Bringing the Sci-Fi, Fantasy & Paranormal Character’s World to Life

Workshop Description:
Developing a believable sci-fi/fantasy or paranormal world takes imagination, creativity, energy, and enormous attention to detail. The detail includes pieces of characters’ pasts. If there’s something you don’t know about a character, some aspect you try to write around, your reader’s going to question his or her integrity. Your lapse could be something as simple as the character’s favorite flavor of sap from the nearby enchanted forest or something as complex as the character’s views on your sci-fi world’s political system. One of these is easy to write up and present to your audience. The other involves world-building. When Fantasy Author Sandy Lender presents the workshop ”Bringing the Sci-Fi, Fantasy & Paranormal Character’s World to Life,” she’ll discuss character-building for these realms in depth, and will give special attention to world-building. Bring plenty of paper and pen for the interactive session.

Presenter’s Biography:

Fantasy enthusiasts will recognize Sandy Lender as the author of the 2007 breakout novel Choices Meant for Gods and the more recent Choices Meant for Kings from ArcheBooks Publishing, but the South Florida resident has been writing since she was knee high to a grasshopper. At the early age of about six, Sandy entertained the folks in her great grandmother’s apartment building in Southern Illinois with stories of squeaky spiders and mice picking berries.

She ended up winning some writing awards with that imagination during her school days in the St. Louis area before earning a degree in English from Truman State University in Kirksville, Missouri. That led to a career in journalism where she proofread, edited, and wrote for a variety of publications. Today she’s the editor of a national trade magazine during the day and writes the fantasy fiction she loves at night. She gives workshops on writing, editing, internet marketing, and the surprising topic of reptile husbandry.

But that’s only half the story. Sandy Lender is also a sea turtle conservationist, serving in the group Turtle Time since 2005. She also has companion parrots and pet turtles in her home who keep her hopping. It takes one ring on her cell phone to discover she’s remained obsessed with Duran Duran since about 1984. She got rid of an unnecessary husband and beat cancer in 2008. Lastly, she remains unaddicted but “strongly attracted” to all forms of chocolate and welcomes discussions about her handsome and demanding muse at any time. There’s more, but you can learn all about it when you meet her at the conference in March.

To discover more about Sandy Lender, please visit:  www.authorsandylender.com.