Diana Stevan likes to joke she’s a Jill of all trades as she’s worked as a family therapist, teacher, librarian, model, actress and sports reporter for CBC television. With writing her passion, she’s published newspaper articles, poetry, a short story, a novelette, and five novels.
Her novels cross genres: A Cry from the Deep (2014), a time-slip romantic mystery/adventure; The Rubber Fence (2016), women’s fiction, inspired by her work on a psychiatric ward in the 1970s; and Sunflowers Under Fire (2019), historical fiction / family saga, based on her Ukrainian grandmother Lukia’s life during WWI and the wars that followed in Russia. It was a finalist for the 2019 Whistler Independent Book Awards, sponsored by the Writers Union of Canada, a semi-finalist for the 2019 Kindle Book Awards, Literary Fiction category, and Honorable Mention in 2020 Writer’s Digest Self-Published Book Awards.
The sequel to Sunflowers Under Fire, Lilacs in the Dust Bowl (2021), tells the story of Lukia and her family's immigration to Manitoba just before the Great Depression begins. Paper Roses on Stony Mountain (2022) is the final book of Lukia's Family Saga series, and covers the last years of the Depression and early years of WWII on the Manitoba prairies. It made Miramichi Reader's List of Best Fiction of 2022.
When she isn’t writing, she loves to garden, travel, and read. With their two daughters grown, Diana lives with her husband Robert on Vancouver Island and West Vancouver, British Columbia.
Using Family History to Write Stories
Diana Stevan, author of the award-winning Lukia's Family Saga: Sunflowers Under Fire and Lilacs in the Dust Bowl, will show what it takes to write a story, inspired or based on family history. Her power point presentation outlines the steps she took to write two published works. She's currently working on the third book of the series. Questions and Answers will follow.
