A homesick Mormon missionary embarks on an elaborate quest to get sent home without imperiling his soul. Easier said than done, on both counts. — An abbreviated version of this essay was first performed April 17, 2013, for The First Time: First Crime at Second City Chicago’s Up Comedy Club. The story is told more fully in my 2015 memoir, The Accidental Terrorist: Confessions of a Reluctant Missionary.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, just think how much more engaging our posts can be with images attached. A guide for all programmers. — A couple of weeks back, I wrote an article laying out a method for posting basic text updates to Bluesky Social with Perl. …

Mud thou art, and unto mud shalt thou return. Unless, that is, you’re reckless enough to think you can transform yourself. — This poem was first performed at the New York City Poetry Festival on Governors Island, July 29, 2017, and was subsequently published in Asimov’s Science Fiction, September/October 2018. the golem lies on its back unseeing eyes seeing a ceiling which might as well be its sky while i stand outside and count the stars…

The new social media network is growing by leaps and bounds. Learning to post to it with Perl offers lessons useful to coders of all languages. — The new social network Bluesky Social has made quite a splash as Twitter continues its irresistible slide and users seek the latest in a series of friendly boltholes. …

The question of when and how to use numerals in your manuscript is a complicated one, no two ways about it. Here are some simple guidelines. — A reader writes to ask: I was searching through your site, as I often do when I want an opinion on formatting, and I did not see info for numbers, specifically whether to spell out or use numerals in the body of the text. It seems like numbers should be…

Who can forget that unprecedented World Series from a decade ago? You know, the one with the alien invasion that made Wrigley all wriggly? — To mark the occasion of the 2022 World Series, we present a science-fiction baseball story originally published in December 2009. But first, a little context. I lived in Chicago from 2007 to 2013, and this story was solicited in support of the city’s bid to host the 2012 World Science…

Yes, the controversial music video defaces sacred LDS symbols, but in doing so it brings to visceral life the nightmare journey of the apostate. — This essay was written in 2016. Watching Tyler Glenn’s video for his new solo single, “Trash,” the anger is palpable and inescapable. But it also brims with pain and grief. “Trash” exploded across the online Mormon world last week, causing the faithful to recoil and apostates to jump up and…

On September 11th, 2001, I responded the best way I knew how — by building a website. But what gave solace to some brought only false hope to others. — In September 2001, I was invited to contribute an essay to ON Magazine (previously TIME Digital, a monthly supplement to TIME), for their front-of-book column “Unavoidable Encounters with Technology.” …

In her raucous debut novel, Eden Robins takes us back to the Chicago comedy scene of the early ’50s, where women work magic through a microphone. — When Franny Stands Up by Eden Robins 400 pp. Sourcebooks Landmark November 1, 2022 A caveat before I get to When Franny Stands Up, the debut fantasy novel by Chicago writer Eden Robins. Eden is a friend of mine. I met her something like twelve years ago, when I still…