In November of 2006 a new publisher, Zarahemla Books, launched its first title, Brother Brigham by D. Michael Martindale. It’s a fast-paced novel about Cory Horace, a young married guy stuck in a dead-end job, who starts receiving visitations from his great-great-great grandpappy Brigham Young. It turns out that Brother Brigham has a few commandments up his heavenly sleeve. One of them nets Cory $150,000 in a duffle bag. The other could net him not only another wife, but the presidency of the Mormon church.

Things get a little sticky after that.

Read the first chapter in a lime green font here.

Martindale took some time off of signing books and fending off screaming groupies to answer a few questions from SunstoneBlog.

SSB: What inspired Brother Brigham?

DMM: Two different ideas. One was wondering what it would be like to actually live polygamy–I mean regular people like you and me, not fruitcakes like splinter groups that wear weird clothes and hide out in compounds or communities away from normal life.

I was also interested in exploring what it would be like to have a spiritual manifestation that started commanding you to do things, sort of like Nephi getting direct instructions from the Spirit.

SSB: How do you think the average Mormon would respond to your book?

DMM: First I’d have to figure out what an average Mormon is. I don’t think there is one. I think there’s an average orthodox-thinking Mormon, but I also think there are other types of Mormons as well–those who aren’t afraid to think outside the box.

I think the especially orthodox Mormon won’t be able to get past the edgy scenes. This is represented by my ex-wife who didn’t even finish reading the book, and got mad at me because I let our daughter read it.

But once you get past Mormons with inflexible thought processes, I think the vast majority of those who will give the book a chance will be hooked by it. I’ve received close to unanimous positive reactions from those who have read it, and those who have read it run the gamut of different types of Mormons.

There’s no reason Mormons shouldn’t accept the book. It’s completely faithful to the gospel. There is absolutely nothing in it that attacks the church or church leaders or gospel doctrine. There is nothing in it that celebrates sin. There are only characters who do not live the gospel perfectly, or who don’t believe in it at all–you know, like real life.

SSB: What kind of audience were you writing for?

DMM: I was writing for a very specific audience–me. I looked at LDS literature at the time, and there was nothing that appealed to my tastes in reading. So I went ahead and wrote the kind of story I would like to read. I never worried about an audience until the book was finished.

The simple fact is that I can’t write other kinds of books. This is the sort of story that’s inside of me, and if I don’t write those stories, then I don’t write at all. So I don’t worry about the audience while I’m writing.

SSB: What do you think would actually happen if polygamy were restored?

DMM: As far as daily life goes, I would expect the same thing as in monogamous marriages: some would work well and be loving relationships, and others would be nightmares from hell, depending on the character of the people involved.