|
|
|
|
Do
you know what the moon is made of?" That's the first question asked of the
bound captive, whose answer could mean the difference between life and
death—for him. Is his captor a genius or a psychopath…or perhaps something far
worse?
Find
out in Gordon's story The Mirror which featured in the April 2005 issue of
WildChild Magazine.
|
Gordon's Blog |
|
Written by Gordon Carroll
|
|
 And I haven't even sold the first one!
Okay, sorry for the distraction, but it isn’t everyday I get an agent. There’s an old saying that goes, “Nothing breeds success, like success.” Now I don’t want to jump the gun, I mean the novel hasn’t been sold yet of course, but getting an agent is a big step in the right direction. And it has me stoked. I’ve been hammering out pages like crazy on the sequel to SLEEPING DOGS, and it’s moving fast!
|
|
Read more...
|
|
|
Written by Gordon Carroll
|
|
The best news ever!!! (or at least pretty dog-gone close!) (pun intended).
I went to the 2008 Pike’s Peak Writer’s Conference in Colorado Springs, last weekend, and pitched to an agent. Even better, I went to a class she gave on Christian Writing before I pitched to her. She was awesome! The class was fantastic, informative, and I can’t tell you how great it was to see a Christian agent speak so unabashedly about Jesus Christ.
|
|
Read more...
|
|
|
Written by Gordon Carroll
|
 Okay, There are lots and lots of ways to write a synopsis. To date I’ve written five novels, (three in the last three years), and I’ve written queries and synopses (yes, this is the plural form of synopsis) for each of them (actually numerous queries and synopses for each one). There are lots and lots of ways to write a synopsis, but I will share what worked best for me.
|
|
Read more...
|
|
|
Writing the Synopsis (or…Time Spent in Hell) – March 4, 2008 |
|
|
|
|
Written by Gordon Carroll
|
|
 Ok, I’ve finally found something more horrible than having to write query letters. WRITING A SYNOPSIS! ARRRRrrrrrrgggggggghhhhhhhh!I’ve gotten to speak to several authors who started out writing in the last century (you know, the one we just left, the 20th century), writers like, Judith Guest (Ordinary People) and Robert Crais (Hostage, and the Elvis Cole mysteries) and Rupert Holmes (Escape- The Pina Colada Song, Novel-Where the Truth Lies), and Dan Simmons (Children of the Night) and Rebecca Hill (Blue Rise), and they all say they never had to write a synopsis, and they can’t imagine having to condense a three or five hundred page book into one or two pages.I nominate them for future Editors and Agents.
|
|
Read more...
|
|
|
Prince Harry in Afghanistan – February 29, 2008 |
|
|
|
|
Written by Gordon Carroll
|
|
 Now that sounds like a good idea for a story. Continuing on with the idea that everyday headlines can lead to new story ideas, how about this; Before he can be yanked from Afghanistan, his unit is ambushed. Prince Harry sees most of his fellow soldiers fall to enemy fire, and goes berserk, almost single handedly wiping out the attacking Taliban contingent. He is then hailed as the Warrior Prince, ready to lead England back to its rightful place in world power.
Sooooo many possibilities. The Fourth Reich? With Sir Harry having clad
himself as a Nazi soldier, that gives me the idea for a new, dangerous,
England rising up in the image of WWII Germany. Zoiks!
|
|
Read more...
|
|
|
Mooning Satellites – Feb. 22, 2008 |
|
|
|
|
Written by Gordon Carroll
|
 Two very cool events happened in space yesterday. First, the U.S. shot down a satellite. And second, there was a lunar eclipse.
So what does that mean for us? I don’t mean us as in Americans, or even us as in astronomy buffs. No, I mean us as in readers and writers. So what does it mean for us? Well, to start with, it’s double the fodder for our muses to work with. Think of the possibilities. We could write a story about a were-wolf caught in mid-transformation because of the sudden eclipse. Or how about we shoot down a satellite, but it’s the wrong one? What satellite was it then?
|
|
Read more...
|
|
|
St. Valentines Day Massacre or Shooting at Illinois College - Feb 15, 2008 |
|
|
|
|
Written by Gordon Carroll
|
I’ve written a lot of horror in my time, but how do you top these types of stories? I mean fifteen wounded, four murdered, and the gunman himself dead. Terrible. The shooting at Northern Illinois University is just the latest in a growing line of school murders.
Is it just me or has anyone else noticed that these types of killings started in the High Schools and have now graduated to the colleges? Hmm. Will the Doctorate and Master’s programs be next?
So, a gunman kills five, wounds fifteen and kills himself, and suddenly he is a media sensation. Did he get what he wanted? Fame, notoriety, a new record? All his dreams come true and he even gets to escape punishment. But we Christians know better.
|
|
Read more...
|
|
|
Writing the Query Letter - Feb 10, 2008 |
|
|
|
|
Written by Gordon Carroll
|
 I had already written, what I thought was a pretty good query letter for Sleeping Dogs. But then my writing partner, Mark Ortler , tore it into tiny little pieces, showing me how incredibly dull it was. See what you think:
|
|
Read more...
|
|
|
Five Women Shot in Robbery - Feb 3, 2008 |
|
|
|
|
Written by Gordon Carroll
|
Okay, I’m not going to turn this blog into a another rally like I did on my last blog, but come on now. I mean really! Five innocent women murdered and for what? A few bucks? This is insane! Whoever did this needs to be killed with painful bullets.
We had a case like this a few years back in Littleton, Colorado where someone went into a bowling alley at closing time and took all the workers into the back room and murdered them  execution style. The killer has never been caught.
These types of crimes are beyond me. I can’t even conceive how a human could do something so horrible. Oh, I can write about it, but for a person to think so little of human life. I want that to be beyond me.
|
|
Read more...
|
|
|
Colorado School Stabbing - Feb 01, 2008 |
|
|
|
|
Written by Gordon Carroll
|
|
Colorado School Stabbing Feb 1, 2008
 I read a terrible story from a theology page I visit sometimes called TOL (theologyonline.com ). Here’s the article:
Written by Knight
When I was in public school getting stabbed in the back had a whole different meaning.
LONGMONT – Police say a 14-year-old boy attacked a 14-year-old girl with a pair of scissors at Silver Creek High School on Thursday morning.
Longmont Police say it happened around 10:30 a.m. in an upstairs hallway during a passing period between classes.
According to police, as the girl was trying to get into her locker, the boy came up behind her and started stabbing her in the upper back.
|
|
Read more...
|
|
| |
|
Gordon's Blog 
I’ve had a lot of people say the same thing before they read the book, but almost all of them have ended up saying it’s their favorite part of the book once they’ve finished.