She's Home Again

I'm not listening to music at the moment, so I can't report on the moment's iTunes selection. I'm watching The Transporter with my fantasy author. Quite the violent movie, I must say. She's transfixed by it, even though she's seen it before.

On to the blog post.
My fantasy author, Sandy Lender, is home from her crazed Duran Duran vacation in Orange County, California, where she and two of her girlfriends, Christine and Jennine, enjoyed all the chaos and mayhem that a Duran Duran vacation entails. Now that she's home, I've got her on a strict writing schedule in the evenings so we can complete Book III of the Choices Meant for Gods trilogy. Luckily, she can write while watching this Jason Statham person in The Transporter.

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

She's Got Some Duran Thing Going On

I'm listening to New Moon on Monday by Duran Duran.

Today is Monday. There's a new moon today. My fantasy author, Sandy Lender, tells me this is a fabulous thing and cause for celebration. It wasn't until she popped one of the versions of Seven and the Ragged Tiger by Duran Duran that she owns into the CD player that I realized just what she meant.

Happy "New Moon on Monday" to other Duranies. My sympathies to other Duranie family members.

Tags: Duran Duran, Sandy Lender, fantasy, new moon

She Says It's a Form of Flattery

I'm supposed to tell you all that my fantasy author, Sandy Lender, is currently listening to Mad World by Tears For Fears. I guess it would be more appropriate to say I'm listening to Mad World by Tears For Fears while I post something promotional for her and she leans over my shoulder to make sure my promotional efforts are acceptable.

Anyway. The reason she says this is a form of flattery is because we're stealing the "update on iTunes" from an agent's blog that she was perusing last night. She was most impressed with the woman's musical selections on her iPod (I actually know what that is, by the way. Sandy has one. An iPod Nano that...what? Of course they care. They'll want to know what you listen to just as you wanted to know what that woman listened to.)

I have just been informed that no one cares yet what Sandy listens to. But for those of you who don't already know, it's usually Duran Duran.

I've also just been informed that I've wasted everyone's attention span on this nonsense instead of promoting Choices Meant for Gods, What Choices We Made, or the upcoming release Choices Meant for Kings, so you'll have to come back another day to hear more about them. My apologies.

Nigel Taiman
Tags: Mad World, Tears For Fears, Duran Duran, Choices Meant for Gods, fantasy author, Sandy Lender

She Was So Excited She Could Hardly Breathe

No, it wasn't another "brush with Duran Duran." This morning while on sea turtle patrol, my fantasy author, Sandy Lender, found three sea turtle crawls in her zones. She was ecstatic. Now, one of the crawls looked as if the turtle was just up on the beach checking things out, perhaps getting frustrated by a particularly difficult dune where digging activity was evident. At that crawl, the turtle did quite a bit of crawling around on the sand, as if she'd been disturbed by something.

Sandy felt sorry for her. As she puts it, "Dragging your body around the beach can't be easy when you're a turtle full of eggs."

Anyway, I'll post some pictures here. The one with "holes" that look like eyes is a nest with obvious ghost crab activity. Sandy was miffed (and concerned) to see ghost crabs were already messing around her turtle nest. You can see by the first picture that the crab has a sizeable entry and exit chamber. In the second picture, you see the shells Sandy has poked in the holes to aggravate the crab if it should be continuing to use the burrow. This is the practice the members of Turtle Time use to discourage the crabs from sticking around. (Oh, Sandy informs me she'd rather skewer the blasted little beasts, but that's not fair to the crabs who are just doing what crabs do.) Instead, the volunteers put shells, sticks and sand down the holes to irritate the crabs into moving elsewhere.

I was moderately concerned for her throughout the process because she gets winded easily these days. Because this is the "writer's life" blog I'm allowed to announce that she's got an obnoxious battle to fight over the next couple of months. She's been diagnosed with Hodgkin's Disease and all the enlarged lymph nodes and whatnot are in her chest around her breathing tube, so when she gets all excited about sea turtle nests, she starts coughing and wheezing as if I need to cart her away on some sort of stretcher. Combine that with the "oh my God, the stupid ghost crabs have been here already!" and getting her to breathe became my focus. You know, there are books to finish...I can't have her collapsing on the sand somewhere waiting for the tide to carry her out.

She's happily planting flowers now. The dead plant that she couldn't bring back to life finally irritated her enough that she had to replace it. So she went all out and put violets in the planter box in front of the lanai. This is something her landlord should be responsible for, but...we won't get into all that. But here's the odd thing she's done so far. She left the lanai door open so going back and forth with potting soil and plants would be easier. Of course, a lizard darted in. This sort of thing worries her because lizards that get trapped on the lanai usually starve to death. So she cornered the lizard, grabbed it without causing it to drop its tail, and took it back outside to release it. While she had it in her hands, it, naturally, opened its mouth and grabbed her thumb. Small lizard=no pain. But when she placed it on a tree outside, it didn't let go. In fact, it clamped down harder on her thumb. And there she stood. Next to a tree. With a lizard hanging from her thumb. For at least a solid minute.

The end of the story is she convinced the lizard to grab onto the tree instead and she finished planting all the flowers (they look lovely, by the way; Kora would be pleased with the scene) in the planter box. I'll go inspect the rest of what she's doing...

All my best,

Nigel

Tags: fantasy author, Sandy Lender, Duran Duran, Turtle Time

She's Letting Me Premier the Picture

My fantasy author, Sandy Lender, had this earth-shattering event two weekends ago when she went to Orlando. She met one of her muses, the one she claims inspired her creation of me (which boggles the mind if you think on it too long, so don't think on it for too long) and then blogged about it over at Today the Dragon Wins. Because this is the blog where we're supposed to talk about the writer's life, I complained. (Of course. I wouldn't really be doing my job if I didn't give her a little grief about breaking protocol, now would I?)

So she's letting me showcase the picture of her with Duran Duran.

Enjoy the "zaniness" of it all. She's just insane, as far as I can tell. The young lady with blonde hair standing between Roger Taylor and Simon LeBon is Jennine. Sandy is standing almost on top of John Taylor but between him and Nick Rhodes. She's the one who looks deliriously giddy. I believe she was. She says she's going to crop the photo and make it her Christmas card this year. (And I don't think she's joking. I can usually tell now when she's teasing me, but I think she's serious about this...)

All my best to you,

Nigel

Tags: fantasy author, Sandy Lender, Duran Duran

She Congratulates Loretta Wilson

If you check out yesterday's post at Today the Dragon Wins, you'll see all the details, because I'm not typing all that here (sorry, dear, but it was complex). My fantasy author, Sandy Lender, announced the winner of the December Choices Meant for Gods contest at http://www.todaythedragonwins.blogspot.com/. I would like to congratulate Loretta Wilson on a job well done!

For those of you who entered the contest but weren't drawn from the Duran Duran tour cap (yes, Sandy's graduated from the kitchen mixing bowl she used to use for drawings), you can pick up a copy of CMFG at http://www.amazon.com/Choices-Meant-Gods-Sandy-Lender/dp/1595071652/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1200155650&sr=1-1 with free shipping, or you can enter the new contest that I'm participating in. The contest details will be announced shortly at http://www.authorisland.com/. Good luck to you all!

Tags: Choices Meant for Gods, fantasy author, Sandy Lender, contest, Loretta Wilson, Duran Duran, Today the Dragon Wins

She Wishes You a Happy Duran Duran Appreciation Day

My fantasy author, Sandy Lender, is one of the biggest Duran Duran fans you'll ever meet. She's been obsessed for 23 years. Imagine that.

Today is (officially; this is real) Duran Duran Appreciation Day so she would like to celebrate with all of you. If you go to http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20038840_20038841_20047913,00.html you can hear the new song that the band has prepared in collaboration with an artist known as Timbaland (and I can't believe I just typed that) and another artist Sandy's obsessed with known as Justin Timberlake. The song is called Nite Runner and she wants me to say...no... (I'm not typing that. I don't care. That is in no way related to marketing.)

While listening to all the new Duran tunes you find around the web, you could also be reading Sandy Lender's epic fantasy novel, Choices Meant for Gods. (See, that's related to marketing, Sweetheart.) You can pick up the novel at http://www.amazon.com/Choices-Meant-Gods-Sandy-Lender/dp/1595071652/ref=dp_return_2/002-3163519-8684042?ie=UTF8&n=283155&s=books.

Tags: Choices Meant for Gods, Sandy Lender, fantasy author, fantasy novel, Duran Duran, Timbaland, Justin Timberland, Nite Runner

She Became Someone I Didn't Recognize

I don't think I can express how alarmed I was when my fantasy author literally changed before my eyes. It was Sunday night, her birthday, and she had been sitting in a line for about 10 hours to get into a venue in New York City to see the Duran Duran concert. So now it was time for the show. And she morphed into this insane creature. (So did everyone around her, by the way. It was frightening.) I couldn't believe my eyes. My ears are still ringing...and not from the music.

I learned a new word that I had to look up in the dictionary. The meaning is something I don't believe I'll type here because, as Sandy has pointed out before, youth under the age of 13 may access this site. What I can't quite understand is why she screamed this word randomly at the stage... Uh-oh. We're about to get censored. No, I haven't typed anything lewd.

Sandy Lender would like me to state that she sold copies of Choices Meant for Gods, signed copies of Choices Meant for Gods, and handed out tons of business cards and bookmarks while in New York, so her trip was also productive, not just the scream-fest I'm making it out to be in this post. I think I'll continue this another time when she's not hovering, because there's so much more to tell. (It was truly insane. I've never seen so many scantily-clad women in my life. Henry would have been in Paradise, which is probably why we didn't tell him we were going... )

She Says Celebrity Endorsements Work--Once in a Blue Moon

I can tell by the glint in her eye when she's teasing me. But I decided to take the bait the other day anyway. So I asked, "What's a blue moon?" I could deduce what celebrity endorsements are, but wasn't sure why she was talking about them while flipping the page on her Duran Duran calendar to June. She took a few minutes in responding because she was admiring the picture…

Turns out the moon (and you only have one in orbit around your planet) goes full once per month here. From time to time, though, that happens twice in a month, and the second time it happens, it is called a blue moon. It's not frequent, thus she was using it to illustrate that she is not frequently influenced by celebrity endorsements. Turns out John Taylor is wearing a pair of boots called New Balance Tennis Shoes in his (What? Then what are they called if not boots?) Sorry, Everyone. I thought men in this society wore boots and women wore shoes, but it appears I had my terminology wrong. John Taylor is wearing a pair of shoes called New Balance tennis shoes in his picture for the month of June and that's why fantasy author Sandy Lender elected to buy that brand of tennis shoe when she had to purchase said item a few months ago for a Duran Duran concert she was going to att… wait. (You wore tennis shoes to a Duran Duran concert? I don't think I believe you. Ohhhhh.) I have to explain that she had so injured her feet in a pair of high-heeled boots at a Duran Duran concert in October that she had no choice but to wear comfortable tennis shoes to one of their shows in November. By the gods.

What was this article supposed to be about?

Oh, yes, celebrity endorsements. She's going to see if she can get Simon LeBon to read Choices Meant for Gods and endorse it so all the other fans will go out and buy it. He (or you) can do so at http://www.amazon.com/Choices-Meant-Gods-Sandy-Lender/dp/1595071652/ref=dp_return_1/104-9089752-5140754?ie=UTF8&n=283155&s=books&qid=1175821346&sr=8-1.

Here's my assessment of the whole situation: Fantasy Author Sandy Lender has lost her pretty little mind.

Tags: Choices Meant for Gods, fantasy author, Sandy Lender, Duran Duran, New Balance, John Taylor, blue moon, full moon