Finding Utopia

"Finding Utopia" tells a touching story of love and loss, dreams realized, and dreams cut short, woven through the lens of a misguided love that shatters lives and leaves a town in ashes. Set in Utopia, Texas in the rural Hill Country between 1917 and 1926, the characters live on in memory long after you reach the end.

"Finding Utopia" is a romantic thriller inspired by true events. Maizelle Clarke, the town doctor's daughter, elopes with Will Jones, an auto mechanic, against her father's wishes. He disowns her and cuts her off from her siblings and the family she loves. Embraced by her new husband's mother, she learns how to be a wife and mother at the older woman's elbow. The young couple creates an idyllic life for themselves and their growing family until tragedy strikes, throwing the mother of three into a deep depression that threatens her marriage, her family, and all she holds dear. As she struggles to climb out of the darkness, another baby is born, which gives her hope, a reason to live and repair her fractured relationships. As she begins to move forward again, a misguided love brings a night of terror to the community and a dark secret threatens the family and the community's very existence. A story of deep love, enduring friendship, loss, and redemption, FINDING UTOPIA is a tender, gritty story carrying readers to a surprising climax.

Linda Weber is a writer of historical fiction, memoir, and personal essays. She is a graduate of the University of Oregon with degrees in Speech: Rhetoric and Public Address as well as Journalism, with an Oregon Teaching Certification. She completed her Master of Public Administration work at Portland State University. Linda has owned a retail custom clothing business, a bed and breakfast inn, and a direct sales and marketing business where she was also a corporate trainer. She was named Advocate of the Year for Women in Business by the Portland Oregon office of the Small Business Administration and chaired a regional "Women in Business" conference attended by over 1,000 women and men from the Western Region of the SBA. She is an accomplished public speaker and community activist who has run for state-wide political office and been active in promoting causes for women's equality and advancement in business. She served as President of The Henderson Writers Group, Las Vegas, and facilitates Sisters Writes. She is a member of the Historical Novel Writers Society of North America, Women Writing the West, Sin City Writers Group and Sisters Writes, a read and critique group. Linda's essays and stories have won first-place writing awards and been published in anthologies and journals. Linda has two children, one stepchild, six grandchildren, two step-grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren. She lives in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains in Sisters, Oregon with her husband, Dennis, his comfort animal, Jilly the dog, and Houdini the cat. She loves to travel and has visited or lived in over thirty countries.