Choices Meant For Kings

Hey, guess what? Author Sandy Lender is on a blog tour, and she agreed to stop by and talk to us. If you like fantasy you're going to love Sandy's work. So, here's Sandy.

Bringing Readers on a Writer’s Journey
By Fantasy Author Sandy Lender
http://www.authorsandylender.com

Elaine asked if I could write about my journey as a writer. She suggested a couple other topics that interested me, too, but this one tugged at the back of my mind. The journey of Sandy Lender as a writer? I guess I’d not thought of my writing as a journey before, and yet it really is.

I started out when I was way young—about six or seven. I would write stories for my great grandmother and she would share them with the people in her apartment building. Cool, eh? Then I wrote short (as in one sentence or two) “articles” for Mrs. Zeller’s class newsletter in first grade. My story writing lengthened into what my young mind considered books because I started them with a table of contents (complete with page numbers) but I didn’t really get serious with writing until junior high when I won first place in a competition for writing a sequel to TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD. I took creative writing and English electives in high school and college that fueled my writing habit. I got into magazine publishing upon graduating from college and have been doing that for 17+ years. So my writing journey has been a long one.

I’m not done, though. I don’t consider the journey “over” just because I’ve found a publisher (which is its own perilous little journey, doncha know) and have gotten my first couple of novels out in the marketplace. I’m still learning new elements of the writing craft. New characters still visit me at bizarre hours of the night whispering their stories in my ear. There are still new outlets to fling my work toward. So the journey continues and I invite readers to join me all the time.

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


Here's a blurb about my novel Choices Meant For Kings.

Chariss is in danger. Her geasa is hampered by the effects of a friend’s marriage. The dashing Nigel Taiman hides something from her, yet demands she stay at his family’s estate where he and her wizard guardian intend to keep her safe. But the sorcerer Lord Drake and Julette The Betrayer know she’s there, and their monstrous army marches that way.

When prophecies stack up to threaten an arrogant deity, Chariss must choose between the dragon that courts her and the ostracized kings of the Southlands for help. Evil stalks her at every turn and madness creeps over the goddess who guides her. Can an orphan-turned-Protector resist the dark side of her heritage? Or will she sacrifice all to keep her god-charge safe?


A Tense Little Excerpt From Choices Meant for Kings
By Fantasy Author Sandy Lender
http://www.authorsandylender.com
You won’t find this excerpt anywhere except Sandy’s current online book tour…

As the soldier stepped toward him, Nigel reached out his arm and caught him by the neck. He slammed the captain against the far wall. He pinned him there with his body, leaning against the man as if he could crush the wind from him with his presence.

He brought his face close to the soldier’s ear and spoke lowly, fiercely, so that no one could have overheard him. The menace and intent behind the words was as surprising to the captain as the words themselves.

“I asked you to accompany [Chariss] on this journey tomorrow because I have faith in your sword, and until this moment I trusted you to keep your distance from her. Now, I find her down here at your side with a look upon your face that suggests more than you realize. So help me, Naegling, the only thing that stays my hand is how displeased she would be if she learned that I sliced you open.”

“The look you see is merely my concern for her honor. Nothing more.”

“I’m not a fool. And I’ll use every last piece of Arcana’s treasury to pay the prophets to justify my reasons for marrying that woman, so you can unconcern yourself with her honor.”

Hrazon stepped off the staircase then and saw Nigel pressed against his guard.

“I still believe you’re one of the best soldiers Arcana’s ever seen,” Nigel continued, “and I want you at her side for this journey, but, so help me, Naegling, she comes back alive and well and not confused in the least about her affections for me, or I will string you up from a tree in the orchard and attach your intestines to your horse’s saddle before I send it—”

Hrazon cleared his throat. “Excuse me. Is there an issue here I should address?”



If you'd like to follow Sandy's blog tour go to the following address to find out where you can find her.

http://goddessfishpromotions.blogspot.com/2009/08/virtual-book-tour-choices-meant-for.html

Sandy, I'm looking forward to reading your book. Thanks for sharing with us.
Elaine