I have family members who never, never, never read. As a writer, this distresses me. But it’s a very widespread phenomenon.
Having achieved just about universal literacy, civilization proceeds to throw it away! Voila! The wisdom of centuries–gone! Just like in The Time Machine:
I pray that’s not our future. I can write books, but I can’t get anyone to read.
(The “e” is a Global E-Book Award!)
Every now and then I remember that this blog was set up to tell people about my books and hopefully sell some of them.
Here’s a sample taken from Chapter 13 of Bell Mountain (Vol. 1), requested by Joshua:
By Request: from ‘The Theologian and the Assassin’ (Bell Mountain Chapter 13)
Ah, Lord Reesh! What a wonderful villain he was.
Anyway, you can read up on the whole Bell Mountain series right here on this blog, and order them via amazon.com or http://www.chalcedon.edu/store .
You know you’re on a roll as a storyteller if you introduce a minor character who grows into a major character before you can say boo.
The thing is, all your characters have to seem real–especially to you, the writer. The most common failing that makes bad literature bad is the writer using the central character as a larger-than-life wannabe of himself or herself, and all the other characters just scuttle around like roaches: they’re not important.
Nor does it hurt to have strong feelings about your fictional characters… as long as it doesn’t get out of hand, of course.
I am so tired! (Losing that “daylight savings” hour didn’t help!) We have a hymn requested by Erlene: I Am the God That Healeth Thee, by Don Moen.
I don’t seem to be accomplishing much today, but I press on. Susan is finishing up her editing of Bell Mountain No. 15, Oceans of Time. Gotta be ready to do my part–it’s almost showtime.
Book No. 14 of the Bell Mountain series
These past few days I’ve been reading and editing that portion of Ozias, Prince Enthroned that I wrote before the cold weather set in–some 30,000 words of it. I guess this must be the acid test: Do I like it, so far?
I do! I wish I had more of it to read. Before very long, the weather will allow me to start writing the rest of it. Meanwhile, we have two finished books to publish: Oceans of Time and Ozias, Prince in Peril. Kirk DuoPonce is on board to create the covers. And of course there are the 14 that are already in print.
I pray I’ll be ready to take up the tale as soon as weather permits.
Every now and then something reminds me that one of the things I’m supposed to be doing on this blog is to drum up readers for my books. I don’t have any celebrity endorsements, no one’s made any of my books into a movie… so it’s up to me to find readers.
Look at that wonderful cover art by Kirk DouPonce–does that say “Pick me up and read me!”, or what?
Come on, now–are you really gonna kiss off barbarian hordes, ancient secrets, and fantastic adventures? And best of all, it’s Christian fantasy–none of those annoying neo-pagan cliches that clutter up most fantasy novels, these days.
Click “Books” on the home page and read all about it.
Every now and then it crosses my mind that one of this blog’s original functions was to call attention to my books and hopefully sell a few. Books without readers do no one any good.
Reviews by readers are terribly important. Well, to the author they are!
Anyway, it’s been a couple of years since I’ve gotten any reader feedback. I would like to think that someone, in all that time, has dipped into Bell Mountain. Sometime in the not-too-distant future, Oceans of Time (No. 15 in the series) will be published, bringing King Ryons and his people to a natural resting-point. From there we’ll be going backward in time to King Ozias’ days.
Any thoughts, anybody?
It’s been weeks since I’ve written a word of Ozias, Prince Enthroned. It’s too cold to sit outside and write, the ink won’t come out of the pen; and we’ve had all sorts of tsuris around here lately. But I am still thinking about the book; the Lord has shown me two incidents that will have to be included in the story.
I’ll have to wait for more.
And while we’re at it, let me request some prayers for Susan, my editor at Chalcedon and my friend, who’s been sick for weeks now and needs some TLC from above. Please, Father, restore her health and strength and let her take up her work again: bless your servant with healing. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Here we have Ellayne descending into “the Cellar Beneath the Cellar” in Old Obann (Book 2 of my Bell Mountain series)–drawn so beautifully by our friend Katheleen, in Brazil. I couldn’t figure out how to move it to this blog, but Patty successfully jumped the technological hurdles, as you can see.
Not to stoop to commercialism, but every writer wants his work to be read and I’m no exception to that rule. I’m so happy my stories have inspired this girl’s artwork. I think she’s 15 now, and getting better at it all the time. I really like this picture!
Shout-out to Re-Farmer and Ina: your prizes are in the mail! Sorry it took so long, there was an awful lot of bother around here. But your autographed books are on their way.
So we’ve hit a blogging milestone, 100,000 comments. I wonder how long it’ll take to reach the next hundred thousand.
Now I’ve got to write a Newswithviews column, and a couple more blog posts; and I have to admit I’m pretty close to being tuckered out.
Onward!