100 Things Duran Duran Fans Should Know & Do During This Life

 

 

100 THINGS DURAN DURAN FANS SHOULD KNOW AND DO DURING THIS LIFE

Sandy Lender

GENRE:  Entertainment

Best-selling, award-winning author and life-long Duranie, Sandy Lender, offers a delightful guidebook to the fun and sometimes wacky events that bring a fandom together. 100 THINGS DURAN DURAN FANS SHOULD KNOW & DO DURING THIS LIFE is a unique, positive, optimistic, totally new take on exploring nostalgia alongside your BFFs with the supergroup that continues to provide the dance track for so many people’s lives.

This non-fiction foray into Duran Duran history is unlike any biography you’ve read before. Instead of dry stats and facts, it’s a reminder of the joy and positivity that comes from obsessing over a shared musical interest. Herein you’ll find a series of random acts “to do” and trivia you might have forgotten to celebrate. To-do: Dive in and celebrate again!

Enjoy an Excerpt:

Introduction

Let me admit, up front, you’re about to read a frivolous romp through a Duranie’s brain. We’re about to dance together down Memory Lane, inspired by a Star Wars book title I saw about four months ago. To prevent myself from stealing the author’s intellectual property, I didn’t open the unauthorized 100 Things Star Wars Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die.

Instead, I’ve put together a Duran-o-rama of my own making. It’s arranged exactly as the title suggests: first an item of what a Duran Duran fan should know, followed by an item a fan can do. This order proceeds from one to one hundred in a conversational tone.

The prompts of nostalgia might be numbered, but they’re not in chronological order. Most of the to-do items are geared toward sharing your insanity with others.

Basically, you’re holding amusing reminders of carefree times when a ticket to a concert cost all of eighteen dollars, when you listened to the local radio station at midnight because they were playing the entire new DD release, or when you could grab a crew of giggling girls to plop down on the couch with a six-pack of Pepsi—because that’s what John preferred over the sponsor of the Arena tour—to watch and sing along to Arena: An Absurd Notion, complete with parental advisory.

Now, let me lift the needle off the record for a second.

About the Author:

 

Sandy Lender is an international best-selling poet and award-winning author of fantasy, literary fiction, poetry, and short story work. She’s a construction magazine editor by day and author of #GirlPower fantasy novels by night, living in Florida to help with sea turtle conservation and parrot rescue. You can follow her author page on Amazon, check her website at SandyLenderInk.com, or subscribe to her newsletter at https://bit.ly/SSReNews.

With a four-year degree in English and thirty-year career in publishing, Sandy’s successes include traditionally and self-published novels, hundreds of magazine articles, multiple short stories in competitive anthologies, a handful of technical writing awards, a handful of creative writing awards, and the 2023 Michael Knost Wings award. Sandy’s been writing stories since she was knee-high to a grasshopper when her great-grandmother shared her odd little tales of squeaky ghost-spiders around an apartment complex in Southern Illinois. The stories have developed to include strong young ladies working with dragons to save worlds from terrible fates, but those pesky spiders still show up from time to time.

There’s always something brewing at Sandy Lender Ink headquarters where some days, you just want the dragon to win.

Q&A With the Author

Who is your favorite author and why? 

Sandy Lender: My favorite author is a toss-up between J.R.R. Tolkien and Charlotte Bronte. The “why” is because Tolkien influenced my young mind toward fantasy. I was writing stories when I was a kid (and they were speculative fiction, unbeknownst to me) but it wasn’t until my dad handed me “The Hobbit” that I figured out, “Oh, hey, I want to write stories with dragons and magic and unreal things I can make up new worlds for!” Now, Charlotte is a favorite because she’s just amazing. I could take up all the bandwidth of the blog talking about her awesomeness. I’ve had scholarly articles published about the Brontes because Charlotte turned me on to fine and fancy, yet slightly gothic, literature.

What is something unique/quirky about you? 

Sandy Lender: Other than this Duran Duran obsession? I know there are a lot of quirky things about me, but I don’t know if any of them are interesting enough to talk about. I’m just me. My pet birds seem to like me. They freak out when I pull out the suitcase to go on a trip. I think people can see how bizarre and quirky I am through the book reviews I do on my BookTube channel. I started Sandy Says Read to talk about books, but I think people can see I’m a little “unhinged” there.

What was your inspiration for writing this book? 

Sandy Lender: It would be so easy to say the inspiration for “100 Things Duran Duran Fans Should Know & Do During This Life” was Duran Duran. But it was more than that. Duran Duran (and John Taylor specifically) is an inspiration for elements in a few of my titles. You’ll see influences from DD and Arcadia all over the CHOICES series, for example, but the “thing” that set off this particular book was “100 Things Star Wars Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die.” I saw the title of that thing and thought, “Wow, how clever is that.” Then, “Wow, I want to read one about Duran Duran.” Well, the one about Duran Duran didn’t exist. So, I wrote it. I’ve been a fan for 40 years, so I felt qualified.

What did you enjoy most about writing this book? 

Sandy Lender: Hands down, the best part of writing “100 Things Duran Duran Fans Should Know & Do During This Life” was reminiscing the crazy and quirky things my friends and I have done over the past 40 years. Seriously, I’ve had the opportunity to travel overseas, meet random and lovely people, talk to artists and musicians and other authors, and experience amazing concerts in amazing venues because of this band. When I sat down to type up the things for people to “do,” those memories came flooding back. I took the opportunity to go through old photo albums and zing random questions to friends and reconnect with people. I reached out to new Duranie friends. The fandom just never stops!

Do you have any other books you are working on that you can tell us about? 

Sandy Lender: I laughed maniacally at this because I had a meeting for the day job with a businesswoman just the other day where she asked me about my side hustle. I told her that, yeah, I have a couple books coming out before the end of the year. This Duran one was one of them and we talked about it for a minute. I also told her of the Christmas horror novel “Silver Bells,” which is being released on Friday the 13th of September. I completely forgot to tell her about “Have Yourself a Faerie Little Christmas,” which is the fourth in my FAERIE HOLIDAYS series coming up in December. Oops.

I also have a gift poem book called “Take All the Time You Need,” which will be available in both paperback and hardcover by the time this interview is posted.

I’m also working on a motivational business book called “Capture Your Dream,” which is nearing completion.

Then there’s an anthology of novellas I’ll be included in, which is due out by the end of the year, but I don’t know the anthology’s title yet.

I tell people, “There’s always something brewing at Sandy Says Read, where some days, you just want the dragon to win.” Folks can stay up to date with all this mayhem by subscribing to my monthly SandySaysRead newsletter. (If you’re cool with posting that, the sign-up is at bit.ly/SSReNews)

Anything more you would like to say to your readers and fans?

Sandy Lender: I want to finish this up by saying thank YOU for the time at the blog today, but especially for the time and energy you expended in preparing it. After two rounds with cancer, I can empathize with the energy drain you must be feeling, and I wish for a full and fabulous healing in your life. May our Great Physician take good care of you, my new book friend!

Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/Sandy-Lender/e/B00304ZIIC

Website: http://www.sandylenderink.com/

Newsletter: https://bit.ly/SSReNews

GIVEAWAY

The author will be awarding a $20 Amazon/BN gift card to a randomly drawn winner. Be sure to visit the other tour participants for more opportunities to win.

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