Requested by Erlene–I Surrender All, by the Newsboys. This song has a great message, well worth remembering: “God doesn’t love us for who we are. He only loves us because of who He is.” What a world of fear that takes away!
P.S.–Will anyone mind if I short of duck the nooze today? There’ll plenty enough of it for us tomorrow, I dare say.
Joshua asked for this excerpt: from page 1 and page 2 of Bell Mountain. Remember that Jack’s dream, described here, was originally one of mine.
“In Jack’s dream, he would be somewhere in the valley, maybe trying to throw a stone across the river… So he would be throwing stones, or looking for blackberries, when suddenly the mountain would begin to sing.
“It was always the biggest mountain, Bell Mountain, with its peak hidden in a cloak of clouds so that no one ever saw it. Jack had never in his life heard the sound of a really big bell, or he might have said the mountain rang, not sang.
“But it was a terrible song that made the other mountains tremble and filled the whole valley as if God had flooded it to the foothills with ice water. Jack couldn’t hear the noise of the river anymore, nor the wind, the birds, nor his own heart beating. Indeed, it seemed the river stopped flowing and his heart stopped beating. And he was too terrified to pick up his feet and run away–too terrified even to breathe.
“And then he would wake up.
“As his breath came back to him, he would always find that he was still frightened: scared enough to shiver. But on top of being frightened, and running deeper than the fear, was something else…”
Anyone can request an excerpt from any of my books. Just be sure to give the title, page number, and a brief description of what you want me to excerpt. And remember–we don’t want to spoil any of the climaxes.
And if you haven’t read any of these books yet–well, they’re waiting for you.
Ah, the days of innocence! Complete with Indian elephant wandering around Africa.
Remember Jungle Jim, starring Johnny Weissmuller? Tarzan with clothes on. Half an hour of pure TV pleasure, back in the 1950s. Man, I couldn’t get enough of those African adventure shows. Jungle Jim, Ramar of the Jungle, Sheena Queen of the Jungle (starring the irrepressible Irish McCalla: I think she went on to become an artist of some note)–I loved ’em all. And the kids in those shows never had to go to school! So much better than just answering nuisance robo-calls–which hadn’t been invented yet. But you can bet Jungle Jim never got one.
Where was I? Oh, yeah…
No African jungle adventure show would have been complete without the cry of the Australian kookaburra in the background.
Hear that? Sound familiar?
Welcome to the Fifties TV jungle!
She shoulda got high…?
It is getting hard to crank these out every week, but I can only persevere. If enough of us do it, we just might get somewhere!
The answer to the boredom epidemic–pot! Just get too high to notice how bored you are. And don’t forget to vote Democrat when your community organizer comes around to harvest votes. Actually, you can forget–he’ll do it for you.
How did this wicked foolishness wind up sweeping through the entire Western world? What madness possesses us, that we should tolerate it? I mean, come on, this schlop shouldn’t have lasted ten seconds!
And now we’re “Haters” because we won’t tell a four-year-old boy that he can “choose” to be a girl. He can’t choose to pray on school grounds, but he can “choose” to be a girl.
Damn right I hate this stuff. It reeks of Hell.
One of my favorite hymns from Sunday school, Trust and Obey–this is for Evelyn, lyrics and all. I don’t know how many Vagle Brothers there are, but they do make a nice sound together–and oh! the background scenery. God’s handiwork is always present, always a gift.
I think “Scandal” is the cat and “Cover-up” is the dog in one of these clips. The names people give their pets!
See how a cat reacts to getting mobbed by puppies. See the mother dog walk up to do something about it, change her mind, and walk away. Enjoy the funny puppies.
See the little monkey on Tarzan’s shoulder? His name is Nkima, and he’s the biggest braggart in the jungle–which is kind of funny, because he’s mortally afraid of… everything.
He is also the inspiration for my character, Wytt–who is afraid of… nothing.
What?
People often ask me where my characters come from, and how they end up in my Bell Mountain novels. And if I had to guess, I’d guess that Wytt is probably my most popular character. A lot of readers have told me so. But where did Wytt come from?
If you know me, you know I’m a Tarzan fan. And Nkima is my favorite character in all the Tarzan books by Edgar Rice Burroughs. I mean, he’s so full of it! And it’s all hot air. This amuses me: a trait that would be unbearable in a real human being is a lot of fun in Tarzan’s monkey sidekick.
As the Omah creatures began to take shape in my mind, I asked myself, “What would Nkima be like, if all his bluster and bravado were perfectly genuine?” What if he really were as brave and bold as he makes himself out to be? What would that look like, in a little character no bigger than a monkey or a squirrel?
And then I had him–Wytt, Jack and Ellayne’s self-appointed protector and guide, who takes on enemies many times his own size, and lets them have the rough side of his tongue while doing it–and gets away with it. This little tiny hero armed with a tiny stick chewed to a point, who’s always up for any challenge that confronts him. No job is too big for him.
Yeah, he’s kind of easy to like. If Wytt’s your guardian–baby, you are guarded, but good. And given the numerous perils in which Ellayne and Jack have found themselves, he’s been kept rather busy. He’s even had to save Martis once or twice: and Martis is a professional assassin who ought to be able to take care of himself. But some of the adventures are a bit dangerous even for him.
I’m sure Wytt will be up for the next book, whatever the adventure turns out to be.
From David Fischer, at damarministries blog… We are not alone. –LD
This is Heidi’s idea, and I’m going with it: taking reader requests for excerpts from my book. It’s only fitting that she have the first crack at it; and she has asked for this passage, from Bell Mountain, introducing the Omah–the squirrel-sized, manlike creatures who will play a large role in the story. We find it on Page 47.
“Jack and Ellayne held their breath. This was no animal whose like they’d ever seen before. Not a fox, nor a rat, nor anything they had a word for.
“It came tiptoeing out on little furry feet, walking on its hind legs like a tiny human being. Indeed, it might have been a human being, if it weren’t so small and covered with glossy brown fur from head to foot–except for its face, which was bare and pale and almost human.
“From outside the light, the creature’s eyes had shone red; but up closer they were brown, almost black, bright and shiny and large.
“It tiptoed up to the bread, hesitated for a moment, and then reached down and picked it up–with hands.
“Little furry hands, real hands like Jack’s own: Jack didn’t know what to think. All he could do was stare as the creature handled the bread with nimble fingers, studying it, sniffing it, and finally stuffing it into its mouth. Jack saw a flash of tiny white teeth.
“With its cheeks bulging, the creature turned suddenly and scampered back into the darkness.”
I’ll take reader requests for excerpts, although I have no idea whether this new feature will be popular. Just make sure you give me the page number and describe what you want to see. Do steer clear of excerpts that might spoil the ending of the story.
Gee, wouldn’t it be great if these excerpts moved people to buy the books?