Free Maree

In this true story, set in 1983, a twenty-five-year-old New Zealander has abandoned the faith of her Catholic forefathers and joined a controversial movement her family, and nearly everyone else, believes is a dangerous cult: The Unification Church. Her desperate parents hire American deprogrammers who have her abducted and held prisoner in a remote beach house where they hope she will renounce her new faith as well as the arranged marriage that resulted from it.

Meanwhile her church friends go to extraordinary lengths to find her. After local police dismiss the issue as a family matter, ongoing tensions between cops and “Moonies” erupt into national headlines. Questions arise about deprogramming. Is it justified, because cults are despicable, or is it a gross violation of personal freedoms? Is it kidnapping, or is it rescue? Don’t miss this provocative, authentic memoir that is both a coming-of-age story and contemporary spiritual journey. Maree Gauper’s debut about a sincere young woman in disturbing circumstances addresses issues of religious intolerance and police indifference with intelligence, sassy humor, and gut-wrenching honesty.

"Free Maree!" is also available in print or eBook on Amazon.

Leaving Linda

“Moonie on the block! Red alert! Moonie on the block!” the pimple-faced bicycle gang yells as one of them throws rocks at the red-haired young man going door to door in a small Wisconsin town. Later, a police officer warns him, “There’s a town hall meeting taking place right now. People are angry and they want you out of here. No tellin’ what they’ll do” What could incite such vitriolic hatred? Is it justified?

What about the redhead? Is he in a cult? Did nefarious “mind control” turn this former long-haired hippie vegetarian into a Hitler youth-type brain-infected zombie like a popular TED talk claims? Or is there more to the story? Leaving Linda: A Moonie from the boonies, a sincere memoir authored by that persecuted young man might provide some answers.

There are, cornfields, puppies, baseball, abandoned missile sites, a bloody axe, beatings, incarcerations, a record-breaking mass wedding and so much more.

Read or listen to this memoir and discover a story seldom told. You’ll often laugh and perhaps cry but you will definitely be entertained.

"Leaving Linda" is also available in print or as an eBook on Amazon.