Author Interview: Diane Tatum
Today, I'm happy to introduce you to a fellow Tennessee author. I just discovered Diane Tatum, but her books sound like a lot of fun. So, read all the way to the end so you can find out more! 
Diane, you have quite the collection of books! I know you write across several different genres. Which is your favorite to write and why?
Three books have been published so far this year, making twenty available on Amazon. I’ve come to really enjoy writing romantic suspense. The romance is still strong in these stories, but the characters are also working together (willingly or not!) to resolve the mystery. I feel like it heightens the connection between the characters. I have two mystery series: Main Street Mysteries set in fictional Daelin, GA, and Mysteries at Kate’s B&B set in Adams, TN.
With a history of teaching for so many years, do you find the things you learned teaching being incorporated into your stories?
After teaching middle school for eleven years, I’m not writing YA! What I learned most is how different people are and how different they perceive things. I guess I got a course in human behavior and not always in the best way. My villains take on some of the characteristics of people I interacted with in and outside of the classroom. I also did most of my teaching in a small town, and my stories often take place there as well.
In addition, I taught seventh grade for seven of those years. At my middle school, seventh grade involved teaching geography and Tennessee history. That’s where I learned about the Bell Witch in Adams. I also taught Jules Verne’s Around the World in Eighty Days during the last month of the school year, kind of like a wrap-up of geography. One of my former students wrote me on direct messenger recently that she’d thought of me when doing a Jules Verne Lego set. Setting my stories in places I’ve been fortunate to experience is a great lesson I’ve taken from the classroom and Jules Verne.
You live pretty close to the area of TN I live in. Do most of your books find a setting near you or do you like to set books in other places too? AND Where do you get your story ideas from?
I enjoy setting my books in places I’ve experienced or know something about.
The Mysteries at Kate’s B&B series (Book 4 just went live on July 4!) is a romantic suspense set in Adams, Tennessee, home of the Bell Witch. The ideas for this series came about as my husband and I were driving home from St. Louis down I-24. As we approached the exit for Adams, TN, my husband said, “What if you set a story in Adams?” I said, “Yeah, the main character could move to Adams and start a Bed and Breakfast.” He said, “And there’s the Bell Witch built in!”
Another book I recently finished for a set from my publisher was set in Cologne, Germany, as a result of a Rhine River cruise in we took in December. My book is called Christmas Market Romance. The set is called Once Upon a Christmas Romance and is currently $0.99. My main character has MS and goes to Cologne for a month every year to help run the family’s Christmas market kiosk. The cover has a couple in front of a Dom Spekulatius booth. The background picture was taken by my husband and the brown coat under the superimposed couple is mine!
We’re taking a trip next spring that runs from Prague to Berlin. Wonder what ideas I’ll get there!
Can you tell us about a book you're working on now? Any sneak peeks?
I’m working on a book currently called Lonely Rhine River Honeymoon. It would be following the itinerary of the Viking River Cruise we took in December (I know, a 2nd book from that trip!). The two main characters are a new wife/widow Callie taking the honeymoon cruise that she and her late husband had planned, and a busy executive Hunter whose life holds no time to find a life partner goes on the same trip paid for by his father. Since it’s December, there are also Christmas Markets!
What have you learned in your journey as an author that you never expected?
As a high school student, my goal was to be a writer. However, being a pragmatic person, I knew I wouldn’t be able to support myself, at first anyway, so I went to college to be an accountant. I assumed I would not be married anytime soon. By the time I finished my degree in 1980, I had married and was expecting our first son. I had also determined that accounting was not a career for me as a mom. Fast forward to 1997. I graduated with a Masters in Teaching - Language Arts. Then we moved to Tennessee. After teaching middle school to help my boys with college, my husband told me to “Come home and write your stories.”
What I never expected in my delayed career of choice is how hard it would be to get published, and then how hard it was to do marketing. As an introvert who taught public school for eleven years and was an adjunct professor for our community college for ten years, I was thrilled to stay home and write. But even after signing on with a publisher, I was expected to put myself out there and invest in marketing my books as well as myself. As a business major, I knew this, but It was not the easiest thing for me to do. The pandemic only accentuated my desire to hide away. It still is not my favorite part of the job.
Last but not least, what is one random fact about yourself that very few people know?
People say my characters fall in love too quickly in my books. However, what people may not know is that I met my husband at church in December 1977 and we married in July 1978, so … We just celebrated 46 years of marriage despite having a quick romance!
Hooray for long marriages! Your books sound great and I'm looking forward to hearing more about them.
Readers, keep going for info on how to keep up with Diane as well as more information on her books.
Christmas Wedding Disruptions is Diane E. Tatum’s twentieth book with Winged Publications. Diane grew up in St. Louis County and began writing in elementary school. Her first published book Gold Earrings began as a short story in a high school creative writing class. Diane taught middle school for eleven years. She retired from teaching public school when her husband told her to “come home and write your stories” and bought her a laptop. Diane has been an adjunct professor of English at the local community college as well as an author. She is supported by her family: husband Ken, two sons and daughters-in-law, and four young grandsons. Diane’s home in Tullahoma, Tennessee, includes a 6-year-old retired racing greyhound named Iggy and a 1-year-old Jack Russell puppy named Travor.
See Diane’s Pinterest for each of her books: https://www.pinterest.com/tatumlight
Website: www.dianeetatumwriter.com
Amazon page: amazon.com/author/dianeetatum
blogs: http://tatumlight-tatumsthoughts4today.blogspot.com/
http://tatumlight.wordpress.com/
email: tatumlight@gmail.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/tatumlight
twitter: @DianeTatum
Once Upon a Christmas Romance
Between all the thoughtful gift-giving and festive decorating for the holidays, hearts are made tender and romance can strike for the unsuspecting. A chance encounter, a snowy rescue, or a happenstance beyond a tight schedule all lend themselves to ignite a spark of affection while the stockings are being hung with care. Here are eight new contemporary novellas released just in time to set the stage for sweet romance at Christmastime. Find out what obstacles may arise between the hesitant hero and the attractive heroine that appears in his path.
There may be a threatening Scrooge or two to shake out of the mix
before two hearts can align at Christmastime!
The Other Side of the Fairy House by June Foster
The Mistletoe Mess by Jill Boyce
The Christmas Stalker by Colleen Snyder
Christmas Market Romance by Diane E. Tatum
A Jane Austen Christmas—Secret Billionaires by Laurie Boulden
Come Again Christmas by Cindy M. Amos
There’s No-el in Murder by Sydney Winthrop
A Sun-Drenched Christmas by Sheridan Lee
Kate’ B&B, Book 4: Christmas Wedding Disruptions
It’s finally December in Adams, TN. Time for Christmas and, finally, Kate and Will’s wedding. Kate has decorated the bed & breakfast for the holidays and for the wedding planned for December 23. Will has filled the house ceilings with mistletoe for any excuse to kiss his bride-to-be. While Kate and Will are excited and hopeful that the wedding be the most important event in December, intruders continue to break into the house destroying Kate’s wedding finery. In addition, Will’s wedding ring disappears. If all that wasn’t disruptive enough, Will inadvertently finds himself working for a biker gang on a Christmas deadline.
Will the weekends prior to the wedding be calm, relaxing, and merry?
How will Kate and Will’s relationship survive the stress of continual breaks in security? Will they be able to marry on December 23?
Diane, you have quite the collection of books! I know you write across several different genres. Which is your favorite to write and why?Three books have been published so far this year, making twenty available on Amazon. I’ve come to really enjoy writing romantic suspense. The romance is still strong in these stories, but the characters are also working together (willingly or not!) to resolve the mystery. I feel like it heightens the connection between the characters. I have two mystery series: Main Street Mysteries set in fictional Daelin, GA, and Mysteries at Kate’s B&B set in Adams, TN.
With a history of teaching for so many years, do you find the things you learned teaching being incorporated into your stories?
After teaching middle school for eleven years, I’m not writing YA! What I learned most is how different people are and how different they perceive things. I guess I got a course in human behavior and not always in the best way. My villains take on some of the characteristics of people I interacted with in and outside of the classroom. I also did most of my teaching in a small town, and my stories often take place there as well.
In addition, I taught seventh grade for seven of those years. At my middle school, seventh grade involved teaching geography and Tennessee history. That’s where I learned about the Bell Witch in Adams. I also taught Jules Verne’s Around the World in Eighty Days during the last month of the school year, kind of like a wrap-up of geography. One of my former students wrote me on direct messenger recently that she’d thought of me when doing a Jules Verne Lego set. Setting my stories in places I’ve been fortunate to experience is a great lesson I’ve taken from the classroom and Jules Verne.
You live pretty close to the area of TN I live in. Do most of your books find a setting near you or do you like to set books in other places too? AND Where do you get your story ideas from?
I enjoy setting my books in places I’ve experienced or know something about.
The Mysteries at Kate’s B&B series (Book 4 just went live on July 4!) is a romantic suspense set in Adams, Tennessee, home of the Bell Witch. The ideas for this series came about as my husband and I were driving home from St. Louis down I-24. As we approached the exit for Adams, TN, my husband said, “What if you set a story in Adams?” I said, “Yeah, the main character could move to Adams and start a Bed and Breakfast.” He said, “And there’s the Bell Witch built in!”
Another book I recently finished for a set from my publisher was set in Cologne, Germany, as a result of a Rhine River cruise in we took in December. My book is called Christmas Market Romance. The set is called Once Upon a Christmas Romance and is currently $0.99. My main character has MS and goes to Cologne for a month every year to help run the family’s Christmas market kiosk. The cover has a couple in front of a Dom Spekulatius booth. The background picture was taken by my husband and the brown coat under the superimposed couple is mine!
We’re taking a trip next spring that runs from Prague to Berlin. Wonder what ideas I’ll get there!
Can you tell us about a book you're working on now? Any sneak peeks?
I’m working on a book currently called Lonely Rhine River Honeymoon. It would be following the itinerary of the Viking River Cruise we took in December (I know, a 2nd book from that trip!). The two main characters are a new wife/widow Callie taking the honeymoon cruise that she and her late husband had planned, and a busy executive Hunter whose life holds no time to find a life partner goes on the same trip paid for by his father. Since it’s December, there are also Christmas Markets!
What have you learned in your journey as an author that you never expected?
As a high school student, my goal was to be a writer. However, being a pragmatic person, I knew I wouldn’t be able to support myself, at first anyway, so I went to college to be an accountant. I assumed I would not be married anytime soon. By the time I finished my degree in 1980, I had married and was expecting our first son. I had also determined that accounting was not a career for me as a mom. Fast forward to 1997. I graduated with a Masters in Teaching - Language Arts. Then we moved to Tennessee. After teaching middle school to help my boys with college, my husband told me to “Come home and write your stories.”
What I never expected in my delayed career of choice is how hard it would be to get published, and then how hard it was to do marketing. As an introvert who taught public school for eleven years and was an adjunct professor for our community college for ten years, I was thrilled to stay home and write. But even after signing on with a publisher, I was expected to put myself out there and invest in marketing my books as well as myself. As a business major, I knew this, but It was not the easiest thing for me to do. The pandemic only accentuated my desire to hide away. It still is not my favorite part of the job.
Last but not least, what is one random fact about yourself that very few people know?
People say my characters fall in love too quickly in my books. However, what people may not know is that I met my husband at church in December 1977 and we married in July 1978, so … We just celebrated 46 years of marriage despite having a quick romance!
Hooray for long marriages! Your books sound great and I'm looking forward to hearing more about them.
Readers, keep going for info on how to keep up with Diane as well as more information on her books.
Christmas Wedding Disruptions is Diane E. Tatum’s twentieth book with Winged Publications. Diane grew up in St. Louis County and began writing in elementary school. Her first published book Gold Earrings began as a short story in a high school creative writing class. Diane taught middle school for eleven years. She retired from teaching public school when her husband told her to “come home and write your stories” and bought her a laptop. Diane has been an adjunct professor of English at the local community college as well as an author. She is supported by her family: husband Ken, two sons and daughters-in-law, and four young grandsons. Diane’s home in Tullahoma, Tennessee, includes a 6-year-old retired racing greyhound named Iggy and a 1-year-old Jack Russell puppy named Travor.
See Diane’s Pinterest for each of her books: https://www.pinterest.com/tatumlight
Website: www.dianeetatumwriter.com
Amazon page: amazon.com/author/dianeetatum
blogs: http://tatumlight-tatumsthoughts4today.blogspot.com/
http://tatumlight.wordpress.com/
email: tatumlight@gmail.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/tatumlight
twitter: @DianeTatum
Once Upon a Christmas RomanceBetween all the thoughtful gift-giving and festive decorating for the holidays, hearts are made tender and romance can strike for the unsuspecting. A chance encounter, a snowy rescue, or a happenstance beyond a tight schedule all lend themselves to ignite a spark of affection while the stockings are being hung with care. Here are eight new contemporary novellas released just in time to set the stage for sweet romance at Christmastime. Find out what obstacles may arise between the hesitant hero and the attractive heroine that appears in his path.
There may be a threatening Scrooge or two to shake out of the mix
before two hearts can align at Christmastime!
The Other Side of the Fairy House by June Foster
The Mistletoe Mess by Jill Boyce
The Christmas Stalker by Colleen Snyder
Christmas Market Romance by Diane E. Tatum
A Jane Austen Christmas—Secret Billionaires by Laurie Boulden
Come Again Christmas by Cindy M. Amos
There’s No-el in Murder by Sydney Winthrop
A Sun-Drenched Christmas by Sheridan Lee
Kate’ B&B, Book 4: Christmas Wedding DisruptionsIt’s finally December in Adams, TN. Time for Christmas and, finally, Kate and Will’s wedding. Kate has decorated the bed & breakfast for the holidays and for the wedding planned for December 23. Will has filled the house ceilings with mistletoe for any excuse to kiss his bride-to-be. While Kate and Will are excited and hopeful that the wedding be the most important event in December, intruders continue to break into the house destroying Kate’s wedding finery. In addition, Will’s wedding ring disappears. If all that wasn’t disruptive enough, Will inadvertently finds himself working for a biker gang on a Christmas deadline.
Will the weekends prior to the wedding be calm, relaxing, and merry?
How will Kate and Will’s relationship survive the stress of continual breaks in security? Will they be able to marry on December 23?
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