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Diane Dettmann is a writer, presenter and teacher. During her teaching career, she was an elementary teacher, a literacy staff developer and taught at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls. She attends writer's conferences whenever she can to learn new writing techniques and network with writers, agents and publicists. She's currently promoting her memoir, Twenty-Eight Snow Angels: A Widow's Story of Love, Loss and Renewal, at a variety of local venues.
Diane is also the coauthor of Miriam, Daughter of Finnish Immigrants, a book about her grandparents coming to America in the early 1900s and raising seven children during the Great Depression. She has presented the book at international conferences in Finland and Canada.
She lives in Afton, Minnesota, where she enjoys writing, outdoor activities and spending time with her loving husband, Allan. Diane Dettmann’s website is www.outskirtspress.com/snowangels.
For more information or to contact the author, visit www.outskirtspress.com/snowangels.
Reviewed by Alice DiNizo for Readers' Favorite
Diane Dettmann writes of her long-lasting grief at the death of her first husband, John Hohl, after twenty-eight years of marriage. John and Diane never parented children, but their marriage was a testimonial to two people bonding together completely and the devastation that the surviving member must endure after the other one's death. Diane's words convey a widow's long struggles with sorrow despite the support of loving family members, joining grief support groups and her own attempts to throw herself into work as a master teacher attending nationwide conferences. She shares convincingly how she finally got her life together, bought a sports car, learned to kayak, and finally met the man who would be her second husband, Allan. Diane Dettmann is totally honest about her use of alcohol and anti-depressants in fighting against the grief that overwhelmed her, and this is a message that readers will need to hear.
Twenty-Eight Snow Angels is an honest record of a widow's difficult struggle that is inspirational. Diane Dettmann is brutally honest about her long battle with losing her beloved husband, and readers going through that dark valley will appreciate this story. It is well written and well edited, although the identification of people in one or two of the accompanying black and white pictures would be beneficial. The author's portrayal of herself, John Hohl, family members and her second husband, Allan, are believable and add to this memoir. This is a book that will touch many lives in a positive, helpful way.
