A retired Riverdale High School teacher is worried that she may have to get a tattoo after making a pact with her former students.

Beth Riner, who taught English for more than two decades—first at Central Middle and later at Riverdale—got her first book contract last September, at the age of 64.

Odd Job Annie, Riner’s humorous Southern mystery based in Monteagle, Tennessee, where the author now lives, debuted in February. It’s doing well, with a five-star rating on Amazon. She’s already signed a contract for the second in the series.

“I love Facebook because it lets me stay in touch with students I taught over the years,” Riner said. “I’m friends with students I taught my very first year at Central. They’re grownups now with children of their own. It’s a joy to see the adult version of these kids I loved.”

Those students have been some of the biggest cheerleaders in her writing journey, said Riner, who retired in 2022 and moved more than an hour away to a tiny cabin in Tennessee’s Cumberland Plateau region.

Author Beth Riner, along with Bailee and Austin Ricketts and their son, Barrett, at a March book signing at Dapper Owl; the Ricketts, former students of Riner’s who now live in Christiana, started dating as seniors while at Riverdale, graduating in 2019

“When I moved here, I literally knew two people. I had to make an effort to get out into the community and meet new friends.”

She began writing feature stories for the local papers and rediscovered her passion for writing.

“I was a journalism major at Tennessee Tech,” she said. “My first job was as a newspaper reporter. I loved it, but it just didn’t pay anything in those days.”

After relocating, she started working on a cozy mystery set on the mountain. The main character, a retired English teacher named Annie Cooper, is a lot like her. Instead of writing articles, Annie takes on odd jobs and stumbles across a mystery.

Riner sent the first 10 pages of the novel off to a publisher, who promised a critique.

“They almost immediately wanted to read the whole novel,” Riner said with a laugh. “The problem was it wasn’t finished. I had 13 chapters done.”

She wrote solidly for the next week, sent the now-completed manuscript back to the publisher, and the rest, as they say, is history.

The tattoo idea started on Facebook.

“A former student had taken an online quiz that suggested she get a matching tattoo with me,” Riner explained. “I’m from a generation where we didn’t get tattoos. In fact, my mom was scandalized when I got my ears single-pierced in the early seventies.”

They joked that they could each get a pie slice in honor of Odd Job Annie, whose title character loves blackberry pie. Riner then floated a trial balloon on Facebook to see if anyone else would get a tattoo if the book ever cracked the top 10 in any category. She was amazed when 14 friends, most of them former students, said they would.

“I’m blown away by their support,” Riner said. “They’ve bought the book, attended book signings to get my autograph, and reached out to let me know how much they enjoyed reading it. The biggest comment I get is ‘when’s the next one coming out?’ Hearing that makes me so happy.”

One of her favorite stories involves a former student who said he bought the book in solidarity for her, started reading it, and liked it so much that he read the entire thing.

“He told me it was the first book he’d read since his freshman year of high school,” she said. “In the back of my mind, I’m thinking, ‘Wait a minute, I taught you senior year!’ I’ll take my victories where I get them, though. At least he’s reading as an adult.”

As for the tattoo?

“So far, I don’t have to get one,” Riner said, laughing, admitting she’s not exactly excited about the prospect of becoming a tattooed lady. “Another former student has even offered to pay for it if that day comes.”

Odd Job Annie is available from Amazon in paperback or Kindle format, and can be found at all other online book retailers.