In my upcoming novel, 'Cage of Stars,' the young woman protagonist is a Mormon.

She's a Mormon for reasons that I chose, as an author -- because I wanted her to be part of a religion in which religion is not a part of life but life itself, but also because Mormon young people are very much of the world, encouraged to excel in every field. In a recent performance of 'Mamma Mia!' in Las Vegas, I watched as three of the main ensemble performers bewtiched the crowd. They were graduates of the estimable drama program at Brigham Young University.

There were errors in my novel. There were not many, because I was very, very careful. But some of the errors were accidental, because it is almost impossible to write from the point of view of a Mormon without having lived as a Mormon or with Mormons for a very long time. Others were a bit "accidentally on purpose."

Why? Unlike some other religions, Mormons do not like or allow their private rituals to be examined by people who are not of their faith -- in their words, Gentiles. Whether this is a good thing or a bad thing is not for me to judge; but it is a true thing. And when books are written by former Mormons that intend to "expose" rituals of the temple, normal, ordinary Mormons suffer it.

For twenty years, I have had a very close friend who is a Mormon.

I met her when she called me on the telephone one day at the newspaper where I worked then. She wanted to write a screenplay based on a non-fiction piece I had written, and though she never did, we remained close throughout the years. As in, very close.

When my husband was dying, and e-mail had barely been invented, my friend promised me, in words I will never forget, that she would "walk this road with me." And through letters and telephone calls, many of mine desperate, many terrified, many lacking in any faith for the future, religious faith included, she did. She taught me to "put my face against the fear." And I did. And I learned to be strong. My friend, Kahliel, became a fixed star in the firmament of my life.

I love her. I love her husband and her children.

On the rare occasions we meet, we hug and joke and cry for joy. These used to be more frequent, because she lived in New York City. But recently, she and her husband moved to Provo, where Kevin is a professor at BYU.

When I first spoke to her, she had five children.

When we met in person, she had six.

Finally, she had nine.

When I first spoke to her, I had three children. When we met in person, I had four. Now, I have seven.

I often tease her that this is her doing. She often teases me that I am a "dry Mormon," because I am so strict and intolerant of the so-called "ordinary" vices of children, such as experimenting with alcohol, or rudeness to adults.

For this novel, I lived with Kahliel's family for a week, as part of my research. And her family was utterly sharing with me. And thus, I probably know more about being a Mormon than most Gentiles, and I'm sensitive to that. And so, I didn't want to write everything I'd learned, not from her family, but from other sources about subjects that aren't supposed to be revealed to the world.

Some Mormons who have read my book said that the errors, both deliberate and inadvertent, would cause Mormon readers to boycott the book and call it just another false depiction of what is a rather new, and definitely strange to the Judaeo-Christian tradition, but ultimately a loving and protective religion that produces some remarkable people, and also some remarkably intolerant people. In that, it is very like all religions. I hope that isn't true.

But in other ways, it isn't like any other religions at all.

Whatever else it is, 'Cage of Stars' is a fond portrayal of a young Mormon woman and her family -- if not of the religion itself.

Moreover, it's not a novel about Mormonism, but about a terrible and divisive event in one family's life, and the extended effect of violence on all our lives.

It is a novel, a story, not a document of historicity and fact, though I like to think that it is genuine. Unlike Jim Frey, I am not calling it a real story. It never was real, though some of the events in it are inspired by real events. But I hope that it is true.

Jackie Mitchard