Dead Trees: A Tragicomedy

By Leslie Ware

ABOUT THE AUTHORLeslie Ware has been a senior editor at two national magazines. She and her husband, Phil Caputo, live in Connecticut and Arizona.ABOUT DEAD TREESJordana Lang is witness to a murder-but there's no corpse, and "Dead Trees" isn't a murder mystery, at least in the usual sense. Jordy is a 39-year-old editor at a magazine-a paper one-that is being killed off by suits who care more about the bottom line and their next job than saving one of the most respected journalistic enterprises in America: a nonprofit that tests everything from toasters to Teslas and provides buying advice to millions of loyal subscribers. As Jordy and the old guard at "All 4 U" fight off endless meetings, acronyms, and gibberish, the new regime doubles down on all of the above, and aims to fire, push out, let go, downsize, retire, or otherwise eliminate the most talented workers. Meanwhile, someone within the publication is further threatening its reputation by leaking early test results to a stockbroker and profiting from insider trades. Jordy is among the employees assigned to find the culprit. "Dead Trees" is funny and bittersweet, a celebration of wordplay and an elegy for the printed word. In addition to Jordy, the cast of characters includes Samatar Beazer, a talented Somali-American reporter with a congenital inability to look on the bright side; Warren Tappitt, a suspected corporate shill who turns out to be anything but; Gina Scarsi, the new regime's firer-in-chief and a man-crazy import from Beauteous magazine; Gavin McNutt, a hedgehog lookalike and Scarsi's co-sociopath; and Sylvie Bennett and Ann Brown (a.k.a. Mrs. Malaprop), whose poor dating choices help solve the insider-trading case.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1532843623
• ISBN13: 9781532843624
• Release Date: May 2016
• Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
• Length: 140 Pages
• Weight: 0.59 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 0.3" x 6.0"