David Rodeback, Author

This is my first post here in two months. I got a little too busy with work and moonlighting, not to mention with writer things, including beta reading, preparing proposals, ramping up a fun project I'll mention soon, and, really, not enough writing, except a certain speech.

On Saturday I'm in West Valley City at the Pre-Quill conference. In the morning I'm teaching a session called "Writing for Contests." At 5:00 p.m. I'm giving the keynote speech (one of those Writer of the Year things), which I'm calling "This Time Is for Us, and We Are for It: Connecting in the Age of the Counterfeit Soul."

Only those who are there will know how much fun we'll be having, unless the noise travels. But the Utah Cultural Celebration Center is a bit isolated, so . . .

Anyway, they made these nice graphics for (or at least about) me, so I thought I should use them.

Registration is still open for the 7th Annual EMAA Writing Conference, to be held on Saturday, March 14, 2026, at 3688 E. Campus Dr. in Eagle Mountain.

Registration is $50; lunch is included. There's an optional $10 add-on: a boot camp the previous evening at the same location.
The conference has 8 hours of breakout sessions, 31 sessions in all (three of which I'm presenting), plus a lunch keynote. Established and aspiring writers, including teen writers, are welcome.

The Friday evening boot camp models a critique group, with faculty and participants critiquing each other's writing, which is distributed and read in advance. Participants who don't want to be critiqued are welcome to attend and observe.

More information and registration are here:

7th Annual EMAA Writing Conference Get information about the EMAA Writing Conference in Eagle Mountain, Utah in June 2024

A fine, short piece on worldbuilding.

Why your World-Building Doesn't Feel Real Writers make the best liars.

One of my 2025 goals was to read 52 short stories by Anton Chekhov, the world grandmaster of the genre. That's one per week, mostly on Sunday evenings. A long time ago, I read a lot of Chekhov in Russian, but these were in English translation. Anyway, I read the 52nd one Sunday. It was a fun way to spend parts of 52 Sundays.

More consequentially, my major 2025 writing goal was finally to get the novel published that I've been working on, off and on, for years. I was hoping for October, but some other (good) things got in the way. I met some other deadlines at the end of November, and December finally offered some good chunks of time.

I spent about 40 hours (mostly last week) for one last end-to-end revision, then 10 hours (mostly Saturday) for a fruitful proofreading pass. By Sunday evening it was live on Amazon. It'll be available soon in some non-Amazon places too, via IngramSpark.

It's not the Great American Novel, but it's the best novel I've ever written (tee hee), and it's more amiable than a doorstop. It's a long novel for people who like long novels.

Sunday evening, as soon as I could, I ordered one retail copy, so I'll have one while I wait for the author copies (at cost plus shipping) to arrive. I'll have the retail copy tomorrow. The box of books to sell will be three or four weeks. Then there might need to be a little party or something.

Now I'm drafting February's newspaper column, so I can polish it for a while. Then, on January 1, I start a new project I want to have published by June or so, of which more along the way.

Hearts Together Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

There's a BYU football game of some consequence midday Saturday, and there's this. If I weren't at this (with about 24 other authors) I'd be watching the game. If it gets slow at my table, or if anyone happens to say in my hearing, "I wonder how BYU is doing," I may be watching it anyway. We have the technology.

That said, if you prefer books to football (on Saturdays I prefer both), if you're not a BYU fan, if you're already behind on your Christmas shopping, etc., etc., drop by the Springville Library between noon and 2:00 p.m. on Saturday.

Libraries are good for the soul. Books are good for the soul. You have a soul, don't you?

Go, Cougars!

Here's an event link: https://www.springville.org/library/events/utah-authors-day-2/

I’m at the Provo library with more than 90 other local authors from 10 AM until 1 PM today. You should see all the books.