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Diane Chamberlain's Biography

Member Info

Raleigh, NC
Jan 2008

Diane Chamberlain is the author of 21 novels published in more than eleven languages. She writes complex stories about relationships between men and women, parents and children, brothers and sisters, and friends. Although the thematic focus of her books often revolves around family, love, compassion and forgiveness, her stories usually feature a combination of suspense, mystery and intrigue.

Diane was born and raised in Plainfield, New Jersey. She also lived for many years in both San Diego and northern Virginia before making North Carolina her home.   Diane received her master's degree in clinical social work from San Diego State University. Prior to her writing career, she was a hospital social worker in both San Diego and Washington, D.C. She also was a psychotherapist in private practice in Alexandria, Virginia, working primarily with adolescents.  She reluctantly left her practice in the early nineties to focus full time on her writing.

Several years ago, Diane was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis, which not only changed the way she works (she sometimes uses voice recognition software) but also shifted her perspective on life for the better. As one of her Japanese readers wrote to her, "You make me believe life is beautiful even if it is also full of pain and rage."

Diane lives in North Carolina with her partner, photographer John Pagliuca, and her shelties, Keeper and Jet.    

Diane's newest release is SECRETS SHE LEFT BEHIND.

Influences

E.B. White's Charlotte's Web, which my first grade teacher read to our class. It was the first time a story made me cry, and it was full of love and sacrifice, wonder and suspense--things that still influence my writing today.

Alice Hoffman, whose books were my bibles more than two decades ago, when I first started writing.

Anne Morrow Lindbergh, whose Gift from the Sea is a lesson in relationships taught at, on and through my favorite setting--the beach.

Maya Angelou, whose magic with words never fails to mesmerize me.

The everyday people who cope with life's adversities while still managing to see their glass half full. It's their stories I find most intriguing.

Upcoming Works

SECRETS SHE LEFT BEHIND, Mira Books, May 09

Agents

Susan Ginsberg
Writers House
New York, NY

Recommended Links

Publishers

Mira Books
HarperCollins