So I have one more short but positive review to add to the list. This one appeared in last Friday’s St. Paul Pioneer Press, in a book column titled “Worthwhile midsummer fiction from Midwest writers.” You can follow the link to the article by clicking here, but there’s no real need to bother since I’ve reproduced the two paragraphs about No Going Back below:
Posts Tagged ‘literature’
St. Paul Pioneer Press Notice
Monday, July 26th, 2010King’s English Local Author Showcase July 13
Friday, June 25th, 2010So guess what? I’m scheduled to appear at King’s English bookstore in Salt Lake City at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, July 13, as part of a Local Author Showcase. The way I understand it, four other authors and I will each read for up to five minutes from our books, answer questions, and sign book copies. Woo-hoo! My first reading/book signing! For more details, read here.
Proselyting for Mormon Literature
Thursday, May 6th, 2010Cross-posted at A Motley Vision website.
I was over at Amazon.com the other day, trying to figure out someplace to post about my book in the Mormon community. I mean, I was able to find a couple of places to post in the Gay etc. community. Surely there ought to be a place to post in the Mormon community
Mixed News
Wednesday, April 28th, 2010The last week or so has been kind of bittersweet from my perspective. The Whitney Awards were announced, and while I was very pleased to have been a finalist, I was unsurprised to discover that I didn’t win the award in my category. (The person who did win the award, Jamie Ford, is a very fine author whose book, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, is the one I thought probably would win, so I’m not complaining.)
Choose the Write: Mormonism’s Impact on Me as a Writer
Monday, April 12th, 2010Below is the text I had prepared for a panel at last summer’s Sunstone symposium on (you guessed it) Mormonism’s impact on me as a writer (slightly edited). Headings toward the bottom in bold below are taken in part from the panel description in the program. I no longer remember how much resemblance what I said bore to what’s written below, but I rather liked what I came up with to say, so…
Writing Mormon Literature for a non-Mormon Audience
Friday, March 26th, 2010It’s always interesting seeing what non-Mormon readers of No Going Back have to say about the book. For one thing, it includes an awful lot of Mormon detail. Since I never imagined that it might have a large non-Mormon audience, I didn’t go to any trouble to explain that detail. No real accommodations for any readers who don’t happen to be Mormon.
At a more basic level, I’ve wondered if non-Mormons would even be able to identify with the characters and their motivations. Sure, there’s a lot of universality to the basic conflicts in the book. Every teenager struggles with issues of identity and peer pressure. Every married couple struggles with issues of communication and priorities. But that doesn’t necessarily make the particulars of one person’s conflict easy to identify with on the part of readers whose lives are very different.
The Amateur Nature of Mormon Letters
Wednesday, March 10th, 2010Cross-posted from the AML blog.
There’s a certain sense of validation, in our commercial culture, that comes with being paid for one’s work. This is at least as true in literature as elsewhere. Anyone (or so the thinking goes) can write a novel. The real test is whether you can get someone (not yourself) to pay money to publish it.
Branching Out
Sunday, February 14th, 2010News regarding my book has slowed, and it’s kind of boring to talk about the same topic all the time anyway. So I’m planning to start branching out. Sure, I’ll still include news about No Going Back, but I also plan to fill my once- or twice-weekly blogs with other topics as well, including writing in general, my own writing projects, Mormon literature, etc. Stay tuned!
No Going Back Whitney Award Finalist
Friday, February 5th, 2010I am extremely pleased to announce that No Going Back is a finalist in the Best General Fiction category for the Whitney Awards, an awards program for novels by LDS authors.
Going Back and Coming Out
Friday, April 2nd, 2010A few days ago, I had occasion to talk to a long-time friend (non-LDS, gay, and a literature professor) about his reaction to No Going Back. What, he asked, was the significance of the title, in my opinion? Which led to possibly a longer answer than he had anticipated…
I suppose I should include a spoiler alert here. So, here goes. If you keep reading, you’ll find out about things that happen toward the end of the book. Selah.
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Tags: coming out, coming-of-age novel, gay, high school, Jonathan Langford, literature, No Going Back, reader comments, realism, Rex Goode, Ty Mansfield
Posted in Homosexuality and Mormonism, No Going Back Issues | 2 Comments »