Zarahemla Books is, in my opinion, the most valuable brand in Mormon letters today. I can’t think of another publisher (of any type) whose books I’m as likely to pick up just because of who them. And while I may never finish Hooligan (even though I have recently repented of my Douglas Thayer skepticism), Zarahemla keeps proving my faith in them well placed.

They’re the Pixar of MoLit!

David Clark’s The Death of a Disco Dancer is a brilliant book. I was lucky that I started reading it the same day my classes had to take a mandated test, freeing me from teaching responsibilities. Before I was a quarter of the way through, I had disturbed my students with merry snorts—and had had to hide my teary eyes—as I tore through the pages in utter glee, trying to read as much as I could before I had to collect their work. In the end, I finished the book in two calendar days. Which is just not something I do anymore. (Of the novels I read last year, the only ones that can compete in terms of my reading speed are Dan Wells’s and Robison Wells’s*—it’s been a good year for Mormon fun, it would seem.) But Disco Dancer was unlike those propulsive books in that, well, for one thing, it’s not a thriller. It’s just a regular old story about a family.

Which gets to why I’ll be buying a copy for my mother (even though it says “nuts” and “balls” far too often for her taste): This book made me recognize my love for my mother in a way I too rarely do. Now, several days after finishing it, I’m still riding that buzz.

I want to say less about the story in this review than the backcover does (I didn’t read it and I’m glad I didn’t), but suffice it to say that the book is about more than one summer  in the early ’80s. It’s about life and the passing of time and it manages to hit that passage through several generations with a simplicity and artistic integrity I admire. Because the book plays games with time (both flashbacks and flashforwards) that most books fail at. That Clark played and won speaks to his skill as a stylist.

Speaking of style, how about that title? How about disco in general? Now, disco doesn’t have a big role to play in the text of the book (though adolescence and disco? what a metaphor!) except on a symbolic level, one layer of which Clark spoke to Wm about. And the book’s “Playlist” (read: table of contents) is all disco songs.

(Aside: I made a Spotify playlist of all the songs on the Playlist—or nearly all of them. A couple are missing from the Spotify library and a in a couple couple other cases I may have picked the wrong song. I think Phil Collins is probably the wrong guy, for instance.)

But what are this book’s strengths? Let’s start at the end, shall we? Clark has the fortitude to end the story where he should and not ten steps later when all the reader’s question could have reached a more tidy resolution. He has captured a time and place so perfectly it feels like documentary footage of 1981 Scarsdale, Arizona. He’s funny. He drew tears without being the least sentimental. Both the laffs and the tears are fully earned by real characters engaging in real life. He knows the power and the value of a good tangent (with the exception of the bear story, every digression is just the right length and helps us understand Who What and Why with elegance). He engages with the ambiguity of all things stereotypically good (religion) and bad (darn teenagers!). He never drives a joke into the ground until it is no longer funny yet still rising from the grave. He deals with topics heavy (with lightness but not undue lightness—for instance the pathos of dementia with its uncomfortable humor) and light (without ignoring their own little gravities).

Which brings me back to disco. We often dismiss it now, but let’s remember: those were real musicians playing real instruments and playing music so fun the world danced despite itself . . . until it realized how ridiculous it looked and slunk back into a dark corner. Like a budding teenager.

What I’m most curious about is what a 2012 teenager reading this book will think. Because in some ways I feel unfairly primed for this book. My mother is currently caring for her mother, just as the protagonist’s mother is caring for her mother. I work with teenagers and I’m old enough to have children that resemble those in this novel. And I was once a boy myself.

And so I can’t say for sure that the book would work as well aimed at a YA audience as it does on me as an adult. But no question: it does work on me as an adult.

Highly recommended.

The very first question that came to mind when I saw the title was: why is it titled after a song by the Smiths? Let me restate that: why is it titled after a *great* song by the Smiths. One of my personal favorites.

“Death of a Disco Dancer” is definitely one of my all-time Smith’s favorites; actually, it’s one of my all-time favorite songs, period.  As I was writing the novel, I knew that there would be death — physical, intellectual and social — that a few of the different characters would experience.  I also knew that one of the characters, the narrator’s Grandmother, would suffer from dementia and would be obsessed with a Saturday Night Fever album cover (which I’ve always thought was an absolutely hilarious and ridiculous image, in a very ‘70s sort of way).  So, with these ideas percolating in the back of my mind — that there are different types of “death” or catastrophe in life — and the fact that the narrator’s grandmother was obsessed with arguably the most recognizable pop culture image of the somewhat unfortunate disco era, as I was driving home from work one day, the Smiths’ “Death of a Disco Dancer” came on.  The first line of the song, says, very heavily and melancholically, “The death of a disco dancer, well it happens a lot ‘round here…”  And, with that, it just clicked.  I thought it was, like any great Smith’s song, goofy, ridiculous, enigmatic and yet poignant, and it seemed like a perfect match for the entire tone of the novel.  From then on, despite a universality of raised eyebrows from those I shared the novel with, I knew there could be no other title.

And then let’s get this out of the way: “How Soon is Now” is their best song, yes or no? And if no, what candidates would you offer up instead?

I definitely agree.  I think that any discussion of great Smith’s songs has to start and end with “How Soon is Now.”  In fact, I was just driving in the car and it came on the radio.  It’s one of those songs that is so good, was so cutting edge, that it always manages to sound contemporary.

A bunch of people have asked me if there will be a sequel to The Death of a Disco Dancer or if I can see myself further exploring any of these characters in a future novel.  I’ve joked with others (and I’m only half kidding) that I think it would be a lot of fun to follow the narrator, Todd Whitman (who is both an 11 year-old and a forty-something year-old in the novel), through his teenage years, through a Mormon mission and into marriage, in novels all named after other songs by the Smith’s.  “Girlfriend in a Coma,” “Shoplifters of the World Unite,” “Panic,” “This Charming Man,”  “There is a Light that Never Goes Out.”  I could go on and on.

What else is The Death of a Disco Dancer about?

The main thing I wanted to explore in this novel was a Mormon kid who believes (or thinks he believes) what he has been taught and how he reconciles that belief (or suspicion of belief) with the challenges of becoming a somewhat normal, red-blooded, American teenage boy, without the didacticism and fairytale endings that seem to have been so prevalent in LDS fiction.  That idea — that the life experience of a suburban, non-Wasatch-front, non-dystopian, LDS pre-teen boy in a loving, believing, functional family could be worthy of “literature” – was really what I wanted to explore.

Also, although the novel is mostly about an 11-year old boy, Todd Whitman, I think it is, in large part, about the quiet, dedicated lives of mothers and grandmothers — the kinds of mothers and grandmothers that do the yeoman’s work of family building, who never seem to get the glory, but without whom everything would collapse.  Wallace Stegner, maybe my favorite author of all time, in his book, The Gathering of Zion: The Story of the Mormon Trail, wrote about the Mormon pioneers that, “Their women were incredible.”   I think he was basically saying, “Yeah, the story of the Mormon migration is an amazing story, but it wasn’t all just Brigham Young and brawn, they would have never made it, this religion would have never made it, without the incredible strength and determination of their women.”  And, I think that two of the main characters of the book, Grandma Carter and Linda Whitman, the narrator’s grandmother and mother, respectively, are both pretty simple and pretty normal, but also pretty incredible.  Henry David Thoreau wrote that “the mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.”  To paraphrase (and counter, to a certain extent) Thoreau, I think that it could be said that “the mass of mothers and grandmothers lead lives of quiet dedication.”  That’s certainly the case with Grandma Carter and Linda Whitman.

Another theme that runs throughout the book is that spiritual growth and understanding, more often than not, come not in sudden electric bursts of light and understanding, but, as we plod through the various climates of life (sometimes its cloudy, sometimes there are deadly storms, sometimes it’s sunny and picture perfect, but much of the time it’s partly cloudy with a chance of rain).   So, I think that life’s most meaningful growth and understanding comes subtly and with nuance, over extended periods of time.  In other words, life is marathon, not a sprint, especially when it comes to an understanding of spiritual and familial things and how those two ultimately tie together.  I have always loved Aesop’s fable about the tortoise and the hare — “slow and steady wins the race” — and I think that this is what the narrator, Todd Whitman, ultimately learns and is something that his Grandma Carter and his mother learned themselves too.

Why did you choose to set the novel in the summer of 1981?

The bulk of the novel occurs in 1981 but it is really set in the present day, as the narrator, Todd Whitman, now a forty-something year-old father, returns home to his boyhood home in Arizona with his other grown siblings to remove his dying mother from hospice and take her home to die in her own home, in her own bed.  As Todd keeps watch over his dying mother, he reflects back on the pivotal Summer of 1981 — the summer before the culture shock of junior high school (school dances and showers in after gym class), the summer before becoming a Deacon and a boy scout, the summer his live-in grandmother fully succumbed to Alzheimer’s, the summer he lost his grandfather and the summer he first started noticing girls (and one in particular).  So, because I knew that the narrator had to be both in his forties in the present day and an eleven years-old, the early ‘80s had to be part of the novel.  And, it just so happens that I randomly chose 1981, but given the number of pop culture and other references throughout the novel, I knew that for it to be authentic, I had to choose a year.  And, 1981 — the peak and really the beginning of the end of the disco era, seemed like the perfect time for a novel that deals with “death” on different levels.

Also, for whatever reason, even though I’m not a fan of disco at all, early on in the process, I thought it would be fun, given the fact that the Bee Gees, John Travolta and a Saturday Night Fever album cover would all be referenced throughout the novel, to name the chapters after actual then-contemporary (i.e., pre-1982) disco songs.  So, for practical reasons, I needed to “pick a date” if you will.  It was fun to research the disco songs of the era and then use them as chapter titles.  With one exception (the chapter entitled “The Death of a Disco Dancer”), each of the chapters are, in fact, named for a real disco song.  And, that explains why instead of a table of contents, there is a “playlist.”

What led to you writing the novel? What was the process like for you?

When I was at BYU, as an American Studies major, I took a “Literature of the American West” survey course taught by Richard Cracroft that included some Mark Twain, Willa Cather, Wallace Stegner and something called “Mormon literature.”  Although I had been a  Mormon all my life, I had never heard of any “Mormon literature.”  The class opened a whole new world to me.  Before that class, it had never crossed my mind that my life experience — growing  up in the suburban West as a Mormon — might be worth writing about.  And from then on, I always knew that someday I would write something about that experience.

The process really started with experimenting with some short story writing, parts of which ultimately became a part of this novel and then it really went forward only in fits and starts.  I can’t write sporadically, and I can’t write with a detailed outline.  I have to have large, successive blocks of time to really wrestle with my ideas before I can write with any coherence or flow.  About a year ago I was completely burned out of my job as the general counsel of a large international company, so I quit and took a self-imposed sabbatical for about nine months and did some things I’ve always wanted to do, including taking the sporadically written beginnings of the novel and building upon it until it ultimately became The Death of a Disco Dancer.

How did you get a blurb from Richard Cracroft? What do you think he means when he states that your novel “takes Mormon literary fiction another big step forward”?

As I mentioned, I took a survey course from Professor Cracroft early in my BYU career and was fortunate enough to have chosen a major that I truly loved –American Studies.  The beauty with that major was that it was  a “cafeteria-style” major.   I was free to choose classes from the Humanities, History, English, Art and Political Science disciplines and I found myself gravitating to the English and American History courses, in particular.  And, in large measure, I then chose classes based on who was teaching.  I took several classes from Frank Fox, Neil York, Arthur Bassett and Professor Cracroft and enjoyed all of them and, at the time, Professor Cracroft also happened to be the faculty advisor for the American Studies major. Over the years, I’ve asked him to read things and he has always been such a gracious, generous man and such an advocate for Mormon literature that I thought I would see if he would be interested in reviewing the manuscript of the novel, which he did.  So, in one way or another, I don’t think the book would exist without him.  If I hadn’t have taken that class all those years ago, it probably wouldn’t exist.  And, if he hadn’t reviewed it and given me the confidence and encouragement to move forward with it, it probably would have never been finished.

As far as the “big step forward,” I’m not exactly sure what he meant by that, you would have to ask him, but I’m guessing it’s what I was alluding to before.  I’m no expert in Mormon literature or literary criticism at all, but what I see from the sidelines is a tendency in contemporary LDS fiction toward either the science fiction and dystopian genres, or a tendency toward the historical fiction, romance and chick lit genres.  And, there’s nothing wrong with that.  What I think is missing, to a large degree, however, is a realistic, contemporary treatment of the LDS experience from a believer’s point of view.  At times, LDS fiction has seemed so didactic, formulaic and sugar-coated as to be unrealistic, or so determined to be “realistic” that it tended to completely over-compensate and be antagonistic toward mainstream Mormon culture and/or the Church.  I really wanted to write something about a normal LDS boy and his experience in a realistic, relatively normal, believing LDS family and explore whether that kind of a story is compelling enough to be considered literature.  That “experiment,” if you will, led to The Death of a Disco Dancer.  I think Professor Cracroft sees that uniqueness in this novel — that the mainstream LDS experience in and of itself is worthy of literary treatment.  So, I’m guessing that’s what he means by the “big step.”

The major irony in all this is that I don’t think it’s a story that the traditional LDS publishers have the guts to publish or sell.  And, in my mind, that’s symptomatic of a larger obstacle in the future development of a truly “Mormon literature.”  The most frustrating comment I received was from another publisher that publishes almost exclusively LDS titles and LDS based fiction.  This particular publisher told me that the content was “inappropriate for our readership.”  Obviously, everyone  is entitled to his or her opinion, but I think sometimes there is a certain hypocrisy in popular Mormon culture.  Does anyone really think, for example, that if a realistic movie about the Book of Mormon were ever made that it could not be R-rated?  Figures like J. Golden Kimball (and his beloved use of colorful language), Orrin Porter Rockwell (and his mythic status as Mormon avenger) and professional football players too numerous to name (who earn their fame by, arguably, breaking the Sabbath) are revered figures in Mormon culture, but if an author (speaking through a teenage narrator with a real teenage voice) makes a reference to testicles, or, heaven forbid, uses the word “balls” or “nuts,” it’s considered “too edgy” or “inappropriate.”  That’s been frustrating, but I also think it’s pretty funny.  So, maybe the “big step forward” is that I’ve managed to write a novel that is faith promoting, maybe even testimony building, maybe even “virtuous, lovely or of good report” but also manages to use a few tried and true (and maybe even some new) slang terms for testicles and other bodily functions to get there.

What other works have you written?

The Death of a Disco Dancer is my first novel.  I’ve had a couple of stories published:  “Rock, Squeak, Wheeze” in Sunstone and “Candle” in Irreantum.

What works (of any form or genre) are really connecting with you in the world of Mormon art and beyond right now?

About a year ago, my sister introduced me to the music of a collective group of LDS musicians that recorded an album and performs as “The Lower Lights.”  They perform hymns in what they call a “revival” style.  The music is very earthy, organic, folksy and almost bluesy.  The music is fantastic and they play with fervor and passion.  Imagine standing, clapping and stomping your feet to… a hymn.  It’s unusual but it works so well.  They’ve released one album together, which is fantastic.  Theirs is the type of LDS art that I’m most interested in — that which meets the definition of the 13^th Article of Faith but interprets life through a totally unique lens within the LDS experience.  See www.thelowerlights.com.

Another artist that I’m really high on right now is Kent Christensen, an LDS artist that splits his time between New York and Sundance and regularly exhibits in London and Salt Lake City.  For the last few years, he has been painting well known images of candy, cakes and other treats that he likens to “Mormon heroin.”  At first glance, his art looks like “pop art” and I guess it is, to a certain extent, but his work while both funny and playful also always has a deeper meaning and is quite thought-provoking.  See www.kentchristensen.com

What’s next for you on the creative front?

I’m about one-third of the way finished with my second novel, a legal thriller that draws on my fifteen years in the trenches as a corporate transactional lawyer in some of America’s biggest corporate law firms and companies.

Bio:

David Clark has been a corporate attorney, specializing in mergers and acquisitions for over fifteen years. He has had stories published in Sunstone and Irreantum and has been an award winner and finalist in the Brookie and D.K. Brown Memorial Fiction Contest. David has a B.A. in American Studies from Brigham Young University. While at BYU, he served as Editor of the now defunct American Studies Forum. David also has a J.D. from George Washington University, where he served as Articles Editor of the George Washington Journal of International Law & Economics. After graduating from GW, he lived in New York City and then San Diego before returning to his hometown, Mesa, Arizona, where he lives with his wife Robin Cash Clark and their four children.  David has worked at some of the nation’s most prominent law firms and was formerly the general counsel of a major international media company. The Death of a Disco Dancer is his first novel.

Thanks, David!

1. What of the Night? is like a really good album. It’s of one piece but with variation. Themes repeat, tone modulates but doesn’t swing to extremes, length varies but within a range. These essays go together. There’s a rhythm to the collection and the reader (or at least this reader) feels that they were all written within the same energy.

2. There is humor. There is earthiness. There is doubt. But on the whole I like that the Church’s pull on Stephen is generally a good thing. Sometimes a perplexing thing, but a good thing. And that the essays are more about Stephen figuring out where he is located in relationship to the LDS Church, to Mormon culture, to the gospel, to his family than trying to make grand, global pronouncements about how the reader should feel about such things. He’s a dude trying to figure things out. I can relate, even if my particulars are very different because I never quite felt the pressures of Utah culture that he did growing up.

3. I like the cover.

4. There are a few sections where the writing seems too honed and needs to loosen up and breathe a bit. Endings end too early sometimes. Stephen seems at times too allergic to sermonizing or drawing larger conclusions. But really, that’s okay — he needed to err on that side of things as he learned his craft, and so does Mormon letters in general, I think. Right now honed and more personal, less socio-cultural is good.

Note: this review is based on a free PDF of the book provided to me by the publisher

2010 Mormon Literature Year in Review

By Andrew Hall

Part 2: The Mormon Market

Link to Part 1: The National Market

Wm notes: portions of this bibliographic review rely on comments from sources who have chosen to remain anonymous. As I said with his report on independent Mormon publishers posted here at AMV last July: I’m personally confident that Andrew has used his anonymous sources judiciously and within standard journalistic practices. But also keep in mind that the comments here represent particular points of view.

(Note: I am now posting at Dawning of a Brighter Day, the blog of the Association for Mormon Letters, a weekly column covering the world of Mormon literature.  The focus is on published fiction, but I also cover theater and film.  I also link to recently published literary works, news, and reviews. I hope to make the brief column a convenient gathering place for authors and readers to announce and follow news about the field each week.)

In this section, I will look at the Mormon fiction market by analysing recent trends, introducing each publisher, noting books that have received especially strong reviews, and noting the passing of a beloved author.

Despite the troubled economy, the number of literary works published by Mormon market publishers rose considerably in 2010. This was despite the fact that the publishers owned by the Church’s Deseret Media Companies, Deseret Book Publishing and Covenant Communications, stood pat on their annual output. The rise was due largely to an increase in the number of fiction works published by independent publishers Cedar Fort, Leatherwood, and Valor. Publishers report, however, that the book-selling economy remained stagnant in 2010, which means that more authors and more books crowded into the market, increasing the competition for market share.

Mormon publishers have lagged behind the general publishing world in making their works available as ebooks, although that appears to be going through a significant change this year. Cedar Fort was the most active publisher in this area, with most of its current catalogue available at the Kindle store. Deseret Book started making its books available in late 2009, and today it has over 1000 books available for the Kindle, although the vast majority of those are non-fiction. Only a tiny selection of its most popular novels are currently available. In January 2011, however, Deseret Book Company will launch its Deseret Bookshelf app for the iOS platform (iPad first, then iPhone, and iTouch), with future plans for expansion to the Android platform. “We anticipate we’ll have more than 2,000 titles available by the time we release the app,” said Matt McBride, e-pub product director for Deseret Book, “with literally hundreds more coming monthly.” Deseret Book says it will also continue to make more books available for the Kindle. I do not know if Covenant books will be available on the Deseret Bookshelf app. Covenant had also been slow to venture into the ebook market, only beginning to make titles available for the Kindle in 2010. Still only half of its current fiction catalogue is available in that format. Granite, Wido, and Parables have all of their books available as ebooks, Valor has about half, and Leatherwood has less than that, although it reports that it is working on getting all of its books available.

Looking at trends in the Mormon publishing field, in 2010 historical novels and mystery/suspense titles were down slightly, while romance, particularly the lighter “chic-lit” genre, was up. Young adult fiction, which Mormon publishers have often avoided out of concerns that it is less profitable, was up strongly. Most interestingly, the number of novels which contained no significant Mormon characters or settings rose considerably. Even Covenant Communications, which traditionally has been the publisher most insistent that its books contain specific LDS references, has loosened up on this requirement—somewhat. Managing Editor Kathryn B. Jenkins explained, “Most of the books we publish with little or no specific LDS content are from the Regency romance period—which occurred before the Church was organized in 1830. We have one book, by Michele Paige Holmes, that we will release in February that contains no LDS content, but that is extremely unusual. In the overwhelming number of cases, our policy is that fiction needs to have LDS content. Our policy remains unchanged: our fiction titles need to have LDS content unless they occurred during a period before the Church was organized.”

I will next discuss each Mormon market publisher, name the ownership and editing principles when I can figure them out, and discuss their output for the year. I will start with the two Church-owned publishers, Deseret Book Publishing and Covenant Communications.

The Deseret Management Corporation is the for-profit management company for the assets of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Its CEO is Mark H. Willes. The division of the company that operates the media subsidiaries is Deseret Media Companies. It includes the KSL Broadcast Group, the Deseret News, Deseret Digital Media, and the Deseret Book Company. The Deseret Book Company’s CEO is Sheri L. Dew, and its VP for Publishing is Boyd Ware. The Deseret Book Company runs eight major business units. One of them is Deseret Book Publishing. Another is Covenant Communications, a separate business unit located in American Fork, away from the rest of the Deseret Book Company units. The other six business units are Deseret Book Retail, Seagull Book, Excel Entertainment, Time Out Events, Deseret Book Direct, and LDS Living Magazine.

Deseret Book Publishing uses two imprints, Deseret Book, for LDS-focused product, and Shadow Mountain, for values-based, non-religious product. The unit also runs Shadow Mountain Records and Zion’s Mercantile (décor and art). Deseret Book Publishing has three “Publishing Directors”, or book acquisitions editors: Jana Erickson, Cory Maxwell, and Chris Schoebinger. Maxwell handles historical fiction, biography, and doctrinal titles. Schoebinger handles children’s/young adult fiction and non-fiction, as well as the majority of the Shadow Mountain titles. Jana Erickson handles general fiction, inspirational, and self-help titles. Deseret Book Publishing published 19 novels in 2010, which is about the same as it has done for the last four years. 10 of those were through the Deseret Book imprint, and 9 through the Shadow Mountain imprint. Schoebinger reported, “We have separate meetings as we discuss the different imprints and their respective titles. But essentially the same people work on both imprints.” The company plans to publish 22 novels in 2011, 11 at each imprint. Brandon Mull’s final Fablehaven novel was the company’s best-selling novel of the year. Gale Sears and Josi Kilpack wrote the bestselling novels aimed specifically at the Mormon market.

Shadow Mountain has had amazing success on a national scale in recent years with middle reader and YA fantasy novels, and responded with a significant rise in such titles in 2008 and 2009. Deseret Book may have felt that they overextended its fantasy line, as they published fewer fantasy works in 2010. Schoebinger insisted they will continue to publish in the genre, including a new fantasy series by Tyler Whitesides that will commence in 2011. Commenting on the company’s success in juvenile fiction, Schoebinger said, “I think the key has been our grass-roots efforts. Authors need to beat the pavement. It takes time and energy to get noticed. We started these efforts with Obert Skye, who’s been wildly successful at touring schools and visiting bookstores across the country. These are NOT pleasure trips. Our touring authors get very little sleep and sometimes don’t see their families for consecutive weeks. We’ll continue to partner with national publishers where we think it makes sense. Obviously, we have a great relationship with Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing [which has published the paperback editions of several popular Shadow Mountain series].”

I spoke to two authors who published with Deseret Book Publishing after working with independent publishers in the past. One commented, “They are the biggest, and the hardest to break into. Being published with them is like winning a medal that says, “I am good at what I do!” . . . As one would expect from a church owned organization, the royalties are always on time and always accurate. They treat their authors well enough. Emails are seldom answered in a timely fashion as if they are simply too busy. They do a few classy things like the author/artist dinner, and Christmas cards.” Another author said, “The biggest difference is the support that Deseret Book gives in regard to marketing. My book is in every catalogue and several magazines. I do a lot of my own promotion and Deseret Book matches my efforts and supports everything that I do. They are also interested in creating a career for me, which means they work with me on revisions and help my book be the best it can be.”

>Covenant Communications, formerly an independent company founded in 1984, was acquired along with its sister company Seagull by the Deseret Management Corporation in 2006. Although it is owned by the same entity, it is an entirely separate business unit, with its own acquisitions, editing, design, and production, and marketing departments. Barry Evans runs the unit as General Manager and COO. Kathryn B. Jenkins is the Managing Editor, and Kirk Shaw and Samantha Van Walraven are the book editors. On the relationship with Deseret Book, Jenkins commented, “Our businesses are kept completely separate as far as day-to-day functioning is concerned. We don’t know what their upcoming titles are, and they don’t know what ours are. We don’t put our heads together at all for planning purposes. Since they own us, of course, we are financially linked, but that would be the only thing other than top-level management that we share. We have benefited tremendously from being owned by the Church as far as having an easier time with permissions and related issues, and enjoy strong and visionary leadership from Deseret Book.” Despite their common ownership, there remains real competition between the two business units.

Covenant published 30 novels in 2010, which is the average number it has produced for the last seven years. It plans to continue at that pace in 2011. Kathryn Jenkins reported, “Our strongest fiction genres right now and for the foreseeable future tend to be suspense, romance, and historical. We have never been able to do very well with either fantasy or young adult genres, but are going to be offering several of those in the next few months with energetic new authors and marketing plans.” Their best selling fiction titles for 2010 were Chris Heimerdinger’s Sorcerers and Seers and Anita Stansfield’s Dickens Inn romance series.

One author wrote of Covenant, “They have been a delight to work with. They focus on fiction and know what to do with it. The royalties have always been paid on time and are accurate. They return emails! I feel like I matter to them. I have my editor’s phone number saved on my cell phone and I know he will answer, and not be annoyed when I call . . . When he sends back edits, I know he isn’t making frivolous changes. I know he’s asking for changes that will strengthen the book, and I want to work hard to do a good job for him, because I know he’s working hard to do a good job for me.”

In July I wrote a piece that described the struggles that independent LDS publishers face. I wrote, “[The Deseret Media Companies] are also able to get automatic access to the two largest Mormon-specific bookstore chains, Deseret Book Retail and Seagull Book. Independent publishers have to submit their completed books to an approval process to get placed on the shelves of these two bookstores, which can take months, and which can act as a brake on a book’s publicity momentum.  Two of the most prominent outlets for book marketing, the Deseret Book bi-monthly catalogue and the LDS Living magazine (also acquired by Deseret Book Company in recent years), charge advertising rates which challenge the resources of publishers.  Finally, many books published by the Deseret Book Company are sold at the popular Time Out series—devotional-like events promoted from the pulpit which feature inspirational talks by recently published authors and tables full of books published by Deseret Book Company available for purchase during the event.” Several of the independent publishers, particularly Cedar Fort and WiDo, see the Mormon market as just part of their business model, and have published several books by non-Mormons aimed at a national audience.

Cedar Fort (also known as CFI), founded in 1986, and located in Springville, UT, is the largest independent publisher of Mormon books. Lyle Mortimer is the Publisher, Lee Nelson the Associate Publisher, Bryce Mortimer the Executive Vice President, and Heather Holm the Managing Editor. Cedar Fort published 34 novels in 2010, up from 23 in 2009. This is the first time since I began recording numbers in 2000 that Cedar Fort exceeded the number of novels published at Covenant, which lead the market in that category throughout that period. On the average, however, the Cedar Fort fiction authors are less well known than those Deseret Media publishers. Publisher Lyle Mortimer commented, “We actually do an inordinate amount of fiction just because Lee Nelson and I like it so much. Fiction very seldom makes much money. It takes several non-fiction books to kind of cover the costs of the fiction.” Mortimer continued, “We ended 2010 with a 12% increase in sales, our best year ever when last year was our previous best year ever . . . Our sales at Ingram and other national accounts has continued to improve . . . and the LDS market ended up about even. We are hiring 7 new positions within the next month. This will increase our labor force by about 14%. We have very exciting (and large) goals this year and obviously believe we can reach them in spite of the economy.” Although it is careful to publish books that fit currently accepted bounds of Mormon propriety, it is bolder in publishing books that contain challenging or non-mainstream elements than the Church-owned presses.

Cedar Fort has a history of publishing new authors, providing many Mormon writers with their first opportunities. Well over half of its 2010 fiction authors were publication rookies. In comparison, in 2010 Deseret Book published only one new fiction author, and only about 20% of the fiction authors at Covenant were first-timers. At one time Cedar Fort encouraged new authors through an “author participation program”, through which an unproven author was asked to put up a portion of the publication costs, which would be returned if the book sold well. National bestselling YA author James Dashner published his first novel under this program. Cedar Fort discontinued the program approximately six years ago, because it felt it gave them a negative image.

Despite a 22% growth in the size of Cedar Fort in the last 10 years, I imagine it has limited resources when compared with the Church-owned publishers. Their approach today appears to be to produce a huge number of titles (nearly 100 in 2010, when you count all of the non-fiction), and see which authors are able to gain traction on their own. Then they back those titles, at the expense of the others. One author commented, “CFI has a history of not marketing books until they ‘catch’ the market, which usually takes six months or so to be noticeable by which time the initial spark is extinguished. One of my concerns about CFI publishing so many books is that they aren’t giving marketing attention to them. A few will stand out and have better sales, at which time CFI will get behind them and do some marketing, but it’s a very backward form of marketing to me.”

Concerning marketing, Mortimer commented, “We spend nearly 20% of our budget on sales and marketing. We get in front of buyers nationwide. Often, (because we do risk a lot on first-time authors) we aren’t as successful as we would like. We feel we have been successful when we have given a first-time author a shot.  I subscribe to Mark Twain’s quote, ‘The great public is the only tribunal competent to sit in judgment upon any literary effort.’ Once that great tribunal has spoken, I am not going to try to convince them they are wrong. As a result some first-time authors are disappointed. Because we risk more on first-time authors than other publishers do, you may hear that disappointment more often from the CFI direction. If the press or rumor mill points out that a minor proportion of our authors are dissatisfied, our only alternative to quell that kind of disquiet is to quit doing so many first-time authors. We believe there are diamonds out there and we want to mine for them. The only problem is you don’t always know what you have found until you get it washed off and cleaned up and set in front of the light.”

Authors wishing to publish with Cedar Fort should not expect extensive editing of their manuscripts. One author reported, “I’ve heard of an author getting a few edits here and there, but others have told me that not a word was changed in their books before press–so the editing is spotty. I will say that I have seen an improvement in recent years–it seems like some books are actually edited and proofed, but some still are not.”

Another author reported, “CFI has its advantages. They are fast in production, and for the most part they have really nice covers. They don’t edit very much. That light editing is what really keeps them from being huge contenders in the market. The potential is there, but they fall short because they don’t take that extra step to get involved in the editorial process. They are unyielding in their contracts.”

Another author reported, “I felt that CFI missed the mark on editing in several books I picked up this year . . . I continued to be very impressed with Cedar Forts covers and overall formatting of their books, I think they are as good, if not better on some books, as any other publisher in the market. Sometimes their covers tend to ‘match’ one another too well, but overall I think they’ve done an excellent job . . . I have noticed some improvement with editing, but am surprised that I continue to find editing issues . . . I’m impressed with the number of books CFI is putting out and glad to see so many new authors getting published with them since Deseret Book and Covenant don’t seem to be taking on many new names, but I would like to see improved quality in the editing and in some of the story development. I have said for many years that CFI is the strongest publisher in the market next to Deseret Book and Covenant. I feel that if they would pay more attention to editing and really work hard at choosing only those books that are exceptional, then support those authors and market those books, they could be a stronger company than they have ever been. They have some excellent authors publishing with them right now.”

Mortimer and Nelson reacted strongly when I shared these quotes with them. They commented, “If what you have written is true, we’d certainly be out of business. Instead we have averaged 22% growth for the last ten years . . . We’ve paid the most advances ever this year, starting at about $2,000. The largest advance we ever paid was $50,000 . . . Cedar Fort has been able to grow even when the LDS market has remained level by publishing more and more non-LDS book. We are the largest publisher in the world for Dutch Oven cookbooks, and are now publishing a wide assortment of other cookbooks, plus an increasing number of garden, camping and outdoor titles.” Concerning the editing, Mortimer responded, “We don’t spend a lot of time reconstructing fiction work. If we don’t think it will fly, we won’t publish it or we send it back to the author for revising. We try very hard to keep the author’s voice and maintain the author’s integrity (probably harder than most publishers). The work remains the author’s work and not our work. Very, very seldom will you find typos and gross ‘publishing’ errors.” Mortimer then insisted that every book they released had gone through significant editing and changes.

Mortimer continued, “We are getting more and more recognition from nationally established authors. We signed Dave Wolverton yesterday. We signed [national romance author] Carla Kelly a month ago. Patricia Davis is now on board. There are many others we expect to announce in the next few months. By attrition we may be spending less and less on first-time authors. Again, this makes me a little sad. That’s where the real excitement and satisfaction is.”

Although there is frustration among some Cedar Fort authors about the amount of editing and marketing that the publisher provides, I also heard from several authors who said they realized the strengths and weaknesses of the company when signing their contracts, and were happy with the results. For more details about publishing with Cedar Fort, here is an interview with the Cedar Fort acquisitions editor about the process of submitting, and here is an interview with the public relations director about their marketing. The bestselling 2010 novels at Cedar Fort were Cartels and Combinations by Mike McPheters, The Widower’s Wife by Prudence Bice, The Carpenter’s Miracle by Judd Parkin, The Christmas Stone by Liz Carlston, City of Angels by Sheralyn Pratt, and The Hoarders by Jean Stringham.

Granite Publishing and Distributing, located in Orem, UT, is the Mormon publisher I know the least about. Jeff Lambson founded the company in 1995, and continues as the President of the company. It has been reported to me that Lambson sold the company some years ago, but remains in charge of day to day affairs, but I have not been able to confirm who the present owner is. Granite published eight novels in 2010, which is about even with what they have done over the last ten years. They also distribute books published by others. Their novels tend to go by relatively unnoticed in the Mormon market.

One author reported, “When I had books currently being published by Granite, they were very kind to me . . . My books were edited very professionally by Granite. The marketing was minimal and less than I would have wanted, but they are a small company with a low budget for marketing . . . My overall impression of Granite remains favorable.” Another author commented, “They did one marginal edit on my book and almost no advertising, which unfortunately I didn’t understand would be the case . . . I hate to be negative, but it’s been very disappointing and I won’t be working with them again.”

I discussed three small independent publishers, Leatherwood Press, Valor Publishing, and WiDo Publishing, in some detail in my earlier article on independent publishers. Here is an update on the three.

Leatherwood Press, which publishes fiction under its imprint Walnut Springs Press, is owned and founded by Garry P. Mitchell, and is located in Salt Lake City, UT. Linda Prince Mulleneaux is the Managing Editor. They published twelve novels in 2010, and have moved into second place behind Cedar Fort as the most active independent publisher of Mormon fiction. Mulleneaux reported that Walnut Springs will publish at least twelve novels in 2011. When I noted to Mulleneaux that all of the recent fiction authors were female, she responded, “That is because we mainly publish romance, which tends to be written by females. As we delve into genres such as fantasy, urban fantasy, and sci-fi, we’ll no doubt publish more novels written by males.” Walnut Springs’ bestselling author in 2010 was Ronda Hinrichsen.

Candace Salima is the founder and owner of Valor Publishing Group, founded in 2009 in Orem, Utah. Valor got off to a very strong start in late 2009 and early 2010 with an announced slate of twelve books from a mix of new and established writers, and the coup of acquiring the rights to a previously unpublished manuscript by the late W. Cleon Skousen. In May 2010, after publishing five novels to start the year, it put all books scheduled for release in the spring and summer on an indefinite hold, reportedly because of difficulty acquiring funding. Also, several authors reported that the company did not keep its commitments in terms of marketing.  When the publication hold stretched on into the summer, several authors asked for and received back the rights to their books. Two founding members of the Executive Board resigned around the same time for unspecified reasons. Two of the returned books have since been picked up by Cedar Fort, and the rest have been self-published. Since the summer the company has been quiet, although one remaining author claims that her book is close to being released. Salima, a political activist, recently created her own cable TV talk show.

WiDo Publishing, based in Salt Lake City, was created by the family of Karen and Bruce Gowen in 2007. Kristine Princevalle is the Managing Editor. It published two novels each in both 2009 and 2010, and reports planning to publish five to seven books in 2011. Although all of its books so far have been by LDS authors, WiDo staunchly avoids the term “Mormon publisher”, and half of the authors scheduled for publication in 2011 are not LDS.

There are four publishers working in the niche market of literary Mormon fiction: one well-established house, and three one-person (or one-family) businesses. Altogether, they produced seven works of literature in 2010. Only one of those seven was a novel, therefore I will talk about the individual non-novels in Part 3 of this review.

The most prominent of the literary houses is Signature Books, a well known publisher of books on Mormon issues, particularly histories and collections of primary documents. It was co-founded in 1980 in Salt Lake City by the current owner and President George D. Smith. Among the staff members are Gary Bergera (acquisitions editor) and Tom Kimball (marketing). It published two literary works in 2010, a poetry collection and a short story collection. It plans to spend 2011 publishing only non-fiction, and will return to publishing a small amount of literature in 2012.

The most active of the three small literary presses is Chris Bigelow’s Zarahemla Books, which has published an average of three works a year since 2006. In 2010 it published two short story collections and a collection of literary essays, which by early December sold a cumulative total of 410 copies. Bigelow reports having three more books planned for 2011, but added “I’m a little burned out and don’t see myself personally doing much else with Zarahemla beyond 2011 . . . This is par for the course for me on volunteer things: I tend to last five solid years and then feel ready to move on . . . That said, there’s no reason to ever shutter Zarahemla. I would like to keep it open for qualified editors with book projects that they have already perfected with the authors and that sound like they would be good to publish.”

Parables Publishing was founded in 2006 by Beth Bentley of Woodsboro, Maryland, and has published one or two books a year since then. It published one novel in 2010, Robert Goble’s Across a Harvested Field. Bentley said of her house, “Primarily we want to be known for realistic, contemporary LDS fiction . . . I want to publish the kinds of books I most want to read—namely about thoroughly engaging characters with LDS values, dealing with challenging, real-life problems. I’m not interested in gratuitous apologetics or inspiration. However, if some of that is organic and fundamental to the plot, it’s fine. Humor is a plus, but preachiness and easy, pat solutions are a really big turnoff.”

Eric W. Jepsen’s Peculiar Pages, founded in 2009, is an imprint of Elizabeth Beeton’s Kansas City, MO publication company B10 Mediaworx. It published Out of the Mount: 19 From the New Play Project, and in 2011 it intends to publish a short story collection, Monsters and Mormons.

One new publisher debuted in 2010, Alan Rex Mitchell’s Greenjacket Books, located in Vernon, UT. Mitchell, the 2000 winner of the Marilyn Brown Unfinished Novel award, says, “we are oriented toward a male LDS audience, hoping the LDS housewife will buy books her sons and husband will read. One example is Regulating BB, an LDS sports/missionary book, and we hope [our upcoming] Mormon Vampire parody will attract LDS teen boys who will enjoy poking fun at vampire novel. We would like to do more doctrine books.” Greenjacket produced four books in 2010, all of which were written at least in part by Mitchell: a playscript, a new novel co-written by Mitchell, a reprint of an older Mitchell novel, and a non-fiction work on the causes of the current recession. Greenjacket plans to produce 5 to 6 works in 2011 (this time primarily by other authors), including perhaps four literary works.

Over December and January I did an informal survey of Mormon authors and reviewers of LDS, asking them to name their favourite Mormon novels of the year. The books I will mention in each genre were those which were mentioned by significant numbers of the readers I questioned.

The most highly regarded author among her peers, according to my informal survey, is Josi Kilpack. Kilpack produced the third and forth in her series of cozy Sadie Hoffmiller culinary mysteries, Devil’s Food Cake and Key Lime Pie, for Deseret Book. Jennie Hansen said “with Devil’s Food Cake she delivers a polished novel that can hold its own anywhere.” Jeff Needle wrote, “Kilpack knows how to keep a story moving. There isn’t a boring page in this book. And just when you think you have the plot figured out, Kilpack throws a curve ball, and you’re back to square one in trying to figure out just what’s happening. There are no uninteresting characters. But there are plenty of characters to dislike. I found myself being surprised again and again as I had to re-evaluate my feelings about some of the players . . . A delightfully addictive series to sink your teeth into.”

Kilpack is currently the President of the Whitney Academy, which means her books will not be considered for 2010 Whitney Awards. There are several other very strong contenders in the Mystery/Suspense category. Covenant published two highly lauded mysteries, Jeffrey S. Savage’s A Time to Die, the third in his Shandra Covington series, and Stephanie Black’s Cold as Ice. In the suspense/thriller genre, the title I heard praised the most often was Gregg Luke’s psychological/medical drama Blink of an Eye. Other strongly reviewed books included Traci Hunter Abramson’s Crossfire and Backlash, both from her Navy SEALS “Saint Squad” series, Steve Westover’s FBI mystery Defensive Tactics, Rachelle Christensen’s fast-moving romantic suspense novel Wrong Number, and Julie Coulter Bellon’s kidnapping thriller Dangerous Connections.

YA fantasy is nothing new in the Mormon market, Shadow Mountain has published many such volumes in recent years, Cedar Fort had seven YA fantasy novels in 2010, and Walnut Springs and Valor published fantasy titles. Covenant, which has largely avoided speculative fiction in the past, in 2011 will begin a space-opera science fiction series. With the enormous load of Mormon authors who are releasing YA fantasy through national houses, those being published specifically for the Mormon market can be overlooked. Within the fantasy genre, contemporary paranormal had been seen as beyond the Mormon publishing pale, but in 2010 Shadow Mountain released Rachel Ann Nunes’ Imprints, about a girl who can read human emotions and memories left on physical objects. For the most part, the Mormon publishers avoid works which feature both LDS characters and fantasy elements. Fantasy is fine, as long as firm wall is kept between it and the reality of LDS life. The one exception to that rule is time-travel fantasies, pioneered by Chris Heimerdinger, where a contemporary LDS (usually a teenager) goes back in time to a moment in Book of Mormon or Restoration history. There were three such novels in 2010, Jeffery Savage’s Restoration fantasy The Fourth Nephite looks to be the strongest of the group. Of the YA fantasy novels that had no Mormon content, the best reviewed were Donna Hatch’s fantasy romance Queen in Exile, and Dixie Owens brain-transplant fantasy Becoming Kate.

Outside of fantasy, two other YA novels which received strong attention were Ally Condie’s last (at least for now) Mormon market book Being Sixteen, a serious novel about teenage sisters and bulimia, and Becca Wilhite’s cute romance My Ridiculous, Romantic Obsessions.

Although there was much highly lauded Mormon literary writing in 2010, most of it was in short story or literary non-fiction form, and thus will be covered in the third part of this series. Some notable general adult fiction included Annette Lyon’s Band of Sisters, Braden Bell’s The Road Show, Michael Knudsen’s The Rogue Shop, Robert Goble’s Across a Harvest Field (which won the 2010 Marilyn Brown Unpublished Novel competition), and G. G. Vandagriff’s Pieces of Paris.

Meridian Magazine reviewer Jennie Hansen listed two novels set in Russia, Gale Sears The Silence of God and Sandra Grey’s Trespass, as her two favourite Mormon market books of the year, and many of my correspondents agreed with her. The Silence of God is based on a true story of a LDS family in St. Petersburg in the 1910s, living through those momentous years of Russian history. Trespass is the third in Grey’s sweeping World War II series, this one set primarily in the immediate post-war Soviet Union. Close behind those two in terms of strong reviews was Oh Say Can You See, the fourth volume in L. C. Lewis’s War of 1812 Free Men and Dreams series. H. B. Moore’s Alma the Younger and Marianne Monson’s The Water is Wide, about a British convert in the 1840s, also received strong notices.

Second to Josi Kilpack, the book that my informants mentioned the most as their favourite Mormon market novel of the year was Sarah M. Eden’s Regency romance Courting Miss Lancaster. Another frequently mentioned romance was Julie Wright’s contemporary comic LDS romance Cross My Heart. Other romances getting favourable reviews included Heather Justesen’s suspenseful romance Rebound, Carol Warburton’s The Legend of Shannonderry, set in 19^th century England, Kaylee Baldwin’s first novel Meg’s Melody, Rachael Renee Anderson’s comic romance Luck of the Draw, and Michelle Ashman Bell’s Hometown Girl.

The author Linda Sillitoe passed away on April 7 at the age of 61 of a heart attack after a long illness. Sillitoe is probably most remembered for her investigative reporting for the Deseret News and Utah Holiday magazine in the 1980s, and her 1988 book Salamander: The Story of the Mormon Forgery Murders (co-authored with Allen Roberts), which chronicled the Mark Hofmann bombings in Salt Lake City in 1985 that killed two people. Of her eight published books, four were literary works (all published by Signature Books): two novels, a poetry collection, and a short story collection. She received the Association for Mormon Letters Award five times: twice for poetry (in 1977 for “The Old Philosopher, Letter to a Four-Year-Old Daughter”, and in 1993 for her book of poetry, Crazy for Living), once as a combined award in poetry and fiction (1981 for “Lullaby in the New Year” and “Demons” (Sunstone May-June 1981)), once for criticism (1980, for her article “New Voices, New Songs (Dialogue 13.4, 1980)), and once for a novel (1988, Sideways to the Sun). She had short stories anthologized in two landmark Mormon collections, 1983’s Greening Wheat: Fifteen Mormon Short Stories, and 1992’s Bright Angles and Familiars. Signature Books wrote of her, “She was an advocate for those who have been marginalized by society: minorities, gays, abused women, the chronically ill.” Author and editor Lavina Fielding Anderson said Sillitoe was “one of the strongest and earliest voices for Mormon feminism . . . I loved the suppleness and subtleties of her style. Her poems, written as a young mother balancing child-rearing needs with the passion to write, articulated those dilemmas, discovered afresh every generation, as well as they’ve ever been done. Her novel, Sideways to the Sun, made her the voice of a sisterhood taking both Mormonism and motherhood seriously.”

Literary works (novels, short story collections, poetry collections, etc.) published by LDS publishers. (Wm says: the table no longer fits within the page guides of AMV so click on the link to view it)

]]> http://www.motleyvision.org/2011/2010-mormon-literature-year-in-review-mormon-market/feed/ 29 http://www.motleyvision.org/2010/review-of-the-tree-house-by-doug-thayer/ http://www.motleyvision.org/2010/review-of-the-tree-house-by-doug-thayer/#comments Wed, 11 Aug 2010 13:49:07 +0000 Jonathan Langford http://www.motleyvision.org/?p=4444 Title: The Tree House

Author: Douglas Thayer

Publisher: Zarahemla Books

Genre: Adult Fiction

Year Published: 2009

Number of Pages: 384

Binding: Trade Paperback

ISBN10: 0978797175

ISBN13: 978-0978797171

Price: $16.95

Reviewed by Jonathan Langford

Note: I received a free copy of this book from the author, in trade for a free copy of my book, No Going Back.

Harris Thatcher has pretty much everything a 15-year-old boy could want, in his opinion at least: a perfect dad, a good family, and Luke, his best friend. He’s a good Mormon kid living in Provo, Utah, where his dad is a high school science teacher. It’s summer, with swimming and fishing to look forward to and high school starting in the fall. His only complaint is that World War II is winding down, so it’ll be over before he can be part of it.

And then things start going wrong. His dad’s diabetes, which he hasn’t been taking care of very well, flares up suddenly. His death at the beginning of chapter 2 brings harder times, as the same unambitious attitude that made Harris’s father spend time with his kids instead of trying to get ahead leaves them financially strapped. They take in a boarder, with Harris moving into a room with his younger brothers. Harris has to get a job at a local cafe, where he washes dishes and learns how to make pies. A little over a year later, his girlfriend dies of pneumonia. After graduating from high school, Harris serves a mission in Germany — and then he and Luke are both immediately drafted to serve in Korea, where Luke is killed and Harris becomes, in his own eyes at least, a hardened killer.

Coming home to Provo is hard for him, as he worries that he doesn’t fit there anymore. And then a fire while he’s at work kills his mother and two younger brothers, leaving him pretty much alone in the world despite the concern of Luke’s parents and the bishop and even the owner of the cafe where he works.

#####

So what is it that makes life worth living and belief worth hanging onto when you feel like you’ve lost everything that was important to you?

That’s a one of the Big Tough Questions. For someone like Luke, more religious than Harris, simple faith might be enough — though in fairness to Harris, it has to be pointed out that Luke doesn’t get put through the same things Harris went through. Luke’s father doesn’t die. Luke goes to Korea, but serves as a medic, his job not killing but saving lives. He dies heroically, trying to save others, while Harris instead must find a way to survive.

After the death of his family, Harris simply drifts, apparently unable to move out of the place he’s in. He stops going to Church. He moves into a one-bedroom apartment. He goes nowhere except work and visits no one.

And then his appendix bursts and he’s nursed back to health by Jennifer, an active Mormon girl who had been two years ahead of him in high school. They start dating. She asks what he wants out of life:

“Harris, look at me. This is serious. Do you want your kids to go to Primary and Sunday School? Do you want your boys to have the priesthood and pass the sacrament and bless it and go on missions and be Eagle Scouts and not drink or smoke or sleep around? Do you want your girls to be Mia Maids and Laurels? Do you want them to get married in the temple for time and eternity? Do you want to live in a ward and go to sacrament meeting and hear boring talks nearly every Sunday? Do you want your kids to grow up believing all the wonderful things you and Luke believed about God and Jesus and the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith and eternal families and life after death and love that lasts forever?” (p. 365)

They talk. He tells her about the things that happened in Korea, the enemy soldiers he helped to kill. She tells him that doesn’t make him unworthy and urges him to move on and make things right in his life. Harris thinks a little, talks with the non-Mormon owner of the cafe — about as close to a mother figure as he has left at this point — and makes his decision. A few weeks later, he and Jennifer are married in the temple.

And then the following April, Luke’s body is found. Harris speaks at the funeral. Afterwards at the cemetery, Luke’s mother asks him:

“Oh, Harris, we’ll see him again on resurrection morning! Our boy will be so beautiful, so beautiful. We’ll all be here together once more, won’t we, Harris? And your family will all be here too, your dad and your mom, and Todd and Garth, and your grandmother, everybody, won’t they?” . . .

“Yes, yes,” he said, which was what he had to say, wanted to say, had enough faith for. Otherwise there was nothing, and there could not be that. And the suffering and pain had to be paid for too, somehow, the incredible loss, the waste, the incalculable stupidity, the hate, the greed. And there had to be mercy, justice, grace, redemption, but mostly redemption because, oh, sweet Jesus Christ, how the world needed to be redeemed! (pp. 371-372)

It’s a well-earned, quiet, but powerful and faith affirming resolution to a challenging and well-written story.

#####

I found Thayer’s style in this book took some getting used to. The story is told largely in short, third-person declarative sentences that reflect the wandering, free-associative pattern of Harris’s thoughts without a lot of the connecting verbal tissue that mediates the experiences of reading in the most common contemporary narrative styles. Paragraphs often feature apparently random shifts in topic, as in the example below:

Luke was his best friend. Harris had a warm, good feeling about Luke, which was something like he felt for his dad, so he knew how much he liked Luke, but he never told Luke because it would have been too embarrassing. Luke was the best player on the sophomore basketball team. (p. 45)

Or the following, though the connecting thread’s a bit more obvious here:

The house was frame; all the other houses in the neighborhood were brick. Harris knew that his mom wanted a brick house because it was safer, looked nicer, and cost less for fire insurance. Harris’s mom was more religious than his dad. She bore her testimony in fast and testimony meeting and said she knew the Church was true. His dad never bore his testimony. He’d lived in the Sixth Ward all his life, but he didn’t seem to worry too much about going to the highest degree of the celestial kingdom after he died. Harris wondered why his dad wasn’t more religious, but he didn’t ask. It was okay. He didn’t think his dad paid tithing. (p. 12)

Or more horrifyingly, the following paragraph after Harris has helped dig out two fellow soldiers in Korea who were killed by shelling:

Standing back in the trench in the rain, Harris looked down at his hands. The dirt was so worked under his fingernails and into his skin that his hands had turned completely brown. The rain did not cleanse his hands. He didn’t think he would ever get his hands clean again. He knew he still had blood under his nails. Gutting a deer, you got blood under your nails. He turned his hands palms up. (p. 315)

The effect reminds me of an impressionist painting, composed of thickly laid brush strokes that viewed close up form no evident pattern but seen from a greater distance coalesce startlingly into the intended image. Once I got used to it, the style was both intimate and effective.

Despite the age of the protagonist and the coming-of-age theme, this isn’t a book (as I’ve commented before) that I think anyone would label as a young adult novel, largely because of the writing style. Much of the story rests in the growth and change in Harris’s perspective and understanding over time. It takes an active and alert reader to pick out those details.

#####

Stories of missionary service represent one of the most distinctive categories of Mormon literature. The Tree House incorporates one of the best examples I’ve seen, partly because it doesn’t try too hard to amuse or inspire or typify or appal, and because the focus of the narrative remains steady on describing Harris’s particular experiences. That very specificity works better to depict the spirit of a mission (at least in my view) than a more self-consciously “universal” missionary story could do. Even though Harris’s missionary service took place more than three decades before mine, in a post-World War II Germany that was very different from Italy in the 1980s, I still found much that resonated with my own experience. I’m looking forward to sitting my son down after he gets back from his mission (in western Washington state) to see if those parts of the story resonate for him as well.

I can’t speak to the veracity of the war scenes, though like the rest of the novel they’re well-written, rounded out with the specificity of carefully drawn details. With quiet insistence, Thayer brings home the fundamental contradiction between war and the gospel of Christ, as in the following paragraph:

The body was so easily smashed and destroyed. After a day lying in the hot Korean sun it bloated and stank. It wasn’t beautiful, sacred. . . . War was an organized way for men to kill and wound each other. That’s what Harris had spent the last three weeks doing. In the Book of Mormon, the Nephites and Lamanites killed without mercy. Did Helaman’s stripling warriors kill without mercy and without regret? It didn’t say. (pp. 316-317)

Harris wonders if he had ever had the faith he thought he had while he was on his mission. Luke wouldn’t have reacted the same way Harris did, or so he thinks. “Others would have to pray for him; he was now incapable of doing that for himself” (p. 316).

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So what’s the value of a book like The Tree House?

A while back, I remember reading a comment about The Tree House from a Mormon reader who hadn’t liked it because it was so bleak. The hope of the gospel, she felt, was not there as an active force in the main character’s life.

I can understand that perspective, though it’s not one I share. Sometimes, I think, we are each other’s angels. Paul may have promised the Corinthians that we won’t be tempted more than we are able, but sometimes the way of escape is other people. To me, that’s a profoundly moving theme, though hardly an exclusively Mormon one.

One of The Tree House’s great virtues is its faithful, sympathetic, but ultimately tough depiction of a particular kind of experience. I believe this book has great potential to help non-Mormon readers feel and understand part of what it means to be Mormon, in a way that makes them see and feel the commonality with their own experience. As a Mormon, reading it made me feel that I know myself better as well.

There’s a point in Thayer’s novel when Harris, in Provo waiting to ship off to Korea following basic training, thinks back on all the stories Jack, his trainer in piemaking at the Starlite Cafe, had told him in years past about his own experiences in World War I:

Jack stood silhouetted in the lit doorway as Harris drove off. They both waved. Harris understood how all of Jack’s stories had helped prepare him for being in the army. Basic would have been a lot harder if he hadn’t had Jack’s stories. Harris was grateful. A boy needed a man’s stories to help prepare him for his own life. (p. 267)

I’ve never been to war. I hope I never have to, or (worse yet) watch my children do so. And yet I feel as if, reading Thayer’s book, I’ve managed somehow to take a portion of his character’s experience into my own life. I’m a better man as a result.

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It’s wonderful that Chris Bigelow and Zarahemla Books published The Tree House. In a way, though, it’s also a shame, because Zarahemla isn’t positioned to publicize and distribute this book the way it deserves.

There’s been a lot of talk over the years here, on AML-List, and elsewhere about the importance and difficulty of writing literature that is intensely Mormon, that speaks in an authentic Mormon voice while at the same time communicating that experience in a way that will resonate with nonbelievers and those without firsthand experience of Mormon culture. This book does that. I wouldn’t hesitate to push this book on anyone with a taste for fiction in the realist tradition. It stands up to the best of Willa Cather, which is the highest compliment I can imagine for a work of this kind. (I’ve read some reviewers who compare it to Stephen Crane, but since I don’t much care for Crane, that’s not a comparison I really want to make.)

This is a book I think could reach both Mormon readers and a general non-Mormon readership — including the kind of readers who hang out in university literature departments and creative writing programs. Unfortunately, I doubt they’ll ever know about it. Who reviews literary novels these days? It might be worth trying to get them to take a look at The Tree House, though I personally don’t know how to go about doing that.

I don’t believe in the Great Mormon Novel, partly because I think stories can be great for different audiences and purposes, and partly because I believe there is no singular Mormon experience that can be captured in one novel. But if I were making a short list of candidates for the position, The Tree House would be on it.

For those AMV readers who haven’t followed your career as it has unfolded over the past several years (and documented on the AML-List), could you briefly explain your journey into creative non-fiction?

I had been working as a news reporter for a few years and having the time of my life, but my wife and I could tell that it was not going to pay the bills. So we made the decision to give our careers a much needed boost by earning MFAs.

I know. Not the smartest way to boost one’s career. But we were young.

So we moved to Alaska with our two young children to go to UAF’s creative writing program. I went in to learn fiction, but the thing that was taking up most of the space between my ears at the time was my relationship with Mormonism. I found myself writing to understand that relationship, going into my past and teasing out the experiences that had brought me to this point.

My first attempts weren’t very good, and my essays turned out to be undisciplined and wandering. Fortunately, my studies in fiction had started to teach me how a story works. Once I learned to use those mechanisms, the essays began to take on a constructive shape and people started to like them. I got rejection letters with handwritten notes attached. And one day, Dialogue decided to print something I had written. Dialogue has always had good taste.

I can’t entirely tell from the Zarahemla Books description — are the essays in What of the Night? focused mainly on Mormonism, and mainly personal rather than topical? What’s the scope of this collection?

The essays document my journey through Mormonism. For much of my life, I had this idea that, being born in the Church, I had been born at the Tree of Life. I felt sorry for the poor schmucks who had to follow the iron rod through the dark swamps of Lehi’s dream in order to find the truth. My life, as I saw it, was not a journey but an orbit. I just had to endure to the end at the tree, resisting the temptations of the Great and Spacious Building, waiting under the branches until I died and went to heaven.

I started to realize in college that, just like the next schmuck, I had to take my own journey. I sometimes say that I had to leave the Tree of Life in order to seek the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil—and that required forging into the dark swamps. The book’s cover very much captures that idea.

So you’ll see me getting my first glimpse of the difficulties of my spiritual journey as a Cub Scout, and then heading full force into the tensions of religion and spirituality as a missionary and then as a father. At the end, I try to bring the elements of all the essays together to create—not a stopping place, but the staging area for the next journey.

Anyone writing personal essays that come of the Mormon experience has to account, at least somewhat, for the looming presence of Eugene England — not only as a writer of the form, but also as a theorist. As a critic who claims a special place for the personal essay in Mormon letters. What’s your take on England, his work, his discussion of the personal essay, and your own work and theorizing?

I worked as Gene’s administrative assistant for the last year of his life—an experience I write about in the book—and yes, he influenced me deeply. By far the most important idea he gave me is the overarching importance of giving every side its due. His essays are often uncomfortable to read because he goes very deliberately to places in Mormonism and in his own life and prejudices that are tense and volatile. But he does so not to expose corruption or trumpet the cause of righteousness, but to gain the wisdom that comes from dwelling in the tension of spiritual and religious difficulties.

I’ve taken a different narrative path than he has, though. My essays are very story-based, almost never heading into argument or analysis, as Gene’s do. That’s just my style. Stories are good soil, adding to the richness of person’s moral imagination, enabling more complex thoughts to grow.

I think Gene had a point about the personal essay being a genre especially adapted to Mormon expression. There’s a pragmatic strain in us that makes us value “truth” over novelty. If it really happened, it’s more important because a real person is attached to it, and real people have real souls. We all see ourselves as being the main character in a long story, beginning in the pre-mortal life and—in fact—never ending. We work out our salvation with fear and trembling. Eternity hangs on our choices. I don’t think that personal essay has a corner on important Mormon literature, but I understand its power. After all, I found my voice as a writer when I went into my own life.

I like the cover. Who created it and what was the thinking that went in to it?

The cover art was painted by Anna Waschke, an artist I was friends with in Alaska. I’ve used her work in many of my projects, such as on the covers of issues 150 and 155 of Sunstone. Another of her paintings also serves as inside art for the book. This cover image comes from a series of “portraits” she made, none of which had anything to do with my essays. I think the image encapsulates the basic tension of the book: the head versus the heart in matters of religion. How those tensions inevitably bring us to dark, chaotic places, but how a strange beauty can arise from that chaos. Interestingly, Anna is an atheist and not into religion, but everything she paints resonates with me on a deeply spiritual level.

Okay I have to ask this, and to be honest this may just be me projecting my own fears, but: you’ve written a fair amount over the years about writing and craft and even championed some specific approaches to thinking about writing. Does putting yourself out there in such a, well, collected way, bring with it any anxiety at all? Like you are a poster boy for an approach and have to live up to it? If so, how do you deal with it?

Well, you have to understand where I’m coming from. Before I started my study of fiction, I was a terrible storyteller. Despite all my reading and my English degree, I could not write a story to save my life. I’m kind of like my son who has Asperger’s syndrome: he had to learn to read emotions by making a study of the human face. He doesn’t possess the mental tools most of us have that allow us to read emotion innately. That’s me with stories: I had to learn the mechanisms that run a story, because otherwise I’d never be able to write. You people who have a natural ability to tell stories, I honor you and would like to throw a maltov cocktail through your window.

My dad, who is a computer scientist and an inventor, tells me that once he understands a program or a system, he can picture it as a working schema in his mind and manipulate it to see how it works, and how to improve it. The same thing now happens to me with stories. I can read a novel or watch a movie and all the pieces of the story will come together in my head. I can see how each part affects the others. I can see what would happen if parts were manipulated. It’s like having a Terminator brain.

This was such an exciting discovery, and I worked so long to gain it, that I wanted to share it around just in case I could save some other people some trouble. But I did a terrible job. Perhaps one or two people will benefit from anything I’ve written. But for the most part, I think the little manifestos I sent into cyberspace were mostly me working out the system that serves me so well.

I do use a set of storytelling principles when I write. It’s impossible not to, they’re hardwired into my brain now. They take the anxiety out of writing and open up creative space. I know my work will stand up the way an architect knows that a building he designed won’t fall. Someone may not like my style or my content or whatever, but I can always demonstrate the soundness of my structures.

Related to the previous question: you are a reader, writer, editor, managing editor, blogger and critic. How do you balance all those roles and where do they help and hinder each other?

It’s true that I’ve done a lot less writing since I became an editor. I find that a great deal of my creative energy goes into bringing out the best in an article or essay. But I get a lot of satisfaction from editing, so I don’t feel cheated at all. I do wish that I had more time to read stuff I don’t have to edit. The New Yorker helps with that. I sometimes get a little teary at how good the writing in that magazine is and how I didn’t have to do one bit of work to get it that way.

What specific works of media/art — Mormon or otherwise — have you consumed recently that you totally dig and would recommend, especially to a radical middle reader/viewer/listener?

It’s either because I’m lame, or because I read soooo much on a day-to-day basis, but my main source of entertainment is movies and television. I’ve become a devotee of the Sopranos, which, in my universe, is far and away the best television show of all time and an epic work of art. I don’t know if I could recommend it to the radical Mormon middle, since every episode would be rated R. But if you want to see what happens when masters of storytelling are given a camera and a budget, watch this show. I always feel more solid after watching an episode.

What’s next for you as a writer? Any projects you can reveal to us at this time? What’s getting you charged up to get to work at this point in time?

I should probably feel silly about this, but I’m not going to. I’m writing comic books, and I’ve never had so much fun in my life. Toward the beginning of my tenure at Sunstone, I put together an issue on Mormonism and Asia and thought, “Hey, I should get some Mormon manga in there, just for kicks.” So I wrote up the arm-hacking story of Ammon, storyboarded it, and sent it to my illustrator, Jett Atwood (who, I must say, did a bang-up job). The response was so positive that I decided to make the Book of Mormon comic a regular staple at Sunstone. (The stories recently won the coveted “Book of Mormon Retranslation Prize” from Salt Lake City Weekly. The competition was fierce!)

The thing that has satisfied me the most about this project is that Book of Mormon characters are finally starting to be interesting to me. My whole life, I’ve been pretty bored by the Book of Mormon. It’s just so danged didactic—every character is a walking sermon. Writing these stories has forced me to dig deep and find out what would motivate these characters to act in the ways they do, and I’ve found some very compelling characters that have really grown on me. When I scripted the martyrdom of Abinadi, I just about broke down and cried.

Sunstone subscribers can follow these stories from issue to issue (we’ve worked our way through Zeniff and Noah, and now we’re heading into Alma). But next year, we’ll likely release a collection of the comics to bookstores, or maybe on an iPhone app. I’m also working with Jett on a graphic novel about Abish, which should be out next year. I’m also working on editing The Mormon Tabernacle Enquirer vol. 2, using material from the Sugar Beet, and the special comics issue of Sunstone, which will rock. Hard.

Thanks Stephen!

If you know anything about Angela Hallstrom, you should know that she is a person of taste and a keen parser of literariness.

And if you followed my Twitter reviews of her new short story collection (archived here–scroll up for the key), then you know that I did not feel equally positive about every story she collected. In fact, some I didn’t really care for at all. But not liking a story in a collection–or even several stories–is a far cry from disliking a collection.

Let me explain.

Darrell Spencer is one of the most respected fictionists among Mormon literary snobs and perhaps his most talked-about story is “Blood Work”–I’ve heard gushing over this story so many times I was sorely tempted to read Dispensation out of order just to f-i-n-a-l-l-y read it. (I felt the same way, incidentally, about Lee Allred’s “Hymnal” which I had heard so much about I would have broken all my fingers and paid double this volume’s asking price just to f-i-n-a-l-l-y get it into my newly crippled hands.) But I, Theric, am a true expert in delayed gratification and I proceeded in order.

En route to Spencer, I was introduced to some excellent stories like Levi Peterson’s “Brothers” (the best evidence I’ve come across that he deserves the love we give him), Stephen Tuttle’s “The Weather Here” (which might [?] be postapocalyptic–or [?] set in hell), Coke Newell’s “Trusting Lilly” (a bit obvious but absolutely lovely), Margaret Blair Young’s “Zoo Sounds” (which should have come off like a gimmick but was truly moving and excellently written), Larry Menlove’s, “Who Brought Forth This Christmas Demon” (proof that God loves everyone–in the form of fiction that will offend your mother), and Karen Rosenbaum’s “Out of the Woods” (which breaks a lot of my rules [it's mostly flashbacks, for instance, a terrible cliché], but is clever and fresh all the same). And then I arrived at “Blood Work.”

And it was the most tawdry mess of— Let me put it this way: One step further and it would have been a parody of modern literary fiction. It was absurd.

I make this claim well advised that every proper Mormon literary snob (except me) will jump to Spencer’s defense, which is why I feel no guilt about railing him here. Clearly my opinion is in a minority. Angela, for instance, told me that “Spencer’s story grows richer for me w/ each reading. Definitely a literary story, concerned with language (some may say above all else, although I disagree) but a great example of the genre.”

This is Angela Hallstrom’s opinion, people. She wrote Bound on Earth. She deserves major props for turning Irreantum into a respectable fiction rag.

So what’s the deal?

Here’s something she said in regards to another story I knocked for its literary sins:

One of my favorite pieces in the whole anthology. Not the strongest in terms of storytelling, I agree with you there, but the language and imagery and the powerful yet subtle way she threads her themes throughout the piece knock me out every time I read it. And that last paragraph? Slays me.

Anthologies are great because they do allow such a range of style and tone and focus. It will be interesting to see which stories speak to different readers and why.

This is exactly right. If I had liked every single story in Dispensation, where’s the room for conversation? At that point, why not just reread the Book of Mormon if it’s so dang infallible?

An anthology of this sort–its job is not to provide you with loveydovey feelings all the way through. Its job is to represent the state of the artform, present an argument for What Is Excellence, and then force you to contend with that argument and the barrels of evidence accompanying it.

To me, one of Dispensation’s strongest selling points is that it is 448 pages of fiction. That’s 28 stories. That’s 71.25 cents per story. That’s a steal, folks. A steal. Even if you only like half of them, that’s under a buck-fifty per story you do like. About the same as my beloved One Story subscription. (Note: Dispensation’s currently on sale at the publisher’s site for 20¢ off per story.)

It’s so big you’re bound to like something–several somethings. And of the stories in those 448 pages you don’t like? Well. Now we have something to talk about.

Because if you don’t think that Eric Samuelsen’s “Miracle” is one of the best stories you’ve read this year I will drop dead in shock then defend it vociferously from the grave.

And that’s what an anthology should do.

It should get us talking.

Want to know what’s excellent in the world of Mormon fiction? Here’s one reader’s argument.

What’s yours?

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Contents:

Lee Allred, “Hymnal”
Matthew James Babcock, “The Walker”
Phyllis Barber, “Bread for Gunnar”
Orson Scott Card, “Christmas at Helaman’s House”
Mary Clyde, “Jumping”
Arianne Cope, “White Shell”
Darin Cozzens, “Light of the New Day”
Lisa Torcasso Downing, “Clothing Esther”
Brian Evenson, “The Care of the State”
Angela Hallstrom, “Thanksgiving”
Jack Harrell, “Calling and Election”
Lewis Horne, “Healthy Partners”
Helen Walker Jones, “Voluptuous”
Bruce Jorgensen, “Measures of Music”
Laura McCune-Poplin, “Salvation”
Larry Menlove, “Who Brought Forth This Christmas Demon”
Coke Newell, “Trusting Lilly”
Todd Robert Petersen, “Quietly”
Levi Peterson, “Brothers”
Paul Rawlins, “The Garden”
Karen Rosenbaum, “Out of the Woods”
Lisa Madsen Rubilar, “Obbligato”
Eric Samuelsen, “Miracle”
Darrell Spencer, “Blood Work”
Douglas Thayer, “Wolves”
Stephen Tuttle, “The Weather Here”
Brady Udall, “Buckeye the Elder”
Margaret Blair Young, “Zoo Sounds”

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Content warning:

I’m not giving one. You have a coupla drunks in one story and a trio of serial torturers in another, an arthritic testimony here, a broken clavicle there–but nothing that, in my laissez-faire opinion, you need to stress about (those items are, after all balanced out by an altruistic rich guy, some faithful missionaries, and a pioneer woman successfully coming to terms with The Principle). The nature of this anthology just gives us “appropriateness” as one more thing to discuss. Besides, they’re,  I mean–

Perhaps my greatest disappointment with this book is that I didn’t feel like taking a shower after reading the Brian Evenson tale!

This is the third and final entry in this series. The first part of our interview was about Ms Hallstom’s novel-in-stories Bound on Earth. The second was about her editorship of the literary journal Irreantum. This third portion is about the short-story collection, Dispensation: Latter-day Fiction, that she edited for Zarahemla Books (review).

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Let’s start with what criteria a story had to meet to even be considered for inclusion. What were the ground rules going in to this anthology?

I went into this project looking for the best stories I could find written by, for, or about Mormons over the last fifteen years or so. (Originally, I’d intended to limit the date range from 2000 to the present, but there were a number of stories published in the late 90s that I felt needed to be included, so I abandoned that idea.) Not only did I want the stories I selected to represent quality literature, but I felt it was important to include stories with recognizably Mormon elements. Most of the stories contain overt references to Mormon culture or theology, and all of the stories, in my opinion, explore Mormon themes. I also wanted the authors in this anthology to have a background in LDS culture and theology–I didn’t consider stories written “about” Mormonism by writers without close personal ties to the religion. And, finally, I wanted to make sure that the anthology’s content wouldn’t disqualify it from being taught in a BYU class. In other words, while I welcomed challenging and thought-provoking stories, I wanted to keep things PG-13.

Obviously, in order to be considered “complete” as an anthology, some authors had to be included no matter what. How did the selection process differ for those authors? I.e., were you more concerned with picking a “typical” Doug Thayer story, or just what you thought was his best?

There were definitely some big names that I knew must be included. In the beginning, I either purchased or borrowed from the library a number of important short story collections: Lewis Horne’s The House of James, Brady Udall’s Letting Loose the Hounds, Mary Clyde’s Survival Rates, Orson Scott Card’s Keeper of Dreams, Darrell Spencer’s Caution: Men in Trees, Paul Rawlins’ No Lie Like Love, Todd Robert Petersen’s Long After Dark, Margaret Blair Young’s Love Chains, Phyllis Barber’s Parting the Veil: Stories from a Mormon Imagination. (I include all these titles because anybody interested in Mormon lit and/or the short story should check them out.)

As I read through each collection, I noted the story or stories that I liked the most and that I felt best fit the vision of Dispensation. Often, the “Mormon-ness” of a story was an important factor as I made decisions. For example, “The 12-Inch Dog” is probably my favorite story from Darrell Spencer’s Caution: Men in Trees, but it’s not particularly Mormon. The story we ended up using, the also excellent “Blood Work,” was a better fit because it dealt head-on with Mormon characters and themes. Orson Scott Card’s story “Christmas at Helaman’s House” was one of the four stories categorized under the heading “Mormon Stories” in his short story collection, and I felt it was important to include a Mormon story from Card in Dispensation. (My favorite Card story from Keeper of Dreams is the dystopian “Elephants of Poznan,” and while it isn’t Mormon fiction, it’s a really cool story, and I was glad to be able to reprint it in the most recent issue of Irreantum.)

I also took into account author preference when dealing with well-known authors, especially when there were two or three stories that I enjoyed equally. Some authors pointed me in the direction of stories I didn’t know existed. Paul Rawlins, for example, had recently published “The Garden” in the literary magazine Image and sent it to me after I approached him about a different story, and I was so happy he did. “The Garden” is one of my favorite stories in the book.

Some stories you originally discovered and published in Irreantum. How did your past history with those stories affect your objectivity?

Well, to be honest, I never felt conflicted about including stories from Irreantum. In fact, only two of the twenty-eight stories—Jack Harrell’s “Calling and Election” and Darin Cozzens’ “Light of The New Day”—were chosen from the many stories I’ve come in contact with as I’ve worked on Irreantum. Both Cozzens and Harrell are important and accomplished enough Mormon short story writers that they would have been included in this anthology even without the Irreantum connection, and both of these stories show them at the top of their game. Both stories won 1st place in the Irreantum fiction contest, also, and I was interested in highlighting stories that have won important contests.

Same question to the nth power regarding your story “Thanksgiving.”

Unlike the Irreantum stories, I was quite conflicted about using one of my own stories in the anthology. Chris Bigelow (Zarahemla’s publisher) and I discussed it, and decided that since “Thanksgiving” had won awards from both the Utah Arts Council and Dialogue magazine it would be an appropriate choice. And for me, personally, I’ve felt my writer-self getting slowly swallowed up by my editor-self over the last couple of years—between Dispensation and Irreantum and Segullah and teaching, I’ve had very little time for my own writing. I didn’t get into this business to become an editor, although I’ve appreciated the editing opportunities that have come my way. But my primary intention has always been to be a writer, and if Chris agreed that “Thanksgiving” should be included, I didn’t want to sacrifice my writer-self to my editor-self yet again.

I noticed that a high percentage of stories are from outsider perspectives — characters who are not LDS or on the outs with that heritage. Which suggests to me that you to some measure agree with the oft-stated maxim that the way to write great LDS literature is to get at it from the outside, not the inside. Comment?

Well, I disagree with this question on a number of levels. First, a “high percentage” of the stories aren’t from outsider perspectives, in my opinion. By my count, in seventeen of the twenty-eight stories, the point-of-view character would describe him or herself as a Mormon. In many of the stories, the point-of-view character might not be Mormon, but his or her interaction with a Mormon is the crux of the story (“Buckeye the Elder,” “Healthy Partners,” etc.). Only four stories are written from the perspective of characters who are “on the outs” with Mormonism (by which you mean, I suppose, that the character makes it known that he or she was once an active Mormon but isn’t anymore).

And I’ve got to say, thumbing through the anthology in order to make an accounting of which point-of-view character is Mormon enough has been a little irritating. LDS writers should be able to write from the point-of-view of all sorts of people, and Mormon stories should be able to include the points-of-view of those with all sorts of Mormon experiences (“inside” or “outside”), without these choices being translated into a sweeping generalization about what kind of literature a Mormon author ought to write. Some of these stories were written by believing Mormons about non-Mormons. Some were written by former Mormons about believing Mormons. And drawing these distinctions, frankly, is giving me a headache. Honestly, the “insider-ness” or “outsider-ness” of each point-of-view character never even occurred to me as I was editing this anthology. I just wanted to include strong fiction. This isn’t to say that I didn’t reject some stories with antagonistic “outsider” characters. I did do that. But not because the narrator was on the outs with Mormonism. It was because the story was too agenda-driven to work as good literature. I rejected stories with an “insider” main character if they were excessively agenda-driven, too.

As far as the “oft-repeated maxim” goes (and I suppose you’re referring to Wallace Stegner’s observation that the “Great Mormon Novel” will be penned by someone who has left the church, then come “part way” back? http://www.motleyvision.org/2009/abandon-all-hope-mormon-lit-cant-be-great/): I wholeheartedly reject that idea. Some of my favorite stories in this anthology were written by believing Mormons, about believing Mormons, so, obviously, it’s possible for an insider to write excellent fiction. If I don’t believe this is possible, what in the world am I doing as a writer and an editor and a teacher operating from within Mormon culture? But this idea has already been debated quite vociferously on AMV, and this interview is already pretty lengthy, so I’ll leave it at that.

Describe briefly, if you can, the gathering process. Where did you look? How many stories did you read? Did you try to balance the number of story types? Were some inclusion decisions made based on how hard or easy permission was to obtain?

At the very beginning of the process, I asked a number of people I trust to recommend writers and stories. I also got some great suggestions from AML members, both via the AML-list and the now-defunct AML forum. From that, I compiled a list and started reading. I got my hands on the previously-mentioned short story collections, and I also read a number of stories published in Mormon magazines and in mainstream literary journals. Once I’d worked through all the recommendations, I simply started reading back issues of Irreantum, Dialogue, and Sunstone, and found some great stories there that I would have otherwise overlooked. It was important to me that this anthology not only showcase well-known writers, but also highlight up-and-coming Mormon writers who are incredibly talented but not (yet) as famous.

I don’t know if I can count the number of stories I read. I just know I read a lot of them. Tons. For about six months, almost all my fiction reading time was dedicated solely to the short stories I was considering for this collection. And, yes, I did try to have some balance: I wanted to be sure to include stories with an international or multicultural perspective; I wanted to include some speculative fiction; I wanted to include both traditional and more experimental fiction-writing methods, and so on. I was also acutely aware that I had more male writers than female writers from which to choose. Although I’d hoped at the outset to have equal representation by both men and women, in the end I found myself with ten stories by women and eighteen by men. Which is to say that, while balance was certainly on my mind, ultimately the quality of each individual story was the most important factor in making my decisions.

As far as permissions are concerned, there were a few stories that were important enough that we were willing to pay for them. Most previous publishers (and authors holding rights) graciously allowed us to reprint the stories without a fee, which was very helpful. We were able to publish all the stories we wanted to publish, which was a relief, since our budget for reprint rights was pretty small.

Did you determine book length first and choose the right number of stories to fit, or did you pick the right stories and see how long it was? If the former, how hard was it to narrow them down?

Initially, I’d planned to choose twenty stories. After my first round of cuts, I had twenty-five. Then a few more must-have stories pushed their way under my nose, and the number increased to twenty-eight, and at that point we had to put a stop to it, mainly in order to keep the price of the book under $20. And even with twenty-eight stories, which is a lot, there were still a number of stories that were difficult to cut.

Finally, to get us back the title of this series, how did you decide what order to arrange the selected stories in?

Some of it was personal preference on my part. I wanted to make sure that my favorite stories, for example, were spaced throughout the anthology, so the reader’s attention would be continuously engaged. What I’ve realized, though, is that with the short story, one person’s taste can be so wildly different from another’s that my favorite stories might be another literature-lover’s least favorite. Stories that I would call home runs have been other people’s “ho hum”s. I should have expected this (in all my years working on the Irreantum fiction contest, for example, never once has there been a story that was a unanimous first place winner among the committee members when we sat down to begin deliberations)—but it’s still surprising to me the range of responses a short story call elicit. I also wanted the arrangement of stories to ensure that similar stories weren’t back-to-back . . . although some stories were similar stylistically but dissimilar thematically, and vice versa. In the end, I simply wanted the anthology to take its readers on a journey to both familiar and unexpected places, to introduce us to both recognizable and surprising characters, and to explore both time-honored and exciting new themes. It’s my hope that Dispensation has accomplished this goal, and that the stories in the book will be read and enjoyed by all sorts of readers.

I have some limited experience when it comes to reading gay Mormon narratives. I used to follow a lot of MoHo (Mormon homosexual) blogs, I’ve read most of the personal essays on Affirmation’s website, I’ve listened to Melissa Leilani Larson’s play “Little Happy Secrets” and some talks by Carol Lynn Pearson, etc. I wouldn’t say my consumption of gay Mormon writing has been comprehensive by any means, but my education in this genre is probably higher than your average Mormon. One of the things that always concerned me when reading these narratives was the lack of any kind of well-balanced position from a faithful Latter-day Saint perspective. Very few of the voices I read said anything really helpful for Latter-day Saints who are same-sex attracted and want to keep their covenants. Most things written on this subject tend to say one of two things: (a) “Keeping your covenants isn’t possible, so give up now” or (b) “You have to keep your covenants, but we can’t really tell you how to do that in practical terms.” That’s what’s so remarkable to me about No Going Back—Jonathan Langford knows exactly how to address this issue in practical terms. Paul is hit with most of the things a Mormon kid struggling with homosexuality would be hit with nowadays: coming out to his best friend and his family, confessing sins to his bishop, becoming depressed, getting disowned, questioning his faith, and challenging popular notions about sexuality. The journeys that his mother and his bishop take in supporting Paul through everything are also particularly illuminating and helpful. I agree with Linda Hunter Adams that this novel should be required reading for Mormon religious leaders.

With all of the practical advice, though, what impressed me even more about the story was the charity and compassion with which Langford portrays his protagonist and his other characters. He does this by being honest. Jonathan doesn’t gloss over the difficult, emotionally dissonant position Paul is in. He doesn’t pretend like it’s a struggle that has easy answers. He doesn’t vilify the students in the Gay Straight Alliance at Paul’s school, and neither does he portray the youth in Paul’s ward as being saintly (both communities in Jonathan’s novel end up causing Paul a lot of grief). But Jonathan also respects Paul by not pretending that his struggle can’t on some level be resolved in a way that brings internal peace. He presents Paul with the option of finding joy in keeping his covenants with God. To even say that that’s a possibility is a pretty unpopular statement to make in modern mainstream American culture. To say that that’s an option but also show how uniquely difficult and messy that looks when practically applied is not a very popular thing to do in Mormon culture. I know that it’s kind of cliché to use the term “brave” when describing a work, but in the case of No Going Back, the word applies in a very literal way. It’s not easy to write about something so controversial in an honest way—in a way that will risk your reputation in your own tight-knit religious community as well as in the larger American community. That puts Jonathan in a position very similar to Paul Ficklin’s. Thanks for taking that risk, Jonathan, and giving Mormonism something that will help a lot of people who are struggling.

Click here to view data on the number of books published per publisher from 2000-2009.

Recently I have been worried that the Church-owned sector of the LDS literary market (publishers Deseret Book, Shadow Mountain, and Covenant, and the bookstores Deseret Book and Seagull) were taking too much control of the market, squeezing the independent actors out. That remains a valid concern in terms of the ability of independent publishers getting shelf space or promotion space in the Church-owned bookstores.  Independent publishing has not dried up and blown away, however.  Just the opposite, independent publishers published more literary works in 2009 than in 2008, and the ranks of the independent publishers grew slightly. Together with a downtick in the number of titles published by the Church-owned publishers, the percentage of titles published by the independent publishers was 50% of the total works published in 2009. This returns the market to the equilibrium that existed for most of the decade before 2008, when a drop in independent publishing resulted in the Church-owned publishers producing 64% of the titles. Of course, the Church-owned publishers achieve sales of which the independents could never dream.  But I am glad to see that the independents have life in them.

With the downturn in the economy book sales in general are down, and that is true in the Mormon market as well. Several publishers reported to me, however that 2009 was a slightly better sales year than 2008.  I have heard from several authors who report that Mormon publishers are providing significantly less money for advertising, and are relying on and encouraging authors to do their own promotion.

Let’s run down the list of the publishing houses.  Deseret Book publishes novels with LDS characters/settings under the “Deseret Book” imprint, and books with no overt LDS content, presumably intended for the national market, under the “Shadow Mountain” imprint.  In 2009 Deseret Book published 18 novels, 13 of them by Shadow Mountain.  I discussed in the first part how Shadow Mountain has published a large number of young adult fantasy novels in the last few years, reaching a new high in 2009. The Deseret Book imprint, on the other hand, reached a new low, with only five new works. Just looking at the numbers, it would appear that Deseret Book is moving away from books with LDS characters.  Insiders have told me, however, that just the opposite is true.  Apparently Deseret Book feels that it has overextended its fantasy line, and intends to refocus on LDS-themed books it can sell in its own stores, thereby keeping a larger margin.  At least one of the fantasy authors has been told the second book in his series is not being picked up by Shadow Mountain, and Shadow Mountain has cut back on its promotion of the fantasy novels.  Also, the high percentage of Shadow Mountain books is somewhat misleading.  Except for the more successful fantasy novels (those by Brandon Mull, Obert Skye, and James Dashner) and James Wright’s books, Shadow Mountain does not appear to do much promotion beyond the Mormon corridor.

Covenant Communications was acquired by Deseret Book in December 2006. Kirk Shaw, an editor at Covenant, reports, “It’s been almost exactly three years since Deseret Book acquired us, and it has been a very pleasant road. Editorially, we run almost entirely as we did before the acquisition. Sheri Dew is our CEO and consults with our general manager often, but other than that, we rarely interact. I know some of the Deseret Book editors and authors and am on very friendly terms with them, considering them colleagues, and there is very little competition between the two companies. Very much so Covenant is like a national house imprint. We do focus on fiction with an LDS angle (and we don’t have nor plan to distribute nationally like Shadow Mountain).”  Covenant published 29 novels in 2009, down from 35 in 2008, but Shaw reported that there were no cutbacks, the dip was just a natural fluctuation, and the number of fiction titles would return to the low to mid 30s in 2010.  While Deseret Book/Shadow Mountain books have the natural advantage of the Deseret Book stores and tie-ins to the powerful “Time Out For Women” book club, Covenant reportedly does well at creative marketing.

There was considerable shake-up among the independent publishers in 2009. Some closed shop or were acquired, while new publishers emerged. Of the independent publishers, many complain privately that their books are sidelined in the Church-owned Deseret Book and Seagull chains, or kept out entirely.  Cedar Fort, Granite, Valor, and Walnut Creek have been able to place their books in the bookstores, but (as far as I can tell) Zarahemla, Parables, WiDo, and others have not.  Cedar Fort is the largest of the independent book publishers. Except for a temporary downturn in 2008, Cedar Fort has consistently published two novels a month for the last several years, and plans to continue this pattern in the future, despite the fact that non-fiction books make up the bulk of its sales. In 2008 it launched the Sweetwater Imprint for books that it thinks would do well in the national market as well as the Mormon market. Some non-Mormon authors publish at Cedar Fort.  Granite, the next most active publisher, has consistently produced novels of unremarkable literary value.

Spring Creek folded in early 2009, and Mapletree was acquired by WindRiver (both companies have published only non-fiction in the last two years). Two new publishers of mainstream Mormon fiction appeared in 2009, while another rechristened itself.  Valor Publishing Group was founded by Mormon author Candace E. Salima, with Mormon authors B.J. Rowley and Tristi Pinkston on the board. The Orem based company produced only one novel in 2009, but it was by Utah’s Attorney General Mark Shurtleff, a fortuitous way to kick of an enterprise.  The board is clearly positioning Valor as a house that can join the top ranks of Mormon publishers.  They have as many as 14 books scheduled for 2010, mostly genre novels (fantasy, adventure, and mystery). Salima has been outspoken in her belief that the current makeup of the government in Washington will bring America to ruins, so it is no surprise that Valor is planning two speculative fiction series, one by Salima and one by Gordon Ryan, which postulate a future America in chaos.  One board member told me, however, that books Valor publishes “must be respectful in nature, not written to slam the ideologies of other political parties but rather to uphold the beliefs espoused by the author.”

Another new press is WiDo Publishing, based in Salt Lake City, and run by Liesel Autrey, Kristine Princevalle, and Karen Gowen. Although it published a novel in 2007, only in 2009 did it become a serious house, releasing two novels and signing contracts with at least five authors to publish their novels in 2010, including Marilyn Brown. Another new name is Walnut Springs Press, although in this case it is not a truly new company, but rather a renaming of Leatherwood Press, a company that has existed since 2004.  Walnut Springs published five novels in 2009, as well as some non-fiction.

Zarahemla Books and Parables Publishing are both small operations which were founded in 2006 and are dedicated to producing serious literary works.  Both continued to publish in 2009, with Zarahemla, published by Chris Bigelow, looking especially strong. Zarahemla published three novels in 2009, all three of which are strong contenders for the best literary work of the year. It has a short story anthology, a theatrical anthology, and two short story collections on tap for 2010.  A new literary publisher is B10 Mediaworx, a Kansas City press run by Elizabeth Beeton, which publishes work which mixes earthiness, even sensuality, with depictions of spirituality. Beeton told me, “I want to publish works by more Mormon authors, if I find stories I like that don’t fit anywhere else. I also want to publish work by nonmembers who want some mixture of worldliness and their own spirituality that is risky and/or speculative. I’m not particular about faith, just that characters HAVE one and either try to live by it or respect it, even if they don’t. I mostly focus on romance with a spiritual twist.”  Among B10’s publications was the remarkable anthology The FOB Bible, a collection of short stories and poems based on the Old Testament.

Parables Publishing, BYU Press, and the Mormon journal Dialogue each produced poetry collections in 2009 (Mark D. Bennion’s Psalm & Selah: Book of Mormon Poems, Eliza R. Snow’s The Complete Poetry, and Mary Lythgoe Bradford’s Purple, respectively). Sunstone Magazine published the collection The Best of Mormonism, 2009 through its new imprint Curelom Books. Finally, Signature Books published no books in 2009, instead spending the year digitalizing its back catalogue.  With Zarahemla and the other literary presses successfully publishing “edgier” works, and considering how negative Signature editors have been about the prospects for Mormon fiction, I would be surprised to see them publish any more significant fiction in the near future.

This last month I surveyed a wide range of LDS publishers, authors, and reviewers, asking them about current trends and favorite books. I promised the authors (who are careful not to anger their peers) I would not reveal their individual favorites in this review.  From them, as well as from published reviews, I got a good idea of the best and bestselling Mormon market literary works published in 2009.

While no publisher gave me numbers, it appears that the bestselling novels of 2009 were historical fiction superstar Gerald Lund’s The Undaunted (Deseret), a massive take on the 1879 Hole-in-the-rock pioneers, and Anita Stansfield’s four romance novels (Covenant).  Close behind was Josi Kilpack’s Sadie Hoffmiller series of “cozy” mysteries, Lemon Tart and English Trifle (Deseret Book).  The series has received very strong reviews.  The mystery genre as a whole blossomed in 2009. Among the favourite “cozy” mysteries were Betsy Green’s Murder by the Book (Covenant) and Tristi Pinkston’s Agent in Old Lace (Cedar Fort).  Other mysteries or thrillers that received strong reviews (all of which were published by Covenant) are Traci Hunter Abramson’s hostage drama Lockdown, Stephanie Black’s tightly-plotted suspense novel Methods of Madness, Guy and Jeffrey Galli’s Middle Eastern spy/suspense novel Shadow Hunter, Jeni Grossman’s subtle and multi-dimensional tale of Islam and women in Turkey Missing Pieces, Jennie Hansen’s thriller Shudder, and Gregg Luke’s medical drama Altered States.

Historical fiction also remains a popular genre, as Gerald Lund’s continued success proves.  Another work which mined stories of the pioneers was David Farland’s highly regarded and emotionally powerful In the Company of Angels, a handcart company novel which Farland self-published.  Heather Moore mixes careful research and excellent storytelling in Alma (Covenant), the sixth of her popular Book of Mormon novels.  Outside of scriptural/pioneer stories, Sandra Grey’s World War II drama Tribunal (Covenant) won many fans. Jennie Hansen wrote, “Not only does this book tell a remarkable story, provide in depth historical insights, provide characters the reader can care deeply about, but it is rewarding to read a novel with such a rich vocabulary and almost no copy errors . . . I personally found this novel at the top of my list of mature and satisfying LDS novels.”

Two strongly reviewed historical fiction novels were designed to sell to the national market, and containing no LDS characters, but primarily were sold within the Mormon market.  G. G. Vandagriff’sThe Last Waltz (Shadow Mountain), a thick novel set in Vienna during the World Wars of the 20^th century, masterfully presented the clash in cultures, views, and personalities in that city. Vandagriff’s book was on perhaps more Mormon market “best books” lists of authors I surveyed than any other.  Jennie Hansen wrote, “Her characters are strong and likable, yet flawed in ways the reader can visualize and accept. The plot and theme carry brilliantly throughout the entire almost six hundred page novel without repetition or sags . . . The Last Waltz is a book to savor.”  Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff received generally good reviews for Am I Not a Man? (Valor), his novel about Dred Scott, the slave whose suit for freedom made it to the Supreme Court in 1857. Shurtleff won many over with his powerful and detailed retelling of a key moment in American history. Some reviewers noted, however, that the book sometimes read more like a history book than a novel.

While romance novels were not nearly as ubiquitous in the Mormon literary world as they have been in the past, they remain a key part of the market.  Reviewers almost invariably mentioned three authors as going beyond the expectations and limitations of the genre: Rachel Ann Nunes, Michele Paige Holmes, and Annette Lyon. Rachel Ann Nunes’ Saving Madeline (Shadow Mountain), about a female attorney’s partnership with an unpredictable father who is battling to protect his daughter from a drug-abusing mother, is regarded Nunes’ finest yet. Hansen wrote, “The story is gripping and will leave the reader squirming over the ethics questions.  The characters are expertly drawn, believable, and multi-faceted.”  Michele Page Holmes’ All the Stars in Heaven (Covenant) tells the story of a male Harvard law student and a female music student who is a virtual prisoner of her family.  Jennie Hansen commented that All the Stars in Heaven is one of those few romances “that approach the relationship between a man and a woman as one of friendship that grows to something more as mutual respect and knowledge of who the other is gradually develops . . . where realistic and deepening relationships grow out of common beliefs and values, respect, shared goals and experiences, and a willingness to sacrifice for each other, as well as the physical attraction component.”  Annette Lyon’s historical romance Tower of Strength (Covenant) uses the building of the Manti Temple as its setting. Many reviewers commented on Lyon’s strongly rendered characters and her ability to avoid cliché.  Other romance novels of note include Joyce Dipatista’s medieval romance Illuminations of the Heart (Walnut Springs), and rookie author Heather Justesen’s family drama The Ball’s In Her Court (Cedar Fort).  Cedar Fort published two comic “chick lit” romances that have received warm reviews—Aubrey Mace’s holiday themed Santa Maybe (Cedar Fort) and Elodia Strain’s marriage themed Previously Engaged.

In the National Market section I discussed the flood of young adult fiction published by Shadow Mountain. Cedar Fort also published three fantasy novels in 2009, although none of them made much of a splash.  The non-Shadow Mountain speculative novel that has received the most attention is a self-published one, Riley Noehren’s Gravity vs. the Girl. Described as “paranormal chic lit”, it tells of a woman who is followed by the ghosts of her former self.  Eric W. Jepson called it “the best comic novel I read this year,” Heather Moore wrote, “astonishing, thought-provoking novel. Funny, definitely quirky, but to fall-in-love with.”  Joan Sowards’ Haunts Haven (Walnut Springs), an “LDS Ghost Story” also received some positive attention.

Zarahemla Books continues to publish some of the finest Mormon literary of recent years. Zarahemla’s output in 2009 is remarkable in that the authors and protagonists are all men, a rarity in a market dominated by female readers and authors.  BYU professor Douglas Thayer, the dean of the Mormon literary world and sometimes called “The Mormon Hemingway,” has been enjoying a renaissance this last decade.  The latest in his series of well-received novels, The Tree House, tells the story of a Provo boy who experiences the death of his father, missionary work in post-war Germany, and war in Korea. BYU professor and author Elouise Bell wrote, “The Tree House ranks with The Red Badge of Courage in its creation of the ghastly bubble inhabited by a soldier in battle. Claustrophobic, electrified by panic, astonishingly intimate, Thayer’s chapters on war have a power we have not seen from him before. There is not a shred of moralizing here, yet the book nourishes the soul from start to finish.”  Another BYU professor, Richard Cracroft, wrote, “I’ve never read a better or more gripping treatment of men at war. Thayer’s characters and places are real; they are alive.”

Southern Utah University professor Todd Robert Petersen has written what I consider the best Mormon short stories of the last decade. His first novel, Rift, centers on a retired Sanpete County Mormon man who devotes his time to serving others, but also nurses a long standing feud with his bishop.  Brady Udall wrote, “What a pleasure to read the work of a writer who understands and can accurately portray the small, out-of-the-way parts of this world where honor, generosity, and sheer cussedness are still operative principles. Todd Petersen has written a funny and tough- minded account of a place where family, faith, and community still come first.”  Shelah, in Segullah, wrote, “Jens Thorsen is likely my very favorite character in Mormon fiction, including The Backslider’s Frank Windham, who reminds me in some ways of a very young Thorsen . . . I’ve read a lot of books about women in small towns banding together to fight ignorance (like this year’s The Help) and women in religious communities fighting gossip and small-mindedness (like The Ladies’ Auxiliary), but one of the things I love best about Rift is that it’s a book about close male friendships, and men engaged in good works. Petersen’s debut novel is a beauty, and Jens Thorsen is a character who will stay in my mind, and make me think twice about the people who live in the small towns of rural Utah as I speed past them on my way to Bryce or Zion.”

Jonathan Langford’s No Going Back breaks important new ground in Mormon fiction: a honest but recognizably “Mormon” dipiction of male homosexuality. Author and WiDo editor Karen Jones Gowen wrote, “I found No Going Back to be a deeply spiritual, faith-affirming story that is neither contentious nor agenda-driven. In fact, it’s a refreshingly honest look at all sides of this issue. Paul’s dilemma and his subsequent pondering of what this means for his life now and in the future touched my heart and soul . . .  The character development is incredible. Read it if only to see the artistry with which Langford creates his cast of players. Even minor characters come to life on the page . . . No Going Back is a fast read, even quite funny in places. I could hardly put it down. It is richly layered and complex, thought-provoking and heart-wrenching, a finely written tale of depth and meaning.”  Reviewer William Morris wrote, “By telling the story simply, tying it to a particular time and place, and focusing on the teenage protagonists, Langford is able to confine the discussion of this issue to a manageable narrative—and a compelling one. The approach Langford takes is genius. I love the way he threads the middle of American Mormon mores, doctrine, and practice in a way that is in some senses mundane—this is basically a domestic drama—but also incredibly radical . . . Any discussion of same-sex attraction makes a lot of Mormons uncomfortable. But the novel is thoroughly orthodox. Its characters are orthodox Mormons. Its tensions and ultimate solutions and resolutions are firmly rooted in active LDS life—prayer, scripture study, repentance, the priesthood, love, charity, hope, the family.”

I have enjoyed the few of these books that I myself have read, and look forward to reading several more.  I hope you will do the same.