Tag: bell mountain series by lee duigon

What’s It Like to Write a Novel?

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ArtStation - Chess with ghosts

So what’s it like to write a novel?

I had a new insight into this, yesterday. For me, writing a novel is like playing chess against an invisible opponent about whom you know nothing at all–nothing but the moves of his chessmen on the board.

I used to like to dope everything out in notebooks before I wrote a word. Four of those books (horror novels) got published. Forty didn’t. So now what I do is just ask God to give me the story and to guide me in telling it. Mostly I just pick up my pen and get to work. Let the invisible opponent surprise me! Most of those surprises turn out to be things I can use. Had one just the other day that really got me grinning.

I did have to write a lot of thankless unpublished novels before I ever sold anything. At the time I thought it wasn’t fair. But maybe those books were a gate I had to go through before I could get any farther down the road–tollbooths, as it were, along the highway. (Ooh, that’s corny!)

The lesson I’ve been taught is to welcome the surprises… and build on them.

I wonder if that applies to real life.

‘Ozias’ Comes to Life

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Medieval warriors fighting on a hilltop by ATWStock | VideoHive

Despite losing a whole day last week to allergies, Ozias, Prince in Peril seems to be shaping up very nicely. I’ve got eight chapters written, and already populated with a dozen major characters. They hear their cues and come onstage: I feel like I don’t have much of a say in it.

Friday I had to make up some lost ground, and it was 96 degrees at the time. Patty came out and asked, “Aren’t you hot?”

“Yes, I’m hot!” And that was that, had to retreat indoors to the air conditioning.

Hint to budding young writers: Maybe the worst thing any writer can do is make the story be about himself, thinly disguised as its protagonist. “I’m a macho stud he-man!” is a mindset guaranteed to destroy your fiction.

I strive to be invisible to the reader, to remove all obstacles between the reader and the story… so if you’re reading my book, you can be there! This effect is not easy to achieve; but read a lot, write a lot, work hard at it, and eventually you’ll get it.

And for heaven’s sake, let your characters be themselves! Never mind about paying back that bum who bugged you in third grade; frankly, the reader doesn’t care. And neither should you.

A Tribute to My Wife

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Bell Mountain Series: Lee Duigon: 9781891375668: Amazon.com: Books

My allergies are at me again today–I don’t know how to write a fantasy novel while my nose is making like Niagara Falls–so I’ve been reading Hell’s Cartographers, autobiographical sketches by half a dozen prominent science fiction writers.

Very nearly all writers go through a stage of cranking out novel after novel, story after story, without ever selling anything they write. One winds up asking oneself, “Why in the world am I doing this? Beating a dead horse! I’ll never get published, never get anywhere. Might as well quit!”

I mentioned this to Patty today, and her reply scored a point:

“I wouldn’t let you quit!”

She feeds me. She manages our household. She reads my work. We talk about it.

And she’s right, you know–she never let me quit. So I kept writing, and writing, and writing, slowly getting better at it as I went along. And out of nowhere–or rather, out of God’s all-knowing providence–along came the Chalcedon Foundation and, after taking me on as an assistant editor and publishing dozens of my articles… offered me a chance to write a novel. Which was Bell Mountain. Thirteen books ago, with two more in the hopper.

And a fantasy novel, no less! My first love. And all those writers, an army of them, right behind me, pushing me forward by example–Tolkien, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Sir Walter Scott, Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, C.S. Lewis: I couldn’t possibly name them all. If I hadn’t read them, if I hadn’t learned from them, I could not have become a writer myself.

Nor could I ever come anywhere near achieving it without my wife’s support.

Thank you, Patty. Thank you, all you other writers who delighted me and mentored me.

And thank you, God the Father.

Time to Start Typing

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Busy Writer Stock Illustrations – 86 Busy Writer Stock Illustrations, Vectors & Clipart - Dreamstime

My allergies having abated to the point where I can go back to work, I’ve got seven chapters of a new book to type up and send to my editor, Susan. Ozias, Prince in Peril–I hope you like the title.

It’s not easy, shifting gears, when you’ve just been reading and covering the dark and dreary nooze of this dark and dreary age. Ozias lived in such a time, but God put him there for a reason. I pray my description of his life and work will inspire sane and decent people to put their trust in God and do their best.

Even as David did, and Joshua, Moses, Peter and Paul, and all the other heroes we encounter in the Scriptures.

First Chapter Set: Done!

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King's Armor Deal

King Flosi I, “the Hammer”

I don’t have a title for it yet, but I’ve finished seven chapters of my new book on the life of King Ozias and I’ve got to type them up and send them to Susan for editing.

I think it’s going well. Main characters have come onstage on cue and already established themselves. Ozias is only eight years old, but desperate adventures await him.

Again, I have asked the Lord to give me the story as He wants me to tell it. I’m sure it will surprise me.

Writing a Novel Is Fun!

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Pet-Friendly Jackson Hole - Jackson Hole Traveler

Waterly must be something like this.

I can’t contain myself: the first 34 pages of my new book strike me as just fine. I don’t have a title for it yet. I had The Red Queen in mind, but Patty said that that would just make people think “Alice in Wonderland.” So that’s a no-go. I hope I come up with something before Prince Ozias grows a beard.

I love the way new characters come out of who-knows-where and settle into the story as if they’d been waiting for it all along. My wife loves King Flosi II and Queen Parella, Ozias’ father and mother. And Lady Gwenlann, who’s in charge of all the spies but known to most people as just a rather scatterbrained wardrobe mistress. And Ozias himself, of course. He’s only ten years old so far.

Today I wrote mostly about Waterly, the queen’s lodge in Lintum Forest and Ozias’ favorite place. I think I’d like to spend a few weeks there.

What can I say? I’m falling in love with the book. I pray every day that the Lord will guide me in writing it and make my work fruitful in His service.

(P.S.–Where the dickens did my picture go? I’m not seeing it at my end.)

A New Book… Under Way

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Bell Mountain (Bell Mountain, 1)

It’s hard to describe the feelings I had, watching Katheleen’s Bell Mountain video and hearing my story and my characters talked about on-screen. It’s a blast.

Meanwhile, I’ve complete three chapters of my new book. It hasn’t got a title yet, but some of the main characters are already settling in and taking shape–young Queen Parella, Ozias’ mother; his father, King Flosi II (who is more trusting than is good for him), and Gwenlann the scatterbrained wardrobe mistress, whom no one suspects is the king’s spymaster. Don’t let anyone tell you that writing a novel isn’t fun! It’s certainly a lot more fun than covering the nooze.

My earlier books give me plenty of hints to help me tell the story, but I know there’ll be a lot of surprises on the way.

I’m going to read to Patty what I’ve got so far. I hope she likes it as much as I do.

 

So I’ve Started It

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Super-sticky saliva helps chameleons catch huge prey, scientists say - Los Angeles Times

I pray I can be as on-target as this chameleon.

Okay, I’ve got some pages written and I’m on my way–the early life of King Ozias, compiled by Obst from the Scriptures.

It’s a daunting task, but also an exciting one. Can I bring this story to life? I have to go back in history 2,000 years and a lot of things in Obann were very different then. There were still some Wild Men left in Lintum Forest, for instance. Obann’s Empire, and the Day of Fire, were some thousand years in the future. A lot of shapeless ruins were thriving cities.

It’s only 2 o’clock. I think I’ll go out and write some more.

Will I Start My New Book Today?

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Pin on יהונתן קשת

I had it strongly in my mind to start writing my next book today. Yeah, today.

The thought came to me as I was washing dishes: “Do it the way Homer showed us, in The Iliad: Jump right into the middle of the story, with both feet!” Any time I can get advice from Homer, I take it.

This story will be the life of King Ozias–his early life, at least, as he grew up in Lintum Forest.,. I think it ought to be told by Obst, putting together all the information scattered throughout the Scriptures. Obst will understand the turbulent times that Ozias knew: civil war, Heathen invasions, gangs of murderers trying to hunt him down…

All that being said, today the sky is slate-grey and it’s just itchin’ to rain on me and on my work. I can’t do this indoors because there’s too much distraction. I need the green grass, a blue sky, and the birds. God is in all those things; and I want Him to be present in my book, too.

Well, I still have to go to the store and pick up the laundry. Let’s see if the sky clears by the time I’m done.

My ‘Bell Mountain’ Dream (For Kathleen)

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Bell Mountain (Bell Mountain, 1) - Kindle edition by Duigon, Lee. Religion & Spirituality Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com.

A reader in Brazil, Kathleen, has asked me for this. She wants to make a Bell Mountain video for her YouTube channel. She’s interested in the fact that the book was inspired by a dream I had one night.

I dreamed of a boy standing alone on a grassy riverbank, a shallow stream of cold water flowing over a bed of smooth stones. In the distance towered mountains, the tallest of which, Bell Mountain, was cloaked in clouds around the summit. No one had ever seen the summit.

And suddenly that mountain began to “sing” to him. This terrified him and froze him to the spot; but it was also exhilarating. He’d never heard anything like it before. He could have listened for hours, but then he woke up.

To read it as I wound up writing it, here”s a link (https://leeduigon.com/books/bell-mountain/). Just scroll down to the sample chapter.

It was a very vivid dream, in technicolor, and I never forgot it. That was a good thing, because shortly afterward someone at the Chalcedon Foundation wondered how we’d do if we published a novel–and I was ready to write it!

I also dreamed the climax of my third book in the series, The Thunder King, and the opening chapter of the seventh, The Glass Bridge. I have always dreamed vivid, unusual dreams, all my life; and they’ve played a major role in my writing.

I look forward to seeing Kathleen’s video, and hope I can post it here for all of you.