oooh, it’s just occurred to me how biblical that was…), Bob requested the manuscript, and about a month later I had the contract to publish my first fantasy novel, which is a story of a young lady who’s been on the run from a madman all her life. When she finally stands to fight, she discovers she’s wrapped in centuries of prophecy that involve her protecting the gods themselves.

Of course I’ll let you all know when the galleys arrive. I will shout it on the mountain.

“Some days, I just want the dragon to win.”

Tags:Choices Meant for Gods, fantasy novel, DragonCon, dragon, Archebooks, Archebooks Divas

Word of the Day
Monday, February 26, 2007
Rambunctious (adjective) – boisterous (from Latin)

Word in a Sentence: In my novel Choices Meant for Gods, Henry Bakerson returns from sailing the Ocean of Meredore and reminds Nigel of their rambunctious and rowdy days as teens in Arcana.

Your turn! Today’s word is a fun one to make a sentence out of so let’s see what you come up with to start off the week.

“Some days, you just want the dragon to win.”

Tags: Choices Meant for Gods, Sandy Lender, grammar, word

Writers Don’t Like to Waste Time
Or…Get the senior citizens out of my way

I’m breaking the cardinal rule of The Dragon: no ranting. But here it is. I’m a writer. I don’t have time to screw around waiting in long lines at the post office, bank, grocery store, pharmacy (yes, I take migraine maintenance medication that has to be refilled and the mail-in plans have been…ah…interrupted…as of late), oil-change shops, etc., because senior citizens who have all day every day to take care of their business are standing in front of me on a Saturday morning.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I like grandparents. Nice folks (usually). But, People, while I’m at work paying your Social Security check, could you go to the post office or the bank or wherever and take care of your business so that the working people can do this business when we’re off work on the weekends?

I’d also like to suggest that members of the retired community find it in their hearts to not drive during rush hour. I think that if you have all day to get to one of the 972 CVS or Walgreens pharmacies located in the city limits of Naples, Florida, well, gee, could you go there during the day? Then you don’t have to plug up rush hour traffic with your Lincoln Town Cars and yacht-size Cadillacs with the locked-in turn signals while those of us paying your Medicare bill are trying to get home to write.

I promise not to rant again for a long time.

“Some days, you just want the dragon to win.”



Tags: senior citizens, Medicare, rant, writing

Word of the Day
Sunday, February 25, 2007
Extenuate (transitive verb) – A long time ago, this word meant “to lessen the strength of something” or “to make something emaciated,” but those meanings have fallen out of use. Nowadays, this word is most often heard in legal connotations such as “extenuating circumstances.” It means “to lessen the magnitude of something,” so you can see how part of its old meaning has carried forward. If you make something appear less-blameworthy for a crime or less guilty of some act, then you extenuate it.

Word in a Sentence: In my novel Choices Meant for Gods, Mia’s sympathy for Nigel’s plight extenuates her actions in hiding his highest crime from the authorities.

Your turn! Been watching any Law & Order lately? I bet you can write a great sentence with this word with a little Sam Waterson (isn’t that Jack McCoy’s actor’s name?) inspiration. Yummy.

“Some days, you just want the dragon to win.”

Tags: Choices Meant for Gods, Sandy Lender, grammar, word

Word of the Day
Saturday, February 24, 2007
Yammer (verb) – to whine, complain in a sniveling, whimpering sort of way or to talk loudly (from Old English geomrian)

Word in a Sentence: In my novel Choices Meant for Gods, Jake Taiman yammers about how unfair it is that he has an arranged marriage with a young girl from far away, until he sees his lovely bride.

Your turn! Know anyone who does this? Man, I’ve worked with some of these folks…

“Some days, you just want the dragon to win.”

Tags: Choices Meant for Gods, Sandy Lender, grammar, word

Writer’s Guide
Character Sketches Part III

In addition to Word of the Day and Grammar Guide, this site for writers includes items that relate to the artistic side of the craft of writing. So we’re doing a series on Character Sketches. If you missed Parts I and II, you can find them in the archives on Thursday, February 8, and Thursday, February 15.

As I pointed out before, sketching out your characters is as important as sketching out the plot of your story (and we’ll talk about storyboarding in an upcoming Writer’s Guide). You need to be intimately involved with the people or creatures who carry your plot. I’ve given you an exercise to learn some of the top momentous events in your characters’ lives and talked about the importance of giving your main characters a good (but solvable) flaw/faulty life view to make him or her relatable.

Now, did you catch that little parenthetical in there? Solvable. You want the character’s faulty life view to be solvable. The flaw or faulty life view of your main character should get solved during the “character arc”. If you don’t solve this by the end of the book/story, ah, well, ah, perhaps an editor can help you rework your ending…

The character arc is the process the main character goes through specifically to solve (a) his or her problems (faulty life view) and (b) to save the day/solve the mystery/finish the plot/save the damsel in distress/banish Lex Luther. You get the idea. In the case of Choices Meant for Gods, Amanda Chariss Derdriu must overcome the fear of being without her wizard and embrace the responsibilities she was born to take on. Now, this doesn’t mean she has to do everything without her wizard at her side. (Good Heavens, Hrazon wouldn’t leave her alone in this battle even if the gods showed up and ordered him to.) But this heroine has tasks to complete that Hrazon can’t do for her, and she must learn independence. This is something the reader can relate to, and, by the end of Book I of the Choices trilogy, she’s completed the first of the arcs she must go through.

What solvable life view did you find in your main character from last week’s Writer’s Guide? Now think of how you plan to solve it by the end of the character’s arc. Share! Let’s discuss this!

“Some days, you just want the dragon to win.”

Tags: Choices Meant for Gods, writing tips, character sketches, character arc

Word of the Day
Friday, February 23, 2007
Rale (adjective) – abnormal breathing sound, could be pathological in nature, an incorrect respiratory sound indicating something is wrong (from Old French)

Word in a Sentence: In my novel Choices Meant for Gods, the rale gasp of the ryfel before it shrieks sends a shudder down Chariss’s spine.

Your turn! Your sentence doesn’t have to be suspenseful; the word can have medical connotations as well.

“Some days, you just want the dragon to win.”

Tags: Choices Meant for Gods, Sandy Lender, grammar, word

You Might Want to Leave Britney Spears Alone
Or…How to annoy your readers with unwanted character developments

We’ll feature another installment of the Writer’s Guide Character Sketches series tomorrow morning here at The Dragon, but I have to make a side note concerning characters and the arcs they go through to fulfill their purpose in a story. And, considering how very much attention Britney Spears has received since she had her head shaved like some kind of G.I. Jane or Ripley’s-Got-An-Alien-Followin’-Her Wannabe, I just had to forewarn you writers of something.

You CAN annoy your readers if your characters do something stupid.

If your character is supposed to go on a quest for self-righteousness (and I’m not implying Britney Spears has been on such a quest), you can’t let this dear, innocent, everyone’s-falling-in-love-with-him-or-her hero (or heroine) suddenly dive off the deep end and have a sordid romp with some two-bit loser in a back alley (and I’m not implying Britney Spears has ever done such a thing). You want your characters to have their surmountable flaws and their moments of crisis, but, wow, you’ve got to keep it in check.

But there’s another lesson from Britney Spears for writers working on character development. Watch closely.

What you do is gradually take a character from Point A to Point B to Point C and so on until he or she reaches the end of the arc at the end of your story. If you want your angelic Charlotte Church to end up in a tattoo parlor with no panties (that’s a guess on my part) and a shaved head, well, you know, just make sure she first marries some guy no one’s ever heard of and helps him make a fool of himself; make sure she has allegations of child neglect surrounding her in the papers for a few weeks at a time; have her walk into gross public restrooms without shoes or socks on; and then have her call up the aforementioned husband while he’s filming a TV show and humiliate him by dumping/divorcing him by cell phone. That’s a class act right there, my writing friends. But what you see is a believable character that’s developing over time. Your audience will come to expect certain behaviors. By the time you get to the beauty salon, the readers won’t be surprised when the character demands the hairdresser get out the razor and buzz away. Your readers will merely shake their heads in despair as this character heads on over to the tattoo parlor. Now, I’m not saying your readers are going to adore this character, but you’ve got a definite pattern of unwanted character development.

And that’s good fiction.

“Some days, you just want the dragon to win.”

Tags:Britney Spears, tattoo parlor, Dragon

Word of the Day
Thursday, February 22, 2007
Sympathy (noun) – Compassion, pity or sorrow for someone’s plight; mutual understanding (from Greek)

Word in a Sentence: In my novel Choices Meant for Gods, Nigel is in sympathy with Jake when their father announces the reason for the emperor’s visit, but he makes no move to stop the plan from moving forward.

Your turn! And you remember the difference between sympathy and empathy from yesterday’s Word of the Day, yes?

“Some days, you just want the dragon to win.”

Tags: Choices Meant for Gods, Sandy Lender, grammar, word

Something Else Writers Love to Do
Or…when you’re not writing…

This topic actually came to me because I have to put gas in my car. There is nothing about that task that I can find peace with. Nothing. I wanted to rant about it, but we don’t rant here at The Dragon. We discuss writing, grammar, Choices Meant for Gods, etc.

SO! In that vein, let’s turn this around. What is something I love doing? (Besides writing.) Holy cow, there’s a list. It includes listening to music, playing I’m-Gonna-Get-Your-Toes with my pet bird, and finding ways to drive my soon-to-be-ex-husband slowly insane with clever little dropped hints of homicidal tendencies. (I can be subtle.)

But who cares about my list?

What’s your list? What do you writers who visit The Dragon enjoy doing in your non-writing time? I mean, even writers have lives (believe it or not) outside of the fantasy and non-fantasy worlds we create for our characters. Give me some feedback here so I can figure out if I’m completely insane or just moderately so.

“Some days, you just want the dragon to win.”

Tags: Choices Meant for Gods, gas, Dragon, writers, fantasy

Word of the Day
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Empathize (intransitive verb) – To feel empathy (empathy is understanding intimately someone or something’s motives or feelings or thoughts, etc.; not to be confused with sympathy – this should be a Grammar Guide, eh?) (from Greek empatheia, passion)

Word in a Sentence: I empathize with Abigail Farrier from Choices Meant for Gods because I, too, have felt the deep yearning for something I cannot have.

Your turn! Who do you empathize with? Now, remember – empathy is deep and emotional, not mere sympathy. And you can see the blog of Abigail Farrier at http://AbigailLovesNigel.blogspot.com. (It is very pink.)

“Some days, you just want the dragon to win.”

Tags: Choices Meant for Gods, Sandy Lender, grammar, word

ISBN Changes
Or…The Dragon wants you to know about the new ISBN for Choices Meant for Gods

At the turn of the year, ISBNs (the numbers used to track books) went from ten digits to thirteen. So! If you possess an original bookmark for Choices Meant for Gods with original artwork by Megan Kissinger, it will list the ten-digit ISBN 1-59507-165-2. That has changed.

The new ISBN for Choices Meant for Gods is as follows:

978-1-59507-165-1

Write it down. Take it with you to Barnes & Noble, Borders, Hastings, Mina Hemingway’s Florida Book Store, The Harry Potter Book Spot, The Children of Hurin Shop Here for Books Store, or wherever you like to look for great fantasy books, and see if the manager can find Sandy Lender’s Choices Meant for Gods yet! Or you could save the gas money and call instead…

We’re still looking at the actual release in March or April, but a pre-order is never a bad thing! Surely you want to be the first on your block to read about Nigel and Chariss and the prophecy that throws them into turmoil in Southeast Onweald!

“Some days, you just want the dragon to win.”

Tags: Choices Meant for Gods, Sandy Lender, Harry Potter, Children of Hurin, fantasy, fantasy books

Word of the Day
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Deliquesce (intransitive verb) – To melt away, to disappear as if by melting (from Latin)

Word in a Sentence: (get ready for it – this one’s hyper-romantic) In my novel Choices Meant for Gods, Nigel wonders if his heart deliquesces within him the first time he sees Chariss bound into his family’s dining room all smiles and excitement from her encounter in the training arena.

Your turn! Do you have something equally obnoxious you can write with our word of the day? Maybe something a little Wizard of Oz for me?

“Some days, you just want the dragon to win.”

Tags: Choices Meant for Gods, Sandy Lender, grammar, word

Word of the Day
Monday, February 19, 2007
Bantling (noun) – I get the impression this is not a very positive word – it means “a young child” but it comes from a German background with a “sordid” history. It starts out meaning “a child begotten on a bench” and that can’t be great, right? It gets around to the German word “bankling” meaning bastard.

Word in a Sentence: In my novel Choices Meant for Gods, Godric and Kora return to Arcana with the bantling wondering how their lives will progress.

Your turn! Can you use this one in a sentence?

“Some days, you just want the dragon to win.”

Tags: Choices Meant for Gods, Sandy Lender, grammar, word

Daylight Time Change Changes This Year
Or…Have you considered your computer settings?

Writers need every hour we can eek out of every day, so when lawmakers change Daylight Time (and Daylight Savings Time) on us, it just makes us think about that obnoxious “loss of an hour” more than we usually would.

Rather than bore you with the usual tripe about why we move our clock hands back and forth every spring and fall (because, really, your news stations and various web sites will use those stories ad nauseam over the next three or four weeks), let me give you the useful info you need concerning this year’s change in Daylight Time’s beginning.

This year, Daylight Time begins March 11 instead of the first Sunday in April. And Daylight Savings Time will begin this autumn November 4 instead of the last Sunday in October. Why?

Legislators passed the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (Pub. L. no. 109-58, 119 Stat 594) in 2005 to help us conserve more energy. This is a laudable goal, and I’m not complaining about that. I recognize the fact that we don’t actually “lose” an hour in the grand scheme of things by “springing forward” an hour at 2 a.m. March 11 because we “gain” that hour back November 4 when we “fall back” an hour. But, oh man, we writers with day-jobs need all the hours we can get! Can I get an amen?

Besides cutting into your writing time this weekend, Daylight Time will pose a problem for your computer clock. Hmm.

See, my settings have always been such that my PCs automatically spring forward an hour at 2 a.m. the first Sunday in April and fall back the last Sunday in October. I’ve always put smart hamsters in those wheels. But this year the hamsters get a new challenge. Did the folks who built my computer in winter ’06 know about the Energy Policy Act of 2005? Chances are good. Will my “Adjust for Daylight Savings Time” feature kick in March 11 only and not again April 1? It’ll be a good practical joke for those cute little hamsters to play on me, eh?

For those of you with computers built behind that curve, you can buy software (ooh, Capitalism at its finest – the conspiracy theorists should be on top of this) to make your life easier. Or, novel concept comin’ up here, you can reset your computer’s clock when you get up March 11. (And you might want to check it April 1.)

Call me old-fashioned.
It’s the dragon in me.

In good news, there are no time changes in my novel Choices Meant for Gods. Chariss doesn’t have to rail at Master Rothahn for reminding her of the loss of an hour of sleep or training time. No one passes a bill dictating when to light the lanterns in Arcana.

And to all you folks in Indiana, aren’t you glad you opted into this last year? ;)

“Some days, you just want the dragon to win.”

Tags: Daylight Savings Time, Daylight Time, Energy Policy Act, Choices Meant for Gods, writing

Word of the Day
Sunday, February 18, 2007
Abeyance (noun) – Suspension, having been set aside for a time; in matters of law, the word means being in a condition of undetermined or unassigned ownership (from Norman French)

Word in a Sentence: The abeyance of the Taiman family’s title set Godric in a foul mood twenty-eight years before the beginning of my novel Choices Meant for Gods; he hasn’t recovered yet.

Your turn! Do you have a good sentence for this one?

“Some days, you just want the dragon to win.”

Tags: Choices Meant for Gods, Sandy Lender, grammar, word

Grammar Guide
Their vs There vs They’re

The easy one to single out of this bunch is the contraction. It’s the one you can “test” in a sentence very easily. If you can substitute the words “they are” for the “they’re” you’re trying to use in your sentence, then you’re doing fine with the contraction. Here is your example.

Nigel and Chariss are the hero and heroine of Choices Meant for Gods. They’re a formidable couple when they team up to fight Master Rothahn’s enemies.

If the contraction doesn’t work out, you’ve got to choose between a possessive pronoun and a locator. The word “their” is a possessive pronoun (as is “theirs”). The word “there” refers to the location of something or someone. Here are a few examples.

Nigel and Chariss combined their skills to kill the dragon.
Is this prophecy scroll theirs?

Chariss set the scroll over there before the dragon materialized in the training arena.

Nigel and Chariss are in there (location). They’re (they are) using their (possessive pronoun) swords to battle the dragon that materialized in the training arena.

(Sandy Lender has been an editor in the magazine publishing industry for fourteen years.)
“Some days, you just want the dragon to win.”

Tags: Choices Meant for Gods, grammar, possessive pronoun, their, there, they're

Word of the Day
Saturday, February 17, 2007
Leman (noun) – A mistress or lover (from Middle and Old English) (There’s also a Leman Lake in Geneva…)

Word in a Sentence: In my novel Choices Meant for Gods, Nigel discovers that his younger brother has taken yet another leman that could sully the family’s name and put the estate in jeopardy.

Your turn! Use it in a sentence!

“Some days, you just want the dragon to win.”

Tags: Choices Meant for Gods, Sandy Lender, grammar, word

Serial Author Didn’t Kill Me!
Or…How The Dragon author stays alive as a soap star

Regular visitors to The Dragon may remember that Jamieson Wolf developed a character for me in his serial novel Hunted at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Hunted/. Believe it or not, I haven’t died yet. In fact, and I don’t want to give away the ending for those of you interested in reading the completed story now, I ended up with a fun role!

Hunted is (was) a suspenseful tale that walks the line between glorifying and mocking those soap dramas we love to hate. You remember Whoopie, Sally, and company in Soap Dish? Okay, you’re on the right track now, but toss in a creepy paranormal element, some blood and guts and gore, some twists and turns, and you’ve got a better idea of what Jamieson has created. The story is complete now, so if you were merely waiting until you had a whole story to read, well, wait no longer. Jog over to the yahoo group and read all 55 scenes before Jamieson dives into his next serial novel, Electric Red, which should be any day…

And if you want a vampire serial novel to read, why, you’ve come to the right paranormal venue, haven’t you? We’re only up to scene 13 in Saving a Vampire from the Summer Sunrise, and you can go to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sandysvampiresunrise/join to click into that group and get caught up. That fun little romp just goes to show that you can’t let life dictate what path you’re on…even if you’re the undead. Nathan and Katy await your arrival.

In other writing news, I don’t have a release date for Choices Meant for Gods to post on The Dragon yet, but we’re still looking at the month of March. I’ll be sure to plaster the news all over The Dragon as soon as I know something. Thanks for checking in!

“Some days, you just want the dragon to win.”

Tags: dragon, Choices Meant for Gods, Sandy Lender, vampire

Word of the Day
Friday, February 16, 2007
Smolder (intransitive verb) – This word is rife with possibilities. It means to exist in a suppressed state or to manifest repressed hate or repressed anger. Can you feel it? But wait…there’s more. It also means to burn with no flame. So imagine this: burning, smoking, repressed hate or anger just feeding inwardly on itself. That’s smoldering. (from Middle English, of course)

Word in a Sentence: In my novel Choices Meant for Gods, Godric Taiman smoldered for twenty-eight years over the actions he viewed as injustices against his person, waiting for the moment he and his accomplice would strike and prophecy would attain his vengeance for him.

Your turn! With a word as laced with intrigue as this one, you’ve got to have some fabulous sentences churning in your brains!

“Some days, you just want the dragon to win.”

Tags: Choices Meant for Gods, Sandy Lender, grammar, word

Writer’s Guide
Character Sketches Part II

In addition to Word of the Day and Grammar Guide, this site for writers includes items that relate to the artistic side of the craft of writing. So we’re doing a series on Character Sketches. If you missed Part I, you can find it in the archives on Thursday, February 8.

As I pointed out last week, sketching out your characters is as important as sketching out the plot of your story (and we’ll talk about storyboarding in an upcoming Writer’s Guide). You need to be intimately involved with the people or creatures who carry your plot. Last week, we went over an exercise to learn some of the top momentous events in your characters’ lives. Today, let’s talk about the things that make your characters real: their flaws.

Woah. Flaws? But, Sandy, my characters are perfect. That’s what makes them heroes!

No. If your character is Little Miss Muffit-Perfect, guess how many readers are going to sympathize with her? Not a lot. She needs a flaw. She needs a problem with her view of life. She needs something that makes her real. She needs something that makes the reader say, “Oh, yeah, man, I’ve done that, I can totally relate!” (Relate is the key word there, by the way.)

In Choices Meant for Gods, Amanda Chariss Derdriu is the lead female character. She’s supposed to save the world (that’s a little tongue-in-cheek, but you get the idea), so she’s got to have a lot of moxie, right? But she can’t be this beautiful, fabulous, sword-wielding Geasa’n with the abilities of goddesses hundreds of years older than her resting at her fingertips all the time. She needs a flaw to make her believable and relatable. Well…she can’t draw worth a darn. She can’t cook worth a darn. She also has this inability to notice a man’s interest when it’s turned completely on her. But here is the flaw that is her faulty life view: She doesn’t believe she can carry the weight of the burdens her birthright places on her without her wizard at her side. Oooh…now THAT’s a good faulty life view. That’s interesting. That’s intriguing. That makes a reader sit up and say, “Woah, I feel that way when I’m alone” or “Yeah, I don’t like it when I have to face such-n-such alone.”

What’s your main character’s flaw? Is it something that the reader can relate to? Does it draw the reader in to make him or her root for your character? Stop and think about it and see how much more depth you can give your main character.

In the next Writer’s Guide, we’ll discuss how to solve that faulty life view.

“Some days, you just want the dragon to win.”

Word of the Day
Thursday, February 15, 2007
Remorse (noun) – Bitter regret; moral anguish over misdeeds; the feeling of deep repentance for misdeeds (the word originates in Medieval Latin and Latin, and, get this word history: it comes from the construction meaning “to bite again”)

Word in a Sentence: In my novel Choices Meant for Gods, Abigail Farrier feels tremendous remorse over missing Nigel Taiman the morning Henry whisks him away to the continent of Onweald.

Your turn! Anyone want to write a sentence about remorse over the 13 billion pounds of chocolate we Americans purchased for Happy Heart Day?

“Some days, you just want the dragon to win.”

Tags: Choices Meant for Gods, Sandy Lender, grammar, word

Update on Choices Meant for Gods
Or…The Dragon welcomes new visitors with information about this blog

Choices Meant for Gods is a fantasy story about Amanda Chariss, a Geasa’n who’s been on the run from a madman all her life—and when she finally decides to stand and fight, she discovers she’s wrapped in centuries of prophecy that involve protecting the gods themselves.

The 170,000-word novel will be released from ArcheBooks Publishing this spring (probably March 2007; it’s in editing right now), and will be available at Barnes & Noble, Borders, Hastings, your local Harry Potter and Children of Hurin supplier, etc. Or you can order it through B&N.com, Amazon.com, or www.archebook.com. Ask for it by title, Choices Meant for Gods, by my name, Sandy Lender, or by ISBN 978-1-59507-165-1.

This site is devoted to not only promoting that book, but to helping writers hone their craft. We feature grammar guides, writing tips, vocabulary words with a twist, and general pop culture information that always has a tie-in to writing or the writing lifestyle (in some misguided way). Basically, this is a blog site that doesn’t rant and rave about the destruction of the universe, but looks at writing and the promotion of writing in a positive light (as often as possible!).

For all you regulars who have been aware of the info above for a while, we’re experiencing some additional traffic these days due to the release of the Valentine’s Day free eBook Love is in the Air, so I wanted to share the cool news about Choices Meant for Gods with those folks. Now, for those new folks, welcome! For my regulars, you can get your free download of Love is in the Air, with a story titled “At Last” by Sandy Lender (please forgive the formatting issues!), “Meeting the Man of my Dreams” by Abigail Farrier, and “To Love a Sea Captain” by Hattie Jenkins, at http://www.thewriterslife.homestead.com/loveisintheair. I recommend it, not just because it’s free, but because it has some clever fiction stories and some soul mate advice articles from syndicated soul mate columnist Dorothy Thompson.

“Some days, you just want the dragon to win.”


Tags: Choices Meant for Gods, Sandy Lender, free Valentine's Day ebook, Harry Potter, Children of Hurin

Word of the Day
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
Misfeasance (noun) – The unlawful execution of an act that is typically all right; performing a lawful act in a manner that is improper – seemed a great word for today

Word in a Sentence: Roberto gave Camilla chocolates and roses with a smile, but she could see through his misfeasance and did not grant him entrance to her chamber.

Your turn! So I downplayed the Law-and-Order nature of the word for the example sentence I gave today…I bet you visitors can do something much better! Bonus points for you if you can work in something about my novel Choices Meant for Gods! He he he.

“Some days, you just want the dragon to win.”

Tags: Choices Meant for Gods, Sandy Lender, grammar, word

Free Valentine’s Day Book of Love Stories
Or…Get a free book of love for your soul mate for Valentine’s Day

Anyone who knows me will find this post laughable. Here’s the punch line: I wrote a romantic story for a free Valentine’s Day eBook that an online writers group put together. It’s a fabulous little collection of fiction (hence my involvement) and how-to/advice articles from the syndicated soul mate columnist Dorothy Thompson. You can download Love is in the Air at www.thewriterslife.homestead.com/loveisintheair.html.

You’ll also find stories from Abigail Farrier (her blog is at http://AbigailLovesNigel.blogspot.com) and Hattie Jenkins. And if you aren’t familiar with those two, well, just wait until March when Choices Meant for Gods is released and you’ll become familiar with them!

Also, this online group is an excellent place to exchange writing ideas, hone your craft, get answers to writing and promotion questions, post snippits of your writing for feedback and constructive criticism, etc. You can check out the group’s page and apply for free membership at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/thewriterslife/. I look forward to meeting you there.

If you go download your free copy of Love is in the Air, please let me know what you think of the story “At Last” by Sandy Lender. I’d also like to hear what you think of “Meeting the Man of my Dreams” and “To Love a Sea Captain” by Abby and Hattie, respectively.

Oh, and have a happy Valentine’s Day!

“Some days, you just want the dragon to win.”

Tags: Valentine’s Day gift, love stories, free Valentine’s Day ebook, Love is in the Air, writing group, Choices Meant for Gods, Sandy Lender

Word of the Day
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
Concupiscence (noun) – Lust! Sensuality, strong sexual desire, any abnormally strong desire (from Latin)

Word in a Sentence: In my novel Choices Meant for Gods, it’s no secret that Nigel’s concupiscence for Chariss rules his actions on her behalf.

Your turn! Now, this close to Valentine’s Day, you should feel quite motivated to come up with a great sentence using this provocative little noun.

“Some days, you just want the dragon to win.”

Tags: Choices Meant for Gods, Sandy Lender, grammar, word

Grammy Awards Results on The Dragon
Or…Can I base a character on Justin Timberlake and not get sued?

Whether you watched the Grammys last night or not, you probably recognize that Justin Timberlake is fabulous. Of course his FutureSex LoveSounds, which is on regular rotation in my bedroom suite, should have won Album of the Year because it rocks the house, Baby. Since we’re in the middle of character sketch discussions in the Writer’s Guides that I’m posting for all ya’ll, here’s my question: Can I base a character in a sequel to Choices Meant for Gods on Justin Timberlake without getting sued?

“Some days, you just want the dragon to win.”


Tags: the Grammys, Grammy Awards Results, Justin Timberlake, Album of the Year, Choices Meant for Gods

Greatest Songs of the Seventies
Meme me, baby

No mocking me, now, but I’m a member of the Barry Manilow International Fan Club (hey, I love the man) and his PR machine (which works overtime, let me tell you) sent me a message late last week inviting me to vote for my favorite thirteen songs of the two-hundred he’d narrowed down from the canon of seventies tunes he could include on his upcoming covers album. Fantastic! I got to weigh in!

I carefully considered which ones I would ABSOLUTELY DIE to hear Mr. Manilow sing, which ones I thought he could market in 2007/2008, and which ones I thought he’d sound great singing, and came up with the list I’ll post below.

But here’s the meme I’m sending out! List your top five songs of the seventies. Yes, I said seventies. What five songs moved you then to such heights that you can still listen to them now if they come on on the Old Fuddy Duddy Station when you’re in the car? This might be easier after I stir your memory banks with my top thirteen list (in no particular order) that I want Mr. Manilow to perform…

Cecilia
Hooked on a Feeling
I’m Not in Love
Imagine
Lady (hopefully the one by LRB)
Pina Colada Song
Silly Love Songs
You Light Up My Life
You’ve Got a Friend
Take a Chance on Me
She Believes in Me
Maybe I’m Amazed
Everything I Own

And here are the folks I tag to answer the meme challenge!
Michelle (M.B. Weston, author of A Prophecy Forgotten, www.elysianchronicles.com)
Tina Murray (author of A Chance to Say Yes, http://achancetosayyes.blogspot.com)
The Author Mike (author of Jessie Remembers, www.freewebs.com/justsaywhat)
Dorothy Thompson (co-author of The Search for the Million $$$ Ghost, www.overthehillchick.blogspot.com)
Jamieson Wolf (author of Garden City, http://www.jamiesonwolf.blogspot.com)
Thingfish23 (http://tamingoftheband-aid.blogspot.com)

Now, this isn’t to say you visitors can’t participate, too. If you’re just stoppin’ by and this tickles your fancy, there’s a comment link just beneath my tagline about dragons winning the day. And you don’t have to come up with five if you don’t want to. No rules for you to adhere to! You can just list one that’s your favorite… And yes, anything off the ’73 release of Houses of the Holy is fair game! Rock on!


“Some days, you just want the dragon to win.”

Tags: music, Barry Manilow, meme