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.
Jack and Ellayne in Lintum Forest–I think this is one of Kerolyn’s, although it’s not that easy to tell them apart.
Stay turned day to day, because I’m saving a real corker for last!
(Young Readers’ fantasy novels–we are pioneering a new trend! Books for young readers illustrated by young readers–how cool is that?
Here are Jack and Ellayne with their donkey, Ham, meeting Obst, the hermit of Lintum Forest. I love these pictures by Katheleen and Kerolyn, our girls from Brazil… and I wonder if we could ever get them into the book someday. But first we’d have to sell out the current edition of Bell Mountain!
I don’t have much to show in the way of sales; but I do have gifted young readers who’ve done honor to my work. I’ll try to live up to it.
It took Patty a while to figure out how to get it done, but she finally solved the mystery and I am now able to present these original Bell Mountain illustrations by Katheleen and Kerolyn, in Brazil. They’ve sent me a bunch of them. But I think I’ll post just one a day.
Here we have Jack and Ellayne before they set out on their epic journey.
I wonder if we’ll ever have a Bell Mountain edition that features these illustrations inside. We’ve had Joshua in Japan translating the book into Japanese, and Katheleen wants to translate the whole series into Portuguese–well, who knows?
To know that I have readers who love my books so much–and children, no less (Joshua was still a teen when he started his project)–well, it’s quite a feeling for me, and I don’t know how to describe it.
P.S.–I stumbled over this, yesterday. An amazon.com customer review on the whole Bell Mountain series. I quote: “Best series EVER!”
Good Lord…
This scene is from the very beginning of Book 2, The Cellar Beneath the Cellar: Jack and Ellayne, having rung the Bell, find the assassin, Martis, swooning on the snow. Drawn by Kathleen.
I love the idea of having young adults fiction illustrated by young adults and children. I’ve been posting pictures drawn by Katheleen and her sister, Kerolyn, 9; they live in Brazil. If we ever get to the point where we can do a second printing of Bell Mountain or any of its sequels, I wonder if I can get one or more of these drawings included.
Well, back to work for me! I’ve got to write a cover blurb for Behold! and start the next chapter of Ozias, Prince in Peril.
A man who has been several times to Mars and back told me yesterday, “Lay off the novel-writin’ and write somethin’ that everybody wants. Write the Bell Mountain Cookbook!”
Well, fan my brow, I never thought of that. Probably because I can’t cook. There’s only so much you can say about heating up a pot of soup. But this guy from Mars has all the answers. People turn into such know-it-alls…
“Look, it’s simple,” he said. “Each recipe goes with a favorite character from the book. So you’ve got, like, Jack and Ellayne’s Rabbit Stew, Obst the Hermit’s Berry Cake, Lord Reesh’s Oysters, Roast Duck a la Baroness Vannett–you get the idea. You can probably leave out the whole Abnak cuisine. And that fermented mare’s milk that the Ghols drink. It makes me depressed just to think of it.”
It’s hard to get fictional characters to write things for you, although on Mars they do it all the time. My wife would love to sip the famous golden wine of Durmurot. But where would she get it?
I wonder, though… If I knew what I was talking about, would a Bell Mountain Cookbook attract readers? What do you think?
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One thing about writing a continuing series: it gives your characters scope to grow and change.
And of course it’s always fun when new characters enter the story.
Any day now The Wind from Heaven will be published, No. 13 in the Bell Mountain series. I have no idea how it’ll be received.
If you’re reading Bell Mountain for the first time (a lot of people read it more than once), I’d love to hear from you!
Uintatherium: I really must find a way to bring this animal into the story.
Okay! I’ve got a way to start the book, I’ve got a climax, and I’ve got a new villain! I don’t have a title yet, but I think what I do have is sufficient to get the next book started. Maybe tomorrow, if it doesn’t rain.
You may think it strange that the first thing that comes to me is the climax of the story, but it’s happened before. It gives me a goal toward which I can steer the story.
Will Jack and Ellayne get married? Will the new government in Obann City survive? And what about that ancient artifact that seems to show the distant future? The villain’s name is Gree, and he used to be the curator of Lord Reesh’s museum of ancient artifacts. He’s now a self-styled philosopher, and it’s a very big mistake to trust him.
And what about that huge armada that’s going to be launched at the defenseless city of Durmurot?
I’ve got to get all these matters taken care of before the next snow falls.
And I’m going to love doing it.
![The Cellar Beneath the Cellar (Bell Mountain, 2) (Bell Mountain Series) by [Lee Duigon]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51fPPSpV78L.jpg)
For the benefit of new arrivals at this blog, from time to time I like to introduce my books, now known collectively as the Bell Mountain series. With twelve titles in print–wow.
I won Global E-Book Awards for the first two books in the series. The Cellar Beneath the Cellar, pictured here, shows the skill of artist Kirk DouPonce at its uncanniest: if that girl on the cover isn’t really Ellayne from the book, then something very spooky’s going on here.
There’s somebody walking around out there who’s supposed to live in my book.
In spite of multitudinous distractions, I’ve finished writing the first three chapters of my new book, Behold! I don’t know where I’m going, but that’s nothing new. I may need a better title by and by, but none has yet presented itself to me.
Meanwhile, Jack and Ellayne have seen glyptodons (see illustration) on their way to Durmurot, Ebed is aboard a ship from the Lost Continent, the new government of Obann City is trying to clean up the mess left by Lord Chutt’s usurpation, Ysbott the Snake is on his way to further mischief, and the old rat who lives under the baroness’ kitchen is having premonitions of bad times to come.
This will be Bell Mountain No. 14–who would’ve thought it?–and we’re no editing No. 13, The Wind from Heaven. No. 12, His Mercy Endureth Forever, is available from the Chalcedon Foundation (www.chalcedon.edu/store/ ) and, in Kindle format, from amazon.com.
It makes a welcome break from nooze. Which is a good reason for you to buy it.