Tag: bell mountain series by lee duigon

I Asked, God Gave REPRINT From 2020

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Bell Mountain (Bell Mountain, #1) by Lee Duigon

If you’ve been following my progress, as reported here, I’ve really been sweating it, trying to come up with a climax for Bell Mountain No. 14, Behold! The question gave me no peace: “Behold what? What’s there to behold?” And I’ve been praying about it, asking the Lord to give me the story that He wants me to tell. That’s what I always ask Him; and so far, He always has.

So I was out there in the cold yesterday, too cold to write, finishing up my cigar… and the idea just sort of drifted into my head. Sometimes it comes with a bang, as when the gunslinger in a movie shoves open the doors to the saloon. Sometimes it’s like a flashbulb. Sometimes I get the climax first and have to find the way to it. But this time it just drifted quietly into my head; and when I went back indoors, I got distracted by other things and didn’t think of it.

Until I woke up this morning!

Gee, it was still there. I don’t know how to tell you how unusual that is for me. I get a lot of ideas that don’t amount to anything. But this one was not only still there: now it was much clearer. It was better. It ties together the strands of the plot that were just sort of whipping in the wind.

Hallelujah, I can finish my book! I asked the Lord to show me how, and He did. Now all I need is some friendly weather–and a lot of energy–in which to write it up.

Oh–and I still need some good ideas for cover art for No. 13, The Wind from Heaven. Kirk DouPonce is a great cover artist, but he prefers the author (which is me) to come up with the ideas. I’m still wondering how he gets my characters so real: you’d swear they posed for him.

Chalcedon’s Move into Christian Fiction (Video) REPRINT

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From December 18,  2018

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.

At Home with the Quokkas REPRINT

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From July 21, 2019

G’day! Byron the Quokka here–just for a chat.

A lot of people think we quokkas live in burrows, but we don’t: grass and shrubbery, that’s what we like. We live in nice houses made of grass. We used to keep the King of the Quokkas’ furniture upstairs, but then the heaviest item fell through the ceiling and smashed our toaster oven. Quokkas who live in grass houses shouldn’t store thrones.

Some of you have wondered what we do at night. Well, we’re homebodies, we love our family time together… so we watch Machiste movies. They’re mostly in Italian, but it’s Italian with an Australian accent, so we can understand it. Happily, there are dozens of Machiste movies, even if a lot of them got remarketed as Hercules movies. My favorite is Machiste Meets the Vacuum Cleaner Man–very scary!

We’re also very fond of board games, like Clue, Stratego, Carcassone, Settlers of Catan, and Who Knoo the Kangaroo?, which I am told is very popular in New Jersey.

When we go to bed we like to read a bit before turning the light out. We all read the Bell Mountain books. They’re my favorites. My mum is a huge fan of those detective stories by Violet Crepuscular about this detective who always gives up before he comes anywhere near solving the crime. I don’t understand what she sees in them, myself.

It’s a quiet life, but we like it!

Is the Lord Trying to Tell Me Something? REPRINT

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Extinct hoofed animals looked like gorilla-horse | Earth Archives

 

From June 15, 2020

Knuckle-bear and calf, Lintum Forest

I am so not ready to go back to writing about the Chinese Communist Wuhan Death Virus, riots, soulless white liberals, and all that other schiff that everybody else is writing about. I am so not up for it, it isn’t funny.

That’s not like me. Usually on Monday I’m ready to wade back into the hurly-burly. So why am I thinking that today I’d like to work on my new book and put up a few blog posts that have nothing to do with Far Left Crazy trying to murder our country? I mean, we have to fight them, and we have to win.

But is God telling me, “I will fight them, boy. You go write your book”?

Yeahbut, yeahbut–Lord, what about my Newswithviews column?

“You don’t even know what you want to write for that. If I told you to sit down and write it today, you’d be stuck. So don’t worry about it.”

Tomorrow, then. I’ll get back into the melee tomorrow. I guess.

 

 

I’ve Been Reading My Books

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The Glass Bridge (Bell Mountain, #7) by Lee Duigon | Goodreads

I’m in no condition yet to go back to writing novels, so I’ve been reading them instead. Today I finished The Glass Bridge. It’s Book No. 7 in my Bell Mountain series.

I’m doing this so I can refresh my memory. Fifteen of these books have been published–quite a load for any memory to carry. I don’t think I’m wrong if I say I’m proud of them.

Next, I have to type up No. 17, Ozias, Prince Enthroned; and after that, one more, from scratch: Ozias, Prince Betrayed. After that–well, I don’t know. It depends on what God will give me.

How Do I Do It? (Part 2)

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The Thunder King

I have 15 Bell Mountain books in print, with three more planned, one of which is written and is currently being edited (Ozias, Prince in Peril).

I don’t know how many characters I had to make up to populate these books. At a guess, say three or four hundred. Some come back in book after book. Some appear only for a walk-on. But as they say, you can’t tell a story without characters.

Where do they come from, all these characters?

Some I create to carry out certain jobs demanded by the plot. Having done so, they either remain in the story to do more, or quietly fade away.

A few start out as just a cool name. I borrow a lot of names from various sources–Greek and Roman history, ancient Welsh stories, Norse folklore. And then, often, a character takes form around the name. You can’t let a handle like “Abombalbap” go to waste.

Even fictional characters, of course, have to live somewhere. I had to invent a bunch of countries to house my characters. Obann, Wallekki Land, Abnak country, Arachosia–oh, all sorts of countries! And cities, too.

To invent all this stuff, nothing will prove more valuable than years and years of reading. It’s fun hanging out with Herodotus or Sir Thomas Malory; but you can also learn from them. The more you read, the better. And it’s okay to concentrate on reading the kind of stories you would like to write someday.. I have no time for Serious Mainstream Literature. Give me The Lord of the Rings or The Worm Ouroburos any day.

And that’s enough of this for now.

How Do I Do It? (Part 1)

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Ocean Time

I’m occasionally asked how I’ve managed to write my series of “Bell Mountain” fantasy novels.

Well, it’s a long story, and it starts with my friends Bobby and Ellen in their basement, with me ten years old or so. We are making up wild stories. Bobby was old enough to have a subscription to a science fiction book club. We did our best to imitate the authors.

Point is, that’s where it started and it never stopped. Writing stories is the only thing I’ve ever wanted to do as a career. It takes a long time and years and years of practice: not only in writing, but in reading.

“It walked in the woods. It was never born.”  –Theodore Sturgeon, “It”

Boy, did that intro ever turn me on.

So how do you wind up with books full of countries, people, and cultures you made up and somehow made convincing? Too much goes into it to polish off in one blog post. Suffice it to say you really, really want to do it. You’d rather write stories than be president.  You will study your art and never stop trying to improve it.

Your teachers will be the authors you like best and read again and again. Some of the writers who influence me, to this day, are Edgar Rice Burroughs, J.R.R. Tolkien, Herodotus, Plutarch, Livy–these last three have been in print for thousands of years, they must have been doing something right.

And you must be willing to keep at it no matter how many times it gets you absolutely nowhere.

That’s enough for now. I hope I’ve made this interesting enough to spark some comments.

‘Ocean of Time,’ Now on Sale

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Ocean Time

Well, here it is, the 15th Bell Mountain book, Ocean of Time. And in time to order it for Christmas, too!

https://chalcedon.edu/resources/books/ocean-of-time-bell-mountain-15

You can order it from the publisher (www.chalcedon.edu/books/ ) or through Amazon.com (I think). The next book, Ozias, Primce in Peril, pushes the story back a thousand years, so you may want to get familiar with the first 15 books in the series. But some of you have already done that.

I can hardly wait to see what readers will think of our new book.

(P,S.–Well, it’s not on Amazon yet, but it soon will be.)

 

Finished!

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Hallelujah! Finished! Ozias, Prince Enthroned–I was stuck, I asked the Lord to show me where to stop… and He has. A perfect place to stop. But as Bill White used to say on double-header days, “Plenty of baseball left, folks!”

The next book, Ozias, King Betrayed, is already generating notes. Lots and lots to think about! But I pray I now have several months available for that.

I had to level the karma of the bad guys, but there will always be more of them waiting to come on stage.

Of course, I still have to type it up and send it to my editors, and that’ll take a good while. That gives me another chance to make sure everything in the story is as it should be. There’s always a letdown when a book is finished, but at least I have another book waiting for me.

Here I Am, On the Air

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Aha! Evidence that I actually exist.

I happened to turn up this interview Tim Wildmon did with me for the American Family Assn. It was years ago, and I had just had published my fourth Bell Mountain novel, The Last Banquet. 

Anyway, here I am. Last Banquet was ten books ago, and I’m still writing. I pray my books will be fruitful in God’s service.