Inhuman Swill | Blog | William Shunn

Inhuman Swill : Page 5

Why is my blog called Inhuman Swill? Because you can unscramble the pieces to make William Shunn.

Ella un-a-cyst-ed

I've been so focused on my book for the past year or more that I can't even remember the last time I posted an Ella update here to the blog. I find that unconscionable, so I'm here to remedy that.... read

My interview on WIRED.com's "Geek's Guide to the Galaxy" podcast

Though it doesn't officially come out until tomorrow, my interview with the Geek's Guide to the Galaxy podcast is now live and available through iTunes and elsewhere. I really enjoyed doing this interview. Host David Barr Kirtley asked great questions,... read

I'm celebrating today's memoir release by resigning from the Mormon church

After years of work, The Accidental Terrorist, my memoir of Mormon missionary life, is out today! And what better way to celebrate than to mail a letter that, honestly, is years if not decades overdue... 10 November 2015 Member Records... read

17 years in the making, THE ACCIDENTAL TERRORIST is available today

I lived it almost thirty years ago. I started writing it almost seventeen years ago. Today, at long last, The Accidental Terrorist is here. (Quick, lock your doors!) What more can I say to you about it? I hope you'll... read

The Book of Mormon: Joseph Smith's first novel

This essay is excerpted from The Accidental Terrorist: Confessions of a Reluctant Missionary, available everywhere November 10, 2015. WARNING: This essay contains graphic descriptions of primitive surgery that some readers may find disturbing. In January 1994, when I was 26... read

The Mormon Bishop Challenge: Marry a same-sex couple

Is there a religious equivalent to the term "civil disobedience"? As in, a term for defying one's church leaders when you find their edicts unjust or immoral? Something more warm-sounding than "heresy"? Oh, well. For lack of a better term,... read

Books and reviewers and blurbs, oh my!

I've been making Stamps.com work overtime as I mail out a ton of advance reading copies of The Accidental Terrorist, and it's beginning to pay off. My little book—okay, okay, it's not so little—is attracting some crucial early bits of... read

Mormon underwear is about to get its closeup

Not many people outside of Utah may be aware of it, but a controversy is brewing—and it has to do with Mormon underwear. Specifically, it has to do with the portrayal of Mormon underwear on network television. As reported by... read

Joseph Smith's "capital" idea

As I was working through the very final set of revisions on The Accidental Terrorist, I had to hunt down the original source of a well-known Joseph Smith quote on the topic of the accuracy of the Bible. I found... read

Giving text an inner shadow with ImageMagick and Perl

This will be a pretty technical post, so feel free to skip it if you're not interested in Perl coding and things of that nature. When I started building my Accidental Terrorist Missionary Name Tag Creator, I knew I wanted... read