Some two years ago, the Puritan Board published this review of my Bell Mountain series.
https://www.puritanboard.com/threads/lee-duigons-bell-mountain-series.102216/
Even I forget, sometimes, that one of the reasons this blog was created in the first place was to tell people about my books and hopefully scare up readers for them.
I don’t know how many people read The Puritan Board, but I am grateful for this very gracious review.
Yes, it was going to be my big break: a well-known critic was going to review my book, Bell Mountain.
He didn’t, of course. He thought my book was full of secret Calvinist messages that would harm its readers. He took it upon himself to protect the world from… me.
You’d think you could get away from these people in a blinkin’ fantasy world.
It was going to be my big break. My books were going to be reviewed by a big-name critic I had actually heard of.
Until he decided they were so crawling with subliminal Calvinism, he shouldn’t even mention them.
These are fantasy novels. They depict an imaginary world. I detest fantasies that remind me I’m only looking at words on paper. For me to load Bell Mountain with sly Calvinist insinuations would be to break my own rules.
Who we are is always going to have a bearing on what we write. Otherwise we wouldn’t be writing in the first place. If I wanted a Greek Orthodox slant to my story, I’d have to work and study hard to acquire it. Much of who we are is what we’re used to.
I don’t think my books are biased against one particular branch of Christianity or another. I try not to be. This blog serves readers of many different denominations–or no denomination. I rather hoped my books would do the same.
Well, now you know how to get an unfair, dishonest, non-review removed from amazon.com’s customer reviews page.
I was gratified when it took readers only a day to get amazon to delete the personal attack against me, disguised as a review of my book.
Remember: they’re always looking to stifle us. “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance” is no exaggeration.
Having said all this, I would like to re-assert my firm conviction that to burden a fantasy world with junk from the, ahem, real world is very bad fantasy. I mean, if the Elf turns to the Dwarf and says, “We must learn to celebrate diverse lifestyles,” that is lousy, rotten, unforgivable, stupid, howlingly awful fantasy.
And I take great care never to do it!
![Bell Mountain (Bell Mountain, 1) by [Lee Duigon]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51RBG5Lw1UL._SY346_.jpg)
Once upon a time, some wokies tried to sabotage my fantasy novels because they didn’t like my politics. So they went to amazon.com and posted one-star reviews of Bell Mountain–which they hadn’t read, but they were out to punish me for not loving Big Brother.
It took some days to resolve this. I’ll be re-posting my commentary on the situation as it developed. (Would you like to see more of that today or wait for tomorrow?)
Well, that’s leftids for you–always taking away your choices. And thanks to our overpriced but truly wretched “education” system, many of us are willing to give up our freedom in return for–what? What do they think the Left is gonna do for them?
I mean, they won’t even let you read a fantasy novel in peace…
As a writer, it distresses me to know so many people who never read. Oh, they’ll read a technical article or a manual, whatever, if it’s absolutely required of them for work–but a novel? Not on your life.
I think the way the public schools teach reading has a lot to do with it. As a little child, I couldn’t wait to learn to read. My mother, my aunts, my grandparents, were always reading. They read things to me. So I was just itching to be able to read for myself.
But in school they turn it into tedious work, dull, dry, please-make-it-stop…
If you’re a poor reader, then reading won’t be pleasant for you and you won’t have any desire for it. If I were your tutor, I could fix that for you: it’s not that hard, and I have the training for it. There are techniques that you can learn, that anyone can learn, which will enable you to read faster and with better comprehension; and by and by, reading won’t be painful for you anymore.
I doubt I can teach this in a series of blog posts. I suppose I could try, if enough of you wished it.
I do wish my own books could get a wider readership. They’re all available here, you know: just click “Books” on the home page. It’d be nice if we had them in the form of audiobooks; then all you’d need is an attention span.
But you must do some reading, or you wouldn’t be here at all. Do me a favor: go to the home page and click “Books,” browse a bit, and see what you think. What have you got to lose?
Remember this? A guy who said he’d Never buy my books because he doesn’t want his kids exposed to my horrible value system.
He never told me what his value system was, but I can guess.
I always have trouble wrapping my mind around the fact that in historically Christian countries–like the U.S. Canada, and Britain–there are people, born and raised in this country, who hate Christianity and embrace, with open eyes, alien moral standards dreamed up by crackpots and villains.
They can also look at Venezuela and still say, with a straight face, “Socialism works!”
So I finally got an amazon customer review for Bell Mountain No. 12, His Mercy Endureth Forever–and the guy panned it. Two stars.
It’s a waste of time trying to tell anybody why he should have liked something or other, but gee whiz. This book is unsuitable for young readers because some of the characters who are supposed to be the good guys… tell lies. Gallgoid, the chief spy, tells porkies to the bad guys. You mean he shouldn’t do that? This is supposed to be “un-Christian.” But in the Bible, Rahab is praised for hiding the Israelite spies and lying to deceive the men who are hunting for them; and Jehosheba is praised for hiding the baby prince when the wicked queen, Athalia, tried to kill off the royal family. Like, Rahab should’ve said, “I cannot tell a lie. The Israelites are hiding on my roof.” Really? Like, instead of hiding the Jews, you should’ve told the Nazis where they were?
The reader also expressed a feeling that Bell Mountain has just gone on too long, on and on without getting anywhere. Do any of you think so? I’ve heard from people who don’t want the series ever to end. Well, there’s no pleasing everybody.
Even so, I’d love to know what some of you think of this book, His Mercy. And then there’s The Wind from Heaven next, and I’m working on Behold! So we can’t stop the series just yet.
Anyway, writers live on feedback, it’s food and drink to us. Just sayin’….
I’m never happier than when I’m sitting outside on a sunny day, with my cigar and legal pad, with no awareness of time passing, writing one of my books. But before I can get there, first the book has got to be born.
That’s just so cool, when a dream grows into a book. I don’t map these out ahead, like I used to do, long ago, with my horror novels. I just go with whatever God gives me.
And I do enjoy the ride!
Nice medal, isn’t it?
I had just won a Global E-Book Award for my second Bell Mountain book, The Cellar Beneath the Cellar. A lefty loon on a major leftid website attacked me by name–and my sales went up.
Try as I might, I can’t remember who it was that attacked me. I think it might’ve been someone on the Huffington Post, but I could easily be wrong. I don’t read any of those sites.
I still haven’t figured out why they would even bother to smack me down. I guess it’s because even the microscopic, inconsequential opposition I provide is poison to them.
Just now my sales figures are about as low as they’ve ever been. Why does Far Left Crazy care what any of us says?
It’s as if one stray mote of freedom mars their entire landscape.