Meet Diane Tatum

Diane Tatum, author of historical fiction stories that will take you back to those unforgettable colonial days.

Diane Tatum grew up in St. Louis, MO. She started writing her own stories in elementary school. Her first novel grew out of a short story she wrote in high school. College was a detour to a Bachelor's degree in Accounting and Business Administration and later a Masters in Teaching Language Arts.

Between degrees, she stayed home raising her boys and began writing again. She started freelance writing for magazines and church Sunday school curriculum. She also finished her novel, Gold Earrings.

After teaching middle school language arts  for 11 years, she retired with her husband's encouragement to write the historical fiction books that she had been starting and saving on her computer. Gold Earrings was published in 2011. She completed her second novel, A Time to Choose, in 2012, and finished her third, Colonial Dream, in 2013.

Here is a little more from Diane.

I write Christian historical fiction. My first published book  Gold Earrings is available through Amazon or you can get an autographed copy through my website.

As a writer, my work tends to be invisible to those who know me on a daily basis. Especially now that the college semester is ending, it may seem like I’m just home with nothing to do. I always have many ’irons in the fire’!

At present I am working on a series of novels I call “Faith Amidst the Crucible of American History”. My hero in each novel is a son of a blacksmith.  

The first book in the series is called Colonial Dream. 

Two friends, Colin Browning and Ben Andrews, who want nothing more than to be Americans, find themselves fighting on opposite sides. Amanda Andrews Browning must learn to be a strong, independent woman as she supports herself and her child, Michael, as an embroiderer/seamstress in Colonial Williamsburg while the men are at war. 

The second book in this series, Transforming Bitterness Into Joy

Michael Browning has had to raise his younger siblings after the death of his parents when he was 17. He has had to set aside any personal life for 12 years as a result, working his father’s forge to support them.  To help him out of his bitter loneliness, Susannah, the daughter of the new pastor at church, decides to play matchmaker. 

The third book is the series, A Time to Choose, is set during the Civil War. 

Andrew Browning, blacksmith and officer in the Union Army, is assigned to protect and guide Lincoln. Maggie is a Northern abolitionist, Harvard-educated newspaper columnist. Terrors come into their lives as she writes about the war effort, runs a stop on the Underground Railroad, becomes a target for Andrews’s revengeful ex-fiancee, and teaches reading to emancipated refugees.  

About Diane's writing process ...
What I love about writing fiction is creating characters that become deeper and fuller as the story evolves. It's almost like watching a movie and needing to write it down as fast as possible before the story evaporates! When an idea comes along, I write as much as I can as quickly as I can. The real work comes later when I then flesh out the story from the kernel already written. It doesn't matter where the written portion belongs in the story; I just write "the rest of the story" around the nugget that inspired the idea.

All of the work that I do is inspired by my relationship with Christ. The themes revolve around important ideas from my daily quiet time and preparation for teaching youth Sunday school. Gold Earrings is concerned with not judging people by their outward appearance because God knows their heart. A Time to Choose is about the choices we make and the ramifications of our choices.

In addition, I do freelance writing online for several blogs, the Yahoo! Contributor Network, and Suite101.com. I write about our travels, suggested assignments, and my favorite small business shops.