Chris McClelland, multiple award-winning short story writer and novelist

  The weather is getting crisper and cooler again on this late Holloween evening in Provo Utah, and I am turning nostalgic with the turn of the weather.  I look back, realizing that it has been 10 years since my first novel was published, and all the time I have devoted, along with my wife, to the appreciation and study of good writing.  I also realize that you will probably be reading this on November First, my original "Release Date" for my new novel, Contrition: A Novel of Healing and Redemption.   It is also the Mexican Day of the Dead, appropriate for releasing a book that is so much about life and death. I have a rare treat for everyone today.  A trip in the "Way Back" machine with an interview that features the beginnings of my life as a reader, and later a writer of fiction.  And my interviewing the late, great C. Michael Curtis. A few things I wanted to give my readers a heads-up on, a foreshadowing if you will.  On Veterans' Day, and the...

A little action on the book review front. The results are mostly encouraging and positive. It makes me feel good, knowing my voice is being understood by some.  See the links below for the critical reception thusfar:    https://www.associationmormonletters.org/2026/10/chris-mcclelland-introduces-contrition-a-novel-of-healing-and-redemption/    https://leovidalbookreviews.blogspot.com/2026/10/review-contrition-novel-of-healing-and.html    https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/9017393456

As some of you may know, I have just published my second novel, Contrition: A Novel of Healing and Redemption.  It has been a total of ten years in the making, and if you read "Under Old Glory" my YA novella, getting yourself a free digital copy of Contrition: A Novel of Healing and Redemption is a MUST, to see how Hyrum's story turns out.  It will be available free digitally on October 11th, and 12th, 2026 As the great war novelist once told me: "Peace." Click here

  A Novel 10 Years in the Making Hyrum Fratelli is a typical sensitive Mormon young man at the turn of the 20th Century. With his older brother, he signs up for the US Army with dreams of glorious heroics and colorful war stories like his father had told him and his brothers after the father had served with Teddy Roosevelt’s Rough Riders. Hyrum’s time in the trenches of Belgium and France teach him about a much more brutal side of war. He returns critically wounded, and in a coma. Will he awaken, wonders Leigh, his nurse, family friend, and future spouse, and will he be able to ever walk again? He will do much more, but his spirit has been damaged in deeper, more fundamental ways. A walking spiritual shadow, he meets his fellow apparitions along the way. A demonic seemingly possessed man attacks him in a dank dimly-lit VA mental ward. A ghostly man repeatedly visits him at home in the Rocky Mountains, and speaks healing words to him in a German accent. Also at his side from the day...

  As a lead up to the release of my first novel in ten years, called Contrition: A Novel of Healing and Redemption, I wanted to put together a few posts on this website. First, I wanted to say my short fiction has gained some traction in the last couple of years.  Although Contrition definitely could be considered a "Mormon" historical fiction, most of my short stories have been set in contemporary times, and any references to Mormonism are usually incidental.  My main aim, as always, is the human spirit, the heart.  The ways in which we are affected by the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, to quote the bard.  Here is a link to a fairly recent review of my collection of stories, Physician, Heal Thyself. https://www. associationmormonletters.org/ reviews/older-reviews/ mcclelland-physician-heal- thyself-a-compact-collection- of-contemporary-stories- reviewed-by-andrew-hamilton/ And earlier this year in the same publication, a review appeared of my poetry c...

  This week marks the 10th Anniversary of my releasing my first novel.  It has been a long time, and now I am coming close to releasing a second historical novel, in which Brigham Fratelli's uncle plays a key role.  For now, I am making copies available for FREE for a very limited time, From 9-24 to 9-29.  If you have never read it, now would be a great time to take advantage of this opportunity... click https://www.amazon.com/portal/ customer-reviews/B01M1GYM9U/ ref=cm_cr_dp_d_show_all_top?_ encoding=UTF8&ie=UTF8& reviewerType=all_reviews Anyone interested in reviewing Contrition, my latest novel, please contact me here: provocanyonreview@gmail.com

  Charlie Kirk Poem (Sadness) By Chris McClelland   His name meant “church” in Scottish, Oddly enough for the man who stood for God and Country, Faith and Family, Pick your sound bite.   He was killed literally in my backyard, Little old Orem, Utah, Family Town, USA. He maybe thought, that September day, “How unseasonably hot, for the Mountain West,” as he was struck down.   Leaving forever unanswered larger questions and dying dreams. Down the highway, they called it, DOA, And closed a too brief chapter, A historical footnote. A very small ER in a small suburban hospital Growing, now, on the move, new buildings going up everywhere. While all the Talking Heads fight tooth and nail, Left and Right Extreme, I recall Donne’s words: “any mans death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankinde, And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee.”