LUCKY RIDE
Set in the Vietnam era, Lucky Ride (A 2022 Maxy Award Finalist) tells the story of a recent veteran, an unraveling marriage, and a hitchhiking trip steeped in hippie optimism, post-war skepticism, and drug-induced fantasy.
When his friend Rick shows up in Binghamton, New York, with an interstate weed delivery, Flash jumps at the chance to escape his wife Ronnie’s affair with her middle-aged boss. Joining Rick on a speed-fueled drive to Fort Worth, Flash dodges a highway stalker and recalls his military service on Adak, a desolate cold war outpost where Seabees bravely defended their country with marijuana and LSD. Hitchhiking west from Fort Worth, Flash confronts Texas Rangers, amorous witches, armed felons, and good Samaritans, all offering advice and misdirection. But his dreams of starting fresh in California recede like a spent wave, his money gone and no chance of a job. Ronnie offers reconciliation and Flash must decide how much he still trusts the seductive pull of the irresistible campus radical he married before the draft descended on their lives.
Fiction
ISBN: 978-1950730933
Publication Date: December 31, 2021
Set in the Vietnam era, Lucky Ride (A 2022 Maxy Award Finalist) tells the story of a recent veteran, an unraveling marriage, and a hitchhiking trip steeped in hippie optimism, post-war skepticism, and drug-induced fantasy.
When his friend Rick shows up in Binghamton, New York, with an interstate weed delivery, Flash jumps at the chance to escape his wife Ronnie’s affair with her middle-aged boss. Joining Rick on a speed-fueled drive to Fort Worth, Flash dodges a highway stalker and recalls his military service on Adak, a desolate cold war outpost where Seabees bravely defended their country with marijuana and LSD. Hitchhiking west from Fort Worth, Flash confronts Texas Rangers, amorous witches, armed felons, and good Samaritans, all offering advice and misdirection. But his dreams of starting fresh in California recede like a spent wave, his money gone and no chance of a job. Ronnie offers reconciliation and Flash must decide how much he still trusts the seductive pull of the irresistible campus radical he married before the draft descended on their lives.
Fiction
ISBN: 978-1950730933
Publication Date: December 31, 2021
Set in the Vietnam era, Lucky Ride (A 2022 Maxy Award Finalist) tells the story of a recent veteran, an unraveling marriage, and a hitchhiking trip steeped in hippie optimism, post-war skepticism, and drug-induced fantasy.
When his friend Rick shows up in Binghamton, New York, with an interstate weed delivery, Flash jumps at the chance to escape his wife Ronnie’s affair with her middle-aged boss. Joining Rick on a speed-fueled drive to Fort Worth, Flash dodges a highway stalker and recalls his military service on Adak, a desolate cold war outpost where Seabees bravely defended their country with marijuana and LSD. Hitchhiking west from Fort Worth, Flash confronts Texas Rangers, amorous witches, armed felons, and good Samaritans, all offering advice and misdirection. But his dreams of starting fresh in California recede like a spent wave, his money gone and no chance of a job. Ronnie offers reconciliation and Flash must decide how much he still trusts the seductive pull of the irresistible campus radical he married before the draft descended on their lives.
Fiction
ISBN: 978-1950730933
Publication Date: December 31, 2021
Praise for LUCKY RIDE
“[An] engaging tale of nomadic hippiedom . . . Flash’s journey is frightening and heartening.”
The San Francisco Chronicle
You won’t be able to resist riding along with Flash in his journey, wondering, as he does, where his life will take him, and rooting for him all the while to make the best choice. But what is that choice? It’s not an easy one and not always clear, so let’s just pause a moment and light up this next joint. This is a great first novel by Terry Tierney; it’s one we at Blue Lake truly admireand highly recommend.
About TERRY TIERNEY
Terry was born in South Dakota and raised in Minneapolis and Cleveland. After serving in the Seabees, he received a BA and MA in English from SUNY Binghamton, and a PhD in Victorian Literature from Emory University. He taught college composition and creative writing and later survived a series of Silicon Valley startups as a software engineering manager.
Terry’s poetry collection, The Poet’s Garage, was published in May 2020 by Unsolicited Press. His novel, Lucky Ride, was released by Unsolicited Press in 2021, and his novel The Bridge on Beer River was published in 2023, also by Unsolicited Press. He has stories appearing in Fiction Pool, Jersey Devil Press, Blue Lake Review, Eunoia Review, Fictive Dreams, Literally Stories, SPANK the CARP, Big Bridge and other publications. He has poems appearing in Rust + Moth, Typishly, The Mantle, Valparaiso Poetry Review, Third Wednesday, Front Porch Review, Riggwelter, The Lake, Rat’s Ass Review, Kalliope, Kansas Quarterly, South Dakota Review, Puerto del Sol, California Quarterly, Poetry Northwest, Cottonwood Review, Lullwater Review and other publications.
He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife and literary mentor Michaelyn Burnette, a Librarian from the University of California, along with their two cats and their enthusiastic Golden Retriever, Pearl.
