They try to convince gay people that it’s in their best interests to be straight. In fact, they try to convince them that they’re already straight. (from “Ockham’s Razor”) The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has a gay problem. Specifically, the church has a plan for how to…
Category: Literature
Mormon Alumni Association Books!
Faith-promoting LDS books have a whole publishing-and-distribution network in Deseret Books (plus Seagull and others) — not to mention Mormon literature organizations and a ready-made audience in LDS wards around the world who’d like to help Orson Whitney’s prediction “We will yet have Miltons and Shakspeares of our own” come…
Reclaiming our stories, redux!
Remember my discussion on reclaiming our stories? About how we should take every opportunity to tell our own experiences, instead of standing by and letting the church invent the “apostate†narrative, according to its own agenda…? Well there are some natural conflicts when it comes to being sure that your…
Two Short Reads That Are Packed With Information
Need a good summer read? I picked up a couple at the Sunstone Conference that are both timely and on topic for the broader LDS Community. Here’s what I wrote about them on Amazon: Could I Vote For A Mormon For President?An Election-Year Guide to Mitt Romney’s Religion Ryan T….
Sunstone and Mormon Alumni Association Books!!
As you may know, the 2012 SLC Sunstone Preliminary Program is online — and I’d like you to especially feast your eyes on page 37!!! As you can see, I’m planning to test out a little cooperative book distribution network for the books I’ve discussed on this site. I’m also…
Orson Scott Card – Fallen Author
There was a time when I couldn’t get enough of Orson Scott Card’s writing. I read “Ender’s Game” in middle school and loved it, and read it a few more times as a teen and was fascinated by the things I’d missed the first time around. It was a masterpiece….
Interesting Jewish/Mormon story in the New Yorker!
I’m sure I don’t have to tell you guys how much the Mormons love to compare themselves with the Jews (or, if you do need a hint, read this post). This comparison is usually kind of one-sided — Mormons love to contemplate the parallels, and the Jews are (usually) blissfully…
A road-trip out of crazy: “Hippie Boy,” by Ingrid Ricks
Dad was a master salesman who could talk anyone into anything, and life on the road with him was the wildest adventure any kid could possibly imagine. Unfortunately, since he was often unreliable and occasionally violent, it wasn’t always the good kind of adventure — but it was a great…
Call for Submissions
I am accepting short stories dealing with unconventional Mormons for an anthology to be called “Marginal Mormons.” The stories should be 25 pages or shorter, though length will not necessarily disqualify a submission. Payment will be $20 and one copy of the book, in exchange for perpetual, non-exclusive rights. The…
Struggling in the depths of Mormon faith: Stephen Carter’s “What of the Night?”
I also learned that the great stories of the world have second acts. This may seem like a silly thing to say, but so many stories set up the problem (the job of the first act) and then resolve it (the job of the third act) with little to no…