It hasn’t been a whole year since I posted this video, but a lot of you have joined since then, and I think you might enjoy it.
https://leeduigon.com/2017/09/04/a-present-for-bell-mountain-readers/
When I was a boy I used to have a dream in which I crouched in the mouth of a cave while a stampede of assorted prehistoric animals thundered by–sort of like in this video. I’d give much to have that dream again!
Ice Age hyenas with their kill, a wild boar: the mammoth and horses in the background are lucky the boar came along when it did.
With two deaths in the family coming virtually back-to-back, I haven’t been quite at my best lately. Not good: because I have a book to write, and the weather has held me back considerably. I’ve written a couple of chapters of His Mercy Endureth Forever, but as of this morning, I still didn’t know where it was going. Note I said “didn’t,” not “don’t.” Because now I think I know.
So I sat outside with my cigar and asked the Lord to give me the story He wants me to tell: and He has. Like, right away. All I had to do was ask.
Now I know why He gave me that title, and why He gave me Ice Age extra-large and ferocious cave hyenas, without an Ice Age to go with them. Now I can proceed.
Thank you, Father. It’s a weird way to write, but so far it’s carried me through ten Bell Mountain books, plus two awards.
It’s been raining every day this week, which has really slowed the writing of my new book. But at least I was able to make one artistic decision about it.
I’m going with the oversized prehistoric cave hyenas. I can’t provide them with an Ice Age, but to make up for that, I’ve provided them with dangerous savages who worship them as holy.
Today’s spotted hyenas of Africa are pretty nasty, but these put them to shame. Hey, they ate mammoths and rhinoceroses.
Now if only this rain would stop, I could get down to business.
P.S.–I’m calling it His Mercy Endureth Forever. My wife and my editor like that title, so there it is.
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The Ice Age Cave Hyena–bigger, meaner, and just watch out…
I’m still waiting for the Lord to give me the spark that gets my next Bell Mountain book started. Sometimes it’s a dream: that’s where Gurun, the Queen of Obann, came from, and the great beast that scattered the Heathen army from the city walls. Or it might be a title, a particular scene, or an intriguing new character.
I don’t have any of those things yet, the weather has finally decided to turn the page to Spring, and I’m eager to get started. But I can’t begin until God gives me the go-ahead; and I’m also still waiting for Book No. 10, The Silver Trumpet, to be published.
Meanwhile, based on certain events described in No. 11, The Temptation, I’m pretty sure I’m going to need giant Cave Hyenas from the Ice Age. These were awesome beasts. They preyed on rhinoceroses (!) and baby mammoths: scientists deduce this from the bones which the hyenas strewed about their lairs. Can I ask the Lord to give me a vivid dream of Cave Hyenas?
Sometimes waiting for the book is harder than writing it.
In 1923 a member of Roy Chapman Andrews’ expedition to the Gobi Desert found a yard-long skull that scientists thought belonged to the largest land-dwelling carnivorous mammal ever–Andrewsarchus, named for RCA himself. Since then, no other Andrewsarchus fossils have been found.
I’ve seen this skull in the America Museum of Natural History. It’s a whopper. The muscle attachments are simply huge, indicating a bite of tremendous power. The teeth do look like a carnivore’s teeth, but they also look kind of dull and worn. Based on comparisons to fossils that looked similar, paleontologists reconstructed this awesome beast that had little hooves instead of claws and must have weighed upwards of a ton.
But, despite the wonderful special effects wizardry of Tim Haines, it’s all just speculation. Well, when you see that skull, you can’t help speculating.
I’ve got to work this critter into one of my books, somewhere along the line. Maybe it could eat a villain.
As long as I’m reading The Thunder King, I thought I’d treat you to this video clip from Walking With Prehistoric Beasts, featuring the mountain-sized animal that rescued Ryons from the “death dog,” aka hyaenodon.
Don’t mind them calling it “Indricotherium.” They’re always changing the name. I stick with the old name that it had when I was a boy, “Baluchitherium.” Whatever we call it, this baby was the largest land mammal that ever lived–and the one that Ryons met was the biggest of them all.
Marvel at the work of God’s hands, and rejoice in it.
Just as a relief from the nasty stuff I have to write about, let me treat you to a classic picture of one of my all-time favorite prehistoric animals, Uintatherium. This rhino-sized beast, with horns all over its head and tusks in its mouth, was responsible, in The Last Banquet, for freaking out Lord Orth and putting him exactly where God wanted him.
How I would love to see one of these babies!
Maybe, in the regeneration of all created things, the Lord will show me one.