BRoP Year in Review #9: Sandra Saidak

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As 2012 comes to a close, we wanted to take a moment to reflect on some of the joys and triumphs of the year. To that end, we bring you the 2012 Blog Ring of Power Year in Review! We’ve teamed up with this past years’ BRoP interviewees to bring you eleven days worth of “year in review” guest posts and ten fabulous giveaway prizes! Each day we’ll share a new guest post on the year in review from a previous BRoP interviewee and you’ll have another opportunity to enter the giveaway—so get hopping! And be sure to enter the giveaway at the end of this post!

 

The Blog Ring of Power Year in Review Presents…
Sandra Saidak

Sandra Saidak

Hi, everyone!  I hope your holidays were or are still, very happy.

2012 was a very special year for me, because it was the year I found my feet and actually set out on this journey as a published author.  Uffington Horse Press began on November 19. 2011, so perhaps the biggest event of 2012 was celebrating my one-year anniversary as a self-published author.  My first novel was Daughter of the Goddess Lands, a story set in the late Neolithic Age, dealing with the conflict between peaceful, Goddess-worshiping farmers and patriarchal nomadic warriors.

When my chance to appear on the Blog Ring of Power came along, I had just released my second novel, Shadow of the Horsemen.  A sequel to Daughter of the Goddess Lands, it continued the adventures of Kalie, a survivor of an early attack from the first book, now living as a slave (read “spy”) among her people’s killers, as she works to find the means to defeat the horsemen before they can destroy the Goddess lands.

The Ring of Power was great, both for the exposure it gave me and my budding writing career, and the people, books and websites it introduced me to.  I was told when I began this crazy venture that the internet, and the people on it, are what has made self- publishing possible.  Events like this one helped to me to see that, up close and personal.

2012 came with an extra challenge, in the form of a change at work.  For the past three years, I had been an Independent Studies teacher at the high school I teach at, working with students for whom the regular classroom experience doesn’t work.  It was a low-stress kind of job that allowed me a lot of free time—most of which went into my writing.

Daughter of the Goddess Lands

Shadow of the HorsemenThis fall, I returned to the classroom, teaching World History and English.  I now spend evenings and weekends grading papers and planning lessons.  So, juggling writing, publishing and marketing with all that has proved to be a real challenge.  (Did I mention I actually do juggling for real?  Maybe that’s why I’m able to get it all done…)

The Big News for the end of 2012 will be the release of my third book.  Not Book 3 of Kalie’s Journey, unfortunately (that one should be out by the end of 2013), but a collection of short stories.  “In the Balance” will (hopefully!) be available in the last week of 2012, and will include a novelette set in the Kalie’s Journey universe, as well as nine other stories which span my writing career.  My first professional sale will be included, as well as two stories written specifically for Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Sword and Sorceress contest.  While, sadly, Ms. Bradley left us in 1999, she left behind a wonderful body of science fiction and fantasy, and through her wonderful contest, helped start the careers of many aspiring authors.  To anyone who has not read her writings, or the Sword and Sorceress anthologies, I suggest you go to Amazon (or your local bookstore, if you still have one in your area) and get introduced.

That’s all from me.  I hope everyone has a wonderful 2013.  And if any of you discover my work, and like it, I hope to hear from you in the new year.

 

PRIZES!

Grand Prize: Two winners will be chosen (by Rafflecopter) and each winner will receive one of the prize packs listed (our choice).
a Rafflecopter giveawayGeneral Giveaway Winners will be chosen from among eligible Rafflecopter entries (chosen by Rafflecopter) and receive a prize of our choice. We’ll do our best to give the print books to those that don’t have an e-reader, but we can’t make any guarantees, so please be aware when entering that you are most likely going to win an e-book. a Rafflecopter giveaway a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

Check out Sandra’s interviews with the Blog Ring of Power:

Part 1@ T.W. — Thursday, Aug. 30

Part 2 @ Em – Friday, Aug. 31

Part 3 @ Sandra – Monday, Sept. 3

Part 4 @ Dean – Tuesday, Sept. 4

Part 5 @ Terri – Wednesday, Sept. 5

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Be sure to stop to check out each of the stops on the Year In Review – new chances to enter the giveaways each day!

(M) Dec. 17th – Jacqueline Seewald (at http://ulbrichalmazan.blogspot.com)

(T) Dec. 18th – Danielle Ackley McPhail (at http://deanswritingtime.blogspot.com)

(W) Dec. 19th – Alma Alexander (at http://www.terribruce.net)

(Th) Dec. 20th – Susan Kaye Quinn (at https://twfendley.com)

(F) Dec. 21st – 5. Darke Conteur (at http://emlabonte.blogspot.com)

(M) Dec. 24th – Pauline Jones (at http://ulbrichalmazan.blogspot.com)

(T) Dec. 25th – James Garcia (at http://deanswritingtime.blogspot.com)

(W) Dec. 26th – Barbara Ann Wright (at http://www.terribruce.net)

(Th) Dec. 27th – Sandra Saidak (at https://twfendley.com)

(F) Dec. 28th – Heidi Garrett (at http://emlabonte.blogspot.com)

(M) Dec. 31st – Sue Burke (at http://ulbrichalmazan.blogspot.com)

 

 

 

 

 

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