When their god needed a protector, she chose yes.
When
a wizard’s ward sets aside a lifetime of running and fear to accept the
responsibilities of guarding an arrogant deity, can she face the trials in the
prophecies they uncover? Will Nigel Taiman of her latest refuge dare to use his
dragon heritage to bind her to his estate or to help her in her duty?
Good
morning, Henry. Thank you for taking time out of your schedule to chat with us.
Let’s start with you telling us about Choices Meant for Gods. The short and sweet answer is Choices Meant for
Gods is an epic fantasy tale set in a world burdened by a curse [which] The
Dragon set in place about three thousand winters ago. I didn’t pay too much attention
to the gods in our world until Nigel—he’s my best friend from childhood—snagged
himself this lovely young lady who happens to be tasked with watching over one
of them.
Now we have Miss Chariss, and her wizard
guardian, [who is] working to protect us all from the machinations of a
powerful sorcerer and a jealous goddess, [as well as] war mongering humans who’ve
set deals with demons. It’s turning everything inside out and no one knows how
the latest prophecy is gonna mess up Chariss’s chances at saving us.
What
made you choose to ship goods for a profession? Nigel and I signed up for Arcana’s navy when we were
lads. His ogre of a father put a stop to that for him—couldn’t stand to see
Nigel making a name for himself, you know. That ol’ Godric Taiman was content
to see Nigel drinking his way through the taverns in Arcana City and getting
into fights and all manner of trouble, but the minute he signed up for the navy
with me, Godric put his lies in the middle of it and Nigel was expelled. So, I
went through training without my best friend to help me get into trouble. That
meant I had to buckle down and learn and do a good job of it. I actually learned
a trade, if you can believe that. When my two winters were up, I went out on
the Meredore on a merchant ship as a deck hand and moved up to captain in short
order. Short order, I tell you. I took over and worked directly with the
merchant’s man to ship goods from Onweald to Bellan and vice versa. Back and
forth all spring, growing, and harvest seasons. During the rough winter
seasons, I’d ship goods around the Southlands.
Knowing
what you know now, if you had it to do over again, would you stick with being a
sailor or do something different? If
it wasn’t for moving goods for that blasted sorcerer Drake, I’d not be of any
use to Chariss. She wouldn’t have pulled me into her confidence and let me be
part of this adventure. This is the best job I could’ve picked. And that
training for two winters with the Navy? It was perfect.
What
is your biggest fear? I don’t think I
should say. Because it happened.
Who
is your favorite fictional character and why? Folks out there in the [real] world won’t know who
Moyra Dane is, but I’m real fond of her as a fictional character. She’s the sweet
young gal in the play the actors put on for folks on Arcana City’s stage. Moyra
Dane and the Last Waltz. It’s kind of a sad story but the character of
Moyra Dane is as sweet as she can be. She’s one of those young ladies who
honors her father and works to help her village. Just a good role model for the
folks watching the play. She’s real sweet.
What
is the best piece of advice you ever received? I’d have to say the best advice given directly to me came
from my father. He once told me that a successful family like ours, one with a
shop that can pull in a decent living, can attract a wife for a man. I’m fairly
certain he was telling me I could find a wife in our world where women are scarce
and building a family is difficult to do, but I took his words to heart and when
I got the chance, I joined Arcana’s navy and got myself out of town away from
any would-be wives. You’re not pinning me down as a married man. I can’t get
myself tied down to one family in one port while there’s a whole ocean to
navigate.
Thank you for spending
time with us, Henry. Now, we’d like to chat with Sandy.
Which writer or character[s],
from either books or movies, [or both] have had a major impact on your writing?
Charlotte Bronte, Chaucer, J.R.R.
Tolkien, and Terry Goodkind are probably the biggest author influences on my
writing. I especially blame Charlotte for my liberal use of em dashes and
ellipses. My great grandmother and Aunt B weren’t writers, but they influenced
me greatly as well.
With regard to research,
where did you start for this novel? Did that lead you down different paths,
thereby changing the original concept? Different
novels of mine have required different research over the years, but Choices
Meant for Gods began with Amanda Chariss, the MC, appearing to me when I
was in junior high. I was daydreaming during chemistry class, sitting at one of
those black laboratory tables that your fingerprints smear on, and she came to
me. She stood like a queen with her arms holding back thick, luxurious curtains
to greet a pair of morning suns in a fantasy world of medieval sounds. I didn’t
know why such a beautiful woman on the balcony of a fortress would be crying. I
didn’t know how a human could have an amethyst embedded on her cheek, near her
eye. But I knew one thing for certain: I would write her story.
That was in the early 1980s, so you can imagine how much changed
about the original concept. I took a few Old English-related courses in college
that assisted with research. I read like a fiend about fantasy worlds, dragons,
different magic systems of different authors so I could make up my own, and so
on. I wanted my world of Onweald, which is an OE word meaning “power,” to be
something comfortably familiar, yet brand new to readers. And I wanted it to
support this epic story of good versus evil and “a chosen one” versus freewill.
The concept morphed as I grew over the years until one fateful day in 2005 when
I sat down with the person who turned into my first publisher.
Tell us a bit about your
publisher. How did you hear about them; what influenced you to submit to them;
how is the submission process; what is the turn-around time from date of query
to date of release? This answer is complex
so let me break it down in two parts. Choices Meant for Gods was
originally published in 2007 by ArcheBooks Publishing, which I heard of when I
was a member of the Naples Press Club (NPC) in Southwest Florida. I was attending
the NPC annual writer’s conference and I signed up for a pitch session with Bob
Gelinas, the publisher at ArcheBooks. He liked what I had to say about the story
and characters—and how I kept it together even when a friend walked up during
the pitch and interrupted us with a question—and he requested the manuscript. A
few weeks later, he sent me a contract. That was autumn-going-into-winter 2005.
The book was released in 2007 in time for my first book signing at Barnes &
Noble June 9. That’s a bit over a year for turn-around.
ArcheBooks
Publishing had some corporate changes and a move to a new state and closed
their doors in 2019. My books went out of print and my rights returned to me. The
current publisher is someone I met because of Choices Meant for Gods.
Back
in 2009, I spoke at a convention in Ohio where I served on a panel with spec
fic author, Stephen Zimmer. We exchanged books to read and review—and I
remember us joking that books should be currency. Years later, I “ran
into” Stephen online again to discover he had a publishing company and had started
an annual convention for creatives. His energy and drive to help creative
people network spoke to my soul. When I asked if he’d help me re-issue the Choices
series, his answer was a resounding “yes.” He was game to put new covers on the
trilogy while I revised, added new scenes, fixed some problems, and beefed up
the storytelling with beta readers assisting. It turned into a project! I had
everything submitted to him by autumn 2022. Here we are with the release in
summer 2023 in time for the 10-year anniversary of the Imaginarium Convention.
That’s about ten months.
What are you reading right
now? I’m currently re-reading Sword
of Shannara and reading The Word & The Void by Terry Brooks in
preparation for an interview with him. I can’t believe I haven’t read his Word
& Void and I’ve got to fix that before I get on a stage and look like a
fool in front of his fans.
What's next for you?
[Upcoming release, current project] The
next release is a novella from the Choices world of Onweald titled Della
and the Dragon’s Sword, which is in the Enchanted Realms boxed set from
Jumpmaster Press. An anthology with an Onweald short story titled Bitter Fruit
is in editing somewhere. The Canadian publisher Feybreak Books is releasing a
YA fantasy in the Choices world soon. That manuscript, Eden and the
Most Precious Stone, won second place in the Write Fighters 3-Day Novella
Contest in 2022, so it’s due to happen anytime. It’ll be a happy surprise when
it’s ready! Then I have a full-length satirical paranormal romance titled Have
Yourself a Faerie Little Christmas being released in time for the holidays.
It’s book four in my Faerie Holidays series, which has nothing to do with
dragons. Does my day job stuff count? Because I edit a construction magazine
that publishes every month. It also has nothing to do with dragons.
Amazon/print: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C91DKFWC/
Kindle: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C92P26YY/
Nook: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/choices-meant-for-gods-sandy-lender/1008500550?ean=2940160838670
Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/choices-meant-for-gods
Apple Books: https://books.apple.com/us/book/id6450601537
To learn more about Fantasy
Author Sandy Lender and the stories she creates go to: www.SandyLenderInk.com.
https://twitter.com/SandyLender
https://www.pinterest.com/SandyLender
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoJu4DdGhh7OFofRYl8R1Zg
(@SandySaysRead)
It's been forever since Henry Bakerson shared his thoughts out here in the real world. Thank you for giving him a platform today to talk about Choices Meant for Gods with new readers!
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