Newsroom PDX Series

Are We Journalists or Aren't We? There was no doubt in Cage Washington's mind. The student-run Eyewitness News had to cover the Black Lives Matter protests in the streets of downtown Portland. He stood with his videocamera in hand, and waited for his best friend and editor-in-chief to make up his mind. Cage had been down there at the protests last night. He watched the cops fire on protesters. Watched protesters break into the federal building. His own eyes were streaming from the tear gas. He was ordering gas masks for his videographer staff today — if he could find any in town. "Yes," Ryan Matthews said. "Cover it." He smiled wryly at his friend. "Are we journalists or aren't we?" "We are now," Cage said. Join EWN in Newsroom PDX a new adult, political suspense series about Portland's protests, the pandemic, and college. Foul language, some sex, a bit kinky, lots of politics — the series and the city. Book 1 in the series Newsroom PDX.

Called Home It gets messy when your loyalties are split. For all of his life, Ben Waters knew he would grow up, find a woman among his tribe, marry and have children. His grandfather, the chairman of the Yakama Tribal Council, had instilled it into him from day one. It was his duty. But then? He went away to college, because the tribe also needed educated members, and he found a woman — and she wasn't Yakama. And he walked away from her. Now, the tribe needs him, his grandfather insists. He must come home. He must leave his life in Portland, leave his job and friends at Eyewitness News, leave the woman he loves and cannot have. And he obeys his grandfather, because he always has. Past mattered. Family mattered. Heritage mattered. But so does his heart. And his heart has other ideas.  Book 10 in the Newsroom PDX new-adult suspense series.  Foul language, some sex, lots of politics — because it's Portland.    

Someone is Hunting Them Nine-year-old Jazzy needs the Video Man, her own private superhero, because Ms.Carroll has gone missing.  Cage Washington doesn't think he's a superhero at all, but he's got friends, and they'll do their best to rescue Carroll.  But it isn't just Carroll they're hunting. There is a forced conversion therapy camp operating somewhere outside of Portland. And for a price, they'll kidnap your LGBTQIA kid and 'fix' them. And they want Carroll Gilligan. With Carroll, it's not about family, or fixing her. It's about revenge. Book 12 in the political suspense series Newsroom PDX. Foul language, some sex, lots of politics. Because it's Portland.    

He's Everybody's Kid Brother Corey Washington's oldest brother had been the advertising manager at the student-run Eyewitness News in Portland. His older brother Cage had been a videographer for years, and everyone hero-worshipped him — including Corey. Corey was the computer systems manager for EWN, and everyone treated him like their own kid brother. He didn't really mind. But now he's the team leader at a journalism conference. His team is locked up in jail, he's been kicked out of the hotel, and it's time to step up. He's not the kid brother anymore. Book 13 in the new-adult political suspense series Newsroom PDX about the students who run a newsroom in Portland, Oregon. Foul language, some sex, lots of politics. Welcome to Portland.

When You're the Hero Miguel Garcia saved the day in January. His quick thinking stopped the Eyewitness News building from going up in flames with all of his friends and co-workers trapped inside. And he relives that moment almost nightly in his nightmares. It's not the only nightmare he's facing. He wants to do some video reporting of the escalating homelessness situation in downtown Portland.  Someone seems to be trying to kill him.  Or is that just another nightmare? The 17th book in the Newsroom PDX suspense series about a college newsroom in downtown Portland during the pandemic and protests, and now its aftermath. There's a new editor, and new stories to be told. But it's still Portland: foul language, some sex, and lot's of politics. "Dystopian fiction from today's headlines."

The Literary World Upstairs   The second-floor EWN newsroom was full of eccentric, bright, diverse news junkies. The first-floor business and advertising staff stayed away from there. Advertising staff prided themselves on never having even seen the second floor.   But everyone agreed that the real weird lived on the third floor, home to the literary magazine, radio station and a new Center for Innovative Journalism.   There is nothing so essentially Portland as a literary magazine. The Portland Review had been run by a perennial student, Robert Smithson, for nearly a decade. But the English department threatened his credits if he didn't graduate with his M.A. or start his PhD. Since a PhD in English meant a job teaching English in some rural college for the rest of his career, he reluctantly took his M.A. and went out to teach sixth graders in Portland instead.   So, everyone at EWN grinned at the idea of the much tattooed and pierced punk with his yellow-blonde Mohawk teaching sixth graders, but they wished him well. Until they found out that his replacement wasn't going to be Joe Castro, the editor of Folio, the weekly newspaper of EWN, who Robert had been training to be his successor. No, the English faculty had lost their collective minds and chosen Mayra Cantwell, a master's student and self-proclaimed award-winning poet, who promised to return the Review to its roots — a magazine focused on literature and poetry. Leave the art and design to art magazines, she told the English faculty. It was music to their ears since most of them mourned for an era of quill pens and bottles of ink.   The EWN staff knew Mayra. She had, as they say, a history with EWN and it wasn't a pretty one. Now she'd be in their building? Turning their beloved and admired magazine into something that looked like it had been done on a mimeograph? (Most of the staff didn't know what that looked like. Chief Geek Corey Washington sighed, found some images and sent them out during the editors' Zoom meeting.) The editors looked at each other in disbelief. Seriously? That's what she wanted to do? They weren't going to let that happen.   Something must be done, they said, and turned their gaze to their faculty advisor, whose own hijinks as a former EWN staffer were still gossiped about — not only in the newsroom, but across campus. 'Devious bastard' was one of the kinder labels administrators and faculty muttered under their breaths.   But EWN faculty advisor Ryan Matthews had his own history with Mayra Cantwell. He knew her well. (No, not in the Biblical sense. Mayra was one of the few women he hadn't slept with during those years.) She'd targeted him for his humiliation of her at a Powell's poetry slam six years ago when he was a cocky sophomore EWN writer.   Her vendetta had gone on for three years and sucked in EWN staff and editors, PSU student government and Portland's literary community, before she just disappeared. People shrugged it off as the stay-home orders of the pandemic, but Ryan wasn't so sure.   She was back, now, though. She still had an axe to grind. And she thought the Review was the perfect platform to get her revenge. Even if she burnt it all down in the process, she'd happily pour on the fuel and feed the flames.   And dear God, Ryan was faced with being her advisor?   Well this should be fun.   A Literary Life is book 21 of Newsroom PDX, a series of political thrillers set in downtown Portland, Oregon. Foul language, some sex, lots of politics. Portland weird at its finest.