The Great Beast from ‘The Thunder King’

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.

Reading My Own Books

Come spring, and nice weather, I hope to be sitting outside again, writing a new book. I have to wait until God gives me the germ of something to work with–a scene, a new character, a piece of story-line–but in the meantime, I want to make ready for it when it comes.

So I re-read, in order, all the earlier books in my Bell Mountain series. There being eight of them in print so far, it’s going to take me a while. I’m about halfway through No. 3, The Thunder King.

Now, what kind of nut sits there reading his own books? The kind who has a series to write and doesn’t want to contradict anything he said in the previous books. And really, at least for me, it’s just so easy to forget!

This blog was created to drum up interest in my books, and hopefully inspire folks to read them. That’s another thing that’s easy for me to forget. And, with a shock, I remember it and then I have to do something about it.

Obviously I can’t sit here reviewing my own books, “I give myself five stars for this one!”–but I think I can at least say that reading them is a pleasurable experience. I often find myself wondering, “Did I write that?”

And the answer is, To God be the glory–because I ask Him to give me these stories, and He does, along with the ability and the passion to write them. I had to work hard to acquire such skills as I have–but the whole thing is God’s gift. I am a steward of the resources which He has assigned to me–in this case, the ability to write well, and the desire to write: I find it hard to stop, and if I were prevented from doing it, it would go hard with me–and it’s my job to put them to work for Him.

It’s a little cold this morning, but at least the sun is out. Let me get myself some exercise, and then it’s back to The Thunder King.

‘The Thunder King’: Rescued!

I guarantee you won’t be able to sell many fantasy/adventure novels if they’re packaged as books on “Labor & Industrial Relations.” Such has been the fate of the paperback edition of my fantasy novel, The Thunder King, on amazon.com.

How this could have happened is beyond anyone’s power to explain.

But thanks to the two amazon.com reps who helped me this morning, I am overjoyed to report that this problem will soon be taken care of. Sometime next week, The Thunder King, No. 3 in the series, will be categorized as “fiction, science fiction and fantasy, Christian fiction” along with the other seven in my Bell Mountain series.

“I don’t see how you could have sold many copies of this book as ‘Labor & Industrial Relations,'” said the rep at amazon’s Author Central. I think that must be the understatement of the year.

I could tell this error was hurting my sales. With all the other books, the numbers go up and down. But for The Thunder King the numbers never, never changed. It never bettered the rank of 3 million-and-change. Ugh!

Anyway, now it’s going to be fixed, and I pray I finally sell some copies.

The Death Dog from ‘The Thunder King’

This is the monster Ryons and Cavall encountered on their way to Obann, as told in The Thunder King, Book 3 of my Bell Mountain series. (No, it is not about Labor & Industrial Relations: that is an amazon.com error that has cost me sales!) You might want to turn down the stupid music, which adds nothing to the presentation.

I wanted to give you a video of the “knuckle-bears” seen by Jack and Ellayne at the edge of Lintum Forest, in Bell Mountain, but the only one they had on youtube was literally two seconds long.

What? You haven’t read any of these books? (He shakes his head in painted disbelief.) Well, click “Books” at the top of the page and see what you think.

We Have a Comment Contest Winner

Reader Linda Sorci today posted the 5,000th comment on this blog, and has won an autographed copy of my Labor & Industrial Relations masterpiece, The Thunder King. Gee, I wish I could get amazon.com to correct that!

Thanks for playing, everybody, and there’ll be another contest when we get close to comment No. 6,000.

What Is Amazon.com Trying to Tell Me?

The Thunder King is Book 3 of my Bell Mountain series, and amazon.com has dunked it into a mystery. Can any of you help me figure it out?

The Thunder King is, of course, a fantasy-adventure story for readers 12 years old and up. Click “Books” at the top of this page and check it out–you’ll soon get the idea.

Why, then, has amazon.com got this book listed under Labor & Industrial Relations? Where it is not doing very well, I hasten to ad. By the way, this is only with the paperback. They are aware that the kindle version of the book has absolutely nothing to do with labor and industrial relations.

Is this why my sales are off? People look it up on amazon.com and think it’s about collective bargaining or grievances?

Yo, everybody! I promise The Thunder King will never, never get into discussions of how to allot overtime, how to cope with a drunken shop steward, or contract negotiations. Promise, promise, promise! Not that those subjects are unworthy of examination–but if you’re looking for high adventure in an unfamiliar world full of strange beasts and dangerous human beings, well… that we have.

I would ask amazon about this, but I have no idea how to put a question to them.

Another 5-Star Review for ‘The Thunder King’

Scroll down a bit to find the new review by O.P. ( http://www.amazon.com/Thunder-King-Bell-Mountain-Book-ebook/product-reviews/B008VL8UZW/ref=cm_cr_dp_see_all_btm?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1&sortBy=recent ) of The Thunder King, Book No. 3 in my Bell Mountain series.

I’ve won awards for these books, I’ve never gotten a bad review for any of them, and yet I’m finding it awfully hard to sell them.

You, my readers, and this little ol’ blog, are all the advertising I’ve got.

Remember, there’s a contest on! The first to sign up three new readers for my books wins a free book.

Who’s playing?

Another Contest for My Readers

book cover of  Bell Mountain Series

Let’s face it–this little blog, and you, my readers, are all the advertising that I’ve got.

When it comes to Customer Reviews on amazon.com, the lowest rating I’ve ever received for any of my books is three stars; but mostly it’s five stars, with a few fours thrown in. My sales figures, though–well, the less said about them, the better.

So how about this? Another contest.

The first reader to persuade five other readers to buy one of my books will earn my undying gratitude, plus an autographed copy of one of my books, your choice. I hope this doesn’t turn out to be a much harder job than I expected. Gotta try it, though–word-of-mouth advertising can sometimes do a lot.

We’ll have another comment contest coming up soon, too, as we close in on 5,000 comments. But for the time being, hey, I need more readers.

Will this work? Search me. Only one way to find out, and that’s to try it. Tally-ho!

P.S., How to Enter–Why, that’s easy. Just leave a comment to let me know when you’ve recruited five new readers.

P.P.S.–My wife says, “Five? Isn’t that a bit much?” So all right, I’ll change it to three. The first to find three new readers wins the contest.

‘Watches of the Night’–a Song for King Ryons?

My editor, Susan, wanted me to see this: first a poem, Watches of the Night, and then a song, Jesus, Draw Me Nearer, performed by Keith and Kristin Getty.

It’s beautiful, and full of echoes of the Book of Psalms. But to Susan it also brought to mind a character in my Bell Mountain books–Ryons, the slave boy who is rescued from human sacrifice to become, by God’s grace, the King of Obann.

Ryons doesn’t want to be a king. What does he know about such things? He has hardly had a proper childhood. He hates sending men who love him into battle, and they might not return. He’s terrified of some of the things he has to do, some of the places he has to go. But what he learns is faith and obedience, and going on when you’re too scared to go, and following God’s angel when you don’t know where he’s taking you.

I am very humbly glad that anything I could write might be linked to such beautiful and prayerful music as this.

But I tell you right up front, it wasn’t any literary genius of mine, but only writing what God gave me. To Him be the glory!

Your Absolute Last Chance!

Today is your absolute last chance to buy one of my books in 2015. Sorry, I’d change it if I could, but them’s the rules. After midnight today, it just can’t be done.

So… if you want fantasy and adventure based on a Biblical worldview, suitable reading for the whole family, especially for ages 12 and up, with eight books in the series, so that it’ll be a nice long time before you run out of stuff to read–

Well, if that’s what you want, folks, I’ve got it. And I’ve got it right here. Just click “Books” at the top of the page.

And now, I think, I’ll rest–punctuated by compulsive peeks at my Stats Board to see if I can get those 4,000 hits this month.

Just 50 more to go…