Diana’s Biography

(Continued from Home Page)

Diana Avery Amsden, Ph.D., was a high-school cheerleader, began college at 15, graduated at 19 with highest honors, and earned six degrees, including one from Harvard.  Her major interests have been anthropology, archaeology, architecture, and art history (“it appears that I didn’t get as far as ‘astronomy’ in the course catalog”).  She hiked 300 miles alone on the Appalachian Trail (“No, I wasn’t afraid.  Criminal types do not go in for hiking, and hiking types don’t go in for crime; they rarely even litter”).

Diana served on a university faculty, was a corporate vice-president, and did research for “Quincy, M.E.” (“the best job I ever had; bright, competent, warm people who cared about scientific accuracy”).   From a family of archaeologists (“my father was the expedition artist for Harold Gladwin at Casa Grande and for A.V. Kidder’s classic dig at Pecos”), she went on digs in most major Southwest cultures.  As Research Anthropologist for Falcon R&D (Whittaker Corp.), she worked on a comprehensive education/housing/medical plan for the Shah of Iran (“unfortunately, what Iranians considered a finder’s fee, Uncle Sam considered a bribe”).

Her Ph.D. dissertation exposed a fraud that had launched a new sub-discipline in Anthropology.  Her point-by-point analysis demonstrates that the data base used is irrelevant while relevant data is excluded, that every premise is false, and every argument a fallacy.

At the first Libertarian Party convention, to her alarm, she was nominated for vice-president.  Instinctively shrinking from the prospect, she asked the delegates to choose the other candidate, but she was the first LP National Secretary and first New Mexico State Chairman.

She qualified for membership in the International Society for Philosophical Inquiry, and on the ETS test of Architectural Aptitude, scored higher than 99% of 18,921 candidates.  She designed four adobe homes in New Mexico (“Design is a passion; I lose all sense of time”).

She is a writer (“I find writing demanding and satisfying”).   She was a ghostwriter for a scientist (“to my shame; ghostwriting is a lie”), published scholarly articles, edited books, was a Romance Writers’ conference speaker, and wrote a biography for hire, and has published poems and a short story in the San Diego Writers’ and Editors’ Guild 2013 anthology, The Guilded Pen.

She is now preparing for publication:

1.  The Stained-Glass Woman, her blockbuster multigenerational family saga that touches on the Old Order Amish, Ayn Rand, family abuse, Harvard, medical malpractice, money, sociopaths, and twins reared apart.  Her editor is Mark Clemens of Writers Ink, San Diego.

2.  The Virtual James Mason, a fantasy romance based on the legend of the Flying Dutchman.

3.  The Wagon Train Master, a western that answers the question, what would have enabled the Donner Party to survive?

4.   Ask and Ye Shall Receive, a comedy in which God and the Devil are female.

5.  The Cat Who Looked Like Jean Harlow, a science fiction comedy.

6.  Jakob Ammann’s Shadow, Amish History and Mindset.  Sociologist Patrick McNamara urged me to publish this research paper.

7.  Cataclysm, a futuristic story.

8.  Two Plus Two, a suspense story.

9.  The Rose-Covered Bowl

10.  Vanished, and several other stories