Choices Meant for All by Sandy Lender

When their god needed a protector, she chose yes.

        From the foothills of the Freotho Mountains to the marble halls of Mahriket, factions of deities rise to threaten not only Master Rothahn’s crown, but all Onweald’s people. The battles fan the gates of the dark spirit world, releasing demons of every species to aid the enemy, but an embattled Nigel Taiman brings Malachi’s power to the Arcanan Army’s camp in hopes of tipping the balance in his bride’s favor. Dangerous times call for strange allies from all quarters.

To restore the geasa that should save the god she’s sworn to protect, Amanda Chariss must escape the very Betrayer’s grasp and make choices for the good of everyone. Does she have the will to sacrifice all that she holds dear in the process? Dive into the action-packed conclusion of the Choices trilogy to discover how prophecy works with—and against—those who would heed it.

 Wild Women Authors welcomes author Sandy Lender who is celebrating the release of Choices Meant for All, book three in her Choices trilogy. With Sandy is protagonist Amanda Chariss who will go first.

Welcome, Amanda. Thank you for spending time with us. Tell us a bit about Choices Meant for All. It is the conclusion of the original Choices trilogy, an epic fantasy story exploring good versus evil and how a chosen one—me—exercises free will instead of blindly following the path you might expect she’d take to protect a god from danger.

          In this third book of the series, I see horrors that shouldn’t be allowed in the world of Onweald—and I set about fixing them. I don’t think I’m the best choice for this role; I’m not sure why I was selected for these responsibilities. But here we are. I’m doing the best I can.

What made you choose to become protector for a profession? For a while, I thought I had no choice in the matter. This gem I was born with on my cheek marks me, according to prophecy. But I was offered the choice as I left the prophecy caves of Tiurlang and, as much as it pains my wizard to hear me say it, I chose to accept the responsibility of protecting Rohne. It’s what I’m supposed to do, and I’ve been trained for it. I didn’t see anyone else stepping up and volunteering to help Him.

Knowing what you know now, if you had it to do over again, would you stick with being a protector or do something different? I don’t think I should answer that. It’s a bit blasphemous and there’s no point in undermining the gods.

All right, that’s your right. What is your biggest fear? My biggest fear is failing everyone. I think what you have to understand is no one in this series wears plot armor. No one. Each one of us has the potential to fail. Miserably. And that’s my fear.

Who is your favorite fictional character and why? My goodness. Talk about a lack of plot armor. There’s a story from our history about a real slave girl named Tiatha. The prince of the Southlands saved her from execution and healed her wounds and took her to be his queen. I’m not sure if it’s her story or her spirit that’s so intriguing to me—but I really like Tiatha.

What is the best piece of advice you ever received? Do you know I was raised and trained by the greatest of the twelve wizards? Hrazon of Mon’dore always had good advice to share. There was always a good lesson in what he taught. I don’t know if I could pick out just one piece of advice above the others, but his lesson on using the balance of nature carefully might be it.

          How to be mindful of the balance is usually the first lesson you teach a geasa’n. It’s wildly important and he shared that with me when we’d run from Drake to the caves of Tiurlang when I was a child.

          Be mindful of the balance of nature because everything we use in our spell weaving comes from somewhere. Matter, light, wind, whatever you’re pulling to yourself is coming from somewhere. For example, if you want something to eat and you weave a spell to create a loaf of bread, you’re not really creating a loaf of bread. You’re pulling it or its ingredients from someone else’s storeroom and that person will go hungry because of it. A proper geasa’n doesn’t steal and upset the balance.

Thank you for spending time with us, Amanda. Now we’d like to chat with Sandy.

With regard to research, where did you start for this novel? Did that lead you down different paths, thereby changing the original concept? I mentioned to you before that when Chariss appeared to me in the early 1980s, I saw her standing on a balcony, greeting the morning suns. The story I’d start writing down went through an absolute ton of changes over the years, changing direction from the original concept.

          I at least had the good sense not to start her story at age four, which is when she and the wizard Hrazon began their sixteen-winters run from the mad sorcerer Jamieson Drake. Instead, I started with a scene in which she and her wizard guardian met up with the son of the Taiman estate in the wilderness. Nigel Taiman literally “surprised” them in the Rochest Forest. Anyone who has read the books will recognize what a mistake that would have been. No one could sneak up on Hrazon of Mon’dore, much less a farmer without a grasp of the geasa/power within him.

          Various “events” happened out of order and different characters showed up where they shouldn’t. I researched medieval weaponry and put my Old English studies to work to change, rework, and fix direction more than once over the years. When a literary agent sent a note saying she couldn’t get excited about the project, I completely rewrote it.

          But that first scene in the wilderness put Chariss in a position of complete uselessness, merely following her wizard’s lead traipsing across the country. While it offered a beautiful moment of Chariss guarding Hrazon while he sleeps (again, Hrazon would never…), I had to get tough, cut the scene, and rewrite the beginning of the story. “Kill your darlings,” as the experts say.

The beginning of Choices Meant for Gods had to change because I was learning more about Chariss and her arc, her independence, and her power. For the opening scene, Chariss ended up on the balcony because there was a reason to start there. She was about to put a knife in the enemy who’d caught up to her.

What's next for you?  I think I mentioned the Canadian publisher Feybreak Books is releasing Eden and the Most Precious Stone soon, which is a YA fantasy in the world of Onweald. That manuscript won second place in the Write Fighters 3-Day Novella Contest in 2022, so it’s due to happen anytime. An anthology with an Onweald short story titled Bitter Fruit is in editing somewhere. I’m also working on what I keep calling “a bridge novel,” which has turned into a trilogy between the events in Choices Meant for All and an epic fantasy mystery in the world of Onweald.

Basically, I have six novels in development for this world as well as about a dozen short stories and novellas for different characters and events and a huge Onweald Encyclopedia for fans who want that sort of collector’s item. Malachi (a dragon) has a regular column in my monthly author eNewsletter. (That link is https://bit.ly/SSReNews) It’s a joy to dive into this fantasy world when the real one gets hectic and harried—I love these characters. I’m invested in telling their stories. I don’t want to stop.

To learn more about Fantasy Author Sandy Lender and the stories she creates go to www.SandyLenderInk.com.

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To purchase Choices Meant for All, go to:

Amazon/print: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C91DKW3C/

Kindle: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0C92L7PDT

Nook: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/choices-meant-for-all-sandy-lender/1123159530?ean=2940160838724

Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/choices-meant-for-all