By Dani Safford

WESTPORT, Mass. — A high salary, corner office and the titles of President and CEO of a $122 million dollar banking institution might sound like the idyllic life for some people but Diane Kozak traded it all to pursue her long-term dream of becoming an author.

“I went to college for accounting. I chose accounting and business for a career to make money and I made it all the way to the top; I became the president of Taunton Federal Credit Union,” says Kozak, author of the newly published novel, Full Circle 911. “I became the President of the credit union at 31 years old and I had been there for thirteen years and had succeeded. I started thinking about it and said that if I don’t do it now I’ll never do it. I had no excuse not to do it.”
The whole writing endeavor began when Kozak found herself with some extra downtime in the early morning hours before work after taking her beagle, Charlotte, for a walk.
“I started getting up with Charlotte and that’s when I wrote the book — between the time she woke me up in the morning and the time I had to get ready to go to work,” Kozak says.
The transition from executive to writer didn’t happen overnight for Kozak, who has worked in the accounting field for her entire career. While her intention was always to follow through with the project, she was still employed in her position at the credit union during the early writing process and it wasn’t until a series of tragic events forced her to reevaluate her priorities.
“The reason I left and changed my career is actually a combination of things,” Kozak explains.
“I had some personal tragedy in the way of my dad died the day after Christmas and two months later I found out my mom had stage three pancreatic cancer and she died a few months after that. While I was taking care of her, I was able to do some soul searching and I was out of the rat race long enough that I decided to follow my dream.”
After recovering from the trauma of losing both of her parents, Kozak decided to turn her part-time writing project into her full-time profession and stepped down from her role at the credit union to realize her goal, an act which she partially credits to some words of advice from her late mother.
“[My mom] said don’t ever get yourself in a position when you look back and say I wish I had done this or that so I took her advice,” Kozak says. “I was going to do everything I could to go the whole way. I was going to give it my best shot and I knew how hard it was but obviously I don’t give up on things easy.”
Venturing into a profession in which she knew very little about, Kozak says worked diligently on her manuscript, revising and researching each detail until she had developed Full Circle 911, a novel about a fictional terrorist attack and its effect on a New Bedford Muslim teenager.
“It’s told through the eyes of a teenager and I wrote it to interest young people to get their interest in a way they would be interested by having it told by somebody their own age,” Kozak says. “People say it’s a very patriotic book and it’s making the point that as Americans, we can’t allow what happened on 9/11 make us turn against our own fellow Americans.”
Since the book was released this year by Sunpiper Publications out of Alabama, Kozak hasn’t been sitting around idly. In addition to offering book signings at various locations throughout Massachusetts and Rhode Island, Kozak has been visiting local schools to pique students’ interest in Full Circle 911 and its themes and to offer encouragement and motivation to the younger generation.
“The reason I go to schools is because I love school kids and I wanted to get the message out there that number one, America is a great place and number two, stop watching TV and text messaging and playing on the computer and use your imagination; read, write, use your imagination and you’d be amazed at how great your life could be,” says Kozak. “I followed my dream which is what I always wanted to do. My message to [the students] is success can be defined in many different ways. Some people define it as money or position and power. I define success as happiness and I’m happy.”
Kozak has already begun work on Exposing Eurabia, the sequel to Full Circle 911. For more information about Diane Kozak or for a list of upcoming appearances, visit www.dianekozak.com.