Category: Christian fiction

‘How C.S. Lewis Predicted the Woke Nightmare’ (2021)

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C.S. Lewis–he didn’t need Tarot cards to see the future.

Storytellers, even fantasy writers, often warn us not to do stupid stuff that makes bad things happen. Very often they’re right. C.S. Lewis certainly was; and the world would have been spared many evils, had we taken his warnings seriously.

‘How C.S. Lewis Predicted the Woke Nightmare’

Lewis was one of the few thinkers who understood that the end of World War II wasn’t going to be the end of troubles. The Third Reich was smashed, but its evil ideology was loose in the world. And the Soviet Union, with China soon to join in, was more than ready to turn the earth into a slaughterhouse.

Hint: Whenever the nooze of current events sounds like a bit of “Screwtape Proposes a Toast”… it means we’re getting into trouble we should have and could have avoided.

No, I Haven’t Forgotten My Book

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Behold! (Bell Mountain, 14)

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.

 

‘Not-So-Minor Characters’ (2015)

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Gotta outgrow this!

You’d be insulted, wouldn’t you, if people dismissed you as “a minor character”? Well, fictional characters don’t like it any more than you do.

Not-So-Minor Characters

To this day I still cite Dick Francis and H.R.F. Keating as stellar examples of writers who brought their characters to life. You don’t need to load down the book with biographies that interest no one: but you do need a touch of color.

The biggest offense a fiction writer can commit is to write himself up as the larger-than-life hero of the story. Even publishers don’t like it! That sort of thing is very popular in high school among teens who think they’d someday like to be writers.

It’s a phase that must be passed through as quickly as possible.

Coping With the Cold

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Yeah, I know: it looks like I’m doing nothing, just some dawdler sitting outside, smoking a cigar.

I’m supposed to be writing a book, Ozias, Prince Enthroned. It’s the story of Ozias’ first year or two as king of Obann. Cold weather stopped me halfway through. I can’t write fiction indoors, too many distractions; but outside, in January, it’s just too cold, the ink won’t come out of the pen.

So what I’ve been doing is telling the story to myself, conjuring up one episode after another. I now know how the story ends, and several of the more important steps toward getting there. I hope to be ready to start writing them down, once Spring is here. I haven’t worked this way before, but it seems to be bearing fruit.

Meanwhile, two books await publication: Oceans of Time, and Ozias, Prince in Peril. My editor, Susan, has recovered from her illness and is back to work (thank you all for your prayers!). Soon we’ll need a cover by artist Kirk DouPonce. And then another cover. Maybe by then the weather will ease up and I can write down what I’ve envisioned for Prince Enthroned.

I’m looking forward to it.

‘Yes, the Culture Really Does Matter (2015)’ (2019)

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True, it’s only a novel; but there are thousands of them.

I post this now and then because it keeps on being true–and our (ahem!) “conservatives” act like culture doesn’t matter. Which is why they don’t matter, either.

‘Yes, the Culture Really Does Matter’ (2015)

No, Ms/Mr Conservative–you can’t just keep on debasing the culture without it turning around and swallowing you whole. If there’s one thing that history really does teach us, it’s that states, countries, cultures, and whole civilizations are distressingly mortal. They can die. They can destroy themselves.

And it always starts with culture rot.

‘Puddleglum’s Theology’ (2015)

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Time goes by; and the longer I think about it, the more likely it appears that there are a lot of holes in C.S. Lewis’ theology. For instance:

Puddleglum’s Theology

I thought this was the berries, eight years ago–but it isn’t, is it? God’s Word is true whether we believe in it our now. Our belief does not make it true. Our disbelief does not make it false. It’s true because it comes from God.

But “Jack” Lewis was a devoted servant of God who had a long, long way to go even to reach the level of theology that informs his Narnia books. Those–and I do love them–contain some serious errors.

Let’s be charitable toward a fellow servant. And really, he did accomplish much that was good.

‘A Tale of Two Hobbits’ (2015)

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The movie industry takes great liberties with books when they turn them into movies; and no author was ever more abused by this than J.R.R. Tolkien.

Would he have even recognized The Hobbit after Peter Jackson finished screwing with it?

A Tale of Two Hobbits

Well, you have a not-that-long novel, and you want to milk it for all it’s worth, so you pad it into a vast movie trilogy… which means you’ll have to add a lot that was never in the story. I can imagine Tolkien running screaming to the sidewalk when he saw what they’d done to his story. But of course they waited till after he was dead to do it. (Gorgeous Invincible Elf Warrior Woman… excuse me, I’m going to be sick…)

I’m a long-time Tolkien fan, but I steered clear of all the movies. It’s impossible to imagine anyone less Hollywood than J.R.R. Tolkien.

‘How Not to Write Dialogue’ (2014)

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Silly Nonsense Gibberish Shirt Jibber Jabber T-Shirt

I’ll have more to say about this later. Literary crimes are being perpetrated today that hadn’t been invented yet in 2014.

How Not to Write Dialogue

I think back to those days when literary agents and editors used to keelhaul new writers for even the slightest lapses in style and grammar–while at the same time, publishing stuff that was barely recognizeable as English.

If you can’t talk intelligently, you can’t think intelligently.

The prosecution rests, your honor.

‘So What’s “Bell Mountain” All About?’ (2012)

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Amazon.com: Bell Mountain (Bell Mountain, 1) eBook : Duigon, Lee: קינדל חנות

That “e” in the upper right-hand corner is a Global E-Book Award, Bronze Medal.

Here I go again, trying to get people to give my books as Christmas presents. Maybe someday I’ll succeed in doing it.

So What’s ‘Bell Mountain’ All About?

One of the hardest things about being an author, unless you’re Joe Bestseller and people flatter you in hopes of getting something for it, is that you have no idea of who’s reading your work, or if anybody’s reading it, or what they think of it. It seems a long time since anyone visited this blog to comment on my books. Has anybody read them lately?

Just askin’.

‘Here’s the Webinar! “Thoughts on Being a Writer”‘ (2016)

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Bell Mountain Series

This was the first time I was interviewed by persons who had actually read my books, and I enjoyed it. Andrea Schwartz was the host.

Here’s the Webinar! ‘Thoughts on Being a Writer’

All my life, I wanted to be a storyteller. Getting together with Bobby and Ellen across the street, the three of us making up ghost and monster stories in their appropriately atmospheric cellar… I was ten years old.