Tag Archives: bell mountain series by lee duigon

December 18, 2018

Chalcedon’s Move into Christian Fiction (Video)

By leeduigon

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In 2013 Chalcedon’s vice-president, Martin Selbrede, explained our move into fiction–after a long history of publishing works on theology and Christian analysis of society and culture.

https://chalcedon.edu/resources/videos/christian-use-of-fiction

As exemplified by Our Lord Jesus Christ’s parables, fiction is “a vehicle for conveying ideas” and showing how Christian principles play out in real life, often accompanied by spiritual and personal conflict: “If there is no friction, there is no fiction,” Martin says, and he’s right. And that, of course, is the difference between a story and a sermon.

“We waited 45 years before we turned to fiction,” so as to lay a strong theological foundation for everything published by Chalcedon. We didn’t want mediocre fiction built on weak theology.

It was time to move into fiction, Martin says, because with fiction, “You can suddenly get people thinking.”

Martin has written a Christian novel, Hidden in Plain Sight, which explores the nature of reality; and we also have my Bell Mountain fantasy novels, with ten of them in print so far and No. 11, The Temptation, just about ready for publication.

Well, if you’ve ever wondered why a Christian educational foundation decided to publish fiction, this will explain it for you.

8 Comments   |  tags: , , , , , | posted in Book Updates, Fantasy Criticism, religion, Video

December 13, 2018

The Contest So Far

By leeduigon

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Some of you have questions about our first annual Christmas Carol Contest. Fair enough: I’ve never sponsored one of these before, there were bound to be a few bugs in the system.

The first few leaders were: Mary, Did You Know?, Nov. 23, 16 views; then Away in a Manger, Nov. 25, with 17; What Child Is This?, Nov. 27, 22 views; and on Dec. 3, O Holy Night, still in the lead with 25 views. If the contest were to end today , O Holy Night would be the winner.

My idea was to generate excitement by making it possible for the lead to change hands very often. But that hasn’t happened since Dec. 3.

Two points to remember:

You can request any hymn, even one that’s already been entered by someone else. We’re not going to run out of Christmas music. Or you can ask for the same hymn by a different artist.

However, your request can’t win the contest (although it does win in other ways, just by being there: the business at hand is to proclaim the birth of Christ) unless a lot of readers view it on the day it was posted. I’m going with the assumption that you want to hear these songs no matter who winds up winning.

We still have 12 days to go, plenty of time for anyone’s candidate to get a lot of views.

And if you already have all the Bell Mountain books published so far, your prize will be the next book, No. 11, The Temptation, when it becomes available.

Please feel free to ask any questions you might have. Think of it as a way of training me how to administer a contest.

1 Comment   |  tags: , , , | posted in Just for Fun, Uncategorized

December 7, 2018

Ta-Dah! Finished the Book

By leeduigon

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Whew! I have just finished typing up Bell Mountain No. 12, His Mercy Endureth Forever, and sent it off to Susan–Hyena Men and all. Now all we have to do is wait for No. 11, The Temptation, to be published.

Oh–and I’ll have to address the other work that has piled up while I’ve been doing this project.

God willing, the series will continue beyond this book. I’ve provided myself with some hand-holds by which I can hoist myself into the next volume. I don’t want to call them cliff-hangers, but–well, maybe they are, at that.

9 Comments   |  tags: , , , , | posted in Book Updates

December 5, 2018

My Annual Commercial

By leeduigon

Image result for images of bell mountain series by lee duigon

I’ve been so busy running our Christmas Carol Contest, I totally forgot to run my annual commercial for my books. I hope I haven’t put it off till too late.

Anyway, my books make really nice Christmas presents for family and friends. Even better, if you like them, we have ten of them in print by now, with No. 11, The Temptation, coming soon.

The series starts with Bell Mountain, and if you haven’t read it yet, now’s a good time to grab it. The adventure begins with two children, Jack and Ellayne, becoming convinced that God has called them to climb a mountain that no one’s ever climbed, and to ring a bell, placed on the summit some 2,000 years ago, that will usher in the end of the world–and they don’t know a professional assassin’s on their trail, whose mission is to stop them. Nor is there anyone to help them along the way but an old hermit who may not be quite sane.

How cool is that?

All right, it is a little tacky, me advertising my own books; but I don’t know who else is gonna do it. I do know that many of you who visit this blog regularly have already read the whole series. But many of you are new here, so why not check it out? Just click “Books,” and you’ll get all the information you need.

In fact, you can order them from right here on the blog. You can buy them direct from the publisher, if you click that little shopping cart icon, or click the amazon/Kindle icon and order them from there. Easy as pie! They’re not in bookstores, though, so you’ve got to buy them online.

And now I’ve got to get No. 12, His Mercy Endureth Forever, typed up and sent to Susan before Christmas.

3 Comments   |  tags: , , , , | posted in Book Updates

November 23, 2018

‘A Bird with Claws’ (2015)

By leeduigon

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One of these days I’m gonna have to have Jandra’s pet bird–with teeth, claws, and a somewhat nasty temper–featured on the cover of one of my books. Meanwhile, here’s a bird in our own world that has claws on its wings.

https://leeduigon.com/2015/08/02/a-bird-with-claws/

Makes you wonder, doesn’t it?

2 Comments   |  tags: , , , , | posted in nature, Video

November 12, 2018

Bonus Video: Dueling Dinosaurs

By leeduigon

This clip has two of my favorite dinosaurs in it, Stegosaurus and Ceratosaurus. All you have to do is ignore the apparent suicidal stupidity of the Ceratosaurus in attacking two adult Stegosaurs. You might want to ignore the pipe-stem necks, too.

I’ve got a feeling you could find some of these in Obann, if you knew where to look.

5 Comments   |  tags: , , , , | posted in Just for Fun, Video

November 10, 2018

‘How One of My Characters Grew: Old Uduqu’

By leeduigon

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Two years after I wrote this post, Uduqu’s still here, still pursuing his dream to be the first Abnak to write a book (or read one, for that matter).

https://leeduigon.com/2016/03/27/how-one-of-my-characters-grew-old-uduqu/

I can only speak for myself, but this is one of the most fun things about writing fiction: the way characters walk into the story for just a page or two, and the next thing you know, they stay! You should see what Redegger the vice boss gets up to in His Mercy Endureth Forever. And I knew no better than Lord Chutt what Zeriah was going to do after she was elected Judge of Obann.

I think the unexpected is a sign that you’ve made your characters real.

6 Comments   |  tags: , , , , | posted in Fantasy Criticism

November 8, 2018

Finished!

By leeduigon

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Two cold hands and two cigars later, I have finished writing His Mercy Endureth Forever. Now all I have to do is type up three whole legal pads’ worth of manuscript and send them to Susan, my editor. But I don’t need nice weather for that.

Now that I’ve actually written it, I can look back on the climax of this story and say, “Whoa!” It’ll knock your socks off. Usually the Lord gives me these in a single dazzling flash; but this time He had me grind it out, line by line. So it sort of snuck up on me.  But the end result will prove well worth the trouble–and may it be fruitful in His service.

Today is also Patty’s birthday, she feels much better than she felt yesterday, and please, everybody, keep those prayers coming.

Oh–and I phoned Linda’s daughter, Lyn, to tell her about the book. I know Linda would have been pleased by its completion. Maybe they’ll have it up in Heaven.

11 Comments   |  tags: , , , , , | posted in Book Updates

November 3, 2018

Sneak Preview: ‘The Temptation’ Cover

By leeduigon

[Editor’s Note: I have had to delete the picture because there were problems with it. I’ve asked Kirk to send it to me again. Maybe then it’ll work.]

This is Kirk DouPonce’s rough sketch for the cover of Bell Mountain No. 11, The Temptation. That’s Lord Chutt up there. I envisioned him as British actor John Nettles, who used to star in “Midsomer Murders”–but of course I couldn’t say a thing like that in the text, and I think Kirk came pretty close to the real Lord Chutt.

So here it is, something with which to rinse the nooze from our minds. Obann has its share of problems, but at least they’re not our problems.

SHOUTOUT; Can anybody see this picture?

16 Comments   |  tags: , , , | posted in Book Updates, Just for Fun

November 2, 2018

Climax! Hooray!

By leeduigon

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It hasn’t started raining yet, so I went outside and cranked out eight more pages of manuscript–and wrote the climax of His Mercy Endureth Forever. And anybody who saw this climax coming, my hat is off to you, big-time, because I didn’t see it until yesterday.

One more chapter, and that’s that. And then I have three whole legal pads’ worth of manuscript to type up and send to Susan, my editor.

Due to an awful lot of nasty weather, it was a real struggle for me to get this work done. But Lord Orth was right: God gave me what I needed to finish the job. To God be the glory, and may my work be fruitful in His service.

Still waiting for Kirk DouPonce’s cover art for Bell Mountain No. 11, The Temptation.

P.S.–Another hat-tip to the Ice Age cave hyena, pictured above, which plays a notable part in this story.

5 Comments   |  tags: , , , , | posted in Book Updates

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