100 THINGS DURAN DURAN FANS SHOULD KNOW AND DO DURING THIS LIFE by Sandy Lender

  

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

Sandy Lender 

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GENRE:  Entertainment

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BLURB: 

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! 

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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-drama 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.

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Guest Post for Kenyan Poet, Aug 5, from Author Sandy Lender

Topic: “things you don’t know about me”

516 words

Tags: Duran Duran; Sandy Lender; DDAD2024; Duranie; Fan Book

 Author Confession Time!

By Sandy Lender 

As a twist on the “5 Things You Don’t Know About Me,” I’m gonna share a Duran-related secret story you don’t know about me. In fact, throughout this week’s tour, I think I’ll end up revealing a few things that ought to convince the world I’m fully obsessed enough to write “100 Things Duran Duran Fans Should Know & Do During This Life” about Duran fandom. Here’s the dealio… 

In 1997, when MoJo Records released “The Duran Duran Tribute Album,” a concert was organized out in Los Angeles to celebrate the thing. A selection of the bands who were on the album were on the playbill—and Duran Duran was headlining. My friends Jennine, Stephanie, and I made a plan to fly from Kansas City to L.A. for the show. My BFF Christine couldn’t join us because the school year had already begun, and she was teaching.

 Here's the “secret” part of the story. 

My full-time job was a 9 to 5 where I didn’t have any seniority. The company had recently merged with another, and things were dicey. Asking for time off at the last minute to attend a general admission concert for which I didn’t even have a ticket wasn’t gonna fly. So, I called in sick. I lied. 

I’m not proud of lying to my boss that day. It’s not something I want to be known for. But, that week, in that time, at that moment, I was willing to be an irresponsible adult. Jennine, Stephanie, and I flew out to L.A. and had a grand time. 

Something we found interesting was having to re-purchase the tribute CD. The price of admission to the concert was the CD. If you bought the CD from Tower Records on Sunset, you got a ticket to the show. Easy. But, as you can guess, we already owned the thing. We asked if we could just buy the tickets and not take the CDs. That was a hard “no,” so I have a couple copies of “The Duran Duran Tribute Album” CD to this day, one of which is still in its plastic wrapping with the $12.88 price tag, although, I could swear I gave the Tower Records one to a Duranie friend… 

As a side note, I work for a family-atmosphere company now where my boss—and owner of the company—is extremely chill. If I need a day off for book marketing or Duran-related travel, he has no problem with it because he knows I’m going to hit our deadlines. I have no cause to deceive my co-workers or be an irresponsible adult. In fact, in 2023, when Duran Duran played in Tampa (near where I live now), on my actual birthday, my boss bought my tickets as a gift for me. He might not understand this obsession, but he understands it improves my state of mind. If I’d had the room for it, I could’ve made “Work for a Cool Boss Who Gives You Time Off for Duran Events” one of the to-do items in the new book!

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AUTHOR Bio and Links: 

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 a 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. 

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

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

Newsletter: https://bit.ly/SSReNews 

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GIVEAWAY INFORMATION and RAFFLECOPTER CODE 

The author will be awarding a $20 Amazon/BN gift card to a randomly drawn winner.

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