Thank you, Lord, they’ve glued my crown back on and now I can get back to work. Of course, of course, they found another few things they’d like to work on. But not just yet.
Artist Kirk DouPonce, who’s done all my covers so far, says he’s soon be ready with a cover for The Silver Trumpet (No. 10 in the Bell Mountain series). I can’t wait to see it. And if I’m able to find out how to transfer it from email to this blog, I’ll post it for you.
Just so you know I’m still working on it, today I finished writing another half a dozen chapters of The Temptation (Bell Mountain No. 11). I’ve got to type them up and send them to my editor, then plunge into the next chapter set. The Lord has not yet shown me the climax of the story, but I think it’s safe to tell you there’s a whole lot of temptation going on and many of the characters now have the opportunity to do something that they shouldn’t. And there’s a new threat to Ryons’ kingdom looming up from the far south.
We’re still waiting to see a cover for No. 10, The Silver Trumpet. I had hoped to see it published in time for Christmas, but don’t know whether that will be possible. And I’m a bit concerned for No. 6, The Palace. Is anybody reading it? It has only three Customer Reviews on amazon.com. If you haven’t read it yet, please give it a whirl. And find out what happens when King Ryons and his hound, Cavall, hunt the mysterious White Doe.
Meanwhile, I’ll be trying very hard to finish The Temptation before cold weather sets in. The outcome of the story is in God’s hands–and that’s where I want it to be.
My stats page tells me I have a lot of new viewers on this blog; and I would be surprised if many of them were aware that I have novels out there, too.
Look at that beautiful cover, up there, by Kirk DouPonce! The Throne is Book No. 9 in my Bell Mountain series, all of which are available through amazon.com or directly from the publisher at http://www.chalcedon.edu/store.com/ .
Mostly of you never heard of these, but you can find out about all nine novels in the series simply by clicking “Books” at the top of the page. Artwork, cover blurbs, and sample chapters–it’s all there.
Book No. 10, The Silver Trumpet, is currently in production. Meanwhile I’m writing No. 11, The Temptation. But for the time being, there are nine of them out there to get you started.
Take the plunge! Buy one! It’s cheaper than a movie!
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.
I’ve just finished going over the first edits of Bell Mountain No. 10, The Silver Trumpet. I’m always amazed at the errors that can crop up in a manuscript–but we’re repairing them. And Kirk DouPonce will be on board to create the cover at. As you can see by the example above, he does good work!
And now I’m tired, it’s over 90 degrees outside today, and I’ve got to unwind before supper.
Sometimes I like to listen to shows dealing with paranormal phenomena, spooky stuff, etc. Here and there you find a truly puzzling case. You also find a lot of twaddle. I usually run out of patience when they start talking about “unexplained mysteries.” Uh, if they’ve been explained, then they aren’t mysteries anymore, are they?
Still haven’t got Robbie eating normally again. *sigh* We’ll see what the vet says when we bring her in. Thank you all for your prayers, and please keep them coming.
It’s been raining all day long. I’ve been working on preparing the first six chapters of The Temptation for my editor, while Patty toils away through the infinite amount of paperwork required by the government to get Aunt Joan on Medicaid. Our cats have conked out. Even the traffic on this blog has slowed to less than a crawl.
Anyhow, check out the picture–a beast of this general description plays a dramatic role in Bell Mountain No. 10, The Silver Trumpet. It’s not a nice animal and it doesn’t do nice things. But it is an interesting animal.
Time to stop writing for a while: I’m kind of tuckered out. I’ll be back when it’s time for a cat video.
Well, the great big snowstorm is over, the sun is shining merrily, and a lot of people in New Jersey are annoyed that a state of emergency had been declared for what turned out to be only an ordinary snowstorm. Six inches, at the most.
The National Weather Service must have changed the forecast a hundred times, leading up to the actual event. With that many changes, you can hardly call it a forecast at all. If a Roman emperor’s astrologer ever tried to amend his predictions that many times, he’d’ve been thrown head-first off a cliff.
The nooze media and our Blue State politicians decided to go with the most draconian forecasts and see if they could scare everybody off the roads. An official state of emergency, by the way, winds up costing local businesses a lot of money, because they generally have to shut down for the day.
There is a slight problem today with yesterday’s snow having developed a hard, frozen crust–makes me very glad I cleared our cars yesterday, and didn’t put it off till today. I think I’ll get my exercise today walking to the Y and back, which is about three miles. Certainly can’t ride a bike; and anyway, there’s enough snow on top of my bike’s tarpaulin to keep it safe from the high winds that have been vexing us for several days.
So, let’s see how long it takes me to do this… and then I have to finish reading The Silver Trumpet, trying to be ready for the next book the Lord gives me to write.
Spring is coming, and I want to be ready to start writing another book as soon as God gives me something to start with. To that end, I’ve just read The Throne and am now reading The Silver Trumpet, which I wrote last year–the tenth book of my Bell Mountain series. Whatever comes next, I left some matters in Trumpet which will need to be addressed.
By now I’ve had thirteen novels published, including my four horror novels from long ago, and I’ve picked up some tricks of the trade, learning them the old-fashioned way, by experience. I know some of you out there want to try your hands at writing novels, so here are a couple of tips.
*If whatever you happen to be writing seems tiresome to you, it will be tiresome to the reader, too. Trust me on that. If your fictional characters are getting all caught up in details, the reader will abandon them. Don’t devote a lot of space to things that aren’t interesting.
*Remember the rule of Chekhov’s Gun. The great playwright said that if there’s a gun hanging on the wall, sooner or later in the play, one of the characters will have to use it. Otherwise there’s no reason for it being there. (I learned about that, believe it or not, from studying chess: don’t line up your Rooks and Queen unless you mean to use them.)
*Don’t tell the reader a lot of things he doesn’t need to know. If a character walks into the story to say “Here are the gum boots that you ordered, madam,” then leaves and is seen and heard no more, you needn’t tell the reader anything about his kindergarten days. He’s done his job and you’re finished with him.
*I’ve said this before, but it bears repeating–don’t insult the reader by editorializing about the characters. If a character is a villain, you needn’t call him a villain. If he says and does villainous things, the reader won’t need you to tell him that this character’s a villain. I call this “the Lovable Sheepdog Rule,” after a wretched novel in which a certain sheepdog never appeared without the adjective “lovable.” This did not make the sheepdog lovable to me, the reader. It made me want to call the dog-catcher.
If you observe these rules in your own writing, you’ll run much less risk of creating something boring. Readers who are not part of a captive audience–say, a class of high school kids–have a very low boredom threshold. And a writer does well to remember that.
I don’t know what that sneaker is doing there. Please disregard it.
Anyway, yesterday afternoon I finished writing The Silver Trumpet, Book No. 10 in the Bell Mountain series. To God be the glory: from start to finish He showed me the way. It wasn’t until about a week ago that He showed me how the story ought to end. May this work be fruitful in His service.
Will there be a Book No. 11? Well, gee, I hope so–this is the work I most love doing. For as long as the Lord keeps giving me these stories, I’ll keep writing them.
Besides, there’s still some unfinished business with Lord Chutt and Ysbott the Snake.
We’re now doing the final edit for The Throne–the text that will actually appear in print. It’s Book No. 9 in the Bell Mountain series, and I hope the gorgeous cover by Kirk DouPonce makes you want to read it.
I had hopes of getting this book in print in time for Christmas, but I’m sorry to say it doesn’t look like that can be done. Oh, well. It’ll make a nice post-Christmas gift.
Meanwhile, it looks like one more chapter, just one, will do it for Book No. 10, The Silver Trumpet. And then I’ll feel like I’ve raised a child and sent him out to seek his fortune in the world: sort of an empty-nest feeling. But the good news is that the story demands another book after this one. When you’re writing history, even the history of an imaginary world, that has a tendency to happen–because history just never stops.
As long as the Lord keeps giving me these stories, I’ll keep writing them.