Sandy's Bio -

To help us dig for more info!

Sandy Lender began writing stories as soon as she learned to string words together on the page. As a child she entertained the folks in her great grandmother’s apartment building in Southern Illinois with tales of squeaky spiders and mice picking berries, and then won awards with writing projects as she moved through the elementary and high school systems in the St. Louis area. It was apparent that a career in journalism was her calling, and she found herself proofreading, editing, and (finally) writing for trade publications after she graduated from Truman State University in Missouri. Now she writes in Southwest Florida where her love of sea turtles and all things related to the Gulf waters keeps her imagination growing. Her epic fantasy novel Choices Meant for Gods is now available from ArcheBooks Publishing at http://www.archebooks.com/BookIDX/Indexes/Fantasy/CMG/CMGDesc.htm. You can get information about grammar and writing from her main blog at www.todaythedragonwins.blogspot.com.

If You Missed Her...

On my myspace blog, don't fear! Sandy Lender will be here (that really wasn't intended to rhyme) on Monday!

Come on over and read her interview, ask questions or just hang.

~Raven

Promo Day

This Saturday I'll be attending Promo Day. It's a free on-line conference for writers and readers. If you want to see what's new on the shelves from the authors - go to the Promo chat room. If you'd like to talk about the writing industry, go to the Writer's chat.

I'll be hopping around in both!

Hope to see you there :)

~Raven

Nudge of the Week

Yeees it's back! Now that my computer is somewhat back on track.

Characters are the backbone of any story. Where do they come from? All around us, within us...they walk out from the mists of our minds.

Make a list of the top five personality traits that grate the most on your nerves. Then try to design a sympathetic character who has one of those traits.

Good luck!

~Raven
Author of Apparitions (ArcheBooks May 2007)

I Have the Best Friends in the WORLD!!

Seriously, they are.

Lain spent ungodly hours working on my computer and putting up with my frustration during this entire thing. And he did so cheerfully! I was very impressed. I'd have told myself to shut up and quit moaning about losing writing time several times...(If I were him, which I'm not thankfully). He didn't do anything but try to make it better.

Mark has been working on getting labels done for the massive mailings I've been doing. Putting up with me being cranky while trying to juggle everything while catching the balls I'm missing so they don't bonk me in the head on their way down. And still offering to do more! Amazing. He even called today, which cheers me up any day, and took time to hash out some just for fun plots to play with. Not to mention tell me he had free time this week...

My friend Lawren, sensing I was stressed, ordered me to take a night off and just watch movies. (Good call Lawren!) Then, last night, as I was tired and drained and wondering just what in the world I was supposed to be doing at that moment...she calls me. Telling me about a lady that had picked up my card and was excited about Apparitions. The timing couldn't have been better. Nor the fact that Lawren herself was excited. Something about the excitement of friends makes things look different, less overwhelming. To top it off, after she heard that publishers do little to market a book and that it's, for the most part, on the shoulders of the author - she took pity on me. The kind soul offered to help me with the mountains of Marketing To Dos that have managed to mound up around me.

Sandy Lender (fellow author - I'll be hosting her here for an interview next week - so drop in and ask her questions or talk!) sent me a wonderful email. Unbeknownst to me she sent Apparitions' first chapter to Jamieson Wolf. She also included a few other nifty tidbits! Thanks Sandy!

I was so impressed with all of them. I say 'thanks' and yet it seems so...not enough. But thanks guys! I don't think I could have made it this far without you guys and I'm not sure I could continue onward without your support, nudges (and sometimes boots...) to keep at it. You guys are the best!

AWOL

If you've been wondering where I've disappeared to...I just managed to get my computer back to par after a worm infested it...and ATE my hard drive. Pretty much wiped out everything, thankfully I have back ups of my writing. Phew. In the good news, I now have a new drive and lots more room for all the info I collect.

On the other hand it's been amazingly frustrating to re-install Windows and all the happy programs that go with it.