The third annual Codexian Idol contest (for members of the Codex Writers) ended today. The way the Codexian Idol contest works is all the contestants anonymously upload the first 500 words of a short story for Round 1. The story openings are voted on by Codex members, and the top half progress to the next round. My story was second... read more »
I've mentioned before that one of my favorite stories is "Requiem" by Robert Heinlein. I couldn't help thinking of the story when I read this news article.
Apparently, a couple of years ago someone decided it would be worthwhile to translate my interview with Brandon Sanderson into French. It comes complete with translator's notes explaining what BYU and LDS mean, among other things. From fifth through eight grades, I took four years of first-year French. So, to the person who translated this interview without permission, I have... read more »
Earlier this year, I wrote a short story called "Old Earth," which involved our planet long after most of the stars in the universe had died. Several people felt that was implausible, because the Earth would have been swallowed by the sun when the sun became a red giant. Of course I'd been familiar with that idea since childhood, but... read more »
Utah had its party caucuses last night. I went to the Republican Party caucus for my precinct, Eagle Mountain 01. There were over twenty people there, including several people I know from church. (I think some of them might have been surprised to see me at the GOP caucus, because last Sunday in Priesthood Meeting I gave the location of... read more »
Short fiction review site The Fix has posted a review of the May 2008 issue of Analog. The reviewer, Gerald W. Page, has very nice things to say about the illustration that accompanied my story: It shows a spaceship approaching a space station above a planet, and I swear I’ve seen Di Fate do this drawing a dozen times before... read more »
Webscription.net is the e-book arm of Baen Books, the publisher of Jim Baen's Universe. Some of the stories in the February 2008 issue are available for free in order to encourage people to buy the whole issue. My story "Premature Emergence" is one of the free ones. You can go read it here: http://www.webscription.net/chapters/1932093025/1932093025___2.htm
To celebrate my birthday, I went over to the home of my cousin Davey and his wife Erica for dinner. My cousin Laura, who served her mission in Italy, cooked up some wonderful mostaccioli in a tomato sauce with tuna. After dinner, we played Rock Band on the X-Box 360 and after a little practice we actually managed to get... read more »
Back in the early 1980s, my family lived in England. Occasionally there would be music videos on TV between television programs. For years afterwards, I remembered one song that I ridiculed at the time for its rather simplistic and strange lyrics, as well as its improper use of the subjunctive, although I couldn't recall the name of the band that... read more »
I have to say I am uncomfortable with the discussion in the conservative blogosphere about the beliefs of Obama's minister. As someone who supported Mitt Romney, I did not think that attacking Mormon beliefs in order to hurt his candidacy was an appropriate form of political discourse. I think that we as conservatives should focus on Obama's own political positions,... read more »
