Latter-day Commentary

    “I don’t like travelling,” said Jason as he rolled up his blankets. “You have to pack so much food and water and all those changes of clothes, especially for a long journey.” He wanted to complain some more but the look on his mother’s face stopped him short. Instead he asked, “How long will we be gone this time?”
    “Jason, come here. Sit on the couch next to me.” After he had done so, his mother continued. “Do you remember when father told us about this journey a few months ago?” Jason nodded his head and his mother continued. “The famine has become worse since that time. We may never be coming back to our home.”
    “What?” exclaimed Jason, “Not coming back? How can this be?” This was the only home he had ever known. He felt safe here and loved living in the palace with his cousins. Yes, he had gone on some travels with father, but only to the next kingdom to trade spices for sheepskins. “Where will our journey take us?”
    Mother paused a long time before responding. She stood up and had her back to him and it looked like she had tears in her eyes. “None of us are really certain, Jason. We will follow the trade routes as far as we have ever gone before and then…” she trailed off. “We will follow the directions in the sacred scrolls.”
    Although Jason was only nine years old, he had heard his parents read from the sacred scrolls many times. He had even snuck them out and tried to read them a few times himself. But they were hard to understand. They seemed mysterious, and were written in a cryptic kind of language that spoke of marvelous treasures.
    “So we’re going to find the long-lost treasures of the scrolls!” Jason was very excited now and finished his packing as quickly as possible. Mother was relieved and helped him tie everything into the bundles that would go on the backs of the horses. They were lucky to have them. Some of the people were walking on foot.
    Being a prince was no easy job. He had to act so dignified around the palace. But now that they were on a journey, he could ride and talk with his cousins and their friends without having to worry. They had fun as they chased the animals and took little side trips to see things they had seen previously on these trails.
    Sometimes they would walk to let the horses rest. There were several families all travelling together. They needed to stay close for safety once they got past all the friendly kingdoms they had been through before. At last they came to the end of the known realms and were entering into lands that were full of many surprises.
    One day, they woke up and found outside their tents a very curious round ball unlike anything they had ever seen before. It was made out of metal and had a couple of pointers that showed the direction they should take on their journey. Father said it was a gift from those who had gone before. He read it in the scrolls.
    They could only carry so much food and had to rely on the men to hunt and find food to eat. Sometimes writing would appear on the round ball that told them where to go to find food. The writing seemed to show up just when they were getting most hungry and tired from their travels. Somebody was guiding them.
    The writing told them to go towards the mountains they had seen for many days in the distance. It started to get cold as they began to climb the mountains. Jason was glad that they had packed the sheepskin blankets to keep them warm at night. He looked up at the stars and wondered why they looked different than before.
    One morning there was a strong earthquake. Nobody was hurt but it scared the animals and the little children. Jason was not afraid. He heard the men talking around the campfire the night before that they were getting closer. “Closer to what?” he wondered. Mother looked worried and talked quietly to his father.
    They had been going south for so long that the sun did not come out during the day any more. After the earthquake, it seemed to Jason that he could see strange things in the sky. It was getting darker and darker each day, but when the clouds parted he saw stars going by quickly. Stars aren’t supposed to move like that.
    There were more earthquakes, but still they kept on climbing the mountains. Some of the men wanted to turn back, but Jason’s father would read to them out of the scrolls and they would agree to go on. Finally they came to a spot that was not so cold and had some shelter from the wind that was close to the highest peak.
    “Here we wait,” announced Jason’s father. “Wait for what?” Jason wondered. Even though his father was a king, Jason could see that some of the people were not happy with where the king had brought them. Although a few mountain goats and a nearby stream provided food and water, this seemed like no place to live.
    “We won’t be here long,” Jason’s father told mother. “Tomorrow you will see why.” And he was right. The noise started before dawn. It was a vibrating noise, long and low, as if it were coming from deep down inside the planet. They could not only hear the noise, but could feel it too. It got louder and longer and deeper.
    Then they saw it! There in the sky above them was what looked like the moon, only it wasn’t a moon, it was another planet. Now it made sense to Jason why it looked like the stars had been rushing by. They had been moving faster and faster until they caught up with the planet and overtook it. It was now right below them.
    Of course, to Jason, it looked like it was above them. Astonished, he watched as his father went out a little ways from the camp and raised his long staff in the air that he always carried with him. Lightning jumped from the staff towards the top of the nearby mountain that then caused something wonderful to happen.
    It seemed like the whole top of the mountain opened up. Something started to flow between the mountain and the planet up above. The same thing happened from the other planet and the two energy flows met and merged. The noise was deafening but Jason’s attention was riveted on what was happening to his father.
    He was rising up in the air, going faster and faster until he was out of sight. Jason turned to mother but she didn’t seem frightened at all. “It was all in the scrolls,” she explained. Your father is going to the other world to tell them we are here. They have been expecting us. We will be able to follow him a little later.”
    At last Jason understood what the scrolls meant. The long-lost treasure was the world above them. They had been broken off from this world so long ago that nobody believed the scrolls anymore. They talked about the many things they would find in the world above. Jason could hardly wait until he could go there.
    They had come home. No wonder his father said they weren’t going to stay there in the tops of the mountains. They were all going to go to the new world. He looked up in amazement as the beauty of the world above. It looked like most of it was water, which he had only seen in books. Mother said it was called earth.

I’ve seen dust storms in Denver before, but there’s something different about this one.  I can’t put my finger on it.  It seems so…I don’t know…red.  And why is there so much dust in the air anyway?  It’s not all that windy right now.  It looks like the dust is falling from somewhere high up in the sky.  It’s not being picked up off the ground and blown around by the wind.  But that’s impossible.  Dust doesn’t just fall from the sky like that, especially not in the winter.  What could it be…?  Mesmerized, Mitch Johnson continued to watch the red dust fall as he drove towards the Denver International airport.
     “And planes don’t fall from the sky like that either,” he said aloud.
     Mitch’s attention was diverted from his thoughts about the weird weather when he heard what he thought was a car backfiring.  He looked up and saw a plane dropping much too fast for a safe landing.  He was driving to the airport to catch a flight to Washington D.C. to attend a meeting of the American Astronomical Society.  He had recently been awarded a prize for his work on the effects of planetary gravity on comets and was an invited guest to present a paper on the subject.  It was quite an honor for such a young astrophysicist from the University of Colorado.  Well, 34 seemed young to him.
     It looked like the jet engines were surging and then flaming out.  He heard the popping sound of the surges a few seconds after he saw the flames.  But what really caught Mitch’s eye was the strange blue glow around the nose and engines of the aircraft.  “What the hell is that?” he asked aloud.  It was now apparent that the plane was in serious trouble.  The likelihood that the crew would be able to land the jet dead stick on final approach was looking very slim.
     Mitch quickly pulled over, grabbed his iPhone out of his shirt pocket and began shooting video of the aircraft.  Just as he started recording, the engines popped once again and then miraculously restarted.  And not a moment too soon, as the plane was less than 1,000 feet above the ground.  He continued to record the landing, hoping to catch another sighting of the strange electrical glow on the leading edges of the plane, but it was not repeated.  In an amazing demonstration of deliberate control, the pilot kept the nose up as the engines came back up to speed just in time to prevent a certain crash landing.
     The jet finally slammed down roughly, a ways past the normal touchdown area, bounced noticeably and careened down the runway. Denver runways are very long, but it was obvious that this plane wasn’t going to be able to stop in time.  It burst into the field past the end of the runway and ended up in a small ravine a few yards short of a roadway.  Incredibly, there was no fire.  Mitch had been on a flight from Las Vegas to Burbank that had overshot the runway back in 2000.   He could just imagine the horror the passengers and crew must be going through right now.
     He put his iPhone back in his pocket and raced to the end of the runway which was less than a mile away from where he had stopped.  Even though there were many vehicles headed in that direction, Mitch was able to drive to within a dozen yards of the jet.  He was one of the first to arrive on the scene.  Most of the passengers had already escaped down the emergency slides and were milling around.  He was surprised when one of them ran up to his truck as he stopped, clutching tightly at a leather briefcase.
     “Can you get me to the terminal right away?” asked an old man with wild and frantic eyes.  “I’ve got to catch a flight to Washington D.C. and I don’t have time to wait around for the emergency crews.”
     Mitch stared at the old man slack jawed, but only for a second.  “What are you, crazy?  We’ve got to see if anybody’s hurt and help them!”
      The old man looked around and said, “Look, nobody’s hurt.  The pilot did an amazing job and got us down safely.  We all got off the plane okay and now I need to catch my flight.  Will you take me or not?  I don’t have time to wait for a shuttle bus.”
     Now Mitch was certain that the old man was crazy.  He got out of his truck and began making his way toward the plane to find a member of the flight crew.  The old man was right in step behind him but Mitch didn’t stop.  He ran quickly down the little ravine and approached a uniformed crew member.  “Is everyone alright?” he asked when he came to a man who appeared to be the captain.  Surprised, the officer whirled around and looked closely at Mitch, tying to ascertain if he was a passenger.
     “I saw the landing from where I was stopped along Airport Boulevard. In fact, I got the whole thing on video.  Are you okay?” Mitch repeated.
      It finally registered with the captain that Mitch was neither a passenger nor rescue crew.  His eyes left Mitch’s face and resumed looking around at the passengers.  He was trying to determine for himself the answer to Mitch’s question.  “I don’t know yet,” he said.  “I’ll be shocked if nobody is seriously hurt but so far everyone seems to be off the plane and uninjured.”
     “What happened?” Mitch shouted after the captain, who had turned to find the rest of his crew.  He had to run after him and repeat the question.
     “It’s this damned red dust,” yelled the captain.  “Look around.  You can see how thick it is.  It got sucked into our engines and caused them to flame out.  We lost them on the way in at 30,000 feet and barely got them going just in time to land.  It’s a miracle.  If you got that landing on video I’d like to see it.  I didn’t think we were going to make it.”
     The old man suddenly jumped between them and grabbed the captain’s arm.  “Look,” he said, “my name is Manny Volynski.  Here’s my card.  I was on that plane but now I’m leaving.  I don’t have time to wait for the rescue crew.”  And with that, he turned and hurried up to the road on a trot toward the terminal.
     The captain stared at the card for a second, looked up and stared at Manny, who was already out of earshot and then spun back to Mitch.  With desperation in his voice, he asked “Will you go after him?  He can’t leave until the authorities get here.”  Wanting to protest but seeing that it would be helpful to the overwhelmed captain, Mitch went back to his truck without a word to get the crazy old guy and bring him back.
     He sped up the road and pulled in front of the old man cutting him off.  Jerking open the door, he jumped out and confronted him.  “Where do you think you’re going?”
     “Look, Mitch.  I just got off a plane that almost crashed because it sucked up dust from your comet that is now falling all over the Western United States.  We were lucky just to get out of California let alone make it all the way here to Denver.  I’m going to Washington D.C. to try one more time to convince your buddies that this thing is much more dangerous than you’ve been telling people.  Now are you coming with me?”
     Mitch let go of Manny’s arm and stepped back with a look of shock in his expression.  “How the hell do you know me and what do you mean by ‘my comet’?”
     “Come on!  It’s named after you since you discovered it.  You’ve been all over the news telling people how wonderful it is that we will have such a close encounter with your great comet.  Don’t you realize by now that this dust is from your comet?  I tried to tell you about this a long time ago but you never listen to guys like me.”
     It finally dawned on Mitch that he knew this old man.  He was the guy that kept showing up at astronomical conferences claiming that the earth was going to be visited by a planet in the near future.  Even worse, he argued that a rendezvous with this planet would bring catastrophic changes to the world and disaster for people everywhere.
     Seeing that Mitch recognized him, Manny continued. “I told you that this would happen.  I even tried to tell you what’s going to happen next, but you had me thrown out of the last conference.  Do you believe me now?”
     “Believe what, old man?” Mitch snapped back.  I only believe that you’re crazy.  I promised the captain that I would get you back to the plane.  Now get in!”
     The desperation was evident in Manny’s eyes as he almost shouted, “You of all people should believe me.  You know comets and have published papers on the effects of planetary gravity on comets.  This comet is so large that when it passed by Saturn, it was pulled slightly closer to the sun.  It went behind the sun at a steeper angle and is now coming a lot closer to earth than you have told the media.  In fact, it’s coming tail first.  We’re starting to pass through the tail and you know it.  This dust is from your comet!”
     Mitch did some quick mental calculations and began to put things together.  He had been too distracted by his preparations for the trip back East and hadn’t gone to the observatory last night.  Manny could be right.  He hadn’t seen the trajectory of the comet as it came from behind the sun.  Perhaps this dust really was from the comet.  He forgot all about the captain and the plane.  Now he only wanted to get back to his observatory.
     “Get in,” he said to Manny.  “I need to get back to the university.”
     “Haven’t you been listening to me?” replied Manny.  “It’s too late for that.  You don’t need to make any more observations. The evidence is all around us now.  We need to get to your conference and convince all the other astrophysicists what is really going on.  They’ll listen to you and the governments of the world will listen to them.”
     Although he wasn’t convinced at all, Mitch realized that they still had time to catch the flight, and he didn’t want to argue with him anymore.  Manny got in and they drove towards the parking garage, arriving just in time to catch a shuttle to Concourse B where the United Airlines flight to Washington DC should have been boarding.  The gate was strangely vacant and passengers were crowded around the counters.  They had been in such a hurry that they hadn’t noticed that no planes were boarding or taking off.
     “What’s going on?” Mitch asked a traveler at the back of the crowd.
     “All flights have been delayed by the dust storm.  A plane from California barely made it in.  Some others weren’t so lucky.  Take a look at the news on the monitors.”
     This was not good.  How could this be happening? Mitch thought to himself.  Just yesterday it had been his face up on those monitors telling the world that this comet was no cause for alarm and that we should be in for some spectacularly beautiful sunsets.  Astronomers a century ago caused great panic when they announced that comets contain poisonous cyanogen gas and that earth would pass through the tail of Haley’s comet.  People panicked, nothing happened and astronomers learned not to share some things.
     Not at all certain that he wouldn’t be recognized, and not wanting to explain himself, Mitch ducked into a lounge area to think.  Yes, he knew that this comet was different.  For one thing it was bigger than any comet he had ever seen.  It was almost the size of a small planet.  In fact, nobody had been able to get good measurements because of the way it was approaching the sun.  They were hoping to make those observations today, but he had to catch the flight to the conference.  No, this was just not good at all.
     “I tried to tell you, but you just wouldn’t listen.”  It was Manny again.  Mitch had forgotten about him with all the excitement of the cancelled flights and the news of the dust storm displayed on the airport monitors.  Manny sat down next to him at the bar.  “That’s not a comet.  It’s a planet and it’s going to cause a whole lot more destruction before it gets to where it’s going.  You can warn the people and help them prepare.”
     “Prepare for what?” Mitch exclaimed.  “Manny, you’re not a scientist.  You are not an astronomer.  You know nothing about the world we live in.  We spend our lives making observations and making sense of the things that fly around out there in space.  You spend your days digging old myths out of books and manuscripts that contain nothing but folk tales.  There’s no precedent for all your conjecture and theory.  Your ideas of an ancient polar configuration of planets could not possibly be correct.”
     It didn’t look like the falling dust was going to let up soon and Manny had wanted to talk to Mitch for a long time.  This had turned out to be quite fortuitous that Mitch just happened to show up when the plane went off the end of the runway.  Although Manny’s wife had died years earlier, he had tried to stay close to his daughter in California.  He was very proud of her.  She was a research scientist and worked at the UC Berkeley Seismological Laboratory.  But she didn’t go in much for his theories either.
     Manny was much calmer now.  He sensed an opportunity to finally make his case to someone who had the background to understand what he had researched, discovered and written about over the years.  He threw out an easy question.  “If I can tell you what’s going to happen next and then what’s going to happen after that, will you at least consider that there may be something to these myths and theories that can help us?”
     Mitch sighed.  “Go ahead old man.  It doesn’t look like we’re going anywhere right away.  I think I already heard enough of your ideas at the last conference but I’ll listen just this one time.  Hopefully they’ll let us board the plane soon.  What have you got to say?  If this dust doesn’t let up in five minutes, I’m going back to Boulder.”
     Manny pulled a picture of his daughter out of the old worn leather briefcase that he always carried with him.  It contained his charts and diagrams that he used to explain his ideas to anyone who would listen.  The flight attendant told him to leave it behind when they jumped down the emergency slide but he took it anyway.  “Do you see this picture of my daughter, Cynthia?  She’s just like you – a scientist. She’s a seismologist – graduated from Cal Tech.  She doesn’t believe me either, but she’s about to get a lot more data to study over the next few weeks than she has had in her 27 short years of life.”
     As a scientist, Mitch didn’t believe in love at first sight, but there was something in those intelligent blue eyes that stared back at him from the photo.  He was surprised at how deeply he felt emotions stirring within him at the sight of the beautiful girl.  He had suppressed any kind of romantic feelings over the years as he dedicated himself to his work.  Wait a minute…this was just a silly picture.  What was he thinking?
     Manny continued, “As the planet gets closer to earth, this dust we’re experiencing will be mixed with ash.  Besides bringing jets down out of the sky, the dust will mix with the water supplies of the earth and cause them to be polluted.  It will kill fish and will be a real problem to major metropolitan areas that will soon be without water.  The ash will cause much sickness and death to anyone who is exposed to it.  They must stay indoors.
     “After a little while this dust is going to turn to hail sized pebbles.  That will make some racket when it comes down.  It will knock out power and communications systems all over the world. It will also take out most of our satellites.  Think about how that will affect our way of life.  Then we’ll pass though some sheets of petroleum-based material that will mix with the pebble-sized hail and catch fire as it falls through the atmosphere.  Spontaneous fires will erupt all over the world, burning forests and cities alike.  This is not unprecedented by the way.  It was the cause of the Peshtigo fires of 1871.
     “The falling debris will get larger and larger until it comes down like artillery shells.  It will last for days and will wipe out the crops of the earth, burning them all up.  About this time the earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanic activity will begin in earnest.  Nobody has ever felt earthquakes like the ones that are going to be caused when the planet comes close enough that the gravitational pull rips the tectonic plates apart with a force that is indescribable.  Our planet will be covered in clouds and smoke and ash that get thicker and hotter by the hour making it more and more difficult to breathe.”
     “Stop!” shouted Mitch angrily.  “I’ve heard enough of your doomsday prophecies.  This is just a comet coming by.  It’s not going to cause the end of the world and you can’t go around telling people this kind of stuff.  It will cause pandemonium and mass panic.  Where did you come up with all this crap?  Oh wait, don’t tell me.  You read it in some ancient manuscript that you believe tells the story of what really happened sometime in our past.  Well, I don’t believe it and you have no evidence for all this nonsense.”
     “I didn’t say it would cause the end of the world,” Manny replied.  It will just cause a whole lot of destruction.  The planet is not going to hit us.  It is going to come up alongside us and overtake us in the same orbit around the sun.  Eventually it will come so close that the magnetic poles of the two planets will align.  Because the oncoming planet is larger than the earth, they will rotate at a much slower speed.  When that happens, you had better hope that you are not living anywhere north of a large body of water.”
     “I know I’m going to regret this, but dare I ask why?” Mitch questioned.
     Manny was almost gleeful as he finished his description of the events of the coming weeks and months.  “You know that right now, the centrifugal force of the earth causes a large bulge of water at the equator.  When the earth slows down, where is that water going to go?  Back to the poles, of course!  Boy I would love to see that view from space when it happens.  Think of all the water in the Gulf of Mexico.  Anybody who lives in the states around the Mississippi river is going to be wiped out by onrushing water.  And the same goes for the Northern California coast and the Northeastern seaboard.”
     “Are you through? Mitch asked incredulously as he stood up to leave.
     “No, but that’s enough for now.  I wouldn’t want to overwhelm you,” said Manny.  Just concentrate on what I said first about this dust turning to pebbles and the possibility of fire from the sky.  You can read about all the rest of the stuff in my books.  It’s all there.  It’s just too bad that you haven’t read them. You could help save people.”
     Mitch was sorry that he had agreed to listen to Manny.  He felt like he should say something to make it clear that he never wanted see this old man again but just then a news report on the airport monitor caught his eye.  Everyone was crowding around to see the live video feed of an incredible scene coming from Seattle.  It looked like heavy hail was falling; only it wasn’t hail.  It was sand and pebbles falling in sheets like rain.  But the most shocking thing was that some of it was coming down with fire.  Yes, it was fire from the sky, something he and his colleagues had said many times could never happen.
     Within a few moments it was gone, but not before several fires had broken out in the city.  Looking away from the TV and out the windows of the airport, Mitch could see that the red dust had finally stopped falling.  Flights would soon be boarding and leaving.
     “That’s just a sample of what we’re in for,” said Manny, at his side again.  “The dust and hail will be back and will be more widespread with each passing hour.  We’ve got a small window before travel becomes impossible.  I’m going to that conference to try to make a difference.  It would sure help if you could introduce me and let me present evidence from the historical record.  It’s all right here,” he said as he patted his briefcase.
     Mitch took a long look at Manny although he was still skeptical.  He said nothing as they got in line to board the plane.  He was thinking.  It would be career suicide to associate himself with Manny Volynski.  He could play it safe, walk away right now, and go back to his telescope at the university.  In light of the events of the day, his colleagues would understand if he wasn’t at the conference.  But if what Manny said was true, then what would it matter?  A career is nothing compared to saving humanity.
     “Come on, Mr. Volynski.  I want to look at those documents in your briefcase.  Let’s go save the world and that beautiful daughter of yours.”
     “I didn’t think you noticed,” smiled Manny, as they boarded the plane.

Copyright (c) Tim Malone 2009 - Painting of meteoroids (c) iStockphoto

Carol has written three complete novels. She has four more in various stages of production. These are not lightweight works that she dashed off in a few hours. The completed books are 90,000 to 110,000 words. She has worked on them almost every day since the beginning of the year. I expect she will finish at least one and maybe two more before the end of the year.

I keep asking her when she is going to publish them. She obviously loves to write. And even though I don’t generally enjoy fiction, I must confess, they are pretty good stories. She worked hard on the story telling and dialog. You can read a sample chapter from her latest book on her blog. She also read about forty romance books this year as part of her writing preparation.

In addition to her writing accomplishments, Carol has lost over one hundred pounds in the past year. Yes, you read that right – over one hundred pounds. She says she has a lot more to go. I am convinced she is going to do it. By this time next year, perhaps sooner, I expect Carol will be less than half the woman she once was. Why doesn’t she write a book about that amazing feat?

The LDS fiction market is hot

When our family owned an LDS bookstore back in late 1970’s, there really wasn’t a market for LDS fiction. Blaine Yorgason had just published Charlie’s Monument, Brent Yorgason was working on Windwalker and Jack Weyland was just beginning to think about publishing Charly. Anita Stansfield was nowhere near publishing her first book and Stephenie Meyer was a child.

Of course, you can’t put the Twilight series in the LDS fiction market just because Stephenie is a member of the church, although some have complained that Mormon beliefs are found in her books. The same could be said for Orson Scott Card. His success in publishing is not a part of the LDS fiction market, even though he has a few series that definitely have Mormon themes.

In our home library, we have books from LDS fiction authors like Chris Heimerdinger, Richard Paul Evans, Gerald Lund, Ron Carter and Anita Stansfield. But that’s about it. I am amazed to see all the LDS fiction when I go into a Deseret Book retail store on our visits to Utah. It sure has blossomed in the last thirty years since we had an LDS bookstore. I wonder why that is so.

Publishers of LDS Fiction

I’ve heard that Covenant Communications is actually the largest publisher of LDS fiction, with over 55% of their current catalog falling into that genre. Their ratio of fiction to non-fiction in their current catalog is 214 to 175 so that percentage holds up. I find it amazing that they now publish more fiction than non-fiction titles. The ratio looks a little smaller over at Cedar Fort.

You can find several lists of LDS fiction publishers online but even the beginning researcher into the market can see that distribution is the real name of the game. I’ll bet you know who owns that part of the business, don’t you? That’s right – Deseret Book. Nobody else even comes close. They bought Bookcraft years ago, then Covenant Communications and Seagull Book.

So let’s face it, if you want to publish and be successful in the LDS fiction market, you’re going to have to deal with Deseret Book, so get used to the idea right up front. Nobody else has the marketing muscle to get your book out there through their stores, their online web presence and their direct mailings. And of course, Deseret Book is owned by the LDS Church.

The inside scoop on LDS writers

One of my favorite group blogs for understanding how LDS fiction writers think is Six LDS Writers and a Frog. The essays are delightful and the quality of the content is exceptional. I would hope so. I mean, these are professional authors. They write about a variety of things but invariably you can learn how much work is involved in creating and promoting their work.

You can learn about writer’s block, editing, title selection, book signings, promotion and even rejection. Yes, published authors get rejected. Sometimes their material is considered to not quite fit the LDS publishing standards. And that is the real focus of my essay today. What if your writing style is more like Nora Roberts or Danielle Steel? Is that too risqué for Mormons?

I think that’s why Carol has not tried to publish her books yet. Her first one would never go over with an LDS publisher because it described some pretty exciting moments of romance. Hey, we Mormons get passionate too you know! Why do you think some LDS families are so large? Each book that Carol has written since then has been toned down until I think her latest is ready.

How to get published

You can read author guidelines at Deseret Book, Covenant and Cedar Fort. Horizon was bought by Cedar Fort awhile back in case you didn’t know. There are a lot of other LDS Publishers out there but these are the largest ones today. Oh, sorry, I didn’t even mention Signature Books but that’s because they don’t publish romance fiction. Did I mention that’s my essay focus today?

Take a look at the submission form at Cedar Fort for a real awaking of what is expected of an author today. They want to know how you can help market your book, details of any previous writing experience and speaking experience, and a description of your ability and willingness to travel to promote your book. Yes, you must do more than write a good book to get published.

For the more technical details of how to prepare a manuscript for consideration, go read the submission guidelines at Covenant Communications. Also check out their author questionnaire to confirm that public speaking is a required part of being an author. Hey, you obviously have something to say if you’re considering publishing a book. You’re expected to sell yourself.

Summary and conclusion

A lot of writers of LDS blogs, who are the primary readers of my essays, are also authors or aspiring authors. I’m convinced that there are many great potential new LDS authors out there. I don’t think we’ve begun to see the explosion in LDS fiction that is about to take place. With the obvious popularity of the still emerging LDS fiction market, we need more good writers.

I also remain convinced that the primary consumers of LDS books and especially LDS fiction are women. You can drop me a comment and tell me I’m wrong but my informal surveys among my own LDS acquaintances bear this out. Deseret Management knows that, which is why they put Sheri Dew in charge of the company. It is mostly Mormon women who buy LDS books.

This essay doesn’t address non-fiction publishing so I’ll try to pick that up in a subsequent post. I suspect the majority of people who read this essay are interested in publishing a fictional work. I hope this is helpful. I’ll add a bunch of links at the bottom where you can get more information on the LDS publishing market including LDS authors, booksellers and associations. Good luck!

01. Deseret Book - the primary channel for LDS book publishing
02. Covenant Communications - owned by DB but run separately
03. Cedar Fort - Large LDS publishing house - includes Horizon
04. Signature Books - Major LDS publisher - no romance fiction
05. Mapletree Publishing - A fairly complete list of LDS publishers
06. LDS Story Makers - A great collection of online LDS authors
07. Six LDS Writers and a Frog - Great insights on LDS writing
08. Authors Incognito - A great resource for aspiring LDS writers
09. A Motley Vision - More than LDS writing, but worth the visit
10. LDS Publisher & LDS Fiction - new but helpful LDS writing blogs