E55: Merry Smithmas! BONUS EPISODE

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (0:23)
Merry Christmas, Sunstone Podcast listeners. We have a special, special gift in store for you, a bonus podcast episode.

**Bryan Buchanan** (0:31)
As you know, every year when Smithmas comes around, all the little boys and girls think in their beds and dream of glass lookers and seer stones. Well, this year, your dreams will be fulfilled, kids.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (0:42)
You wake up, you go looking under the tree, and what is it? Is it a book or an art print from Mark Elwood? Cause that's all I want under my Christmas tree.
Hi, this is Lindsay Hansen Park.

**Bryan Buchanan** (0:53)
And this is Bryan Buchanan.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (0:55)
Bringing you the story of Mormonism from the shadow of the Everlasting Hills, straight out of Zion. This isn't your grandpa's Mormon history.

**Bryan Buchanan** (1:22)
This is the tale of Mormon saints and sinners from our roots until present day.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (1:27)
Gird your loins, lock your hearts and pay your tithing, because we're bringing you the story of Mormonism in all its paradisiacal glory.

**Bryan Buchanan** (1:35)
It's the Sunstone History Podcast.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (1:56)
Okay, so today we're going to do a bonus episode for you. I am so excited because in the studio, in-house, in my basement, creepy basement office, we have with us Mark Elwood, author, writer, storyteller and artist.
Mark, say hello.

**Mark Elwood** (2:14)
Hello.

**Bryan Buchanan** (2:15)
Now, I know you've been on a few podcasts, your book, obviously, The Glass Looker is getting all sorts of attention. So this will be a really fun discussion because your book is so different. We're so used to people writing the same book over and over and over about early Mormonism. It's the same stuff, it's the same sources and yours is very unique. The artwork is fantastic, the research is fantastic and it just, it grabs people in a different way. As I was getting ready for this, I was downstairs at my computer and I had the book there and my son comes down and is like, ooh, what's that?
My kids never ask questions about what I'm doing, so.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (2:56)
So we're gonna talk to you about your book and your art, but first I just wanna say, our first introduction was Sunstone, wasn't it? So were we first met?

**Mark Elwood** (3:03)
Yes, yes, I believe so. Probably four years, I don't know.
Oh yeah, it's Kirtland. Was it Kirtland? We went to Kirtland, yeah. The Sunstone Kirtland on location was awesome.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (3:13)
Oh my gosh, we met in Kirtland, that's so cool. So we met in Kirtland and then you shared, you started selling your art prints at Sunstone, which became very quickly some of my favorite Mormon art ever. And I've purchased it and I give it as gifts sometimes to special people. So I know Mark primarily as this artist who does prints of, you've got this beautiful photo of print of Joseph Smith, which shows up in your book and Sally Chase and...

**Mark Elwood** (3:40)
Creepy Lumen Walters.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (3:42)
Lumen Walters. I always forget his name.
You say that, but the three of them together are so beautiful. I've got them in my office right now. So we're gonna talk to you about your book today, about your art and hopefully, have everyone listening buy your book if you haven't already because Bryan, you can tell us they're like flying off the shelves right now. Like it's hard to sell Mormon books, but it has not been hard to sell your book.

**Bryan Buchanan** (4:04)
It's pretty rare that you can sell out the first edition of your book in like 30 seconds. So that was quite the accomplishment. Before we started recording, when I was just telling him, we have not seen this kind of buzz about a book for a long time. Those first copies just disappeared. So there's a reason.
It's a lot of fun. So let's get into it, Mark. Let's talk a little bit. I'm always so curious.
How do people become authors? Because Mormon history is full of non-specialists, just randos like us that get interested in this. So let's talk a little bit about how you come to writing The Glass Looker.

**Mark Elwood** (4:38)
Well, that's been a very long personal journey, I guess. It sort of began when I was going through my own kind of faith crisis and deciding, starting to get into the research and kind of falling in love with the research and the history. And how did I become an author?
I guess I started a sketchbook as I was reading and the sketchbook I realized, especially as I was reading Making of a Prophet by Dan Vogel, that the stories just sort of wrote themselves and pictures were interesting to me. And I decided that maybe I could turn this into a narrative and I had no idea how to do it. Lots of research there, but I also had my wife who helped me who's here also.