She Got Flowers...Sort of

So my fantasy author got home from today's radiation zapping and said, "oooo, the apartment smells a bit like stinky trash. I'll take that out." She proceeded to do this. On her way back from the dumpster she saw a woman walking around the corner of the building with a large vase of tall pink roses and a plush white teddy bear clinging to the large vase. She was instantly intrigued.

The woman began walking up the steps to the apartment and Sandy became further intrigued.

But no.
The woman stopped halfway up the stairs, looked at the number on the door and started back down the stairs. When she saw Sandy walking toward the building, she called out, "Do you know which apartment is 202?"

Sandy was very disappointed, but after relating the story to a friend, she received the lovely image above via e-mail. She says it's as cool as the real thing.

Tags: fantasy author

She Hasn't Repressed This One, Careless Memory #13

A Glimpse into a Writer's Life
When my fantasy author, Sandy Lender, was a young girl, she stood in the check-out line at the grocery store with her mother one day. In your society, towns are so highly populated that people have to stand in line with their food to pay for—oh, she tells me you already know this.

Anyway, Sandy stared at the headlines on the magazines while they waited their turn in line, and one particularly large title stood out from the others. It said, "Talking to Your Teens About Virginity". She found this curious, so, in front of everyone in the store, she turned from the magazines to her mother and asked, out loud, "Mom, what's virginity?" And she pronounced it incorrectly, to boot.

Given the nature of this parent-offspring moment, she knew, in the future, that she had to incorporate it into a story. (You know how those writers are…everything's fair game.) She knew that a young Amanda Chariss, the heroine of her epic fantasy trilogy, had to supply one of these embarrassing moments to her guardian and mentor, the great wizard Hrazon. Because there's no room for such backstory in the Choices Meant for Gods trilogy, Sandy included the little tale in the upcoming short story anthology What Choices We Made. You won't be able to get your hands on the piece until the end of November (the busiest shopping day of the year, she says…whatever that means), but, as soon as the book is available, she'll let me announce it here and you can enjoy Hrazon's embarrassment as much as I did when I read it.

In the meantime, the first novel in the trilogy is already out. You can pick it up at Barnes & Noble, Borders, etc., or order it online or at Amazon.

Tags: virginity, Choices Meant for Gods, What Choices We Made, fantasy author, Sandy Lender, writers life