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Gloria VanDemmeltraadt’s passion is helping people capture their memories, and she has worked with well over a hundred hospice patients as a volunteer, and many others on a for-hire basis to help them document their stories. She is the author of 4 published nonfiction books, teaches classes on life story writing, and speaks to groups on a variety of topics. Her newest adventure is in the fiction world, and her Cozy Mystery novel, Danger in Deep Lake was released in May this year to great reviews. Contact Gloria through her website: gloriavan.com.

Onno VanDemmeltraadt was born in the Dutch East Indies and was six years old when the Japanese occupation of World War II began. In Darkness in Paradise, author Gloria VanDemmeltraadt, Onno's wife, tells her husband's story from the unique view of a young boy in the midst of darkness in his paradise. In this memoir, Gloria has captured both the horrors and humor of her husband's early life in war-ravaged Indonesia. This recollection shares memories of fierce Japanese soldiers bursting into his family's home, and later having one of them teach him to fish. Visions, such as Onnos family running down the street with mattresses covering their heads as bullets fly by them, are stark. The stories tell the pains of war but are filled with hope. Inspiring both tears and laughter throughout, Darkness in Paradise reveals layers of human compassion during the awful times of World War II.

Kindle Price: $3.99

Category: Biographies & Memoirs

Praise for Darkness in Paradise: "What a wonderful first-person read. Onno has such a magnificent recall of facts I felt like I was there with him during many of his adventures. Told from a child's point of view, it's about a country affected by WWII, and the subsequent Japanese occupation of Indonesia. You get a sense of the diverse cultures of Indonesia, both the native inhabitants as well as the mix of people from Holland who immigrated there. The many transitions of place, culture, and age are all brought to life.

Kindle Price: $4.99

Category: Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

Gloria Jane Tyler Shigley Cannon VanDemmeltraadt is a self-described gray-haired grandma, who's survived a number of life-style extremes and still manages to ride the bumps and smile through it all. She describes memories like sifting flour. The original product is one thing, but when it is sifted or strained through a screen it falls below in a new form. Memories are sifted through the minds of everyone who shares the same event, and the resulting product is changed forever. Musing and Munching is a unique collection of memories and menus that VanDemmeltraadt has put together to share stories of her life. She overlaps these stories with a wide variety of foods and recipes that have followed her diverse life path. As the stories unfold, readers will both laugh and cry and mouths will water. This charming volume will find its way to many a kitchen shelf where precious cookbooks are saved. VanDemmeltraadt lives and cooks in Minnesota with her husband, Onno.

Kindle Price: $9.99

Category: Cookbooks, Food & Wine