More Reviews of Heaven Up Here

It’s really been great to hear that so many people have enjoyed reading my book. Here are some of the latest:

Heaven Up Here reviews

Makes me glad I published it.

Made My Day

My friend Odell sent me this photo, and it made my day. Somehow, it seems more real when it’s in print.

More Randomness

Epic fail: Apparently the North Koreans aren’t any better at developing rockets than they are at feeding their people.

I know I’m treading on thin ice here, but it’s a good thing authorities have charged George Zimmerman. Obviously, I wasn’t there, so I don’t know what happened exactly, but at least a trial can sort that out. I suspect that, had Trayvon Martin been white, he would not have aroused much suspicion, but then I really can’t say. If nothing else, it’s a reminder that Neighborhood Watch volunteers are supposed to call the police and let them handle things rather than carrying a gun and confronting people late at night. Almost three years ago, a Neighborhood Watch volunteer in Bluffdale, Utah, was shot and paralyzed; both the shooter and the victim were armed.

Imagine you’re a state with a $10 billion deficit. What’s the fiscally responsible thing to do? If you answered, “Build a $68 billion bullet train” you’d be correct. That would be like a church that can’t afford to pay for janitors spending $5 billion on a mall. Oh, wait …

There are Democrats in Utah County. Who knew?

Oxymoron of the day: Raw Foods Cook-off.

You’re never too old for pedophilia, it seems.

Movie pick of the week: Bolivia. My friend Odell recommended this. It’s the kind of film I like: understated, yet very powerful. Bolivian actor Freddy Flores steals the show with his blank yet heartbreaking performance. Excellent.

Book I’m reading right now: Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez.

Love this.

Brodie Award Winner

Thanks to a lot of kindness and support, my book, Heaven Up Here, won the Brodie award for best book-length memoir of 2011. I’m very proud of the book because I think it’s well-written and compelling. I’m honored to know that many of you feel the same way about it.

Now I can say I’m an award-winning author. Thanks again, everyone! And if you haven’t read the book, what are you waiting for?

If You Haven’t Voted Yet …

I’d really appreciate your support in the voting for the Brodie awards:

Brodie Award Vote

Shameless Plug

If you feel so inclined, please vote for me in the Brodie awards. I’m up for “Best Book-Length Memoirs” (Heaven Up Here) and “Best Church Watch” (Deseret News Is At It Again)

Brodie Award Votes

Brodie Nominations

In case you have missed it, the call for Brodie award nominations is open over at Latter-day Main Street:

Last Call for Brodie Nominations

I’m honored to have been nominated for two awards, one for my post about a slightly deceptive Deseret News article and one for my book.

Facebook Group

I created a Facebook group for anyone who’s interested:

Runtu’s Rincon Closed Group

Like my blog, it will probably touch on Mormonism fairly regularly, but it’s just a private place to talk about whatever you would like to talk about. You’ll have to ask to be added, and no one who isn’t in the group can see any of the posts, so it will be a good place to talk or vent or whatever.

Heaven Up Here: Update

My book, Heaven Up Here, is finally available in paperback from Amazon and Barnes and Noble (B&N is cheaper). I’m excited to see it where other people might actually notice it.

Heaven Up Here at Barnes and Noble

Heaven Up Here at Amazon

And if I haven’t said so before, thank you so much for supporting me. It means a great deal to me that so many of you have enjoyed my book.

I’m also considering making a “Runtu’s Rincon” group on Facebook, which will of course be a select group of only the most discriminating readers. What do you think?

Mass-Marketed Mormonism

Now that my book is out, I’m feeling slightly hypocritical. I’ve always been annoyed at the numerous books, CDs, and other media that are hawked by enterprising Latter-day Saints at Education Week, on BYU-TV, and during commercial breaks before and after general conference sessions. I’m not doing this on the same scale, but I am trying to get my book noticed by a broader audience, and I wonder if that’s any different from what the Deseret Book crowd does.

Granted, I think my book is much better than, say, anything Chris Heimerdinger has put out, and I’m pleased to say I haven’t been tempted to write anything about vampires. But I am, in the end, profiting from my association with the LDS church. And that makes me feel a little uneasy.

Thinking it through, I realize that I did not write the book with profit in mind. I wrote the blog posts that would later be edited into the book because I needed to express some emotions and memories that I had long suppressed. The blog posts are much more emotionally raw than the book is; I spent about 6 months editing the posts into a coherent narrative, and I made a conscious decision to remove a lot of the emotional commentary. I wanted the book to be about me when I was 19 and 20, not about my feelings as a middle-aged man reflecting on that time of my life. So, what you get in the book, hopefully, expresses what I was thinking and doing and feeling then. Editing it down to “just the facts” was as cathartic as writing the original posts had been. Paying such close attention to what happened in some ways sharpened my emotions and helped me work through a lot of the residual pain of that time.

Even if I had left the book sitting (as I did for more than three years), it still would have been worth writing. I decided to publish it because I thought people would enjoy the story and perhaps learn something from my experiences. But the book is also something I’m very proud of. I think it’s well-written and tells a great story, and I felt like I owed it to myself to get it published.

So, you probably won’t see me doing book signings or advertising on KBYU, but I will try to get the book out to more of an audience. If you think the book is worth reading, I’d appreciate your help in spreading the word.

Obligatory plug: Today (November 29) all books at Lulu.com are 30% off if you use the code CYBERTUESDAY.