About The Author

The Short Version (Press Kit):

Scott Lofgren Smith is the author of American Prophet and several other published and forthcoming novels. His genre work is published under the pen name Scott Drakeford.

Scott is an ex engineer, ex corporate shill, and ex mormon. He lives in the Pacific Northwest United States.

The Long Version:

Scott Lofgren Smith is the author of American Prophet and several other published and forthcoming novels. His genre work is published under the pen name Scott Drakeford.

Scott is a sixth-generation mormon turned exmormon. He was born and raised in a very mormon family in the Salt Lake City suburbs, graduated seminary, was an eagle scout, and went on an LDS mission to Sao Paulo, Brazil. He married his wonderful wife in the Draper, Utah temple, wearing goofy white robes, a chef’s hat, and a green apron. He wore his magic undies religiously.

And then he learned the truth.

You see, when you’re born and raised in the mormon church, you don’t hear about Joseph Smith’s seer stones, treasure digging, or animal sacrifice. You don’t learn about the occult practices that led to claims of gold plates, nor the real “translation” process of the Book of Mormon. You don’t learn about his “affair” with (or more accurately, statutory rape of) 15 year-old live-in maid Fanny Alger in 1832, nor the 40+ other women and young girls he “married” in the years thereafter. You don’t learn about the Kirtland bank fraud, the Danite assassins, the widespread sexual predation by top mormon leaders, the attempts to write a new constitution and flee to a new kingdom in the west, with Joseph Smith as their king. You don’t learn about Joseph committing treason and destroying the Nauvoo Expositor’s printing press for telling the truth about his wicked sexual practices and other deceits.

So when you do learn those things, your world implodes. The very foundation of everything that you know, everything that you are, is gone, rotten and disintegrated in an instant.

But the fallout isn’t instant. The grief and acceptance takes time, and is excruciating for those that truly believed. Navigating your most precious relationships, most or all of which are predicated to some degree on adherence to church beliefs and social norms, is terrifying.

Scott spent the next decade researching mormon history bit by astounding bit, scarcely able to believe what he learned. "This needs to be a novel or a TV series," he muttered often, until finally he buckled down and spent a few years compiling, outlining, writing, and editing the first installment of the true story of Joseph Smith Jr., told in the prophet's own (fictional) voice. The first volume, American Prophet, covers Joseph's life from his early childhood through the publication of the Book of Mormon and establishment of the "Mormon" Church of Christ in 1830.

Scott's agent, Matt Bialer of Sanford J. Greenburger Associates, will be submitting the book to publishers. News about publication dates and editions will be announced as it becomes official.