Diana is the author of three young adult mysteries featuring globetrotting teen sleuths: Tokyo Heist, Latitude Zero, and Blue Voyage, all published by Viking Children’s Books/Penguin. Latitude Zero (set in Ecuador) was a Junior Library Guild selection, and Blue Voyage (set in Turkey) was honored as a 2016 Must-Read title by the Massachusetts Book Awards. For adults, Diana is a co-author of an international thriller, False Idols, about an undercover FBI linguist investigating the underbelly of relic-running in Egypt. Written in collaboration with the original director of the FBI Art Crimes Division, False Idols was published episodically by Serial Box and in paperback by Adaptive Books. Diana has also published numerous essays, articles, and short stories, which have appeared in Publisher’s Weekly, The Huffington Post, Brain Child, Literary Mama, The Writer, Cricket, Spider, and various literary journals.
Diana loves to travel, and has enjoyed teaching students from all over the world. Those experiences inspired her to write mysteries with international intrigue. However, Diana’s new middle grade novel, Trouble at Turtle Pond, is a mystery set much closer to home, in a fictitious New England town, where a boy named Miles and his team of self-appointed young wildlife rangers (“Backyard Rangers”) solve crimes against endangered freshwater turtles. The book was inspired by volunteer work that she and her son have done with a local conservation group. These days, she is fascinated by how many mysteries can be found right in our own backyards.
Diana holds a B.A. in English from Hampshire College and an M.A. in English and American Literature from Brandeis University. When not busy working on her own books, she has dedicated her career to helping other writers improve their craft and tell their stories. She currently works as the Director of Coach Development at Author Accelerator, where she connects writers with coaches to help them write their best books, and also helps train new book coaches. She has worked as a textbook writer, screenwriter, and development editor in the educational publishing industry, contracting with McGraw-Hill, Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, and others. For several years, Diana was the Fiction Editor for an award-winning online young adult magazine (YARN, Young Adult Review Network). She has also worked as a writing instructor at Grub Street, Boston University, and elsewhere.
Diana knew as early as age five that she wanted to be a writer, and benefitted greatly from supportive teachers who sent her to young writers conferences and showed her that this path was possible. A voracious mystery reader since childhood, Diana’s influences include Agatha Christie, E.L. Koningsburg, Ellen Raskin, Blue Balliett, and ecological mystery writers Jean Craighead George and Carl Hiaasen.
Diana grew up in Seattle, which she visits whenever she can. She now lives outside of Boston with her husband, her son, a moody black cat, and occasional baby turtles. Visit her at www.dianarennbooks.com.
