NEVER TOO LATE

NEVER TOO LATE
Monday, November 5, 2018 by DIANE TATUM

HAVING THE PRIME OF MY LIFE

perseverance

READ DIANE TATUM’S AMAZING STORY

WHY WE SHOULD NEVER GIVE UP

I’ve been writing since I was in elementary school. My biggest dream was to write books. Aware that it takes a while to be ‘published,’ I went to college to be an accountant, so I could support myself while I wrote.

In the meantime, life happened.

I married. We had two boys. We moved from St. Louis to Newport News. I earned a Masters in Teaching-Language Arts. We moved to a small rural town in Tennessee near an aerodynamics research facility. I taught middle school and put my boys through college.

In 2009, my sweet husband said, “Come home and write your books.” I said, “I need a laptop.” By the end of the week, I had a laptop. I retired from teaching that year.

I finished writing the book I started as a senior in high school: Gold Earrings. I joined American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW) to learn how to get my book published. I went to conferences in Dallas three times, St. Louis, and Indianapolis. I wrote Mission Mesquite and Colonial Dream Book 1: A Time to Fight, and self-published. I also had written Colonial Dream Book 3: A Time to Choose and nearly completed Colonial Dream Book 2: A Time to Love.

When ACFW met in Nashville in 2016. I wasn’t able to attend, however, due to back surgery complicated with MRSA. In 2017, the conference was at Gaylord Grape Vine Hotel in Dallas. The amount of walking required for this conference was ridiculous, but it was $60 a day to rent a walker! Two years later, I still have issues with walking, balance, and pain.

This year (2018) ACFW convened at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel. I must admit to feeling discouraged at going again with no hope of things being better. In addition, I finally gave up and bought a walker to help me get around the vast expanse of the hotel. While walking alone to the elevators with my walker, I spent a lot of time praying.

Some of you know that it was all worth it! At the end of the conference, I received a writing contract with Forget Me Not Romances, a division of Winged Publications, for nine books over the next year!! As part of the 9 books, they will republish the three books I have self-published, the rest of the Colonial Dream series, and three contemporary novels!

In fact, Mission Mesquite is live today in print and Kindle form with a new cover https://www.amazon.com/Mission-Mesquite-Diane-Tatum-ebook/dp/B07JLH4TMQ ! In addition to the novel, I added a Bible study on knowing the will of God and the first 2 chapters of my latest manuscript, Kudzu Sculptures, a contemporary murder mystery.

God showed up in a mighty way this year. I love the opportunity to write and publish the stories God puts on my heart. Please leave a review on Amazon if you read any of my work this year. Check out my website: www.dianeetatumwriter.com . Drop me a message at tatumlight@gmail.com . Thank God for the way he cares for me and my stories.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Diane E. Tatum has been writing since grade school in St. Louis County, MO. She worked as a free-lance writer and stay at home mom while living in Newport News, VA, until she decided to go back to school to teach language arts at the middle school level. She taught in Tullahoma City Schools, TN, for 11 years until her “retirement” from teaching in order to focus on her own writing and the needs of her family.

ABOUT MISSION MESQUITE

While Kate Lawrence 's parents served in Cote d'Ivoire as career missionaries, Kate's education came in a French boarding school and American University in Paris and Georgetown. Now a Foreign Service Officer for the US State Department, she wants nothing to do with the missionary lifestyle. When she finally agrees to visit their new mission post Mission Mesquite, the rodeo church at the Mesquite Arena in Dallas, Kate meets Tyler Hawkins, attractive All American Cowboy who has since been crippled by a bull trampling. They have an instant connection, but Kate doesn't know that Tyler has just completed seminary and mission training and is poised to take over Mission Mesquite once her parents retire. How can Kate resolve the conflict between her and God and her heart? Will Tyler's past as a free-wheeling cowboy cut short his ministry? Mission Mesquite is a contemporary Christian romance.