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Bill the Warthog Mysteries #2
Guarding the Tablets of Stone
Mom's Choice Gold Award Winner! Solve and unravel kid-sized crimes and mind-bending mysteries packed with truth and humor! Perfect for elementary to preteens. 112 pages. "I don't suppose you have a friend who is a warthog. You probably don't have a friend who is a professional detective, either. So it's very unlikely that you have a friend who's both. But I do." So begins the adventures of Bill the Warthog and his friend Nick Sayga as they piece together neighborhood mysteries and reveal Bible lessons in each case. Buckle up for a wild ride! Bring out your inner super-sleuth with Bill the Warthog in Guarding the Tablets of Stone, the second book in this exciting mystery series! Crack open 10 different creative cases while exploring important Bible lessons in each edge-of-your-seat book! Put your inner super-sleuth to the test as you help Bill solves such cases as the vanishing "Big Green Slime Time" video game, and even uses "Slugtop," the cosmic comic superhero, to put the Ten Commandments under the magnifying glass for Nick and his friends!
112 pages, Paperback
First published July 5, 2006
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
October 2, 2021
Since this is my thousandth rating for Goodreads, I thought I’d do something different and talk about one of my own books. After all, I read it plenty, especially during rewrites and publishing drafts. So I thought I’d just tell how this book came to be written.
Bill the Warthog, detective, began as a figure in bedtime stories for my kids. But there was no spiritual or Biblical shadings of any kind in the beginning of his career. He tended to end up tracking down miscreants like Lucky the Leprechaun and the Trix Rabbit, so it’s unlikely copyright law would allow Bill’s original adventures make it to the printed page. Which was fine, because that never came to my mind.
As the time, I was serving as youth pastor at Felton Evangelical Free Church (now Felton Bible Church.) I wrote Christmas plays for the church, which people appreciated. So the congregation kindly offered to pay my way for the Mt. Hermon Christian Writer’s Conference (at a camp just up the hill from the church.)
For the conference, participants were supposed to submit something for review. One of the options was submitting a book. (I believe now they just take sample chapters from a book, but back then they were willing to take the whole thing.) So I went to work “spiritualizing” Bill the Warthog. I used the model (i.e., flagrantly stole from) Donald Sobol’s Encyclopedia Brown series which used a series of mini-mysteries in each book. He usually had ten chapters, so I did the same (which made including one of the Ten Commandments in each chapter a natural fit; though it did take some thinking on how to approach issue of adultery.)
Well, an amazing thing happened at the conference. One of the editors who reviewed the book said she would like to buy it for her company. She said she would like to divide the book into ten different small books, which I wasn’t thrilled with, but, hey, published. I thought this writing stuff is much easier than they make it out to be.
So, I waited to hear from the publisher. And waited. Eventually, I called and found out the editor had been sacked shortly after the conference. (I do hope Bill wasn’t the cause.)
So for years I submitted Bill to various publishers and received many rejections. Eventually, I read about Legacy Press. From what I read, they didn’t do fiction, but they did do Sunday School materials. I thought maybe Bill could be a part of Sunday School take home papers.
I was surprised when I got a call from one of their editors saying they were beginning to publish fiction (“The Ponytail Girls” were their first series, Bill the second.) But they said that they would like a series, so could I please write four more books.
“Guarding the Tablets of Truth” was the first Bill book, but it was published second because Legacy felt that “Full Metal Trench Coat” was a stronger title. Whatever. But I’m still thankful to Legacy Press for taking the chance.
It has been an encouragement to hear from parents who say that their son hasn’t been much of a reader, but he started a Bill book and now wants to read them all. (I think the American educational system really should take note, and put these books in every school in the country.) Thanks all you readers. I hope you’ve had a fraction of the fun reading the Bill books as I’ve had writing them.
Bill the Warthog, detective, began as a figure in bedtime stories for my kids. But there was no spiritual or Biblical shadings of any kind in the beginning of his career. He tended to end up tracking down miscreants like Lucky the Leprechaun and the Trix Rabbit, so it’s unlikely copyright law would allow Bill’s original adventures make it to the printed page. Which was fine, because that never came to my mind.
As the time, I was serving as youth pastor at Felton Evangelical Free Church (now Felton Bible Church.) I wrote Christmas plays for the church, which people appreciated. So the congregation kindly offered to pay my way for the Mt. Hermon Christian Writer’s Conference (at a camp just up the hill from the church.)
For the conference, participants were supposed to submit something for review. One of the options was submitting a book. (I believe now they just take sample chapters from a book, but back then they were willing to take the whole thing.) So I went to work “spiritualizing” Bill the Warthog. I used the model (i.e., flagrantly stole from) Donald Sobol’s Encyclopedia Brown series which used a series of mini-mysteries in each book. He usually had ten chapters, so I did the same (which made including one of the Ten Commandments in each chapter a natural fit; though it did take some thinking on how to approach issue of adultery.)
Well, an amazing thing happened at the conference. One of the editors who reviewed the book said she would like to buy it for her company. She said she would like to divide the book into ten different small books, which I wasn’t thrilled with, but, hey, published. I thought this writing stuff is much easier than they make it out to be.
So, I waited to hear from the publisher. And waited. Eventually, I called and found out the editor had been sacked shortly after the conference. (I do hope Bill wasn’t the cause.)
So for years I submitted Bill to various publishers and received many rejections. Eventually, I read about Legacy Press. From what I read, they didn’t do fiction, but they did do Sunday School materials. I thought maybe Bill could be a part of Sunday School take home papers.
I was surprised when I got a call from one of their editors saying they were beginning to publish fiction (“The Ponytail Girls” were their first series, Bill the second.) But they said that they would like a series, so could I please write four more books.
“Guarding the Tablets of Truth” was the first Bill book, but it was published second because Legacy felt that “Full Metal Trench Coat” was a stronger title. Whatever. But I’m still thankful to Legacy Press for taking the chance.
It has been an encouragement to hear from parents who say that their son hasn’t been much of a reader, but he started a Bill book and now wants to read them all. (I think the American educational system really should take note, and put these books in every school in the country.) Thanks all you readers. I hope you’ve had a fraction of the fun reading the Bill books as I’ve had writing them.
February 10, 2018
Great idea for young readers! 10 different cases so the kids can solve each one and each one is associated with a commandment. My first graders loved them.
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