In college, Barbara fell in love with the study of communication and public speaking. She competed in individual speaking and oral interpretation events and appeared in theatrical productions, her favorite role being one of the witches in Macbeth. After earning dual undergraduate degrees in Speech and in English Education, Barbara traveled to Athens, Ohio, to attend Ohio University, where she earned a master’s degree in Rhetoric and Public
Address. She began teaching college in—well, many years ago. For twelve years she taught
communication and coached debate and individual speaking events, taking students as far
west at Kansas and as far north as Chicago. During those years, she attended the University
of Tennessee in Chattanooga and earned a master’s degree in writing to pursue her goal of
writing more creatively and effectively. Among many beneficial courses, she took Fiction
Writing from Ken Smith and found another passion.
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     As a new mother, Barbara spent a few years more focused on her son than building a
career. In the late 1990s, she moved back into full-time teaching in two-year colleges.
Opportunities to travel to Europe and across the country many times arose. The passion for
fiction led her to begin a novel, the first draft of which was a monstrosity. Two kind friends
read it and assured her it was horrible, although there was hope for the basic story. After
cutting 160,000 words down to about100,000, she found a publisher, OakTara Press, and
eventually wrote a trilogy for them: Traveling Through, Cross Road, and Legacy. The rights
reverted to her after some years.

     In 2012 she started to explore self-publishing through the new tools available through
print-on-demand, and she produced her first “independently published” work, The Unexpected
Christmas Visitors. For a few reasons, this is her favorite, although she says that, like a
mother and her children, they are all her favorites. First reason: it’s about refugees and
persecuted religious groups. Second: it combines the Christmas story and Tolstoy’s story,
“Where Love is, God is.” Third, it has a message she believes in. Fourth, it was a successful
experiment: in self-publishing, in narrating in the present tense, and in producing something
as part of National Novel Writing Month. She likes to think of all of her independently
published works as experiments, with the freedom not to have to worry about writing for
another editor or publisher’s satisfaction and to try new themes or genres.

     From 2012 to 2015 Barbara restarted and finished her doctorate, but the “fiction bug” was
still there. She workshopped a novel she’d started, Bringing Abundance Back with her
supportive writers’ group in Catoosa County, GA. . This was her first Southern-themed “chick-
lit” genre of novel. She independently published it in 2015. It remains the one of the novels
she is most proud of, (but like a mother with her children, she’s proud of all of them . . . ) It is
also currently her second most popular. Lessons learned here about marketing: compare your
book to another famous one (in this case, Fried Green Tomatoes, although there aren’t really
that many similarities) and have an attractive cover.

     With the doctorate finished and five novels under her belt, Barbara began to be available
for speaking engagements. She still is, and she would love to come speak to books clubs,
creative writing groups, and library supporters. Based on a play she’d written and seen
produced in 2014, she moved into the mystery genre with Long Lost Family in 2017. It was
followed by Long Lost Promise in 2019 and Long Lost Justice in 2024. This is a series she
calls "The Scott Wallace Mysteries"; The main character, who narrates the novels, is the
editor of the town newspaper in Pierce's Crossing, GA, which looks suspiciously like a town
she used to live in. She plans to add several more to this series: Long Lost Fame, Long Lost
Faith, and Long Lost Innocence. She enjoys writing in the mystery genre with well-drawn
characters.
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     As a long-time lay teacher in the churches she attends and in campus ministry, Barbara
writes Bible studies. Leading in a Strange Land: A Study in Daniel and Leadership appeared
in 2016, and she has produced the three in a series The Gospel According to Lazarus: A
Study in John 11, The Gospel According to the Samaritan Woman, and The Gospel
According to Philemon. In June 2025, right after retirement (!) she published Entering His Rest, a nonfiction book/part Bible study/part self-help on anxiety and stress and what the Bible teaches about finding rest. Hint: It has nothing to do with heaven. She plans other studies on the psalms of
Asaph and the book of Habbakuk Romans 8, and Hebrews. Barbara also has experience
teaching English as a second language to refugees, one of her favorite things to do.

     Barbara also writes plays, short stories, and even a screenplay. She blogs, but confesses
that the blogs have become an addiction and mostly a place to opine and sometimes rant a
little bit about politics, technology, art, film, writing; her best blog posts are the ones that
encourage readers’ spiritual walks. These blogs are partsofspeaking.blogspot.com, partsofspeaking publishers.blogspot.com, and highereducationobserver.blogspot.com.  She has chosen not to monetize these, so you can be assured there are no ads! 
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     Despite the pandemic, she engaged in two new endeavors. In Fall 2020, the students at
her college performed The Foark River Tanning Salon and Bait Shop, to prove theatre could
go on in the pandemic. The play is a satirical look at reality TV, based loosely on the show
Small Town Security that aired from her former town of Ringgold, GA. The play is available for
other theatre groups. At this writing in 2025, she plans to rework the story into a novel.

 

Also in 2020, she joined Toastmasters International and became a fan. She competed (and lost
resoundingly) in a humorous speaking contest, but she believes Toastmasters is the next best
thing to having competent communication training in college, plus being a lot of fun and a
great way to network.
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      In 2023 and 2024, Barbara became affiliated with Colorful Crow Publishing, started by
Karli Donalson and now led by Vickie McEntire, in Calhoun, GA. Colorful Crow published
Sudden Future and Lying In, her first Appalachian novel and one she is very proud of; it is up
for three awards. Publishing three novels in fourteen months led to a bit of burn-out, but she
hopes to return to it with a COVID-era installment in the Scott Wallace series, the novel
version of The Foark River Tanning Salon and Bait Shop, and further explorations of her
Appalachian background. She has ideas for about ten more novels and fervently hopes
retirement will give her the time to get them out of her end and on paper!

     When she was not writing fiction and inspirational or theological works, Barbara Tucker was writing academic works. She researches the basic communication course, adult learning,
higher education, High Impact Practices in education, and interpersonal relationships.
Through a grant, she and colleagues produced a free, open resource public speaking book
that is used on every continent except Antarctica: Exploring Public Speaking.  It is now in
edition 4.3 and can be found online. 

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     "Dr. Tucker” retired from her 47-year career in June 2025. She has been a department
chair, assistant VP of Academics, and leader in faculty professional development and
accreditation efforts on her campus and elsewhere. She figures she has taught several
thousands students over those years. She was also the president of the Georgia
Communication Association.

       

       Now retired, Barbara has time to "enter His rest," and spend time with her granddaughter, continue to teach and speak wherever possible, and travel; her next destination is Turkey with the folks from the church she attends (God willing), to see Instanbul and the seven cities of Revelation's churches. 

     About fiction, Barbara says, “Storytelling is central to what makes us human. We crave
stories but we also inherently know a good story when we hear it. It has truth—not just what
theorists call verisimilitude, although for me personally, that’s important. But truth can come
through a story about beings on another planet that doesn’t seem like our own. We know
when the story is true and good (not moralistic) and honest and well told. That’s what I want
to achieve. I’m not John LeCarre or Cormac McCarthy. I can’t write about British spies or
young cowboys or serial killers. I can write about ordinary people who turn out to be
extraordinary and who have extraordinary stories.  I write about families, mostly, because we
all live in families and, whether we like it, our families determine so much of who we are, and
the more we recognize that we can take what is good and move forward from the not-so-
good.”

     Another theme Barbara likes to explore in her fiction is how we think we know each other. We do not allow ourselves to take the time or question our assumptions about others, ending up with sometimes harmful and erroneous views of other people. Thinking we know each other keeps us from really seeing and knowing each other. A paradox, maybe, but one that can often lead to hurt, misunderstanding, even tragedy. At the same time, we often do not know ourselves well enough, also leading to painful outcomes, and therefore we cannot reveal ourselves fully to others; in other words, we keep secrets. This theme informs Long Lost Family, a mystery that shows the real mystery is not the “who dun it” but the secrets we keep.   

       Barbara is above all, thankful for the blessings of God and great relationships. She hopes to get to know her readers!