My next novel, Crossing Live, is nearing completion and will be available as an ebook on Amazon soon. A summary of the story is below.
Crossing Live
Channel 5 Brisbane is in deep ratings trouble and a pair of unorthodox Americans have come in to turn things around. When they ask for a local person to join their team, the station’s marginalised chief executive chooses his friend Roland Kendall for the job.
Roland isn’t everyone’s idea of a turnaround expert. He shuns the fast lane of life and freely admits he knows nothing about television. But he is ultra-loyal to Phil Porter, the head of Channel 5, and agrees to act as his eyes and ears, the cuckoo in the consultants’ nest.
Life in the orbit of Dalton Hinsley and B.B. Olsen is a daily rollercoaster ride. Roland finds himself hiring and firing the on-air talent and being physically attacked by disgruntled staff. He reluctantly masterminds a nightly viewer competition and manages to mislay the $50,000 prize in gold.
He also becomes an unwitting player in the biggest news story of the year. This throws him together with Suzanne Denning, the news team’s rising star. Roland falls instantly for Suzanne and she seems to feel the same about him. But things aren’t always how they look in the world of television and Roland begins to wonder if he’s just a pawn in everyone else’s news game.
As he works through the implications of his 15 minutes of fame, Roland has some pressing questions to answer. Does he like being deeply engaged, or is he happier in the shadows? When the world does its next live cross to Roland Kendall, will he choose to be there?
Crossing Live is set in the Australia of 1990, a time before the internet, when phones were mostly still attached to walls and the nightly news broadcast formed our view of the world. It takes a light-hearted look at the lengths television news will go to for an exclusive story and the sacrifices people make in the chase for ratings.