About the Author

Diana S. Zimmerman

Vanishing avocados, mega-million dollar conferences, haute couture jewels, and enigmatic beings, all part of Diana S. Zimmerman’s amazing life. Like her best selling, award winning fantasy adventure novel, “Kandide and the Secret of the Mists,” her role in the performing arts, as well as the business world, transcends the ordinary. She has been a performer, entrepreneur and businesswoman since the age of eight when she invested all of her resources into a small magic trick. With a total capital outlay of 47 cents, she parlayed her investment into a spectacular 25-year stage and television career as the "World’s Foremost Lady Magician.”

Leaving her hometown of Phoenix, Arizona at the age of 18, she filled her car with magic tricks, costumes, and a great deal of ambition, then headed to Los Angeles with $45.00 to her name. “Even back then,” she explains, “that wasn’t very much money. But when you grow up living on the wrong side of the tracks, what have got to lose?” Admitting that it was “pretty tough getting started in a town such as LA.,” and she wasn’t always sure where her next meal would come from, nothing mattered to Diana except pursuing her dream of becoming a world renown performer. Doing magic to support herself (and pay for college), the novelty of a women magician, along with her remarkable creativity and talent, eventually catapulted her into the limelight.

Diana starred in her own television show, “Enchanted Palace” as well as her own revue show in Lake Tahoe. She appeared on virtually every major TV talk show, toured the world, and later became a much sought after motivational speaker and corporate spokesperson for companies as diverse as Ore Ida and the Avocado Advisory Board. Her speech, Success, Mastering the Art of Illusion, garnered standing ovation after standing ovation in the corporate world. Diana also invented magic illusions for Lance Burton and David Copperfield, among others. She remains a highly respected lecturer, writer, and teacher in this field, and sponsors the Junior Magicians’ Club—a youth group she founded in 1974 with the help of legendary actor, Cary Grant—at Hollywood’s famous Magic Castle.

Her transition into the corporate world saw the creation of CMS Communications, Intl.—an international marketing communications agency whose clients include many of the Fortune 500. Successful Meetings Magazine has named CMS in the “Top 50 Event Companies” for an unprecedented seven years straight. Today, Diana is CMS’ President and CEO, and has garnered almost as many standing ovations for the executives and CEOs that she coaches in the art of speaking, as she did in her own illustrious career. She sits on three Boards including the prestigious Academy of Magical Arts Educational Foundation, Inc., was an Ernst & Young “Entrepreneur of the Year” finalist, and a 2008 Los Angeles Business Journal “Women Making a Difference” nominee.

Her dazzling road of business achievements is also paved with equally impressive writing credentials. Diana is a featured writer for JQ International, an haute couture jewelry magazine, as well as a veritable expert on other dimensional beings. Having had 100’s of articles and dozens of cover stories published, Kandide and the Secret of the Mists is the first of her three fantasy adventure novels. Diana is also the co-author of a business book titled Tactical Abyss—How Integrated Strategy Can Prevent Corporate Catastrophe.

An avid collector of faery art, Diana’s collection of bronzes, clocks, paintings, sculptures, books, and porcelains is one of the largest in the world with pieces dating back to the 1700s. A painting by Australian artist, Maxine Gadd, now in her private collection, inspired the literary legacy of Kandide.

 

About the Illustrator

Maxine Gadd—Illustrator

From the age of three, it was obvious that Maxine was an extraordinary talent. Born Maxine Saunders in Worcestershire, England, she was a shy child who preferred drawing to playing with friends. In 1967, her family immigrated to Australia. It was there that her artistic talents flourished. Maxine first exhibited her drawings at school and then at community art shows. She won numerous awards, and by the age of 12 was selling her paintings.

Always the non-conformist, at 15 she chose to leave school, deciding instead to explore the field of graphic design at a technical college. This, however, quickly became too restricting, and she left to focus on her own private world of art. Being ever restless, Maxine longed to be involved with fellow artists. Even though college had been restrictive in the past, she decided to go back. After three years, she received a diploma in Graphic Design, and while there, won the prestigious John Lunghi Award for “Outstanding Artistic Design.”

It was at school that she briefly met Will Gadd. By pure chance, they met again some time later, and after a brief courtship were married. During their honeymoon, Maxine began work on a fairy book that she and Will were writing. His support, both emotionally and financially, allowed her, for the first time, the freedom to devote herself to her art. Although Maxine paints many subjects, her distinctive approach to Fairies and Mermaids are what have truly captivated her fans.

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