My New Book Is Out - News With Views

Are you tired of trying to learn the names of politicians’ lawyers? Worn out with keeping track of how many Far Left wackos are seeking the Democrat 2020 presidential nomination? And trying to decide which one is the craziest of them all—a hopeless task?

Are you sick and tired of “gender” this and “gender” that? Do you long to read at least three paragraphs in which the word “racist” (oops) is not mentioned even once? Do you find yourself wishing, when you turn on the TV news, that one of those giant lizards from a 1960s horror movie would break into the studio and gobble ‘em up like ants?

And if you’re tired of hearing it and reading about it, just think how tedious it is to write about it.

Allow me to present Book No. 11 of my “Bell Mountain” series, “The Temptation.” Monster of a cover, isn’t it? That’s the work of artist Kirk DouPonce, who’s done all 11 of them so far.

What? Our country’s looking shaky, globalists are trying to eat us alive—and you’re writing fantasy?

You bet I am.

There’s more on offer here than just escape—although certainly my books are intended to provide escape from the day to day torments of the nooze, and I’m very happy whenever I achieve that for my readers. But fantasy should also be a way of viewing our own world from an unexpected, unfamiliar vantage point from which we might see things that we would otherwise miss. That’s not as easy as it sounds, by the way.

So I write about this world where everything’s up in the air, all sorts of wild things are happening, because God is re-connecting it with Himself. And that means kingdoms rise and fall, quickly, great men, good and evil, come and go, and ordinary people have to cope with mysteries and miracles—everything that makes life worth living, as we say.

It’s a fantasy world, so our own world’s politics have no place here. But it’s also a human world: the way that people respond to current events, and to history, is mostly the same way we would respond. It’s a world created by the same God who created ours; so although it follows its own arc of history, very different from our own, and has its own Scriptures, it’s still a world that can make sense to us. We can imagine ourselves living in it. Heck, I have to do that every time I sit down to write.

Written for readers ages 12 and up, I’m still surprised when I hear from parents who tell me how much their younger children—eight years old, or even younger—have enjoyed these stories. After all, my two protagonists, Jack and Ellayne, are only about tennish when their adventures start. They are guided and guarded, and often scolded, by a squirrel-sized, manlike creature, Wytt. Together they travel all over their world, encountering fantastic beasts and all kinds of people.

Throughout the Bell Mountain series, my guide has been the Bible. So although I’m writing fantasy, you won’t find any spells or magic powers here. I allow whatever the Bible allows—which does give me pretty wide latitude. I hope it goes without saying that what is taught in the Bible as good is also good in my books. Both the laws of nature and the moral law, both established by God, apply in the world of Bell Mountain—and govern it.

“The Temptation” is available on amazon.com as an ebook today; tomorrow it should become available in paperback, too. It will also be sold on Barnes & Noble Nook, Google Play/Books, and from the Chalcedon Store (www.chalcedon.edu/store ). The preceding ten books in the series are all available in both Kindle and paperback formats.

They’re waiting for you.

I have discussed this and other topics throughout the week on my blog, http://leeduigon.com/ . Stop in for a visit; a single click will take you there. My articles can also be found at http://www.chalcedon.edu/ .

E-Mail Lee Duigon: leeduigon@verizon.net