CEDAR HILLS — Jeff Call is a Mormon and a journalist who lives in Utah County.
So guess what his first novel is about?
"Mormonville" is a 302-page book about Mormons, journalists and Utah County.
Mark Twain would be proud.
As it is with most books that are labors of love, Jeff Call's first novel started with a single thought that took seven years to get down on paper.
He was unemployed, newly married and living in a tiny apartment in Lindon in 1995 when he attended a The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints conference meeting and heard Church President Gordon B. Hinckley talk about an interview with broadcast journalist Mike Wallace that had recently aired on "60 Minutes."
The encounter between the New York journalist and the head of the Mormon Church caused Jeff's mind to wander until it stopped on a novel idea: What if a fictional New York journalist came to Utah "undercover" to write a book about the Mormon culture?
Intrigued by the concept, and with plenty of time on his hands, he started to jot down ideas for a plot, characters, and that staple of all good stories, plenty of conflict.
Seven years later, Jeff has a full-time job (he is a sports writer for the Deseret News), five kids and a mortgage — and his book is hot off the presses.
Did Jeff have any idea what he was getting into when he started "Mormonville?" Of course not.
"There is no way I could possibly quantify how many hours I spent writing this book," he says.
He wrote in, around, and between everything else that was going on. On road trips to cover away games, he would steal a few hours in a Holiday Inn in Albuquerque or Ft. Collins. In the late spring, when the sports seasons lull a bit and yardwork can still be dodged, he would sometimes write two or three days in a row.
Words turned into sentences, sentences into paragraphs, paragraphs into chapters, and finally a book emerged, which Cedar Fort — a Utah County publisher — has published.
Since being released regionally in August, "Mormonville" has already sold nearly 3,000 copies, indicating that Jeff wasn't the only one who thought it would be interesting to see what a skeptical New York journalist would find if he moved to Utah County — where 91 percent of the population is LDS — and lived for a year.
Or at least what journalist Jeff Call envisions the skeptical New York journalist would find.
Lured by piles of money, the New York journalist comes to Utah, and to life, as protagonist Luke Manning, who reveals his identity to no one.
From Page 27: "As much as he loathed having to hang out with these people, he knew it was the only way. He had to find out the inner workings of the church and the experiences of the regular church membership, to discover what they honestly felt and thought. Which was why no one could know his real purpose in Utah."
What Luke finds in Utah County at first surprises him, and then alters his life in a way he could not have imagined . . .
But if you think Jeff Call spent seven years writing a book just so I can ruin the ending . . .
You can check it out for yourself at area bookstores or by logging on to www.cedarfort.com.
In the meantime, Jeff has a few new ideas he's kicking around.
"I'd like to write more books," he says.
It's like childbirth. Once the product is delivered, you forget what you went through to bring it to life.
Lee Benson's column runs Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Please send e-mail to benson@desnews.com and faxes to 801-237-2527.