BCMA to Host Joe Tennis Book Signing

Local journalist and author Joe Tennis will visit the Birthplace Of Country Music Alliance Museum & Gift Shop to meet the interested public and sign copies of his new book Southwest Virginia Crossroads - subtitled An Almanac of Place Names and Places to See. Joe's book signing will be held on July 31 from 1:00 pm -3:00 pm. The BCMA Museum and Gift Shop is located on the lower level of the Bristol Mall.

The mountains, rivers, and lakes of Southwest Virginia have invited explorers since the mid-1700's. Now this land beckons the modern traveler with its siren song of beauty, wonder and history. Southwest Virginia Crossroads extols the virtues of this national treasure and serves as a guide for those who want to find the best of America.

As you journey with author Joe Tennis through Southwest Virginia Crossroads, he relates the story of the land and its people, chronicling the fascinating stories birthed in this fabled region, as well as age-old place-names and their origins. County maps and detailed directions lead you to all the little- and best-known attractions housed in cities and towns like Bristol and Abingdon or sheltered within the rolling farmland and weathered mountains. Even those familiar with the area will want to visit waterfalls, lakes, towns, cities, restaurants, and historical sites discovered in the pages of this comprehensive work.

Joe Tennis is a graduate of Radford University in Radford, Virginia where he studied journalism and political science. Born in 1969 in Virginia Beach, Tennis began his professional writing career at age 20 as a correspondent for the Virginia Beach bureau of the Virginian-Pilot. His articles and photos have appeared in several Virginia newspapers, including the Bristol Herald Courier, Roanoke Times, and the Virginian-Pilot. He has also written for the Kingsport Times-News in Tennessee and Blue Ridge Country magazine. Tennis has won awards from the Virginia Press Association, Tennessee Press Association, and the Northeast Tennessee Tourism Association for his work as a featured writer for the Bristol Herald Courier in Bristol, Virginia. The author's articles have appeared in two books as well as several major newspapers, including the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Greensboro News & Record, Charlottesville Daily Progress, Winston-Salem Journal, and the Knoxville News-Sentinel.

Tennis and his wife, Mary, live with their daughter, Abigail, near Bristol, in Washington County, Virginia.

Southwest Virginia Crossroads is published by The Overmountain Press of Johnson City, Tennessee in a soft cover edition of 180 pages, and is ideal for dashboard or coffee table.