Category: writing tips

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YA-hoo Fest! on 9.29

Hey! If you’re in Chattanooga on 9.29, stop by this exciting festival to hear some amazing authors speak about their craft! Or, you can simply visit & hang out with me.

I’ll be moderating Session 5: ‘Writers Talking Craft’ with Dave Connis, Randy Ribay, Maggie Thrash, and Jeff Zentner from 2:15-3pm that day. These are some heroes of mine in the YA realm. You won’t be disappointed!

Description:

Chattanooga’s Celebration of Young Adult and Middle Grades Literature

Includes:

Readings, Book Sales,
Panel Discussions,
Author Signings,
Food Trucks, Vendors & Fun

Link to register for this FREE event: https://www.yahoofest.org/

See you there,

Brian

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Working on a memoir

How does one write about their own life?

 

“One word at a time,” the sarcastic one says.

“Follow a set bracket of time,” a wise one adds.

“Start at a pivotal moment and detail the surroundings,” your neighbor tells you.

 

Pick up a pen and begin again what you already know.

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New publication in September!

I hinted previously that there could be a new book coming down the pike this year.

THERE IS!  It’s one I’ve had quite a fun time with, as it really defies classification.

Here’s my best effort to label it –

 

  • an illustrated, Young Adult, Western novella set in 1880s Appalachia rather than, well, the West.
  • a coming-of-age story, with historical significance, as it centers upon a family caught in the disastrous, bloody French-Eversole Feud near Hazard, Kentucky.

 

With the current landscape of modern high school libraries shifting away from books involving shootouts, I was nervous to promote such a book for teen readers. However, the strong historical significance won out for me, to tell a story about this ‘not-so-famous’ Kentucky feud, which unlike the Hatfields & McCoys (happening due east of Perry County), spawned not from the greed over a hog, but something much more closely tied to every Appalachian – land, the coal within.

I look forward to sharing more details, as they develop, and I gladly welcome any of my more talented writing peers to offer to blurb for this book well in advance of its intended release, which is:   9.20.18.

Happy Easter Weekend to everyone!

 

Brian

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Monticello Beauty: a hometown meditation

Things which captivate me still, regarding my hometown, Monticello, Kentucky:

 

Blackberries growing along the edge of Sally Burnett Road

Cheeseburgers simmering on Main Street’s Pool Hall grill

Turtles stepping on one another to get pellets at Conley Bottom Resort

Shane Blevins shooting a 3-pointer, the subsequent swish

Cornbread recipes shared at Mill Springs Mill

The word ‘Pull!’ being shouted in a field, followed by shotgun blasts

Horses swimming in an open pond in summer

Church bells ringing at Elk Ridge Baptist Church

Harold Turpin preaching 1 Corinthians 13

Baptism with six friends in a creek one, crisp October

Dennis Wheeler leading a choir on Sundays

Cardinal couples darting from branch to branch at the park

A skier dropping a ski between New Fall and White Oak Creeks

Lake Cumberland reaching into the trees after a rain

Losing a teammate to that same pool one year

Kelda Stringer sharing the Wayne County Outlook with all

The doughboy looking on

Dad driving like Steve McQueen between Delta and Hwy 92

The roar of a Chevy Nova getting me to Bell Elementary

Grandma’s suppers on Tuesday nights

Family reunions at the Memorial Park shelter house

Bus rides to and from Cave Street with Ingrid Coffey

Basketball double headers on Fridays

Kickball tournaments in the Miniard auditorium

 Veteran’s Day parades and our pride in hometown heroes

Open lunch at South Creek Mini Mart

Paul Stringer reading Harper Lee aloud

Jimmy Cooper obsessing over his desk

Mountain View Camp and Chrysalis – God’s very movement

Menville Dishman on our family doorstep, inviting us back to church one more time

 

 

(*image by Mitchell McGuire, Art Deco rendering/design)

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Being an enigma is far from bad

Every finger print differing for a reason

Consider the differences in the Grand Canyon

And Mount Everest

Trenches and peaks falling and rising in varying proportions

A cave remaining dark all day

And snow lingering on precipices, up high

A bat needing a home during daylight hours

And man craving rest in the darkest reaches of night

Differences are awe-inspiring

Sameness is bland

Leonardo da Vinci was anything but mad

Van Gogh while mad was anything except boring

Hobbits were constructed in the mind of a world-builder

And Billy Graham preached like his soul was on fire

These are the attributes of difference

These are the joys of deliverance

From a world lacking season

From a dish missing salt

Difference is good

Mysterious

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NEW Project Underway for 2018!

While it’s still very much in its infancy, I’m so excited about an idea I’ve been constructing of late!

It’s still too early to give much away, but suffice it to say it encompasses post-Civil War America. But not the parts in Reconstruction mode we all think about and get sentimental for.

It’s taken more research than I thought I’d put into a book, but hopefully that will pay off in bringing truth to light.

And most importantly, I hope you enjoy it as much as you’ve enjoyed other projects. Baptisms & Dogs, Wheelman, and Swimming the E. were all largely passion projects from personal experience and growth. This one isn’t memory-driven at all, but rather, an overflow of interest regarding a region. There. I’ve said too much.

It’s being composed as a quasi-illustrated novellette. (Say that 5 times really fast.)

And as much as I’d like to share sketches, plot, and a forthcoming title…it’s still too early in the game to do so.

However, my promise is to get these things to you soon. If you promise me, you’ll share the heck out of it once it becomes a real, living breathing thing.

 

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That Time I Met Wendell Berry…

The SouthWord Literary Festival, 2017 – Chattanooga, TN.

Writers included some of my all-time favorites. A list as talented as the Golden State Warriors of present day. No. Better. Way way better. Forget the comparison. Just look at the list below.

In no particular order:

Wendell Berry (I could stop right here.)

Tom Franklin

Jim Grimsley

Tim Gautreaux

Ron Rash

Steve Yarbrough

Maurice Manning

Bobbie Ann Mason

Charles Frazier

George Singleton

Brad Watson

Allan Gurganus

Tony Earley

Lee Smith

Silas House

Richard & Robert Bausch

Now I understand why some obsess over Disney World/ Disney Land. This conference housed rock stars in the literary arena, and they all came together and discussed the craft of writing. I was star struck like a girl at her first Beatle’s concert. May the magic never wear off! I’ll probably never wash hand again.

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Event Pictures from Star Line Books – Swimming the Echo

Many thanks for the attendance at last week’s Q&A, Reading, & Signing at Star Line Books in downtown Chattanooga! It was a great return to that wonderful independent bookstore. Sharing Swimming the Echo and its construction with everyone was a fantastic time. The questions were thoughtful and welcomed! Hope to see you at the next event soon.

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Chattanooga Book Signing, Thursday!

Book Signing with Brian L. Tucker

September 21 @ 6:00 pm – 7:30 pm

Star Line Books loves to have local writers in the shop, and Brian Tucker is no exception. A great friend of Star Line, Brian will be joining us in the shop for a reading and signing of his most recent novel, Swimming the Echo.  Born in Monticello, KY, Brian is an immense talent, who has lived in the foothills of the Appalachians, Houston, and eastern North Carolina. His fiction has appeared in more than twenty publications. He is an alumnus of the Eastern Kentucky University Bluegrass Writers Studio and was a finalist for the Linda Bruckheimer Series in Kentucky Literature Award for his collection, Baptisms & Dogs. He currently lives in Chattanooga, TN with his wife, Leah. SWIMMING THE ECHO, was released May 30th by eLectio Publishing.

 

About the Book:

It’s an adventure of a lifetime. When a summer job to explore Mammoth Cave lands in Cade Rainy’s lap, he doesn’t think twice. The teen from Southern Kentucky makes a break for it. But when he finds his dad is connected to a man working at Mammoth, Cade discovers there’s more to this trip than meets the eye. AND THE CAVE IS JUST THE START. Cade sets out to map the real route of twisted lies through fissures and stalactites, battling claustrophobia and bats.

EXPLORE. ADVENTURE. DON’T DIE.