314 ratings | 129 reviews | avg rating:4.28

more photos (1)

L.C. Barlow’s Followers (217)

L.C.’s Bookshelves

to-read (0)
currently-reading (0)
read (423)

L.C.’s Friends (104)

Allison

345 books | 154 friends

Jordan

2,750 books | 233 friends

Donna Foster

2,324 books | 4,999 friends

Barbara

14,944 books | 1,054 friends

Stephanie

889 books | 537 friends

Natalie

1,624 books | 25 friends

Karen

6,829 books | 105 friends

Britney

2,345 books | 34 friends

More friends…

L.C. Barlow

Goodreads Author

Born

in Dallas, The United States

Website

https://lcbarlow.org/

Twitter

LCBarlowAuthor

Genre

Horror, Fantasy

Member Since

August 2011

edit data

I am a traditionally published author (a three book deal with California Coldblood Books). Pivot, Perish, and Peak are the three novels of the Jack Harper Trilogy. Pivot was featured in Kirkus’ July 2021 issue, and Perish and Peak are Publishers Weekly editor’s picks. If you love thrillers, I recommend checking them out!

In addition, feel free to follow me on BookBub at: L.C. Barlow Books - BookBub as well as to peruse my Quora account or even email me at eternityinonehour@gmail.com

Cheers!

-Lindsey ...more

Learn more
Ask the Author

To ask L.C. Barlow questions, please sign up.

Popular Answered Questions

What’s your advice for aspiring writers?

L.C. Barlow Remember that the first draft doesn’t have to be perfect. It just has to be written. You can’t revise something that isn’t there.

Once you have a draft…moreRemember that the first draft doesn’t have to be perfect. It just has to be written. You can’t revise something that isn’t there.

Once you have a draft, and someone suggests trying something, feel open to trying it. You can have several versions of the same story, and just because you take it a new direction doesn’t mean your old draft disappears if you need to go back to it. Be brave and take your story to foreign places. It’s not foreign, anymore, after you write it.

Do not expect professionals to be mean. Many are some of the kindest people you can meet.

You can only enter a room for the first time once. That’s why it’s important that you get your work to as optimum of a level as possible before submitting it to an agent or editor. Because once they “enter the room” (read your work) for the first time, they can’t see it nearly as objectively after. Your own objectiveness is compromised because you’ve been with the work for so long. That’s why you need workshoppers you can trust (and who know how to get you to emphasize things and back off things without being cruel or mean).

In every story there are “crunchy” and “floaty” items, also known as literal and figurative. The crunchy is the bare facts that ground the story. The floaty is the unnatural, metaphorical things. Often times, writers throw in figurative things to feel better or redeem the story. The reality, though, is that you don’t need to do this. You don’t need to “redeem” the story. The more you add trying to “redeem” the story, the more work you make for yourself when revising. Trust the reader to follow you.

Keep in mind the Hemingway Theory – that 10% of the story is what the author lets the audience see, and 90% is hidden. It’s very much like a glacier – the top 10% is visible, and the bottom 90% is below water. The amount of work you put into a novel is the 90%. When I wrote PIVOT, I wrote about five times the amount that the book ended up being. The book is around 280 pages. I definitely wrote over 1,000 pages while constructing it.

Read SAVE THE CAT! by Blake Snyder and THE HERO’S JOURNEY by Christopher Vogler. These were books that Nancy Holder (a prolific author and one of my professors) recommended to all of her students in my MFA program. Both books have beat sheets in terms of how a story should move. When I read them, I was so incredibly impressed. Before my MFA, I had written my first novel without any plot guidance. I retroactively compared it with Snyder’s 15-point beat sheet. To my surprise, I found that 13/15 elements in my manuscript aligned. That was the Aha! moment of, “Oh, this is why it worked. I know what I did, so now I know what to do.” I regularly return to these books and always learn something new.(less)

flag

1 like · like
Comment

What are you currently working on?

L.C. Barlow I am currently working on revisions in Peak, the last book in the Jack Harper Trilogy. In addition, I am hoping to finish up a dark fantasy novel sepa…moreI am currently working on revisions in Peak, the last book in the Jack Harper Trilogy. In addition, I am hoping to finish up a dark fantasy novel separate from the trilogy titled Seize. The main character of Seize is Beryl Portant, a seventeen-year-old seer who has just entered into her sight. In her world, there are many like her (millions of individuals) who can see potential futures, as well as the past. They are the aristocracy of Tiresia, and they rule over all those who are not clairvoyant. Though the elite of this world have obvious advantages—knowing everything that might happen before it might happen—there are downsides to visions, including the threat of knowing too much and being driven insane. Thus, seers must use a drug called Imogen to stop or limit their visions, and the government requires seers to dose regularly with it. If seers do not use Imogen, the effects are obvious—their silver eyes shift to black under the weight of too much knowledge.

Unfortunately, Beryl soon learns that Imogen does not work on her like it does with others, and after a particularly traumatic vision, one of her eyes turns black. In order to find a way to make Imogen work for her and to maybe reverse her eye’s alteration, she must seek help from an underground vigilante group who has mysteriously managed to thwart the seer dictatorship.

As Beryl seeks this group’s help, she discovers the unexpected. There are objects in her world that have no history or future, that are invisible to seers’ perception. In addition, there are people invisible to her, in that they seem to have no future and no past. As she delves deeper into who and what these individuals are, all while seeking refuge from Tiresia’s Capital, she learns that she is at the center of a threatening change in her world—the rise of those who are outside of seer sight because they exist outside of time.(less)

flag

1 like · like
Comment

See all 3 answers from L.C. Barlow…

Combine Editions
L.C. Barlow’s books

Average rating: 3.79 · 925 ratings · 297 reviews · 6 distinct works • Similar authors

	Pivot (Jack Harper Trilogy, #1) 3.72 avg rating — 783 ratings — published 2019 — 14 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Perish (Jack Harper Trilogy #2) 4.36 avg rating — 88 ratings — published 2020 — 6 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Peak (Jack Harper Trilogy, 3) 3.73 avg rating — 44 ratings — 5 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Perish: Jack Harper Trilogy Book 2 4.40 avg rating — 5 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Peak: Jack Harper Trilogy Book 3 really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 4 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Pivot: Jack Harper Trilogy Book 1 really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 1 rating	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by L.C. Barlow…

74 posts
L.C. Barlow's Blog

On Crafting a Novel

The biggest thing I’ve realized about writing recently: There is an original source of tension for the protagonist of the novel, and the novel will seem to fall off or become unwieldy/will go off the rails when you are no longer writing scenes that delve into that original source of tension, but rather create brand new sources of tension (sometimes a brand new source each chapter). The book become Read more of this blog post »

Like • 0 comments • flag

Published on July 21, 2022 21:20 • Tags: character, craft, creative-writing, novelist, novelists, novels, plot, writing, writing-advice, writing-life, writing-tip, writing-tips

View all 74 posts »

Series by L.C. Barlow

Jack Harper Trilogy (2 books)
by

L.C. Barlow (Goodreads Author)

3.78 avg rating — 871 ratings

rss
L.C.’s Recent Updates

L.C. rated a book really liked it St. Peter's Umbrella: a Novel by Kálmán Mikszáth	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Nov 04, 2024 04:38PM · like
L.C. rated a book really liked it The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of America's Wealthy by Thomas J. Stanley	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Nov 04, 2024 04:36PM · like
L.C. rated a book really liked it Stop Acting Rich: ...And Start Living Like A Real Millionaire by Thomas J. Stanley	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Nov 04, 2024 04:36PM · like · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Stop Acting Rich by Thomas J. Stanley. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Stop Acting Rich by Thomas J. Stanley <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
L.C. rated a book really liked it The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of America's Wealthy by Thomas J. Stanley	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Nov 04, 2024 04:36PM · like
L.C. rated a book it was amazing Baby Steps Millionaires: How Ordinary People Built Extraordinary Wealth-- and How You Can Too by Dave Ramsey	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Nov 04, 2024 04:35PM · like · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Baby Steps Millionaires by Dave Ramsey. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Baby Steps Millionaires by Dave Ramsey <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
L.C. rated a book it was amazing Flight to Heaven: A Plane Crash...A Lone Survivor...A Journey to Heaven--and Back by Dale Black	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Nov 04, 2024 04:35PM · like · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Flight to Heaven by Dale Black. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Flight to Heaven by Dale Black <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
L.C. has read Baby Steps Millionaires: How Ordinary People Built Extraordinary Wealth-- and How You Can Too by Dave Ramsey	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Nov 04, 2024 04:35PM · like · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Baby Steps Millionaires by Dave Ramsey. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Baby Steps Millionaires by Dave Ramsey <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
L.C. rated a book it was amazing To Heaven and Back by Mary C. Neal	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Nov 04, 2024 04:35PM · like · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of To Heaven and Back by Mary C. Neal. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — To Heaven and Back by Mary C. Neal <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
L.C. has read Flight to Heaven: A Plane Crash...A Lone Survivor...A Journey to Heaven--and Back by Dale Black	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Nov 04, 2024 04:34PM · like · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Flight to Heaven by Dale Black. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Flight to Heaven by Dale Black <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
L.C. has read To Heaven and Back by Mary C. Neal	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Nov 04, 2024 04:34PM · like · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of To Heaven and Back by Mary C. Neal. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — To Heaven and Back by Mary C. Neal <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">

More of L.C.'s books…

Quotes by L.C. Barlow (?)

“They expect from me a flicker, and I give them stars.”
― L.C. Barlow, Pivot

3 likes

“And in this simple moment, I suddenly began to wonder if perhaps we shake hands with God in agreement to the lives we live, before we are ever born.”
― L.C. Barlow, Pivot

2 likes

“There are no such things as angels, I thought to myself as I walked that path. There is only Cyrus, those who follow him, and those who sneak around him. Everything is a backwards dealing, a script where errors are miracles, and corrections are only a bullet away.

As for good works, they are dangerous and impossible. Only the likes of demons can successfully complete them, and they know not wholly what they do.”
― L.C. Barlow, Pivot

1 likes

See all L.C. Barlow's quotes »

Topics Mentioning This Author

topics	posts	views	last activity
You'll love this ...: July 2014 - Rating the Underrated	280	188	Aug 01, 2014 10:23PM
You'll love this ...: July 2014 REPORTING - Rating the Underrated	113	122	Aug 13, 2014 03:35AM
Shut Up & Read: Recommendations for Indie BOTM	119	317	Sep 16, 2014 09:40AM
75 Books...More o...: Silver's 75 Books in 2014	87	36	Jan 22, 2015 06:51PM
2025 Reading Chal...: Linda M's 250 books-2018	27	82	May 05, 2018 05:06PM
Game Night: Linda's Snakes & Ladders	75	24	Jul 24, 2018 03:48PM
Game Night: Phase 10: Team 6 - Violet Femmes	255	42	Jul 30, 2018 07:41AM
Game Night: Linda Mallet	51	14	Aug 01, 2018 07:30AM
A Million More Pages: Cow Appreciation Day	50	111	Aug 03, 2018 07:06PM

More…

L.C.’s Quotes

“You know you're in love when you can't fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams.”
― Dr. Seuss

tags: attributed-no-source, dreams, love, reality, sleep

126872 likes

“It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live.”
― J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

tags: dreams, life

48290 likes

“Reader, suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself.”
― Mark Twain

tags: humor, politics

9103 likes

“When looking for a life partner, my advice to women is date all of them: the bad boys, the cool boys, the commitment-phobic boys, the crazy boys. But do not marry them. The things that make the bad boys sexy do not make them good husbands. When it comes time to settle down, find someone who wants an equal partner. Someone who thinks women should be smart, opinionated and ambitious. Someone who values fairness and expects or, even better, wants to do his share in the home. These men exist and, trust me, over time, nothing is sexier.”
― Sheryl Sandberg, Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead

tags: dating, marriage

383 likes

“I do things like get in a taxi and say, "The library, and step on it.”
― David Foster Wallace, Infinite Jest

L.C. Barlow’s Followers (217)

L.C.’s Bookshelves

L.C.’s Friends (104)

L.C. Barlow

Goodreads Author

Learn more
Ask the Author

Popular Answered Questions

Combine Editions
L.C. Barlow’s books

74 posts
L.C. Barlow's Blog

On Crafting a Novel

Series by L.C. Barlow

rss
L.C.’s Recent Updates

See a Problem?

Preview — Stop Acting Rich by Thomas J. Stanley

See a Problem?

Preview — Baby Steps Millionaires by Dave Ramsey

See a Problem?

Preview — Flight to Heaven by Dale Black

See a Problem?

Preview — Baby Steps Millionaires by Dave Ramsey

See a Problem?

Preview — To Heaven and Back by Mary C. Neal

See a Problem?

Preview — Flight to Heaven by Dale Black

See a Problem?

Preview — To Heaven and Back by Mary C. Neal

Topics Mentioning This Author

L.C.’s Quotes

recent posts
L.C.’s Groups

L.C.’s Friend Comments

L.C. Barlow’s Followers (217)

L.C. Barlow

Goodreads Author

Popular Answered Questions

rssL.C.’s Recent Updates

See a Problem?

Preview — Stop Acting Rich by Thomas J. Stanley

See a Problem?

Preview — Baby Steps Millionaires by Dave Ramsey

See a Problem?

Preview — Flight to Heaven by Dale Black

See a Problem?

Preview — Baby Steps Millionaires by Dave Ramsey

See a Problem?

Preview — To Heaven and Back by Mary C. Neal

See a Problem?

Preview — Flight to Heaven by Dale Black

See a Problem?

Preview — To Heaven and Back by Mary C. Neal

Topics Mentioning This Author

rss
L.C.’s Recent Updates