Tag Archives: His Mercy Endureth Forever

April 13, 2019

A Strange Experience for a Writer

By leeduigon

The Temptation (Bell Mountain, 11) by [Duigon, Lee]

All right! The Temptation is out there now, and at least its Kindle sales are off to a good start (it’ll be another week before the paperback is available).

But I can’t get too wrapped up in that now, because the warm weather is coming and I want to be ready to start writing the next book, as soon as the Lord gives me the go-ahead. A title, a new character, a new place–whatever He gives me to be the seed of the story, that’s what I’ll worth with.

Before I can do that, though, I have to re-read Bell Mountain No. 12, His Mercy Endureth Forever: because, when you’re writing a series, it’s incredibly easy to forget which details belong in which book or simply to forget things altogether. So out comes the manuscript.

Now, how do I say this without sounding like a fat-head? Never mind, I’ll try.

I wrote the book. No doubt of it. But when I sit there and read it, it feels like I’m reading something that someone else has written. “How did I ever think of that?” I wind up wondering. Worse–I begin to feel like I’m reading about real people and things that really happened. It’s… well, weird.

I’ve said before, the books are smarter than I am. Give God the glory for that!

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

April 7, 2019

Oh, Boy! Knuckle-Bear Video!

By leeduigon

For no reason at all, everything here is working again. Thank you, Lord!

Okay–yesterday there was nothing green on any of the trees; and today there is, some leaves have budded. Spring is definitely here. And how do they do that without anyone noticing until afterward?

In a matter of weeks it’ll be time to start writing again, back to Obann to try to clean up the mess I left at the end of His Mercy Endureth Forever. I haven’t got the seed of the story yet: I have to wait on the Lord to give it to me. A nerve-wracking procedure sometimes, but it’s gotten me through twelve books.

Meanwhile, dear readers, finally I have some video of chalicotheres, the “knuckle-bears” that live on the edge of Lintum Forest. It comes from the BBC and Tim Haines’ “Walking with Beasts,” a source of inspiration to me despite its bent for Darwinian fairy tales. What can I say? The beasts are cool!

The video includes a shocking cameo appearance by a hyaenodon, aka the “death dog” that would’ve gulped down both Ryons and Cavall if he hadn’t been interrupted by–but I don’t want to spoil the story.

1 Comment   |  tags: , , , , , , , | posted in bell mountain series, Book Updates, Video

March 23, 2019

Waiting for the Next Book

By leeduigon

See the source image

It’s still cold, windy, and muddy outside, not at all the kind of weather for sitting out there and writing a book. But more suitable weather will be coming soon, and I pray I’ll be ready to write when it does.

I’m a little surprised that I haven’t yet made use of that huge critter in the picture, known to prehistoric animal buffs as Arsinoitherium. Imagine a rather large rhino with a pair of stupefyingly big horns–not one behind the other, but branching out together from the top of its face. Big, thick horns, almost like traffic safety cones. I’ve long been fascinated by this beast. It must be lurking somewhere in the background, waiting for its cue to enter the story.

Thing is, I never know what’s going to be the inspiration for the next Bell Mountain book. I depend on the Lord to give me inspiration: I can’t call it up on purpose. Sometimes waiting for it can be hard: raring to go, but the race just hasn’t started yet.

God only knows–I mean that literally: He knows, but I don’t–what shape, what twists and turns, the next book will take. I’ve left a few loose ends in His Mercy Endureth Forever that will have to be gathered up. I’m sure there are new characters waiting to come onstage. Or older characters, so far playing minor roles, that will unexpectedly turn up in the spotlight.

What will it be? What will it look like? How will it surprise me?

Here I am, Lord! Waiting for whatever you mean to give me.

May it be fruitful in your service. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

 

 

4 Comments   |  tags: , , , , | posted in bell mountain series, Book Updates

March 13, 2019

The Next Book… ?

By leeduigon

See the source image

Spring is in the air, and once it’s here for good, I’ll want to get busy with the next Bell Mountain book.

I don’t think I’ll be using the lake monster from The Temple, but really, you never know.

The way it works, I have to wait for the Lord to give me the seed of a story. It might be a dream, or a new character that pops into my head, or a compelling incident, or something as simple as a title. Then I can get going. I can’t actually generate one of these books on purpose. It doesn’t work that way.

Of course, I did leave some loose ends to tie up, as I concluded His Mercy Endureth Forever–with, I might add, a climax that was completely unexpected but also wholly logical. Who’s in charge, in Obann City? Whose ships are those, out there on the sea?

I wish I knew!

5 Comments   |  tags: , , , , | posted in bell mountain series, Book Updates

January 27, 2019

‘Revisiting “The Palace”‘ (2016)

By leeduigon

See the source image

I hope you don’t mind me indulging in a small commercial for my books. The Palace is No. 6 in my Bell Mountain series, and few people know it exists. Everyone who’s read it, and reviewed it on amazon.com, has given it 5 Stars.

https://leeduigon.com/2016/03/22/revisiting-the-palace/

It does seem unlikely, with today’s temperature flirting with the single digits and our mudscape frozen solid (it hasn’t snowed here yet, just that one little snowstorm before ‘Thanksgiving); but before you know it, it’ll be spring again. For me, that’ll be time to start another book–always provided the Lord gives me a story to tell.

I like the thought of being able to sit down, instead of pacing up and down the sidewalk to keep warm, enjoy my cigar without gale winds trying to use it up in just five minutes, opening my legal pad and getting down to business–finding out what’s been happening in Obann. I left a few rather big and touchy things up for grabs in the last chapter of No. 12, His Mercy Endureth Forever. I wonder how they turned out!

Anyway, for the time being, if you haven’t read The Palace yet, give it a whirl. It’s cheaper than a movie, you get to keep it when you’re done reading, and you don’t have to worry about helping any Far Left Crazy Hollywood types get any richer. Follow Ryons and Cavall as they hunt the White Doe, and Helki as he launches the Battle of the Brickbats.

7 Comments   |  tags: , , , , | posted in Book Reviews, Book Updates

December 7, 2018

Ta-Dah! Finished the Book

By leeduigon

See the source image

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 14, 2018

Hello? Hello?

By leeduigon

See the source image

I’ve been working hard to type up the chapters of His Mercy Endureth Forever for Susan to edit. One legal pad down, three more to go. Huff-puff.

Looking back to last week, it seems I finished writing the book on the very last day I could have written it, before bad weather kicked in till next April. Providential!

Pausing from these labors, visiting the old blog, I find myself asking, “Where is everybody?” There were even spaces available in our town’s last parking lot today, and an empty waiting room at the doctor’s: what gives?

Well, I’ll wait till after supper (meat loaf tonight) and then post a cat video, hoping that will draw readership. (“That’ll fetch ’em!” he thought…)

6 Comments   |  tags: , , | posted in Just for Fun, Uncategorized

November 10, 2018

‘How One of My Characters Grew: Old Uduqu’

By leeduigon

Image result for images of the last banquet by lee duigon

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

One More Day…

By leeduigon

Image result for images of writer hard at work

It’s not raining. The church across the street has finished running its gigantic sidewalk vacuum cleaner–which makes enough noise to cause this apartment building to shake–up and down the sidewalk. It’s cold, though. Cold enough so that the ink is shy and slow, coming out of the pen.

Avanti! On goes the sweater, the hat, the winter coat and hood, and out the door I go, to try and write the last chapter of His Mercy Endureth Forever. 

Yeah, yeah, it’s sort of an eccentricity, to insist on writing all my fiction outdoors. But I can’t help it–I need my sky. I need my birds, my trees… and my cigar. All of those things help me concentrate.

The sun’s out, but the forecast is for yet more rain tomorrow.

Please, Lord, help me to finish this job; and may my work be fruitful in your service.

3 Comments   |  tags: , , | posted in Uncategorized

%d bloggers like this: