I have a ton of updates for ya’ll so let’s get right to it:
AML Awards + Annual Meeting: Here’s a link to the AML Awards for 2009, including the award citations; Tyler has write ups of several sessions at chasing the long white cloud. I’ll reserve my take on this year’s awards for the comments section.
LDS Publisher’s Book of Mormon YA fiction contest: The results are in! Congrats to David and all the other winners. Here are the entries by AVVers and friends of AMV. Speak up in the comments if I missed you (and my apologies if I did):
- Song of Saphir and Covenant of the Scalp by David J. West
- Two Thousand Sons and One Daughter by Emily M.
- Young Hagoth Plays it Safe by Theric Jepson
- Gideancum’s Revenge by William Morris
Wm may be a Whitney Awards voter: So Rob twisted my arm (amazing how forceful he can be in spite of the shards of glass injected in to his heart [kidding, Rob. I hope the treatment works.]), and I’m in a LDS-Fiction-y mood so I’m going to try and hit two or more categories as a Whitney Awards voter. Historical Fiction is my best bet, and I may be able to do Speculative Fiction as well. Sadly, General Fiction will likely not happen because of a lack of review copies and the fact I need to do put my time over the next 29 days in to categories where I’m going to be likely to contribute (you have to read all 5 finalists in order to vote). If you are interested in what I have to say about the finalists as I read them, check out my GoodReads account and friend me if you haven’t already or subscribe to the RSS feed if you don’t have/don’t want an account.
More Stuff You Should Check Out
- Gideon Burton is open sourcing his sonnets
- The Up Beat, a documentary on the Utah/LDS Ska scene, is now available on DVD (updated 3/3 — forgot to HT The Mormon Left for this item)
- This March 20 Mormon Artists Group concert looks like a not-to-be-missed event for anyone who can make it to NYC
- Yes, it went straight to DVD, but the New Yorker makes a case for (and provides a weird Mormon gloss on) Jared Hess’s Gentlemen Broncos
- Here’s a way to view all the Mormon fiction titles BYU Bookstore is currently selling
A Motley Vision 
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I think it’s over now, but last weekend there was a show featuring Ric Estrada and his children’s work in LA last weekend.
William-I couldn’t tell that was your story, based off your others I have read from Short Story fridays.
Was the name Gideancum purposeful? Since the translation would be essantially “He who cuts down all”
I’d probably like to borrow that for a future character in my series.
I remember thinking we had pretty similar themes when I read yours last week.
Thanks for the mentions and links.
I don’t know if it’s a good or a bad thing that you and Th couldn’t tell. Do I perhaps have range? Perish the thought.
And: my pleasure
And: I wasn’t thinking about meaning so in that sense it was a happy (or unhappy) accident. I won’t go in to the whole boring back story, but essentially, I was looking for a name that was familiar but not likely to be duplicated and I wanted to invoke both Gideon and Teancum.
Plus I admit it’s a bit of a riff on the Utah practice of name blending.
William, if you did liner notes for your story, what would you talk about? I loved the concept and the plot, but I am pretty sure I didn’t get what you were aiming for stylistically–it was a casualty of reading too many entries too quickly, I think.
Th., I voted for yours. I still think it would make a great setup for a longer work, where Hagoth doesn’t play it safe. But it works very well this way, too.
David, you’re a great storyteller. All the good grammar in the world is worthless if the bones of the story aren’t there. 🙂
I was so impressed with all the entries! I can’t wait to read your book now, David. I’ve witnessed first hand how well you can write BOM stuff!
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It’s a good book (have I already linked to my review? I think I did on the other post. Oh well).
I would love to expand Hagoth and I have a mental outline for three short YA volumes (whether one book or three, I’m ambivalent). Anyone want to offer me an advance?