Book of L.O.F.I.

Faith versus fanaticism! Zeal for zealotry! Follow young Sam Wolfe, recently expelled to Lord of the Flies Island, the sobriquet bestowed upon America’s Penal Colony, as he transforms from neophyte American criminal exile to faithful Messiah to radicalized fanatic. This quasi-allegorical tale takes place in future America (2075) which has evolved into a pseudo-utopia with roaring economy and social harmony. However, stranded upon an island filled with America's societal deviants, pariahs, and criminals has placed Wolfe in a precarious predicament until he discovers an underground lair inhabited by a man, Kellas Somervell, convinced that young Sam has been sent by God to construct a new society on the island of Guam. Wolfe, under Somervell's guidance, leads a violent and bloody resistance to challenge the island's military authority and moral inequity, all as he contemplates the influence of and justification by the Almighty.

Corey L Simmins, a secondary Language Arts teacher in one of Ohio’s largest high schools, teaches AP Language and Composition, pre-AP literature, and Science Fiction. Being a self-proclaimed, bombastic anglophile—reeking of chutzpah and panache—he perpetually attempts to find the balance between his romantic notions of the world and the grim Conradian reality which surrounds him. As a chronic logophile and swaggering elitist, Corey L Simmins possess a penchant for dystopian and utopian works, along with a predilection for allusions. Ameritopia 2075 and now Book of L.O.F.I., inspired by student requests and constructed utilizing social media, represent his first two publications. After graduating from Northern Kentucky University in 1995 and studying abroad at King’s College London, Corey L Simmins—married with three children—continues to live in a delusional Miniver Cheevy-esque world opining about the lost age of British heroic idealism that once supplied the world with the likes of Shackleton, Nelson, Scott, and Mallory. Born in the insignificant city of Dayton, Kentucky, many who know the author, often juxtapose the exile James Joyce felt with his native Dubliners to that of Corey L Simmins and his estranged relationship with his home town. Due to his chronic abhorrence of pathetic diction, Mr. Simmins composed his novel refusing to utilize the words “is” or “was” for he claims they represent “the gateway to ignorance.” Being a misanthrope of the first order, rumor has it that the author surrounds himself with an eclectic group of inklings to stave off the madness brought on by being trapped on this God-forsaken mud ball called Earth with the likes of 7 billion people, most of which are willful idiots. Many who know him realize that his hope of fulfilling his goal of dying in obscure misery is quickly coming to fruition. Though the noble demise of Virginia Woolf fascinates him, along with the classy exit of Ernest Hemingway, Corey L Simmins wavers with his favor between the stolidity of George Orwell’s self-imposed exile into oblivion on the Isle of Jura and Aldous Huxley’s trip through the doors of perception into the after world.