MichaelPerrota.com

I think about my time as a community reporter and I have nothing but fond memories. The people I met and interviewed were hard to forget.

I don’t think people appreciate hometown news as much as they should. As people scramble to social media for “info” on the latest events, it was much easier to just pop into the newspaper office and find out the scoop firsthand or pick up a paper. I covered four towns across Essex County, and occasionally had to help out in three others. The government meetings opened my eyes, as did the crime beats (the things people will do!) and the sports beat (the things parents will do!) but what I will always remember is the people I met. What a cast of characters. I think of the crew in my office and how we would sit around and talk about them like they were fictional. It helped past the time while waiting for source calls or our pages to be built by the design team.

I use all of the people I met at some point in my life as inspiration in my fiction. And the people who I met in those four years certainly are at the top of the list.

It was honor for me to get a call from my hometown paper asking to interview me about my writing. I had no idea I would be on the front page nor did I know it was now sent to every home. Years ago, I actually wrote for the competitor of the Nutley Journal, but I knew the employees there as well.

Anyway, I’d like to thank Amanda Valentovic for taking an interest in my novel. It was greatly appreciated. Here the link to her article.