An Interesting Find

I have, sitting on my hard drive, a science fiction novel. It's working title is Escape from New Deseret. The plot, in summary, is that a group of "fundamentalist" (more on this term later) Mormons set up a colony on a near-future, un-terraformed Mars. Things go wrong, of course, and one woman is exiled. She's expected to conveniently die, but not being the convenient sort, doesn't, and eventually attempts to rescue her children from the colony.

The community is based on the real-life "church" of Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ, based in southern Utah and northern Arizona. Ironically, Slate magazine is linking to a Hot Document prepared by the Attorneys General of Utah and Arizona.

I picked up a bit of history from this document, and it confirmed one thing I knew. I knew that these people refer to themselves as "fundamentalist" Mormons. I've been in a bit of an argument with Jackie Powers, leader of my writing group, about this. She felt that "fundamentalist" would offend Mormons. Although it's the correct term, I've decided to use "extremist" in my query letters. The history I learned was that several raids of this community were conducted, including one led by the Arizona National Guard in 1953. Since a similar National Guard action is what motivates the move to Mars in my book, I feel vindicated.