Born in Lancashire, a stone’s throw from the infamous witches’ cairn on Pendle Hill, Sandie was educated at the local grammar school where she excelled in English, Art, History and Detention.
With three decades’ experience in administration, project management and process improvement, she has worked in the private and public sectors and has also set up and run freelance administration consultancies in Scotland and England. She now works as a consultant, based in Lancashire but regularly to be found flitting up and down the country on crowded trains.
Sandie has had short stories published in the Words to Music (2011) collection and has appeared as a guest author for the Year Zero collective. Her début novel The Sky is not Blue was published by Mad Bear Books in July 2013 and her second novel, The Town that Danced, in 2015, by the same publisher. She can be found, sporadically, on Twitter.
She finds talking about herself in the third person very therapeutic.
sandie zand 
Hello Sandie. I’m about to buy your novel. It was good to meet you the other day in the Relate office. I’m looking forward to an author to author chat! If you’d like to find out what I write, even buy one of my novels, you can get one via my website http://www.aljamesauthor.co.uk Like you I have a pen name which I think of as my maiden name as it combines my two Christian names. Best wishes for Christmas. Alan Cooper (Al James)
Hey Alan, no wonder I couldn’t find your books on Amazon – was looking under your real name. Will check out your website and thanks for taking an interest in my book. Hope you have a great Christmas and I’ll doubtless see you in the New Year!
Have begun reading your novel today now all our visitors have left. Very engrossing! Better than many I’ve read. More when I’ve finished. Hope your Christmas has been good, as mine has.
Oh thanks, I’m glad you’re enjoying it. I’ve downloaded one of yours and once there’s a bit more peace and quiet, I’ll be able to have a read. Christmas has been relaxing so far… too much food of course, but plenty of rest and cheer.
Finished your book this morning. Very impressed! Quite a dystopian view of the world but you convey it convincingly. The (unacknowledged) reference to Plato’s cave towards the end seemed appropriate. Not in the novel but somewhere on your facebook page you quote Camus. There’s something of his world view in the novel too.
It took me a while to adjust to the constant moves from first to third person and back again, but I think you made it work. The ‘love’ scene with Spencer didn’t really convince me though.
The character of Chrissy is very well created. The voice is really effective. Unquestionably it’s the most effective, and largest, part of the novel. I thought the contrast with Marion worked well too. The male characters were all shadowy and insubstantial, but that may have been intentional?
Overall I found it compulsive reading. A real success. When’s your next book coming out?
Happy new year!
Al(an) x
Hi Al,
I’m thrilled you enjoyed it and thanks for the lovely and very observational comments. I’m intrigued by Plato and am a big fan of Camus, and I guess these influences then do creep into our own writing one way or another.
My next book is undergoing its final edits. It’s a very different approach though – lighter, more dark humour and less angst – and I’m getting excited now to think it’ll be out soon. Probably March.
Happy new year to you too. I look forward to sneaking a few writerly chats in around the dustier work meetings we’ll doubtless attend over the next few months!
Sandie x
Hi Sandie. I’ve written you a review on Amazon and recommended on Twitter. You’ve got 10 Amazon reviews now! Al