Hello everyone, welcome to the Diamond Mine! As y’all know, we have a slew
of new miners this year and I have the honor of welcoming a great friend to the
crew, DiAne Gates. In addition, she’s an awesome author! But I won’t spoil the
surprise, let’s get started with the interview!
Renee: Hi, DiAne, I’m so happy you’ve joined us at the Mine. What can
you tell us about how you began writing?
DiAne: Renee, thank you for introducing me to the
Diamond Mine Writers. It’s a pleasure and privilege to be included in this
talented group of authors.
Even
though I’m a late starter, I’ve been writing for years, like since I was a
teen. I’ve written and illustrated five other children’s books and hope to find
a publisher for them in the coming year. We have an Air Force Colonel son and
his beautiful wife, a daughter who resides in heaven for the past almost
sixteen years, and her two almost grown children.
In
2010 God led me kicking and screaming to North Texas Christian Writers and the
rest is history. He always knows best and has a perfect plan. Sure would have
been easier if I’d gone peacefully, but that’s another story.
Renee: Oh, boy, now that does
sound like an interesting story. I’d love to hear about it someday, as would
everyone else, I’m sure! But for now, I think we have ANOTHER story to talk
about. What’s special or unique about your book…you know, the latest one up for all these cool awards?
DiAne: Anytime you include Texas, horses, and rodeo
in the same paragraph you have the makings of a rollercoaster ride of dips,
dives, and page-turning drama. Throw in a tall, handsome Texas Ranger under
that Stetson, El Grande, a teenage immigrant boy from China, and a teenage
competition-crazed, barrel racing, bull riding gal, and her spoiled,
temperamental, red-headed diva competitor—that spells unique by any
description. Confine them all in a small Texas town outside Dallas, Texas,
where prejudice and family lies flourish like a crop of sandspurs, and the
story writes itself!
Renee: Well, then, I’d say ROPED is deserving of its acclaim! You said the book is set in a small town outside of Dallas? Is there
anything unique about this small Texas town? How did you come up with rodeo as your topic?
DiAne: This Florida girl
(meaning me!) arrived in Texas and had not a clue about anything rodeo. But due
to corporate downsizings, I needed to help with family income and God opened
the door for me to open my own business. After trials and errors, I hired a
young mom who was a barrel-racer. We became close friends and my teen daughter
and I learned to love the excitement of rodeo!
We
pulled on boots and jeans. Weekends on the circuit taught me the lingo,
introduced me to the nuisances of competition, buckles and titles, and ROPED became a figment of my
imagination. One evening, perched high atop a field judge’s seat, I commenced
to photograph the events, barrel racing first then bull riding. But instead of “that
super shot” of a bucking bull, a Brahma bull named Booger Daddy had other
ideas. The cowboys threw the gate open, he bucked twice and his cowboy hit the
ground with a thud. Then I realized BD was staring right at me. He pawed the
ground. My mouth opened to scream, but no sound came out and my feet and fanny
refused to move.
Did
I mention there was an enormous puddle of muddy water just inside the arena
fence beneath me? A pick-up man galloped toward the now charging BD. The cowboy,
his paint pony, and the bull all hit the puddle at the same time from opposite
directions. Mud covered me, my camera, my white eyelet blouse, and fancy
jeans—and Booger Daddy became immortalized in my first book of the ROPED series.
Renee: I wish I had been there! Mud baths are so nice, aren’t they?
Besides watching rodeo (just kidding!) do you have any hobbies or things you
like to do when you’re not working?
DiAne: For most of my life, painting has been my
pursuit. I toured while living in Florida, doing weekend art shows. My mom
referred to those years as my “gypsy life-style.” And when Book Two-TWISTED is released in the Spring of
2017, I will be giving away five or six of my paintings. I’ve graduated from
that mud-caked camera and still love to roam the countryside taking pictures of
God’s gorgeous creations. I also love to garden and cook and have a new blog
entitled The Southern Side of Flavor,
at http://floridagirlturnedtexan.wordpress.com.
I share family recipes and give some tips on cutting calories yet maintaining
flavor…southwestern flavor!
Renee: Oh, yum! Did you here that, folks? Food! Good southern food! I
may need to visit this blog. J Is there a special
quote or saying which comes to your mind in times of need or adversity?
DiAne: My mom was the queen of proverbial sayings.
One of her favorites that is permanently engraved on the underside of my
eyelids is, “If you don’t want to get in trouble, don’t be where trouble can
happen!”
And yes, all these years later there are numerous times her words still
echo in my head and heart…
like the night a girlfriend and I were driving from
Orlando to an art show in Marco Island, Florida. We took a wrong turn, ended up on Alligator
Alley, and ran out of gas on this notorious roadway across the Everglades where
every bad four-footed and two footed varmint comes out after dark. Cecil
Murphey’s book, “Heavenly Strangers,
Entertaining Angels Unaware”, contains my story of that frightful night,
entitled “Alligator Alley Angels.”
My
barrel racing terror, Crissy Crosby, hears her mama repeat those wise words to
her in TWISTED, just like I repeated
them to my own children when they were teens. And sometimes I still have to
repeat them to myself when I see that uber-super shot I can only capture with a
trip across someone’s pasture. My husband won’t buy me a four-wheel drive
saying, “At least with a regular car I can hope you’re still on the roadway.”
If he only knew—
Renee: God uses life to teach us lessons. Share one of your life
lessons with us.
DiAne: This would be an eanie-meanie-miney-mo
choice when you’re my age. But the most dynamic number of lessons came from one
tragic life event—the sudden death of our twenty-eight-year-old daughter,
almost sixteen years ago.
I
was convinced my life and world went to the grave with her. But God taught me about
“those secret things” He proclaims in Deuteronomy 29:29. The “why” questions
drove me to near insanity until I read that verse early one morning. “The secret things belong to the Lord. The
things revealed belong to you and your children forever.” I read and reread
the verse, never having seen it before and God whispered Do you trust Me? I
would love to tell you I answered with a clear, firm, Yes Lord. I trust You. But
I could barely answer back with a nod and a gulley-washer tear storm. It took
months for me to understand that if He answered my why questions, our Michelle
would still be gone. Her death was one of those secret things. He had numbered
her days before she was born.
The
subsequent months and years I’ve learned that if we clutch what and those we
have with a fierce grip, God cannot and will not replenish our hands with His
peace and joy. I learned that as the scripture in Revelation says, “Blessed are those who die in the Lord for
they find rest” comforts my soul when I miss my daughter. I’ve learned to
count the blessings her death has loosed in so many lives. At her funeral five
of her friends found Jesus and accepted Him as Lord and Savior. God has blessed
me by allowing me to walk through over fourteen years of helping and being His
physical arms of comfort around others who are new to the grief journey. Does
her loss still hurt? Of course, it does. But grief is the price you pay for
loving someone. And it’s a small price when compared with our mutual love.
Renee: God promises never to leave or forsake us. Share an instance
where you have been alone but God has been by your side in the tumult.
DiAne: In the weeks, months, and year after my
daugher’s death, I cared for her almost five-year-old daughter and
seven-month-old son. With all those people around, I was alone. Caring for
little ones gave me no time to grieve and physical and mental exhaustion became
normal for me. One afternoon I had enough and collapsed on the living room
floor and sobbed. Our almost five-year-old granddaughter stopped and said,
“Mimi, why are you crying?” I replied, “’Cause I miss your mama.” “Why?” She
asked. “Cause she was my daughter,” I sobbed.
With
her blonde tussled hair, hands on her hips, and that look only a little girl
can give, she scolded. “Mimi! She’s still your daughter!” I dried my tears and accepted this new
insight from a tiny girl who gained wisdom from her Jesus. God is good…even in
times of great distress.
Renee: It’s amazing how complex we make life, isn’t it and through the
eyes of a child, we are reminded how complete—perfect God’s plan is for us. All
of us, from now to eternity. What is your life goal?
DiAne: My life verse is Hebrews 12:1-4…”Run the race that is set before you…” God doesn’t make mistakes. He promises if we
belong to Him, He will bring good for us and glory for Himself out of
everything He allows in our lives. And sometimes we forget, but God doesn’t.
However
long He allows me to remain on this earth my one goal is to honor and give
glory to His Name and His Word, and to share that Word and those difficult life
lessons He’s taught me with everyone He places in my sphere of influence. ROPED, TWISTED, UNTIED, and any other
titles yet to be named, share real life, the good, the bad, and the ugly, and
show God is Sovereign over all things. And if we allow Him, He will indeed
transform our lives and fill us with His joy, now and forever!
____________________________________________________
UPDATE!
Woohoo! The rodeo has come to the Diamond Mine!
DiAne has agreed to giveaway a digital copy of ROPED!
Leave a comment about the interview or ask a question to enter!
Don't forget to leave your email address to validate the entry.
One winner will be selected by random draw on 1/18/17.
_________________________________________________
About ROPED by DiAne Gates:
Thirteen-year-old Crissy Crosby
chases a dream to live up to her parents’ rodeo legacy. But the rodeo
championship is two months away and problems beyond her ability to solve stack
and teeter like a game of Tumbling-Towers. Meanwhile rival Jodie Lea and her
father, Ed Fairgate, contrive to swipe the silver buckles from Crissy’s grasp
any way they can. Prejudice, anger, and dark secrets simmer in a pot of family
feuds destined to boil over in a tragic nightmare at the rodeo. Will Crissy
develop courage and faith to overcome the consequences of her temper? Will her
dreams of buckles and titles become reality? Or will the character-building
adversities of her life quash her dreams forever?
About DiAne Gates:
Texas writer, DiAne Gates,
illustrates, photographs, and writes for children, young adults, and serious
non-fiction for adults through her two Word Press blogs, Moving the Ancient Boundaries
and The
Southern Side of Flavor.
DiAne also works as a freelance
artist, photographer, edit group leader for North Texas Christian Writers, and
GriefShare facilitator. A writing stent with the East Texas Rodeo Association
magazine, gave birth to this western rodeo adventure series, released by Prism
Book Group in August of 2015. ROPED--Available at Amazon.com and
the second book, TWISTED, continues the journey of the Crosby and Fairgate
families. The third book of the series, UNTIED, is her current
work-in-progress.
ROPED was selected as a
finalist for the Grace Awards and the Christian Literary Henry Awards in 2016.
Wife, mother, and Mimi, whose
passion is still to share those hard life lessons God allows in our lives. Lessons
she hopes will leap from the page into your heart.
Hope Sparrow has mastered the art of outrunning her tragic past,
learning never to stay anywhere too long and never to allow anyone control over
her life again. Coming to Wanishin Falls in search of her family's history
already feels too risky. But somewhere in the towering stacks of this dusty old
bookshop are the books that hold Hope's last ties to her late mother—and to a
rumored family treasure that could help her start over.
