Interview With Sandy Nathan and Kindle Fire Giveaway

Sandy Nathan Interviews... 

Sandy Nathan! 

“I’m Sandy Nathan. I'm sitting in my living room, waiting for Sandy Nathan, the author, to show up. She’s perpetually late. I know her better than anyone else. She’ll give an excuse when she gets here, just watch.” I look around the room.

“I love it here. When we bought this place, back in the days when normal people could buy houses, this room is what did it for me.” I look up at the high, beamed ceilings, the multi-paned windows looking out to the front pastures. I can see golden fields and spreading oaks. More trees tumble down the steep slope across the street. Living here is a dream.

The fact that it’s a great horse property had lots to do withour moving here, too.” I crane my neck. “Can’t see Star from here. She’s my new horse. I’m probably the lamest old lady ever to buy a young, vigorous horse. When I ride her, half the time, I’m terrified. The other half, I’m in heaven.”

I glance at the steps leading down to the sunken living room where I sit and smile broadly. “When we first moved here, this sunken room was so glamorous. Now, many years and several big operations later, I consider it a death trap. The stairs are really steep. Let’s see what happens when Sandy the Author arrives.”

Here she is. Sandy the Author creeps down the stairs one at a time, holding on to the side wall. My husband and I have talked about getting a railing for ten years . . . nothing’s happened. I grin as I watch Sandy the Author descend. I don’t really dislike her, it’s just that she works all the time. ALL THE TIME.

“Hi, Sandy. I’m sorry I’m late. I was working on a scene from Mogollon. I’m writing in the POV, point of view, of a horse!” She smiles as through she’d said, “Barry just got us tickets to Italy.”

“What’s hard about it is that horses don’t think. How can I describe what he’s doing and why, without giving him thoughts?” She’s grinning like a lottery winner. “It’s going to be dynamite. Mogollon is going to be so much better than Numenon.”

“What’s Mogollon?” I ask. “And why the weird name? No one will be able to say it.”

“You don’t think so? It’s pronounced ‘Muggy-yone’ by New Mexico and Arizona residents.The Mogollon are an extinct tribe of Native Americans. The book occurs at a Native American spiritual retreat. It’s the sequel to Numenon, my book about the richest man in the world meeting a great American Indian shaman. That’s the one that won all the awards. “I’m really glad to be working on Mogollon again, and finally making progress.”

“How long have you been working on it?”

“Since 1995.” She looks sheepish.

“That’s ridiculous.”

“I know. I got really bad writer’s block. Frozen does not come near to describing what happened to my creativity on that one.

“But I did write three other books in the meantime: The Tales from Earth’s End Saga. The books are about a group of people who are pushed to the edge of existence time and again. In the first book, The Angel & the Brown-eyed Boy, the world has become a police state under a vicious dictator. People are watched all the time, kidnapped off the streets, they’re tortured, killed, and imprisoned without trial, all with government approval. When the book takes place, a nuclear meltdown will happen the next morning.”

“Why did you write something like that? No one would believe it. Plus it’s so violent and depressing.”

“In the Author’s Notes of all three books, I talk about my inspiration. My brother died a while back. He was only fifty-four.”

“I know, he was my brother, too.”

“So you know how we felt?”

“Yep. ‘Caca’ feels better.”

“Yeah, and being a former economist. You remember that, don’t you?”

“That was the last time we earned a living wage.” I snarl.

"That’s true. We sure haven’t gotten rich writing. We loved being an economist and worrying about things that mattered. Like, will we have eggs at the end of the month? Will the economy crash, as it did in 2008, and put us all on the street? I think about things like that. Those thoughts were definitely in operation as I wrote the Tales series. I think it’s entirely possible that we slip into another Depression and that a dictator could take over. The world I portrayed could come to be, or something like it. That part of the Tales comes from my Inner Economist.

“A short time after my brother died, I had an amazing dream where an angel—or something—came to me. It was a wonderful experience. When it dissipated, The Angel & the Brown-eyed Boy was there in my brain. I finished the first draft of The Angel in five weeks. The next book in the series was right behind it, ready to be written down. That was Lady Grace. When I finished that, the third book popped out: Sam & Emily.” 

“Sort of like toothpaste coming out of a tube.”

“Exactly. I finished one book, and the words to the rest were there. That was pretty easy. The rest wasn’t. The editorial process, what you have to do to put out a high quality book, takes a long time. My brother died in 2007. I published the two final Tales books this year, 2012. I’ve been working on the series more than full time. Someone commented on a blog, ‘Do you ever sleep?’ Yes, but not a lot. Five years for three books. Many hours of work.” 

“Do you like the books, after all that?”

“Yeah, I do. Writing is like walking into another reality. Part of my soul remains with the people of Earth’s End, hoping it works out OK. I love those characters, most of them. I’m in love with Sam Baahuhd.”

“Do you plan another book or books in the series?”

“Yes. At least one more in Tales from Earth’s End. It will pick up at the end of Lady Grace, the second book. But I have a whole lot more writing to do in my other series, The Bloodsong Series. That’s the one with the crazy names, Numenon & Mogollon. The Bloodsong Series touches Tales from Earth’s End. A few of the characters from Numenon show up in Lady Grace. I want the two series to come together. Not merge, but have books in common, where the casts of characters join. But I have to get the Bloodsong Series up to speed first. That means in sync time-wise. Numenon is set in 1997. The characters that migrate over to the Tales in Lady Grace come from 2015. I need to tell the characters’ stories in that 18 year hiatus, and beyond.”

“Do the books in Tales from Earth’s End happen right after each other? So Lady Grace happens right after The Angel?”

“The three books aren’t in temporal sequence. The Angel takes place long before Lady Grace.No one knows how many years have passed when the survivors return. Lady Grace is what happens after the survivors come home to a post-Ap

About Sandy Nathan:

Sandy Nathan writes to amaze and delight, uplift and inspire, as well as thrill and occasionally terrify. She is known for creating unforgettable characters and putting them in do or die situations. She writes in genres ranging from science fiction, fantasy, and visionary fiction to juvenile nonfiction to spirituality and memoir.

“I write for people who like challenging, original work. My reader isn’t satisfied by a worn-out story or predictable plot. I do my best to give my readers what they want.”

Mrs. Nathan’s books have won twenty-two national awards, including multiple awards from oldest, largest, and most prestigious contests for independent publishers. Her books have earned rave critical reviews and customer reviews of close to five-star averages on Amazon. Most are Amazon bestsellers.

Sandy was born in San Francisco, California. She grew up in the hard-driving, achievement orientated corporate culture of Silicon Valley. Sandy holds Master’s Degrees in Economics and Marriage, Family, and Child Counseling. She was a doctoral student at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business and has been an economic analyst, businesswoman, and negotiation coach, as well as author.

Mrs. Nathan lives with her husband on their California ranch. They bred Peruvian Paso horses for almost twenty years. She has three grown children and two grandchildren.

About Sandy's Books:

Her latest books are The Angel & the Brown-Eyed Boy, Lady Grace: A Thrilling Adventure Wrapped in the Embrace of Epic Love and Sam & Emily: A Love Story from the Underground, which are all part of the Tales from Earth’s End series.

You can visit her website at www.sandynathan.com.

Visit her blogs: http://sandranathan.net and http://yourshelflife.com (blog for writers)

http://talesfromearthsend.com (series blog)

Follow her on Twitter: www.twitter.com/sandyonathan

Friend her on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sandy.nathan.author

To purchase a paperback copy of Sandy Nathan’s The Angel & the Brown-eyed Boy at Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Angel-Brown-eyed-Boy-Sandy-Nathan/dp/0976280906

Purchase at Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-angel-the-brown-eyed-boy-sandy-nathan/1028502802?ean=9780976280903

About Lady Grace:

Beyond the End of the World The Earth has been devastated by a nuclear holocaust. Technological wizard Jeremy Edgarton and a few of his friends were whisked off planet moments before the horror by the goldies, a race of super-evolved aliens who seemed too good to be true.

Unfortunately for Jeremy, that’s exactly what they were and now he wants out. Jeremy’s mother, Veronica Edgarton, is awakening from a cryogenic sleep in a chamber deep beneath the ice near the North Pole. She is facing life with one of the most ruthless and cruel men ever to have lived. She is not the kind of person to take this lying down. In another place, 105 generations after the missiles struck, the inhabitants of a bunker designed to preserve them until the radiation has receded are preparing to emerge. Regrettably, evolution can work for evil as well as good. Each of these events is potentially volatile. Combine them and the results are explosive! The players from across time and space are catapulted into a struggle of cosmic scale, challenging them to draw upon every ounce of their physical, intellectual and spiritual strength. Lady Grace is a thrilling, action-filled adventure wrapped in the embrace of epic love.

Watch the book trailer!





On to the Giveaway! Sandy is giving away a Kindle Fire!

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