From: owner-aml-list-digest@lists.xmission.com (aml-list-digest) To: aml-list-digest@lists.xmission.com Subject: aml-list-digest V1 #146 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 Monday, September 4 2000 Volume 01 : Number 146 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 2 Sep 2000 08:08:23 -0700 From: "Dorothy Peterson" Subject: [AML] Introductions: Dorothy Peterson After having enjoyed the list's responses to the introductions request this morning (I saved them all week for a time when I could read them in detail), I'm happy to add my own, although I am humbled at the prospect. My personal history sounds a lot like most of those I've read on the list today. I am married to my best friend and a great support to my writing efforts (school would not have been possible without him), Dennis Peterson. We have five children, all grown and all successful happy adults (the youngest two are still in college). That being so I have voluntarily retired from my chosen career as "professional mother" and am entering another, that of writing. I am relatively new to Mormon Letters, my first novel (CHOICES) having been published by Bookcraft in 1988. Since then I returned to school and got my MFA in creative writing along with an MA in English Lit at Chapman University in Orange, Calif graduating in 1994. I am still learning and take every opportunity to do so. I have enjoyed researching Mormon Literature as a study on my own (I wish I lived in Utah Valley and could take the course at BYU), and am just beginning to understand its importance in Mormon life and culture. It is very exciting to be a part of a movement that is really in its infancy. My publishing credits list is not a long one. "The House," a short story that earned an Honorable Mention at the Mormon Arts Festival last year, will be published in IRREANTUM this month, and a scholarly work titled "Death, Degeneration, and Addie Bundren's Christ" will be published sometime this year (I think--the date has been delayed from the original plan) in BYU's LITERATURE AND BELIEFS COLLOQUIA, 1995-99. I have one significant "unpublished" work that earned me honors at graduation from Chapman and also recently won a First Honorable Mention in the Marilyn Brown Unpublished Novel Contest sponsored by the AML. I am currently trying to get it published in the national market after having exhausted all the possibilities in Mormon publishing. Dorothy W. Peterson _______________ Dorothy W. Peterson http://www.lds-index.org dorothy@lds-index.org Read Dorothy's Novel at: http://www.lds-index.org/windows/windows.htm - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: (No, or invalid, date.) From: "Marilyn & William Brown" Subject: Re: [AML] Wanted: LDS Approach to Walker Percy Your man is Bruce Jorgensen at BYU if you can reel him in long enough to = talk. He knew Walker Percy. And is a fan. He is an excellent critic, and = much too busy to pay much attention to our list, I think. But he is an = expert. There is no question about it. I'd like to see what he says. I = have no idea how to get hold of him, but he has an office in the JKBH Eng= lish Department. Marilyn Brown - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: (No, or invalid, date.) From: "Marilyn & William Brown" Subject: Re: [AML] History and Fiction Regarding our history conversation: How interesting to read Sarah's comme= nts! We're coming close to the truth just to realize how different each = person's stories are. So the artist has to choose the way to tell it. The= y are WORDS after all. Words can mean one thing to one person, and anothe= r to someone else. However, we will always have them. We just can't help = it. We just like to hear each other's words (stories), or say them oursel= ves. I wish you'd look at the cover of the NEW YORKER this week. All thos= e words we have ever said are still floating around up there. Someday our= tech will catch them. But TOO MUCH then becomes ZERO. Because there are = too many words, books, ideas, etc. So one has to then choose whose words = they will attend to. - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: (No, or invalid, date.) From: "Marilyn & William Brown" Subject: [AML] Introductions: Marilyn Brown [MOD: I split this off from Marilyn's post on History and Fiction to keep the subject lines straight.] I so much appreciate attending to this list! Thanks,= everyone, for your bios. Yes, it was so much fun to read about Marvin, = Chris, Gae Lynn, Jason, Ray Rasband, and everyone else I have missed! And= our moderator, Jonathan, is doing a super job! I think I'll take a minute to add mine here. I'm Marilyn Brown. And some = fun things are happening. My little SALT PRESS has merged (big merger) = with CEDAR FORT, INC. here in Springville! Lyle Mortimer has been a publ= isher for years. (I published with him 18 years ago when he was with Rand= all Books). Lee Nelson (all of the STORM TESTAMENT books, plus CASSIDY, = etc.--he sells close to 100,000 books a year!) is partners with Lyle. And= now I'm "half partner" with my little SALT to add for spice! But please think of us as another arm ready to help you get published. = Lyle has a great marketing setup, and even pre-sold more than 500 copies = of my Mountain Meadows Massacre novel (THE WINE-DARLK SEA OF GRASS) at = the bookseller's convention last week! (To be out late October--yes I'm = busy, and higher than a kite! I have read every word you have written abo= ut the history subject because I'm dealing with John Lee! So thanks for = your input!) CEDAR FORTalso published one of my winners in the $1000 Mari= lyn Brown Novel Award in February: Alan Mitchell's ANGEL OF THE DANUBE, = which Richard Cracroft calls Mormonism's answer to Saul Bellows! (My firs= t prize winner was accepted by Signature--Jack Harrell) The publishing = company is coming out with a fun new "Who Wants to be a MILLIONAIRE" game= called "Who Wants to Be a CELESTIAL HEIR?" Clever and fun and I'm helpin= g with QUALITY CONTROL (my title). We are having a great time. So get bus= y and write that quality stuff! There's a place for it! Make it good (jus= t remember, we have to sell it!). Oh, one more word. The Villa Playhouse is still going strong. We do have = a couple of employees to take over where I left off, and they're great! = WE are doing THE FOREIGNER this month and DON'T MISS IT! It is a hoot! = If you got through this long message, bless you. You're a great audience!= Sincerely, Marilyn Brown - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 01 Sep 2000 20:34:44 -0700 From: Jeff Needle Subject: [AML] ALLEN, _Love Beyond Time_ (Review) Review ====== Nancy Campbell Allen, "Love Beyond Time" (c) 1999, Nancy Campbell Allen Published by Covenant Communications, paperback, 196 pages, $12.95 Reviewed by Jeffrey Needle This is Ms. Allen's first novel, and it is a nice effort to present a unique storyline. The lives of Amber Sexton, M.D. and Tyler Montgomery, CPA, are thrown together when Tyler is attacked in his office and rushed to the hospital where Amber practices. Tyler has been shot and must be treated immediately if he is to live. When Amber is "accidentally" hit in the head by an opening door, they both wake up to find themselves planted right in the middle of the American Civil War! It takes them both a few minutes to figure out that they have travelled back in time. The big questions: how did it happen, and *why* did it happen? Finding themselves inside a Union medical unit, they both put their skills to work just to survive, while all the while having to disguise their real identities. After all, who would believe them? As the relationship between Amber and Tyler grows, we learn that Amber is a faithful Latter-day Saint. Tyler has LDS roots, too, but they aren't obvious. The religious, and sexual, tension between the two is thick, as they fall in love in a strange place and in a strange time. The purpose for this time-travel becomes clear as the story comes to an end; naturally, I won't discuss it in this review. "Love Beyond Time" is peppered with both nasty and nice characters. Allen did some nice research into Civil War times to make the characters believable and credible. Scenes of battle-wounded soldiers, some still boys, are especially vivid Clearly, the theology of conversion and testimony is at the heart of this book, rather than any consideration of the metaphysics of time-travel. And how would such a subject be treated? For example, if Amber and Tyler were substantially present in the mid-19th century as well as the close of the 20th century, at what point did their pre-mortal spirits descend to earth? And does a general philosophy of history allow us to accept history as a vaguery subject to the retrospective acts of ordinary people? One must simply avoid asking such questions in order to enjoy this kind of book. "Love Beyond Time" was a pleasant, easy read. I'm guessing that young adults will enjoy this book, as well as anyone willing to suspend disbelief long enough to read a nice story. - --------------- Jeff Needle jeff.needle@general.com - - 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 #146 ******************************