Category: bell mountain series

One Climax Down, One to Go

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Newport+Beach+Sunrise+by+Vinda+Ho+t

The eye doctor dilated me six ways from Sunday this morning and I can’t see well, and a cold wind is blowing–but I’ve just come in from hammering out one of the twin climaxes of The Witch Box.

With the other one still to be written. The sun is not quite ready to set on this book.

I dare not let drop any spoilers here. Suffice it to say that this is a challenge to me as a writer–the most ambitious thing I’ve tried in any of my Bell Mountain books. I have no way of knowing whether I’ve succeeded. That’ll be up to the readers.

I hope I can finish the other climax next week, weather permitting. Then I’ll have to go back and fill in the hole that I left in the story when I decided to jump ahead to the pre-climaxes. It’s been a long time since I had to work this hard on a book.

In the meantime, I hope some of you get hold of Book No. 13, The Wind from Heaven, and let me know what you think of it. And next year, No. 14, Behold!, will be published.

After that, I’m seriously thinking of going back two thousand years to tell the tale of King Ozias, Obann’s last anointed king. He’s the one who set up the bell on Bell Mountain and thus may be held responsible for the 15 books that followed.

Sorry I’m Late!

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Ruined UK castles spring back to life | CNN Travel

Sorry I’m running so late today, but it was unavoidable: four errands to run this morning, including grocery shopping–and then I had to take advantage of the sunny weather to work on my book, The Witch Box.

As I work my way into the book’s double climax, the people settled around the ruined castle of Carbonek are about to yield to a temptation: not to trust entirely in God’s promise, but to try to beef it up with something more. Something of this world. They can’t help it. We’re always looking for some kind of insurance policy.

I have to do as much as I can this week, before cold weather really settles in. At the same time, I have to be careful not to force the story. I have to trust in God’s guidance–and that’s not always easy to do. Carbonek, I know how you feel.

I’m being drawn into the story. I don’t know how to say it any other way.

Hiking Toward the Climax

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It's Wrong to Tell Our Kids That Hard Work Always Pays Off | Time

I’m sorry that this blog isn’t quite so noozy today as it usually is, but I’ve just spent two hours outside filling up a legal pad with another five pages of The Witch Box.

Since I decided to jump ahead to that point in the story leading to its tricky double climax, I’ve written another 125 pages and now I’m ready to rock. If I can pull this off, I think it’ll be something I can be proud of.

So far I’m the only one who knows what will happen with the conqueror from across the western ocean. As for what is intended to be a final experiment with the witch box, only Wytt has any idea of just how exquisitely dangerous that will prove to be.

Well, I have to take care not to drop any spoilers. And I have to keep racing the calendar, trying to finish the book before it’s just too cold to write outside. Maybe I have two weeks. I pray that’ll be enough.

Now it’s 3 o’clock–just enough time to check in with Joe Collidge.

Here Comes the Sun!

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Grass with sunny spots. Summer grass with sunny spots. | CanStock

Ooh-ooh, the sun came out! I’ve got to get out there and set up my chair, light my cigar, and return to work on my book, The Witch Box. Yesterday I found a sunny spot and was able to write for 90 minutes before my hands got too cold.

I’m working my way into the plot’s double climax. All the characters are now where they need to be. (Yes, you have to move them around like chessmen.) And as yet I’m the only one who knows what’s going to happen to them. Wait’ll they find out.

I know I ought to write more blog posts, but I have to make use of the sun while I’ve got it. See yiz later!

A Hideous Giant Amphibian

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Wait’ll you read The Witch Box! I had no idea these scary giant amphibians could be found in Lintum Forest; but Helki the Rod has found them. He’s also dreamed up a constructive use for them

I don’t buy that “Eryops-on-a-balance-beam” act, though. What could be more preposterous? (Maybe a tightrope-walking tortoise.)

Anyway, try to imagine a critter like a cross between a frog and a salamander, weighing a couple hundred pounds, with jaws that’d make an alligator’s look downright feeble. That’ll put you on the right track.

Sunny Weather–Finally

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Eryops, side profile. | Stocktrek Images

I’m glad I got some blog posts up this morning, because the sun is out again and I’ve got to write as much of The Witch Box as I can. No telling when it’ll get too cold to do that.

Today Helki the Rod has had an encounter with the creature depicted above. It’s called “Eryops,” a giant amphibian with huge jaws, lots and lots of teeth, and a third eye in the middle of its forehead–one of the first prehistoric animals I ever learned about, thanks to Bertha Morris Parker’s Golden Treasury of Natural History. You’re getting a better look at it than Helki got. He didn’t want to get too close. His Eryops lives in a cavern.

Well, I’d better get back outside now and try to tell some more of the story. See you in a bit.

 

The Thrill Is Back!

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The Bell Mountain Series - Reformed Reviews

I’ll never get over the thrill I experience when a story I’m writing takes on a life of its own and pulls me along with it.

It’s going to be tricky, putting the book into a coherent whole, but I’m sure the Lord will guide me. Like, waddaya know! Suddenly I have a pre-climax that not only leads into the double climax of the story, but also ties the two together. I never expected that, although it’s not the first time it’s happened. The story unfolds and I just write it down! How cool is that?

I’m already working on a second chapter of the pre-climax, with another chapter waiting in the wings. It’s really going to mess up my legal pads–but once I’ve got all the pieces written, I’ll be able to put them together as they should be.

Meanwhile… who knew Wytt had a streak of clairvoyance in him?

Now I’ve Got to Bear Down

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Tricks for Writing Under Pressure - Shut Up & Write!

Okay! Grocery shopping’s done, banking’s done. Time to get outside and write like a boat was sinking under me.

I reckon I’ve got two months, at most, to finish writing The Witch Box. It’s not so much fun trying to do that when it’s so cold, the ink won’t flow from the pen; but you can’t go indoors because it’s so blamed hard to concentrate when you’re getting nuisance robo-calls every ten minutes.

Gee–see that pen in the picture? I’ve got one just exactly like it. But you can tell it isn’t me up there because my thrifty soul would violently recoil from wasting so much paper.

I’m not going to stop blogging, but I’ll need your help, O reader, in bringing up interesting topics and starting conversations.

Well, as the feller once said, “Shut up and write!”

‘The Witch Box’–Now Comes the Hard Part

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As I wait to see whether anyone buys The Wind from Heaven, I’ve finally arrived at that point where it’s do or die, writing The Witch Box.

This book has a double climax; and that means it’ll be very important to get the timing just so. And I’ve got to get to that double climax without padding the story, but without winding up with a book that’s too short.

Plus I’ve got to get it all done before the cold weather sets in and the ink stops flowing in my pen. I have to write these books outdoors. Indoors it’s nothing but nuisance phone calls.

Please pray for me, that the Lord might guide me in the work and make it fruitful in His service–and that I’ll be up to the challenge.

Now in Paperback, ‘The Wind from Heaven’

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Finally, at last, hooray! My new book, The Wind from Heaven, is out in paperback.

At least, I think it’s out. We’ve had a lot of publication glitches, and the amazon.com page has it as “Book 11 in the Bell Mountain series” when it’s actually Book 13. We ran into so many glitches, we had to publish the Kindle book first.

But here it is, and I hope some of you will buy it and bless me with a customer review.

Will Ysbott the Snake succeed in finding a place in Lintum Forest inhabited by gnomes and giants? And what about those ships that have been sighted off the coast of Durmurot? Where did they come from, and what do they want?

The adventure continues…