You've probably seen Buchanan Moncure around. Maybe you've seen him serving frozen yogurt at Tasty Yo over the last year and a half, or perhaps you've seen him around town with friends. Perhaps what you didn't know is that the guy serving your frozen yogurt has a bit more going on. For starters he's an author, his first book of short stories, This Was Supposed to be Simple, has been out since November of last year. He also, along with his roommate Mary DeMay, owns a publishing company which they run from their apartment just outside of NoDa.
Buchanan moved to Charlotte in August of 2009 to attend Johnson and Wales University. "It just kind of happened," he explains, "I never took the SATs [which Johnson and Wales does not require], I was mildly interested in the food service industry, and I really wanted to get out of my hometown." That hometown is Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina, a small city near the Virginia border with a population of roughly 17,000. After high school he moved to Weldon (a town of less than 1,400 people) for a little over a year. "Weldon was small, really small, but it had it's benefits. My rent was dirt cheap, everything was in walking distance and I was close to my grandparent's house for those days where I didn't have money for food."
Moving to Charlotte was a dream turned reality for Moncure, but after a few months he found himself struggling. "I knew I'd be broke, but I didn't realize how broke, and I knew it'd take a while to make friends, but I didn't realize how long. I knew I'd be lonely, but what I didn't know was how hard it is to deal with loneliness - and it took me to a really dark place. School sucked, I was constantly changing majors and quickly realizing I didn't want to spend my life doing anything of those things. I didn't find a job for nearly 4 months."
He did find a job, only a mile from home at Charlotte's first all natural frozen yogurt store, Tasty Yo. "Two friends and I who moved here from Roanoke Rapids all walked down to NoDa. Will and I moved here together, and my friend Sam had been here for a few months and already knew where everything was. I had no idea I was so close to NoDa, so we all had some drinks at my house and then walked down to the gallery crawl. It was the first time I had really gotten out of the house." That night their first stop was Tasty Yo. "I walked in and immediately said 'I want to work here!' It represented so many things that were important to me, like the importance of local businesses and sustainability. I was sure that I would work there." A few months later he found himself one of the first people the family-owned company ever hired. "I immediately felt like family."
Buchanan's struggles with loneliness and depression continued and he started writing short fiction as an outlet. "I'd always written, but I had really picked it back up right before I moved here, so it was very natural to use it as an outlet. If I was having a bad day, I'd write a story about someone getting hit by a bus. If I was feeling sad I'd project it onto a character. When I went home for Christmas I printed out a couple of stories and made photocopies that I stapled together and gave out as gifts. A few months after that I gave my English teacher at Johnson and Wales a link to a blog I had been keeping where I posted all of my stories. He put 3 of them in the school's literary magazine that spring."
From there things took off. He had started reading short stories at The Evening Muse a few months earlier. "Going to The Muse is the number one way I started to make friends in Charlotte. Hands down. The first time I went it was because Bridgit Scheide, who I knew mostly as a Tasty Yo customer, was having a comic book release. We quickly became friends and later collaborated on a comic book version of one my stories." Just months later Buchanan found himself on stage at the Muse announcing that he was releasing a book on November 15th, his 21st birthday.
The comic, written by Moncure and illustrated by Scheide, was released that July at the Lost & Found Fiction launch party at NoDa's Area 15 where 4 bands played in addition to Moncure reading his short stories.
On November 15th he found himself once again on the Evening Muse's stage, this time hosting the open mic and reading selections from his book throughout the night. "It was a really exciting turning point, it was one of the most exciting days of my life for sure. I had taken all of that depression and turned it into something that made me happier than I'd ever been. It made it all worth it." The first run of 100 copies sold out before the year ended, and sales of the second edition have continued to be steady.
What's next for Buchanan? He's still working at Tasty Yo, a pin on his name tag shows the same paper crane image that adorns the cover of his book, a small hint of the other life he leads. "I'm still writing. My publishing company is planning some releases that aren't by me which will be a really fun experience. I'm doing more and more readings and hopefully collaborating with some other artists. The future looks pretty bright."
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Name: Buchanan Moncure
Age: 21
Occupation: Author / Server @ Tasty Yo
Website: www.BuchananMoncure.net,
www.LostAndFoundFiction.net
Arrived in CLT: August, 2009
Area: NoDa
Mission: Dream Big, Inspire
For more Buchanan Moncure keep an eye on Citizens of CLT where he will be a regular contributor!
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