Diana Wallis Taylor Books in Order

If you want the clearest first taste of her biblical fiction: Journey to the Well → Martha → Mary Magdalene
If you prefer Old Testament heroines: Ruth, Mother of Kings → Hadassah, Queen Esther of Persia → Rahab, Woman of Jericho → Pursued by a King: Abigail's Story
If you want first-century stories around Jesus and the early church: Mary → Claudia, Wife of Pontius Pilate → Lydia, Woman of Philippi
If you want her non-biblical fiction: Smoke Before the Wind → House of the Forest → Shadows on the Mountain

Diana Wallis Taylor is a native Californian who started publishing young. At twelve, she sold a poem to a church newspaper, which is a pretty early lesson in what writing can do: something private on the page can suddenly belong to other people too.

That beginning never really left her.

Before novels became the center of her career, Taylor spent years doing work that kept her close to people and stories. She earned a B.A. in Elementary Education from San Diego State University and taught elementary school for twenty-two years. Along the way she also attended Bethel Seminary, worked in real estate, ran two coffeehouse and used bookstores, and later retired from a private Christian college where she served as Director of Conference Services.

She came to fiction the long way around.

That winding path matters because her books rarely feel distant or abstract. Even when she writes about biblical figures, she tends to ground them in daily life: family expectations, money worries, chores, widowhood, public shame, quiet loyalty, and the kind of practical decisions that can change an entire future. Her writing keeps asking what ordinary faith looks like inside ordinary pressure.

Her best-known work is biblical fiction centered on women of Scripture. Journey to the Well imagines the backstory of the Samaritan woman who meets Jesus at Jacob's well. Martha and Mary Magdalene revisit women many readers think they already know, then slow down long enough to give them homes, griefs, duties, and inner lives. In Claudia, Wife of Pontius Pilate, Lydia, Woman of Philippi, Hadassah, Queen Esther of Persia, and Rahab, Woman of Jericho, she moves through Roman courts, marketplaces, and ancient households with the same interest in the human side of the story.

Readers who connect with Taylor usually like that angle. She is less interested in turning these women into marble statues than in showing how they might have lived from one day to the next. There is faith in the books, of course, but there is also romance, family tension, danger, longing, and a lot of resilience.

She has also written outside biblical fiction. Her other books include contemporary and suspense-leaning novels such as Smoke Before the Wind, House of the Forest, and Shadows on the Mountain. She published Wings of the Wind, an inspirational poetry collection, contributed pieces to magazines and anthologies, and wrote an Easter cantata, Glorious, with a musical collaborator.

Recognition followed over time. Taylor has been described as an award-winning author, and her honors include a San Diego Book Award for the short story 'Phipps and the Jay.' Public bios and award listings also show recognition for her fiction, poetry, and songwriting, which fits the way her career has always moved across more than one form.

More recently, she has added children's books to her list. Her current home base is Ormond Beach, Florida, where she lives with her dog Maya and keeps writing new work. After so many careers, places, and projects, she still seems drawn to the same question that powered the early poem and the later novels: whose story still needs telling?