On one of the Mormon email lists I follow, a list member made a formal announcement recently that he had submitted his manuscript to Deseret Book for their consideration. The announcement included details like the title and subject of the work and its length. The announcement seemed kind of odd to me. Normally I only [...]

When my now 14-year-old daughter was an infant and toddler, we employed a nanny to care for her. Since we were fairly permissive employers, we allowed her to use the time when our daughter was sleeping as she saw fit. One day I came home to find her reading Sam Taylor’s Heaven Knows Why?
She later [...]

If you are reading this post, I am overcome by temptation—the temptation to add a few words to a conversation that has dominated Mormon discourse lately.

Note. The following is an excerpt from a collection of missionary-memoir short stories by S.P. Bailey called All the Great Lights. You can read the complete collection at S.P. Bailey’s website. And please comment here! Reaction to the story would be great. But it might also be interesting to engage in a conversation about self-publishing [...]

Call for Submissions
Sensing a lack of critical (as in the literary sense) approaches to Stephenie Meyer, her work, and their cultural connections in the general Twilight discourse, I’ve put together (with Laura Craner’s editing help and William Morris’ technical assistance) an online, open access literary journal in an effort to bridge that gap. It’s called [...]

I read a blog post by David Wooley the other day about his publisher’s insistance that he help promote his new book. I must admit that I identify with his reluctance to promote himself. My own tendency is a bit introverted, so promotion of any sort requires me to overcome a little embarassment.
But in thinking [...]

The LDS Booksellers Association’s annual convention starts today.
For those who don’t know about this convention, it is the principal trade show for LDS products. Most of the association’s 200 producers and distributors display their wares for the 200 member bookstores, who attend hoping to learn what new products are available. Its the LDS equivalent of [...]

Last week I got back from a three week trip to South Africa, Mozambique and (briefly) Swaziland. I bought books (of course), and tried to get a sense for these countries and cultures. As you might expect, crossing the border from South Africa into Mozambique we saw quite a stark economic contrast. Where South Africa [...]