Journalists tell other people’s stories, not our own, so composing a bio for this page feels very odd. (Can we talk about you, instead?) I’ve spent the last 25 years at the San Francisco Bay Area News Group’s Mercury News and East Bay Times, first as a reporter and then a senior editor. I’ve covered everything from education politics to restaurants, travel and entertainment, shaping the daily paper and weekly features sections and overseeing more than 40 magazines for print and, of course, online. But like many of us in the newspaper world, I’ve been a book lover and a history nerd from the very beginning.
Everything we know of the world — its people and discoveries, the strife that tears us apart and the love that restores us — is told through stories that transform time into the tangible. I remember sitting in history lecture halls at UC Berkeley, so enraptured by the stories of Troy or the American West, my pen sat slack in my fingers, the task of note-taking forgotten in the tales of times gone by. “Once upon a time” has always been an invitation to the magic of storytelling, and the words “tell me a story” the happiest on earth.
(John Merkl Photography)
Now, I’ve returned to my first love, writing — fiction, this time. My debut novel is a historical murder mystery set on the Oregon Trail in 1849 and starring Josie French, a reluctant, newlywed pioneer. (Reluctant on both scores.) More on that here (and more details still to come), but suffice it to say, the Oregon Trail has been a lifelong obsession of mine. The murderous aspects of it are an, ahem, newer interest.
If you’re curious about my recent (nonfiction) projects, you’ll find some of them here, here and here, as well as below. (Having trouble viewing “Bookish”? Try it here.) Want to chat words, stories or freelance ideas? Restaurants, books or Gold Rush history? Reach me here.
Member:
Oregon-California Trails Association
Jackie Burrell, Writer 