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Wrong Kind of Paper

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When an ambitious reporter gets stuck at a chain paper in a town where nothing ever happens, bad things happen.

Hallie Linden

Sharp and inquisitive, Hallie Linden wants to write for the New York Times. But she’s stuck at a tiny paper in Green Meadow, Indiana. It’s 1989, but the town is still in the 1950s. Hallie has to find a story that will move her to a better paper, fast.

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Author Q & A

Why do you write?

I can’t not write.

Is Wrong Kind of Paper autobiographical?

I was at a reading where Ntozake Shange was asked that question. Indignant, she replied, “I still wrote it.”

There’s a creepy diminishment of women’s writing that is autobiographical. I once was rejected from a writing workshop by a professor who dismissed the work I submitted as a mere “victim narrative.” (Sweet revenge: That story got published.)

Wrong Kind of Paper is autobiographical in the ‘write what you know’ sense. Many of the things that happen in the book happened to me, or to reporters I know. The newsroom power dynamics, the not clear line between work friends and friend friends, that’s real. But no, I have never had sex on a trampoline.

Do you think you’re anything like your protagonist?

A little. I like to think I am not as hard-headed as Hallie is. But I am idealistic in some of the ways that she is.

The main character is a feminist—

And a vegetarian and an anti-racist. Are you going to suggest she’s too shrill in her vegetarianism? Or that she is too strident in opposing racism? Story thrives on conflict.

There’s an old joke, how many feminists does it take to screw in a light bulb? The old answer is one, and it’s not funny. The answer in Wrong Kind of Paper is two, the same as anywhere else.

So this is a book about sex?

Sex is an integral part of who we are and Hallie’s evolving sexuality contributes to the twistiness of the plot, so yes.

Why did you set the book in 1989 instead of the present?

For the same reason that Arthur Miller wrote about the red scare by writing The Crucible. People knew what happened with the Salem Witch Trials. We were far enough from it that we could learn the big lessons without quibbling about the details.

The year 1989 was pivotal in the history of American journalism because it was a time of unprecedented media mergers. Newspaper jobs disappeared quickly, and those who wanted to make it as journalists were sometimes forced to take very sketchy jobs. Because we know how that played out, we may get some insight into what may happen in this latest round of contraction—in both news and publishing.

Why did you set the book in the Midwest?

It’s that adadge ‘write what you know’ again. I grew up in a rust-belt town in Ohio, went to school in Minnesota and Wisconsin, worked briefly in Indiana and now live in central Pennsylvania. The flatness of much of the Midwest is deceptive. There’s often intrigue, elaborate social pecking orders that are not immediately apparent to those who are just passing through.

How has the news industry changed for the better since 1989?

It hasn’t. We have lost vast numbers of journalists all over the country. Although it is easier and cheaper to reach a large audience now, there are fewer jobs in which reporters have the luxury of time to develop deep source relationships and understand the power dynamics in government. It takes a while to learn a beat, it takes a while for sources to come to trust you.

When I taught at the University of Washington, I headed a legislative reporting internship program. This was 2009. My six students were fully half of the capitol press corps. And this was the worst state budget year since the great depression. Imagine trying to cover a state budget when you’re not even old enough to drink! Very young people, interns, are now a significant part of that tenuous line of information to the public.

There should be something like the endangered species list for the institutions that support democracy. Political reporting would definitely make that list.

Are there any real people in Wrong Kind of Paper?

The only character that was an actual person was cut when the book was edited for length.

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