We can all be just like T.S. Eliot!
It’s grey and wet and dreary again today–waddaya say to some poetry? Note I did not say “pottery.” We’re very careful about language around here!
Political poetry has a long tradition in America, but you’d never know it from the grey and wet and dreary politics we have today.
Please, readers, feel free to share some of your own efforts at political poetry. The art needs updating.
Whoa! I got so busy with the “ban gas stoves” nonsense, I almost forgot to post this picture–another Bell Mountain illustration by Katheleen and Kerolyn, young readers in Brazil.
So here we have a group portrait of Helki the Rod, Jandra the little prophet, Jack and Ellayne, King Ryons–and some bearded guy in a black T-shirt. Holy cow–that’s me! They drew me, too.
I love these kids, and it humbles me to think their artwork was inspired by my books. Gives me something to live up to!
Here we have Obst and Chief Uduqu giving King Ryons a bath, which he sorely needed at the time–another Bell Mountain illustration by Katheleen and Kerolyn, young readers in Brazil. I would love to use these inside the books, but we’d need a new edition for that. Think of it, though–a book illustrated by its own readers. I don’t know that that’s ever been done before.
I have one more picture of theirs to publish, and that’s scheduled for tomorrow–so stay tuned, I’ve saved the best for last.
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 Ellayne and Jack on the summit of Bell Mountain, with Martis trying to collect his wits and get up from the snow. This is from Katheleen and Kerolyn, in Brazil–these are gifted girls!
I wish we could get some of these illustrations into a new edition of Bell Mountain. When have you ever seen a book illustrated by some of its readers? That would be so cool! But first we’d have to sell out the edition we already have.
You’ll enjoy the conversation that follows this post (my readers are the best!), and the original is embedded in the sequel, so you won’t miss anything.
We all know there’s a lot of drivel out there that gets marketed as “fantasy.” All it takes is one Elf turning to a Dwarf and saying, “We must learn to celebrate one another’s lifestyles,” and the reader is lost to fantasy forever. I wish I could say I invented that example… but alas, I haven’t.
Attempting to break up a fight between her two dogs, my stepdaughter, Georgia, wound up breaking her foot. She may or may not require surgery. Meanwhile, it hurts. Just another household accident.
Please join me in prayer for her. O Lord, your servant Georgia needs you now. Please heal her, Father. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
S.O.S.! S.O.S.! Anybody read me?
One comment, just one, in the past 12 hours. That’s unusual, to say the least. Makes me wonder whether there’s something wrong (again!) with WordPress.
As of now, I can’t be sure my posts are being made available to readers. If we’re all being blocked, you won’t be able to tell me!
So all I can do is ask, “Is anybody out there reading this?” Please let me know… if you can.
I grew up being taught that the older you got, the more people would listen to you–because you had experience, knowledge, you’d proved yourself.
But it doesn’t seem to be the case today, does it?
All my life I’ve heard libs and leftids yammering for “change.” Well, we’ve had “change” out the wazoo; but aside from advances in dentistry and chess notation, it doesn’t seem to have done us any good. Well, maybe you think “transgender” is a good thing. If so, we don’t have much to say to one another.
Just because the driver missed the turn does not mean the turn he should or should not have made is irrelevant. Foolishness does not erase the truth. It just squawks louder.
I’m currently working to finish Book No. 15 of my Bell Mountain series, The Witch Box. If my execution lives up to my vision, it’ll be my best book yet.
Edgar Rice Burroughs kept writing Tarzan because the Lord of the Jungle put most of the food on the table; but he complained a lot about having to do it. Agatha Christie came to a point where she was really and truly sick of Hercule Poirot; but she kept on writing him because the readers still wanted him.
I am not tired of writing Bell Mountain. In fact, next time out, I’m thinking I’d like to go back in time 2,000 years to tell the story of King Ozias. But there are some folks out there who think it’s time it was “Lights Out” for Bell Mountain, adios, don’t let the door hit you in the tuchas on your way out…
Of course my books are microscopic, compared to Tarzan or Poirot. I don’t have to worry about angry mobs besieging my publisher because they want Bell Mountain back (which is what happened, literally, when Arthur Conan Doyle tried to kill off his creation, Sherlock Holmes). I have no advertising. Just this wee blog.
My question to readers is, Should I put a cork in it? (One reader says even Wytt bores him, anymore. Good grief.) Have you had your fill of Bell Mountain? Or should I keep on going for as long as the Lord gives me something to write and Chalcedon’s willing to publish it?
Just askin’.