Interview With Author Anna Maria DiDio
Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
Anna Maria DiDio, MSW is an adoptive mother and children’s author whose adoption-themed books are heartwarming, heartbreaking and everything messy and wonderful about adoption. It all started in 2019 with Love at the Border, An Adoption Adventure – a memoir about her international adoption journey. Now, her best selling children’s books continue to encourage family conversations so that all blended families thrive! Many People to Love and How I Wonder Where You Are are the first two books in her L.I.F.E.* Adventures Series and focus on adoption attachment, trauma and grief. Anna Maria holds a BA in Psychology from Villanova University and an MSW in Family Specialization from the University of Pennsylvania. For over twenty years, Anna Maria DiDio has devoted her time and talents to many non-profit organizations focusing on women, girls, and families locally and globally. She is the mother of two young wonderful women and loves to cook, shop and watch movies with them – together or separately. Anna Maria is at her most creative when she is traveling and experiencing new people, places, and things to eat and then writing about it! She lives in Philadelphia with her husband Richard and can be found walking everywhere, swimming laps, reading biographies, or baking chocolate chip cookies. *Love Inspires Families Everywhere
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Carla the Conqueror will be the third book in the L.I.F.E. Adventures Series of adoption-themed children’s books. In this story, Carla has anxiety and nervousness about reading aloud in school. This book is for those children who may not have English as a first language. My children’s books are all inspired by actual events from our family life with a mission for parents and educators to use my books as a way to begin difficult conversations about adoption attachment, trauma, grief and loss between parent and child.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
The mix of snacks that I use for inspiration follows a certain pattern. First: coffee and chocolate chip cookies, followed by water or tea and salty chips, pretzels, popcorn or crackers. Digestion pause and begin again.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
My support group of other self-published children’s authors inspires me every day. They are creative, imaginative and resilient. It takes dedication to pursue your message when you are doing it independently!
What are you working on now?
Children that are in foster care also need stories. Right now I am researching the best way to tell these stories.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
My website https://www.amdidio.com/ has information about all of my books plus other writing (on Medium.com) and resources for parents and children.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Be clear about your message. Do the work necessary to share it widely and don’t give up.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Let go of those things (people places things) that are no longer serving me – be true to myself.
What are you reading now?
Memoirs are fascinating to me. There is no better story than real life.
What’s next for you as a writer?
I will continue my series of children’s books plus my Medium articles. It’s great to vary content. Writing about adoption had been my passion but I also love to explore other grown-up topics and issues.
If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
The Diary of Anne Frank, Man’s Search for Meaning, LBJ books by Robert Caro and the Bible.
Author Websites and Profiles
Anna Maria DiDio Amazon Profile
Anna Maria DiDio’s Social Media Links