Podcast Interview With Author Diane Tarantini
In this week’s episode, I interview Diane Tarantini, author of the children’s book, The Brave Knight, It’s lyrically written and beautifully illustrated (by Jessie Haring). But more importantly –The Brave Knight is a medieval tale with a message of body safety for K-8th grade. Grab a cup of coffee and listen to the ever-energetic Diane share her writing journey plus the super-important theme of the book. You can buy the book on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3q4hWMH. Or you can email Diane to purchase signed copies via PayPal: diane@dianetarantini.com. Find her at https://www.dianetarantini.com.
Show Notes:
Kathleen:
to Crafting Your Authentic Story with Courage. Today I have a special treat. I have an author interview with Diane Tarantini, who wrote the book The Brave Night. And I’m so excited to talk to her. And before she introduces herself, I told her I had a quote that I wanted to read before we get into the interview. And when I read her book, I thought of this quote like it immediately came to mind.
“Fairy tales do not tell children that dragons exist. Children already know that Dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children that dragons can be killed.”
– G. K. Chesterton.
Now I am crying. I don’t know why I’m crying, but it’s just such a powerful quote. There is no killing in this book, by the way.
So, Diane, I will let you introduce yourself and just tell us a little bit about you before I get to the questions.
Diane:
Sure. So my name is Diane Tarantini. I live in Morgantown, West Virginia. I have a degree in journalism from WVU, and I also have an MFA in nonfiction writing. So I’ve been writing ever since I was a little girl. But I think around 2009, I started to get really serious about it, and I started hanging out with writers. I started calling myself a writer and I started learning the craft of writing. And I now hold a book in my hands that I’m really excited about. I tell people I may write more books, but I don’t know that I’ll write a more important book. I’m kind of in love with my project. I love it a whole lot.
Kathleen:
I’m in love with your project, too. I’m so excited about this book, and I love that it’s born out of your own story. So my first question is, which you kind of may have already answered is when did you first desire to write a book?
Diane:
Oh, my goodness. So people who are kind of close to me have probably heard me answer this question. I like to say ever since the fourth grade, I’ve known two things that I’d get counseling, and then I’d write a book because I did have a difficult childhood. And I knew that someday I would need to get professional help for the things I lived through and that my story was important and my survival. I don’t say I’m a survivor. I’m a victor. I think that telling your story of a positive outcome is such an inspiration and such an encouragement to others. And I think that we all need to be telling our stories if we had that pressing ambition and desire. I think it’s in there. I think it’s in your heart and in your mind for a reason.
Kathleen:
Exactly. I totally agree. And, man, you got a hold of the counseling thing early. I mean, I first knew that I wanted to be a writer, which I talked about on the podcast, when I was eight years old, and I wrote my first song. And if you missed that, it’s on one of the previous podcasts because I actually sing it. It’s really quirky and funny, but you know what? I always had that desire to write from the time I was a little child. But let’s talk about the book. The book, The Brave Night. What’s the theme of the book?
Diane:
Okay, so I was pondering your questions to prepare for the podcast and other people. You may know this, but other people don’t know this. I actually have three book projects. I started with a memoir, and it became very apparent through years of pitching the project that a memoir is not an easy sell if you’re not a celebrity. Then it was recommended to me that I perhaps write a self-help book based on my experience. So I kind of started working on that. But then the founder of a nonprofit that deals with child safety asked me to create a book that in a non-threatening way, a children’s book, and in a non-threatening way, illustrated to the kids the concept of grooming, which is the process by which a sexual predator will gain the trust of a potential victim and sometimes their family. And, oh, my goodness, we had a creative brainstorm, and the team told me what they were looking for. That was a Tuesday night. I went to bed terrified that night, intimidated, overwhelmed. And then four days later, on a Saturday morning, I woke up with the story fully formed in my brain. Wow. And as a writer, Kathleen, that is a gift. But it is a rare gift. Yes, definitely. I literally got out of bed. I didn’t even have coffee, which is a miracle. I went over to my computer and I typed the whole thing out, and now it was 1500 words. It wasn’t like a giant novel with Gone With the Wind proportions or anything, but 90% of that story is untouched. It came out perfect. My daughter pointed out that really all three of these projects at their heart is child safety. Yeah. And one is aimed at children. One is probably teen, the self-help book. And then the memoir would be more of an adult read, so I would say child safety.
Kathleen
That is definitely an amazing gift. I’ve only heard of one other friend of mine, Robin Hurst, who wrote, I may not get the title right, so I’ll make sure I link it like Your Path Matters or Choosing Your Path. It’s a children’s book. How Can I Choose is the title. Same thing happened. She wrote it. She just sat down and wrote the whole thing. But that is rare because as a writer, I’m like, I’m scribbling notes and notebooks here, add this to this. Here’s an idea. Here’s a scene, and it’s, like, all over the place. Before I get it all put together, I’m doing mind mapping, sticky notes, and everything you can think of.
Diane:
Absolutely right. I hear you. So who is the book for? Oh, my goodness. I’ve not told you this. I had this really amazing experience. My husband is a college football official, and this fall, he was at a game, and he was telling his crew that’s the guys that wear the black and white shirts what I was up to. And the one guy said, my wife worked in publishing for 15 years. Wow. Tony, give Diane my wife’s contact information. She and I had a conversation that lasted over an hour. She actually worked for LifeWay books. Okay. She was like the head of women’s Bible studies. It was pretty amazing. When she told me about the work that she did there, she would read pitches and she would be the person sending out the rejections or sending a full manuscript. So I had stumbled onto this woman that had extraordinary experience in the publishing industry, and she said, “Diane, what you have is not just a story. This content is evergreen, which means it’s not trendy. It’s not going to come and go. It’s always going to have value.”
Right? And that was really encouraging to me. I had another woman. Oh, my goodness. She was the vice president of global development at a really large local company. She read my book, and she said for the manuscript, she said, “Diane, every single child needs to read this.”
I keep getting feedback like that. When you say, who’s this story for? It’s for boys, it’s for girls. People say, what age is it for? It’s like, you know what? I think it’s compelling enough with an exciting enough story and dynamic illustrations. I think a high schooler could read it and benefit from it, because once you hear the language and see the behavior and see what someone on the receiving end feel, right, you’re going to recognize it. You’re going to recognize it.
Kathleen:
I did right away. It gave me, like, I don’t know, like, cold, chills in not a good way. Like, oh, my goodness, this is happening. I know. So I didn’t really put this in your questions, but just give us a little tiny a nutshell synopsis so people know what we’re talking about. Because I’ve already mentioned dragons. And of course, the title is The knight. So it’s kind of got that medieval setting. But give us a little nutshell.
Diane:
I love my back cover copy. It says, Once upon a time, in a small town hidden at the foot of a high mountain, there lived a young girl and a Dragon who were best friends until they weren’t.
Kathleen:
I know that just gives me chills, especially because I read the book.
Diane:
What I love about this book is, yes, I wrote it to educate kids on grooming, but I think it also applies with bullies or with friends that are going down a bad road. It shows a girl that has a friend who’s, like, really exciting and fun, and they do crazy, wild adventure things. But then these micro-changes start happening. He’s encouraging her to disobey her mother, brings her home late, does things that are against the family rules, and asks her to engage in some really risky behaviors. Right. And finally, she gets to the point where she pushes back and he shows a very ugly side of his personality. And then it’s like, what is she going to do next? Yeah, that’s all I’m going to say is that you have to get the book. But if you know anything about the structure of a story. So there’s our protagonist, who is this young girl, and there’s an antagonist who is this dragon. And then she solves a problem because along comes a guide. Right. He doesn’t make the problem go away. He equipped her to fight her own fight.
Kathleen:
Right. She becomes the reluctant hero of her own story.
Diane:
Yes. And I loved it as a female hero. But also you get a little bit of The Brave Knight backstory and you see a young boy being a hero. That’s why I like to think that it appeals to boys and girls because there are important male and female characters in the book. Right?
Kathleen:
Exactly. I agree. And I was reading A Landscape with Dragons. Have you read that book before?
Diane:
No.
Kathleen:
Okay. So it’s all about how these kinds of evil cultural things have entered our children’s books to the point where kids don’t know what’s evil, what real evil is. And the chapter I was reading this morning, he was talking about modern television and how kids are now told, like, you can do anything any way you want, and they kind of ridicule the adults in sitcoms and make the children feel like they can handle it all and they’re on their own. And I thought about your book because I thought when kids have that kind of thought pattern, like, well, it says on that show, I’m supposed to be able to handle it all, and I’m smarter than my parents. Then who do they turn to when we set that up as the precedent that you’re as smart as you’re ever going to get? You have everything you need. You can do anything you want. And then they encounter this problem in their life. That’s serious. Right. Then they’re even more afraid to reach out because, like, I’m supposed to be able to handle it all, which is totally ridiculous. And it’s a lie. We’re raising children to be competent adults. They’re not competent adults as children, not even as teens. They still need help and support and guidance. And we need to be open to listening to them and respect them and not think that they are lying when they come and tell us something.
Diane:
Right. This reminds me. One thing that you need to do as a writer, especially a nonfiction writer, even though this story is fiction is you have to build a platform. And when you’re a nonfiction writer, like I am, you need to develop an area of expertise so that people come to you as an expert. So I go to as many trainings on child safety as I can. And what I’ve seen is there are some organizations that are equipping children, and there are some organizations that are equipping adults. I think it’s our responsibility to protect our kids.
Kathleen
Exactly. Yes. I think we need to equip them, but we need to also be doing what we can to keep our kids as safe as possible. Exactly. Because I remember our pastor sharing this message on overcoming your past. They say, I get these 57-year-old people who come to me and say, “Well, when I was five years old, this happened to me.” It’s like, yeah, but you know what? You need to overcome that so that you can help other people. He used this illustration of his dog rolling in dead squirrel. Like, quit rolling in dead squirrel. We definitely need to get healing. We need to overcome and have victory over what happened to our past. But like you said, one of the therapies of actually doing that is telling your story.
Diane:
Yeah, absolutely. Journaling and writing a memoir has been proven to be very therapeutic for the process. You know, brain structure way better than I do. But when I went through counseling, I remember my counselor telling me, like, when you go through trauma, it’s stored in one part of the brain. And if you never talk about it process, it goes through it with someone who’s equipped to help you. It will just stay in their trap, having negative implications.
Kathleen:
Right. It’s going to come out through the five BS. It’s going to come out through your body, you’re going to have physical illness. It’s going to come out through your behavior. And what we see in kids is dysregulation. It’s going to come out in your belief system. I’m not worthy. I’m not good enough. I don’t matter. It’s going to come out in your biology. Children actually have physical ailments and learning disabilities caused by trauma, like institutional autism. Now I’m blanking on the last beat. I’m on the wrong website. That’s all. On my Traumainformedparenting website, you can find all that information. Traumainformedparenting.com you can find all of that there.
Diane:
I’m sure you’ve read the book The Body Keeps the Score. Yes. And that was so helpful for me because that’s where I think I first read that focus issues could be because of trauma.
Kathleen:
Yes. Well, there you go. Yes. Because your memory is stored in your cells. Well, we’re getting off-topic here, but let me ask you the last question.
Diane:
Yeah. If the audience of the podcast, a number of you have trauma, then, yeah. There are certain negative things in your life that if you look into the topic, you can see it’s not you. It was what happened to you. It is. Yes. I like knowing that there’s a reason for my focus issues. Exactly. It’s actually what happened to me. I don’t know. It was helpful for me.
Kathleen:
No, it’s super helpful. And I think that was a really good point, because if you are listening and you’ve had trauma in your childhood and you have a desire to tell your story, but you really need to get some training or some healing. Honestly, go to my website, Traumainformedparenting.com. It’s got a bunch of free training on there. And you just click on the start here for trauma-informed training and work through those training modules. It’s even got exercises that you can Journal your triggers and start getting to the bottom of it. Because even if you want to tell your story, sometimes it’s not quite time yet.
Diane:
Oh, yeah. That is an incredible, very good point. I think I tried to start telling my story. I remember. Are you familiar with the group Mockers? Yes. Yeah. So I just went up to the head of MOPS in 2005 or something and just said I want to give my testimony. And she was just like, not now. I think you probably recognize that I hadn’t worked through anything and I would just be like a loose cannon in a room of young mothers. And it was a really bad idea. So when I look back over the last 20 years or whatever, oh, I’m so thankful for all the “nos” I got along the way with my writing projects. Yes. So thankful the book wasn’t ready or I wasn’t ready. Right. And sometimes you’re writing projects – All my life, I thought the memoir would be first, and then the last few years, I thought it was going to be the self-help book. And then along comes the pandemic and a large project that would buy a whole lot of my books. And I just had to pivot quickly and figure out the process and do it afraid I had to do the darn thing. Afraid. And we talked about this a little bit, Kathleen.
Kathleen
Yes. We always have a whole podcast conversation before we push the record and we touch on a lot of important things. But yeah. And if God has given you, listener, a desire to tell your story. He will open the doors for you eventually. And if it’s not yet. In fact, I was just talking to a friend of mine. We’ve been texting back and forth for a couple of weeks, and she was actually going to be a guest on this podcast. And she has this huge, strong desire to tell her story. And I won’t share any of her story, but she had some extreme trauma in her life, and she just hasn’t written anything down yet. And so she texted me the day she was supposed to record with me and said, I can’t do it. I’m not ready. And that’s okay. Because here’s the thing. You will get ready if you just start with journaling, if you’re just being obedient and faithful to write things down, to work through your own issues because you can’t share your story unless you have a solution. I’m not saying solve all the world’s problems, but unless you’ve gone to the point where you’re like, okay, I have a coping mechanism now, and this is what it is. And maybe this will help you. Often we just want to share our story, and then somebody asks us, well, what did you do to overcome that? And you’re like, well, nothing. I’m just still not there yet. I’m still stuck. That’s why I wanted to tell you all about it. It’s a process. But if you do nothing at all, you’re just going to stay stuck. If you don’t do any journaling, if you don’t get counseling, if you need it, or therapy or do the trauma training, if you don’t do any of that, then five years from now, you’ll still be in the same place. You won’t be ready to actually write your story through an article or a children’s book or a memoir or anything. And Diane, you’ve been writing for years and years and years. You just keep writing. You keep writing.
Diane:
Yes. A couple of things here you’ll have the regret of not writing. Yes. Like if all along you’ve been feeling this pressure and this desire to write your story. Okay, the process of morning pages is like the very early morning. If you free write, your brain is more free before the day starts.
Kathleen:
Yes. So that’s a great time to write if you can get up before your family. I get up at 05:00 because even though I do not have small children anymore, that’s when my brain works the best. I do my devotions, and then I start writing, whether I have a planned writing session of writing an article or working on a book. Like, I kind of rotate those because it uses different parts of my brain or I just have a free writing session. Hey, I’m struggling with a lot of stuff. If I write it all down on paper and it just starts, it’s therapy. Journaling is a form of therapy. It’s powerful and your brain will just start dumping all this stuff out of your hand onto your paper. And actually, with that, you need to physically write. Don’t type that.
Diane:
Yeah. I longhand all my writing projects, and then what I love to do is free write them out. And then I will go back with a highlighter and highlight the good stuff. Some of it will just be like random thoughts, but some of it will be like, this is really powerful. This is something that people need to hear. Yeah. I like to free write and then highlight and then organize the highlighted thoughts.
Kathleen:
Right. Because what you’re doing is exactly what I talk about in journaling an article. It’s like you get it all out, you brain dump it out, and then you go back and say, hey, that’s a good point. That’s a good subpoint. And anyway, let me ask you the last question because we could probably just go on forever. Where can people find the book? And where can people find you?
Diane:
Okay, so right now I am doing yet more things afraid in the publishing process right now, me and a friend who is more technically gifted than I am are working to get the book up on Amazon. I’m hoping it’ll be inside of a week, but I thought that a week ago you request a printed proof and there were problems with our cover, and my illustrator wasn’t happy. So we’re trying to resolve that. But by the time, oh, my goodness. By the time this comes out, I’m just believing you’re going to be able to search The Brave Knight by Diane Tarantini on Amazon right now, though, I hope it’s appropriate to say some people would rather give their money directly to an offer than Amazon. Yes. One thing I’ve learned in the process is, oh, my. Wow. Amazon takes a big chunk. Yes. And because I had someone purchased, I’m so thankful. Like thousands of copies of my book. I had them printed at a printer, and I got extra for myself. So if someone wanted to buy directly from me, they could do that through PayPal diane@dianetarantini.com. And can we do that, Kathleen?
Kathleen:
Absolutely.
Diane:
Amazon option – Here. When you buy from me. I signed the book, Jessie signed the book. And a really helpful resource goes into the book called Reading Best Practices for Reading the Great Night with Your Child, because, oh, my gosh, Kathleen, I had people getting this book for preschoolers, and I was like, okay. Oh, my goodness. What you can do, all you can do with the preschooler is read the story and talk about it. Right. Don’t do anything else for years. Right. So we put together a document. My illustrator is actually a licensed professional counselor. Okay. So we put together this document that gave even additional thoughts to the resources in the back of the book. Can I talk about the resources in the back of the book?
Kathleen:
Yeah, definitely.
Diane:
All right. So in some of the work that I’ve done with nonprofits, we work with school-age children, and we often give resources away at body safety assemblies. So I’ve always known how important resources are. So in light of that, I decided to put resources in the back of The Brave Knight. And my daughter is an elementary-age school teacher, and I asked her to write discussion questions and extension activities. And she did a beautiful job. I didn’t even have to edit it. She’s a strong writer. And then when I was learning to be a body safety educator, I was shadowing a policeman, Officer Tony Craig, out of down by Huntington and Charleston. And he talked to the kids about creating personal safety plans. Oh, man. I made it a little more writerly and make a list. Make a plan, practice a plan. Yes. And so I did a one-sheet on that so that kids can do a personal safety plan. And then I put a list of resources that kids can call or text if they have a question, if they’re feeling anxious, or depressed. Lord, I hope it never happens if they feel suicidal hotlines in there. I believe the sexual trafficking hotline, which I know is your heart, Kathleen is there. So I love my resources. I do, too.
Kathleen:
I was really excited about your resources. I love resources at the end of the book, because when you get a book and it has a certain purpose, but it’s a good read and it’s got great illustrations and your kid is engaged, but then you’re like, but I don’t know how to talk about that stuff. So it’s all there for you. You don’t have to figure it out. You don’t have to figure out what to say. It’s all there for you.
Diane:
I love that you said you put resources in the back of your books, right? Yes. I mean, I think that’s like added value.
Kathleen:
Yes. And I actually with my Defining Home, my Defining series. I actually taught a high school class before the Pandemic. I was teaching that once a week, and it was a communications class about podcasts, books, and any kind of media. I got to do that book with them, read that book with them, and got to get a lot of feedback from them. And it was amazing because they enjoyed the read the thriller, the mystery, but they learned about human trafficking along the way. And that’s the point, right? Yes. And no matter what anybody says, because we’re writers and we notice every single book you read has an objective. It has a moral. It has a value whether it’s stated or not or whether it’s even entertaining, only entertaining romance books or thriller or paranormal. There’s something there. So why not make it something of value that you want your reader to learn about and wrap it in a beautiful package that they want to read?
Diane:
Yeah. I totally agree. Good thought. Oh, you asked where to find me. Yes. Okay, so I’m assuming this will go into the show notes. I highly advise and I believe Kathleen would do the same. But one of the first things you’re going to want to do Is create an author website for yourself Where you can create content Because you can be on all the social media platforms. But if those things ever go away, so does your community. Yeah, so your social media post you should be pointing people toward your website, right? My website is my name. I chose not to go with a cute name, just dianetarantini.com, and then on Facebook, I’m Diane Tarantini. Comma author and then I’m also on Instagram and Pinterest and Twitter as writing Diane T. But all those links are on my website and we can put those in the show notes. Right. I enjoy all the social media. It’s one of my part-time jobs. I manage social media. I know it’s not everybody’s jam so please don’t think you have to be on every single platform. Just go where your readers are and where you can create community and communicate with them and inspire and educate and inform them.
Kathleen:
I love that. Well, thank you so much for joining me today. Make sure that you check the show notes out and find Diane on her website and on social media and order a copy of her book.
Diane:
Oh, that would be great. All right. Thanks for the opportunity, Kathleen. I appreciate it so much.
Kathleen
You’re welcome. We’ll see you next week, guys. Bye.
On Facebook, I’m Diane Tarantini, Author. On Instagram and Twitter, I’m @writingdianet. On Pinterest I’m @writingdiane. On Medium.com, search for @dianetarantini. I’m also on LinkedIn as Diane Tarantini.