William's new novella & AMV Deep dive news
Hello! It’s been awhile, but I'm back with the A Motley Vision newsletter and plan for it to be more regular (but not weekly thing).
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As you may have seen, I have a new novella out in ebook and trade paperback: The Unseating of Dr. Smoot
The novella takes the typical structure of a Mormon Sunday meeting (sacrament meeting) and uses it to tell the story of Dr. Rebecca Smoot, an academic who visits Provo, Utah, after a setback in her bid to earn tenure at UW-Madison. While there she visits with friends, family members, and representatives of the two local universites, and gives a lecture on Marilynne Robinson’s Gilead novels.
It’s a return to faithful realism for me, and I had a lot of fun writing it.
I have some behind the scenes tidbits from the novella for you below, but first…
AMV Deep Dive, Season 2: New Plan
It’s taken me longer to get to season 2 of the AMV Deep Dive than I expected and also the whole social media/internet publishing ecosystem has evolved (or devolved) quite a bit and so I’ve decided to change things up. Here’s what’s going to happen:
You all voted (and by an overhwelming majority) for season 2 of the deep dive to be on the Mormon literaturstreit of the early 1990s. So that’s what it’s going to be.
We’re switching formats. The longform deep dive will be posted to the A Motley Vision blog. This newsletter will remain the exclusive place to receive the snapshot and best quote (and why) and further reading recommendation for each episode.
The reason for this is that I think it makes sense to post any longform work I do to the one place I have complete control over: the A Motley Vision website.
This newsletter will be sent out monthly (give or take a week) and alongside the snapshot of the AMV deep dive will also include updates about other stuff I’m doing and also offer behind the scenes tidbits, recommendations, brief meditations on things I’m thinking about, and the occassional bit of writing advice.
If you also want to receive the full deep dive posts by email, you can do so at motleyvision.org. Fill out the Receive New Posts by Email form at the top of the right column (or click the subscribe button on the bottom of your screen if you’re on mobile).
One other thing: do you want me to include discussion questions at the end of each deep dive post? I don’t want you to hit the end and feel like you then have homework. But if they’re useful, I’ll come up with a two or three to go with each post.
The Unseating of Dr. Smoot Easter Eggs
In case you missed it, I wrote about why The Unseating of Dr. Smoot is structured after a typical LDS sacrament meeting and the implications for the plot. I also promised there to reveal some Easter eggs. Here they are (none of them are really spoilers):
THE GENESIS
I can date the genesis of the novella exactly to Oct. 31, 2020. It’s because that morning I watched the 2016 film Things to Come (L’avenir), directed by Mia Hansen-Løve and loved it, and it led to me jotting this down: “a novella (and then maybe a screenplay) that’s about a mid-career, single female Mormon academic who is being recruited to come to BYU (currently working at UW-Madison at the time of the narrative which should be set in either in 2015/2016) and the novella is about her visit to Provo to meet with the dean, etc. And she doesn’t want the strictures of BYU (and she should needle them a bit) but she also has concerns over UW-Madison’s future and esp. the department she is in (comp lit? or make it something that BYU would be more interested in). Oh, and the Dean is a former undergrad classmate at BYU (Honors program, etc.).”
The end result is quite different from Things to Come except that it’s about a female academic who is at a crossroads in her life, but I hope there are some overlapping vibes between the two works.
THE COVER
The cover was inspired by Devotees and Their Shrines: A Handbook of Utah Art by Alice Merrill Horne, which is a wonderful survey of working artists in Utah that was published in 1914.
THE TITLE
I view this novella as a companion piece to my (needs one more revision before it can be published) novel The Courtship of Elder Cannon. And since the title of that novel is a riff on a previous piece of Mormon literature (John Stevens’ Courtship by Susa Young Gates), it just seemed right to do that again, and, so, yes, the title is stolen from Eric Samuelsen’s play The Seating of Senator Smoot, a play I’ve never seen or read but have, alas, only read about. It’s a little awkward, but I think it fits, and more than that, I think it’s fitting for both the title and the cover to be connected to Utah artists given what the novella is about.
THE BATHSHEBA
My initial idea for when Dr. Smoot and her niece go get big sodas was that the Bathsheba would be Fresca with raspberry syrup and lime margarita mix. But my wife is a convert and has had a margarita before and said that would taste nasty (especially with the Fresca base) so in the end I changed it to a drink I actually make for myself sometimes: a shot of vanilla syrup and one of sweetened lime juice added to glass of Sprite Zero. I studied the menus of Sodalicious and Swig before I finalized the files for the book and, at that time, they didn’t have that exact combo, so if either of them add it, I think they should call it the Bathsheba.
Oh, and the Bathseba in question is Bathsheba Wilson Bigler Smith, of course.
THE PHOTO OF MARILYNNE ROBINSON
It’s this one.
I hope you found these tidbits interesting. If there’s anything else you’re curious about the novella, let me know, and I’ll include my responses in next month’s newsletter.
NEXT MONTH
For March, we’ll do a preview of the Mormon literaturstreit. I’ll probably also have something for you on Mormon aesthetics. And also some reading/viewing recommendations.
See you soon!
P.S. if you want to see everything I have going on (not just the Mormon lit stuff), I’ve created a one-stop landing page: frozenseapress.com
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