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“Go to the ant, thou sluggard. Consider her ways, and be wise,” King Solomon once said.
I haven’t been able to post any pictures today. I think the ants have been at WordPress. But if this picture comes out, I may be back in business.
Some lucky reader will post the 3,000th comment on this blog; and whoever does it will receive a signed copy of one of my books–which one, your choice.
It’s easy to post a comment here. Just click “Leave a Comment,” located below the article in excruciatingly small grey type, and you’re in business.
Bear in mind that I will delete any comments that are blasphemous, or containing the f-bomb or other cuss words, or that are personally abusive to me or to another commenter on this site. You’ve got the whole rest of the Internet for garbage like that; please don’t track it into my virtual living room.
Other than that, pretty much anything goes.
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Spring is coming; and when it arrives, I want to be ready to start writing my next book, which would be Book #9 in my Bell Mountain series.
One of my ways of getting ready is to immerse myself in the world of Obann by reading, in order, the seven books already in print. Actually, this is very necessary: I find it very easy to forget certain details, and to unwittingly contradict things I said in earlier books. Between books 3 and 4, for instance, I managed to lose 18 Temple staff without a word of explanation. Eighteen of ’em–pffft! It was a job, putting it right, and I don’t want anything like that to happen again. And so I revisit the earlier books and refresh my memory.
Last night I finished reading the first book, Bell Mountain.
How do I say this without sounding like a ninny? I read my own book and said, “Wow!” I know it sounds asinine. But there are subtleties in it that I’m sure I never put there on purpose, not to mention a story whose like I was never able to write before. I mean, even my mother wound up liking this book, and she was just about impossible to impress.
Well, I’m old enough to look at this book and know right well it didn’t come from me: I only wrote down the story that God gave me. Even that, I know, sounds kind of pretentious and self-important; but it’s not meant to be. I just know that the day the Lord stops giving me the story, it dries up: there is no well of inspiration in me for it to draw upon.
Look, folks, the real purpose of this blog is to try to generate interest in my books, in hope of selling some. They’re all good, and the kindle versions are dirt cheap. The paperbacks feature gorgeous covers by Kirk DouPonce, and one of them costs generally less than a ticket to some lousy movie, even if you don’t buy popcorn.
If this blog has entertained you, or gotten you thinking, please give my books a try. You’ll probably like them. And don’t be put off by my saying so. Believe me, very often it’s not much fun for the author to read his own work. In fact, it can be kind of painful, or even embarrassing.
And if you’ve already read them: well, thank you very much, and ;please pardon this long commercial. I promise not to do another one anytime soon.
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I couldn’t find a picture to go with my post today, so I thought you might enjoy this one. It’s Baluchitherium (they’ve changed the name a couple of times, but I haven’t changed with them). Largest land mammal ever.
Someday I hope the Lord will show me one.
If you are not seeing a picture of a wooly mammoth, then I have lost my newly-acquired skill of posting pictures on this blog.
If you are seeing the picture, enjoy it! Try to imagine this fellow walking past your living room window while John Kerry is on TV babbling about Global Warming.
If I’ve done this right, you’ll see a very short video of Yosemite Sam.
If not, back to the drawing board.
Various readers have asked why I don’t liven things up with pictures or video. If only I could! But to do that, I would have to master the art of “cut and paste,” or whatever it’s called.
I just can’t. I’ve tried and tried. Different people have tried to teach me, to no avail. It’s worse than high school chemistry. I follow their instructions and nothing happens.
You have no idea, folks, how frustrating this is.
Several readers have told me they can’t figure out how to post a comment on this blog. Well, I think I’ve just discovered how to do it.
At the bottom of each article, in annoyingly faint grey print, you will find the words, “Leave a Comment.” All you have to do is click it, and you get a box for your comment.
If there already are one or more comments, the grey-print message will be, for example, “2 Comments.” If you click that, you’ll get a box for your comment.
It’s so simple, even I can do it. In fact, after I post this piece, I will leave a comment on it. Then the message will read, “1 Comment,” and the rest is up to you.
I’ll be the guest of Mike and Tim tomorrow on RIGHT Spokane Perspective, 9 a.m. Pacific Time, 12 noon Eastern, discussing my books and the need to sock it to the Dems in the coming election.
To listen on your computer, go to http://www.acn.cc at the appropriate time and click on the Liberty Bell to get a media player.
My voice isn’t much for aesthetic quality, but I hope you’ll be interested in what I have to say.
While teachers’ unions, the ACLU, and the rest of the gang frantically labor to protect America’s children from Jesus and the Bible, a pair of 12-year-old girls in Wisconsin tried to stab a third girl to death–as a sacrifice to a fictional character called Slender Man. The Guardian provides the best coverage of the story ( http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/04/slender-man-online-character-wisconsin-stabbings ).
The victim clings to life, no thanks to her little friends, who did their best to kill her.
Slender Man is a kind of monster, created just for fun and entertainment. I was amazed to discover there is a whole Slender Man subculture out there. This thing was only invented a few years ago, and it’s already spawned at least one attempted murder.
Oh, well… as long as they’re protected from the Sermon on the Mount, who cares what else fills the vacuum?
About that contest–
I’d better put my own comments up here for the time being, so that I don’t accidentally win my own contest by posting the 2,000th comment.
A reader has suggested that I sign the book to be given as a prize. Can do.
Another has suggested I offer Bell Mountain instead of The Palace, because Bell Mountain is the first book in the series.
Sorry, no can do. I’m just about out of copies of this book, whereas my supply of The Palace has hardly been touched.
Anyhow, buying Bell Mountain won’t break anybody’s bank, the paperback is currently offered at half-price, and from time to time the Kindle version will be offered at no cost at all, by amazon.com. And it would be nice for me to earn a little money, don’t you think?
