Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Lisa Fender. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Lisa, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

First of all, becoming a writer is not something you “learn”, it is something that’s in you. Aside from that, there are certain creative writing skills that you must learn in order to put out a high quality novel. For me, I had not been in school for years (I was 47 years old when I finally decided to write a book) and had forgotten the skills I needed to write a professional works of any kind. I simply sat down and wrote a book. The story was good, but it needed some serious cleaning up. I made the decision to hire a writing coach and it was the best decision of my career. What would I have done to speed up my learning curve – probably hired a coach before I wrote the book. The biggest one was learning not to headhop, as they call it. It means writing in omniscient – or second person. Basically you, as the narrator, become God and knows what’s going on in every characters head, when you should only be in one person’s head. The other is not to info dump. Basically beating your reader over the head with the same information over and over, and giving them more information than they really need to keep the story moving. What obstacles did I encounter – mainly lack of money.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

My name is Lisa Fender, aka. Anneliese Fender. I’m adopted and lived in Europe for the first 5 years of my life. Afterward, we came back to the states and eventually we moved to the beautiful state of Colorado. I have 2 grown children and 2 grandchildren. I’ve always wanted to write a book. My love for reading started in childhood and is still with me today. I write a fantasy fiction novel, with sci-fi elements. I’m writing my seventh and last book in the series and I’m about halfway finished. I am hoping to have it published by the end of the year – we’ll see.

I absolutely love my characters and the world I created – Djenrye. It is a parallel dimension to ours and you must enter through portals strategically set within the world we know now. It is not like any book out there today. In fact, that was my goal – to write something that wasn’t typical. Most people that take a chance with reading my first book in the series, go on to read them all. The few fans that I have are really into my story and can’t wait for my next book. Sadly, I am writing the last one now, but I do plan to write a side series that will be stories of Djenrye in the past. I have written and published one of them – Fated – Book One of The Djenrye Chronicles. It tells the story of how my main character – Stevie – ended up in our world and was raised as a human. It’s a good story, but in the end, it is sad.

I love fantasy and sci-fi. In fact, that is what I mostly read. But I do like mystery also, and try to incorporate that in my story also. And, there are aliens, for those who like them.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

 

The biggest reward for me is when I hear from my reader that they love my books! It really touches my heart and gives me a reason to keep writing. I used to sell my books at Comic Con, which later became Denver Pop Culture Con. I absolutely couldn’t wait until it was con weekend. I became a fixture there since I had done it for 5 years. When readers would run to my table first thing to get the next book in my series, was so exciting and humbling for me. I couldn’t believe it. It totally made my year. The last year I was there – 2018 – I sold out the first book in my series and had to leave early on Sunday. I was truly in shock! Unfortunately, covid happened and that ended that.
Nothing makes a writer happier than to hear people love their books. In fact, my critique partner, long before she became my partner, had read the first two books in the series and emailed me to tell me she loved them. Then she said she wanted to write herself, so we got together for coffee and the rest is history. She has been one of my critique partners (I used to have 2) for almost 9 years now. And her writing has massively improved. I can’t wait until she writes her book! It’s going to be awesome!

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?

 

One of the comments I’ve heard when I tell someone I’m a writer, or author, is, so what’s your day job. That is my day job. They think writing isn’t work. Trust me – it is. And for those who work in an office type environment should know that. And it’s not just writing the book – it’s self-publishing and marketing. Not to mention, I am a business owner. I wear a lot of different hats.

I don’t know why people think that writing books isn’t a serious occupation. Sure, it’s not a lawyer or doctor, but it still is hard work. And people should know you can’t always simply sit down and write. Sometimes you can’t wrap your head around it at the moment. But other times, you can’t stop. The words keep flowing. But mostly it’s a lot of planning your story. Don’t get me wrong though, I love what I do.