She's at The Blog for Her Interview

For those of you visiting Nigel Presents Sandy Lender for the first time, drawn here by the Choices Meant for Gods Online Book Tour, she wants me to explain two things before we get started so you won't be lost. I am Nigel Taiman (oh, come on, I have to tell them my full name?). I am Joshua Nigel Taiman, but no one uses my given name. I am the lead male character from Choices Meant for Gods and the fantasy author, Sandy Lender's, current muse.

Sandy takes today during her online book tour to visit this blog and answer a few questions about her writing life.

Nigel: First question: if you have this blog for me to manage, and it's supposed to be about you as a writer, why are you so quick to censor it and keep me from talking about you as a writer?

Sandy Lender: Please tell me this interview isn't just a bid for leniency in your postings. Nigel Presents Sandy Lender came about because my publisher, Bob Gelinas of ArcheBooks Publishing suggested to all of his authors that we set up blogs for marketing and branding purposes. I was hesitant because I'm a fairly private person, and what writers aren't? I've got you managing the blog because I felt kinda silly journaling my daily life for people in first person prose. I'm censoring it because I still don't feel entirely comfortable sharing "stuff," and I know you can relate. I mean, should we develop a blog called Sandy Presents Nigel Taiman where I talk about your escapades in your youth when you and Henry used to frequent--

Nigel: I understand completely. Next question: Is purple your favorite color, and why did you select it for Amanda Chariss's eyes and gem?

Sandy Lender: Ooh, good question, Love. Yes, purple is one of my favorite colors (I'm also keen on blue and I wear a lot of Cardinal Red, which I'm sure you've noticed). The lighter purple, closer to lavender, is Chariss's typical eye color, as you're vividly aware, and for your guests who might be stopping in for the first time, Chariss is the main character in my fantasy novel Choices Meant for Gods. She was born with an amethyst on her cheekbone, high up near the corner of her right eye, and no one knew what it was a sign of until she and The Master Rothahn travel to Tiurlang and find its meaning, and her purpose, in the prophecy scrolls guarded there. I've recently picked up a book called Love Colors by Pamala Oslie that details the different personality traits inherent in the different colors that we're attracted to.

Nigel: We should have Pam at our blogs for an author interview.

Sandy Lender: I tried to contact her a couple months ago and received no response. I'll try again at the end of my CMFG Online Book Tour.

Nigel: Now you hadn't read Love Colors back when you selected Mandy's eye color, so how did you know about the properties assigned to color? And, along this same vein, how did you come up with some of the other larger themes and smaller details in Choices Meant for Gods?

Sandy Lender: It's good that I can read your mind, Honey, because that didn't make much sense. I think you're asking where my ideas come from, and that answer is you. You. Chariss. John Taylor. Charlotte Bronte. Basically, the muses in my life offer me constant inspiration. My pen is never motionless, oh you who disturbs me with ideas in traffic. If the insurance company only knew... The color knowledge is something I picked up over the years. You read and learn that sort of info on your own because they don't exactly teach college courses on which color groups are more likely to attract artistic persons to your life. Now the Anglo-Saxon theme of exile that Chariss and Hrazon portray in Choices Meant for Gods I learned in my Old English literature classes. The mead hall look of Arcana's family dining room (and please note the significance of you and Chariss meeting at the mead hall table without me having to come right out and call you Hrothgar) comes from my Old English studies. The Thornfield Hall feel of Arcana in general comes from my channeling of Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre. So I would say the ideas come from my muses and my sources of inspiration coalescing in my brain at random moments when I have a pen to write them down.

Nigel: After watching you for months, I've also learned that one of your sources of inspiration is Duran Duran. Now they're a--

Sandy Lender: That took you months to learn?

Nigel: Well, a couple of days. I wasn't exactly well-versed with your society or its music scene when you first pulled me in so it took a bit to figure out why people always said the band's name twice. My question about this is how do they relate to fantasy literature?

Sandy Lender: Ummm, have you looked in a mirror?

Nigel: What?

Sandy Lender: We're gonna leave it at that. And if Dawn is reading today, she can share Carol's comments about Master Rothahn. Just keep in mind that CMFG is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and indications depicted therein are either products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Nigel: Getting back to a writer's life question, I want you to tell our visitors how your current life events affect your writing style and the events that take place in the Choices Meant for Gods trilogy.

Sandy Lender: Sting once quoted some philosopher saying that artists are at their most creative or do their best creating when they are in the most pain. He said this of himself when creating the Soul Cages album after the loss of his parents. It was a fabulous album. I have been going through a lot of crap and depression and whatnot for several years, and there's a very dim light at the end of a very long tunnel, so I have a lot of creativity in my life yet to come.

Nigel: Is it true that it's better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all?

Sandy Lender: I don't want to give the impression that I was talking about love in the answer I just gave. Love is over-rated and not worth the effort all these poor sots put into it. But that's an interesting question for you to phrase that way... I should have expected it from you. I had to give a speech in speech class in high school where I convinced the audience of something. This was the topic I got. I kid you not. I had to convince my classmates that it's better to love someone and lose them - get your heart ripped up and trampled - than never experience love at all. I succeeded because I can manipulate people's heartstrings. It's a gift writers must have. I ask your forgiveness now for manipulating you, Dear.

Nigel: I hate it when you make me nervous like that. I have no more questions because you've crossed all these others off my list, so let's just end with how can folks get a copy of Book I, Choices Meant for Gods?

Sandy Lender: You're so good at marketing, Darling. You see why I invited you here to do this? Folks can pick up their copy off of Amazon and get free shipping at http://www.amazon.com/Choices-Meant-Gods-Sandy-Lender/dp/1595071652/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/002-3163519-8684042?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1181832464&sr=8-1. They can also get it from my publisher's site, but they have to pay shipping there...http://www.archebooks.com/BookIDX/Indexes/Fantasy/CMG/CMGDesc.htm.

Thank you for taking the time, Sandy. If any visitors have questions for the author, or for me, just put them in the comments field and we'll be checking in during the day.

Tags: Choices Meant for Gods, Sandy Lender, fantasy author, fantasy novel, Duran Duran, Old English