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Writers Cantina
Read more: Writers CantinaAh, Writers Cantina. I first heard about this Salt Lake City event last year, but I already had plans and couldn’t make the trip in 2024. This year was different, so I booked some hotel rooms, rented a car, and bought a two-day pass to Writers Cantina 2025. My plan was to drive from Prescott…
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Alan Dean Foster
Read more: Alan Dean FosterJuly was a good month for a writer. Or this writer, at least. Not only did I haul myself north to attend Writers Cantina in Salt Lake City, but I was also blessed to attend a talk by prolific author Alan Dean Foster here in Prescott. Let’s talk about ADF first. For those who came…
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Podcasts and reviews
Read more: Podcasts and reviewsI’ve been blessed to be invited on a couple of podcasts to talk about Many Are Called. Both were really fun. I’ve done a lot of podcasts and video for my day job, but these were my first experiences talking about myself instead of toeing the company line and talking about holsters. Brett Cain was…
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Don’t meet your heroes?
Read more: Don’t meet your heroes?We’re often told “don’t meet your heroes,” presumably because they’ll inevitably let us down. There’s probably some truth to that, especially since we live in a world of such carefully-curated personal image. The flip side is that social media gives us insight into famous people that we’ve never had before – whether they present themselves…
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Writing Characters
Read more: Writing CharactersIf YouTube is to be believed, every “writing coach” has their own idea of the perfect way to write a character. I tend to take the simple approach. Maybe it’s even cheating. I don’t know; I never went to school for this. Basically, I write the people I know, or at the very least model…
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Gun “Porn”
Read more: Gun “Porn”One of my beta readers asked me why I wasn’t more explicit about the various weapons employed by the characters in The Lion of Deseret. My beta reader compared my writing to Jack Carr, who goes into tremendous detail on the weapons used in his books. In the shooting industry, this is known as “gun…
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A Tale of Two Tanners: Guzy
Read more: A Tale of Two Tanners: GuzyAround about 2012 or so, I decided I looked like warmed-over crap. I was in my early forties, but I was out of shape and dressed like a bum. As part of an overall “self-optimization” effort, I decided to start dressing better. That was how I first encountered Tanner Guzy. Tanner has, as he likes…
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A Tale of Two Tanners: Leiland
Read more: A Tale of Two Tanners: LeilandThe idea behind Many Are Called came from two main – though perhaps seemingly unlikely – sources. Christian readers will undoubtedly recognize the phrase from Matthew 22:14: For many are called, but few are chosen. A very meaningful passage, to be sure, but I drew even more inspiration from a song by Leiland Tanner, also…