When Authors Attack

Sometimes you’ve just gotta wonder why. With so many would-be authors around the world desperate to write and publish even a single book, why would the celebrated author of over a dozen break down and — well, break the law, and go to court, and face humiliating in front of countless young fans? Christopher Heimerdinger, better known by the folksier byline “Chris Heimerdinger,” gained fame in Utah and beyond, beginning in 1989, with a series of novels for teens based on stories from the Book of Mormon. Adventure tales packed with time-travel and morality lessons, the “Tennis Shoes” series includes Tennis Shoes Among the Nephites, Gadiantons and the Silver Sword, Tennis Shoes and the Feathered Serpent, (Parts 1 and 2), The Sacred Quest (formerly Tennis Shoes and the Seven Churches), The Lost Scrolls, The Golden Crown, Warriors of Cumorah, Tower of Thunder, and Kingdoms and Conquerors. As revealed on its Amazon page, Warriors of Cumorah follows this plotline: “When Becky and Josh Plimpton are kidnapped by Todd Finlay, Megan and her two suitors, Ryan and Apollus, attempt to rescue them, but through the mysterious powers of the Rainbow Room, one group ends up in nineteenth-century Jerusalem and the other in central America hundreds of years after the visitation of the Savior to the Nephites.”

Adding to his laurel crown, Heimerdinger has also written other books including Eddie Fantastic, Daniel and Nephi, Ben Franklin and the Chamber of Time, A Light in the Storm, Passage to Zarahemla and A Return to Christmas. A film version of Passage to Zarahemia is now in production. Why oh why, then, did Heimerdinger muck up his role-model status by smashing the deadbolt on his estranged wife’s door, then kicking in the door and entering the place in full view of the couple’s children? This week, the author was “sentenced on a misdemeanor criminal mischief charge stemming from a domestic incident,” according to the Deseret News. “A 3rd District judge spared Christopher Heimerdinger jail time on one class B misdemeanor count of criminal mischief but ordered the author to pay more than $300 in fines and placed him on 12 months of probation. The court also ordered Heimerdinger to take a 16-week domestic-violence and anger-management class. Heimerdinger was originally also charged with one misdemeanor count of domestic violence in the presence of a child but was found not guilty of that charge during a bench trial in August....

According to his Web site, (www.cheimerdinger.com), the author is described as "deeply committed to celebrating the truths and values of the gospel of Jesus Christ in his creative works,” the article continues. The Web site is, ahem, under reconstruction at the moment.