What–only four votes cast? Well, maybe yesterday was the wrong day for it. Risking reader displeasure, I’ll try again.
Let’s have some fun with this–why not? It’s got to be almost as dreary to read the nooze as it is to write it.
I’m supposed to write a Newswithviews column today, and I haven’t got the ghost of an idea. Maybe some chance remark here will set me off.
It’s time to check on my books’ impact on their readers. I could wind up, here, with a lot of egg on my face if hardly anybody responds to this question:
Who is your favorite Bell Mountain character?
I remember, when I was writing The Temple, how upset my wife and my editor were when they thought I’d killed off Chief Uduqu. I had no idea how much they liked him. I thought of Sir Walter Scott, whose printer rebelled when Scott (in Ivanhoe) killed off Athelstane. He had to write a new scene bringing the old duffer back to life. Happily, Uduqu wasn’t dead: he’d just fallen asleep on the battlefield after tremendous exertions.
Anyway, so who’s your favorite character in these books? There are a couple hundred to choose from!
I can’t guess who will get the most votes… although I do have one pretty strong suspicion.
This is an article about how my Bell Mountain novels came to be written. Hopefully it will ignite an irresistible desire to buy them–and read them.
https://chalcedon.edu/resources/articles/when-you-hear-the-bell-come-out-writing
I was hoping Behold! (No. 12 in the series) would be published in time for Christmas, but it doesn’t look like that will happen. Well, by the time you finish reading the others, it should be ready.
Come on, now–isn’t it time you met Jack and Ellayne, and squirrel-sized Wytt, who climbed the mountain? Obst the hermit, and Martis the assassin-turned-protector; Helki the Rod, the personification of the forest; Lord Reesh the villain (boooo! hiss!); King Ryons, born a slave; Gurun the queen, who came to Obann on a raft–they’re all waiting to do their stuff for you.
I mean, if you want to watch Law and Order reruns, that’s your business and you’re welcome to it…
If wonder what kind of response I’d get if I asked readers who’s their favorite Bell Mountain character. I just hit the wrong key and the whole screen went black for a moment. I wonder what that means.
Look at this!
This is a scene from Bell Mountain drawn by our friend Kathleen in Brazil. It’s Jack, Ellayne, and Ham the donkey meeting the hermit, Obst. I wonder if she’ll wind up illustrating my books someday. (Gee, that idea really appeals to me!)
So you’re here in New Jersey, you write a book, and someone in Brazil likes it so much, she draws pictures of it. It’s humbling!
OK, no more nooze! Get outside and work on Ozias, Prince in Peril…
Just on a whim yesterday, I did a search for “Abombalbap.” I expected nothing: after all, he’s only a character in a book that’s only mentioned in my Bell Mountain books. Abombalbap is the hero of a lot of old stories of romance and adventure. Ellayne loves those Abombalbap stories. She has a big thick book full of them, handed down to her by her father.
Imagine my surprise when I got hits for “Abombalbap” from outside Bell Mountain!
Yup–my own Abombalbap has been adopted as a character in at least three fantasy role-playing games that people play on line. I’m only waiting for an Abombalbap movie to come out so I can sue for the rights.
(“See? I toldja these books are fun!”)
I’m glad my books have brought that much pleasure to some of their readers.
May God make my work fruitful in His service.
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One thing about writing a continuing series: it gives your characters scope to grow and change.
And of course it’s always fun when new characters enter the story.
Any day now The Wind from Heaven will be published, No. 13 in the Bell Mountain series. I have no idea how it’ll be received.
If you’re reading Bell Mountain for the first time (a lot of people read it more than once), I’d love to hear from you!
![Bell Mountain (Bell Mountain, 1) by [Lee Duigon]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51RBG5Lw1UL.jpg)
My mother wasn’t the only one who was put off fantasy by the names of the characters. My wife felt that way, too–and a pretty odd way to feel, I thought, for someone who likes Russian novels.
Where do my Bell Mountain characters’ names come from?
Admit it–if you were reading a novel set in Japan, you’d expect the characters to have Japanese names. You wouldn’t expect them to be called Frank McGlothlin, Suzanne Jones, Reggie Smythe, etc., etc.
I need those funny names when I’m writing about the world of Bell Mountain. But I have tried to keep from going overboard with it.
I’m wondering if this is the picture I should have posted as me. After all, this is the great age of “identifying” as something you’re not. I mean, people looking at the real photo that I posted yesterday, and saying I sort of look like Obst–well, gee whiz, Obst would look at me and call me “sonny”!
Of course, if I’m trying to get people to think of me as a Steve Reeves look-alike, I’ll have to avoid TV appearances and celebrity dinners. I’ve successfully done that, so far.
Steve Reeves, by the way, was a great guy. Years ago, Patty mailed him her copy of his book on power-walking, asking for an autograph. He not only signed it for her, but threw in a casual photo out of his own collection–not a publicity shot, but a personal photo. He didn’t have to do that, and it was much appreciated.
Once for her birthday I sent a photo of Hall of Fame shortstop Ozzie Smith, one of her favorite players, to Ozzie, care of the St. Louis Cardinals, asking him to autograph it. I allowed several months for that, but he signed the picture and sent it back in just a few days. Ozzie, you, too, are a good guy!
As soon as we get $200 million, we can start production of the Bell Mountain movie. In the meantime, the contest to cast the movie is providing a lot of fun around here–especially for some of our younger readers.
I would like to see more of us old folks pitch in. Why not? It’s a party! And everyone’s invited. Just suggest some actors to play some characters in the books, or a director–can’t make a movie without a director. The only way for this to work is if a lot of readers play the game. The more, the merrier.
So far, there have been a few suggestions that struck me as right on the money, why didn’t I think of that, just the ticket, etc. I may have to modify the contest to provide for more than one winner.
The winner (or winners) will receive an autographed copy of The Temptation, Book No. 11 in the series, as soon as it’s published. It shouldn’t be a long wait, everything’s just about done.
And if you haven’t read any of the books yet, now’s as good a time as any to get started. Just click “Books,” and in addition to blurbs, covers, and sample chapters, you’ll find a couple of ways to order a book right away. All of them are available in both paperback and kindle format.
Ellayne at work
I have to admit an embarrassing thing. I have fallen in love with my characters.
They’re fictional. I made them up. But by now I’ve spent so much time with them, they don’t feel like made-up people anymore. They feel like real people.
Yesterday–sometimes it’s like I just watch this stuff come out of my pen–Ellayne had a set-to with Lord Orth. I love Ellayne because she has so much go to her: you just can’t keep her down. And I love Lord Orth for the totality of his conversion, which took away the gourmandizing theological show-off and left a humble servant of God… who is now more himself than he ever was before.
I love Wytt for his resourcefulness, his complete lack of fear, and his very small size that never stops him from doing big things.
I love Gurun for her courage: here’s a girl who’s deathly afraid of riding a horse, dreading that she might fall off in front of all these men who insist she be a queen; but that doesn’t keep her out of the saddle.
I love King Ryons for his earnestness, Fnaa for his irrepressible sense of fun, Uduqu for his cheerful bluntness, Obst for his devotion, and Helki for his wildness–and for the fact that there’s no one else remotely like him.
I even get kind of fond of the villains. Lord Reesh. Ysbott the Snake. Lord Chutt. Just don’t let them know I said that.
And I love Nanny Witkom standing up in the cart in the middle of the world’s worst downpour, hair flying every which way, crying “Behold the salvation of the Lord!” No wonder Chief Zekelesh, who couldn’t understand a word she said, was so attached to her.
Of course, if you haven’t read any of these books, you won’t have met any of these characters. But that’s a problem easily remedied.
But if you have, tell me–are there any characters you’ve fallen in love with?
Yeesh! At one point, when they thought I’d killed off Chief Uduqu, both my wife and my editor were ready to tan my hide… I guess I’m not the only one who gets kind of involved with these books.