Smart Girl
About this ebook
The college newsroom in downtown Portland is home to an eclectic group of students who wrote, filmed, edited and produced the news for a television show, a newspaper, and a website. And oh, the radio station, and the literary magazine. And not just the news, but sports and entertainment too. Blair Williams, the news editor, got tired just thinking of all the spinning plates that made up Eyewitness News. And she was responsible for keeping a lot of those plates spinning.
She loved it. For the first time she felt like she belonged, and she didn't have to hide her intelligence. People at EWN respected her. Her boyfriend, Will Bristol, said he admired it — and since he was her boss at EWN as well? That mattered. A lot.
Well he said he admired her intelligence until he got a concussion from being hit over the head with a protest sign, and things started leaking out. Disturbing things. Words that hurt. Behavior that scared her.
And EWN was under attack — again. Over 100 students were in danger. And Will, their editor-in-chief, was suddenly unreliable, leaving Blair effectively in charge. OK, she could deal, she had before, after all.
She was less certain she could deal with Will when they went home.
Foul language, some sex, a lot of politics. It's Portland, right?
Book 16 in the suspense series, Newsroom PDX — dystopian fiction from today's headlines.
About the author
L.J. Breedlove is a former journalist writing mysteries and thrillers about what she knows: complicated people, small towns, big cities, cops, reporters, politicians, assorted bad guys.
"I write about religion and politics. About race and gender. I believe in the journalism axiom: Comfort the afflicted, and afflict the comfortable. To which the labor organizer Mother Jones was supposed to have added: And in general raise hell. That works for me."
L.J. grew up on a cattle ranch and then went to college to be an oceanographer. She decided getting seasick was not a good trait for an oceanographer to have, and discovered journalism instead — a field that liked people who asked questions!
As a reporter and editor, she worked in Alaska, Oregon, Idaho, Texas, Washington, D. C. Then she got homesick for the Pacific Northwest and came home to work with college newspapers and teach journalism.
She is an over-educated, bleeding heart liberal with a penchant for heroes such as Jack Reacher. She isn't particularly bothered by the inconsistency.
You can follow her on Twitter @ljbreedlove for her political stuff, or on Facebook ljbreedlove for her writing life. Best place to find her -- besides a local coffee shop -- is at ljbreedlove.com. You can sign up for her email newsletter there. Or read her blog, snark included, and check out all her books.
