Things are not so pleasant here, just now–Patty’s hernia, we really need to get that operation–so please pardon me for blowing my own horn a little.
Here’s a review of The Cellar Beneath the Cellar–No. 2 in my Bell Mountain series–by a reader in Australia. He really liked it! Well, why not? The book won a silver medal for fantasy.
While you’re at it, please send up a prayer for us. We need one.
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.
I had fun writing this today!
Ozias, still a boy, has emerged from Lintum Forest with a band of 21 picked men. Their mission is to elude Maressa the usurper’s forces while proving to the people of Obann that they have a rightful king.
My model for this chapter was 2 Samuel 23: 8-38, the roster of King David’s “mighty men of valor.” (Thanks to Heidi for suggesting this, back in the summer.) Two of Ozias’ mighty men, brothers, are clever thieves who once stole a comrade’s shadow (but gave it back, once they’d shown that they could do it). But it would spoil the fun to list them all here.
I’m racing the seasons again, trying to finish Ozias, Prince in Peril before winter sets in. As yet I have no idea where or how to bring this story to a close. All I know is that Ozias will have to grow to young manhood before I launch the second book, Ozias, Prince Enthroned. The villains I’ve created–or, let me say, that God gave me–will not easily be parted from their power.
But at least the people of Obann won’t have to rely on an election.
It’s sunny out today, but with a cold wind: I froze my onions off, working outside to write the latest chapter of Ozias, Prince in Peril. Still a boy, Ozias will have to grow up fast, what with the villains combing Lintum Forest for him, looking to take him out. I don’t know if I’ll have enough good weather to finish the book this year, but I promise you I’ll try as hard as I can.
I think the book is going very well. The story keeps surprising me. I know I don’t have to secure Ozias’ throne until the next book, but I don’t know how old he’ll be by the time that happens. I just count on the Lord to give me the story… which He already knows.
Move over, purple penguins! Now that some of the real lightweights have dropped out, it’s time for me to join the Democrat presidential nomination sweepstakes.
And here’s my first campaign promise, right up front. If I’m elected president, I guarantee that there will be no sharks swimming around in our department stores! No other candidate has made that promise because no other candidate can. With me in the White House, it will be perfectly safe to use the escalator in Barnes & Noble.
I also promise that the very least I would do, if you elect me president, would be… well, nothing. C’mon, now, people, which would be better? Joe Biden or Bernie Sanders or Kamala Harris–or a president who does, like, nothing? Fumbling, stupid, crazy policies, or no policies? Imagine a president with the good sense to leave the country alone. That would be me!
Now, you know they won’t let me take part in any of those “debates” they have. You saw how they all piled onto Marianne Williamson for coming out of political nowhere and still looking better than the rest of them. “I didn’t know they could be so mean!” she’s saying now. Hey, sister, I coulda toldja. “I didn’t know they lied so much!” Coulda toldja that, too.
So, then, help me build up my campaign war chest by buying my books. Books? What books? You have books? You’re darn tootin’ I do. Just go to this blog’s home page and click “Books,” and find out all about it. You can even order them from there.
Vote for me, Lee Duigon, in all your Democrat primaries!
Because doing nothing is better than doing evil.
By now, I think, most of the regular visitors to my blog have already bought my books. But I live in hope that every day brings visitors who’ve never been here before and haven’t heard of my books.
Well, it’s easy to find out all about them. Just click “Books” at the top of the page, and you’ll see covers, descriptions, and sample chapters of all nine in the series–with No. 10, The Silver Trumpet, currently being made ready for publication.
Sorry for the commercial, but I do have to do this now and then.
The simplest and most honest answer to that question would be, “I don’t really know. They just come.” But let me try to do better than that.
Years ago, I learned an important lesson by reading Dick Francis’ mystery novels: Every character in your book, no matter how minor, you must view and write of as a real person. Even if the character is in the story so briefly that you don’t even have to give his name.
A common feature in a lot of books that stink is failure to observe this rule, because the author is interested only in himself. You wind up with some improbable hero or superwoman showing off at the expense of all the other characters, who are only there as stage props. Books like this should never be published, but some always make it through the net, and too bad for you if you’ve bought one.
I don’t sit down and write up a thorough biography of every character in the book. If the plot demands that someone come along to be the new captain of Lord Chutt’s Wallekki bodyguard, then I introduce a character to do just that. I give him a name. And then some funny things begin to happen.
Often, once he or she has appeared in a few scenes, I take an interest in this character. So it was with a man named Bassas in The Throne, Lord Chutt’s new captain. To my surprise, it turned out that Bassas doesn’t like Lord Chutt and has but little respect for him. As the circumstances around him changed, and he came to see more things that he hadn’t seen before, Bassas grew discontented with his lot: in fact, he didn’t much care for working for the bad guys. He hasn’t been able to shed the old tribal sense of honor that was drilled into him as a boy.
See what I mean? Bassas went on to do some things I never thought of when I first introduced him. He’s very different from his predecessor, who was a thorough-going rogue. I wonder what he’ll do next.
This all sounds very easy to do. All it takes is thousands of hours of reading quality fiction and thousands of hours of trying to write it. How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practice, man, practice!
But it all starts with a determination to see your characters as real people. Just because they’re fictional doesn’t mean they can’t be real. They have to be, or your story won’t work.
The Thunder King is Book 3 of my Bell Mountain series, and amazon.com has dunked it into a mystery. Can any of you help me figure it out?
The Thunder King is, of course, a fantasy-adventure story for readers 12 years old and up. Click “Books” at the top of this page and check it out–you’ll soon get the idea.
Why, then, has amazon.com got this book listed under Labor & Industrial Relations? Where it is not doing very well, I hasten to ad. By the way, this is only with the paperback. They are aware that the kindle version of the book has absolutely nothing to do with labor and industrial relations.
Is this why my sales are off? People look it up on amazon.com and think it’s about collective bargaining or grievances?
Yo, everybody! I promise The Thunder King will never, never get into discussions of how to allot overtime, how to cope with a drunken shop steward, or contract negotiations. Promise, promise, promise! Not that those subjects are unworthy of examination–but if you’re looking for high adventure in an unfamiliar world full of strange beasts and dangerous human beings, well… that we have.
I would ask amazon about this, but I have no idea how to put a question to them.
Scroll down a bit to find the new review by O.P. ( http://www.amazon.com/Thunder-King-Bell-Mountain-Book-ebook/product-reviews/B008VL8UZW/ref=cm_cr_dp_see_all_btm?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1&sortBy=recent ) of The Thunder King, Book No. 3 in my Bell Mountain series.
I’ve won awards for these books, I’ve never gotten a bad review for any of them, and yet I’m finding it awfully hard to sell them.
You, my readers, and this little ol’ blog, are all the advertising I’ve got.
Remember, there’s a contest on! The first to sign up three new readers for my books wins a free book.
Who’s playing?
It’s always a big day for me when I get my author’s copies of my book. Today I got my copies of The Temple. That cover looks good! My wife is already hunkered down to read it.
You may have noticed that I’m blogging more, of late. That’s because I’m between books, and that always makes me antsy. But I know I’ll have to wait months before the Lord starts me on the next story that He wants me to tell. He knows I need that time to rest and renew my resources.
The Temple is Book No. 8 in my Bell Mountain series, and the themes remain the same throughout: God’s sovereignty over all Creation; His power to intervene in history–without abrogating our free will; how He draws individuals and nations to Himself; and how the characters learn to know and love God through obedience, through sacrifice, hard work, enduring hardship, taking risks, and loving one another.
In all of this, whether I’m writing or not writing, my one indispensable tool is God’s own word, the Bible. I want my stories to be steeped in the Bible: it’s the only way to make them valid.
If you’re new to this blog, welcome. And if all of this is new to you, a lot more information is available just by clicking “Books” at the top of this page.