F. Allan Roth likes to fly fish
on the South Fork of the Snake River. He ties his own flies and builds his own
bamboo fly rods and wooden boats. He also is an amateur mycologist, and enjoys
hunting (and eating) wild mushrooms and berries.
As a graduate student, he
taught English classes at Brigham Young University. After graduation, he moved
to Ricks College (now called BYU-Idaho), where he taught for two years. After
that, he moved to a nuclear research laboratory where he worked as a technical
writer and editor for nearly thirty years. He and his wife, Jerelyn, live in
Idaho. At last count, they have seven children, twenty-five grandchildren, and
six great-grandchildren.
Allan Roth is an American
author who writes LDS fiction and fantasy novels. Other works include A
Missionary’s Musings on the Book of Mormon, available exclusively from
Amazon.
Book Blurb
When the Chinese conquered
America, the government gave up without a fight—but the people didn’t. Church
leaders had cautioned church members that the collapse of their nation was the
fulfillment of an ancient prophetic promise from the Book of Mormon. Fighting
against the occupation, the brethren warned, would be the same as fighting
against God’s righteous judgment on a nation ripened in iniquity. But when war
came to their home, Bishop Stuart Holliwell and his family found themselves Fighting
the Promise. This story was a 2018 Whitney Award nominee.
The Inspiration Behind the
Story
The story that grew into Fighting
the Promise started more than twenty years ago in a Sunday-school class. I
am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (better known as
the “Mormons”), and I was teaching about a prophecy from the Book of Mormon
that says if the people of America ever became “ripened in iniquity,” the Lord
would sweep them off the face of the land and give this land to a different
people.
One member of the class laughed
at that and said that such an event might have been possible in ancient times,
but in these modern days the USA was far too strong for God to destroy. I
thought about his comment for a while and decided to write a story that showed
just how fragile our nation could be if we faced God’s judgement. That story,
which forms the introduction to Fighting the Promise, was originally
intended to be a stand-alone short story called “And the Home of the Brave.”
I never published that original
story, but as the years passed, I realized that there was more to the story
than I had written. I thought about how life-changing the fulfillment of
prophecy would be to the people and families who might someday have to live
through it. Since I live in Idaho, I imagined an Idaho family living through
the upheaval of seeing their beloved government overthrown and their people
destroyed. That family became the Holliwell family, and their story became Fighting
the Promise.
It is a family-friendly story.
There is no sex. There’s no swearing in it other than two cases of the word hell
(once in its religious sense, and once in a jocular oath by an old farmer).
Since there is a war involved, there is some violence, but violence is never
the focus of the story and is never glorified. In most cases, the violence
occurs “off-screen” so the reader does not need to see the blood and gore.
Violence is consistently portrayed as unnecessary, evil, and something that
should be avoided.
Reviews
"I couldn’t put the book down.
At times, the action took my breath away, I fevered for the characters to make
the right choices, anguished over the heartbreaks, was infuriated at betrayals.
I lived the story. I could picture the scenes in my mind. Families divided,
obedience in trials, love and forgiveness—it’s all there. Definitely a
must-read!"
"What if you believed your
church leader was called of God and received direction from Him. What if the
United States was taken over by a foreign power. Would you choose to act the
patriot and fight back to drive the intruders out and restore the
constitutional form of government? Or, would you follow the church leader who
warned in order to live and prosper, for the time the people must submit and
obey the new government? This story followed a family
where half followed the church leader and half joined the resistance. To me,
both groups felt like they did the right thing. It was interesting how the
story played out, and how it worked out for the family. Great story that held
my interest"
Links
Amazon Purchase Link
Author Website/Blog
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