Former journalist and now author TJ Buck. Submitted photo

Local Jamestown author TJ Buck has been around books his entire life, but did not start writing his own until he was well into his career as a reporter.

Buck began reading at a young age — around 5 or 6 years old — and read all of the time. He spent time at various newspapers for over 20 years, before the idea to write his own novel came to him.

“I said I wanted to try and write a novel, so I did,” Buck said. “It turned out ok, so I kept going.”

Buck’s seventh official novel was released on April 1.

His first novel was written when he lived down in Arizona.

“It took a while, because I was still working 50-plus hours a week as a journalist,” Buck said. “I got it done and sent it onto various publishers and eventually one decided they liked it and would get it out there.”

Of the seven novels Buck has written, the first was a general fiction or literature novel, and the rest fall into the crime fiction genre. His fourth book is a sequel to the third, and the same goes for the last two he has written.

While his main genre is crime fiction, Buck said he makes it a point to not make the books simple good versus bad stories.

“There are some people out there who are all good or all bad, but most everyone exists somewhere in the middle,” Buck said. “I make it a point to make my characters like that. The good guys will have bad points and the bad guys can have good points. It keeps it balanced.”

What motivates Buck to continue to write is how much he enjoys it.

“I can’t sing or dance or do any other talent,” Buck said. “I like to create something that didn’t exist before, and something that others might like. I enjoy creating a new world. And it’s something I can do from my couch.”

As an author, Buck’s works are unique as they are his own, similar to any other author. Buck said no author writes the same way.

“Every author is unique,” Buck said. “No one writes the way I do, but I don’t write like anyone else does either. I write how I write and others write how they write, because we are different people.”

Buck’s favorite part of being an author is doing book signing events, especially because otherwise he called being an author lonely.

“Book signings give you a chance to interact with people,” Buck said. “As a writer it can be lonely, as you are doing it by yourself most of the time. Book signings allow you to get feedback, and without that you don’t know for sure if you are doing good or not. You can only guess that you are, so it’s nice to talk and interact with people.”

Buck will be doing his next book signing at the Falconer Library in June. Good Neighbor Bookstore in Lakewood currently has all of his books in stock, and they are also available on Amazon in both paperback and ebook format. Buck can also be found on Facebook.