Meet Tracey Buchanan

Today we’d like to introduce you to Tracey Buchanan.

Hi Tracey, can you introduce yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today.
I’ve been a writer since I mastered the alphabet and have loved art for about a long. So, I bounce back and forth between visual arts and the written word. Right now I’m all the way in with writing. Although I spent most of my career as a journalist, I recently jumped headfirst into fiction. My debut novel, TOWARD THE CORNER OF MERCY AND PEACE, will be published in June 2023.

Can you talk to us about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
My venture into fiction has been a new experience with a steeper learning curve than I imagined. I had written some dramatizations for our city about historical figures who played prominent roles in Paducah’s past. Each year the city hosted “tours” through the oldest cemetery in town, and actors dressed in period costumes stood by their tombstones and delivered the script I’d written. I accumulated research for around thirty historical figures and decided they would be good fodder for a book. I wanted to pattern it after Edgar Lee Master’s tour de force Spoon River Anthology. The only problem was that it didn’t work. Still, I stubbornly pursued using these characters somehow. Eventually, I created a fictional character who could introduce the cemetery characters. That still didn’t work. As I edited, changed, and rewrote, I realized the fictional character I was trying to use as a “guide” had taken over. It was her story I needed to tell.

The next challenge was finding an agent or a publisher. I had interest from several agents that didn’t pan out, and I knew I wanted to refrain from self-publishing. I had done that with a gift book I created from my artwork and learned I preferred to do something other than marketing myself. So when a small traditional press, Regal House Publishing, offered me a contract, I was thrilled.

Thanks – so, what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
Although I’m immersed in the world of fiction right now, I have the debut novel in the production phase, a novel that I’m querying right now, and three more books I’m working on. I still find joy in painting. I used to have a small business selling books, prints, cards, and other merchandise featuring whimsical watercolor illustrations I’d painted and humorous sayings I’d written. I enjoyed selling “flutterbies” for around sixteen years. Then I got into realistic collages and three-dimensional assemblages. Now I’m painting large (and small!) abstract acrylics. When I’m stuck in my writing, I’ve found that if I paint for a while, it loosens me up and gives my mind a new focus, and I can return to writing with more clarity and freshness.

Before we go, can you share it with us?
TOWARD THE CORNER OF MERCY AND PEACE will be available for pre-order soon. To give you an idea of what it’s about, here’s an endorsement from another writer:

“With lush prose and a unique voice, Toward the Corner of Mercy and Peace introduces a memorable and delightfully cantankerous character in Minerva Place. This novel, filled with a colorful cast of multigenerational characters, explores loss, friendship, and grace themes. Lovers of heartwarming and quirky small-town storylines will adore this book!”
–Linda Mackillop, author of The Forgotten Life of Eva Gordon

To learn more about me, please follow me on my blog at www.TraceyBuchanan.com. (Please note Tracey is spelled with an E, and I sometimes use my middle initial, D) I’m also on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.TraceyBuchanan.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tracey_d_buchanan/?hl=en
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tracey.d.buchanan or https://www.facebook.com/tbdbstudio/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/TraceyBuchana11

Image Credits
The head and shoulder pic was taken by my brother, Dr. James Dodson. I took the other three.