Title: Messages
Genre:
mystery/thriller/humor/general fiction
Author: Forrest Carr
Format:
Paperback, eBook, 496 pages
ISBN: 1493593617
ASIN:
B00ECK0DBK
Publication Date: December 11, 2013
Website:
http://www.forrestcarr.comFacebook:
http://www.facebook.com/forrestcarrauthorTwitter:
http://twitter.com/ForrestCarr1Available
in print from major online retailers, and for the Kindle via
Amazon.com.
Print Edition from Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Messages-Forrest-Carr/dp/1493593617Print
from Barnes Noble:
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/messages-forrest-carr/1117689631Print
Edition from Books a Million:
http://www.booksamillion.com/p/Messages/Forrest-Carr/9781493593613Ebook
from Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Messages-Forrest-Carr-ebook/dp/B00ECK0DBK
Thumbs Up from Kirkus Reviews
Reprinted
with permission from Kirkus reviewsJournalist Carr’s (A Journal of the
Crazy Year, 2013, etc.) accomplished debut novel takes readers into the world of
local newsroom politics, rendering that world in elaborate, Dickensian
detail.
Here are the petty turf wars over stories and bylines, the venal
and greedy ad-people willing to do anything to increase the station’s revenue,
the brainless and bullying newsroom bosses whose screw-ups make life miserable
for the hardworking writers and reporters. Here are the pompous news-readers
enjoying their local celebrity and the real stories reporters have to fight to
get told. Arrow Henley, an ace reporter at WDIK-TV’s Action News in Knoxville,
Tenn., had been told by his station’s general manager to go get sensational
footage of a young man threatening to commit suicide by throwing himself off a
bridge. Remembering the assignment sends Henley on a drinking binge, but his
dilemma—an old-fashioned, story-oriented newsroom being taken over by
ratings-and-numbers-driven mindless media—is shared by all of Carr’s main
characters, including Dexter Drimmel, a caustic newsman from WIMP in Little
Rock, who’s tired of seeing his station run preprogrammed “content” (bought in
two-hour blocks from a West Coast company) rather than actual local news
reported by actual local reporters. Reporter Dan Price, whose copy gets
rewritten by his overbearing bosses and who dreams of somehow fighting back,
feels the same way. These workplace stories are rendered by Carr in such
intricate detail and with such smooth skill that readers will easily gain a
vivid sense of what it’s like to work in a local newsroom—the technical
problems, the industry jargon, the multitude of quick decisions that need to be
made every day. Against this backdrop, Carr weaves a theme of corruption that
provides most of the book’s considerable comic energy and fast-paced
dialogue.
A spirited, lavishly detailed behind-the-scenes look at the
inner workings of a newsroom.
MORE ABOUT THE BOOK
Notes of merit: 4.6 reader review score on Amazon.com. Featured in Broadcasting & Cable,
Tucson Weekly, KGUN9-TV's "The Morning Blend."
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