Blog #18, September 29, 2019
The air is getting more chilly in Orem, Utah, and I have just received the latest Smithsonian magazine in the mail. Some interesting essays always seem to be in every issue. The one last month was on the marine biologist Ed Ricketts and his voyages with John Steinbeck. These were historic in nature and ground-breaking for the field of biology. Another publication that never fails to inform and transfix is American Heritage. Both of these publications are key for a historical novelist, to keep the past alive in one’s own mind if nothing else, and to educate oneself in a broad way about the history of this country.
I am keeping busy with the new novel, tentatively titled A Contrite Spirit, the title of which I found in the scriptures of the LDS church. The main characters are LDS (Mormon) and the tale traces the battlefield horrors of the First World War and one man’s efforts to heal them, with the help of his wife and his brother.
Also of note in this blog, I am currently reading my good friend John Bennion’s second Rachel novel, Ezekiel’s Third Wife. It is an interesting story that is teaching me a lot about the Old West and life in the Utah Territory before polygamy was outlawed and Utah became a state. The characters are likable, if a little rough around the edges.
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