From: owner-aml-list-digest@lists.xmission.com (aml-list-digest) To: aml-list-digest@lists.xmission.com Subject: aml-list-digest V1 #951 Reply-To: aml-list Sender: owner-aml-list-digest@lists.xmission.com Errors-To: owner-aml-list-digest@lists.xmission.com Precedence: bulk aml-list-digest Thursday, January 23 2003 Volume 01 : Number 951 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 22 Jan 2003 05:47:43 -0700 From: "Alan Rex Mitchell" Subject: Re: [AML] Singles Ward A few questions for the List: 1. Isn't Singles Ward (SW) the most watched LDS movie to date? 2. Did SW succeed because of the characters, story line, warm fuzzy feeling, or technical merit? 3. Did it sell so many tickets because Mormon singles in Happy Valley love to laugh at themselves? 4. Was it "officially approved" by all the cameos and therefore liked ? 5. If Eric Samuelson, Richard Dutcher, and Eric Snider actually liked SW, what would that say about the state of Mormon arts? 6. Is it true that cattle will eat anything that is put in their stalls? 7. Did Dutcher, after seeing SW, really want to hang himself? 8. Why can't we all just get along? 9. Can't we hardly we wait until the sequel "The RM" comes out so we can hate it too? 10. Was it proper for Dutcher to label the girl as "the otherwise flat female lead?" (Of course, I noticed that right off but it is polite not to mention such things.) 11. Didn't Fiddler on the Roof come out in the 1960s? Or was there another Fiddler I don't know about? 12. Wasn't the moral of the play to commit genocide against all comedians? Alan Mitchell - -- AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 19 Jan 2003 06:34:24 +0000 From: "Andrew Hall" Subject: [AML] 2002 Year in Review: Novels (Part 1) The 2002 third annual mostly uniformed reviewer's Mormon literature year in review. Pt. 1: Novels [MOD: I have split the section on Novels into two posts for the sake of=20 length.] I am expanding the review somewhat this year, including an annotated list of all the novels released in 2002, including thumbnail descriptions and reviews when available. I apologize in advance for the numerous errors I have probably made. In following weeks I will also post my reports on short stories, literary non-fiction, theater, and film. Please remember I know nothing about literary criticism, I am just responding to stories and authors that I find appealing, particularly those who can combine literary flair with enlightening and thought/emotion-provoking content. I actually read less of this year's novels and short stories than last year, so I rely to an even greater degree than before on newspaper reviews, AML-list reviews, and general scuttlebutt. I am looking at literature written by, for, or about Mormons, which can be kind of hard sometimes, because I am not always sure who is Mormon. I include a few novels by non-Mormons which are set to a significant degree in a Mormon milieu, although I am sure I have missed several such books. I include young adult and juvenile novels, but not elementary age and picture books. Generally I think the world of Mormon literature is moving in a healthy direction. There are not nearly enough adventurous and original works being produced, but there are a few, and I get the impression that the general writing level of the authors producing more mainstream inspirational and/or escapist works is improving. Sure, there is lots of dreck, but that is true of all areas of the publishing world. If consumers of Mormon literature want to find quality material, it is out there waiting for them. I think the most interesting trend of recent years has been the large number of Mormon authors who writing excellent novels in the national juvenile and young adult categories. This year nine such novels were published, which I think is a record, and almost all of them garnered rave reviews. Among the most well received were two pieces of historical fiction about young women in the early days of the Church; Kimberly Heuston's The Shakeress and A. E. (Ann) Cannon's Charlotte's Rose. Reviewers praised both authors for their careful attention to historical details and straight-forward approach toward describing religious faith. Heuston's novel is an internal journey of a girl searching for God, going from the Baptists to the Shakers and ultimately to the Mormons. Cannon's novel is a more dynamic story about a Welsh girl who becomes a baby's surrogate mother while on the pioneer trail. It is exciting that two such high quality juvenile novels both incorporate religious faith among their main themes. As for novels about boys, Chris Crowe=92s Mississippi Trial, 1955 and Ron Woods' The Hero, both about boys coming of age in the 1950s, and both first novels by the respective authors, also received excellent notices, particularly in their ability to flesh out characters. Martine Bates Leavitt, Lael Littke, Jannette Rallison, Laura Torres, and Carol Lynch Williams also released YA novels which have received good to excellent reviews. This is an amazing flowering of YA talent, which I think those of use who read Mormon literature are not well enough aware. John Bennion has done some excellent work in analyzing Mormon YA novels, a recent example being his essay "Austen's Granddaughter: Louise Plummer Re(de)fines Romance" (http://www.ncte.org/pdfs/subscribers-only/ej/0916-july02/EJ0916Austens.pdf)= . Two well-regarded "literary" authors with Mormon connections, Judith Freeman and Brian Evenson, published novels in 2002. Freeman's novel "Red Water", a work of historical fiction about the John D. Lee family told through the eyes of three of his wives, probably was the Mormon novel which received the most national attention in 2002. Utah librarian Gail McCulloch called it "an achingly beautiful and eloquent story of friendship and faith," while The New York Review of Books said it "upends the Mormon order, in which men are privileged and women passive." Evenson's novel "Dark Property" is apparently about religious fanaticism, set in a post-apocalyptic world. It was published in November, and I have not yet seen it reviewed anywhere. Two literary novels which look at Utah/Mormon society through the eyes of non-Mormons trying to fit in, as well as dysfunctional family dynamics, are John Fulton's More Than Enough and Nicole Stansbury's Places to Look for a Mother. Both received strong reviews, and Salt Lake Tribune reviewer Martin Naparastack listed them among his "2002 Best of the West." New Zealand author Stephanie Johnson's novel Belief contains similar situations, although it was not as well reviewed. Among more popular fiction, several Mormon authors have found success with sentimental family-centered novels. Many of these authors first came to the attention of national publishers through their self-published works. Richard Paul Evans, the most famous of the group, found himself in the middle of a small Utah publicity storm when Deseret Book refused to stock his newest novel, "The Last Promise" because they felt it implied an adulterous relationship between two characters. Whatever its moral content, reviewers consistently dismissed the novel as "wooden and clich=E9d". One compared Evans' writing style to a Williams-Sonoma catalogue. Cameron Wright's 2001 self-published tearjerker about an elderly man leaving messages to his disintegrating family has been republished by Simon and Schuster, elevating him to the big time. James Michael Pratt, who has received reviews even worse than Evans, also belongs in this category. Kenny Kemp's novel The Welcoming Door is the first in a series of historical fiction about Christ as a young journeyman carpenter, observing and participating in events which he would turn into three of his future parables. Some people are nervous about novels which fictionalize important historical characters, so Kemp shows considerable bravery by inventing scenes and imagining the thoughts of a young Jesus. What makes Kemp's work so interesting is that rather than portraying Jesus as a teacher, his role in most of the gospels, he creates scenes in which he is a laborer or an older sibling, and thus imagines answers to the "What would Jesus do?" question in a variety of workaday situations to which a reader might relate. He creates a Jesus who is both endearingly mortal (he playfully teases his younger brothers and feels frustration during difficult jobs), but is also inspiringly wise and kind, befitting a son of God preparing for his ministry. Also, Kemp uses the parables as jumping-off points to create three increasingly complex stories, imagining full and surprising back-story lives for characters introduced only briefly in the scriptures. Kemp succeeds at creating an "inspirational" book which I think will appeal to many, without resorting to cheap emotional= =20 fireworks. Orson Scott Card released one novel this year, Shadow Puppets, the third in his popular Bean series. I have found the series to be as exciting as any of Card=92s pervious works, but not quite as memorable in the long run. Speculative fiction authors Tracy Hickman and Rebecca Lickess also published novels in 2002. Popular mystery author Anne Perry published installments of both her Pitt and Monk series over the course of the year. The major Mormon publishers (Covenant, Deseret, Cedar Fort, Signature, and Granite) produced a record number of literature titles in 2002, 58. This was largely due to a significant increase in the number produced by Covenant and Cedar Fort. Deseret Book, Signature and Granite published about the same amount as they did last year. Of the many authors publishing for the LDS market over the last few years, I feel Margaret Blair Young has created the most significant body of work. She seems to specialize in pain, probing great hardships and suffering in nearly all of her novels. She also pulled off the nice feat of having works published by Deseret Book and Signature in the same year (last achieved by Ann Cannon in 1997). I found Bound for Canaan, the second volume of the Standing on the Promises series co-authored with Darius Gray, to be among the most achingly beautiful works I have read in years. In their descriptions of the lives of black Church members during the Church's frontier period, Young and Gray put together a kaleidoscope of characters and settings, jumping back and forth between at least 10 reoccurring POV's, up from the 4 or so in the first volume. Rather then making the story disjointed, however, the multiple voices become a symphony of faith and pain which I haven't been able to get out of my head nearly a year after I read it. Young also released the novel Heresies of Nature, another study of the anguish of believers, this time about the shattering impact of multiple sclerosis on a woman and her family. Like her 1997 play Dear Stone, it is based on the experiences of Young's sister-in-law. I was blown away by that play, and am looking forward to reading the novel. Jeff Needle gave it an excellent review. There were six other 2002 Mormon-press novels which look good enought to me that I hope to read them some time in the future. 1. Linda Hoffman Kimball's The Marketing of Sister 'B' (Signature). A hilarious take on Mormon celebrity, wealth, and ward social dynamics. 2. Dean Hughes' Troubled Waters (Deseret). The seventh novel overall in the saga of the Thomas family, now into the mid-1960s, with the family split by the Vietnam War and the civil right movement. Hughes is one of our best storytellers, and he is one of the few writers of mainstream Mormon historical fiction who asks his readers to look at the difficult parts of our history as well as the heroic. 3. Jeff Call's Mormonville (Cedar Fort). A first novel, which features a refreshing look at Mormon Utah culture through the eyes of a cynical Eastern reporter. 4/5. Marilyn Brown's "Ghosts of the Oquirrahs" and "A Light in the Room" (Cedar Fort). Two novels, a new one and an old one, by one of our best literary stylists. 6. Kelly Blair's "Closing In" (Covenant). Several readers have raved about how well she blends humor and exciting adventure. Deseret Books released eight literary works in 2002, down slightly from their total of nine in 2001. For the second year in a row they introduced no new authors. I have heard rumors that the staff was reduced considerably and several book contracts were cancelled early in the year, so it appears the company went through some restructuring. Still, with the talent they have under contract, Deseret must be considered the strongest publisher in the LDS market. Young and Gray, Hughes, and Card are all in the middle of producing multi-volume series for the publisher. With them, the company has managed to gather some of the best storytellers in LDS literature, people who can write "faithful" fiction while still challenging their readers. Add to that Gerald Lund, the best selling author in the field, Jack Weyland, the best selling juvenile author in the field, Robert Farrell Smith, a very talented humorist, and Tom Plummer, an excellent essayist, and you have a strong collection of authorial talent. Now I would like to see them take the success and public trust they have developed and strike out into some more adventuresome areas. The recent conservative retrenchment signaled by the Richard Evans controversy is concerning, but it is yet to be seen whether the new policy will simply act to exclude works with overly explicit romantic scenes, or will also cover any kind of literature which takes Mormon readers out of their comfort zones. Covenant published 25 novels in 2002, up from 19 in 2001, an amazing amount. Covenant tends to produce escapist fantasies, heavy on the adventure and romance, with a few LDS references hovering in the background . It is generally more conservative than Deseret in its content. With so many new books, and not a lot of AML-list reviews, it is hard to get a handle of the overall quality of the material. Jennie Hansen has reviewed many of the novels for Meridian Magazine, but she consistently goes very easy on her fellow Covenant authors, so it is hard to figure out when she really thinks something is great and when she is just being nice. I get the impression that Kelly Blair, Betsy Green, Jeffery Savage, and Hansen herself are among the better writers of the group. Anita Stanfield, David Woolley, and Nancy Allen produced the company's biggest sellers of the year. Cedar Fort published around 19 novels in 2002, up from 14 in 2001 (since Cedar Fort's authors are not necessarily Mormon, it is hard to tell from some of the blurbs whether a book should be considered Mormon literature). Besides the strongly reviewed novels by Brown and Call, recent novels by Veda Hale, Douglas Adler, and co-owner Lee Nelson look intriguing. Rachael Nunes, a popular author who has published several novels with Covenant, switched to Cedar Fort mid-year, and produced the company's best selling novel of 2002. Former Covenant author Marilyn Arnold also came over to Cedar Fort. The company appears to have a more open editorial policy than Deseret and Covenant (as seen by their publication of several borderline oddball non-fiction books), so I believe it has a potential for producing some interesting pieces of literature, filling the kind of role that Aspen and Hatrack provided in the early 1990s. They have also published some very poorly written novels, they really are the wild card of the Mormon publishing world. Signature boasts the highest overall literary standards of the LDS publishing world, although they have averaged only two literary pieces a year for the last several years. This year they published two quality novels by Margaret Blair Young and Linda Hoffman Kimball. Next year there are two novels scheduled, BYU-Idaho English professor Jack Harrell's Vernal Promises and Community of Christ (RLDS) librarian Paul Edwards' "bibliographic mystery" The Angel Acronym. Both are the authors' first novels. Granite continues to plug along like a junior Covenant, publishing four romance/adventures in 2002. A new publisher, American Book, published two novels by Mormon authors towards the end of the year, although it is not primarily a Mormon press. Gibbs Smith, which is also not primarily a Mormon press, published its annual Carol Lynn Pearson book, as well as a Christmas storybook for missionaries. Cornerstone declared bankruptcy early in the year, and Horizon, the target of its failed merger, did not publish anything new. Greg Kofford Books, which has specialized in limited-run fine-binding books until now, announced it would start publishing for the general Mormon market, including fiction, and that it would distribute its books through Covenant. The music and film distributor Excel did not publish any more film tie-in books in 2002, although I expect it will next year. There seems to be more self-published and vanity press- published novels appearing in the Mormon market. Richard Paul Evans, Kenny Kemp, and Cameron Wright have parleyed their self- published works into national contracts in recent years, and several Covenant and Cedar Fort authors self-published a novel or two before they got contracts with those companies. It is hard to be sure how many of these novels were published in 2002, I am aware of 13 so far. Some are found at most Mormon bookstores, like Richard Lloyd Dewey's series about Orrin Porter Rockwell and Blaine Yorgasen's latest novel. Others probably are available in few places besides the internet. Jeff Needle gave a very strong review to one self-published novel this year, Dave Shield's The Pendulum's Path, which he called "literate alternative Mormon fiction". Literary works by publishers: Covenant: 25 Cedar Fort: 19 Deseret: 8 Granite: 4 Signature: 2 Gibbs Smith: 2 American Book: 2 Major adult: 15 (Card, Evans, Evenson, Freeman, Fulton, Kemp, Hickman,=20 Johnson, Lickess, Perry x2, Pratt, Stansbury, Wright, Freeman. Includes=20 books by non-Mormons Fulton, Johnson, and Stansbury which feature characters= =20 who pass through Mormonism.) Major juvenile: 9 (Cannon, Crowe, Heuston, Leavitt, Littke, Rallison,=20 Torres, Williams, Woods). Self/vanity press/etc.: 13 Andrew Hall Fukuoka, Japan _________________________________________________________________ MSN 8: advanced junk mail protection and 2 months FREE*.=20 http://join.msn.com/?page=3Dfeatures/junkmail - -- AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 19 Jan 2003 06:34:24 +0000 From: "Andrew Hall" Subject: [AML] 2002 Year in Review: Novels (Part 2) [MOD: This is the second half of Andrew's post.] 2002 novels Alder, Douglas. Sons of Bear Lake. Cedar Fort, Nov. Follows the lives of three Mormon brothers, including their differing perspectives on their faith and culture. Alder is a former president of Dixie Collage, this is his first novel. Allen, N. C. To Make Men Free. Faith of Our Fathers series v. 2. Covenant, September. Second in a historical fiction series set during the Civil War. It has been among the best selling novels of the year at Mormon bookstores. I have yet to see a real review of her work, I am interested to see what someone thinks of it. Andersen, C. B. The Lost Tribe -- Book of Mormon Sleuth 2. Bookcraft, 2002. Jeff Needle gave this young adult novel a fairly good review, although he thought the non-Mormon characters acted inauthenticly. About a group of plane crash survivors in the Artic who find one of the lost tribes. Arnold, Marilyn. Fields of Clover. Cedar Fort, May. About an elderly couple nearing their deaths, and their children who come to face their own immaturity. Lots of POV switches. Kim Madsen gave it a mixed review, but said it would help readers think about how to treat their own aging loved ones better. Arnold, a Willa Cather scholar, previously published three novels with Covenant. Bell, Michele Ashman. Without a Flaw. Covenant, May. Romance/adventure. A woman flees from her abusive husband. Bessey, Sian Ann. Cover of Darkness. Covenant, March. A thriller set in Wales, it also has romance and conversion elements. Jennie Hansen gave it a good review, said Bessey uses a rich vocabulary and a pleasant formal writing style. Blackwell, Pam. Michael's Fire. Onyx, November. Third in the Millennial Series, about the last days. The Ten Tribes come to Missouri, and the Chinese Antichrist takes control of the world economy. Blair, Kerry. Closing In. Covenant, June. A romance/adventure about a CIA agent and secretly rich woman. Jennie Hansen gave it a glowing review, said Blair blends humor and adventure as well as any author she has read. Her fourth Covenant book. Brown, Marilyn. Ghosts of the Oquirrhs. Cedar Fort, May. About a turn of the century Utah mining town. Jeff Needle praised it, said it was a "dark comedy, a spooky morality tale". It was taken off the shelves at Deseret Book for a while because of one slightly risque scene, which Brown has since modified. She is working on a novelization of Brigham City. - -----, A Light in the Room. Cedar Fort, Nov. A revised version of her 1983 novel Goodbye, Hello, which won an award and was published by the small press Randall Book. For this revision Brown added Christmas elements to make it more marketable. It is about a divided family coming back together, set in 1964. Call, A. Jeff. Mormonville. Cedar Fort, September. The manuscript won the 2002 Marilyn Brown Unpublished Novel Award, and then Brown turned around and almost immediately and published it. The novel is about an cynical Eastern journalist who comes to Utah and is surprised by what he finds. Several AML-List readers gave it strong reviews, although Kim Madsen said the writing is a little too much like a male romance, and Jeff Needle thought the sudden shift in tone near the end off-putting. Call is a sports writer at the Deseret News, and reviewers have said his background can be seen in his writing style of short punchy sentences. Cannon, A. E. (Ann). Charlotte's Rose. Random House/Wendy Lamb Books, September. For Grades 5-8. A Welsh girl in a handcart company takes care of a baby whose mother died. Excellent reviews. "Strongly sketched pioneer novel . . . Cannon's realistic details do justice to Charlotte's humorous and exhausting experiences . . . The author populates the handcart train with a conflict-charged cast . . . While offering some insight into Mormon doctrine, Cannon also proposes personal motivations for her Welsh characters' embrace of a new religion. Charlotte herself blossoms through her sacrifice, and her maturation will likely endear her to readers." "Despite a large cast, Cannon manages to distinguish most of her characters. Even though this is valuable as one of a very few books to show readers the Mormon Church from the inside and with sympathy, the focus is on the characters and not on the faith." Carabine, Sue. A Missionary’s Night Before Christmas. Gibbs Smith, August. Mini-book stocking stuffer, part of a humorous "night before Christmas" series. Card, Orson Scott. Shadow Puppets. Tor, August. Volume 3 of the Bean series, it is among the best-selling national science fiction novels of the year. Carter, Ron. World Turned Upside Down. Prelude To Glory v. 6. Deseret, April. The last years of the Revolutionary War. Cheyenne, B. V., with Glen Sudbury. The Keystone: The Day Alma Died. "The Keystone Project." The first in an ambitious Book of Mormon historical fiction series. The main author’s name is a pseudonym. The creators obviously put a lot of time into background research to create a believable setting, and spent a lot of money advertising the book. Unfortunately the writing style is terrible and the pace of the story is interminable. Crane, Cheri. The Girls Next Door. Covenant, August. About 6 BYU-Idaho roommates, including one with an eating disorder. Generally lighthearted and humorous. Crane wrote the five-volume "Kate" series previously. Crowe, Chris. Mississippi Trial, 1955. Phyllis Fogelman Books, June. The 1955 murder of 14-year-old Emmett Till in Mississippi and the trial of his racist killers are at the center of this strong first novel. Crowe tells the story through the eyes of a white teenager, Hiram. Review: "Crowe shows violent racism in daily life as well as in the drama of the trial, and he adds an edgy whodunit mystery element that will hold readers to the end. Teens will recognize how easy it is for Hiram to be a bystander to bigotry and will feel the horror of his sudden awakening to the evil that is part of 'normal' life. The Deep South setting is well realized. Descriptions of the climate, food, and landscape are vivid and on target. Likewise, Southern racial attitudes from the period are accurately portrayed. Grandpa is a racist but Hiram enables readers to see his good qualities as well." Decker, Richard. Winning. Cedar Fort, December. For young men. A former high school football player becomes a teacher and confronts his past. Dewey, Richard Lloyd. The Porter Rockwell Chronicles v. 4. Paramount Books, December. The fourth volume published since 1999. Eno, Thomas. Deep Waters. Covenant, June. A mysterious stranger has an inspirational impact on a local LDS community. This is Eno's third in a series about John the Beloved's ministry among modern people. Jennie Hansen said it is an "exciting adventure." Evans, Richard Paul. The Last Promise. EP Dutton, November. A romance set in Italy, about the relationship that develops between an Italian woman stuck in an abusive marriage and a visiting American man. "The new locale provides Evans with new descriptive material to use, but his writing remains wooden and cliched." -Lythgoe. Deseret Book announced it would not stock it in November. - -----, The Light of Christmas. (Illustrated by Daniel Craig). Simon & Schuster, October. Children's Christmas fantasy book. Very simple, has nice pictures. Evenson, Brian. Dark Property. Four Walls Eight Windows, November. Jacket blurb: "A woman carries a dying baby across a desert waste, moving toward a fortress harboring a mysterious resurrection cult. . . . On one level, Dark Property is an exploration of religious fanaticism. Although Evenson's characters owe more to the Book of Mormon than the Koran, their frightening intensity will spark recognition in both reviewers and readers. This brooding tale is reminiscent of Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian and J. G. Ballard's more disturbing works of fiction." Apparently Evenson's defense of an early version of this book was a part of his conflict with BYU in 1995, which led to him leaving the English Department faculty there. It was described in 1995 as being three novellas. I have not seen any reviews of it yet. In 2002 he was editor at the literary magazine Conjunctions, director of creative writing at the University of Denver, and wrote a book review column for the Rocky Mountain News. Fast, Warren. Lords of Perdition. Cedar Fort, May. A speculative/apocalyptic novel about spirit warriors who protect the earth from demons. The author is a police officer in Orlando. Featherstone, J. Scott. Hallelujah. ACW Press, July. ACW is a Christian self-publishing firm. About Handel composing Messiah. Featherstone is a feature and documentary movie writer and director. Has done several movies over the past few years, including the feature film . Freeman, Judith. Red Water. Pantheon, January. Freeman's novel about the John D. Lee family has received generally positive reviews, although a Deseret News article complained about the historical assumptions she makes. New York Review of Books: "Told through the experience of three of Lee's wives, the novel upends the Mormon order, in which men are privileged and women passive." Utah librarian Gail McCulloch calls it "an achingly beautiful and eloquent story of friendship and faith," while Catherine Weller at Sam Weller Books says, "It's fiction, but it feels very real and very vital." The Los Angeles Times says the book recalled "the best of Willa Cather." Freeman portrays Brigham Young very negatively, particularly blaming him for causing the Mountain Meadows Massacre. Freeman has won AML literary awards twice in the past. Fulton, John. More than Enough. Picador, August. About a family of non-Mormons who move to Salt Lake City and can't fit in. The young male protagonist is beat up in the beginning by a gang of Mormon boys. The sister drifts towards the Church for popularity, and the parents’ marriage falls apart. Focuses on family issues. SL Tribune reviewer Naparsteck rated it as among one of the 2002 "Best of the west" books. Other reviews have also generally been good. He previously published a short story collection, Retribution, which included some stories set in Mormon families. Green, Betsy Brannon. Never Look Back. Covenant. January. "A tale of intrigue, romance, and southern charm." A woman recovers from her divorce. It has received good reader reviews, especially for her humor. Terry Montague gave Green's previous novel a poor review, but Katie Parker says she is one of the better Covenant writers. - ------, Until Proven Guilty. Covenant, August. Her third novel. Grossman, Jeni. Behind the Scenes. Covenant, July. Thriller about a newswoman. Her second novel. Guymon, Shannon. A Trusting Heart. Cedar Fort, July. A very slight, simple romance. Hansen gave it a mediocre review, said it was nice, but nothing special. This is her second Cedar Fort novel, the first was about a white family adopting a black baby. Hale, Veda. Ragged Circle. Cedar Fort, December. A mother of a big family wants to express herself as an artist, but feels overwhelmed. Hansen, Jennie. Abandoned. Covenant, September. Adventure/romance. About a woman who was abused as a girl. Her eleventh novel. Jeff Needle has given her previous work strong reviews. Was on the Deseret Book bestseller list in the fall. Heuston, Kimberly. The Shakeress. Front Street, April. National young adult novel, had a fairly positive review in the New York Times, great reviews by AML-list members Paris Anderson and Rose Green. About a reflective 13-year old girl who joins the Shakers in the 1830s, and learns to be a herbalist. In the end she joins the Mormons. It made the Washington Post's list of 2002's Top Ten Kids Books. It is Heuston's first novel, she has previously written articles for The Ensign, as well as the non-fiction book Single Parenting: Help for Latter-day Saint Families (Deseret Book, 2001). Hickman, Tracy. Speed of Darkness StarCraft #3. Star Treak, June. Science fiction. Dragons of a Vanished Moon. Dragonlace, The War of the Souls, book 3. Wizards of the Coast, June. With Margaret Weiss. Another volume in the fantasy Dragonlace world. Howard-Johnson, Carolyn. This is the Place. AmErica House, 2001. About a non-Mormon woman marrying a Mormon man. Howard-Johnson is a non-Mormon from Utah who writes columns for small Southern California newspapers. Hughes, Dean. Troubled Waters. Hearts of the Children series, v. 2. Deseret, September. A best seller in LDS bookstores. I loved the first volume, and Jeff Needle gave this one a great review. Jenson, Marcie Ann. Homeward. Covenant, June. Romance. Her second novel with Covenant. Johnson, Stephanie. Belief. St. Martin’s, 2002. An unbalanced New Zealander comes to America, joins the Mormons and others. Johnson-Choong, Shelly. Finding Home. Granite, January. About two LDS girls at Oregon State University. One becomes reactivated, the other learn things too. - -----, The River Home. Granite, October. Sequel. A returned sister missionary, her horse, a man, and the Olympics. Romance. Jones, Kathryn Elizabeth. A River of Stones. American Book Publishing, November. A young adult novel about a girl dealing with her father’s abandonment and mother’s remarriage. This is Jones' first novel, she has written articles and stories for The Ensign, scrapbooking magazines, and other places. Justesen, Sammie. Common Threads. American Book Publishing, November. Suspense. A ranching family in Idaho helps the police fight a local drug ring. Does not appear to have anything overtly Mormon in it. Keddington, Dorothy. Aisling of Eire. Granite, September. Historical romance set in Ireland. She has done several novels with Granite. Kemp, Kenny. The Welcoming Door: Parables of a Carpenter. Harper San Francisco, October. Finely crafted and inspiration historical fiction about Jesus as a young journeyman carpenter, observing and participating in events which he would turn into three of his future parables, The Prodigal Son, The Talents, and The Good Samaritan. Review: "Deftly, Kemp creates a Jeshua who is human, who sometimes doubts himself, who becomes exhausted and frustrated, but who is the kind of man readers will wish they could work alongside or have as a brother. Such a thoughtful treatment of what Jesus would do when confronted with the characters and events of the parables makes this novel an effective and engaging illustration of Christian theology." First of a trilogy, to be released annually in the fall. Kimball, Linda Hoffman. The Marketing of Sister 'B'. Signature, November. Farcical novel about Mormon celebrity, wealth, and ward social dynamics. A woman sells her potpourri mixture to a fragrance company, and becomes swept up in a whirlwind of marketing and celebrity. Jeff Needle gave it an excellent review. Her second novel. Leavitt, Martine Bates. The Dollmage. Red Deer College Press, May. For grades 6 and up. A fantasy, including magic dolls. Good reviews. She has won two AML Children’s literature prizes in the past. Lickess, Rebecca. Never After. Ace, June. Fantasy humor. Her husband Alan also published a couple of SF stories in 2002. Littke, Lael. Lake of Secrets. Henry Holt, March. YA mystery. Having arrived in her mother's home town to try to find her long-missing brother, fifteen-year-old Carlene finds herself haunted by memories from a past life. Several reviews said basically: "Exciting though not always well-executed." Lund, Gerald N. Kingdom and the Crown, v. 3: Behold the Man. Deseret, October. Final volume of a historical fiction series based on the life of Christ. Probably the biggest selling novel of the year in the LDS market. Lyon, Annette. Lost without You. Covenant, July. Romance/ thriller, about a woman ending her marriage to a dangerous man. Her first novel. On the Deseret Book best seller list in the Fall. McClure, Marcia Lynn. The Visions of Ransom Lake. Self- published, August. Romance. Marcum, Robert. House of Israel, Vol. 1: The Return. Covenant, August. Set in the 1940s, about a Jewish girl who survives the Nazi camps, marries an American Mormon pilot, and goes to Palestine. Deseret News's Lythgoe said the writing is poor and filled with cliches, and the plot is slow. Jennie Hansen liked it. Marcum published four adventure novels previously with Deseret/Bookcraft. Moore, Beth Shumway. The Road to Mountain Meadows. Sunrise Books. She is a great-granddaughter of a MMM participant, and has been writing the novel for 25 years. Mouritsen, Laurel. Turning Point. Covenant, May. Romance/ adventure. Girl finds love, adventure, and conversion in contemporary Nauvoo. Jennie Hansen liked it. This is her fifth novel, four with Covenant, one with Cedar Fort. Nelson, Lee. A Thousand Souls. Cedar Fort, June. Based on Nelson's experiences as a missionary in Germany in the 1960s. Jeff Needle gave it a good review. Norton, Tamara. Molly Mormon? Cedar Fort, March. Young adult novel about popularity and romance. Nunes, Rachel Ann. Ties that Bind. Covenant. February. - ----, Twice in a Lifetime. Cedar Fort, October. Ariana/Perrault series finale. Actually a direct sequel to Ties That Bind, from Covenant. Nunes explained the switch in publishers as, "Mostly because of the issue of respect, but also because of contractual and content differences." On the Deseret Book bestseller list in October. Perry, Anne. Southampton Row. Ballantine, February. Thomas and Charlotte Pitt mystery. - ------, Death of a Stranger. Ballantine, October. William and Hester Monk mystery. Peters, Dory. The Warriors Code. Cedar Fort, February. Navajo code talkers in WWII. Pontius, John. Angels Among Us: Millennial Quest v. 2. Cedar Fort, December. A last days novel, Pontius recently wrote a non-fiction book on the last days, too. Poulson, Clair. Lost and Found. Covenant, September. His seventh novel. - ------, Relentless. Covenant, January. Crime thriller. Jennie Hansen: "A gripping story of a beautiful young woman in the wrong place, at the worst possible time." But also marred by lots of stylistic errors. Pratt, James Michael. Paradise Bay. St. Martin's Press. May. A son discovers his father, a Vietnam vet, in a coma. Review-"The unbridled sentimentality, wooden dialogue and hokey plot will be hard for even Pratt's fans to endure." Rallison, Janette. Playing the Field. Walker and Company, May. For grades 5-8. A baseball-loving boy would like to be more comfortable with math and girls. Received good reviews, especially for its humor. This is her first national book after four for Deseret, including two juveniles under her own name and two humorous romances under the pen name Sierra St. James. Rees, Shirley. Hannah Stands Tall. Cedar Fort, July. Juvenile novel about a 14-year old girl in 1860 southern Utah becomes the woman of the home after her mother's death, faces adversity. Richards, Bryan. Triopia and the Burden of Excess. Self- published, April. A former BYU Jerusalem student's autobiographical novel about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Relatively pro-Palestinian. Roberts, Alene. Heart of the Rose. Granite, December. Humorous romance set in a singles ward. Roberts, Laird. The Swan Hunter. Cedar Fort, December. Set in a Utah town in the 1950s, about a boy who looses his mother to cancer, and his resulting spiritual crises. Roberts has worked as a crew member on several LDS films. Savage, Jeffrey S. Behind the Scenes. Covenant, July. Thriller about a computer company owner threatened by unknown forces. Based on the Book of Job. Jennie Hansen gave it a very good review. His second novel. Schmutz, Nikki Anne. Out of Step. ?, October. Novelization of the movie, by one of the screenwriters. I don't know who published Schmutz's two novels. - ------, Found. ?, October. About a runaway teenage girl. Schow, Vione. Phay Vanneth: Dead or Alive. Cedar Fort, March. About a Cambodian refugee who joins the Church and searches for a lost sister. Shields, Dave. The Pendulum's Path. Xlibris, 2001. Jeff Needle gave this self-published first novel a glowing review. He said it is a high quality suspense novel, in which a man gradually discovers the hidden history of his family, including the complex role played by Church leaders. Needle said it could use much more careful editing, however. Siddoway, Richard M The Christmas Quest. Deseret, October. Another Christmas book by Siddoway, this one is a sequel to The Christmas Wish (1996), which became a TV movie. The plot involves a search for a lost family member and politics. Smith, Robert Farrell. For Time and all Absurdity. Deseret, April. Humorous novel. Like all of Smith's books, the protagonist is a young male who act as the straight man to a variety of oddball secondary characters, and falls in love. The first chapter was excerpted in Irreantum, I thought it was very funny. Deseret also republished his 1996 Aspen book, Baptists at our Barbecue. Sorensen, Chris. The Greatest Discovery. Pond Publishing, September. Self-published. Young widower is taught life lessons by an old man who turns out to be an angel. Jennie Hansen gave it a so-so review. Sorensen is a young author from Virginia. Stansbury, Nicole. Places to Look for a Mother. Carroll & Graf, March. This is the first novel by Stansbury, a non-Mormon Salt Lake City-based author. Set in the 60s, an unstable, manic- depressive mother drags her kids around the country, from Los Angeles to Provo. She thinks about becoming a Mormon at one point. Lots of good reviews, Tribune reviewer Naparastack loved it, put it in his "Best of the west." She also received a 2002 Utah Arts Council short story honorable recommendation for "Wicked", and has a story in a 1994 Signature anthology about Utah women. Stansfield, Anita. Someone to Hold. Covenant, February. - --------, Gables of Legacy, Vol I: The Guardian. Covenant, August. - --------, Gables of Legacy Vol. II: A Guiding Light. Covenant, October. Counting one in late 2001, she has published four novels in twelve months, amazing. Her works are among Covenant's best sellers. The retail arm of Deseret Book has decided three of her past works push the boundaries of the "acceptable Mormon romance novel" too far, however, and took them off their shelves toward the end of the year. Torres, Laura. Crossing Montana. Holiday House, May. Coming-of- age story about a girl who takes care of her dysfunctional family. Good reviews, complex characters. For grades 7-9. Tufts, Daryn. Me, Myself, and EFY. ?, December. Comedy by a The Singles Ward screenwriter/actor. Warburton, Carol. Edge of Night. Covenant, April. 1850s adventure/romance, the only Mormon element is a frame story about the characters’ descendents doing their temple work. Hansen gave it a pretty strong review. This is Warburton's first novel at Covenant, she self-published two novels in the 80s. Warnick, Julie. One Silent Night. Covenant, October. About the Christmas truce of 1914. She has written one previous Covenant Christmas novel. Wassom, Wayne. Pure Gold. Cedar Fort, March. Adventure. Wells, Marian. The Wedding Album. Bethany House, February. An anti-Mormon novel published by a religious press. Wells has written a series of "stolen by the Mormons" novels about Nauvoo and Utah era polygamy villains. Williams, Carol Lynch. A Mother to Embarrass Me. Delacorte, March. A 12-year old girl is embarrassed by her mother’s poor singing and pregnancy. Review: "Williams brings a gentle and humorous touch . . . chirpy, occasionally cloying" Woodbury, Eugene E. Path of Dreams. Unpublished. 2002 Utah Arts Council Original Writing Completion: Novel Honorable mention. His juvenile novel Pascal's Ghosts won second place in the 2000 Utah Arts Council contest. He has published four stories in The New Era in the mid-90s, and some more in children’s magazines. His short story "Blessing Giver," won the Sunstone contest Moonstone Award in 2002, and should be published in the magazine someday. Woods, Ron. The Hero. Knopf, March. Grades 6-10. Woods is a BYU teacher/administrator. Set in 1957, about three boys, including one who is the town outcast, and how their lives are drastically altered after a deadly river accident. Review: "The story's strong vein of nostalgia and coming-of-age theme bring to mind Stephen King's Stand by Me, and although the leisurely pace at times borders on sluggish, Woods's descriptions can be eloquent . . . The first- time author also shows a sharp eye for character." Sharlee Gleen gave it a very strong review. Woolley, David G. The Promised Land Vol. II: The Power of Deliverance. Covenant, October. Based on 1st Nephi, mostly about the politics of Zedikiah-era Jerusalem. The Deseret News' Lythgoe hated it, called the cacophony of characters "chaos", and said the general writing should have the target of Twain's "chloroform in print" comment. Jennie Hansen liked it, however. She says Woolley did an impressive amount of historical research in preparation. Wright, Camron. Letters for Emily. Pocket Books/Simon and Schuster, 2002. Originally self-published in 2001, picked for national distribution. Tearjerker, about a troubled family who learn a great deal when they discover their senile grandfather's books of poems. Reviewers say it contains powerful descriptions of the elderly's experiences, but is less effectively melodramatic in its portrayal of the estranged family members. Wright, Julie. Loved Like That. Cedar Fort, October. Romance, her second novel. Wynn, Hugh F. The Mormon and Mr. Sullivan. Self-published, July. About a pair of friends, one descended from John D. Lee, the other from a Francher Party victim. Basically anti-Mormon. Jeff Needle says it is pretty well written, but badly edited. Yates, Dan. Eyes of an Angel. Covenant, August. The 8th in his guardian angel adventure series. Yorgason, Blaine M. Girl at the Crossing. Millennial Press, 2002. A ghostly mystery/suspense, set in England. Young, Margaret Blair. Heresies of Nature. Signature, July. Based on the same story as her 1997 play Dear Stone. Young, Margaret Blair and Darius Gray. Bound For Canaan. Standing on the Promises v. 2. Deseret, January. Second in the series about black members of the Church. Andrew Hall Fukuoka, Japan _________________________________________________________________ MSN 8: advanced junk mail protection and 2 months FREE*. http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail - -- AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature ------------------------------ End of aml-list-digest V1 #951 ******************************