Tag: The Silver Trumpet

Down the Home Stretch with ‘The Silver Trumpet’

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Given some nice weather over the next week or two, I’ll soon be finished writing The Silver Trumpet (Book No. 10 of the Bell Mountain series). I’ve been at it since April, and I know that when it’s done, I’ll feel a sense of loss.

As of just a couple of weeks ago, I had no idea where the story was going, or how it was going to end. All I could do, every day I sat down to work, was ask God to give me the story that He wanted me to tell. And He did–just as He has done nine times before. He hit me with it all at once, for that matter.

The thing is, if I can and do rely on God to direct me in my work, why can’t I rely on Him to lead me in every area of life? Surely He can! Under His direction, my books have turned out very well: way better than I possibly could have done on my own. Like, maybe I’d be wise to seek His counsel in all things–yes?

It’s hard for a sinner to do that, but maybe I can learn from my own books. Maybe I can learn to be less of a fool.

Because, you lunk-head (he sez to himself), that’s what your cotton-pickin’ books have been about, all along! All ten of ’em! Seeking God’s guidance! Do you get it now? Huh?

Perhaps I’m getting there. Perhaps.

We’ve all got to get there, don’t we?

 

My Eureka Moment

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I’ve come very far along with The Silver Trumpet (No. 10 in my Bell Mountain series), having been at it since April: 40 chapters, in fact. Even so, as of yesterday, I had absolutely no idea how the story should end.

Years ago, my procedure was to dope out the whole plot, along with all the subplots, before I wrote a word. Everything was on color-coded index cards, with extra material, like detailed biographies for all the major characters. in notebooks.

I don’t do it that way anymore. Instead, I just send up a prayer, asking the Lord to give me the story He wants me to tell, and start writing. I generally don’t know where I’m going till I’m almost there, and I get a lot of surprises along the way.

Yesterday I went to the eye doctor and couldn’t write when I got home, my eyes being too dilated to see properly. So I sat outside, taking advantage of a gorgeously sunny day, with my Mr. Cool sunglasses and a nice cigar, just sitting.

And then, as Rocky Graziano used to say, wham!–it hit me. The whole climax of The Silver Trumpet flashed into my brain in less time than it takes me to tell you about it. It was God answering my prayer, and in a way He has done several times before. I have to say it’s kind of overwhelming!

And I love it.

Now I can go straight ahead and write the rest of the book. I know what I have to do, and all I’ve got to do is write it. I asked the Lord to lead me, and He has.

If I can just get it all done before the cold weather kicks in…

Progress Report: ‘The Silver Trumpet’

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Don’t ask me how, but I got my latest set of The Silver Trumpet chapters typed up and sent off to my editor yesterday, printed them this morning, and have now begun writing the next set.

The story’s moving fast now, although I still don’t know where it will end up. The Lord gives it to me piece by piece. But Lord Chutt is learning that people don’t always do what you want them to to, even when you’ve bought them off, I now know why the people of Obann dread the sea, and a fully-equipped army is on the move in the dead of winter, heading straight for Ninneburky. Also, Wytt has been quite busy.

I just love watching these stories unfold. I hope you will, too.

Aaaugh! Aaaugh! Aaaugh!

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So you want to be a writer…

Today I really needed to finish polishing and typing a set of chapters of The Silver Trumpet, a task requiring a certain amount of concentration.

I had no sooner started when an enormous truck pulled up next door and some guys with real loud voices got out. Twenty feet (at most) from our door, they broke out the chain saws and the mulching machine and settled in for hours of fun, sawing and chipping a great big tree that had absolutely nothing wrong with it.

And of course the phone rang several times, and a bit of this, and a bit of that–everything, it seemed, except an oompah band jamming in my living room, and maybe an escaped black mamba or two.

I hope my work turned out okay.

Another Big Piece of the Story

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As you’ll know if you’ve been following this blog, I write my Bell Mountain novels piece by piece, as God gives them to me. I don’t dope them out beforehand; instead, I wait for what He gives me. This can lead to a certain amount of artistic uncertainly, but it’s also very exciting.

For years, now, I’ve been wondering why the people of Obann shun the sea, but are unable to explain why. What happened to make the sea so dreadful to them? It must have been something to do with the Day of Fire, in which God destroyed their civilization a thousand years ago. But what could it have been?

As of today, I know!

I never expected this to be any part of the book I’m writing now, The Silver Trumpet: but suddenly I see that it really has to be. History, even ancient history, never dies; like it or not, the past is always part of the present. It has shaped the present and will shape the future. It’s a continuum of everything that’s happened, and can nowhere be cut off.

I can hardly wait to get to work on this tomorrow.

‘The Silver Trumpet’: Halfway (Maybe)

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The Temple (Bell Mountain Series #8) (English Edition) di [Duigon, Lee]

Bell Mountain No. 8, “The Temple.” No. 9, “The Throne,” is still in production.

Look at this, it’s almost Labor Day. Where does the time go?

Since April I’ve been chipping away on writing “Bell Mountain No. 10,” The Silver Trumpet. I started by describing a certain event which I did not understand, and by now I reckon I’m about halfway to the finish line.

New characters and new places that weren’t in my mind when I started have since come into the story. It’s so cool, the way that happens. I never know what to expect from these stories. As for the original event that kicked off the story, it still retains more than a little mystery: I have yet to get to the bottom of it.

Every working day I ask the Lord to give me the story that He wants me to tell, and bit by bit He gives it. How it winds up being a coherent novel is more than I can explain. But it’s worked nine times so far, and looks to me, and to my editors, that it’s still working just fine.

As Fnaa, the king’s double, would say, “What else did you expect?”

My Cover Blurb for ‘The Throne’

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You don’t want to read any more about politics today, do you? ‘Cause I sure don’t feel like writing about it. Blowing my stack first thing in the morning kind of wears me out.

But I came back from the nursing home (no change, everything with Aunt Joan is as it has been for quite some time) and decided I’d better tackle writing a cover blurb for The Throne–Book No. 9 of the Bell Mountain series–so it can be published in time for Christmas. And as I was writing it, the Lord told me what I needed to know to continue writing The Silver Trumpet. He knew I needed help today.

As much as I would like to post the blurb here as a sneak preview, I think I ought first to get it approved by Susan, my editor, and by the publishers, The Chalcedon Foundation dba Storehouse Press. So, if they say it’s good, and they accept it, and I get their permission to do so, I’ll let you all see it as soon as I can.

Progress on My New Book

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I’ve been kind of knocking myself out this week, working on The Silver Trumpet (No. 10 in the Bell Mountain series). I didn’t really mean to, but that’s what happens when I get on a roll.

Because I rely on God to give me the story He wants me to tell, I must grope my way forward and see what He’ll reveal to me each day. And so the story’s taking shape, but as yet I have no idea how or where it will end. I used to plan out my books from start to finish, every detail thought out in advance. But this way it’s more exciting.

Meanwhile, Book No. 9, The Throne, is still waiting for its cover art. I hope it’ll be published in time for Christmas.

P.S.–We ought to see a winner in the Comment Contest sometime in the next day or two. If you’ve never posted a comment here before, please jump right in! Whoever posts Comment No. 8,000 will win an autographed copy of one of my books.

Back to ‘The Silver Trumpet’

Posted By: leeduigon(patty)Posted On:

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I was very glad today–after again zooming up that hill that had defeated me for so many weeks–to get back to work on my new book, The Silver Trumpet. Meanwhile, we’re waiting for the cover art for Book No. 9, The Throne. And I’ve got to write a cover blurb for it.

God always blesses me with surprises, as I tell these stories. The new and not entirely legitimate First Prester, Lord Otvar, has the makings of a genuinely resourceful villain who might beat the reigning villain, Lord Chutt, at his own game. And, if I may hint at it without committing a spoiler, we may find out why the people of Obann are so afraid of the sea.

Please join me in prayer that my work will be fruitful and profitable to Christ’s Kingdom. There’s no way I can accomplish this without God’s help.

Don’t Let Real-World Politics into Your Fantasy

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Today is primary election day in my home state. As usual, by the time our primary rolls around, the issue has already been decided.

I’m trying to spend most of the day outside, working on The Silver Trumpet, my new Bell Mountain book. Notice it is not called The Silver Trump. Because nothing knocks the stuffing out of a fantasy more than an incursion of our world’s news and politics.

Readers in some future generation will find it irrelevant, and will probably have no idea what you’re talking about, nor will they care. Readers in the present time will find it annoying, and feel imposed upon.

Don’t go to the trouble of creating a quasi-medieval setting for your story, only to torpedo the whole thing by having one of your knights or wizards gabbling about “diversity” or “climate change.” If you want to write it as a satire, in which some royal wannabe stirs up the peasants by telling them that the nobles “didn’t build that” castle, yatta-yatta, well, tally-ho and good luck. Your satire might even be funny. But fifty years from now, all it’s going to get out of a reader is a big fat “Huh?”

Not that fantasy ought to be irrelevant. It should focus on big issues like love, loyalty, sacrifice, etc., that will still be big issues a hundred years from now–not fleeting, ephemeral concerns like who’s gonna use what bathroom. Those matter in the here and now, and we have to deal with them. But I pray they will someday become as truly trivial as they deserve to be.

Let the stuff that deserves to pass away, pass away. I’ll do my level best to keep it out of the world of Bell Mountain.