When Sam Tankersley talks about the creative writing process that went into the completion of his six novels, including the recently published young adult crime novel “Alone,” it’s hard to believe he’s just 13 years old.
“I just love the idea of creating characters, a story. I like to read and I just love to think about someone else reading something I wrote,” Tankersley said. “… When I’m writing I have this build up to something and when it hits there, I love just that, writing about (the characters) being afraid, trying to run from the monster or the killer … from the climax on is fun to write.”
Tankersley, who has attended St. John School in Hot Springs since kindergarten along with his twin brother and little sister, reached out on his own to Tate Publishing to publish and market “Alone” which he started writing when he was 11. His parents, Tamra and Mike, had no idea.
Sam Tankersley
“His dad started getting e-mails from a publishing company saying, ‘We’re interested in publishing your son’s book’ and we went in there and said what book?” said his mother, a criminal defense attorney for 18 years. “It was almost a divine thing; he went out there and got it done. I just really think God had his hand on the whole process.”
Marianne Layne, director of advancement of St. John School, said the administrators were “floored” about the book deal.
“Of course, we were thrilled. He’s also a wonderful artist, so he’s very talented,” Layne said. “It just amazes me that at his age he’s thought through so many of these things like an older writer, an adult writer. He’s just so ahead of the game, so we’re very proud of him.”
For Tankersley, it was just another step in his progression as a writer. He also held a book singing at Hastings in Benton upon the book’s release.
“It’s in a contained area on a boat and someone gets murdered and it’s about them finding who, what, where, when,” Tankersley said about “Alone,” which follows a murder mystery involving college buddies. “Around the time I watched a show called ‘Whodunnit?’ and I thought that was really cool how they could build up suspense and how they could make the murder so scary. You could always be on edge with who did it? And I wanted to do something like that.”
He looks to writers like JRR Tolkien, Stephen King and Michael Crichton for inspiration and to improve his craft.
“Most people think he just writes about horror, but he actually does really well-done dramas as well,” Tankersley said of King, but added, “Michael Crichton’s my favorite author. I’ve read quite a few of his books. … He uses slang and abbreviations you’d hear when someone talks … It can generate suspense, it can generate fear, it’s just great reading his books. It’s a great form of writing.”
Beyond writers, Tankersley draws inspiration from favorite television shows like “Breaking Bad” and is a “huge movie buff,” Tamra Tankersley said, admiring works from people like directors Christopher Nolan and Quentin Tarantino. He said his western novel, “Life in the West” was inspired partly by Oscar-winning actors Robert Duvall and Tommy Lee Jones.
“He’ll be in there typing forever and we’ll be getting ready to go to bed and he’ll say, ‘Can I just have 30 more minutes to write?’” his mother said.
His books tend to start with something he’s read or seen, like his book, “Legacy of Terror.”
“I did that one based off of a series of murders that happened in Texarkana in Arkansas also aligned with the Zodiac killings in San Francisco,” Tankersley said. “The moonlight murders, they happened back in the 40s and 50s. I took the murders and turned it into historical fiction where I add something else into them, like a background story and a reason for why the guy killed and I made a connection to the Zodiac killings because I also read on the Texarkana ones that there was suspicion he went on to become the Zodiac Killer.”
Armed with a dry wit and shy demeanor, Tankersley is anything but a brooding kid, but much of his material is dark — his book titles include “Act of Desperation,” “Frozen Death,” “Blood Cross” and his work-in-progress “Cold is the Touch of the Midnight Man.”
“It’s not that I’m crazy. I find an idea that I consider too good to pass up to write about,” Tankersley said. “Like this one I’m writing about is based off of a lore I heard, kind of like an urban legend … it can just be molded into such a great horror story.”
Tankersley, who attends the Piney Grove United Methodist Church with his family, said he is blessed to have the opportunity to write, but making it a career? “That would be awesome,” he said.
“I don’t want to use the word dream because that’s a little childish, but it’s what one strives for in this field, to publish a book. I think me being able to do it is great. I hope to someday do it again,” Tankersley said.
The 60-page book can be found on Amazon.com or Tatepublishing.com for $7.99.
