Diane Maxwell is a retired nurse living in the countryside of Panama. She spent her first twenty-four years in southern California. Another eighteen years passed in Minnesota raising her three children. Warmer weather called her to Texas where she settled north of Houston. Thoughts of retiring in Texas were trampled as the area got more and more crowded.

She attended private school and later put herself through college gaining a Bachelor of Science degree in Nursing from the University of New York. She worked fulltime in hospital settings for thirty years. Specializing in Emergency Care, she acquired every letter of the alphabet behind her name in certifications. She participated in the Mayo-One helicopter ride along program, travel nursing, infection control and hospital quality assurance.

Travel always captured her imagination and she experienced different cultures all over the world. Besides visiting every State except Alaska, she has journeyed to Japan, China, Tibet, Australia, Russia, Netherlands, France, England, Costa Rica, Colombia, Mexico, Canada, and several small island nations.

"An Expat's Struggle - Making a Home in Panama" is Diane's first novel, although many poems from her youth have been published. She always wrote journals depicting her feelings along her adventures. Her memoir started with those journals, evolving into an entire book.

Her love of puzzles, travel, and seven years of pet sitting in Panama led to her Kathy Vallory Mystery Series. Follow Kathy from Panama, Costa Rica, Tibet, and back to Texas where she pet sits and solves murders. Diane integrates the unique cultures into her stories so you feel like you are there.