About me
Contact by email: GoreNovels@gmail.com
Facebook page: GoreNovels
Follow me on twitter @GoreNovels
My Story
Born with wanderlust, forever living in a fantasy world, I escaped the prairies of Kansas and followed the yellow brick road on an odyssey that took me to Europe, Africa, Latin America and the Middle East. Starting with a one way ticket to Iceland, I returned after a couple of decades with a Viking husband, an art degree and speaking five languages.
The Red Mirror was my first novel and the first book in the trilogy which takes you back to ancient Egypt. I view the Red Mirror Series as a culmination of my life as a shameless romantic daydreaming about the distant past, roaming ancient ruins, hitchhiking across the Sahara. Languages fascinate me. I’ve studied Latin, Classical Greek and Middle Egyptian (hieroglyphs). Spanish, French, Danish Arabic and, of course, English, are my modern languages.
My dream: Carry you back in time and bring alive the adventure, romance and mysticism I discovered just across the Red Mirror. My real dream? Have a following of readers who live my fantasies as much as I do.
I didn’t start writing until I “retired” to Las Vegas and created sandraoffthestrip.com, “a magazine blog dedicated to the adventures of an eclectic mind.” My first book, Sex and the Zen of Shopping: Live Rich by Shopping Smart, published in 2010, is a self-help manual on the philosophy of bargain shopping. I’ve also contributed memoir pieces to three Life Choices anthologies and had the honor of speaking at several Life Choices Events.
My handsome Viking husband and I raised our daughter and son in a beach house in Central Coast California where we started our own environmental laboratory and forensic science consulting company. Running a scientific company was not my passion. I did it – and I did it well – but only to pay the bills.
My mission: I’ve been a political activist and environmentalist for years and years. The political part of my life includes election to school board and service as both a city and county Planning Commissioner. Now I serve on the Parks, Recreation and Beautification Commission, and as President of the Friends of the Chapman House and Gardens of Shell Beach, hoping to make our community even more of a paradise than it is.
As much as I love writing and sharing my fantasies with you, I’m motivated by social causes and want to leave the world a better place. Please check out Dining for Women, a powerful volunteer movement I’m involved in that’s working to change the future of women in the world’s poorest countries.
If you want to know my political mind, see my twitter account @LVview. But warning! It’s an ugly world out there, especially in the Middle East and North Africa which are my passions. My author account is a happy land. Follow me there @GoreNovels.
S. L. Gore 
1.
Jim Long | August 22, 2010 at 7:26 pm
Your home in Shell Beach is lovely and you and Jesper are loads of energetic fun. Everywhere I look around your living room I see a story ready to jump out from the every object. Wow! Thanks for the stories, laughter, wine, and the bread in a box. See you soon!
2.
Sandra Gore Nielsen | August 23, 2010 at 12:07 am
Our pleasure!
3.
Leonard Carpenter | December 23, 2010 at 12:55 am
Sandra & Jesper,
It was a blast meeting you both at the Night Writers party. And Sandra, you are an inspired and professional writer. Please reply by email, or let me know your address, so I can send you my latest magnum opus, our Xmas newsletter.
Meanwhile have terrific holidays!
Leonard
4.
Sandra Gore Nielsen | December 24, 2010 at 11:52 pm
What a great compliment coming from a published Conan author! Remind me how many you have written?
5.
Leonard Carpenter | February 3, 2011 at 12:57 pm
Ha
6.
Leonard Carpenter | February 3, 2011 at 2:40 pm
Having been privileged to become one of the first readers of Isis by Sandra Gore Nielsen, I can tell you that the book is an unforgettable delight and its author a literary phenomenon. I urge all of you, as soon as possible and by any humane means, to obtain this book and make it a part of your life.
This story intrigues and exhilarates the reader on so many levels that it’s hard to comprehend the full impact. My life is changed by this book, and I can’t yet say quite how… but it’s definitely for the better.
Isis herself is similarly an enigma. She may seem a simple Vegas or Nile Valley girl, but she is a Priestess, an icon and adept in her all-but-forgotten mystical creed. Her nature – while sympathetic, congenial and infinitely desirable – is also formidable if not indomitable, an intense focus of female energy and vitality that draws you in. Most fittingly, she becomes the nexus and target of more-than-millennial (and real) historical, social and spiritual forces that drive this rousing tale.
The males in the story are also icons, durably cast (or carved) in bronze, marble, ebony, alabaster, gold, and other fine rare elements. All of the cast, whatever their fates and obsessions, are deftly formed and memorable.
Likewise the language of the book, the ancient scenery, the Nile-slow or chariot-fast pacing and exquisite (if sometimes shockingly revealing) costumes all fit superbly into the tale.
If you don’t believe it, just look at the book itself, the enticing package hand-designed by the author, or dare I say authoress? Can there be any question of quality inside a package like this?
As I write these words, my only doubt is of my own ability to praise this book and literary project highly enough. I’m challenged to be as good a writer as Sandra.
And then of course there’s the question of what to do for a sequel – but luckily it’s written, with a third volume already in the works! I’ve bought Athena (i’m no doubt first of many) and look forward to reading it with anticipation and, odd to say, confidence in the skilled and inspired creator of Isis.
The reviewer Leonard Carpenter is also author of eleven Conan the Barbarian novels for Tor Books. His current project is Lusitania Lost, a novel of the luxury liner sunk by a U-boat in WWI.
7.
Sandra Gore Nielsen | February 3, 2011 at 4:22 pm
I am overwhelmed by your accolades, Leonard. If I strip away the praise – which I so greatly appreciate – I see that you “get it.” Isis is a complex woman (aren’t we all?!) who will grow and develop into Athena (book two) and blow your mind as Elektra (book three). As you can imagine, I am taking a little break before taking on Elektra who intimidates me! Too bad Isis didn’t have a chance to “tame” Conan!
8.
clancyjane | May 8, 2011 at 3:40 pm
I haven’t lived there since I left to attend Washburn U two decades ago, but I’m a native daughter of rural Missouri. I’ve been so baffled by the area’s insistence on voting against their own interests, well-being and pocketbooks that I googled that theme as a search term, which brought me to you and your article, “Why Rural Whites Still Vote GOP”. I’m tearful with thanks! You wrote that for me. I’m going to pass it along with hopes of initiating a meaningful dialogue with the very people you describe, only at the north end of the state. 🙂
9.
Sandra Gore Nielsen | May 8, 2011 at 4:35 pm
So glad to meet a kindred spirit. When visiting the Ozarks, it’s hard to imagine there is anyone who thinks differently. Yes, it continues to be a mystery that people vote and agitate against their own self-interests. They are duped by propaganda. Cries of God and Flag while corporations are smoking big cigars in board rooms and chuckling all the way to the bank.
10.
Robert Ishoy | August 25, 2011 at 9:21 pm
Love to hear your thoughts on my writings posted on the Church of SHE web site; churchofshe.org. Perhapes it will help prepare you for Elektra.
11.
Sandra Gore Nielsen | August 26, 2011 at 6:34 am
It’s interesting to talk to a male woman-worshipper. Fascinating psychology. How did you find me?
12.
charissa | January 2, 2013 at 4:00 pm
Hello Sandra, I was wondering if you still had access to the Personal Numerology Chart Program that you copyrighted with Mike Quillman some time ago? It would be so helpful if you could tell me how to gain access to this again. Thank you so much for any insight.
13.
Sandra Gore | January 7, 2013 at 11:44 pm
That was SO many years ago! early 80’s. I would love to help, but have no idea. Certainly don’t have the program. I wrote it in Basic I believe. Wow, talk about time travel 🙂 I actually wrote the whole thing, by the way. Had to use only so many characters. Actually a little like twitter now that I think of it. Plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose. What do you want to do with numerology?
14.
byclarkellis | January 5, 2015 at 5:14 am
Looking at your rather impressive résumé, I believe I am the one who ought to be flattered. Tell me, do you have a recommendation as to which of your works I should read first?
15.
S. L. Gore | January 5, 2015 at 6:01 pm
If you want something very fast-paced with high emotional content and sensuality, read Lovers of Isis. It will give you the arc of the story line of the saga of the Red Mirror Trilogy. If you like luxurious detail, rich history and more action (with high emotional content and sensuality) start with The Red Mirror, first book of the trilogy. If you want the throat-gripping tension of the gritty Roman world, read the The Black Scroll, the third book of the trilogy. I believe I crafted the tale in a way that someone who’s willing to accept a few references to past events in earlier books can easily follow. I would be greatly honored and more than grateful for review.
16.
byclarkellis | January 7, 2015 at 5:35 am
Thank you! Even though my current list is extensive, I’m adding these to it. I will surely let you know as soon as I read them 🙂