From: owner-aml-list-digest@lists.xmission.com (aml-list-digest) To: aml-list-digest@lists.xmission.com Subject: aml-list-digest V1 #20 Reply-To: aml-list Sender: owner-aml-list-digest@lists.xmission.com Errors-To: owner-aml-list-digest@lists.xmission.com Precedence: bulk aml-list-digest Friday, April 21 2000 Volume 01 : Number 020 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: (No, or invalid, date.) From: "Marilyn & William Brown" Subject: Re: [AML] "And the Deseret Will Blossom" by Valerie Holladay Dallas, thanks so much for putting on line Valerie's essay "And the Deser= t Shall Blossom." It was really interesting to me. Especially now when = we are talking about GOD'S ARMY. I am reading Benson's two novels at the = same time, which are also very enlightening. I'm SO GLAD Valerie did deci= de to go to BYU. I think she is one of Mormondom's most astute editors = of fiction. She certainly knows how to make it marketable! I trust her = with mine any day, and feel so fortunate to know her! Marilyn Brown - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 19 Apr 2000 20:17:10 -0400 From: Richard Johnson Subject: Re: [AML] Future of AML-List At , you wrote: >Richard, I'm just curious. Were you talking about Michael's poem? I think that was a stroke of genius. Marilyn Brown > Yes I was. I actually left the quote in place then commented on it. One time when moderation made a post less intelligible. Richard B. Johnson Husband, Father, Grandfather, Puppeteer, Playwright, Writer, Director, Actor, Thingmaker, Mormon, Person, Fool I sometimes think that the last persona is the most important http://www2.gasou.edu/commarts/puppet/ Georgia Southern University Puppet Theatre [MOD: Sorry about that. I routinely crop long quotes--maybe I overdid this one.] - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 19 Apr 2000 20:05:31 -0600 From: Thom Duncan Subject: [AML] Former BYU Actor Makes it Big-Time I speak of Aaron Eckert, who plays Julia Roberts' love interest in the new movie Erin Brokovich. To me, more importantly than landing the part, he gets to have a kissing scene. Margie and I really like it. It concerned a truelife case involving Pacific Gas and Electric trying to hide the fact that they infected an entire town with cancer. It reminded me of the Utah Downwinders, written about by Terry Tempest-Williamss (to bring this back to a Mormon Lit subject.) Another Mormon Lit subject: If you see the movie, notice the town that Erin lives in at the beginning of the film. It is my old stomping grounds. (also the same part of California used in _Pulp Fiction_.) Thom Duncan - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 19 Apr 2000 20:13:05 -0600 From: Thom Duncan Subject: [AML] Kudos to Ben LDSF was called in a previous message a sister list to AML. It most certainly is. It owes its very existence to AML. As a member of AML, I was inspired to start the list three years ago with only 10 members (most of whom I had to strong arm to join). Now LDSF is 75 strong, and boasts the creation of a Utah Valley Fantasy and Science Fiction Writing Group called Lavarian as one of *its* children. Also from the LDSF list will come a one-day-to-be-published anthology of science fiction short stories whose authors are all members of the list. Without AML, LDSF wouldn't exist. Thanks, Benson, for setting the example. Thom Duncan Moderator, LDSF http://www.zfiction.comn/ldsf - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 20 Apr 2000 00:08:08 -0600 From: "D. Michael Martindale" Subject: [AML] LDS writers group Fred Roth and I have been discussing the need for a writers group for LDS writers (meaning anyone who is LDS and writes, who writes for an LDS audience, or who writes about LDS subjects or characters). We focused especially on the difficulty isolated writers outside of Utah have of finding enough people in their locale to form such a specialized group. We have decided to put together an online LDS writers group, so that anyone anywhere in the world who is interested can participate. I would host this group using the resources I have through my ISP, although I wouldn't necessarily think of myself as "president" or anything. Fred and I have bandied about some ideas on how the group would operate. A tentative method would be to have those who wish to submit a story or chapter of a novel for critiquing would schedule a particular week, then would e-mail the story to each member of the group that week. Members would have X amount of time to read the story and prepare a critique, then would submit the critique, either through e-mail or to an online bulletin board. I have had close to a year's experience as a member of CALLIHOO, a group in Salt Lake City that specializes in SF&F, and have also spent a few months as a member of Critters, an online group that specializes in science fiction, fantasy, and horror. I have also examined the operational methods of a couple of other online groups, including Kathleen Dalton-Woodbury's system she runs on Card's Hatrack website. Therefore I think I can figure out how to make this work. Fred and I are particularly interested in speculative LDS fiction, but I see no reason to limit the group to any specific genre. Those who join at the beginning would be "founding members," meaning you get to have a say in establishing operational policies, as well as other important and exciting things like what the heck to name the thing. Those who join later will just have to accept whatever's been established. And how much does this cost, you ask? COMMITMENT! Writers groups only work if their members are committed to regular participation. We want people who are serious about writing and serious about holding up their end of the commitment to make the group work. If you're concerned about how much time commitment is involved, well, be a founding member and have a say in it. We would want to find a good balance between enough activity so that members can get their stories critiqued in a reasonably timely manner and not so much activity that it becomes unmanageable. Personally, I swear by my writers group. I would never let a single story out without passing it by the group at least once. My writing has improved manyfold since joining the group, and they have helped me find ways to improve each story manyfold in ways I could never have identified on my own. Of course, this only happens if the group you join is a quality group. We will do what we can to make sure this new group is. If you are interested, e-mail me at dmichael@wwno.com. - -- D. Michael Martindale dmichael@wwno.com Worlds Without Number http://www.wwno.com ================================== Read "How I as a crazy high school kid wrote an opera about Joseph Smith" at: http://www.wwno.com/gpjs/howi.htm ================================== - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 19 Apr 2000 13:00:46 -0700 From: harlowclark@juno.com Subject: [AML] Rick Walton Coming to Lindon Elementary Childrens' Author Comes to Lindon Elementary by Harlow Clark From the Pleasant Grove Review Wednesday April 19, 2000, p. 11 [Note: The editor didn't use the sidebar, and cut the last paragraph and a half (after the part about the mural). I wish he had kept them. Rick's website has some really good material for children who want to write. He told me the curricular material on the site gets used a lot. I asked about the list of compound words and he said, "I'm obsessive/compulsive when preparing a manuscript and I keep lists. I maybe went through the dictionary and marked compounds." I didn't include the obsessive/compulsive part of the comment. Something that sounds natural in a telephone conversation may not sound the same in print. There's a marvelous passage on Rick's FAQ that I wanted to quote about the problems of answering questions at a school presentation: "When hundreds of kids put their hands in the air, I can't get to them all. After some time the blood leave the children's hands, and then fingers fall off. And then the principal, teachers and I have to go around and pick up all those fingers and figure out who they belong to and glue them back on. It takes a long time and the kids miss their lunch, which makes them grumpy. And then they can't do their homework for at least three or four days and that makes the teachers mad." Kids love this kind of stuff, but I can just imagine some parents keeping their child home from school that day to keep them away from that bizarre Rick Walton. Besides, the story was already a bit over my 22.5 column inches.] If you see a gray sweater walking down the hall with a green bullfrog on it, Rick Walton is probably in it. "My wife knitted it," he says one day at a book fair. His sister-in-law Wendy Walton is standing nearby. "Come meet Rick Walton, nationally published children's author. His books have been featured on Reading Rainbow and Good Morning America." Actually, _Once There Was a Bull... (Frog)_ was featured on CBS This Morning, but if she says that, people think it happened this morning. Rick Walton loves to play with words and their confusions. The first page in his book says, "Once there was a bull. . ." and the picture looks like the back end of a bull curling its long tail. Turn the page and you see it's a frog whipping its tongue out to catch a horse... fly. Walton will be bringing his fun with words to Lindon Elementary Tuesday April 25 from 9 a.m. to noon. He'll be doing assemblies for grades 1-2, 3-4, 5-6, with a visit to the morning kindergarten from 10:40-11:00. His visit will be part of a book fair which kicks off Monday April 24 with Summer Reading Book Talks, 11:00 a.m. - 2 p.m. Lily Toy Hong, whose _Two of Everything_ was just chosen by the New York public library as one of "100 Picture Books Everyone Should Know," will be visiting the school Wednesday April 26th from 10 a.m. - 2 p.m. Walton's presentation includes a slideshow of what it's like to be a writer, submitting a manuscript to publishers, editing, dealing with contracts. He does it "in a very humorous and funny way," says his wife, Ann, who animated pictures from his books for his webpage, www.rickwalton.com. The page includes a rapidly changing counter for how many visitors so far today. You could be number 84801. There's also the statement, "I am currently working on book number," and a counter moving so fast most numbers are just a blur. And Walton does write a lot of books. He's published around 40, but "I have hundreds of manuscripts that have never been published," he says, and lots of rejections. But even the rejections can lead to other books. "One publisher was interested in a manuscript. They held it for several months. I called to ask about it. They said they were still interested and asked if I wanted to do some joke books." Nineteen so far. Did they publish the original manuscript? "No. But I cannibalized a section with some dinosaur jokes for a jokebook." Walton's books are widely used in schools. He uses his love of words and puns to explore language concepts. _Once There Was a Bull... (Frog)_ explores compound words, and he has a list of 2275 on his webpage, along with other curriculum materials. "I keep lists," he says. "I maybe went through the dictionary and marked compounds. I've seen a lot of the curriculum materials when I go to schools." The language concepts in his books aren't the only things schools like. "I walked into a school in San Diego, and the school office was decorated with a mural from _Dance, Pioneer, Dance_." You might not expect that for a book on Mormon pioneers, he told a group of writers once. "A school on the Mohawk Indian reservation in upstate New York had done a big reader response kind of thing," on _Dance, Pioneer, Dance_, with children writing reports and their own stories. And Rick Walton likes that. He likes to see children writing. He has several worksheets on his webpage for kids who want to write their own bull...frog stories, or riddles or retell a story about the three little wolves who made a house of forks to keep out the three pig littlests. SIDEBAR Rick Walton thinks books should teach, but, "If literature for children attempts to teach without being delightful, it will fail," he says on his webpage. _Pig, Pigger, Piggest_ explores comparatives and superlatives, for example, but also has a lot about the three little pig pigger piggests. Other concepts in his books include: Transitive and intransitive verbs and direct objects _Bullfrog Pops_ Animal sounds _Little Dogs Say Rough_ Irregular verbs _The Bear Came Over to My House_ Idioms and synonyms. _Why the Banana Split_ Compound words _Once There Was a Bull... (Frog)_ Ethics and taking responsibility _Will You Still Love Me_ Math and counting _So Many Bunnies_ Addition facts _One More Bunny_ Mormon pioneers _Dance, Pioneer Dance_ Other Appearances: Salt Lake Children's Book Festival this Thursday-Saturday at Murray High School, 5440 South State Street in Murray. For more details see www.bookfestival.org. Walton will also be teaching at the BYU's "Writing Your Way into Print" conference in July. For details see http://coned.byu.edu/cw/writing. The Society of Childrens' Book Writers and Illustrators will hold its annual conference at Westminster College in Salt Lake on April 29. Harlow Soderborg Clark - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 21 Apr 2000 00:15:25 -0600 From: "D. Michael Martindale" Subject: [AML] Re: LDS Writer's Group Thom Duncan has made an offer to help get our LDS writers group kickstarted. I think it's a great idea. Here's what he offered: > I would also like to add a further incentive, that Fred and > I also talked about. If a story gets through the group, edited, etc. to > where most of them say it's worthy to have life, I will publish it via > Zion's Fiction. Similar to Alexandria Digital, we could post the stories > one at a time and interested people could download for, say, a dollar. I > would take the stories, put them in my publication program complete with > its own reader, and give half of any money to the writer. Writer > retains all other rights and I will turn over e-rights at any time upon > request of the writer. > > Now that I'm thinking of this: we could advertise it on the web site as > STORY OF THE MONTH or something like that. Readers would know that a > story getting published would have passed through extensive re-write, > multiple editors, and, therefore, is probably good. Thom, I like the idea of making Zion's Fiction into an LDS Alexandria. We could use more markets for LDS short stories. If you're not sure what Thom's talking about, check out Zion's fiction at http://www.zfiction.com/ and Alexandria Digital Literature at http://temp.alexlit.com/start.taf - -- D. Michael Martindale dmichael@wwno.com Worlds Without Number http://www.wwno.com ================================== Read "How I as a crazy high school kid wrote an opera about Joseph Smith" at: http://www.wwno.com/gpjs/howi.htm ================================== - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ End of aml-list-digest V1 #20 *****************************