Tag: a personal note

An Easter Message

Posted By: leeduigon(patty)Posted On:

And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions: and also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit. Joel 2:28-29

For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. I Corinthians 1:18-19

Go, tell the nations:

He is risen.

Great Babylon burns,

for He is risen.

The lost are recovered, the broken are mended, the righteous who were slain for righteousness are avenged,

for He is risen.

Creation is restored:

He is risen.

God the Father wipes away all tears, and we are risen, too:

for He is risen. Amen.

At the Doctor’s Office

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I had to go to the eye doctor today, for a 10:00 appointment. I was on time, so naturally I had to wait for an hour or so as people strolled in late for their 9:00 appointments and got pushed right to the top of the line.

Does it seem wrong to you, as it does to me, to reward people who come in late and punish those who come on time? More culture rot.

As if that weren’t bad enough, they had The View on television. That show really bugs me.

They had Morgan Freeman come on to plug his new movie. The guy is as old as the freakin’ Parthenon, and yet he comes out with earrings in his ears. I couldn’t help thinking, “You old ass, you.”

They asked him about another movie in which he played God, and he took the opportunity to dispense a bit of pop theology. It wasn’t at all hard to play God, he said: anyone could do it. Why? Because, he explained, “Each and every one of us is God.”

Sheesh. Personally, I’d be rather stuck if I had to create the heavens and the earth. Maybe he knows how to do it, although I doubt it.

I wonder how much you get paid for coming on TV and blathering.

Why Did Columbo Wear a Raincoat?

Posted By: leeduigon(patty)Posted On:

Rest on the Sabbath day–whichever day you recognize as the Sabbath–and be at peace. The Lord will fight for us.

So I lay down my sword for a day, and to demonstrate my peaceful intentions, write about Columbo, of all things.

Peter Falk’s humble detective, placatory body-language and all, was a huge hit in the 1970s. In fact, it was an international hit. We watched some episodes on Amazon Prime. For some reason, I didn’t see that much of Columbo when it was fresh and new on TV.

Well, it’s still fresh and new, and watching it 40 years later, I feel like I haven’t missed a thing. We’ve ordered several seasons’ worth of episodes for our library.

By comparison with what we have today, it’s hard to believe American TV ever generated anything as good as Columbo. But that’s what you get when you’ve got a great star who’s really into his role, guests stars who are esteemed professional actors, great scripts, original music by top composers, and spectacular sets.

Not only that: but the plot of any Columbo episode is a fairy tale as old as man himself. Big-shot villain, smart, rich, powerful, good-looking, thinks he can do anything he pleases, even murder–and this little guy in a shabby raincoat brings him down. Yeah! Give me more of that!

Just don’t ask me why Columbo wears a raincoat all the time (and I do mean all the time), when he lives in Los Angeles. Maybe it’s to clue us in that this prosaic little cop with his crummy car and his ridiculous raincoat… is not a human being at all, but rather an avenging angel who does the job that Nemesis and the Furies used to do in pagan mythology.

Whoa! Did I just figure something out? Betcha I did.

Let Us Give Thanks

Father in heaven, we are grateful to you that none of our fellow citizens was killed in that showdown in Nevada, this past week. We are a long way from knowing the true story of the incident, but we do know that no blood has been shed.

O Lord, who has given us our freedoms–which we make such poor use of, to our shame–guard our freedoms for us from those who would take them away. Amen.

I’ve Started My Next Book

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Just so you know, yesterday I went back to Obann to clean up the mess I left at the end of Book. No. 7, The Glass Bridge. This one, No. 8, I’ve entitled The Temple.

Oh, how good it is to be back!

Here’s what I’ve started with: a title, certain things that the general arc of the story requires, a cast of characters, and a few scenes which I can see in my mind’s eye and which I hope I can write up to be as compelling as I imagine them. Beyond that, I trust in the Lord my God to take my hand and lead me. May He give me the story that He wants me to tell, and no other.

A Unique Storyteller Who Deserves to be Remembered

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As promised, here I am today, writing about L.P. Davies, one of the all-time cool writers. My wife and I discovered his books in our local library back in the 1970s, when he was still writing them, and became instant fans.

But you know how libraries are. Ours stopped buying L.P. Davies’ books, and then the ones it had started disappearing from the shelves, one by one. Our library has no books by L.P. Davies anymore. I suspect this has happened elsewhere. If not for the Internet, by now there might be no sign that this writer had ever existed.

What was so cool about him? Well, his stories are impossible to pigeonhole. He freely mixed science fiction, supernatural horror, and psychology to come up with plots and situations like no one else’s. His stock in trade included contagious dreams, amnesia, telepathy, persons on different planets sharing the same identity–very far-out stuff. And he could make it work because he was a skilled storyteller, able to create believable and interesting characters, lively dialogue, and realistic settings.

Thanks to online resources like amazon.com and Alibris, it has become possible to get L.P. Davies’ books at reasonable prices. We’ve just acquired The Lampton Dreamers. Other titles I’d like to get include Psychogeist, Give Me Back Myself, and What Did I Do Tomorrow?

Finding out about Davies himself is a bit trickier. Some of the information given on his books’ dust jackets wasn’t true. One researcher was unable to find out whether Davies had actually died on any of the dates given by various sources, or was still alive. The story of his search for “the real L.P. Davies”–in the end he had to hire a private detective–is told in “L.P. Davies: International Man of Mystery, Author and… Gift Shop Owner” (http://www.trashface.com/lpdavies.html ). This short piece makes for fascinating reading, and I heartily recommend it.

Why all the confusion? Why are we sometimes reduced to trying to deduce things about this man by studying his picture on the dust jacket?

I have a very strong suspicion that L.P. Davies was having a bit of fun with us!

 

An Apology to My Readers

Posted By: leeduigon(patty)Posted On:

You know what? I would really, truly like to post brief essays about my favorite writers and their books, classic TV shows, movies, nostalgia, animals, toys… and I never seem to get around to it.

Every time I sit down to write about L.P. Davies–a very cool writer who some of you have never heard of–the news comes thundering down on me and I just have to pass it on to you. I can’t help it if the news is always bad. There are a lot of people out there trying to wipe out what’s left of our freedom, and I think they should be stopped.

Tomorrow, it’s Saturday, maybe tomorrow I can write about L.P. Davies.

I promise to try.

I Thank My Readers

Posted By: leeduigon(patty)Posted On:

During the last couple of weeks, in venues other than this one, I’ve been called a bigot, a hater, close-minded, ignorant, backward, etc.

Maybe I’m too thin-skinned, but that was really starting to bother me. Nobody likes to be called names.

So I want to thank you, my readers, for your recent outpouring of support. Believe me, it helps me to keep going.

No one wants to be unpopular, but I consider myself bound by a duty to tell the truth regardless of whether certain people want to hear it or not. To know I’m not alone is a source of strength to me, and I want you all to know that I appreciate it, big-time.

Maybe someday I’ll be so tough that I’ll be able to wear those epithets as badges of honor. After all, there are a lot of writers out there who have been called worse, and for a lot longer, than I have. I usually tell them that the time to worry is when these people who call them names start approving of them. Physician, heal thyself.

But for the time being, your comments and messages are food and drink to me.

Hey, I’m just an obscure fantasy writer who wants people to read his books. It gets under my skin when someone tells me that he’s got to protect his family from my nasty value system.

But, all things considered, I’ve gotta do what I’ve gotta do. And you help me keep on doing it. So… thank you!

Well, Then, Should I Just Change My Value System?

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Someone has told me he’d never buy my books for his kids, no matter what he thought of the books’ content, because he wouldn’t want his children ever to be exposed to this blog, where they would encounter a nasty value system…

So what is my value system?

Jesus Christ is Lord.

The Bible is God’s word.

Freedom under God is good. Freedom without God is no freedom at all, but only slavery to sin.

Government that tries to set itself up as God is evil, and must be resisted.

God’s immutable laws of morality, as given in the Bible, are not to be broken. Yes, we break them every time we sin, and we are all sinners: that’s why we need a Savior. But to deny that we sin, to deny God’s authority and try to replace it with trendy systems of “new morality” invented ten minutes ago by a lot of academic pin-heads–well, that’s being a servant of Satan.

Science + Left-wing politics = Bunk

I have held these values for most of my life. I was brought up with them. My years in college led me very far astray, and it took me a long time to find my way back: but I dare say these values used to be mainstream in America–and that America was a better country when they were.

Hey, I’m sorry to lose readers! I need all the readers I can get.

But there’s a price that’s too high to pay.

Should I Change This Blog?

Posted By: leeduigon(patty)Posted On:

Somebody suggested I would sell more books if I laid off the “right-wing rants” on this blog.

What do you say, O readers?

Should I maybe do left-wing rants? I could yowl about Climate Change Denial, Income Inequality, Homophobia… and maybe spontaneously combust before I got much farther. But the whoopee crowd would love me.

Maybe I could rake in even more popularity if I changed the way I write my books, too. Throw in a lot of social pathology, let the Thunder King conquer Obann and put all the other characters to death, add a bit about gender choices and disgusting alternative lifestyles, and soak the whole thing in a stinking broth of atheism. (And don’t forget the sexy vampires!)

Wit you well, the American Library Assn. would like it! I might even be picked up by Scholastic Press. The finished product would be right smack dab in the middle of the mainstream of Young Adult fiction today.

But then, of course, I would deserve spontaneous combustion.

Waddya think, folks? Don’t be bashful–speak up.

I’ve Got My Copies of ‘The Palace’

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As I was thinking up all sorts of things I should’ve said today on Mr. Wildmon’s show, the UPS man came with my author’s copies of The Palace.

Unless you’ve experienced it for yourself, it’s very hard to describe what goes through your mind when you hold in your hand a printed, published book, with a beautiful cover, that once was nothing but some thoughts and images in your mind, and then handwritten words on a legal pad, and then bits of chapters printed up so your wife and editor could read them…  And I ask myself, “Did I do this?”

Gee, I can’t wait to read it.

Does that seem ridiculous? After all, I wrote it–why should I want to read it?

That’s another thing that’s hard to explain.

But one thing I do understand is that this is God’s blessing–God gave me the story, and the ability to tell it, and brought together a lot of people who worked together to turn it all into a book: and I am thankful, and I give Him the glory.

Probably tomorrow I’ll go back to writing about controversial issues, etc. But that’ll be then. For now, I’ll just enjoy my book.