Andi PetriniContact Reporter
Privacy PolicyCheryl L. Reed was waiting through flight delays to get her next event this week. The professor and author had several panels and a reading to participate in over the weekend at the Left Coast Crime conference in Reno, Nev.
During the delays, she took time to speak with the Daily Press.
The former Daily Press and Chicago Sun-Times reporter and editor released her first novel, “Poison Girls,” from Diversion Books in September. The crime fiction features a reporter investigating heroin deaths in Chicago. While “Poison Girls” is fictional, the tale is based on Reed’s experiences covering crime and investigations while working in newsrooms in Dayton, Ohio and Chicago.
“I didn’t know what I was writing when I was writing it,” Reed said of “Poison Girls.
Originally, it was set out to be a work of nonfiction, but as the writing spanned years, beginning in 2005, Reed said she realized she didn’t have enough source material, though she did a lot of reporting for the book. She pulled from first-hand experience covering young girls secretly doing crack cocaine in Dayton in the 1990s and had a modern spin while covering suburban kids dying of drugs and stories on the South Side. She wrote a detailed article for Columbia Journalism Review that outlined her experience and how she spun it into fiction.
Reed said in reporting, she spent “a lot of time on the streets, hanging out with people who are addicts, who are activists for addicts.”
Then she “had to really fill in the gaps with my imagination,” Reed said.
Reed said it was challenging to find a publisher, as books about teenage girls doing drugs hadn’t really been written before. “Poison Girls” was published by Diversion Books, based in New York City.
The current professor at the Newhouse School at Syracuse University is a Fulbright Scholar. Her research took her to Ukraine for 10 months last year, working with the country’s investigative journalists.
She said she will return to Ukraine this summer and travel to several countries to work on her tenure project on journalists in former Soviet countries and the retaliation investigative journalists often face there in covering governments and corruption.
Reed started as a reporter in Florida after graduating from Missouri with a journalism degree. She moved to Newport News in 1991 so she would have the opportunity to cover crime. She said she “felt like Newport News was a really good news town.” Reed left after about a year for the job in Dayton where she was an investigative reporter and editor.
“I’ve sort of made a career out of subcultures,” Reed said.
Her first book was based on long-term research while working on a graduate degree at Ohio State. She worked on a project on secretly married priests, which morphed into writing about nuns and spending time with them, including living with them. “Unveiled: The Hidden Lives of Nuns” published in 2005.
Reed says her next book — which she is fitting in writing between teaching and other projects — will be a follow up to “Poison Girls” featuring the same main character, reporter Natalie Delaney. The story focuses on Delaney having to become someone else, which, as Reed says, “is hard to do in a digital age.” Reed says she likes revising her work — “I tend to be somewhat of a perfectionist … love revising” — but hopes to get “Map of My Escape” on shelves soon.
She often is asked to write blurbs for books and reads frequently. Reed also participates in panels and conferences, including Left Coast Crime recently in Reno, which included pitching book ideas to would-be readers for feedback.
“Poison Girls” is available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble.
Petrini can be reached by phone at 757-247-4643. Follow her on Twitter at @andipetrini.
Privacy PolicyCheryl L. Reed was waiting through flight delays to get her next event this week. The professor and author had several panels and a reading to participate in over the weekend at the Left Coast Crime conference in Reno, Nev.
During the delays, she took time to speak with the Daily Press.
The former Daily Press and Chicago Sun-Times reporter and editor released her first novel, “Poison Girls,” from Diversion Books in September. The crime fiction features a reporter investigating heroin deaths in Chicago. While “Poison Girls” is fictional, the tale is based on Reed’s experiences covering crime and investigations while working in newsrooms in Dayton, Ohio and Chicago.
“I didn’t know what I was writing when I was writing it,” Reed said of “Poison Girls.
Originally, it was set out to be a work of nonfiction, but as the writing spanned years, beginning in 2005, Reed said she realized she didn’t have enough source material, though she did a lot of reporting for the book. She pulled from first-hand experience covering young girls secretly doing crack cocaine in Dayton in the 1990s and had a modern spin while covering suburban kids dying of drugs and stories on the South Side. She wrote a detailed article for Columbia Journalism Review that outlined her experience and how she spun it into fiction.
Reed said in reporting, she spent “a lot of time on the streets, hanging out with people who are addicts, who are activists for addicts.”
Then she “had to really fill in the gaps with my imagination,” Reed said.
Reed said it was challenging to find a publisher, as books about teenage girls doing drugs hadn’t really been written before. “Poison Girls” was published by Diversion Books, based in New York City.
The current professor at the Newhouse School at Syracuse University is a Fulbright Scholar. Her research took her to Ukraine for 10 months last year, working with the country’s investigative journalists.
She said she will return to Ukraine this summer and travel to several countries to work on her tenure project on journalists in former Soviet countries and the retaliation investigative journalists often face there in covering governments and corruption.
Reed started as a reporter in Florida after graduating from Missouri with a journalism degree. She moved to Newport News in 1991 so she would have the opportunity to cover crime. She said she “felt like Newport News was a really good news town.” Reed left after about a year for the job in Dayton where she was an investigative reporter and editor.
“I’ve sort of made a career out of subcultures,” Reed said.
Her first book was based on long-term research while working on a graduate degree at Ohio State. She worked on a project on secretly married priests, which morphed into writing about nuns and spending time with them, including living with them. “Unveiled: The Hidden Lives of Nuns” published in 2005.
Reed says her next book — which she is fitting in writing between teaching and other projects — will be a follow up to “Poison Girls” featuring the same main character, reporter Natalie Delaney. The story focuses on Delaney having to become someone else, which, as Reed says, “is hard to do in a digital age.” Reed says she likes revising her work — “I tend to be somewhat of a perfectionist … love revising” — but hopes to get “Map of My Escape” on shelves soon.
She often is asked to write blurbs for books and reads frequently. Reed also participates in panels and conferences, including Left Coast Crime recently in Reno, which included pitching book ideas to would-be readers for feedback.
“Poison Girls” is available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble.
Petrini can be reached by phone at 757-247-4643. Follow her on Twitter at @andipetrini.
