Memorial Day

During this Memorial Day weekend I wish to publicly state my gratitude to the fine young men and women that so graciously sacrifice their all to ensure the freedoms I so dearly love.

The move to Texas

Wendy and I keep trying to put down roots wherever we move...it just hasn't happened yet. We lived in Layton, UT for the last three years. We loved it there and felt tremendously blessed that the Lord put us there for a short while. However, that while is now ended and we're in the process of moving again.

As usual, I move first due to work and Wendy is left behind to take care of all of the difficult challenges of moving a house. Fortunately, my employer has provided a moving company to pack and move our belongings.

I've been living in the Irving, TX area (between Dallas and Fort Worth) for the last month. I can testify to the truthfulness of Genesis 2:18, "It is not good that the man should be alone." I'm really looking forward to having my wife and son join me in a couple of weeks.

In the mean time, I have found great strength in attending church on Sunday. I find my time with the saints to be a refuge from the storm of life. Fortunately, I think that I may have found the friendliest ward in the church. That would be the Dallas 6th Ward. I attended a couple of wards in the area. Walking into this ward, I was greeted by several people that all went out of their way to introduce me to others. I was sitting on the back row and Alfred, (a very kindly gentleman), came back to me and said, "Why don't you come sit with me?" You need to read that last sentence with a Scottish accent to fully appreciate Alfred.

Alfred is also the class president for the Gospel Doctrine class. At the beginning of Sunday School he introduced me to everyone. After Sunday School, he assigned someone to take me to priesthood.

I was introduced again to the group in opening exercises. I mentioned in both of my introductions that I was looking for a house to rent. The next week when I came back a woman came up to me and said, "Have you found a place to live yet? I found a place in our ward boundaries but I didn't know how to get a hold of you." That is fellowshipping.

As I've been looking for a place to live I have tried to fashion my prayers along the lines of, "Lord send me where you want me to be." After attending the Dallas 6th ward my prayers were, "Lord send me where you want me to be, and if it happens that you want me in the Dallas 6th Ward, that's okay with me too."

I found a house in the ward for my family and me. I'm so grateful to the Lord that I have found such a friendly ward and I look forward to the opportunity to getting involved.

Good bye Layton, UT. I made a lot of great friends there. You were definitely the place I needed to live for the last few years. The Lord, Wendy, Colby and I all know why we lived there.

We're looking forward to new chalenges and making new friends in Dallas.

The Assassination of Governor Boggs

From the Back Cover:

Twenty-five years ago Governor Lilburn Boggs was shot at in his home, but the gunman was never found. Now Detective Calvin Pogue has been hired by the Boggs family to open the cold case. From one end of the country to the other Detective Pogue follows clues that lead him relentlessly to the legendary Mormon gunman Porter Rockwell - who still isn't making things easy for anyone! Join Detective Pogue as he steps into this hair raising mystery and tracks down Gov. Boggs’s enemies and friends to a finale you won’t believe.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It’s hard not to like a book about a character described on Wikipedia as “The Destroying Angel of Mormondom.”

Most of the book is written from the point of view Detective Pogue. Since this is LDS Historical Fiction, I expected it to have a fairly strong LDS bias. I was pleasantly surprised that most of the book didn’t. Detective Pogue is trying to decipher who attempted to assassinate Gov. Boggs. The anti-Mormon people he interviews, like John Bennett, speak quite ill about Mormons and their religion. At the same time, the LDS members that are interviewed in connection with the case describe the persecution they experienced at the hands of Gov. Boggs and the Missouri mobs.

Every now and then we get to read snippets from Porter Rockwell:

If ever I had inclinations toward the Christian ways of turnin’ the other cheek, they left me that day. I determined to find the means to get me some guns and learn how to use them. Them mobbin’ pukes would never get away with attackin’ my family. Never Again.

I was discussing this book with a friend at work. Once he heard that Porter Rockwell was a main character he became quite animated telling me what he knew about him. Ironically, that evening as I continued reading the book, I read in it, the exact things my friend told me about Porter. I appreciate when an author does their research and includes fact in their historical fiction.

The author, Rod Miller, does an excellent job of “changing voice” for each character. It is a difficult thing to do, i.e. create several different ways of speaking and thinking for each character when they’re coming out of one person’s (the author’s) head. Rod did it very skillfully. I highly recommend this book to anyone that likes either historical fiction or just a good mystery. You can buy the book HERE. This book will make a great Christmas gift. You might want to buy two copies though, because you’re going to want to read it too, and no one likes unwrapping a used book for Christmas.

FTC note: I did receive a free copy of the book so I could review it. However, that didn’t influence my write up.

Boston

I'm in the middle of a business trip in Boston. Well, technically I'm in Danvers, which is about 19 miles north of Boston. Danvers used to be Salem Village which is where the witch trials all started. This is the view out of my hotel window.

Today's Saturday, i.e. I'm not working, so I decided to take the train to Boston. The train station dropped me off at North Station and I started walking towards Faneuil Hall. While walking, I came across a street called something like Robert "RIP" Valenti Way. It made me wonder, if we don't include "RIP" for all streets named after deceased persons are we being insensitive...?

I finally got there. Here's a few pics.



There were several street performers there including a human statue and a guy riding a unicycle while flinging out two yoyos.


I kept walking along the Freedom trail and came across this:


This is a picture inside the Old South Meeting House. Benjamin Franklin was baptized here and the seeds of the rebellion that led to the Tea Party in Boston Harbor started inside these walls. Here's a picture of the pulpit.

I figured I'd just keep walking to Boston Commons. It was on the Freedom Trail. When I get there I see two live bands at different spots in the park. There are food vendors and concession stands selling souvenirs, etc. There was a sea of humanity milling about and I was curious what kind of festival was going on. I get to the middle of the festival, passing through the middle of very interesting people, to see these booths:


Yes, unknown to me, I walked smack dab into a "Legalize Marijuana," festival. It was at this point that I truly realized I was no longer in Utah...
I wondered what that distinctive odor was that wafted through the crowds. I might still be buzzed. Thank you Boston for making me have to go confess to my bishop about indirectly breaking the Word of Wisdom...

Anyway, once I realized what the festival was celebrating I decided it was time to leave.

As I was on the outskirts of Faneuil Hall I came across an epic group of street dancers. Still images do not do them justice. They contorted their bodies into positions that I don't think humans were meant to twist into. I loved the guy that did a back handspring flip over four people.

The Key of Kilenya

The Key of Kilenya is the debut novel of Andrea Pearson. From the back cover of the book:

When two vicious wolves chase fourteen-year-old Jacob Clark down a path from our world into another, his life is forever changed. He has no idea they have been sent by the Lorkon--evil, immortal beings who are jealous of powers he doesn't know he possesses--powers they desire to control.

The inhabitants of the new world desperately need Jacob's help in recovering a magical key that was stolen by the Lorkon and is somehow linked to him. If he helps them, his life will be at risk. But if he chooses not to help them, both our world and theirs will be in danger. The Lorkon will stop at nothing to unleash the power of the key--and Jacob's special abilities.

I love fantasy novels and found this to be a worthy first effort into the genre. Andrea's writing improved as the book went along.

The protagonist, Jacob, is assisted by a race of people called the Makalos. Someone else described this race in their mind as being a cross between Native Americans and Ewoks. That's about how I pictured them too. The pacing in the book is good, I would've liked more descriptions of what the primary characters looked like, i.e. Jacob, but the action of the book helped me overlook some of the lack of descriptions.

One minor nit, sometimes the characters all spoke with the same voice. They all used the word, "wow" way more than they should have.

The beginning of each chapter had a journal entry from another person in the tale. I really enjoyed that. While following the primary line of the story, I was allowed to see briefly another character line. That gave two very different and distinct views of what was happening, and why it was happening.

I look forward to the sequel and reading the continuing saga of Jacob and his friends as they try to save damsels in distress and two worlds from annihilation.

You can purchase a copy of the book here.

You can learn more about the author here.

All That Was Promised

Vickie Hall is a new and promising author. Her debut novel All That Was Promised was a very enjoyable read.

From the author's website:

In 1847 Wales young Methodist Minister Richard Kenyon converts to Mormonism. Richard's newfound faith is put to the test as he faces down the anger of his former congregation, his wife's indecisiveness, the betrayal of his brother, and the murderous intentions of misinformed villagers.

I've read a few blog posts about the book that suggest to really appreciate the story I should be either a woman or a teenager. I am neither. So either I'm awfully confused about my gender and/or age, or this book has a larger target audience than previously stated. My wife and I did read the book together. In fact we enjoyed it so much that we took turns reading it out loud to each other and didn't stop until the story was completed.

Anyone, male, female, teenager, whatever, that enjoys LDS historical fiction will be drawn into this riveting tale that follows the life of early Welsh saints. All That Was Promised paints a compelling portrait of what it was like to convert to Mormonism in its fledgling years. Richard Kenyon is the protagonist, but the book follows the lives of several characters. Some that join the church in spite of difficult challenges, some that are extremely antagonistic towards the church through out the tale. Some start off well, but like a seed planted amongst thorns, they struggle with their faith as overwhelming trials and hardships test their faith.

The story and character development is very believable. I yearned to reach out and help those facing tribulations and rejoiced with those that remained true to the faith and were blessed beyond measure in the end.

The story ends with the invitation for the faithful saints to emigrate to Utah. I am hoping that a follow up book will be in the works that continues the characters' stories of what transpired when they arrived, if they arrived, in the Salt Lake Valley.

As a matter of full disclosure, I need to say that the book has several mid-scene POV shifts that did confuse me from time to time as to whose head I was supposed to be in. As this is Vickie Hall's debut novel, I will cut her some slack and place the blame where it belongs with the publisher.

I look forward to watching Vickie hone her craft as a writer, and hope to read more of her books as she writes them.

You can purchase a copy of All That Was Promised here.

Another note for full disclosure. I did receive a free copy of the book so I could blog about it. However, my opinion of the book was not swayed by getting a free copy.

Watch your step