Sandy Lender's background in publishing follows a four-year degree in English from Truman State University in Missouri, but more than her History of English Language (HEL) class influences her stories. She's obsessed with many things: companion parrots, Old English/Anglo-Saxon themes and literature, Duran Duran, Charlotte Bronte (and her sisters), sea turtles, and writing by candlelight with a dragon curled up nearby.