Interview: Joseph Rinaldo, author of the novel A Mormon Massacre, based in part on the historical massacre at Mountain Meadows

1. What inspired you to research the Mormon Massacre? In other words, what did you know about Mormonism before you decided to write this book? This massacre at Mountain Meadows was the largest killing of Americans by Americans outside of the Civil War until the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995 and no one knows about it. I say no one because I grew up in Kentucky and now live in Tennessee and all we "know" about Mormons is they sell books and marry dozens of women. I had, quite by coincidence, read Sally Denton's book about the massacre at Mountain Meadows, and it started me thinking about Mormons and the curious lives they lead. For me research falls into two categories: intentional and inadvertent. Inadvertent happens when you stumble across something that becomes part of a book you write. Such as, a family member might hate people who talk about religion too much. Too much might be defined by this person as any talk about religion. Intentional research is obvious. With the Internet a writer of fiction has no excuse for not including enough facts to be believable. 2. Does your book describe the life of the average Mormon settler in Utah at that time? My book does not dwell on the past lives of Mormon settlers in Utah; the focus is primarily on the modern-day descendant, Jeremiah Cameron, and his reaction to learning about the murders of his ancestors and the abuse of his mother in a prior, polygamous marriage. He wants revenge, and he wants to expose the LDS Church as a dangerous cult. It's interesting to hear about your ancestors and the story your grandfather told about the Mormon Massacre. From my research in the writing of this book, one man, John D. Lee sort of played the "fall guy" in the prosecution of the case, though others were named, charged, and arrested. Remarkably, Brigham Young was never charged or prosecuted; he distanced himself from the case entirely, though it was said that he was often seen riding around in the most valuable wagon taken from emigrants after the massacre, and his wives were seen in the clothes of the women who had been slaughtered. It is almost certain that he kept the bulk of the gold that had been hidden in the emigrants' wagons for himself. 3. How does your novel portray Brigham Young? I believe my protagonist sees Brigham Young as a man who would stop at nothing to further his own ends. In A Mormon Massacre, it is clear that Jeremiah believes that Brigham Young is entirely responsible for the massacre of some of his descendants; further, he sees Brigham Young as a power mad dictator with complete control over his followers and no scruples about murdering innocents to get what he wants. Jeremiah sees Brigham Young more as a forerunner of Jim Jones (without the Koolaid) or David Koresh (without the arsenal) than a man of faith. As he puts it in a presentation before his college classmates, “Like many cult leaders, Brigham Young believed that the world sought to destroy him and his followers. He saw no gray in the world; you either joined the Mormons, or you waged war against the Mormons. Although the Mormons had been persecuted in New York, Ohio, Missouri, and Illinois before moving to Utah, they were free to worship as they pleased out west. In spite of this freedom, Brigham Young’s paranoia led him to issue orders for his followers to murder the Fancher-Baker party.” ~~~

Coming soon, interview with Joseph Rinaldo, author

Coming soon, interview with Joseph Rinaldo, author of A Mormon Massacre.

My great grandparents escaped from Utah in a time when the Mormon police would track you down and haul you back.  My brother tells me that our grandfather used to tell the story of the Mormon Massacre as it was handed down to him by his father.

According to our grandfather, one man took credit for the massacre and was proud to serve his fellow Latter Day Saints by giving his life for them.

So my interview with Joseph Rinaldo will have some personal meaning for me.

Stay tuned!

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Self-publishing made easy

Are you tired of the waiting game?  Are you tired of publishers turning down your manuscript after holding on to it for months?  Or maybe you got a traditional contract, but you will never receive another penny beyond the little advance that they gave you.

Vanity publishers can cost thousands, but wait:  You do not have to pay to publish your work.

I can publish my own books without spending a penny, unless I choose to purchase special services such as proofreading or cover art.  My publisher provides cover templates that I can use to easily make my own covers, and they even provide some clip art if I don't have an image of my own that I want to use.

My books get listed on Amazon, and I can choose whether to offer them on Kindle.  I set the price of each book, so I control how much money I make on each sale.

Instead of waiting months or even years to hear from traditional publishers, and gettinga "no" inmost cases, I can see my books in print as soon as they are ready for my readers.

I'm talking about Create Space.

Try it, you'll like it!





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Book and book bag, great pair of stocking stuffers!

The purrfect bag fur the purrfect book fur fans of science fiction
(my cat helped me write this).

http://www.zazzle.com/book_bag_with_a_book_cover-149375046195985280

http://www.amazon.com/Darkening-Light-life-dream/dp/1475097948/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1355169055&sr=1-1&keywords=tessa+dick+darkening

Get your stocking stuffers here

You still have time to get those stocking stuffers.

coffee mugs

pet dishes

T-shirts

book bags / shopping bags

greeting cards

posters

and more!

Have a cup of coffee with PKD!

http://www.zazzle.com/tuffy777

~~~

The myth that the poor don't pay taxes

In the course of political debate, it is often said that the poor do not pay taxes. That simply is not true. Perhaps 47 percent of Americans do not pay income taxes, or get refunds at the end of the year, but everybody pays taxes. Every time you buy something, you pay taxes. Even when you buy food items that do not have sales tax added, the price includes the taxes paid by the store, the farmer and the distributor. And if you drink alcohol or smoke cigarettes, you pay huge taxes. Every time you buy a car or register a vehicle or put gas in the tank, you pay taxes. Whenever you pay rent or make a house payment, you pay property taxes for yourself or the landlord. Even if you have enough deductions to bring your income taxes to zero, you still pay for Social Security, Medicare and Disability. Those are taxes. If you have a private retirement plan, that money will be taxed, sooner or later. Taxes hurt everybody, especially the poor. Raising taxes on the "wealthy", which seems to mean an income of $250 thousand a year, hurts everybody because the costs of those taxes are passed down as surely as rain falls from the sky. Let's talk about what an income of $250 thousand means. It means that you are not a millionaire, that maybe you can send your kids to college, that you can make your house payments unless you foolishly bought too much of a house, that you don't have the wolf at the door every month. It does not make you wealthy. And in this economy, you could lose your job any day, so you had better have some savings. Let's talk about savings. The banks pay less than one percent on savings, which doesn't even come near to meeting inflation. Other investments are risky, and they don't pay that much more. Most mortgages and automobile loans are nowhere near the lowest rate, and many are around ten percent or more. Credit cards can charge as much as 35 percent interest. No, maybe poor people do not pay income taxes, but they do pay somebody else's income taxes every time they buy something or pay their rent. And God save people who have debt! Everybody pays taxes, and everybody is hurt by taxes. ~~~

Get Origins while you can; it's about to go out of print

Origins Part One: Thor’s Hammer is about to go out of print, to make way for the expanded epic tale, Fallen Angels. The story follows the survivors of interplanetary war as they struggle to rebuild civilization on a hostile planet where giant beasts roam through mountains, jungles and deserts. The prison planet Gaea, having survived the planet-destroying doomsday weapon, offers meager refuge for the people who fled their shattered home world. In the midst of their efforts to survive, a new religion is born. Get it while you can, under $10 on Amazon! http://www.amazon.com/Origins-Part-One-Revised-Expanded/dp/1440459673/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1347640187&sr=1-1&keywords=tessa+dick+origins "Origins is good stuff, real science fiction, unlike most of the bogus SF on the current market. . . . I would say you not only have an alternate universe good for a sequel or two, but for a long series of novels and short stories. Many a Grand Master has based a whole career on one or two private universes.” ~~ Ray Nelson (co-author of Philip K. Dick’s The Ganymede Takeover)