Okay, I’ve got some pages written and I’m on my way–the early life of King Ozias, compiled by Obst from the Scriptures.
It’s a daunting task, but also an exciting one. Can I bring this story to life? I have to go back in history 2,000 years and a lot of things in Obann were very different then. There were still some Wild Men left in Lintum Forest, for instance. Obann’s Empire, and the Day of Fire, were some thousand years in the future. A lot of shapeless ruins were thriving cities.
It’s only 2 o’clock. I think I’ll go out and write some more.
I had it strongly in my mind to start writing my next book today. Yeah, today.
The thought came to me as I was washing dishes: “Do it the way Homer showed us, in The Iliad: Jump right into the middle of the story, with both feet!” Any time I can get advice from Homer, I take it.
This story will be the life of King Ozias–his early life, at least, as he grew up in Lintum Forest.,. I think it ought to be told by Obst, putting together all the information scattered throughout the Scriptures. Obst will understand the turbulent times that Ozias knew: civil war, Heathen invasions, gangs of murderers trying to hunt him down…
All that being said, today the sky is slate-grey and it’s just itchin’ to rain on me and on my work. I can’t do this indoors because there’s too much distraction. I need the green grass, a blue sky, and the birds. God is in all those things; and I want Him to be present in my book, too.
Well, I still have to go to the store and pick up the laundry. Let’s see if the sky clears by the time I’m done.
A reader in Brazil, Kathleen, has asked me for this. She wants to make a Bell Mountain video for her YouTube channel. She’s interested in the fact that the book was inspired by a dream I had one night.
I dreamed of a boy standing alone on a grassy riverbank, a shallow stream of cold water flowing over a bed of smooth stones. In the distance towered mountains, the tallest of which, Bell Mountain, was cloaked in clouds around the summit. No one had ever seen the summit.
And suddenly that mountain began to “sing” to him. This terrified him and froze him to the spot; but it was also exhilarating. He’d never heard anything like it before. He could have listened for hours, but then he woke up.
It was a very vivid dream, in technicolor, and I never forgot it. That was a good thing, because shortly afterward someone at the Chalcedon Foundation wondered how we’d do if we published a novel–and I was ready to write it!
I also dreamed the climax of my third book in the series, The Thunder King, and the opening chapter of the seventh, The Glass Bridge. I have always dreamed vivid, unusual dreams, all my life; and they’ve played a major role in my writing.
I look forward to seeing Kathleen’s video, and hope I can post it here for all of you.
Meanwhile, all across the country, people are reading less and less. When I was in high school I began to wonder if they weren’t trying to discourage us from reading: it’s the only way I can explain assigning Silas Marner to American tenth-graders. We also had to read The Forsyte Saga. If that doesn’t put you off reading, you’re made of very stern stuff.
So, yeah, I’m trying to get some more of you to read my books. I mean, that’s why I wrote them, isn’t it?
And you can order them right here on this blog! Just click “Books” on the Home page and find out all about it.
Bell Mountain No. 15 won’t be called The Witch Box, after all. I’ve had to change the title.
Now it’s Ocean of Time. I have a double climax, so it was hard for one title to cover both of them. The Witch Box couldn’t do that. Ocean of Time can.
When I was writing horror novels, my New York publisher always changed my titles. Always for the better, I have to admit it: my titles were pretty bad. My Bell Mountain titles were a great improvement.
It’s not so easy to come up with a title! If you’ve got a good one, it can guide you in the writing of the story. Mystery writer H.R.F. Keating was so good at that. Your plot tends to be more coherent if the action reflects the title. In The Iciest Sin, Keating wrote about a blackmail scheme investigated by Inspector Ghote–and peppered it with incidents of not-quite-criminal blackmail, but blackmail nonetheless, practiced by people in their daily lives. Fantastic book.
So far everyone I’ve talked to seems to like Ocean of Time, and I’m home free. But I’ll still listen to suggestions, if anybody has any.
I think it can be pretty much guaranteed that no fantasy novel is going to thrive when it is marketed as “labor and industrial relations.” Certainly my Thunder King didn’t.
No one was able to tell me how my fantasy novel wound up as labor and industrial relations. Nothing in it about collective bargaining, overtime, or automation. Like a book by some guy that no one ever heard of doesn’t have enough trouble finding buyers.
I just checked. The Thunder King is not exactly burning up the track today, but it is doing much better than it was as “labor & industrial relations.”
Above is pictured one of the critters encountered by Helki the Rod in Lintum Forest: it plays an important role in Behold!, Book No.14 in my Bell Mountain series. I lost a lot of time to illness, but today I’ve finished the first round of editing–and contacted our cover artist, Kirk DuoPonce. Let’s see what he can come up with.
What would happen if a piece of advanced technology from an extinct civilization fell into the hands of people living 1,000 years later? What if the finders wished to use it–although they have no understanding of such things?
And then there are those ships, the first to cross the ocean from the west since Obann’s Empire was destroyed. Will they bring some new disaster with them?
I hope we can get this book on the market in time for Christmas. Next year, maybe The Witch Box will be ready, double climax and all. And I’m looking forward to warmer weather so I can start writing the life of King Ozias. If you like these books, there’s a lot of fun in store for you.
We have no plans to add Oy, Rodney to our schedule. My wife would like to see the adventures of Abombalbap in book form, but I think that might be beyond my powers.
Just on a whim yesterday, I did a search for “Abombalbap.” I expected nothing: after all, he’s only a character in a book that’s only mentioned in my Bell Mountain books. Abombalbap is the hero of a lot of old stories of romance and adventure. Ellayne loves those Abombalbap stories. She has a big thick book full of them, handed down to her by her father.
Imagine my surprise when I got hits for “Abombalbap” from outside Bell Mountain!
Yup–my own Abombalbap has been adopted as a character in at least three fantasy role-playing games that people play on line. I’m only waiting for an Abombalbap movie to come out so I can sue for the rights.
(“See? I toldja these books are fun!”)
I’m glad my books have brought that much pleasure to some of their readers.
I have just finished typing the last chapters of The Witch Box and sending them to Susan for editing.
What a struggle this was! No end of obstacles, one by one, two by two–and that’s why it took so long.
This might be my best book. Then again, it might totally fall flat. I have no way of knowing. My books are my babies. I prepare them as best I can and then send them out into the world.
And now I need a rest.
P.S.–I have no idea what those boxes down below are for. I’ve never seen them before.
