ROANOKE, Va. – Dan Smith has had a long and distinguished career as a journalist. And he draws on that experience in his second novel ‘NEWS!’.
With a group of friends and supporters lining up for his signature and a song that musician Sherry Payne wrote for the occasion, Smith celebrated the release during a launch party at Hollins University.
“This book has wanted to be written,” Smith told WDBJ7 in an interview. “You’ve heard writers tell you they didn’t write the book. You know I didn’t write the book. I lived a lot of it, but I didn’t write it.”
Smith has plenty of experience at a keyboard, as a former editor of the Blue Ridge Business Journal, co-founder of Valley Business Front and as a member of the Virginia Communications Hall of Fame.
It’s the early days of his newspaper career in Asheville, North Carolina that inform the opening pages of his book.
‘NEWS!’ begins with the aftermath of a plane crash.
“The protagonist in it is the guy I wanted to be, would love to have been this guy,” Smith said. “But so much of the experience is stuff that I saw and participated in.”
The book is a page-turner. And Smith said he is paying tribute to old-school journalism.
“I hope that people buy the book, read the book and understand that this is a noble profession,” Smith said. “It’s one I’m damn proud of, always have been and will be when I die.”
‘NEWS!’ is available now from Propertius Press, and Smith has a book signing Saturday morning at 11 at Book No Further in downtown Roanoke.
