BRUSH PRAIRIE, WA — Former Aliso Viejo resident and one-time journalist S.W. Capps has just released his latest novel, Train in the Distance, the story of a young TV reporter caught in a web of corruption.
This book pulls no punches, Capps, who lived in Aliso Viejo from 1992 to 1999, says. Its an accurate, painfully honest portrayal of the TV news business, one based on my own experience as a reporter.
Train in the Distance, published by Inkwater Press, is the story of a man in trouble. Under increasing threat of danger, young journalist Stacy Zwardowski confronts the sinister forces behind the TV station he works for. But while fighting to expose the truth, he uncovers something far more powerfulthe truth about himself.
Its one part coming-of-age tale, one part whodunit, Capps, who writes under the name S.W. Capps, says. And though its a work of fiction, it allows readers a rare look behind the perfect hair and glitzy sets of TV news, exposing a world of luridness, infighting and relentless stress.
Capps should know. Prior to writing Train in the Distance, he worked as a field reporter for KXII-TV Channel 12, the CBS affiliate in Ardmore, Oklahoma, where in 1989, he was nominated for an Oklahoma Broadcasters Award. Since leaving the world of television news, he has penned two novels. His first, Salmon Run, was released in 2007. His second, Train in the Distance, was released earlier this month.
The novels strength is in its protagonist, Publishers Weekly says, a lonely young man struggling to find his way in the world. Author Bill Johnson (A Story Is a Promise) adds, Capps has mastered the art of taking innocent characters and putting them into situations where they have to figure out life anew.
With Train in the Distance, a 400-page novel set in the Northwest and Midwest, Capps has garnered more than praise from reviewers and fellow authors. The book was recently named a Quarterfinalist in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Awards.
Being recognized in a national contest is a wonderful thing, Capps, 45, says. But my main goal is to entertain readers. I think Train in the Distance will not only do that, but make them thinkand look at the six oclock news in a whole new way.
Capps lived on Tanager in Aliso Viejo before moving to the Pacific Northwest to pursue a full-time writing career. He now lives with his wife and two children in Brush Prairie, Washington, where he makes himself available to book clubs that read his novels.
“Even though I’ve relocated to the Northwest,” Capps says, “I’ll always call Aliso Viejo home. I still have a lot of friends here. And I love to come back as often as possible to visit.”
One of those visits may include a book signing in the area as Capps has plans to hit the southland on his upcoming book tour. Train in the Distance is available in hardcover and paperback at select bookstores and on-line at BarnesandNoble.com and Amazon.com. For an excerpt of the book, a calendar of events or more ordering information, readers are encouraged to visit Cappss Web site at www.swcapps.com.
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S.W. CAPPS ‘TV INTERVIEW’: http://oregonstate.edu/media/zbktv
AUTHOR BIO
Prior to writing Train in the Distance, S.W. Capps worked as a TV news reporter for the CBS affiliate in Ardmore, Oklahoma, where in 1989, he was nominated for an Oklahoma Broadcasters Award.
Having never forgotten the struggles of the job, Capps weaves a tale of good and evil, of career vs. conscience, of survival of the fittest on the most elemental scale. The result is a book that bears the naked truth on every page, exposing the world of television news for what it really isan engine of sensationalism, hyperbole, and lies.
With the conviction of a company insider, Capps paints a landscape that is difficult to fathom at times, yet impossible to discount. After all, he has been there. And now reports live from the scene.
In the late 1990s, Capps left the world of glitzy sets and pompous anchors to pursue a full-time writing career. His first novel, Salmon Run (ISBN-13 978-1-59299-305-5), was released in 2007. He now lives with his wife, two children and ‘investigative’ dog in the Pacific Northwest, where he is currently working on his next novel.
SYNOPSIS
Long before starving castaways voted each other off the island, before phony millionaires wooed beautiful bimbos, before gorgeous coeds ate live cockroaches, there was Trash TV. Geraldo. A Current Affair. Morton Downey, Jr. And the local newstrying its best to keep up.
1987. Reagan was in the White House. Jim and Tammy Faye were in hot water. And all three networks aired the live rescue of Baby Jessica from a Texas well. In the midst of it all, Stacy Zwardowskifresh out of college and away from his overprotective mother for the first timearrives at Channel 8 in Avalon, Oklahoma, to interview for a reporters job. But before he can introduce himself, hes handed a camera, a microphone, and a brutal first-day assignmentan armed madman is shooting people at the local supermarket.
Welcome to television news!
In the beginning, hes seduced by the excitement and fame. But over time, Stacy discovers the cutthroat world behind the glamorous newscasts. The infighting. The luridness. The out-and-out lies. But is Channel 8 any more corrupt than its television counterparts? Its a question he and his coworkersKatie Powers, a beautiful reporter who longs to network-anchor; Larry Toole, a power-hungry news director whod do anything for an exclusive; Dick Wilhelm, a money-grubbing owner with a host of enemies; and Julius Candelle, a talented, young cameraman with dreams of joining Jacques Cousteauare forced to ask themselves.
As fires rage across Texomaland, Stacy is launched from the seen to the unseen, his gut-wrenching journey one of exposition and self-realization. Braving threats from green-eyed coworkers, crooked cops, deranged Klansmen, and an unknown assailant, Stacy searches tirelessly for the truth. The truth behind a series of arsons. The truth about the people he works with. The truth at the bottom of everything he knows about himself. But is he ready for what he finds?
