DARING UTAH AUTHOR TAKES ON MORMON POLYGAMY The Wives of Short Creek ISBN 0-931659-84-1 Limberlost Press Matrix Editions (2003) by Special Arrangement. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: November 9, 20003 CONTACT: Gerald Grimmett rdcliffgg@infowest.com www.wivesofshortcreek.com

'SLAPSTICK IN PRINT' Gentile outsider Heber Dean Smith eventually gains the trust of the secretive polygamisst community, and marries Bishop Reuben Alldred-Price's widowed daughter Zinny. Central to this bittersweet comedy, is a search and chase for a secret last prophecy which it is hoped will legitimize the ongoing practice of plural wives, and in which the Prophet Joseph Smith Jr. foresees the main streaming apostasy of the Mormon Church in Salt Lake City. The LDS church in Salt Lake would like nothing better than to burn and bury this purported prophecy, so they send their minions to thwart Heber's mission by any means necessary. This leads to the novel's climax in the infamous War of the Sticks, with not a sober combatant left standing. To complicate Sheriff Heber Dean's life, the fictional Arizona Women's Alliance instigates a cunning infiltration of Short Creek by the Beautiful Rose Lee, a bitter, recently excommunicated Mormon who is railroaded by a devious husband. She turns to radical feminism, and her mission is to pave the way to free the Wives of Short Creek from their slavery and degradation, and to bring to them the breathy zest of freedom from their bondage in the strictly closed society of Short Creek. # # # Grimmett's sharp pen skewers many of the foibles of men and women and religion without fear or favor. The implicit condemnation of polygamy = and hypocrisy is self-evident, but so is the fun. Pre-September, 2003 release copies are available at Barnes & Noble, Amazon.com, and any fine bookshop.

The Wives of Short Creek, a Novel of Polygamy & Prophecy, is author Gerald Grimmett's second novel, published by special arrangement with the highly regarded publisher, Limberlost Press.

Moving from the tragedy of his successful first novel, The Ferry Woman, Grimmett has written a
biting comedy about Mormon fundamentalist polygamy from the point of view of a seasick, love-starved sailor-the intrepid Heber Dean.

Heber Dean inherits a patch of Mojave Desert in the town of Short Creek, and thinks he is headed for a dry paradise with sex for the asking. Not
likely.

Grimmett's first novel, The Ferry Woman, a novel John D. Lee and the Mountain Meadows Massacre, (Limberlost Press-2001) received critical
acclaim, and was selected by the Salt Lake Tribune as the Best Book of 2001 from and about the west. It was also runner up in the Utah Center for the Book competition. A second edition is forthcoming.            
                                                 -------------                    
Grimmett is a published poet and free-lance writer, an award winning journalist, widely traveled adventure guide (including Antarctica), and camp-manager who lives with his wife, Cynthia, in the red rock country of Southern Utah.

                # # #