Synopsis
Ain’t Dead Yet is a novel based on the real person of Orrin Porter Rockwell. Better known as Porter, Rockwell holds the curiosity, admiration and sometimes even the shame of millions of LDS people. His grave site, more than a century after his death in 1878, remains one of the most visited grave sites in Salt Lake City, surpassing and rivaling Mormon Church leaders. He stands as an early pillar of the fledgling faith yet he became known for his swearing, drinking, and readiness to “use a man up”. Feared by visitors and loved by the citizenry, Rockwell is the beloved and hated Bad Boy of Mormon and Intermountain West history. Extensive and successful works have been written to document Rockwell’s life, some fictionalized. However, author Mike M Jensen believed there remained more to be said of how Porter thought, what he felt, and more of the man behind the history. He chose to place the real man, as he understood him from his own reading, into a fictionalized story and then ride along, exploring and showcasing the character within. The result is Ain’t Dead Yet. The story swirls around the promise made to Rockwell by Joseph Smith, the founder of the Mormon Church. Smith stated that so long as Rockwell never cut his hair, he would never be killed by blade or bullet. Rockwell ceased to cut his hair and the knowledge of the promise spread through the years to the point that many believed he might never die and others wished to challenge the veracity of such a claim. How does one deal with such a declaration? How much stock can one put into such a belief when one’s own life is the proof? What if it becomes your job to put that life on the line? Only six characters in the story, Rockwell, his wife Mary Ann, Brigham Young, Frank Worrell, Sherriff Backenstos and Judge Drummond, retain their actual names. Many locations are real and some situations anchored in historical truth but the specific events are entirely fictional.
About the Author
Hello! I'm Mike M Jensen. The "M" is due to there being so many Mike Jensen's around but only half as many with "M's" in the middle. So I went with it. Born in Utah, I find myself again here for the third time in my life. I have also lived in the Bay Area and the Central Valley regions of California, and in Reno, Nevada. In addition, I spent two summers in Alaska working in a gold mine and two years in France and Switzerland speaking French. I have five children that are all now teenagers. Nope, no twins. They all think I'm a dork and apparently I keep providing evidence to support their theory. My pets amount to my fish Fred and memories of my longtime cat friend, Beanie, who died a number of years back. I currently work at the University of Utah for the Office of Comparative Medicine, where I have been for the past 21 years. A past member of Toastmasters and former columnist for a national industry specific magazine, I naturally evolved into a writer of novels- a story teller, really. Twice the Christmas, a novella, was my first work available. My hope is to have this book available in print by this Christmas. Ain't Dead Yet, a Porter Rockwell Novel, is my newest work and the first installment of what I hope to be an exciting Western series, based on the Utah LDS legendary character of Orrin Porter Rockwell. The second book of the series in currently in rough draft. I hope to have it polished up by summer of 2014. I also have a work in progress based on a boy working at a gold mine in Alaska, circa 1980. Not sure where I got that inspiration (wink, wink) and another Christmas story set in late 70's Reno Nevada (another mystery of inspiration). I have other books in the works and hope to keep them coming. It's my "living the dream", and so long as there's lots of motorcycle riding and flyfishing in between, I have no complaints.
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
