Posts tagged: newspapers

So why did I set my new thriller “Final Deadline” in a newsroom? 

If you’ve watched FX’s “The Bear” on Hulu you know what a rich environment for drama a workplace can be when the employees care about what they do— and each other—with a passion wholly out of proportion to the pay or apparent stakes.

I remember newsrooms as a generally happy place, even with the grind of constant deadlines and the dread of more buyouts or furloughs. How could that be? It was the work. And it was the people. Even the most mundane stories—a city commission’s vote on new garbage collection fees, a high school swim meet—mattered to the journalists who covered them.

I strove to capture that ethos in Final Deadline, my fifth and most personal novel. In the opening chapters, managing editor Becket learns of another layoff from his venerable mentor Walter Burns (an Easter egg for fans of old newspaper movies!). It’s part of what Becket calls “the worst pep talk ever.” Let’s take a peek: 

Looking out over his team again, Becket saw reporters driven by more than the desire to get out early on a Friday. They worked hard to get it right because their stories mattered to them, regardless of what the newspaper’s owners believed.

“There’s value in what we do here, Walter. You taught me that. The news that happens in Palmetto County is no less important to the people who live here than what happens in New York or Chicago is to the people who live there.”

If a bulldog could smile, the expression would match Walter’s face in that moment. Like all the best editors, he had pushed Becket to a place where he could find the story for himself. Becket nodded toward the newsroom. “That’s what you want me to tell them.”

“When the time comes.”

“Do we know when?”

“Soon enough.”

Becket’s chest tightened as he watched his reporters working the phones and scanning websites, culling the facts they would shape into stories. The rough draft of history. That’s what they called it. …

“Don’t be too hard on yourself, Becket. There are limits to what we can control. You can’t save everyone.”

“If not us, then who will?”

Final Deadline is now available on Amazon. I hope you’ll choose to spend some time in my newsroom. I promise you won’t be bored.