Jack Weyland was born in Butte, Montana in 1940. Attended and graduated from high school in Billings, Montana. Attended Montana State University and majored in Physics. Served a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in New York and Pennsylvania. After his mission, he attended Brigham Young University where he received a Ph.D in physics. His first novel, Charly, was completed in 1979, published in 1980. It was made into a feature film in 2002. He and his wife Sherry have five children. He has taught Physics throughout his writing career. He taught at Ricks College now BYU-Idaho from 1993-2005. He has published 39 novels and more than 50 short stories.

Eleanor Knowles Laney (1932-2010) was an editor and vice-president of Deseret News.

Eleanor Knowles was born on February 28, 1932 to Kenneth B. Knowles and Helen G. Pearce in Ogden, Utah. She studied at University of Utah and later Utah State University, where she was the editor of the campus newspaper. In 1969, she became the first full-time editor of the Deseret News, and subsequently became the first female vice-president. She worked on the 1979 and 1981 editions of the scriptures of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She married Richard B. Laney in 2007. Knowles died on July 17, 2010 in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Deseret Book Company (est. 1866) is a publishing company for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Deseret Book Company was established in 1866 by Apostle George Q. Cannon as George Q. Cannon and Sons. Upon Cannon's death in 1901, the company was purchased by the Deseret News and became the Deseret News bookstore. In 1919, the Deseret News Bookstore and the Deseret Sunday School Union merged and became Deseret Book Company. Deseret Book Company publishes a range of media including fiction and non-fiction, scriptures, music, and software for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its members.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (1830-) is a restorationist Christian church founded by Joseph Smith in New York. It is commonly abbreviated as the LDS Church.

During the 1820s, the church's founder, Joseph Smith, experienced visions and was led to golden plates from which the Book of Mormon was translated. The Church was officially founded by Joseph Smith on April 6, 1830, in Palmyra, New York. The members of the religion faced a series of persecutions, and eventually fled to Utah for refuge, beginning in 1847.

The Church continued to grow and expand beyond Utah, and today it has a membership numbering over 15 million. It is headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah, with Russell M. Nelson serving as its prophet and president.