A Motley Vision
Jun-2026
These are the posts I wrote over my ten years with AMV. I wrote a brief introduction to them on a separate page where they are listed chronologically. If you have a better idea for presentation, I’m open to hearing it.
In alphabetizing, I ignored punctuation, the, and a.
I now know, over the course of this journey, I wrote posts starting with every letter save V, X, and Z. Ah, if only I had life to live over again!
A
An open letter to the Whitney Awards Committee
Analyzing the Book of Mormon with Grant Hardy for fun and profit
Angela Hallstrom and the Art of Short-Story Arrangement
Angela Hallstrom and the Art of Short-Story Arrangement
Angela Hallstrom and the Art of Short-Story Arrangement
B
Back in the doll’s house, one woman said, while another but smiled and shook her head.
The Best of Mormonism 2009: An interview with its editor
The Bishop’s Wife Reader’s Guide
The Bishop’s Wife: the actual review
Bob Rees on the Book of Mormon (as literature)
Brady Udall’s Paranoia: Is there a culture war between Mormons going on?
A brief interview with Melissa Leilani Larson just before closing weekend
A brief look at Heaven Knows Why!
A brief spoilery post on The Bishop’s Wife as ghost story
Bright Angels & Familiars: “Born of the Water” by Wayne Jorgensen
Bright Angels & Familiars: “Hit the Frolicking, Rippling Brooks” by Karen Rosenbaum
Bright Angels & Familiars: “I Am Buzz Gaulter, Left-Hander” by Darrell Spencer
Bright Angels & Familiars: “Opening Day” by Doug Thayer
Bright Angels & Familiars: “Sayso or Sense” by Eileen Gibbons Kump
Bright Angels & Familiars: “The Christianizing of Coburn Heights” by Levi S. Peterson
Bright Angels & Familiars: “The People Who Were Not There” by Lewis Horne
Bright Angels & Familiars: “The Week-end” by Donald R. Marshall
Bright Angels & Familiars: “They Did Go Forth” by Maureen Whipple
Bright Angels & Familiars: “Where Nothing Is Long Ago” by Virginia Sorensen
Bright Angels & Familiars: “Windows on the Sea” by Linda Sillitoe
Bright Angels & Familiars: “Woman Talking to a Cow” by Pauline Mortensen
Bryan Mark Taylor: “…when I feel the Spirit I sit down and paint.”
The BYU MFA: An interview with Stephen B Tuttle of the new creative-writing program
The BYU MFA: An interview with Stephen B Tuttle of the new creative-writing program (part two)
C
Campfire Carols from Jiminy Finn and the Moneydiggers
Can anyone be as invisible as Linda Wallheim?
Casey Jex Smith is up to something.
City of Brick and Shadow by Tim Wirkus
Claire Åkebrand’s What Was Left of the Stars
Come now, and let us be wrong together, saith the critic
Couple-Creators: Annie and Kah Leong Poon
Couple-Creators: Ben and Barbara Abbott
Couple-Creators: Brad and Debra Teare
Couple-Creators: Casey Jex Smith / Amanda Michelle Smith
Couple-Creators: Howard and Sandra Tayler
Couple-Creators: Mike and Laura Allred
Couple-Creators: Shannon and Dean Hale
“Crap, I’m apologizing for my Mormonism again. Sorry.”
D
Damage Control (and 15 other responses to Elna Baker)
Dan Wells & Serial Killers & Thematically Related Stuff
The Death of a Disco Dancer (there’s a double meaning in that)
Dreams for the Future: Neon Trees in 2025
Duck Beach coming soon . . . at least to New York
E
Elna Baker: A Serious Interview
Eric Freeze: Dominant Traits (review & interview)
F
Fannie Flagg’s Heavenly Mother
Fires of the Mind as “Mormon Tragedy”
Free Comic Book Day 2011 (starring Floyd Gottfredson)
G
Gender in The Bishop’s Wife (divorced of context)
Guest Post on Creation by Sam Barrett
Guest post: Theric Jepson on “The Sin of Saint Onan”
H
Haun’s Mill: Away: An Intereview and new entry in the couple-creators series!
The Hero’s Journey of the Mormon Arts
A high-school English teacher reviews How to Analyze the Works of Stephenie Meyer
His Right Hand (the conflicted review)
I
I teach literature! I should know better!
In which Theric takes [minor] issue with a review in the Deseret News
It’s fun to see the Mormons at the zoo
J
Just how dangerous is Shannon Hale?
Just how dangerous is Shannon Hale? (part two)
K
L
Latter-day Saint, Latter-day Lovecraft: an interview with W.H. Pugmire
Let’s take a trip to Duck Beach
Looping through the Mormon Arts, from me to me
The love and hate of The Giant Joshua
Love Letters of the Angels of Death by Jennifer Quist your marriage . . . your death . . . you
The Lowell Cats by Adam Koford
M
Millstone City of Brick and Shadow
Miltons & Shakespeares: a new direction
Monsters & Mormons: a fourth round of admits
Mormon Easter Eggs and Mormon Veins of Goldin Pariah Missouri
Mormon Scholars in the Humanities
Mormonism and the Arts at the Berkeley Institute
Mormonism and the Arts at the Berkeley Institute: Fiction (lit)
Mormonism and the Arts at the Berkeley Institute: Fiction (sf/f)
Mormonism and the Arts at the Berkeley Institute: Poetry
THE MORMONS, An illustrated history of
Mormons and Monsters: Musing upon one point of editing
Mormons as Normal People:a brief look at the Mormon elements in Anthony Holden’s Precious Rascals
Mormons in the Media, 1830-2012
N
The Nephite Conspiracy: Mormon elements in James Rollins’s The Devil Colony
New short fiction from Jack Harrell and Johnny Townsend
The New Yorker: getting warmer
Newish stuff from Van Sciver and Hales
A note on Mormon cosmology in Shannon Hale’s Dangerous
O
Of two minds regarding Smurthwaite’s Road to Bountiful
On becoming the George Clooney of Mormon Lit
On Robert Goble’s Across a Harvested Field
P
The Parable of the Coors Can (I’ll let you make your own comparisons to the Mormon arts)
Paragraphs on three very different things
Paying for [another’s] plagiarism
Peculiar Pages at Sunstone West
Preparing for Black Friday with Brandon Dayton
Presidents Day bon mots, MormonArts-style
Q
Questions of the Heart: Gay Mormons and the Search for Identity
R
Reading The Devil Is Due in Dreary as a Mormon text
Reengaging with Harrison’s first forty-to-sixtyy comparison to Wirkus’s first forty-to-sixty
The Reluctant Blogger: a novel with deep, structural flaws
Responsible Mormons -vs- The Antithesis of Art (being responsibility)
Return of the Green Monk (also: Inktober!)
A review of The Garden of Enid (so far)
Revisiting The Reluctant Blogger
Ric Estrada: Call me the “Trailblazer”
Ric Estrada: Grounded in reality
Ric Estrada: The beginnings of MORMON comics
S
Science fiction “invested” in Mormonism: FIVE FICTIONS
Selling the Bug-Eyed Blue-Eyed Jesus (that’s just wrong)
Sharing the new crop of Book of Mormon comics with my kids From the Dust
Sharing the new crop of Book of Mormon comics with my kids iPlates
Some misorganized thunks on the marketing of The Bishop’s Wife
“Sometimes in the arena you look really stupid.” a report from the Studio C fireside
“The Split House” by Annie Poon
Stephen Carter scares the kiddies
Stucki’s Hands and the Masculine Identity: a review of Todd Robert Petersen’s Rift
A Survey of Mormon Comix by Theric Jepson
T
There and back again—then onward ever onward: a chat with Dendo’s Brittany Long Olsen
Theric (and Monsters & Mormons) at SLC Comic Con Fan X
Theric at San Diego Comic-Con International
Theric guest post: “Mormons might well be the new Catholics!”
Theric interviews Courtney part one: powerful women, etc.
Theric interviews Courtney part three: the secret of immortality, etc.
Theric interviews Courtney part two: know when to say when, etc.
Theric’s Comix Survey, Revisited
Those LDS Ladies of Indie Publishing
Three new singles from hot Mormon bands. What sort of world do we live in?
Three posts on The House at Rose Creek by Jenny Proctor
A Time of Transitions for Segullah
Too sacred for public consumption -or- Disgusting the prophet’s wife
U
The Uncorrelated Jesus of James Goldberg
“. . . the universe is fundamentally absurd, but need not remain so.”
Unpleasant afterlives: New fiction from Peck and Perkins
W
We Came to Earth to Fail the deluxe Studio C fireside recap
Weekend (Re)Visitor: Arnold Friberg
What questions should we be asking ourselves?
Why my not liking “Blood Work” means you should buy Dispensation
Y