Janna Wong Healy
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I was born and raised in South Central Los Angeles. After attending local public schools, I received my Bachelor's degree in English and my Master's degree in Professional Writing from the University of Southern California. Professionally, I have spent my entire life around the written word. I have been a story analyst for film companies and studios, written articles for magazines and publicity materials for organizations, edited book manuscripts for publishers, written materials for DVDs and served as a researcher and editor for studio press kits. I've also been a paid blogger, written about casual gaming for The Clik/Character Arcade, a website owned by USA Network, and about sports for Blogher.com and Boise Sports Network. In addition, I am a professor of Business Communication at USC's Marshall School of Business
To complement my professional writing experiences, I continue to write creatively. I was accepted into the prestigious David Henry Hwang Writers Workshop of East West Players, where I developed several plays, including a one-act, Couplings, which received a staged reading at the theater; and Sweet and Sour, which was a finalist in the New Playwrights Competition at Theater Mu. I was also accepted into the Playwrights Kitchen Ensemble of the Coronet Theater in West Hollywood. Through this association, I developed a full-length romantic comedy, The Girl and the Goon, which resulted in a successful staged reading. My short story collection, A Life in Yellow-Gold, was performed in the inaugural "Emerging Voices," a program sponsored by The New Short Fiction Series that presents well-written fiction by unpublished authors. |
I took those stories and transformed them into a novel published to Amazon Kindle, Mariana Wong's Summer of Love, which was a quarter-finalist in Amazon's Breakthrough Novel Award competition. My second novel, Let's Get Lost, is now also available on Kindle.
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Mariana Wong's Summer of Love
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Young Adult
It’s the late ‘60s. The Vietnam War is raging. It’s time for sex, drugs, rock ‘n’ roll and for the youth of America to stretch the bounds of personal discovery and adventure. But, all Mariana Wong wants is a chance to grow up outside the confines of her family’s old-fashioned Chinese ways. Mari’s opportunity arrives in the form of a solo trip away from home to celebrate her graduation from high school. Timid and shy at first, and way too aware of her Chinese traditions, Mari's life radically changes after a chance encounter on the southbound train with her high school crush, Davey Whitaker. With Davey at her side, Mari’s trip turns into a once-in-a-lifetime adventure as she learns the value of independence, the importance of tradition and the ups and downs of falling in love. 
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Let's Get Lost
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Romantic Comedy, Women's Contemporary
What do an outdoor adventurer and a jazz musician have in common? As it turns out, only one thing: a woman named Libby. In LET’S GET LOST, successful business executive Libby is told that her outdoor adventurer fiancé may be having an affair so she follows him to the mountains to spy on him. Meanwhile, jazz musician Kit falls into a deep funk after his closest friend and band mate moves to Europe so his sister sends him to the mountains to get away from it all. When Libby gets lost and is rescued by Kit, bickering and comical misadventures ensue. Will Libby and Kit ever realize how much they need each other? 
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