Diana Rodriguez Wallach was born in Ridley Township, PA during the Great Blizzard of 1978. Since then, her birthdays have been frequently snowed out, though that didn’t stop her from following the cold winds north to Boston University where she graduated in 2000 with a B.S. in Journalism from the College of Communication.
During her junior year, she spent her spring semester studying in Madrid, Spain, where she worked for a university-run radio station. She backpacked across Europe, staying in many sketchy establishments, and even spent spring break with her now-husband, Jordan, in Bali, Indonesia.
Post graduation, Diana moved to Manhattan where she worked as a reporter for a hotel trade magazine and learned how to write lots of copy, very quickly. She also worked as the managing editor of a real estate trade publication.
During the attacks of September 11th 2001, Diana lived only five blocks from Ground Zero. The experience inspired her to want to make a difference in the world around her. In 2003, she moved back to her native Philadelphia and joined a nonprofit where she worked as the communications associate for an organization focused on improving inner-city public schools. Her work affected positive educational change for countless Philadelphia students; however, Diana couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something “else” she was supposed to be doing with her life.
In late 2004, Diana began writing her first novel after a Salem, MA psychic curiously predicted she would go on to write children’s books (seriously…read how she became a writer). She wrote two novels before selling a trilogy of YA Latina novels to Kensington Publishing. Her agent called with the good news on Fat Tuesday 2007 while Diana was at Mardi Gras in New Orleans wearing beads and feathered mask.
After that, Diana penned a short-story trilogy, then she turned her attention to motherhood. In 2014, she returned to writing, and in the summer of 2015, while down the shore in New Jersey, Diana got THE CALL that her latest project, a YA spy thriller, sold to Entangled Publishing. Proof of Lies, the first book in the Anastasia Phoenix series, debuted in March 2017. The second book in the series, Lies That Bind, launched in March 2018; and the final installment of the trilogy, End of the Lie, pubbed in March 2019. Diana’s first horror novel, Small Town Monsters, came out in September 2021 through Random House’s Underlined imprint. And her latest YA horror, Hatchet Girls, came out through Random House’s Delacorte imprint in October 2023.
Currently, Diana lives in the Philadelphia area with her husband Jordan, her daughter Juliet, her son Lincoln, and their cats Princess Mittens and Snickerdoodle. Diana enjoys traveling, watching General Hospital, practicing yoga, listening to Taylor Swift, playing Fantasy Football, and cheering on the Philadelphia Eagles.
Want to hear more about Diana’s publishing journey? Listen to her discussion with Boston University alumni where she details her many literary agents, her struggles to find a publisher, and entire her publishing career. Watch the video now.
