Today the Dragon Wins

Problems On Eldora Prime by Sandy Lender

2010-10-24T10:39:00.000-05:00

2010-10-14T07:51:00.000-05:00

A Dragon's Moving Day

Far above the shadowed cave, shafts of light stab down from errant cracks in the mountain. The cavern has become unstable here. In her dream state, she has sensed it.

An observer could hear the smooth scratch of shifting scales. The air moves with the changed rhythm in her breathing. What had once been an uneasy mustiness churns with dust and a fetid, rank meat smell from the moist cavern. She has awakened. She stirs, and a ray of light glances off a patch of onyx scale.

With a groaning of bones she labors to raise her head. The graceful black neck glistens through a shaft of light. The dragon has been asleep for years; only instinct forced her tongue to lash out for the morsels that dared to creep by during her slumber. Now the stink of rotted tidbits offends her as she flares her nostrils at the garbage dotting her bower.

As she drags energy into her muscles she moves a wing for support. This disturbs her treasure-bed. Gold and silver and pretty trinkets cascade from her mound, clanking and clunking to the stones below. The sound is satisfying. Even its echo through the halls of her lair pleases her, but the clutter from sleepy feasting does not. She snorts a vicious blow. Dead things scatter with a clatter, and the lighter of her trophies scratch across the floor. Dust and rocks swirl among them, dinging little clinking sounds.

She’s cleared a path. It’s time for the dragon to move.

Fantasy enthusiasts will find her at http://todaythedragonwins.wordpress.com/.

"Some days, you just want the dragon to win."
Tags: dragon, wordpress, cave, treasure

2010-10-12T18:47:00.000-05:00

What Choices We Made Vol. II Available Now
Or...The Dragon announces another book release...Woo-hoo!

This should be a longer post, but I'm swamped right now. Here's the scoop:
If you're waiting for Book III in the Choices series, the item to tide you over is What Choices We Made, Short Stories from the History of Onweald, Volume II. It's available now, as of today, at Amazon! Check it out now and get your Choices fix, complete with a deleted scene from Choices Meant for Gods and the novella The Influential Love Story of Ella and Rohne.

Enjoy!
http://tinyurl.com/WCWMII

"Some days, you just want the dragon to win."
Tags: What Choices We Made, fantasy, Choices, Amazon, dragons

2010-09-30T19:37:00.000-05:00

Practicing With My Bird
Or...The Dragon has picked out Friday night's scenes

I've selected the scenes for the Oct. 1 reading from Choices Meant for Kings at Archon 34. To make sure I don't bore the audience, I practiced reading to Petri. He loves the attention.

Hope to see you there!
"Some days, you just want the dragon to win."
Tags: Choices Meant for Kings, dragon, Archon 34

2010-09-19T14:24:00.000-05:00

Rate The Dragon

Or...Fantasy Author Sandy Lender placed a preview on CreateSpace for you

In preparation for the upcoming release of What Choices We Made, Volume II (short stories from the history of Onweald), I placed an excerpt from a story in volume one on the CreateSpace site for readers to check out. You can read the excerpt (for free, of course) and rate it. You don't have to answer the questions I provided, but, if you feel like sharing your reading preferences and thoughts with others, the option for that is there, too.

The link for the What Choices We Made, Vol. I preview gives you a chance to rate the dragon!
Have fun!
"Some days, you just want the dragon to win."
Tags: What Choices We Made, fantasy, preview, Sandy Lender, dragon

2010-09-13T21:10:00.000-05:00

Don't Give Caffeine to Dragons
Or...I wrote another novel over Labor Day weekend

For the 33rd annual International 3-Day Novel Contest, I pounded out 40,745 words of a young adult novel titled Problems Above Pangaea Moon. I don't get to tell you any more than that. Savvy visitors will recognize that it "feels" like a sequel to Problems on Eldora Prime, the first novel in the young adult, science-fiction/fantasy series to be released from Night Wolf Publications at the end of this month...possibly mid-October at the latest. Savvy visitors would be correct. Because I've turned the manuscript in to the admins at the 3-Day Novel Contest offices, I have to pretend my manuscript no longer exists until they announce winners of the contest in January.

I don't hold out a lot of hope for this year's entry. I drank two 2-liter bottles of diet Pepsi and a large ice cafe latte from Dunkin Donuts while typing those 72 hours. That's an awful lot of caffeine for someone who hasn't had caffeine (doctor's orders) for about 15 years. Desperate times call for desperate measures.

It was a long weekend complete with a 20,000-word day Saturday, a power outage Sunday afternoon, and a friend's visit to the emergency room Monday afternoon. I had quite a time of it trying to type amid the interruptions and the crazed dash to the store for stray food and the aforementioned Dunkin Donuts coffee. Somehow, Problems Above Pangaea Moon finished itself Monday afternoon and editing went fairly well into the night hours. I printed it out well before the midnight deadline and mailed it (with a witness statement) during the week.

Now we wait. All several hundred of us writers that put ourselves through the marathon of typing death...wait. :)

"Some days, you just want the dragon to win."
Tags: 3-Day Novel Contest, science fiction, fantasy, Problems on Eldora Prime, Night Wolf Publications, caffeine, dragon, Labor Day

2010-08-28T21:31:00.000-05:00

Word of the Day
Or...The Dragon visits an old practice

Remember when I used to post a Word of the Day each and every day? It was time-consuming and laborious for me. I stopped after...what...a year? Year and a half? I can't remember now how long I tortured myself. Today, while unpacking boxes in the den, I found notes and passwords and hand-written blog topics from eons ago. One of them: a Word of the Day entry.

I kid you not.

So here it is! A blast from the past...

Seethe (verb): to be agitated greatly, to be excited violently, to churn and roil and foam up (from the Old English seothan, with a long mark over the e)

Word in a Sentence: In the epic fantasy novel Choices Meant for Gods, Godric Taiman seethes like a petulant child when Master Rothahn taunts and antagonizes him.

Your Turn! This is the interactive part. YOU click on the "comment" link below and type a sentence of your own with the word "seethe" in it. We want something clever and cranky, of course! All the writers visiting the blog should put your best foot forward. All the readers visiting the blog should show us up. Seethe the day! (I couldn't help it. I'm posting this after a very full 17-hour day on 6 hours of sleep. And I'm not allowed to have caffeine. Imagine...)

"Some days, you just want the dragon to win."
Tags: Word of the Day, Old English, fantasy novel, Choices Meant for Gods, seethe

Roger Taylor Band Update, August 2010

2010-08-17T13:04:00.000-05:00

A Duran Duran Update
Or...The Dragon shares Duran Duran news because it's always good to do

For the Archon blog, see the next post. :)

"Some days, you just want the dragon to win."
Tags: Duran Duran

2010-08-14T17:33:00.000-05:00

What Would You Like Fantasy Author Sandy Lender to Read at Archon34?
Or...pick your favorite scene(s) from the Choices Trilogy

Fantasy Author Sandy Lender will do a few things with/for/at Archon34 in St. Louis this Oct. 1-3, 2010. One of those "things" is a reading. Back when I had only one novel out, I had a pretty easy time picking scenes for these readings. Now...not so much.

So weigh in with your faves. What scene(s) from Choices Meant for Gods, Choices Meant for Kings, or What Choices We Made (vol 1) would you like me to read at Archon? Or should I throw caution to the wind and read something from the soon-to-be-released Problems on Eldora Prime? (Glenn Cook will have copies of Problems on Eldora Prime at his booth in the dealer's room.)

"Some days, you just want the dragon to win."
Tags: Archon 34, St. Louis, fantasy, Sandy Lender, Problems on Eldora Prime

Jeff Dunham Achmed's "Jingle Bombs"

2010-07-08T17:53:00.000-05:00

Look...It's Christmas in July
Celebrate, laugh, get inspired, write a poem, but be sure you laugh

"Some days, you just want the dragon to win."
Tags: Christmas in July

2010-06-26T15:32:00.000-05:00

Realms Of Fantasy
Or...The Dragon needs her fantasy fix

I've got to get my hands on the August issue of Realms of Fantasy magazine. My copy hasn't arrived yet. The town where I live (Retirement Village, USA) doesn't have it in stock in the book stores (imagine what it's like getting my books stocked here). So I'm DYING to see the fabulous review ROF reviewer Matt Staggs gave Choices Meant for Kings in print. Eegads. I'm gonna need a sedative.

You can see the review in downloadable digital format if you order your copy of the August issue here: http://www.rofmag.com/subscribe/buy-kindle-or-pdf-realms-of-fantasy/

Or you can go to a book store in your normal town and get the print copy off the rack.

I also encourage you to sign up for a subscription. ROF had a scare with going out of print about a year ago (welcome to the world of magazine publishing in a nutshell). Luckily, there were folks willing to step in and carry on the publication. They're doing well with editorial and advertising, but the bad PR of "we're out of print" led to a steep decline in subs. That's not so good. So if you're on the http://www.rofmag.com/ site, please go ahead and get yourself a subscription to have the mag mailed to you. It's bimonthly, so you're only committing to reading good stuff six times a year...not a huge time commitment on your part...but good stuff to read. And, hey, you'll get announcements when my new fantasy books get released. ;)

In the meantime, please look for that fab review of Choices Meant for Kings!
"Some days, you just want the dragon to win."
Tags: Realms of Fantasy, review, fantasy books, Choices Meant for Kings

2010-06-08T06:02:00.000-05:00

Inspiration From Sound and Music
Or...The Dragon offers a writing prompt of a different kind

A friend in one of my online writing groups had this single YouTube link for a signature. Curiosity got the better of me...and I'm so thankful. I'm sharing the fruits of my labor/click with you.

"Some days, you just want the dragon to win."
Tags: music, writing prompt

2010-06-01T17:49:00.000-05:00

Can I Lie Some More?
Or...The Dragon needs some suggestions for excuses to offer

Many fans have been requesting--nay, demanding--the third book in the Choices trilogy. While I would be delighted to spin this baby out next week, that just isn't going to happen. So while production items take place (editing, testimonial-gathering, early-review gathering, test reader reports, etc.), I need a list of "Excuses Why Choices Made for All isn't Out Yet" to offer to fans, family, and friends.

Any ideas for me? Computer crises are always great excuses, but they often require special code talk. A programmer could spot my lie a mile away if I don't phrase it just right... ;)

While waiting for Book III, I encourage you to pick up (or download for your Kindle) Choices Meant for Gods and Choices Meant for Kings to get yourself caught up on the series!

"Some days, you just want the dragon to win."
Tags: Choices trilogy, Choices Made for All, excuses

2010-05-27T19:56:00.000-05:00

Color My Dragon
Or...The Dragon discusses the importance of proper dragon coloring

Back when I was in high school, my dad gave me a book called What Color is Your Parachute? It was one of those self-help guides to help you figure out what you want to do with your life/career.

As a fantasy author, I use the concept when coloring dragons. You see, it drives me batty when authors put a couple dozen dragons together in a grouping, and then “color” them according to their jobs or skill set. This is insanity. A dragon should be colored according to its locale and climate so it blends into its environment. Camouflage equals long life, my friends. This is part of world-building.

Take our real-world dragons as examples. The water basilisk hides amid floating leaves and branches. He blends because he’s green and brown.

Bearded dragons have the colors of the sandy environments in which they live. Green iguanas hide their green bodies in green trees. Rock iguanas lounge their gray, brackish bodies among the dark rocks of the Galapagos. There are tons of examples of lizards using camouflage to avoid becoming prey items.

Those big ol’ dragons in our fave fantasy novels need to avoid slayers in much the same way. Green ones in the green trees; brown ones in the rocky mountains; white ones in the snowy regions. These dragons may get different jobs and skill sets, but would they all live together? Not if they come from different regions, right? In Choices Meant for Gods and Choices Meant for Kings, readers’ favorite dragon Malachi is dark in color—purple, deep blue and black scales blend beautifully against the dark night sky. And guess what: He only comes out at night. It works.

So let me hear your opinion. What colors do you tolerate in the dragons you read about?

“Some days, you just want the dragon to win.”
Tags: fantasy, dragon, world-building, Choices Meant for Gods, Choices Meant for Kings, water basilisk, iguana

2010-05-21T07:36:00.000-05:00

I Mostly Tell the Truth!
Or...The Dragon comes clean

So for my Creative Writing blog award...I told six truths and one lie. And #6 was the lie. Mysti Holiday and Jane Sutton guessed correctly. How did you guys know? :)

Yes, I got my writing contracts on my own. The publishing business is bizarre...

The adorable dolphin encounter happened through a supervised swim with The Dolphin Research Center on Marathon. I don't recommend going out and disturbing a pod of dolphins on your own. :)

Also, the gentleman who dreamt of Julette chasing him...totally true. He's around here somewhere...

I'll post some more fun stuff as the weekend gets under way. I post different stuff at my facebook page, if you're interested. http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Fantasy-Author-Sandy-Lender/217343885021?ref=ts

Enjoy your Friday!
"Some days, you just want the dragon to win."
Tags: lies, Dolphin Research Center, publishing business

2010-05-16T23:55:00.001-05:00

The Bald-face Liar Award

Or...The Dragon is asked to display those creative writing talents

The lovely and snarky Rowena Cherry nominated me for the Bald-faced Liar (or Creative Writer) Blogger Award. The rules are that I tell either six lies and one truth OR I tell six truths and one lie about myself. You get to figure out which I’ve done…and which statement is a lie OR which full, complete statement is a truth. Leave a cute little comment to tell me what you’ve decided!

I nominate the following bloggers for this high-society award:

Jamieson Wolf’s Jamieson Wolf Blog

Jane Kennedy Sutton's Jane's Ride
Penny Ehrenkranz's One Writer's Journey
Sarah Handleman
Jo Linsdell's Writers and Authors Blogspot
Laura Crawford Greetings from the Polebarn
Judy Dorsman's Kids and Dogs

And here are my statements:
1. While vacationing in the Florida Keys several years ago, I swam with a pod of adorable dolphins where two crowded in for the chance to kiss my cheek.

2. When I first started taking anti-seizure medications to control migraine frequency and severity, various items like cars would randomly disappear from my field of vision.

3. A couple summers ago, I joined a group of sea turtle volunteers to seek out disoriented sea turtles, ultimately finding one climbing up a curb to a basketball court.

4. While in the hospital at age 38 for a hole in my esophagus during radiation treatments for tumors, inattentive nurses allowed blood clots to form around an I.V. they left in my arm for too many days.

5. A father of teens in the Midwest reported having nightmares that one of the characters from my novels was chasing him with “evil” intent.

6. Literary agents have been indispensable in my publishing success, helping me get my first contract and assisting in submitting stories/manuscripts for subsequent contracts.

7. The first convention at which I spoke in front of an audience had nothing to do with fantasy or creative writing, but was an asphalt paving conference and expo.

So what do you think? Let me know!
“Some days, you just want the dragon to win.”
Tags: lies, creative writing, Rowena Cherry

2010-05-07T14:54:00.001-05:00

Top 5 Phone Messages Sandy Has Left For Friends
Or…The Dragon suggests how to get DNA from members of Duran Duran…

Get to know your fantasy author, Sandy Lender, a little better! It states in my bio that I’ve been obsessed with the rock group Duran Duran since about 1984. This is true. Here are some phone messages I’ve left for friends to illustrate the point.

5. What are you doing… (This is a frequent message followed by a specific date and the instructions to return the call immediately. The receiver of the call usually hyperventilates because it means Sandy is inviting the individual to a Duran Duran-related event on the specific date left in the message.)

4. Guess where I am! (Depending on the level of excitement and the pitch of Sandy’s voice, this usually involves a Duran Duran event.)

3. We are about to meet the band! (This is always enunciated very clearly and usually means Sandy is with Jennine or Christine—or both—and the universe is shuddering in a way that causes an earthquake in the eastern hemisphere while Sandy and her accomplice(s) stand outside a VIP room door where various members of Duran Duran await certain chaos.)

2. John Taylor gave me the flu. (Sandy said this one with entirely too much joy before puking.)

1. I have John Taylor’s DNA inside me! (This is an honest-to-God message that doesn’t imply what you think it does—it merely means Sandy got the rock star’s barely used water bottle after a concert and, of course, drank from it.)

Do you leave strange messages for your friends? Whether it’s stalker-related or not, there are probably funky traditions you all have. Share!

"Some days, you just want the dragon to win."
Tags: Duran Duran, fantasy author, DNA, John Taylor

2010-04-24T17:10:00.003-05:00

Overplay it Again, Sam
Or…The Dragon finds an “old” gem from Pearl Jam to share today

(First, seriously, what is a yellow ledbetter? Isn’t it a car? Someone will have to comment and remind me.)

Yellow Ledbetter was released back in the ’90s and went into instant overplay on every radio station worth listening to in the Kansas City area where I lived. Strangely enough…I was thrilled by that. I loved the song then, and, apparently, still love the song. Pearl Jam is a group that I can enjoy, but I can’t find any of their albums on my shelves (bizarre…I think those went with the ex in the blessed dissolution of the marriage).

I never could understand exactly what Eddie Vedder was singing in those lyrics, and I’ve not taken the time to look it up. Anyone want to post it in the comments for us? But that didn’t matter to me. It was the feeling with which he sang that got me. (That and the kickin’ guitar solo.) I just love the song. I don’t have to know what he’s saying. It’s like listening to something lonely and heart-wrenching in another language in some parts…and I want to hear it again no matter how often I hear it.

You know how some songs get played 49 times a day on one station and 53 times a day on another station, and you hear them all 102 times? Thus you grow to despise the song. You hear it in your head when you close your eyes to sleep that night and you curse the silence for allowing the track to play. You try to drown it out by humming some nursery rhyme you learned as a child. Or you turn on the clock radio to replace it with whatever’s on only to discover Time #103 is in progress. When this was taking place for Pearl Jam’s Yellow Ledbetter, I was pleased. I was delighted each time a radio station pumped it across the airwaves. When it slowed in rotation, I was disappointed. Of course, I think that took about 14 or 16 months…

Fast forward to April 2010 and I’m in my car in Southwest Florida where most radio stations suck wind. (I feel moderately qualified to make such a statement because I’m a licensed DJ.) Luckily, there’s one station called “Bob” that plays a pretty wide variety of music with minimal talk and I can tolerate that. As soon as I can afford the upfront lump cost of Sirius, I’ll spring for it, but, geez, there are so many more important things to spend my money on right now. (Book marketing being at the top of the list. Hospital payments being second. Food being third. Priorities, folks. He he he.) So while listening to Bob on my way to a doctor appointment that was going to take money from that third priority category the other day, I heard Yellow Ledbetter. I was thrilled. I made a mental note to add it (for a whopping 99 cents) to my iTunes.

Now my birds are learning what “overplay” means.
Read more about my quirks at my dragon Web site.

“Some days, you just want the dragon to win.”
Tags: book marketing, Pearl Jam, Eddie Vedder, Yellow Ledbetter, overplay, Sirius

2010-04-21T22:43:00.000-05:00

Gangstagrass Moves Me
Or...The Dragon suggests watching what Hollywood's up to

Wanna know what literary agents are looking for at any given time? What are they trying to sell to editors for the next literary trend? Take a look at the television set. Hollywood tends to hit it before the books do. I'm rather interested in a fella with an itchy trigger finger showin' up for the U.S. Marshall's office in some backwater town he doesn't wanna be in with this fabulous gangstagrass theme song:

Just because FX has taken a chance on a season with Justified, does this mean all the big New York publishers will be churning out cowboys in the midst of forensic evidence and computer devices? Hopefully not. This one works and it's enough.

It's not really my cuppa tea.

Although that Timothy Olyphant is.

I prefer spaceships. But I confess to liking my spaceship captains with six-shooters (or plasma-shooters, if you prefer) in holsters at their hips. Ala Captain Tightpants from Firefly. Mmmmmm. Would Joss Whedon have let Rench and T.O.N.E.-z do his theme song if SyFy had picked up the series for another run?

"Some days, you just want the dragon to win."
Tags: Justified, Firefly, gangstagrass, literary agents, New York publishers, Timothy Olyphant, Joss Whedon, spaceships

2010-04-16T14:50:00.000-05:00

Did You Know Armadillos Are Considered Pests?
Or...The Dragon has found another cute nuisance animal to adore

I've only seen one armadillo alive in the wild. I typically see them mooshed at the side of the road. This fills me with sadness.

So I wondered, what attracts an armadillo? How could I get one to "hang around" the apartment complex and get free handouts from my door?

Turns out, that might not be so grand. Just because I never see them in the wild doesn't mean other folks don't. They're considered as "unfavorable" to some folks as racoons, opossums, bats and so forth. Now here's the rub: I like bats. I like 'possums. When I lived out in the estates (Golden Gate Estates for those of you not familiar with Southwest Florida--yes, that's part of the Everglades), I had a bit of property that was bordered by weeds and swamp and more weeds. I loved it. So did the wildlife. A friendly 'possum came to visit one evening and I was in Heaven. I set out some leftovers for him and he was in Heaven, too. Guess who came back to visit the next night.

So being a fantasy author with non-traditional pets must lead to diggin' non-traditional wildlife. Sure, I'm a sucker for the usual bunnies and Cardinals, but I don't shy away from snakes or frogs. (Until I learned that the snake I'd set up a hide-away for on my aforementioned property was a freakin' water moccasin. He'd never been aggressive toward me so I had no clue those shiny black scales spelled trouble. I never got bit, but the bunny population decreased mightily.)

All this to say, I wish I could attract an armadillo, but I think I'd get in trouble. Here's the question: Should I do it anyway just to get even with the apartment management for making me live with roaches for the past six months? I'll lead the armadillo away to a nice, armadillo-safe place when they solve the roach problem that my cute, fat lizards can't stay on top of. ;)

http://www.aaanimalcontrol.com/blog/armadillobait.html

"Some days, you just want the dragon to win."
Tags: armadillo, lizard, dragon, fantasy author

2010-04-06T12:02:00.000-05:00

When is on Online Story Considered Already Published
Or...The Dragon answers a common publishing question

I participate in a variety of online writing groups. Several times a month I see a variation of the question "Can I post my work on my blog and still ask a publisher to accept it later?" The answer depends on whether or not your blog is available to the public. Most publishers aren't interested in accepting work that has already been published and made available to the masses; therefore, publishing your masterpiece online is not a wise move.

If you have a short story to tease readers and build an audience with, by all means, post that on your blog. (Do not expect publishers or magazine editors to have an interest in it later.) If you have a single chapter or a single scene out of your WIP that you'd like to tease an audience with, by all means, post that on your blog with directions on how to order the rest of the novel that a publisher has made available on Amazon or B&N, etc. But if you have an entire work that you'd like to make available, I advise posting it in a manner that is password-protected. By limiting the audience to a fan group or password-protected section of a Web site, you make publishers feel better about buying the material later.

I have a fun-n-frisky paranormal romance novel set in Naples, Fla., that I'm posting in an invitation-only YahooGroup called Sandy's Vampire Sunrise Group. I have the serial novel "hidden" there so my fans can read and enjoy the story (for free), but the publisher can still publish the thing later in the year with no worries. Of course, the published version will have edits and fixes and improvements, but the raw story is doing its job of keeping fans entertained and laughing for the summer.

If you'd like to get in on the fun and read a free (and fun, spooky, tense, humorous) story, do the deed below.

Enjoy!
"Some days, you just want the dragon to win."
Tags: vampire, publishing, online, blog, paranormal romance

2010-04-04T07:33:00.000-05:00

Can You Deduct a Speeding Ticket as a Writing Expense?
Or…The Dragon answers your burning authorial tax questions

I’m not really going to answer a lot of tax questions here. April 15 is not my favorite day of the year for the simple reason that it stresses me out and typically sees me writing big ol’ checks to the Federal government and the state of Missouri. Here’s the part where visitors to the blog start to care.

On my way up to Pensacola the other weekend for the GCCRW Silken Sands Conference, I drove like a banshee. I’m not a patient person. At one point, while keeping up with traffic, I sat pretty much on the tail of a slowpoke in the left lane in hopes of encouraging him/her to move over or speed up. (Behind me, another driver did the same.)

Now, I have a fantastic car. A 2008 Dodge Charger. Check that gorgeous picture!

The front end looks like it’s snarling in your rear view mirror. It’s solid. It has that “move over or I’ll push you out of the way” look to it. But not everyone responds. (I’ll be investing in a push guard when my tax refund arrives.)

While sitting on this guy’s bumper, I let my thoughts drift or something, because I looked in my rear view mirror to see a police vehicle on my tail.

Doggone.

I figured I better move over. I also wondered who he was pursuing if the six or seven of us driving aggressively at 80+ mph in a pack weren’t of interest to him. I recently read an article that claimed cops are lowering their tolerance for speeders due to the recession. The supposed 8 to 10 miles over the speed limit that drivers can typically get away with when roaring past a speed trap is ratcheting down, according to the report.

I don’t recall the article offering a “safe” speeding range. If you ask an officer of the law, I’m sure he or she will tell you no speed over the posted limits is “safe.” (The limits are set for a reason. It’s not arbitrary.) The idea is that more written tickets for more speeders means more revenue for the counties in which the law-breakin’ takes place. There were statistics to back it up. And I have to say, considering crime is up and driving is down (both due to the recession), having the number of citations awarded in a county during the month of January triple in 2010 compared to 2009 says something for the officers’ focus.

As luck would have it, the officer tailing the little pack in which I sped along I-75 North a couple weeks ago hadn’t received the memo and I made it to the conference sans citation. Woo-hoo!

The mileage I incurred driving to the conference and the hotel cost while there will be tax deductions when working on my 2010 taxes because the “book writing business” is a business and not a hobby. As a writer, if you can prove that your business is just that, you can write off your expenses. But if your writing is still a hobby, don’t try to pull a fast one on the IRS. Can you say “audit?”

I went to H&R Block for my taxation worries this year. This is the second year that I’ve had mega fear about taxes. The year before the divorce was the first of “abject fear” because of someone else’s lapses in judgment/recall pertaining to deductions and responses. I ended up filing separately that year rather than relying on the Innocent Spouse Rule to protect me in the future. This year I felt the need to claim book income, even though Choices Meant for Gods and Choices Meant for Kings didn’t take me to the Federal income level required before reporting it (bummer, eh?) because my expenses were fairly substantial and I anticipate some changes in the coming months.

So there’s the quick-n-messy taxation discussion for this writer: a tax preparer who’s got my back helped me file a Schedule S form with my schtuff this year. I’m even getting a little something back from the Feds, which I’ll use to pay off a hospital bill. And I don’t have speeding tickets to try to find a spot on the Schedule S for.

“Some days, you just want the dragon to win.”
Tags: taxes, writing expense, taxation, tax questions, Schedule S, H&R Block, audit, Innocent Spouse Rule, April 15, Dodge Charger, refund, speeding ticket, citation, mileage

2010-03-13T19:25:00.000-05:00

Lamborghinis and Health Insurance
Or…aspiring to greatness with the writing career

Some day, I hope to have enough money to afford both medicine AND food at the same time, and I’d like to be so comfortable as to be able to afford a Lamborghini. But I’ll spend the $230,000 on something more sensible...even though I sure like those sexy cars.

Here’s the scoop. While going to Walgreen’s this afternoon, I saw a dark blue car hidden at the back of the parking lot behind a row of bushes. Wait. I’m sorry. Did I refer to him as a car? I mean to say, I saw a gleaming, sparkling, electric-blue hunk of steaming metallic sex behind a row of bushes. I turned around to take a look at this, as two other drivers did. One guy got out of his car to take a picture of this gorgeous piece of automotive orgasmic beauty. It was the most beautiful Lamborghini I’ve ever seen. I’ve seen red ones, yellow ones, and one very odd lime green one before. Today…I saw Heaven.

Strange how “reality” works.

I went from staring at the ultra-expensive and gorgeous dream car to standing at the pickup window in Walgreen’s where I thought, “I live on the edge.” Edge I tell you. Edge because my prescription cost $50.11. I had exactly $50.84 in my bank account. That, my friends, is God’s provision. My health insurance saved me $60.88, so I’m pretty darn thankful for Blue Cross/Blue Shield once again. And I’m not going to be getting a Lamborghini anytime soon.

Of course, if you’d like to contribute to the Sandy's Dream of Medicine AND Food fund, I totally encourage you to stop by Amazon and order your copy of either Choices Meant for Gods or Choices Meant for Kings or What Choices We Made. Bwuahahahahaha.

“Some days, you just want the dragon to win.”
Tags: Lamborghini, metallic sex, health insurance, prescription, reality, amazon

2010-03-09T11:52:00.000-05:00

Read Digital Literature This Week
Or...it's Read an eBook Week

March 7 through 13, 2010, is Read an eBook Week, and those of us who have novels released in eBook format (and print) are out reminding the world to give an eBook a try. This isn't just because we want you to buy our books (although, yes, that's important for the numbers our publishers see), but it's also because eBooks kill even less trees than the print on demand (POD) format. I think the makers of electronic devices probably have a hand in this week as well...but you'd have to dig to find their involvement. Oh! Wait! One of them is sponsoring it! Mwuahahaha.

Okay, all kidding aside (and you can tell THIS isn't the official marketing stuff the "Read an eBook Week" site sent out), ArcheBooks Publishing HAS released Choices Meant for Gods and Choices Meant for Kings on Kindle in addition to hardcover, so I'm pretty stoked to support the non-dead-tree format of books as well as the traditional, normal, I-love-to-hold-a-book-smelling-book-in-my-hand format of books. So I encourage all ya'll to read an eBook this week, whether you already have one of those mega-expensive devices or not.

How can this be done?!?!?

Most eBooks are available in a format that can be read on your computer screen as well as your smart phone as well as your handy dandy eReader device of the hour. Including mine! You can either purchase the fabulous downloadable pdfs of Sandy Lender's novels direct from the publisher or at Amazon. But here's the thing: This is not an ad for Fantasy Author Sandy Lender. This is an ad for all eBooks everywhere. There's a Kindle store on Amazon. Most publishers have their authors' books available for pdf download. B&N has a nook section. Check this stuff out!

Read an eBook this week!
Crazed sermon over.
"Some days, you just want the dragon to win."
Tags: eBook, Kindle, nook, pdf, fantasy, Sandy Lender, amazon, POD

2010-03-03T14:33:00.001-05:00

Come See Me in Ft. Myers This Weekend
Or...The Dragon suggests ways to meet up IRL or online

Are you a member of the facebook community? Find Sandy Lender there and make her a friend.
Are you a professional looking for networking connections on LinkedIn? Try www.linkedin.com/in/sandylender for magazine, book and roadbuilding networking.

Or maybe you just want a good book to read. You're covered. You can meet Fantasy Author Sandy Lender this Saturday from noon to 4:30 at the Saturday Art Fair at Patio DeLeon in downtown Ft. Myers, Fla., where she'll be autographing copies of Choices Meant for Gods, Choices Meant for Kings, and What Choices We Made. Put 1520 Hendry Street in your GPS and come on down. Sandy will be sharing a table with Science Fiction Author Henry Hermann.

If you'd prefer a Kindle edition of Sandy's novels, hop over to these links. Choices Meant for Gods and Choices Meant for Kings and you can download them within seconds. There's also a blog touting this hardcover and Kindle information today at Fantasyn. It'll provide links back to the hardcovers on Amazon, which you can find just as easily here and here.

Hope to see you Saturday in Ft. Myers!
"Some days, you just want the dragon to win."
Tags: fantasy, fantasy author, Sandy Lender, art fair, ft. myers, kindle, amazon

Cr Tue Sandy Lender Slides

2010-03-02T09:35:00.001-05:00

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

Cr Tue Sandy Lender Slides

View more presentations from Sandy Lender.

2010-02-27T19:44:00.000-05:00

Speaking Engagements as Marketing Avenues
Or...The Dragon applauds Denver Bronco Karl Mecklenburg's author effort

I went to Colorado for the day job late last week to attend the Colorado Asphalt Pavement Association's big annual event. Former All-Pro captain of the Denver Broncos, Karl Mecklenburg, gave the keynote address to the crowd. As a smart marketer, he stuck around to sell copies of his sports-motivational book Heart of a Student Athlete.

Now, folks who have visited this site before know that I go around speaking on marketing, blogging, and writing; giving workshops and offering all the tips and advice I can. But I'd like to reiterate how important public speaking is for getting your name out there as an expert. It's the way to build your platform. Etc. I'll be talking about online marketing specifically at the NPC Writers' Conference April 10 through 11 in Naples, Fla., and encourage folks in Florida to check out the conference offerings and sign up early.

"Some days, you just want the dragon to win."
Tags: author, Karl Mecklenburg, Denver, platform, online marketing, NPC Writers Conference

2010-02-21T10:59:00.001-05:00

Introductions All Around

Or...The Dragon welcomes everyone

Fantasy Author Sandy Lender participated in the SWFL Women's Expo yesterday, Feb. 20, and met an astounding number of friendly faces. What a delight to be among so many kind people and to speak with so many who love to read. Quite a lot of my literature about my novels Choices Meant for Gods and Choices Meant for Kings includes my blog address, which brings you here. But my Web site address is so new that it's hidden on stickers and added at the end of flyers and bookmarks. So if you'd like to visit a site with my bio (entertaining, I have to say) and free excerpts to read from my novels and short story compilation book, do check out http://www.authorsandylender.com/ when you have just a moment. It's gorgeous. The woman who designed it for me is phenomenal at such things. I give her all the credit!

Come on back to this blog (or sign in to Blogger and list this blog--Today the Dragon Wins--as one you want to follow) later this week because I have a nice little rant I'd like to go on and on about. And I have some writing advice spurred by a few questions visitors to the booth had for me during the expo Saturday.

Welcome to the fold!

Coming Up: Book Signing at Ft. Myers Barnes & Noble, Saturday, Feb. 27 from noon to 2 p.m. Hope to see you there!

"Some days, you just want the dragon to win."
Tags: women's expo, dragon, novel

2010-02-19T10:39:00.000-05:00

Home and Makin' Plans
Or...The Dragon invites you to a sunny location

I'm home from the frigid tundra that is Cincinnati. Had to go there for the day job...
In good news, it was a fruitful endeavor. In obnoxious news, 8+ inches of snow had landed on the city the day before my arrival so getting around was "hindered" and 90% of the restaurants and shops were closed the first night. (And don't ask about getting a taxi to get anywhere.)

So it's good to be home where it's a little warmer and I'm gathering my giveaways for tomorrow's SWFL Women's Expo. Yes, what better place to sell a fantasy novel about a strong heroine with integrity, grit, good humor and power? There's a fabulous message for chicks of all ages in Choices Meant for Gods and Choices Meant for Kings, and I plan to tell all the ladies at the Expo that very thing tomorrow. I hope all the folks in Florida make the Expo part of their plans. (I'm in an indoor exhibit space with the Arc-Angels so you don't have to tread the outdoor booths in the chilly temperatures to find me.)

Get all kinds of info and directions to North Port here: http://tinyurl.com/FLwexpo
Next weekend, I'll see you at the Barnes & Noble in Ft. Myers from noon to 2 p.m.

"Some days, you just want the dragon to win."
Tags: fantasy, strong heroine, SWFL, women's expo

2010-02-13T10:51:00.000-05:00

Stuff is on Sale
Or...The Dragon's just lookin' out for your pocketbook

Lulu.com is having a President's Day Weekend Sale.

Anyone who would like to purchase a copy of the first issue of Winter's Night Magazine, this is a great time to do it. Lulu.com is offering 15 percent off everything through Monday if you enter the coupon code WASHINGTON during checkout. This means you can pick up a fantasy magazine with great short stories, including Sandy Lender's "A Legacy Protected" in either downloadable format or print version with a nice little discount.

Check out http://www.lulu.com/wintersnight or other titles on the Lulu site.

"Some days, you just want the dragon to win."
Tags: dragon, Sandy Lender, A Legacy Protected

2010-02-07T15:38:00.001-05:00

Top 10 Reasons Why Lizard Poop is Better than Bugs
Or...The Dragon needs to explain this one...

Many of you know of my current "rent problem" and the insane infestation that's taking place. I've been here for 19 months now and for the past four or five months, I've been in a battle for dominance in the apartment. The battle is with a few trillion roaches that the apartment management can't seem to get rid of. (Yes, I'm seeking other living arrangements at this point.) I let a lizard in during a recent cold spell. I bought another. Those guys are doing their job of reducing the bug population, but my sister asked an interesting question: is the lizard poop problem worse than the bug problem? My answer is no. No, the lizard poop is NOTHING. So there are a few little piles once in a while. Stress on the word "little." These are small lizards. It is NOTHING compared to the bug problem. But this got me to thinking...

Top Ten Reasons Why Lizard Poop is Better than Bugs

10. Lizard poop doesn't move.
9. Lizard poop doesn't try to get in opened boxes of cereal or pasta, thus forcing you to tape things closed all the time.
8. Lizard poop is surprisingly cute.
7. Lizard poop is surprisingly non-fragrant when mooshed in a tissue. (BONUS: it leaves no sticky residue after you spray the spot with 409.)
6. Lizard poop can be disguised as a raisin when visitors stop in, whereas a roach running across the floor is always going to be a disgusting, filthy roach running across the floor.
5. Lizard poop can be contained to a lizard terrarium when you're concerned about the lizard's pre-shed health.
4. Lizard poop doesn't try to get on your plate or glass if you set your plate or glass down on the kitchen counter, thus forcing you to throw out your food/water.
3. Lizard poop doesn't startle you when you turn on the kitchen light.
2. Lizard poop doesn't attract other bugs to its poop.
1. Lizard poop only happens once a day (on average).

"Some days, you just want the dragon to win."
Tags: lizard, poop, bugs, dragon, Top 10

2010-02-03T22:14:00.000-05:00

Friendship...True Friendship
Or...The Dragon got a kick out of this

My friend Laura sent me an e-mail with some snarky (yet lovely) truths today. I could swear I've seen a few of them before, so I tossed those aside. Even a couple of the ones I've got left here "feel" familiar. But they're so good I had to share them.

With my friends.

1. When you’re sad, I will jump on the person who made you sad like a spider monkey jacked up on Mountain Dew.
2. When you smile, I will know you’re plotting something that I must be involved in.
3. When you’re scared, we will high tail it out of here.
4. When you’re confused, I will use little words.
5. When you’re blue, I will try to dislodge whatever is choking you.

"Some days, you just want the dragon to win."
Tags: friendship, friends, truth, dragon

2010-02-01T10:37:00.001-05:00

Donkeys and Dragons (and kitties) on Groundhog Day!
Or...hear The Dragon live on the radio Feb. 2

It's a "Crazy" Groundhog Day "Tuesday" at an all new time of 2 p.m. Eastern. Romance authors Robin D. Owens and Jacquie Rogers and fantasy author Sandy Lender join host Rowena Cherry to talk about their passions, the wild and stray animals that inspire the animal characters in their novels, and about the animal charities they support, including Every Creature Counts and Turtle Time.

Meet Robin D. Owens, author of Amazon's Best of 2008 Heart Fate; Jacquie Rogers, author of Down Home Ever Lovin' Mule Blues and Faery Special Romances; Host Rowena Cherry, author of Forced Mate, Mating Net, Insufficient Mating Material, and Knight's Fork; and catch up with our own Sandy Lender, author of Choices Meant for Gods, Choices Meant for Kings, and What Choices We Made.

To listen live, visit Internet Voices Radio right around 2 p.m. Tuesday afternoon. http://internetvoicesradio.com
The word ENTER gets you into the site.
To Listen Live (2.05 pm Tuesday, until 4.pm Eastern Time)
In the Black Box, click on "Listen Live"
Sign in (there's a box for that)
Listen and Enjoy
(If you like to multi-task, the site will have a streaming video presentation of the authors' charity-of-choice and book information for you to peruse while listening.)

We'll talk about dragons, donkeys, cats, saving sea turtles, how to rescue retiring rodeo horses, and some other cool things. We'll read snippets from our published or upcoming works and we'll entertain you with crazy talk. Because, you know, why else would we be on a show called Crazy Tuesdays? Woo-hoo!

"Some days, you just want the dragon to win."
Tags: Crazy Tuesday, Groundhog Day, PIVTR, Sandy Lender, Robin D. Owens, Jacquie Rogers, Rowena Cherry

2010-01-29T12:51:00.000-05:00

Stupid Thing I Didn't Say
Or...Why would you antagonize a woman who's holding a machete?

So I was at a gun show over in Ft. Lauderdale last weekend looking at some "reference books" on warfare and incendiary products and so forth. A guy walked up to the table, picked up a book titled "BOOBYTRAPS" and said to me (whom he did not know), "Hey, isn't that what bras are for?" Then he laughed like this was the greatest joke ever and put the book back down.

A friend of mine told me now I know how the UPS man felt after I "propositioned" him. (Let us all please remember that was an accident.)

But the UPS man wasn't holding a sharp weapon. I was. Why would a guy antagonize a woman who's holding a machete?

"Some days, you just want the dragon to win."
Tags: machete, bras, boobytrap

2010-01-28T22:38:00.001-05:00

If a Dinosaur Eats a Dragon...
Or...The Dragon did another one of these crazy quizzes and it rocks

"Some days, you just want the dragon to win."
Tags: dinosaur, dragon, quiz

2010-01-28T12:15:00.000-05:00

Cleaning the Cell Phone Now
Or...The Dragon is seriously grossed out

But the little green germ guys are pretty cute...
Created by Oatmeal

"Some days, you just want the dragon to win."
Tags: dragon, cell phone, germs

TiK TaK [Ke$ha "TiK ToK" Parody / Spoof]

2010-01-26T14:55:00.001-05:00

I used to work for someone that this reminds me of. That may be unkind of me, but, hey, I can't help that it reminded me of her. (And now I'm laughing.)

2010-01-24T19:45:00.000-05:00

A Baby Dragon in the Kitchen
Or...The Dragon has another lizard catching bugs

You may or may not be aware that I've been battling bugs for several months. I moved into this apartment 18 months ago. There were some ant problems at first. Solved that with the Truly Nolen folks. But about five or six months ago, neighbors began to leave, new neighbors moved in, a revolving door of "questionables" took up semi-residence directly next door while I'm-not-sure-what-was-going-on took up residence for a few months in the apartment downstairs from next door. Needless to say, the roaches wanted stability. They came to me. I've been fighting them ever since.

The apartment manager and the folks at Truly Nolen seem somewhat nonplussed by my plight. The exterminator comes in, does some spraying, tells me things could be worse, and leaves. Someone in the front office told me the "routine," which includes fogging the entire building, in the event the Truly Nolen guy fails to finish off the buggers on the second spraying, which involved me removing every item from every cabinet and drawer in my kitchen. Sigh.

The routine was not followed. The exterminator keeps telling me "it's getting better."

Here's the thing. I don't consider seeing five to ten roaches a day "better." I consider that an Elvis song.

A couple weeks ago, when it was very cold here, a small dark lizard huddled outside my front door and darted in when the door opened. Smart lizard. So I offered him warmth and water. He eats roaches. It's a good relationship. He mostly hangs out in the den.

Today, while at the Rennaissance Festival up in Ft. Myers, I stopped at a tent where a guy was selling orphaned baby dragons. These are tame anoles from Louisiana. Stunning how calm these little lizards are. So, for an overpriced but well-spent $15, I now have a second baby dragon living in my kitchen. I'm so proud of him, too. I let him out of the container and within three minutes, he was munching down on a roach that he caught himself. THAT's extermination. He should be fat by tomorrow.

I'm sick and tired of these stupid bugs. I refuse to live like this. I've been looking for a new place. I may need the Health Department to help me get out of the current lease, but, hey, that should NOT be difficult. You just walk in here and something with too many legs runs at you.

"Some days, you just want the dragon to win."
Tags: dragon, anole, exterminator, health department

2010-01-17T00:40:00.000-05:00

Happy National Appreciate a Dragon Day!

January 16th

I'm in Hawaii so the time zone is screwy. Might post funky...

2010-01-10T20:06:00.000-05:00

Of Libraries and Tropical Islands
Or…Dragons travel with books

I’ve just returned from the east side of Florida and the 11th Annual Author’s Showcase, which is a presentation of the Delray Beach Public Library. From 2 to just past 3 p.m., a standing room only crowd in the library’s main auditorium listened to brief presentations from 12 juried authors—Pam Carey, Africa Fine, Daria Anne DiGiovanni, Phyllis Dinerman, Goddess, Chaya Sharon Heller, Stephanie Kay & Andi Kay, Sandy Lender, Madelyn Lorber, Paul Scheiner, Kiki BelMonte-Schaller, and Lucy Beebe Tobias. Then until 4 p.m., the attendees had an opportunity to mix and mingle with the authors and learn more about their books. Each author had the opportunity to donate a book to the library so others in the Delray community can catch up on their new-book reading, too.

In the photo above, you can see Fantasy Author Sandy Lender at her table before the event got underway. Also, during Sandy’s three- to four-minute presentation, she got to tell the audience how Amanda Chariss compels her to keep on writing.

Please visit the Delray Beach Public Library Web site for more information on the event or on any of the authors listed above. If you attended the event and would like more information about me, keep on reading! I also have a Web site and an author page on my Amazon book pages for Choices Meant for Gods, Choices Meant for Kings, and that short story compilation What Choices We Made. It was a pleasure to meet so many smiling faces and new fans. Thank you to all who braved the bitter chill to come out.

And now…I announce that I’m leaving this bitter chill behind for a week! This Friday, I will board a plane for Hawaii where I’ll be representing my construction magazine (that day job that pays the bills). What’s great about this is the resort where the conference is being held will be selling copies of Choices Meant for Gods and Choices Meant for Kings. There are other great things (like being in Maui for a week, seeing industry friends, covering cool news, etc.), but I figure folks checking into this site are interested in book/publishing information.

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

Tags: Delray Beach, library, fantasy author, Sandy Lender, Florida

2010-01-06T17:20:00.000-05:00

See You on the East Coast; Check out the Latest News
Or...housekeeping items that matter to dragons

My web gal is updating the Sandy Lender Web site so you'll have new news and events to check out shortly. In the meantime, the biggies you'll want to be aware of are as follows:

The first novel in the Choices fantasy series, Choices Meant for Gods, is now available in Kindle format. So if you're looking for a fantasy novel to read on your Kindle, you can search through Kindle books at Amazon, or you can click on this easy link for the Kindle version of Choices Meant for Gods. At posting time, all the reviews from the hardcover edition hadn't copied over yet, but you can see some excellent five-star reviews at Choices Meant for Gods or at the Web site.

The second novel in the Choices fantasy trilogy, Choices Meant for Kings, is also available in Kindle format.

Fantasy Author Sandy Lender will be speaking and signing books at the Delray Beach Library event this Saturday, Jan. 10, from 2 to 4 p.m. If you're in that neck of the woods, stop by this free book festival and meet the dragon, check out the cool display, get some free goodies (no exploding ink, I promise), and pick up your hardcover editions of Choices Meant for Gods and Choices Meant for Kings before I sell out of them.

Later in the week, check out the Web site for more goodies and updates!

"Some days, you just want the dragon to win."

Tags: kindle, kindle books, fantasy, kindle format, fantasy novel, fantasy author, Sandy Lender, fantasy series, five-star reviews, Delray Beach

2010-01-03T22:49:00.000-05:00

Microsoft Word Haiku
Or...The Dragon invites you to write a Haiku

A writer named Amy Thompson in a fantasy writing group I participate in online posted this list of Microsoft Haiku that made me laugh out loud. I figured that was a pretty good reason to share it with all ya'll visitors.

But I'm not just sharing. I'm challenging you to write a Haiku of your own! You probably know the rules. Five syllables in the first line; seven in the second; five in the third. Enjoy what's here and then give your best shot!
------------ --------- ---------

Your file was so big.
It might be very useful.
But now it is gone.

------------ --------- --------
The Website you seek
Cannot be located, but
Countless more exist.

------------ --------- --------
Chaos reigns within.
Reflect, repent, and reboot.
Order shall return.

------------ --------- --------
Program aborting:
Close all that you have worked on.
You ask far too much.

------------ --------- --------
Windows NT crashed.
I am the Blue Screen of Death.
No one hears your screams.

------------ --------- --------
Yesterday it worked.
Today it is not working.
Windows is like that.

------------ --------- --------
First snow, then silence.
This thousand-dollar screen dies
So beautifully.

------------ --------- --------
With searching comes loss
And the presence of absence:
"My Novel" not found.

------------ --------- -------
The Tao that is seen
Is not the true Tao-until
You bring fresh toner.

------------ --------- --------
Stay the patient course.
Of little worth is your ire.
The network is down.

------------ --------- --------
A crash reduces
Your expensive computer
To a simple stone.
(boat anchor)

------------ --------- --------
Three things are certain:
Death, taxes and lost data.
Guess which has occurred.

------------ --------- --------
You step in the stream,
But the water has moved on.
This page is not here.

------------ --------- --------
Out of memory.
We wish to hold the whole sky,
But we never will.

------------ --------- --------
Having been erased,
The document you're seeking
Must now be retyped.

------------ --------- --------
Serious error.
All shortcuts have disappeared.
Screen. Mind. Both are blank.

"Some days, you just want the dragon to win."
Tags: Microsoft Word, Haiku, challenge

2009-12-31T22:45:00.000-05:00

An Author’s Top Ten New Year’s Resolutions That Can’t Be Revealed Publicly
Or…The Dragon offers you an author’s Naughty New Year’s Top 10

Now, I will admit that this is a little bitter and fussy-sounding. It’s meant to be funny and cynical, not mean, so please don’t take it as a huge moanfest. It’s not… I've posted a nice and happy Top Ten List below, but I bet fellow authors won’t find it as funny as this one.

10. Send anonymous letters of rejection and chastisement to unscrupulous literary agents in various parts of the world. (Oh, yes, one of my author friends knows this was thought of for him.)

9. Write crappy poetry and send it to unscrupulous poetry contests without including their exorbitant entry fees, then cause them to spend lots of postage trying to get the fee.

8. Send spam to princes and princesses who don’t have bank accounts in Nigeria.

7. Send requests for proof of pharmaceutical license and/or ability to detect gender to companies trying to sell male enhancement drugs to females.

6. Put that funky exploding ink on bookmarks so people who pick them up from “the freebie pile” at author tables without even stopping to GLANCE at the books (or the author) will get about 10 paces outside of the book store/trade show and get a big inky surprise.

5. Write a new, crappy, bizarre, insane novella for a Publish America scandal so the old one can be put to rest. Because…wow…look at the publicity…

4. Find a calming meditation to chant when an author says it shouldn’t be his or her job to market or promote his or her book.

3. Find a calming meditation to chant when anyone says agents aren’t partners in promoting a project—also known as a book they plan to get paid a commission and royalty on.

2. Update the “I can’t go out because…” excuses for writing binges so friends and family don’t notice trends.

1. Send evil flying monkeys to the homes of people who said they’d review ARCs or hardcover books that cost the author money to produce/order and ship, and who then dropped off the face of the planet. (If there are that many evil flying monkeys left in the world…)

"Some days, you just want the dragon to win."
Tags: Top Ten, New Year's Resolutions, exploding ink, naughty new year's, evil flying monkeys

2009-12-31T22:33:00.000-05:00

An Author’s Top Ten For Real New Year’s Resolutions
Or…The Dragon offers you an author’s New Year’s Top 10

Now, this is a little better and brighter! Probably not as funny, but I bet authors can still relate.

10. Send out-of-the-blue good reviews to other authors and post them on Amazon when possible.

9. Write nice poetry for my mom but refrain from forcing it on the rest of the world. (I’m not what you’d call ‘a poet’.)

8. Finish editing WIPs and send ’em to the publishers.

7. Find extra publishers for extra projects.

6. Find extra places to speak and market books.

5. Do that funky 3-Day Novel Contest again.

4. Get Nigel Taiman on The Ellen Show. Mwuahahahahaha.
4a. Get myself on Craig Ferguson. Pardon me. I mean, get myself on the Craig Ferguson show.

3. Find an agent for the upcoming series and whatnot to help me with everything. It’s so overwhelming.

2. Update the “I can’t go out because…” excuses for writing binges so friends and family don’t notice trends.

1. Push all the limits. All. The. Limits.

"Some days, you just want the dragon to win."
Tags: Top Ten, New Year's Resolution, The Ellen Show, Craig Ferguson

2009-12-29T11:57:00.000-05:00

The Balls are Sagging
Or…The Dragon might have to mulch the Christmas tree now

I waited until late in the season to get this year’s Christmas tree. I needed something short and skinny to fit in my pint-sized apartment and to keep my companion parrots from freaking out. While Petri, a 10-year-old Sun Conure, has been through this drill before, the newer flock members might have issues with a hunk of fresh-smelling nature suddenly standing half-dead in the livingroom.

When I entered the tree tent at the corner of Santa Barbara (seemed appropriate) and Golden Gate, there stood the perfect Charlie Brown Christmas tree. It was about three feet tall, skinny, more brown than green, and more patchy than full. I stared at it with pity. The song Percy the Puny Poinsettia began in my head.

“Percy the puny poinsettia

Hanging his blooms in dismay

If they had just kept him wettah

He’d be a houseplant today”

I stared at that poor little tree for a while, thinking of what a sad Christmas the $25 tree was going to have on a mulch pile if I didn’t take it home. The salesman told me I needed to get it into water pretty fast. I touched a branch. Many needles fell off between my fingers. “We’ll give you a good deal on it.”

To my great shame, I turned away from the Charlie Brown Christmas tree. It was too much to bear. I found instead a 7-foot Frasier fir that was robust and unfit for my apartment. I stared at it until the salesman said, “we could chop it off at the top for you.” Now there was an idea. Butcher the poor tree further. With a sigh I went for the plan (and 50 percent off the price). I took home the cutest Christmas tree known to man. None of my pet birds were disturbed by it. They watched me decorate it as if watching an insane person eat jello with her hands…waiting for me to drool or drop the pretty baubles.

Now the baubles pull at the branches with their glassy weight and the tree mourns its once regal stature in a forest (or a tree farm). It will become mulch for someone’s garden and a part of me will feel guilty for contributing to its need to be dead. But I’m grateful for its sacrifice to bring such a gorgeous Christmasy glow to my livingroom!

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

Tags: Christmas tree, Charlie Brown, Percy the Puny Poinsettia, Frasier fir, companion parrot, pet bird

2009-12-27T00:32:00.001-05:00

Stupid Thing I Stopped Myself From Saying
Or...Yes, The Dragon was cautious and DID NOT tell the grocery cashier that she has the name of a lesbian prostitute

Ah, the holidays. Hustle and bustle and opportunities to stop in at stores you don't normally go into...

I hit a different grocery store and went through a check-out lane where a cashier named Adelaide was working. Now, to anyone else, this would be no big deal, I'm sure. But I don't believe I've ever met anyone named Adelaide...other than the lovely woman in my Choices trilogy who helps Amanda Chariss. For a split second, I almost said, "Hey! I have a character in my fantasy novels named Adelaide!" Some folks get pretty stoked when you tell them a character shares their name. Then, thank God, a switch in my brain flipped to "wait." I don't know that the elderly lady wearing her carefully applied layers of Mary Kay would have appreciated my follow-up of, "Adelaide is the lesbian prostitute who gives information to the heroine..."

So I just kept my mouth shut...for a change!

"Some days, you just want the dragon to win."
Tags: Choices trilogy, Adelaide, Amanda Chariss, fantasy novel, lesbian

2009-12-23T12:54:00.001-05:00

Stupid Things I Say
Or...The Dragon celebrates POST #1,000 with an homage to spur-of-the-moment-holiday-madness

The UPS and FedEx delivery people usually bypass my apartment and take all packages straight to the apartment manager's office. Why? I'm not sure. It could be that the private entrance on the side of the building is too difficult to find. I mean...there's only a staircase and a door under an awning to announce its presence to the world. It could be "rush." From my work-at-home office spot, I can see the stop sign at the corner on which my apartment sits. The UPS and FedEx trucks usually coast through it on their way past my building. (They're big and easy to notice.) So on days after I'm supposed to have received a package, I check the online tracking features for whatever service was delivering it; see that it was delivered to someone; and call the management office to see if it's there.

Here's where the stupid-Sandy-comment comes in.

I was home (because I usually am--I work here) yesterday evening around 5:30 when the UPS truck freaking STOPPED and the dude delivered a box of my latest book to my door. I was so pleased. The guy said, "I can't believe someone's at their home. All day long, no one's at home, it's after 5 and no one's home. No one's ever home." I felt sorry for him. For some strange reason, my brain kicked out, "I work from home, so you'll always get lucky here."

What the devil? Did I proposition the UPS man?

As soon as I heard it, I wished I could rewind and NOT say anything. But, there ya go. I wished him a merry Christmas and signed off on the box of books hoping he'd have a new job by the end of Christmas season. Eegads.

"Some days, you just want the dragon to win."
Tags: Christmas, UPS, FedEx, UPS man, books

2009-12-21T16:31:00.001-05:00

Fantasy Author Sandy Lender Joins Authors Reading Shorts For Soup Kitchen
Or...The Dragon invites you to get generous with your listening skills

Date: Tuesday, Dec. 22, 2009
Times: 2 to 4 p.m., 5:30 to 7.30 p.m., 9 to 11 p.m. (all ET)

The authors involved include (alphabetically by first name):
Brenna Lyons, Cindy Spencer Pape, Cornelia Amiri, Jade Lee, Lillian Cauldwell, Linda LaRoque, Linda Nightingale, Loretta Wheeler, Mickey Flagg, Fantasy Author Sandy Lender, Victoria Houseman

To Listen Live
http://internetvoicesradio.com/
Enter
In the Black Box, click on "Listen Live"
Sign in (there's a box for that)
Listen and Enjoy

To enter chat room
http://internetvoicesradio.com/
Look on the lower right under "In The Spot Light"
Live Chat Room... click on that.

To set up an RSS feed (to listen on mobile)
RSS feeds. Click on middle box RSS/PODCAST. Put "Soup" into description. Pay $3.50. Your donation will be acknowledged.
To donate to the Capuchin Soup Kitchen with or without listening either:
PAYPAL
lsaracauldwell@gmail.com
Memo "Soup"

or:
visit http://www.cskdetroit.org
Click on Click_And_Pledge or Donate Online
to donate using a credit card (https ... secure site)

More details:
Cindy Spencer Pape
Story title: Christmas at Mort's
available for free on Cindy's website, as a holiday gift to her readers.
http://www.cindyspencerpape.com/
Book I'm promoting: Mistletoe Magic: available in print from Ellora's Cave

Victoria Houseman
My story is: Rachel’s Light in Holiday in the Heart published by The Highland Press.
I write under Victoria Houseman. My website is: http://www.victoriahouseman.com

Loretta Wheeler
http://www.lorettawheeler.com/
http://www.lreveaux.com/
http://www.myspace.com/southernnuances

Brenna Lyons
http://www.brennalyons.com http://www.myspace.com/brennalyons
"I found the world Ms. Lyons created to be realistic. Both main characters had humanistic characteristics but also the genetic makeup of their Xxanian ancestors as well. I blushed more than once, that’s for sure. CLOSE ENOUGH TO HUMAN was an exceptional read." Reviewed by Natasha Smith for Romance Junkies 4.5 Ribbons

Linda Nightingale
http://www.lindanightingale.comhttp//www.pinkfuzzyslipperwriters.blogspot.coma Black Rosette, Black Swan Available from The Wild Rose Press Best of Week at The Long & Short of It Reviews

Linda LaRoque
~Writing Western Romance with a Twist in Time~
Reading: Goat Heads and Yellow Roses - Childhood Memories of Visiting Grandma in the 1950s. Unpublished.
Website: http://www.lindalaroque.com
Promoting: Time Travel Romances - My Heart Will Find Yours and Flames On The Sky available at Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble. com and The Wild Rose Press.

Mickey Flagg
http://www.mflagg-author.com/
Retribution! The Champion Chronicles:Book One
Available at www.thewildrosepress.com
"I am very anxious for the sequel" 5 star reader review
Coming soon: Consequences: The Champion Chronicles Book Two

Fantasy Author Sandy Lender
From 9:30 p.m. (Eastern time) to about 10:15 or so, Sandy will be reading her paranormal short story "A Legacy Protected," which was recently published in the Winter's Night Magazine, edited and published by Richard Bray.
Sandy is the author of the 2007 fantasy novel Choices Meant for Gods
ArcheBooks Publishing has released the intense sequel Choices Meant for Kings at http://tinyurl.com/CMFKamazon Also in Kindle format at http://tinyurl.com/CMFKkindle
Visit Sandy's Web site to read excerpts and testimonials about her work.
"Some days, you just want the dragon to win."

Cornelia Amiri
Long Swords, Hot Heroes & Warrior Women
http://www.myspace.com/CelticRomanceQueen.com

Lillian Cauldwell.
The Anna Mae Mysteries -- The Golden Treasure

JADE LEE
Jade Lee
http://www.jadeleeauthor.com/
USA TODAY BESTSELLING AUTHOR
Dragonbound April 09

Your host:
Rowena Cherry
http://www.rowenacherry.com/
Heroines get more hero than they bargain for....

We thank you for listening and for your generosity. Have a Merry Christmas!
"Some days, you just want the dragon to win."
Tags: Capuchin soup kitchen, authors, short stories, PIVTR, Rowena Cherry, A Legacy Protected

2009-12-09T17:10:00.001-05:00

Riddle Me This
Or...The Dragon gives you a fun little puzzle

Click on the image to go to the puzzle that features my first fantasy novel, Choices Meant for Gods. Have fun beating each other's scores! And thank you to my fabulous friend Jamieson Wolf who showed this to me. He'll be at Nigel's blog this Saturday discussing marketing and books and all sorts of good publishing items.

2009-11-18T08:26:00.000-05:00

Meet Me At Annette's Book Nook
Or...The Dragon offers another holiday book-buying opportunity in Southwest Florida

Please note that the book signing at Barnes & Noble in Ft. Myers (for Nov. 21) has been moved to February. So your next opportunity to come out and get an autographed copy of the new fantasy adventure from Fantasy Author Sandy Lender, Choices Meant for Kings, is Saturday, November 28, at Annette's Book Nook in Ft. Myers. She's just off Bonita Beach Rd (which turns into all sorts of numbers and names once you get over the bridge toward Lover's Key). Bebop toward Estero Bay and look to the right. She's at 7205 Estero Blvd., Ft. Myers Beach, Florida. I'll be there from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. the Saturday after Thanksgiving to promote Choices Meant for Gods, What Choices We Made, and my newest release Choices Meant for Kings. I believe I'll be stationed right outside the store so the sword might be illegal to wave around, but I promise you won't be able to miss my display.

For those of you seeking holiday ideas for corporate parties, employee bonuses, etc., check out my post below.

"Some days, you just want the dragon to win."
Tags: Annette's Book Nook, book signing, fantasy adventure, Choices Meant for Kings, Sandy Lender, sword

2009-11-05T07:40:00.001-05:00

Author Offers Solution to 2009 Holiday Bonus Worries

Naples, FL—Traditionally Published Author Sandy Lender suggests giving your employees a paid vacation for Christmas.

For about $20 each, you can send employees on a fantasy journey courtesy of Author Sandy Lender because high-quality, hardcover, first-edition copies of Choices Meant for Kings are currently available for delivery.

This family-friendly tale of heroism, good-versus-evil, sweet romance and hope offers an ideal action adventure now that the Harry Potter series is complete. Lender’s stories offer enjoyment for older teens as well as adults so the children your employees are encouraging to read will also benefit from your well-thought-out gift. Order before Thanksgiving and the author can provide autographed bookplates to personalize each gift for free.

Visit the author’s Web site for more information about Choices Meant for Kings or visit Amazon.com to order individual copies. Contact the author directly at sandy_lender at yahoo.com to request autographed book plates. Contact the publisher directly to request discounted bulk orders of Choices Meant for Kings.

"Some days, you just want the dragon to win."

Tags: Choices Meant for Kings, holiday bonus, Christmas, employees, family-friendly, heroism, sweet romance, Harry Potter, gift

2009-11-01T23:32:00.000-05:00

Promotion Tip: A Successful Book Signing
Or…The Dragon offers some nifty ideas to augment your book signing

(Ed. Note: I'm writing this post late at night after a long day of editing and working and not getting in a nap, so please forgive all rambling and errors.) I’m sure you’ve heard the rumor that e-mail is dead. So how do you invite people to your book signings? Believe it or not, for the signing I had Saturday morning, I snail-mailed a few postcards…not many, of course. But I also sent out a notice to my fan page on facebook, and to my friends on my “normal” page on facebook. Then I did a status update on LinkedIn. Tweeted on Twitter. You get the picture. Of course I sent e-mails to those friends who don’t network. (Yes, I have friends who don’t spend 20 hours a day on the computer. In fact, I have friends who needed the postcard in the mailbox…)

Anyway, once you’ve invited the fanbase, you want to have an attractive display in the book store to catch the attention of browsers. Don’t skimp on this. Go all out and make it fabulous! I lost track of how many compliments I received Saturday on the Choices Meant for Gods and Choices Meant for Kings setup. I write fantasy so I wanted everything to look immediately identifiable as “you can enter a fantasy world here.” No question about it. With antique, romantic boxes of purple candy and business cards and decorative, olde world-looking book stands to hold the recent magazine that published one of my short stories and to hold the newest release, the ambience was set. I used a royal purple tablecloth to cover the risers that the book stands were on, which stood out nicely against the shiny white tablecloth I put down beneath everything. Of course I had my big ol’ banner up behind me and my purple pens for signing. In the picture of Marci and me in this post, you see us goofing around, but you also see Marci pointing to one of the purple dragon magnets I also had on the table as a nice little give-away for folks who appreciated the humor...

I had to hold the sword because there just wasn’t room for it on the table; I wore a finger weapon on my left hand and a purple gem on my cheek, just like Chariss.

That’s all I’ve got the energy to put in this Promotion Tip post, but I hope it’s useful to new authors and first-time book signers. Note that I don’t mention the table in my description above. It’s always a good idea to have a folding table in the trunk of your car for just in case the book store doesn’t have a table ready and waiting for you. The ladies who put together the book events at my local Barnes & Noble have got it together, though, and there was no fear of being without a table. They even gave me water. Aren’t they lovely?

It was a wildly successful morning, even with an empty-parking-lot start at 10 a.m. Things really picked up and we had a lovely time. There were several cameras clicking around so hopefully those pictures are going up on facebook and blogs just everywhere.

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

Tags: book signing, Barnes & Noble, Choices Meant for Gods, Choices Meant for Kings, fantasy, purple, gem, facebook, LinkedIn, twitter

2009-10-31T16:39:00.000-05:00

The Oh-So-Appropriate Death of a Brown Widow Spider on Halloween
Or…The Dragon had to kill an evil beast

Know thy enemy.
First and foremost rule of warfare: know thy enemy. For me, the enemy is spiders. (Also panthers with black fur.) Spiders cause a very real central nervous system reaction in me. Those of you who have followed this blog a long time may remember the day I discovered a mouse-sized wolf spider scurrying along the roof of the passenger side of my Saturn while I was driving. Needless to say, I did not continue driving for more than two or three seconds after emitting an ear-piercing scream in the spider’s general direction…

So today, imagine the neighbors’ entertainment at seeing me do the spider dance (in my Chariss costume because I’d just come from a book signing for Choices Meant for Kings) outside the new car…upon finding not just a freaking brown widow tucked in the passenger doorframe but also three of her egg sacs. I was beside myself. Now, keep in mind I didn’t realize she was a brown widow at first. All I knew was a pretty big spider was tucked up inside the frame with some webbing and these spiky looking sacs that I KNEW I’d seen before…somewhere…

Half a can of Raid later…

She came out of her hiding spot when I soaked her, the web and the eggs with Raid. That’s when I got a good look at the body and the striped legs. Evil, I tell you.

I thought it entirely appropriate for a Halloween blog. Evil spiders that are twice as potent as a black widow hanging out in my car, waiting for their egg sacs to open and release their millions of tiny evil babies into my vehicle is a horror movie in the making as far as I’m concerned. And I stopped it before it went into filming. Bwuahahahahaha.

Happy Halloween!
“Some days, you just want the dragon to win.”
Tags: Halloween, spider, brown widow, Raid, fear, wolf spider

2009-10-26T16:45:00.001-05:00

Cancer-free!
Or...The Dragon will be drinking celebratory wine this evening

This afternoon, I had the opportunity to invite an oncologist to Saturday's book signing. Yes, today I handed one of my lovely 4/C postcard/flyers to Dr. Mark Moskowitz of the Florida Cancer Specialists and invited him to my book signing Saturday morning at B&N. He seemed delighted. But why on earth was I hob-nobbing with an oncologist, you ask? Why, to have him inform me that I am still healthy and cancer-free!

Woo-hoo!

I have kicked the butt of Hodgkin's Disease and don't have to do any more of this scanning business until April. Hooray! And anyone who would like to shake my doctor's hand may do so Saturday, Halloween morning, during picture-taking and candy-eating and monster-talking at the Barnes & Noble at 41 and Pine Ridge in Naples. I'm there from 10 a.m. to noon to sign books and hang out with all of you.

"Some days, you just want the dragon to win."
Tags: cancer, Hodgkin's Disease, Florida Cancer Specialists, Barnes & Noble, book signing

2009-10-25T20:26:00.000-05:00

Let's Answer a Few Blogging Questions
Or...The Dragon addresses some items we didn't have time for at Saturday's workshop

We covered a lot of ground at the Gulf Coast Writer's Association blogging workshop Saturday. After the three-hour class, several folks had questions specific to their blogs to go over with me and we were lucky enough to discuss those before we had to leave the facility. Here are a few Q&As that folks had written down and turned in for me.

Don't forget to check out the post below with links to new blogs developed Saturday. We'd all appreciate visits and comments to help get some networking underway.

1. Bob Bair, e-mail me privately with your password and I'll help you get that template fixed. Something's happened!

2. If you discover that someone already has a blog with your blog's title/name, you might not want to pick something too similar to it. That person's marketing efforts have driven traffic to their URL. You would have to work twice as hard as you typically would to differentiate yourself from that existing/established blog. Go ahead and think of something else that still conveys your idea but gets away from the existing wording. For instance, there is already a Lakes Park Gardeners blog in existence. If you want to create something similar, maybe you could call yourselves horticulturists...maybe Lakes Park Flora? You get the idea.

3. How often you check or update your blog depends on how much time you have and what sort of schedule you want to get your visitors used to. Consistency and quality are key.

4. Many bloggers make money with their blogs by selling ad space. I advise caution in this area just because ads can clog up your page/template, making your site unsightly. When someone loads your blog for the first time, you don't want them to say "eew." Another way to make money is to sell posts. You write and post an article about someone or someone's product and they pay a set dollar amount for the service. (Remember our discussion of FTC rules and make sure you're up-front with your readership concerning payment for anything you're promoting on your site.) Writers will sometimes pay to place posts they've written on your blog. Typically, folks will only pay to appear on your site if you've developed a large following with active discussions. That's where our "traffic" talk comes in!

5. When typing the tags at the end of your blog post, remember to be in "Edit HTML" mode Also, you will always do this in the post window here in Blogger. Something I do to minimize the tags' appearance or their effect on visitors/readers is make them a size smaller than the rest of the text in my post. The simplest way to do this is to go into "Edit HTML," type up your tags, go back to "Compose" mode, highlight all that tag text, click on the "tT" icon in the toolbar and select "small" or "smallest." This is just my preference and not mandatory by any means.

If you have other questions, lob 'em at me. Friends in my blogging network visit here frequently and will be happy to chime in to help folks new to this excellent networking tool.

"Some days, you just want the dragon to win."
Tags: blog, FTC, blogging, network, traffic, template, tags, HTML

2009-10-24T21:12:00.000-05:00

Welcome Some New Blogging Networkers

Or...The Dragon invites you to network with new blogs

This afternoon, I conducted a workshop for the Gulf Coast Writers Association at Edison State College in which 30 or so folks built blogs (many of them for the first time) and learned some skills for attracting attention to their blogs. I'd like to invite you to visit these blogs, leave comments, and encourage these networkers.

For those of you who participated in the workshop today, thank you so much for your time and attention. I think we had a lively and productive discussion and got some good work accomplished. Sure, Blogger gave us a minor nightmare there at the outset, but life got better and we now have the following list of fabulous blogs to check into. I encourage everyone to click on as many of these links as you can make time for and leave comments (remember the code for boldfacing?). A few of these blog addresses, unfortunately, just didn't work. I did some clever spelling in the Blogger searches, but just wasn't successful. So if you see your blog name here (or if what we have is a Web site) without a link, type your URL for me in the comments and I'll edit this post to get it included.

Also, there were a couple of questions we didn't have time to get to at the end of the workshop. I have those on your notecards here and will address them in a post tomorrow evening. A huge thank-you to fellow author Robert Dean Bair who took photos during the afternoon.

These are in no particular order.

Life With An Artist

Author Jan Nieman

Mangoes and Champagne

Crafting and Sewing with Carol

Collage Art

Catch the Spirit of the Islands

That's My Story

Gipsy Chant

Kids and Dogs

Michelle James' Writes of Passage

Frustrating Times

Poker Prophets Book

Ninth Wave

Designing Connections

Simple Pleasures

BJElam

Libretist Lyricist Author

Otto Stanley Wulff

Peace At Lambeth Bridge

Cooking With Connie

Dance In The Bible

Lakes Park Gardeners

BIS on Systems
Sun fun Solar life

Grandparents For Great Textbooks

Peter Alden Yule

If you run out of time, just come on back to this post to visit some of these networkers/bloggers any ol' time! They'll appreciate the leg up and any networking ideas you'd like to suggest in their comments. (Note: the comment link is just below this post. Click and it will open the text window in which you type your message to me.)

"Some days, you just want the dragon to win."

Tags: blogger, workshop, blog, comment, network, blog address, link

2009-10-24T19:13:00.000-05:00

Something to do Halloween Morning

Or...The Dragon invites you to Barnes & Noble signing

Where: Barnes & Noble, Waterside Shops

Location: 41 & Pine Ridge, Naples, Florida
When: Oct. 31, 10 a.m. to noon
Who: Fantasy Author Sandy Lender
What: Get your autographed copies of Choices Meant for Kings! (and other Sandy Lender titles, too)

If you were planning to attend the signing at the B&N in Ft. Myers in November, we've had a postponement, so make your holiday shopping plans early...
"Some days, you just want the dragon to win."
Tags: halloween, book signing, Choices Meant for Kings, Barnes & Noble

2009-10-19T03:06:00.000-05:00

Promotion Tip!
Or...The Dragon suggests innovative places to sell books

Back when I first signed on with ArcheBooks Publishing, Bob Gelinas suggested authors should find innovative places to sell books. Of course you want your titles to be in book stores because book browers and buyers go into book stores to buy them there. But you're competing against a lot of other titles there.

So today I dropped off a few copies of Choices Meant for Gods and Choices Meant for Kings at a defensive weapons shop that sells fantasy swords and medieval weapons. Great placement. And guess what? My book is the only one in that shop so there's no book competition.

What genre do you write in? Science Fiction? How about approaching a shop that sells rocket kits? I bet they don't have too many sci fi novels on the shelf. Try a consignment deal with the owner. Do you write naughty romance? Try an adult toy shop. Do you write sweet romance? Maybe approach an employee-owned card shop. The possibilities are endless when you start thinking about innovative places to approach.

If you're in South Florida and you find yourself traveling along I-75, I invite you to take the Bonita Beach Rd. exit to the Flamingo Island Fleamarket where Mr. Tony's defensive weapons shop is located at R-76. He has cool knives and daggers and is ordering in a few more fantasy swords now that season is coming in. (It's a South Florida thing.) And! Now he has copies of Choices Meant for Gods and Choices Meant for Kings by Fantasy Author Sandy Lender at prices below Amazon.

"Some days, you just want the dragon to win."
Tags: fantasy swords, fantasy author, Sandy Lender, Choices Meant for Kings, defensive weapons

2009-10-16T11:57:00.000-05:00

Does it Matter Who Follows You?
Or…The Dragon recommends careful online social networking

As many of you know, I completed a month-long online book tour in June. During that tour, I garnered a lot of attention at Twitter for the first ever Tweeterview with my good author friend Jamieson Wolf. During the week leading up to the Tweeterview, which you can read in its entirety at a special blog site, and in the weeks after, I found a plethora of twitterers lining up to follow me. That’s fantastic! More followers means more friends in the cyber world. It also means more flow of information and more folks to announce the release of Choices Meant for Kings to.

Some of those twitterers were not the type I want following me. Now, some marketers would look at that statement and think I’m insane. A follower is a follower is a follower, right? I don’t think so. Anyone looking at my profile and seeing that twitterers with names including “boobs” or “nasty” or “hire my body” or other less-clean examples would start to wonder just what kind of content I was providing to attract such clientele.

I don’t provide content that would attract such clientele. Nor do I wish to provide such content.

So when a twitterer with a questionable name links to me, I check into the situation to see if I should block that person from following me. If the name (or profile photo) is only marginably questionable, I’ll take a quick peek at his or her profile to give him or her the benefit of the doubt. A quick judgment call later and I either block or move on. It takes something eye-catching or downright intriguing to get me to follow back because, frankly, I have no time in my life. You have to offer some pretty interesting-to-me content for me to follow you on twitter. (or be a real-life friend or member of Duran Duran)
“Some days, I just want the dragon to win.”
Tags: twitter, follow, Duran Duran, Choices Meant for Kings, Jamieson Wolf, tweeterview

2009-10-15T06:07:00.001-05:00

Global Climate Change and Sea Turtle Conservation

Or…The Dragon wonders where the turtles will nest

As a participating blogger in Blog Action Day 2009, I get to write on whatever global climate change topic comes to mind. For me, that hits on conservation issues. Recycling and reusing products cuts down on fossil fuel consumption and original materials being removed from the environment. Easy equation.

Despite our collective best efforts, I’m pretty sure Planet Earth is doomed to repeat a cycle that some scientists believe she’s been going through since her birth. Ice age—thaw—ice age—thaw. You get the picture. Personally, I don’t think the earth is as old as those carbon-dating scientists claim it is, but that’s another argument for another day. What we have here is this idea that the earth has, for millions of years, gone through a cycle that humans would be pretty doggone arrogant to assume they can up-n-change. We should recognize that our industrial revolution has added to the rate of temperature-rise in the past few decades, but we shouldn’t lose track of the fact that the temperature-rise was in effect because it’s part of the planet’s lifecycle.

So let’s say ice melts, polar bears drown, and waters rise. Where do the sea turtles go to build their nests? I’m assuming Florida will go under (as mentioned in my short story info posted below/earlier this week). Various islands where sea turtles nest will go under. Because sea turtles are near and dear to my heart, this is where my worries rest. In the images posted today, you see a couple of hatchling loggerhead sea turtles making a dry-run for the Gulf of Mexico. We waited until dark to do the real thing so fish out in the water were less likely to snack on them. But these little turtles (if they’re girls and if they survive the insane odds stacked against them) will return to Bonita Beach in 20 or so years looking for a place to lay their eggs. What will they find? What will their offspring find 20 years after that?

(For information on sea turtle nesting behavior and hatchling releases, please visit www.turtletime.org.)

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

Tags: Blog Action Day, global climate change, polar bears, sea turtles, Gulf of Mexico

2009-10-13T15:23:00.000-05:00

Global Climate Change in My Fiction

Or…The Dragon preps for Thursday’s blog action day

I don’t make big sweeping political statements in my fantasy fiction. My stories are meant to take you OUT of reality and off to some place more enjoyable where your worries are out of your mind. (I encourage you to check out the book descriptions of Choices Meant for Gods and Choices Meant for Kings on Amazon to see what I mean.)

In preparation for Oct. 15th’s Blog Action Day 2009 concerning Global Climate Change, in which I’ll be participating, I wanted to talk about one short story where I did include a wee bit of real-world worries. But, true to form, I put a fantasy twist on them. I decided to pretend the world’s global temperature had risen higher than scientists predicted and the ocean waters had engulfed more landmass than even our best conspiracy theorists and paranoid schizophrenics dreamt. I envisioned Florida and New Zealand completely under water. (Most of Hawaii and Japan as well, of course.) You get the picture.

What’s rather silly is I put this concept in what we editors refer to as an “info-dump” that the editor of Winter’s Night magazine rightfully deleted from the beginning of my story “A Legacy Protected.” Oops. So the sweeping generalization that we’re doomed got removed from my fiction even when I had finally included it. Funny. Probably saved me from myself. Richard Bray, Editor Extraordinaire, I bow.

So here’s the beginning/opening paragraphs to “A Legacy Protected” in all their backstory/info-dumping glory. I hope you enjoy their paranoid feel and pick up your copy of Winter’s Night magazine where the remainder of the story, sans global warming concept, is published.
------------------------------
A Legacy Protected (deleted graphs)
By Sandy Lender

His family’s money came from a boy’s idea at the beach. Jack Gantry the First had looked up at his nanny during a summer vacation and asked, “What’s going to happen to these buildings when the water rises?”

“What do you mean, dear?”

“When the water rises,” he gestured to the Atlantic Ocean creeping up the shoreline toward them, “all the buildings will be under it. Someone should move them.”

Jack’s exotic nanny bestowed on him the special smile that moms know how to bless their sons with. It was the kind of smile that inspires one little boy to become an astronaut while inspiring another to seek a cure for cancer. In young Jack’s case, the curve of her chocolate lips inspired him to figure out how much weight a pulley could hold.

“Tell me about that,” Nanny Lyddy encouraged him.

She started him thinking about booms and lifts and cranes until he came up with the idea that would revolutionize the beachfronts of the world—wherever they formed in the future. It took a decade after he’d graduated from a technical school to get the first prototype built, and another decade to get the scientists, developers, and media analysts all singing from the same sheet of music. When everything came together, his idea won him the Nobel Peace Prize.

Jack Gantry the First had stood on a stage in Oslo wishing he’d kept in touch with his nanny. He believed the teacher and protector who had fed the idea should’ve been in the audience to see him accept the award, and, when his great grandson John was old enough to appreciate the whole story, he told him so.

The odd twist in the Gantry story hit when something as simple as a co-ed threatening John with sexual harassment accusations, which could be neither proved nor disproved, put the family’s fortune in jeopardy in the early 2090s. The Gantries had weathered that storm with the help of a rising young legal aid who now served as the CEO’s administrative assistant.

John Gantry the Fourth stood in his overly metallic office contemplating his great grand-dad, the family fortune, and the eleventh hour savior on the afternoon before his wedding. He always thought it strange the way Ms. Tesker had given up a blossoming legal career to become, essentially, his secretary. Sure, Gantry Family Ltd. was huge and the position wasn’t one to sneeze at, but, still, there was a certain level of prestige in being a lawyer in New Tampa. What was the attraction to being a secretary, whether it was for the Gantry Family or not?

The buzzer on his phone let him know Ms. Tesker needed his attention.

He turned from the picture window overlooking the imaginary line above the Florida Shelf where the Atlantic Ocean met the Gulf of Mexico. What a lovely image he turned from. Inside his office, almost everything was sterile and gray recycled metal with monitors and panels and functional bits. Almost everything—he was young and brash enough to include a warm brown leather couch and a wood-paneled liquor cabinet. They stood out like neon signs of youth. They seemed to announce: “This CEO is too young to be in charge. He’s only 35. Feel free to take advantage of him and his company.” Staying on task, he pressed a green button that flashed at him from the glass top of his desk.
----------------------
Again, if you’d like to read the rest of the story, without this history part, grab your inaugural edition of Winter’s Night magazine. There are 84 pages of excellently edited and well-written fantasy shorts waiting for you. And please visit here Thursday to comment on Blog Action Day 2009’s theme of Global Climate Change.
“Some days, you just want the dragon to win.”
Tags: Climate Change, Winter’s Night, Fantasy, Richard Bray, Blog Action Day

2009-10-09T13:34:00.000-05:00

New Fantasy Magazine with Fantasy Author Sandy Lender
Or...The Dragon has some new reading material to tell you about

Do you enjoy short stories? Editor Richard Bray has assembled the innaugural issue of Winter's Night magazine for your fantasy reading pleasure. You can order the print version or eZine at Lulu. Either way, it's 84 pages of excellent editing, well-told fantasy adventure tales, and family-friendly entertainment. Fantasy Author Sandy Lender's short story A Legacy Protected was selected to be included in this first issue so fans should pick up this fun little treat! Other authors include the well-known Judith W. Huey, who also provided the remarkable cover art, Todd Diel, Bruce Bretthauer, KateMarie Collins, and more.

"Some days, I just want the dragon to win."
Tags: fantasy magazine, short stories, ezine, winter's night

2009-10-01T12:36:00.000-05:00

World’s Coolest Christmas Gift from a Writer Contest
Or…The Dragon offers to write a personal novella for one lucky reader

During the month of November, Fantasy Author Sandy Lender will write a short novel…to your specifications. I’m participating in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) and I want to make the fruits of my labor special for one lucky reader of mine. If you’re an established fan of Fantasy Author Sandy Lender, you know what a treat this will be. (Go ahead and say so in the comment field.)

Here’s what you win:
Sandy Lender writes a novella (20,000 to 50,000 words) in the genre of your choice, with your specifications as outlined on Sandy’s spec sheet, during the month of November. She will print up the novel and, if you wish, gift-wrap it for a Christmas present. She will mail it to the destination of your choice during the first week of December so there’s plenty of time for Christmas delivery.

Here’s how you enter:
From Oct. 1 through Oct. 24, visit Amazon.com, ArcheBooks.com, BookHitch.com, Barnes & Noble.com, or a local book store to purchase a copy of either of Sandy’s hardcover novels Choices Meant for Gods (2007) OR Choices Meant for Kings (2009). (These lovely hardcovers make great Christmas presents themselves…) Once you’ve completed your transaction, forward a copy of the receipt to sandy_lender at yahoo dot com with “Christmas Novel Contest” in the subject line. Sandy will draw the lucky winner from the pool o’ receipts on Sunday, Oct. 25, and contact that person by e-mail that day. (Yes, you may enter the contest more than once. Like if you buy CMFG and realize you’ve JUST GOT to read CMFK before you lose your mind figuring out “what happens next?”, send that receipt to me by midnight of Oct. 24. Or if you have 17 people on your Christmas list who need to read CMFK, by all means, send me 17 receipts. It’s e-mail so you’re not paying postage.)

Here’s how you give your specs once you’ve won:
On Sunday, Oct. 25, Sandy will send the congratulations message to the lucky winner along with a questionnaire. That questionnaire will ask you to select your short novel/novella’s genre as well as your main character’s defining qualities and name. You can see the questionnaire below. Please note that it allows you to specify whether this novel is for you or a gift for a friend. The winner MUST return this questionnaire to Sandy by Nov. 1, so start thinking about your specifications now. Wow…what kind of novel would YOU ask a traditionally published author to write you for Christmas?

Remember the rules? 1) Buy one of the hardcovers online. 2) Forward the receipt to Sandy at sandy_lender at yahoo dot com. 3) Start thinking now of your specs for the examples below. 4) Watch your e-mail Sunday, Oct. 25.

“Some days, you just want the dragon to win.”
Tags: Christmas contest, book contest, novel, prize, NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month, December, November, October

Excerpts From The Specification Sheet for
The Sandy Lender Christmas Novella Contest

Will this book be for you? ______ Or a gift for a friend? ______
Will the friend be a main character in the book? _____ Or am I just writing it for him/her?
Will YOU be a main character in the book? _____
Please answer the following questions for the person who will be receiving the book as a gift (whether that’s you or a friend).
Favorite type of music:
Favorite movie of all time:
Dogs or Cats?
Favorite “room” at a museum:
Do you have any objections to violence in your novel?
Would this character be afraid of snakes?
Favorite genre from these choices:
___ fantasy ___ sci-fi ___ horror
___ suspense/thriller ___ paranormal
Preferred rating for your novel from these choices:
____ PG ____ PG-13
What one thing are you deathly afraid of and that I should avoid putting in the novel?

2009-09-29T22:06:00.001-05:00

Choices Meant for Kings Online Book Tour Update
Or...The Dragon says hope springs eternal

There's a very good possibility that Fantasy Author Sandy Lender will be appearing at the following this week:

Wednesday, Sept. 30: Liana's blog interview
Thursday, Oct. 1 at 7:30 a.m. ET: Authors Connection Radio Show
Thursday, Oct. 1: Penny's blog review
Friday, Oct. 2: Penny's blog interview

"Some days, you just want the dragon to win."
Tags: fantasy author, Sandy Lender, online book tour

the last duet on earth

2009-09-28T14:21:00.001-05:00

I couldn't help laughing...a lot...
Music calms the savage beast...

2009-09-20T14:56:00.003-05:00

Another Week Atourin’
Or…The Dragon has more stops for your contest-winnin’ delight

If you’re still learning about my newest release, Choices Meant for Kings, or still trying to win a copy of the first novel, Choices Meant for Gods, you’ll enjoy using the easy research stops of my online book tour spots this week. We have a couple guest posts and a couple interviews for your entertainment. Just leave a comment or question at a blog stop or two and you’ll be entered for the chance to win the book, and you’ll learn more stuff, too. Have fun!

(And remember that you can get a free dragon magnet if you’re one of the first 25 to get yourself and a friend signed up as followers here. Details in the post below.)

Monday: Morbid Romantic
Tuesday, 22nd: LoveRomancePassion
Wednesday, 23rd: Chris Redding AND Katie Hines
Thursday, 24th: a day off
Friday, 25th: Inspiration Ink
Saturday, 26th: nothing confirmed yet
Sunday, 27th: nothing confirmed yet

“Some days, you just want the dragon to win.”
Tags: online book tour, Choices Meant for Gods, Choices Meant for Kings

2009-09-19T16:09:00.003-05:00

Become a Follower to Get a Cool Dragon Magnet
Or...The Dragon isn't really proposing you try to attract dragons

In fact, I'm just trying to attract followers to make life easier on everyone. I mean, wouldn't you prefer to be notified when this informative little blog updates? Then you don't have to check back all the time. It alerts you every couple of days or so...you know...just when my insane schedule lets me update.

So here's the deal: you'd LOVE to have one of my spiffy magnets with the clever dragon saying on it FOR FREE. So you become a follower here and get one of your friends to do the same. You send me an e-mail at sandy_lender at yahoo dot com letting me know who the two new followers are and what snail mail addresses I send the magnets to.

Easy breezy!

Follow away! But do it soon because this is LIMITED to the first 25 folks (and their friends) to sign up. Yes, I put a low limit on it because the new supply of magnets isn't here yet. :)

"Some days, you just want the dragon to win."
Tags: contest, free, magnets, dragon, follower

2009-09-18T14:57:00.002-05:00

Not All Pirates are Cool
Or…The Dragon wants to alert you to online book stealing

I’ve got this mad affection for Orlando Bloom. Johnny Depp is nice to look at, too, but Orlando Bloom rocks my pirate house. (Or ship, as the case may be.) With TNT showing Pirates of the Caribbean At World's End this weekend, I'm pleased with thoughts of pirates of the handsome variety. But not all pirates are cool and lusty and easy-on-the-eye and…well…that list could get embarrassing, now, couldn’t it? We have modern-day pirates who deserve much less glamorization.

People who steal are thieves. Period. If you knowingly steal something that you know is not yours to take, you are a thief. If you knowingly give away or sell something that is not yours to give away or sell, thus taking profit out of a merchant’s pocket, you’re participating in theft. I consider these things acts of piracy. Some might look upon the simple, easy, often-quick act of downloading an electronic file (such as an eBook, image, or piece of music) from the Internet as perfectly legal. Why would something so simple be illegal? Why would something so easy-to-do with the click of a button on a free Web site cost $3.99 over on some other Web site? Well, the answers aren’t terribly easy, but they make a lot of sense if you stop and think about what’s going on behind those button clicks.

When an author, artist, or musician makes his work available for purchase on the Internet, he has to make it easy to download. It has to be easy for customers to get to, purchase, “get,” and put on their own computer, e-reading device, listening device, PDA, etc. In the case of an eBook, when the customer purchases the work for $3.99, the author gets a portion of that sale. PayPal gets a cut, the publisher gets a cut, the distributor gets a cut, the editor gets a cut, the agent gets a cut…you get the idea.

When a pirate comes along and gets a copy of that file—whether by purchasing a copy for $3.99 or by some other means—and then offers that copy for free or for $1.99 on an aggregate site somewhere online, the pirate undercuts the author’s sales. He makes it difficult for the author to generate income. I mean, why pay $3.99 here when you can get it free over there? That’s where education comes in. It’s vital that customers, like the visitors reading this blog today, understand that there are sites out there on the web offering a variety of titles by a multitude of authors that they have no right to offer. Ask some questions when you run into such a site.

If you’re looking at something that seems too good to be true, ask why it’s too good to be true. Keep in mind, too, that strange rules govern the way in which you report such sites. One thing you can do is contact individual authors privately to alert them that you’ve seen their titles at a site, and give them the URL. Please don’t list a site’s name or URL in an open forum online.

If you’re an author, artist, or musician visiting the blog today, you can take action by signing a petition to our current President and Vice President. (I’ve read it and found it harmless enough to put my signature on.) Visit CopyrightAlliance to read and, if you’re comfortable with the content, to sign.

“Some days, you just want the dragon to win.”
Tags: copyright alliance, piracy, electronic files, theft, eBook, online book stealing

2009-09-15T07:22:00.004-05:00

The Tour That Keeps You Guessing
Or...The Dragon should have a separate contest for guessing which dates will work

I think I'm being cynical this morning. It might be a function of lack of sleep or lack of reimbursement for expenses I turned in more than three months ago. Take your pick. BUT! In fabulous news, I'm on an online book tour to support the brand new release of Choices Meant for Kings, available now as a fancy dancy hardcover (perfect for holiday gift-giving) or an eBook (only at the Amazon-safe publisher's site).

If you'd like to read some cool interviews and cool guest blogs from moi and then interact with the tour hosts and me, then you have the perfect opportunity to do so from now until Oct. 4. Now, so far, the tour dates have been hit or miss, but, hey, stop in and see which hosts have remembered to post their interview or guest blog from me on their day. It's like a game...a not-so-professional game that toys with my budding career as a fantasy author, but a fun little game nonetheless. Woo-hoo!

This week is underway so let's start with today's stop, which isn't up as of "press time," but that doesn't mean it won't be there later today. Time zones and all...

Tuesday: Amber Scott Project
Wednesday: Anne Kane
Thursday: Laurie Edwards
Friday: Elaine Cantrell
Saturday: Lily Stone Books
Sunday: Hywela Lyn

Now, you may notice that a few of the tour hosts along this online book tour write books themselves. And some of those books are of the hardcore romance variety. That's okay. Choices Meant for Kings is still all fantasy all the way through, with just that sweet romance between Nigel and Chariss. (You can check the reviews at Amazon to reassure yourself.)
I'll post next week's roster later (read: as my tour guides confirm everything for me).
Oh! Don't forget the best part of this whole online tour thing for you happy visitors! If you leave a comment at one of the blogs WITH your e-mail address in the comment, you get entered to win a hardcover, first edition, autographed copy of Choices Meant for Gods. How cool is that?

"Some days, you just want the dragon to win."
Tags: Choices Meant for Kings, online book tour, fantasy

2009-09-11T20:55:00.003-05:00

Writing Contests, Book Tours, Literary Festivals, Signing Updates
Or...The Dragon should update more often

First, the 3-Day Novel Contest was a fantastic exercise. I completed a 50,072-word sci-fi horror novel by 1 p.m. Monday and spent the rest of the time editing, adding scenes, fixing strange things I'd typed during those "hallucination" hours (you know...3 a.m., 4 a.m.). I discovered something intriguing about myself. My subconscious does not appreciate the alarm on my alarm clock and will control my body to the point that "I" get up, turn off the alarm, and lay back down to continue sleeping until one of the characters in my brain starts screaming that we're "wasting time."

Second, my current online book tour in support of CHOICES MEANT FOR KINGS is going very well. We have a variety of guest blogs and interviews lined up through Oct. 4 at the different tour stops. We also have an opportunity for one lucky participant to win a hardcover, first edition, autographed copy of the first fantasy novel in my CHOICES series, CHOICES MEANT FOR GODS. All you have to do is stop in during one of the tour dates and leave a comment at that day's fabulous blog to have your name entered in the drawing. (Remember to put your e-mail address in your comment so we can reach you if you're the winner!) A list of tour dates and blogs to visit is at the Goddess Fish blog site.

Third, I'm doing some IRL appearances this fall to support CHOICES MEANT FOR KINGS. I'll have more announcements about that and how these appearances are coming about...because it's that cool...as soon as contracts are complete and I have permission to blab. :) In the meantime, if you're in the Tampa area Saturday, Sept. 12, I hope I can see you at the Deep Carnivale literary event on the Hillsborough Community College Campus. I'll be set up in the Performing Arts building with my fellow ArcheBooks authors Jane Kennedy Sutton (The Ride), Tina Murray (A Chance to Say Yes), and Henry Hermann (Beginnings) to sell & sign books from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and would love to meet some new Florida readers.

I've just confirmed a book signing at the Waterside Shops Barnes & Noble in Naples, Fla., for Oct. 31 from 10 a.m. to noon where I'll be signing all three of my titles. There are additional events listed on my fantasy Web site and I encourage you to check back there frequently for updates.

Have a fantastic weekend, everyone.
"Some days, I just want the dragon to win."
Tags: Deep Carnivale, fantasy, Jane Kennedy Sutton, Tina Murray, Henry Hermann, Barnes & Noble, Choices Meant for Kings

2009-09-04T14:40:00.003-05:00

If the Computer's a-Rockin'...
Or...The Dragon is going off-line for the weekend

I figured out how to complete a 90,000-word manuscript for the 3-Day Novel Contest.
We start with 72 hours minus 3 hours for sea turtle duty Saturday morning minus 8 hours for sleep breaks, peeing and eating/drinking/a quick shower to refresh myself sometime Sunday night or Monday morning minus 5 hours to read and edit the completed manuscript = 56 hours for typing/creating. (Yes, I have the outline they allow you to start with.)
This means I need to type at 26.7857 words per minute.
I can do that.
I'm a seriously fast typist.

I've got the room set up. The iTunes is loaded. The motivating CDs are next to the CD player with extra batteries next to it (the obnoxious package is already open so I won't waste time with that if the batteries in the CD player should die mid-weekend). I have reference books picked out and set up. I have an alarm clock with a "nap" function set up and wake times already programmed. I have a bowl with some chocolates and Little Debbie Snack Cakes next to the writing area with paper towels. I have hot dogs and carrot sticks in the fridge. There's a straight shot from the computer to the bathroom. Washcloths are already next to the sink. Criminy...this has to work.

See ya'll Tuesday!
"Some days, I just want the dragon to win."
Tags: 3-Day Novel Contest, novel, manuscript

2009-09-03T07:04:00.007-05:00

Context 22 was a Blast

Or...The Dragon highly recommends Context 23 in 2010

An intimate crowd of intelligent, sophisticated sci-fi, fantasy and horror booklovers met at the Doubletree Worthington hotel in Columbus, Ohio, last weekend for a mix of scientific, literary and educational panels and workshops. Of course we sampled the usual con fare of high-calorie yummies in the con suite and take-me-back sci-fi movies and shows in the film suite and I-spent-too-much-money in the dealer room and security's-at-the-door at the Apex party, but, for me, the panels and workshops were the draw. I thoroughly enjoyed serving on them and listening in on the ones I wasn't a part of. I was particularly impressed with the idea of having public interviews of the guests of honor. Pictured in this post, Author Geoffrey Girard (at right) interviews Editor Guest of Honor Jason Sizemore, who founded the Apex empire, in a relaxed, informal setting where audience members were able to toss in a question or two as it related to the topic at hand.

I'm sorry that I didn't snap a photo of the main guest of honor, James Hogan, or Author Catherine Asaro. I don't think I want people comparing me to her anymore, though...I couldn't avoid her "concert" because I was in a panel discussion in the room right next door. No one should ever allow me to do karaoke in public as if it's a good marketing ploy. Can I get promises out of friends, please? Shoot. Me. First.

I received some excellent advice from Juno Editor Paula Guran to help me kick start my revisions of Book III of the Choices trilogy. My floundering can stop. And I exchanged books with Author Stephen Zimmer so we can read in our spare time. His novel The Exodus Gate looks terribly intriguing to me, but I was out of money, so I suggested a trade. Luckily, he was up for it. Thanks, Stephen! I also attended a reading with Linda Robertson, who reminded me greatly of my Duranie sistah Robyn. She tickled my funny bone with a chapter from her first novel Vicious Circle. I sat in on the panel "Writing Vampires" where she and Rosemary Laurey, Denise Verrico and Tim Mulcahy educated us.

In this post, you'll see a picture of me with Author Rosemary Laurey (middle) and Holly McClure (at right) from the "Mining Gems in Writing" panel on Saturday morning. A couple other folks were supposed to join us but the morning must have been too early. I also moderated the panel on "Writing Fantasy" with the very capable and well-spoken Cinda Williams Chima, Scott Sandridge and Tim Mulcahy. Scott and I joined Holly McClure to speak about "What's a Monster?" Rosemary and I were the only two that showed up for our panel on "Fairy Tales" but the audience participated with us wonderfully. Scott, Stephen and I turned the panel on "Since When Can I Understand the Troll Speaking?" into a roundtable discussion with the small audience that turned out Sunday morning and it ended up a great success.

I managed to sell a few copies of Choices Meant for Gods and What C hoices We Made while at the convention. I handed out a ton of information on Choices Meant for Kings. I debuted my new stand-up display banner during the two-hour mass autograph session, which was a great hit. Quite a successful event on Saturday afternoon. I think the folks who organize Context have got themselves a winner. And now that they've moved to an open, airy, bright hotel with a friendly, accommodating staff, nothing can stop them. I served at Context 20 two years ago and found that hotel stuffy and the staff surly. This year the Doubletree Worthington was a breath of fresh air. Even the person driving the shuttle back to the airport was a friendly, engaging gentleman who could talk intelligently about the city and its cultural events.

Overall, Context 22 was a fabulous experience. Kudos to the staff! Kudos to the guests of honor! I look forward to coming back next year!

"Some days, I just want the dragon to win."

Tags: Context 22, convention, sci-fi, fantasy, Doubletree Worthington, James Hogan, Jason Sizemore, Linda Robertson, Rosemary Laurey, Scott Sandridge, Stephen Zimmer, Geoffrey Girard, Sandy Lender, Tim Mulcahy

2009-09-03T06:38:00.002-05:00

Be it Ever so Humble…
Or…The Dragon gives some insight to aspiring authors

Be it ever so humble, there’s no place like the early stages of a budding career. You know those days. You’re not famous yet. You don’t have the oodles of cash and a limo waiting curbside when you land in a foreign city for the book tour date that your publicist set up for you.

Please please please don’t read this post as a complaint, because I’m not really complaining. Part of me is laughing at myself. Part of me is terminally grateful for the opportunity I’m in the middle of. Part of me is shaking my head at the opportunity swirling down the drain as Fate cackles somewhere in the background…

I’ll start with the humbling experience of rolling quarters, dimes, etc. so I’d be sure to have enough money in the bank to cover the expenses this weekend. There’s a note for aspiring authors to write down. When budgeting for marketing expenses, remember that bizarre stuff will creep up in the weeks before a planned convention, conference, book signing, speaking engagement, etc. (If the event you’re to attend is out of town, the bizarre stuff will be more expensive.) I advise having an “emergency” marketing fund stashed somewhere. I used my emergency marketing fund to purchase a few copies of the brand new fantasy novel, Choices Meant for Kings, to have here at Context 22. Oops. One of the “bizarre stuffs” was the printer’s inability to get it here in time for the convention. Rar.

Another note for aspiring authors is that you’ve got to be assertive and take the bull by the horns. You’ve heard this elsewhere. This is not new. But apply it to travel as well as your writing, pitching, and marketing. I sat in one of my two connecting cities (did I mention that I’m doing this on a budget?) yesterday listening to an American Airlines gatekeeper inform us that the plane had a mechanical issue. Maintenance was checkin’ on that. They’d give us an update. When we still had no joy on the rockets at one hour past takeoff, I went up to the podium and asked them to put me on a new flight. They did. I made it to my destination in time for all three of my scheduled events at Context. I found out (when seeking my luggage around midnight last night) that the original flight didn’t leave Miami until 5:30ish. Not good. (My copies of Choices Meant for Gods are in my luggage. So I have one copy of each of my works with me. Can’t sell those! But I can give away the postcards and bookmarks I brought in my carryon.)

So while I was washing out my clothes with the hotel’s shampoo, I thought of this blog entry. It’ll make a great story to tell on Oprah one day. “I didn’t have enough money to be extravagant, so I ate a bag of nuts and the cookie that the Doubletree Worthington hotel gave me upon check-in that day. I washed my clothes in the sink and hung them to dry over the heater. Thank God they had a complimentary breakfast included in the Context 22 room package.”

He he he. The really cool thing is everybody here is exceptionally nice. We’re all book geeks and sci-fi nerds. I love it! I’m among my kin. I’ll post another blog later in the weekend to give a rundown of the coo-el stuff we’re doing (first—to knock this moaning thing out of the top spot on the blog and second—to let you guys know how fab this con is). If my luggage arrives, it’ll have the cord for my camera…and I can post pictures…

“Some days, I just want the dragon to win.”
Tags: Context 22, budget, Choices Meant for Kings, writing, pitching, marketing, convention, Doubletree Worthington

2009-08-21T13:03:00.003-05:00

ArcheBooks Publishing Releases Choices Meant for Kings
Or...The Dragon announces the release of the second novel in the Choices trilogy today

Amazon.com and the bookstores will have their copies soon, but until the book-publishing-industry hoops are jumped through, you can order your copy of Choices Meant for Kin gs from the ArcheBooks site with a 25% discount now.

Fantasy Author Sandy Lender will post a few excerpts from the new fantasy novel at her Web site this weekend, but early testimonials, information, and a free sample of the first few chapters is up at the publisher's site right now. Get your hardcover edition with the publisher discount or get the eBook format for only $3.99.

Enjoy!
"Some days, I just want the dragon to win."
Tags: fantasy author, Sandy Lender, fantasy novel, Choices Meant for Kings, discount

2009-08-17T08:30:00.004-05:00

Kindle Declines as eBook Ease Rises Elsewhere
Or...The Dragon brings you Kindle's degeneration with good news attached

As the technorati among us have discovered, you can read electronic books on a plethora of devices. The Kindle from Amazon has its nifty features; the Kindle II gets the paper (newspaper, that is). But a recent article from Fox News shows you how the simple Blackberry or other pda can pick up those electronic versions of novels and bring you up to speed with your fave characters. (The link is http://tinyurl.com/KindleDeath in case that anchor text didn't work for ya.)

Keep in mind, all the eBooks from ArcheBooks Publishing, including my Choices Meant for Gods and next week's release of Choices Meant for Kings can be read on a Blackberry, a Sony eReader, a computer screen, etc. And no Big Brother at Amazon or one of their affiliated publishers will rescind the content after the $3.99 purchase...

Bonus Note: How much does a Kindle cost these days? Nothing if you win it from AuthorIsland. Fantasy Author Sandy Lender is participating in their Kindle giveaway this month. Good luck to you!

"Some days, I just want the dragon to win."
Tags: Kindle, eReader, electronic books, eBook, Amazon, ArcheBooks Publishing, Fantasy Author, Sandy Lender, Choices Meant for Gods, Choices Meant for Kings, AuthorIsland, Kindle giveaway, technorati

2009-08-12T11:50:00.003-05:00

Calling All Fantasy (and Sci-Fi and Horror) Readers to Context 22
Or...The Dragon invites you to Columbus, Ohio

Fantasy Author Sandy Lender will participate in a variety of panels at this year's Context convention in Columbus, Ohio, Aug. 28-30. Get more information on this inexpensive but jam-packed convention for Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Horror enthusiasts at www.contextsf.org. Special Guests include the Nebula Award-Winner Catherine Asaro. I bring her name to your attention not only because she rocks, but also because one of the reviewers for the upcoming Choices Meant for Kings compared my work to hers. Nice?

"Some days, I just want the dragon to win."
Tags: fantasy author, Sandy Lender, Context 22, Nebula Award

2009-08-09T18:30:00.004-05:00

Fantasy Author Sandy Lender Launches the World’s Coolest Fantasy Web Site EVER
Or…Check out Sandy Lender’s new fantasy Web site

So maybe that headline is a wee bit of an exaggeration, but, dudes, I totally have the coolest Web site I’ve ever seen. The gal who created it for me, Rae Monet, rocks the house. It’s at AuthorSandyLender.com. I encourage you to check it out. I encourage you to bookmark it. Come on back and visit it frequently because I update the News and Worlds pages most often. The Books page is going to get updated here pretty soon, too. Hooray!

If you want to be “nudged” when there’s an update at the new fantasy site, you can become a follower here and I’ll let ya know. Easy breezy on your part.

“Some days, I just want the dragon to win.”
Tags: web site, website, authorsandylender.com, fantasy, fantasy author, Sandy Lender, worlds

2009-08-05T19:18:00.004-05:00

Hear Fantasy Author Sandy Lender on the Radio
Or...The Dragon talks about dragons, sea turtles, Charlotte Bronte, Amanda Chariss, blogs, companion parrots and the new release of Choices Meant for Kings on the radio

The interview was only 10 minutes, but we covered a lot of ground. You can hear it (and my parrot Daisy) at this link: http://www.globaltalkradio.com/shows/astorytotell/ Just scroll past the Google ads to the gray table--my interview is saved at the top of the list currently (Wednesday, Aug. 5). Enjoy!

"Some days, I just want the dragon to win."
Tags: dragons, sea turtles, Charlotte Bronte, companion parrots, Choices Meant for Kings, fantasy author, Sandy Lender, Global Talk Radio

2009-08-03T21:01:00.005-05:00

Petri's Singing Roxanne

Or...The Dragon's exhausted from stress

What do these things have to do with each other? Petri's breathing had an unacceptable "click" sound to it this morning. He panted at me and I heard the "click" once or twice. My vet probably didn't realize she was on speed dial...

So my poor little sun conure had to endure a trip to the vet where we learned that he has a small broken bone. At some point yesterday, he must have fallen off his perch or flown into something when I wasn't in the room...something happened and he broke his keel. I am beyond distressed! The poor little thing! I can't imagine what went through his little bird mind when it happened. And I can't imagine what pain his little bird body was in. I feel so sorry for him.

Luckily, this is all the vet found wrong. His breathing is actually fine. So she gave me an antibiotic (to be sure nothing "sets in" around the break or with any of the air sacs in the area) with a pain reliever mixed into it. I dropped the appropriate dose in a tiny cap of blue Gatorade (Petri LOVES blue Gatorade) and he drank it up like manna from Heaven. Thank goodness! So he's already had his first dose.

He's also settling in quite nicely under a heat lamp, which is the reference to the "red light" in Roxanne. When I first put the regular heat lamp on him this afternoon, it was just a normal heat lamp from one of the reptile cages. (Sorry, Josh.) But I be-bopped out to the pet store this evening and got this nice little night lamp for Petri. He seems to have accepted it with no worries. He's such a well-adjusted little sweetie. I really feel sorry for him and I'm mortified that I didn't notice he'd fallen anywhere hard enough to break a bone.

(The blue thing in the middle of his cage is his cozy hut. The yellow thing next to it is one of his toys. You can't see them all, but he's currently got four toys in there for tonight. I'll add a couple more to encourage him to spend more time resting/napping in his cozy tomorrow. He's supposed to be calm and quiet the next couple of weeks.)

"Some days, I just want the dragon to win."

Tags: sun conure, companion parrot, avian vet

2009-08-01T08:29:00.005-05:00

Sea Turtle Indecision

Or...The Dragon found turtle tracks this morning

In fabulous news, I found sea turtle tracks during my patrol this morning. What's bizarre is I found three. Two were obviously false crawls; quick turn-arounds where the turtle came up on shore, did a fast pivot, and went back out to the Gulf. The third, pictured here, looks like the disturbed sand of a nesting. Woo-hoo!

As I left the beach, I ran into a fellow Turtle Time volunteer (Hi, Chris!) who had two false crawls in her zones. We checked the first one out and it looks like her nightly visitor had a wider plastron than mine, so we may have had two turtle ladies seeking good nesting spots last night. How wonderful is that?

I posted a few extra pictures on my facebook page. You can be a fan of Fantasy Author Sandy Lender there.

"Some days, I just want the dragon to win."

Tags: sea turtles, fantasy author, Sandy Lender

2009-07-30T19:17:00.004-05:00

The Dragon Unveils the Cover of Choices Meant for Kings

Or...The Dragon is so stoked

Here it is: the long-awaited, much anticipated cover for Fantasy Author Sandy Lender's second fantasy novel, Choices Meant for Kings. Book II of the Choices trilogy is on its way to the printer. I'll have a release date for you shortly. Stay tuned. In the meantime, tell me what you think of this depiction of fantasy, adventure, and suspense!

If you'd like to get info on the upcoming novel, check the Books page at AuthorSan dyLender. Also, the first novel, Choices Meant for Gods, is on sale at Amazon and ArcheBooks, as well as half a dozen other places around the 'net.

"Some days, I just want the dragon to win."

Tags: fantasy author, Sandy Lender, Choices Meant for Kings, fantasy novel, adventure, suspense, fantasy

2009-07-30T19:10:00.003-05:00

Want to Enter a Website Contest?
Or...The Dragon hid a banner at AuthorSandyLender

These lovely folks who write romance book reviews are holding a contest from Aug. 1 through Aug. 31. It's sort of like a scavenger hunt. You visit participating Web sites to find their banner, click on it to get back to their site, participate, participate, participate...you get the idea. My fabulous web mistress has hidden the Two Lips Reviews banner on my Web site in a special place. Find it, click it, visit the Two Lips folks and good luck to you!

Woo-hoo!
"Some days, I just want the dragon to win."
Tags: Two Lips Reviews, romance reviews

2009-07-27T19:12:00.003-05:00

Want to Enter a Writing Contest?
Or...The Dragon gives you a daunting one

I sent off my registration for the 3-Day Novel Contest up in Canada today. It costs $50 to enter and requires a writer to wait until midnight Friday, Sept.4 to start writing. Then the writer types like mad until midnight Monday, Sept. 7. He/she prints off whatever was produced and sends it to the judges. The registration fee guarantees the material gets read (nice). Now, there's only one winner from this international contest, and that winner gets published, but the true value of the exercise is...well...the exercise. I mean, what were you planning to do over Labor Day weekend? For the past two years, I've spent an inordinate amount of money on getting lost among the throng at DragonCon. This year, I'm going to produce a novel. Of course, this is the weekend after a weekend in Columbus for Context 22 where I'll be running myself ragged serving on panels and doing readings and promoting the new novel, Choices Meant for Kings. Oh, yes, I said the new novel. Stay tuned because I'm making an announcement on that score later this week...

If you're interested in participating in the 3-Day Novel Contest, check out the site. You need to postmark your registration form by Sept. 4. And that means getting an international stamp...which means a trip to the post office for some of us.

"Some days, I just want the dragon to win."
Tags: 3-day novel contest, registration, Choices Meant for Kings

2009-07-25T20:32:00.003-05:00

New Dragons to Write About
Or...The Dragon gives you something real to put in your fantasy work

A story on Yahoo says German researchers discovered a new species of mangrove monitor lizard that’s related (somehow) to the Komodo dragon. How cool is that? Varanus lirungensis. Over in Indonesia. I have to say, dragons rock. (Especially small ones that have stayed hidden from human discovery for ages.)

"Some days, I just want the dragon to win."
Tags: Komodo dragon, dragon species, dragons, Indonesia, monitor lizard

2009-07-17T19:14:00.005-05:00

Join Fantasy Author Sandy Lender for Interview and Book Signing
Or...The Dragon invites you to Sarasota Borders for in-store event

Join me Monday, July 20th, at 4 p.m. for an interview for the Authors Connection radio show at the Sarasota Borders at Bee Ridge and U.S. 41. Right after the interview, which will be aired at multiple later dates, I'll be selling and signing copies of the fantasy novel Choices Meant for Gods and What Choices We Made.

Both are available on Amazon.com in print versions. If you want the eBook (which is oh-so-cheap, you know), you can grab it from the publisher's site. But I hope I can meet some new folks in Sarasota Monday afternoon!

"Some days, I just want the dragon to win."
Tags: fantasy author, Sandy Lender, fantasy novel, radio interview, book signing, Borders, Sarasota

2009-07-16T16:01:00.003-05:00

Plastic is So Bad

Or...The Dragon saves a duck from certain plastic doom

I leapt out of the car, startling the gentleman driving. Luckily, he’d stopped at a stop sign, but he wasn’t accustomed to me shouting, “oh my God, stop, stop the car” while flinging the seat belt around and exiting the car as if it were on fire. The duck I approached seemed similarly startled. It looked at me as if deciding, “human coming this way; do I fight or fly?” The poor thing stood next to one of those plastic six-pack rings. It was like an advertisement for pollution. I could hear Sigourney Weaver’s voice rattling off a statistic about pollution and bird deaths in my head. I could also hear the duck hissing at me—a series of deep-throat threatening hisses like a psychotic goose. I spoke kindly to him while I grabbed up the soda rings and he waddled warily to the side, keeping those brilliant shiny eyes on me the whole time. I got back in the car and Joe had to ask “What is wrong with you?”

Ooo. A chance to educate.

See, I hate to find plastic crap lying around. I live pretty darn close to the Gulf of Mexico so it’s doubly annoying to find plastic crap lying around. Sea turtles eat plastic bags that look like jellyfish and suddenly find themselves choking to death or too full to eat anything nutritious. Birds and small creatures get caught in these ridiculous soda rings that people are too busy to cut before tossing in the trash. I could go on for a looooong time on this diatribe. Instead, I’ll direct you to this excellent article from Monterey Bay Aquarium. If you have trouble with that link, try http://tinyurl.com/PlasticInOcean.

“Some days, I just want the dragon to win.”
Tags: pollution, sea turtles, duck, plastic rings, Monterey Bay Aquarium, Gulf of Mexico

2009-07-04T18:35:00.004-05:00

We Have Winners!
Or…The Dragon gives away books to celebrate successful online book tour

I haven’t posted at this blog for a month (or so) because I’ve been posting at a bunch of other places since June 1 for my third online book tour. The great news is the tour has been a great success. I’m surprised at the hits to this site. We went from 23,320 to 23,791 with no new posts from me. Odd stat, but cool to have folks checking in to learn more about me. My rank for Today the Dragon Wins at Technorati went from 376,090 to 269,519, which isn’t fabulous, but, hey, I’ll take the improvement. What I found bizarre is that, after being showcased (and linked) on 20 or so blogs, Today the Dragon Wins’ authority at Technorati went from 15 to 14. Methinks Technorati needs to adjust their system, eh? (There's a nifty green button at the upper right of this blog post where you can link to "favorite" this blog on Technorati, if you're so inclined.)

On Twitter, I went from 59 followers to 1,649 thanks to my participation with my good friend Jamieson Wolf in the Internet’s first live Tweeterview. (You can read the full transcript at this blog.)

I joined facebook in the middle of the tour and now have 125 connections there. At Amazon, my page for Choices Meant for Gods gained another five-star review and my ranking improved overall. Its best was 59,884 one Friday (late morning).

In other great news, I met some fun people during the tour. From the hosts to the visitors, fantasy readers with excellent ideas and senses of humor made me thankful for the time, energy, and dollars I put into the tour. It was worth it. Now, I get to give a little extra “thank you” to a few of those folks. My tour organizers pulled names from those who left comments each week during the tour and here are the winners who will be receiving hardcover, first edition, personalized copies of Choices Meant for Gods in the mail!

The tour host winner is Cynthia Eden. We had the most comments (29—not counting duplicates or my comments) the day she hosted me at her site.

Week One Winner: Pauline Baird Jones
Week Two Winner: My Newest Stalker, Mysti Holiday
Week Three Winner: Lisa Lawmaster Hess
Week Four Winner: M (love the Bond reference!)
Week Five Winner: Deborah Panger

With the comments link below, please join me in not only congratulating these folks on winning a fabulous vacation-in-a-book, but also in thanking them for supporting me during the tour with their kind words. It was a fantastic journey.

(You can also follow this blog so you're notified when I update with news.)

“Some days, I just want the dragon to win.”
Tags: fantasy, dragon, winners, book, Choices Meant for Gods, online book tour, blog, Technorati, Twitter, Tweeterview, Jamieson Wolf, facebook, Cynthia Eden, Pauline Baird Jones, Mysti Holiday, Lisa Lawmaster Hess, Deborah Panger

2009-05-31T21:52:00.010-05:00

Where is Sandy Lender?
Or…The Dragon lists this month’s online book tour stops

Information about Fantasy Author Sandy Lender and her fantasy novel Choices Meant for Gods immediately follows this list of tour dates. We encourage you to stop by these blogs to visit with Sandy during her tour. If you leave a comment, you will be entered in a contest to win a hardcover, first edition, autographed copy of Choices Meant for Gods (one is being given away per week of the tour). If you can’t wait to see if you win the autographed print version, you can order the eBook at the publisher’s site. You can also check out reviews and pictures at Amazon.
This list will be updated as additional stops are confirmed.
(If you’re looking for regular updates/news about Sandy and what’s going on in the writer’s life this month, check with Nigel’s blog at http://sandylender.blogspot.com/.)

June 1 Travel the Ages
June 2 A.F. Stewart's Blog
June 3 Annekane's Weblog
June 4 The Perils of Pauline
June 4 Long and Short Reviews
June 5 Inspiration Ink
June 5 Jamieson Wolf
June 6 Lily Stone
June 11 Marianne Arkins
June 12 LRP
June 13 LRP
June 14 MLM
June 15 Laurie J. Edwards
June 16 LRP
June 17 Nicole Zoltack
June 18 Cynthia Eden
Participate in the first live online author Tweeterview (view press release here)
June 20 http://twitter.com/sandylender AND http://twitter.com/jamiesonwolf
June 22: Chris Redding
June 23: Christine Clemetson
June 24 Absolute XPress
June 25 Chic Book Chick
June 26 A Book Blogger's Diary
June 27 J.K. Coi
June 28 Deborah's Realm
June 30 Cate Masters
July 1 Alien Places
July 2 Hywela Lynn
July 3 Kathryn Kennedy

See you around the blogosphere!
Oh! And, just for grins, totally check out the turtle graphic at the bottom of my blog, right above my Twitter updates. How cute is that? When you click your mouse inside the graphic, it drops food pellets for the turtles to eat. Fabulous, I say.
“Some days, I just want the dragon to win.”
Tags: online book tour, Choices Meant for Gods, fantasy, twitter, tweeterview

2009-05-30T11:51:00.010-05:00

Who is Sandy Lender?
Or…The Dragon welcomes new folks to the insanity of a fantasy author’s blog

From June 1 to July 3 I’m “doing” an online book tour. Regular visitors know I’ve done two of these in the past. Remember that two-month stretch in the summer of 2007? Eegads. When What Choices We Made was released back in November, I did a much more sensible two-week online tour, but spent the second week of the tour in a hospital room that had no Internet access. (To be honest, I was so out of it that my posts would have been pretty pathetic that week anyway.)

This month things are different! I’m totally healthy and champing at the bit to do some extra promotion for Choices Meant for Gods, my fabulous fantasy novel available from ArcheBooks Publishing, at Amazon.com, at Barnes & Noble, or anywhere fine and fabulous fantasy is sold.

Considering I’m promoting the whole month as “Sandy’s guest starring at everyone else’s blogs,” I decided to post my tour stops here at Today the Dragon Wins (above) and leave this blog mostly dormant for the duration. But that leaves visitors a little “wanting,” right? Hence this explanatory post and “unofficial” bio.

I’m Sandy Lender, fantasy author and magazine editor. The magazine editing is the day job that pays the bills. As surprising as this is going to sound, writing isn’t my whole life. I spend Saturday mornings protecting sea turtles. I live in Southwest Florida where I serve in the Turtle Time non-profit group helping track and protect these lovely creatures. Pictures from the section of beach I patrol speckle this blog and Nigel’s.

I’m also obsessed with Duran Duran. You’ll find me at their July 11 show in California with my friends Christine and Jennine. Pictures of me with the hhhhhot John Taylor on different occasions appear on my MySpace page.

Taking care of pets also takes some of my time. I have a beautiful sun conure named Petri (after the baby pterodactyl in The Land Before Time) and a gorgeous new Timneh African Grey named Mouse (because she squeaks). I also have a 21-year-old turtle and a pancake tortoise whose age escapes me right now.

My reading interests include fantasy, of course, but start with Charlotte Bronte. I consider her a genius when it comes to dialogue and suspense. I can’t open one of her books to “check something” without getting pulled in. She captures me because she’s a master of literature. Her sisters are equally talented, but there’s something about Charlotte that appeals to me in a way I can’t explain in a simple “section” of a blog post.

I like to have green plants around me and I’m happiest when I sit among the birds and the plants with some chocolate cookies for me, crackers for the birds, and my laptop for a writing session. Of course, birds like to have attention on themselves, not the laptop…

If you’d like more information about me (although I’m not sure what else is interesting), I’ve got web pages all over the Internet. Brief list below. I encourage you to follow me on Twitter for infrequent but usually insane updates on bizarre stuff that happens to me. All of these links take you away from this page, so you’ll have to hit the “back” button to come back to the list. (Because it’s that fabulous of a list!) Personally, I recommend the Twitter and DragonDiscussions links for joining non-spam stuff. Then, OF COURSE, I recommend the first three links so you can order my books. Bwuahahahahaha.

http://tinyurl.com/CMFGamazon
http://tinyurl.com/WCWMamazon
ArcheBooks Publishing (discount at the publisher’s site)
http://twitter.com/sandylender
FiledBy (where you can see my trailers)
Ning
Dragon Discussions (where you can join the group)
Author Island
Good Reads
Red Room
Shelfari
AuthorsDen
Suspense Magazine
LinkedIn
BookTour
MySpace
http://tinyurl.com/WCWMvideo (please leave a nice comment for the producer!)
http://tinyurl.com/CMFKvideo (please leave a nice comment for the producer!)
http://tinyurl.com/Dragonvideo (please leave a nice comment for the producer!)

I know that’s a lot of crap to fling at you all at once, but, in a nutshell, that’s Fantasy Author Sandy Lender. Thank you for stopping in at Today the Dragon Wins, and thank you for reading all this. There’s more, as you can see by the extensive archive list at left. Enjoy your visit!

“Some days, I just want the dragon to win.”
Tags: fantasy author, Sandy Lender, online book tour, Duran Duran, sea turtle, Charlotte Bronte

2009-05-29T16:58:00.004-05:00

Survive Your Amazon Ranking with a Good Review
Or…The Dragon talks about the Amazon marketing blues today

My fantasy novel Choices Meant for Gods had been available at http://tinyurl.com/CMFGamazon for about a day when a friend of mine sent a message through an online group saying something to the effect of OMGlookatyourrankingonamazonlookatitnow. The note may have been in all caps.

I obeyed her to find my ranking at 200,000+. Well, that ain’t half bad for a then-unknown author with only one book out. But I recalled a warning a fellow writer gave at a meeting in the not-so-distant past. He cautioned that your book can perform much better in a day than the numbers/rankings at Amazon reflect. Here’s why:

The great and powerful Oz O’Amazon hides behind his curtain and sorts information every hour. He sends all those computer-language ones and zeroes skittering toward their end equations until, at about some point past the hour, according to the presenter, the rankings at Amazon.com change. This is every hour.

It’s enough to make an author bi-polar. And I don’t think you have to be a fantasy author like me who’s already half way to a state of confusion to develop the condition.

So I looked at my 200,000+ ranking for Choices Meant for Gods when my friend told me to, came back an hour later to a 100,000+ ranking, and visited that night to find a 68,000+ ranking. I was elated. Elated, I tell you! But I have seen numbers all over the board since then. One recent night when I was contemplating the arsenic-laced Kool-aid because my ranking had been down around 1,400,000+, I checked one last time to see what exact figure to include in my suicide note. I found the blasted thing back at 200,000+! How does that happen? (I think that hour’s traffic can be attributed to an Author Island blog post, actually, and I recommend every published author get in touch with DeNita Tuttle for her much-needed support.)

There are other ways authors can manipulate their Amazon ranking. First, I would ask if it’s worth your time and energy. Second, I would caution you against unscrupulous agencies preying upon the insecure or inexperienced in our industry. Beware of PR companies that want to charge a few thousand dollars to get your Amazon ranking up to No. 1. Look closely at what they’re going to do:
* What gimmick or free give-away are they offering when someone buys your book? Maybe you’re cool with a bedroom toy for a free giveaway if you’ve got an erotic romance to promote, but, for the sweet romance couched in my fantasy Choices Meant for Gods, a French tickler would definitely be over the top!
* Who are they going to align you with for promotional purposes? I’ll keep politics out of this blog post, and you probably want to keep political affiliations away from your romance, memoir, sci-fi, or mystery title, too.
* What sort of discount off your book are you going to have to take? If you’re just interested in building audience with a first book or a new genre, maybe giving up a small royalty in your contract is no big deal. For Choices Meant for Gods, I was so pleased to get my foot in the publishing-industry door that I didn’t fear the industry’s warning cry that I’d make no money on the first book. I went in with both eyes open, knowing this is an audience-building venture.
* How much are you going to have to pay? You have to weigh this marketing idea against other promotional and marketing weapons in your arsenal. In this day and age, few publishers hand out copious amounts of cash to authors for promotional efforts. Promoting and marketing your book is your responsibility. Luckily for me, ArcheBooks Publishing has some technologies in place to help its authors and the man in charge is a wiz when it comes to creating banners, flyers, ads for print or web, etc. Also in my favor: ArcheBooks Publishing has a stable of authors who have done this before and they could warn me against the predators who would seek out a fledgling author and scam her with an Amazon-rank-hiking scheme.
* Is your No. 1 ranking guaranteed? Just what will the company you’re paying guarantee to do with your Amazon ranking? Is it guaranteed for an hour? When is that hour—at 2 p.m. on a Saturday or at 3 a.m. on a Wednesday? Or is the No. 1 ranking guaranteed for a day, which I personally define as 24 hours.
These things are often a scam. Let me emphasize that for you. These things are often a scam. Please use your hard-earned money wisely and protect your hard-earned reputation carefully.

Now here’s something you can do to improve not just an arbitrary number, but your sales as well: get some good reviews. Do you know people who have already reviewed books on Amazon.com before? Those are good folks to talk to because they have a track record. Politely request they read and review your exciting new breakthrough work. Now, a person who already has a few reviews under his or her belt will carry more weight than your Aunt Edna who’s never heard of Amazon before, but, hey, if Aunt Edna’s the only person biting right now, she’s better than no review at all! (unless she pans it…)

Beware of site owners who are paying for reviews. Potential buyers will start to pick up on that and get turned off. You’re better off selecting your own reviewers who are doing it because they love stories, love to read, love to offer their opinions and love to get home-baked cookies in the mail. (I’m joking. I’ve never sent cookies to a reviewer…yet.)

And here’s an interesting fact for you. When a five-star review goes up on Amazon, the book’s sales are supposed to increase by 38 percent. That’s nice.

So manipulate the ranking at Amazon.com (or B&N.com) however you wish, but don’t let it rule your life. Seeing it at 200,000+ at 6 p.m. doesn’t reflect the 45 books that sold at 10 a.m., or vice versa. The great and powerful Oz hasn’t perfected a system to make you look good for the whole day with numbers, but you know what? I think you look good because you have a published book! Hooray for you!

And if you’re still working to get your book to that stage, there are tips and tidbits from interviewed authors here at Today the Dragon Wins to help you pursue that goal. We’re all pullin’ for ya.

“Some days, I just want the dragon to win.”
Tags: amazon, Choices Meant for Gods, ranking, numbers, fantasy

2009-05-26T08:05:00.003-05:00

Ode to Craig Ferguson
Or...The Dragon puts a smile on your face today

I adore Craig Ferguson. I would give blood/plasma/a kidney to be on his show (to promote Choices Meant for Gods, of course!) so I could hear that fabulous accent up close and personal. I'm so sorry that I didn't get my divorce done in time to offer him an easy way to citizenship. Bwuahahahaha. Just kidding. (Or am I?)

To put a smile on everyone's face today, here's a link to a very fun video with Craig Ferguson from the opening of the Late Late Show. Enjoy and let me know what you think!

http://tinyurl.com/IluvuCraig

"Some days, I just want the dragon to win."
Tags: Craig Ferguson, Late Late Show, Choices Meant for Gods

Today the Dragon Wins

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Roger Taylor Band Update, August 2010

Jeff Dunham Achmed's "Jingle Bombs"

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