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First Things First

LDSPMA Member Spotlight: Michael Young

December 6, 2021 By Spencer Skeen Leave a Comment

Michael Young currently lives in Tooele, Utah.

What are some names of the books or other media you have created?

Nonfiction:

  • Chapter and Verse (volumes I-III)
  • Before Sunset
  • Song of the Saints
  • In the Quiet Heart

Fiction:

  • A Past with Two Faces
  • First Things First
  • The Lost Barge
  • The Penultimate Dawn series:
    • The Hunger, The Thirst, The Longing
  • The Canticle Kingdom series:
    • The Canticle Prelude, The Frozen Globe, The Skyward Isle
  • The Last Archangel series:
    • Age of Archangels, The Last Archangel, The Last Kingdom, The Last Struggle
  • The Chess Quest series:
    • Paladin:Pawn, Nemesis:Knight, Rook:Revenge, Bishop:Betrayal, Sovereigns:Song
  • Advent Anthology series:
    • Carol of the Tales, Angels from Their Realms of Story

What inspired you to become a creator of media?

I’ve always had an active imagination, and I read as many book as I could growing up. As I got older, I had some amazing literature and writing teachers, and I wondered if I could write down some of the stories in my head. I wrote my first novel in high school to prove to myself that I could do it, and then I’ve been writing ever since. It has been a wonderful way to express myself in a way that nothing else quite does.

What has been the highlight of your career so far?

The highlight was seeing one of my novels on the shelf in a major bookstore for the first time. It had taken a lot of work to get there, and it validated everything that I had done up to that point and helped motivate me to keep going and to keep improving.

What was the best advice you’ve ever been given in your creative journey?

Create to serve and to uplift. When you use your God-given talents for good, you are entitled to his help and blessing. His grace will enhance your natural abilities and allow you to create things much greater than you would on your own. Talents are meant to be shared, and you can be a light to the world, the proverbial city on the hill, if you take the time to climb the hill.

What advice do you have for someone just starting out in your field?

Ask yourself if you are a patient person and if you have a thick enough skin to put yourself out there. There is a lot of waiting around, a lot of long, thankless hours of work, and there will always be people who want to put you down. If you can work with that, move forward and don’t look back.

What keeps you inspired in your daily creative work?

I’m constantly inspired by music. I hear different songs and they drive my creative juices and inspire my writing. That’s the great thing about being in a choir that meets every week as I’m constantly exposed to high-quality music to keep me going.

What would you like others to know about you or your creative process?

I’d like other people to know that everything I do is meant to inspire and uplift others. I think there is no greater calling in art than to use your talents to serve and uplift others. Before I start any project, I ask myself how it is meant to help others.

In what ways do you feel you have been able to be a voice for good in your creative pursuits?

Many of my works have been specifically aimed at spiritual topics and helping people appreciate the scriptures and religious music better, but even my fiction is geared toward morality and nobility. I never want to club people over the head with a moral in my stories, but if you look, you should be able to take away truths that I hold dear.

If you want your spotlight to link to your website or any of your social media platforms, include the URLs here.

http://www.authormichaelyoung.com

Filed Under: Member Spotlight Tagged With: A Past with Two Faces, Advent Anthology, Angels from Their Realms of Story, Author, Before Sunset, Carol of the Tales, Chapter and Verse, choir, First Things First, In the Quiet Heart, Latter-day Saint Publishing and Media Association, LDSPMA, LDSPMA Member Spotlight, Michael Young, music, series, Song of the Saints, talents, teacher, The Canticle Kingdom, The Chess Quest, The Last Archangel, The Lost Barge, The Penultimate Dawn

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