Thank you for joining us. If you missed part one of our conversation with LDS historical and contemporary novelist Annette Lyon, click here.
Annette, we ended our last segment by talking about your recent shift from contemporary to historical fiction and the first book in your historical series, called “House on the Hill.” Can you tell us a little about that book?
It’s about the next generation after the pioneer settlers. It looks at what happens to their children when they get older. When the family house burns down and the family ends up homeless, twenty-year-old Lizzy has to confront everything she believes or has been taught to believe. She has a tremendous crisis of faith. After all, she wasn’t the one who pulled a handcart. No one asked her to sacrifice or come to “Zion.” In the meantime, she has to pick between to two men, both of which are great guys with very different personalities and different things to offer her.
Running parallel with the story is the construction of the Logan temple. Lizzy’s father is a stone mason, so we see some things through his eyes. Several significant parts of the story happen at one of the stone quarries. Overall, many important plot elements take place right at the temple lot.
One of my favorite research bits in the book is because of the 1970s remodeling of the Logan temple. In the late 1970s, the building was gutted, and a new interior was rebuilt. During the demolition, something was found inside one of the walls. “House on the Hill” gives a possible explanation for how it got there and what it might mean. (Just be sure to read both the epilogue and the author notes at the back so you know what that is!)
You recently released the sequel, entitled “At the Journey’s End.” What is this book about?
It began as a way to satisfy readers who inundated me with one question–what happens next to Abe from “House on the Hill?” While his story isn’t wrapped up in a tidy bow at the end of that book, I hadn’t written it with plans to keep his story open to a sequel. But with so many people clamoring for more and begging, “What happens to Abe?” I finally said, “I don’t know. I’ll find out.”
I went back to the drawing board and tried to figure it out. “House on the Hill” was such a tremendously rewarding experience for me that I decided I wanted to learn more about other temples. So I chose St. George as the focus for the next book, and the story evolved from there.
Since that temple was already built by the time “House on the Hill” ended, the next book couldn’t focus as directly on the temple’s construction like “House on the Hill” did with the Logan temple’s construction. “At the Journey’s End” does have some temple construction stories in it, but the book is primarily about two traveling parties journeying to get to St. George, which had the only one operating temple at that time.
It starts out in Utah, where Abe doesn’t fit in–he’s both Native American and non-Mormon. After witnessing a racially-based lynching, he no longer dares stay in Salt Lake City and convinces his adoptive mother (who is both white and LDS) to leave with him, provided he can find another settlement of Latter-day Saints. He finds that new home in Snowflake, Arizona. The bulk of the book is Abe traveling with a group from Snowflake heading to the temple where he’ll meet his mother, who is coming down from Salt Lake.
Of course, the story isn’t that simple. There are all kinds of troubles on the trail–adventure, illness, danger, and romance along the way. And I’m now getting readers who are very happy with how Abe’s story turned out!
Thanks, Annette! We’ll continue our exclusive interview with Annette Lyon tomorrow. Be sure to visit her site and her blog while you’re waiting for the next installment.
Related Blogs:
Author Interview: Robert H. Moss
An Interview with Author H.B. Moore