Two headstrong, conservative Mormon housewives, bent on preserving open space near Utah’s Jordan River for their children and coming generations, speak out publicly and galvanize a community into political warfare against a multi-million dollar commercial project that would encroach on the river and destroy wildlife habitat.
The homemakers are promptly SLAPPED (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation) by the wealthy, influential, and powerful (Mormon) developers for $1.7 Million and told to keep their mouths shut.
When these women choose to stand their ground and fight, the churlish churchgoers do everything in their power to make an example of the moms so that no citizen or city will ever dare oppose their developments in the future.
On these bones of a classic American story (based on actual events), a cast of fascinating characters fleshes out. In addition to the outspoken Mormon (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) moms who are PTA, piano and special-ed-teaching, “milk and cookie moms,” a bi-polar, lone-wolf, environmental activist forms an alliance with the women and he becomes the story’s X-factor. A diverse team of lawyers, including a civil rights attorney, supply the women with legal assistance.
The developers’ network of family members, business associates, political cronies, judges, and church leaders reaches deep into small-town Salt Lake County. Here, they inevitably cross paths with the housewives and their allies.
Neighborhood vandalism, vicious gossip, and dirty tricks ensue.
The two beleaguered housewives and their ragtag grassroots supporters hunker down to resist a brutal lawsuit, intended to shut them up and break them with legal bills. An important environmental fight morphs into an even more significant battle for free speech.
Will a glass and concrete city rise in the river bottoms?
Photo by Paul Schoenfeld
About the Author
Paul Swenson was born the youngest of ten children in 1936 in Logan, Utah. He began his writing career at age twenty-two as a crime reporter for the Deseret News in Salt Lake City. Later, he took up the editorship of Utah Holiday magazine, where he became known for producing important investigative journalism about Utah politics. Many successful writers, including Nevada Writers Hall of Fame inductee Phyllis Barber and Pulitzer Prize nominee Linda Sillitoe, got their start under Paul’s editorship. He also edited The Event magazine and wrote for the Salt Lake Observer. Many of his other articles were published in the Salt Lake Tribune, Sunstone, Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, and other publications. During his later years, Paul followed in the footsteps of his poet sister, May Swenson, producing many poems. Paul wrote many news stories about the real-life events that inspired this book and became so intrigued that he spent four years researching and interviewing the people involved in order to produce this novel. He died shortly after completing it in 2012.
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Wild Horses Song by Steve Tobias
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One lazy summer day in the summer of 1968, a young girl discovers an enchanting backyard teeming with fruit trees, flowers, roses, and a fairy-tale castle birdhouse clustered between pine trees and a mysterious old white cottage. Nestled in the back of this secret garden is a magnificent raspberry patch. Row upon row of bright-red raspberries dot the green leaves of the raspberry plants and light up the raspberry patch like lights on a Christmas tree. There the young girl meets “the raspberry man,” the seventy-seven-year-old owner of this hidden wonderland, a Danish immigrant who came to United States to live the American dream. He sends her home with a bouquet of roses and a bowl of raspberries. Soon after this visit, she adopts him as her grandpa and they form a lifetime friendship. Charming illustrations by Julia Adams, who has autism, help to tell this heartwarming tale, inspired by a true story, about the love that can be shared between the elderly and the young. This book also reminds us of the importance of kindness and respecting every generation and culture.
About the Author
Born the youngest of seven children, Janalee Tobias was raised in Idaho. She wrote The Raspberry Man as an assignment for an English class at Ricks College in Rexburg, Idaho (now known as BYU-Idaho). Thirty years later, she found this story while going through some old college papers and entered it into a writing contest, where it won first place. Several people suggested she make the story into a children’s book. So, thanks to her great-niece Julia Adams, who is the illustrator, people can see and read about the real-life characters in a time when the world was carefree, happy-go-lucky, and out of harm’s way. Each picture by Julia is hand-drawn and colored with loving care. The author hopes that everyone is blessed with a “raspberry man” in his or her life. Janalee graduated from Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. She currently resides in Utah with her husband, Steve, cats and birds and of course, raspberry bushes. They have two adult daughters, Lisa and Stephanie, one son-in-law, one grandson, Boston, and another grandchild on the way. Janalee has been involved with many high-profile organizations protecting the Bill of Rights and has had legal representation at the Utah Supreme Court and the Supreme Court of the United States with important court cases defending the First and Second Amendments of the United States Constitution
About the Illustrator
Utah native Julia Adams was diagnosed with autism at the age of two. Since her early elementary years, Julia has devoted thousands of hours to honing her skills as an artist. A mostly self-taught illustrator and artist, Julia takes on art project and illustrating commissions and also works as a cake decorator for two local bakeries. In addition, Julia was also recently called as a service missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Julia is the great-niece of author Janalee Tobias, the real-life inspiration for the character of Jani in The Raspberry Man. Julia resides in Centerville, Utah with her parents and four siblings.