One just published, one coming soon…

“REPORTER” by Bob Jones is now available at Amazon.com and also will soon be an international e-book, according to its author.

It’s a memoir, something of a tell-all, and a studied look at the good and bad in American journalism. It’s my story of my time at various newspapers, local print and TV news and network foreign reporting.

It’s sprinkled from start to finish with insider stories about the Honolulu Advertiser, the Star-Bulletin and KGMB-TV, plus a lot about the St. Petersburg Times, the Overseas Weekly, the Louisville Courier-Journal and NBC News.

I’ve used real names. People many of you know or have read about. I rejected using pseudonyms. So the guilty and the innocent get equal billing!

People inside and outside of journalism and public relations will get an eyeful. Also the military, especially the 25th Infantry Division and the Kaneohe Marines. I’ve let it all hang out about the Vietnam War.

I have more than 50 years in journalism in the U.S., Vietnam, Laos, Germany, Spain, Nigeria, France, China, Japan, Korea and Saudi Arabia. I’m still in the game as a columnist for MidWeek, a 298,000 circulation newspaper in Hawaii.

I hope you will take the time to read it. What I have to say is germane to our democracy. You’ll understand much more about what you read in your newspapers or see on your local or network TV newscasts.

And, coming soon:

Aloha, Lady Blue: A Mystery by former reporter and award-winning columnist, Charley Memminger, is due out early in 2013, and is available now for pre-orders at Amazon.com.

Here’s what Charley had to say about it:

I’m stoked to announce that one of the best known TV personalities in the … ah … well … world – Pat Sajak – has written a cover blurb for my novel “Aloha, Lady Blue.” It’s an honor to have such a entertainment icon on the “Aloha, Lady Blue” team. Needless to say, my handlers at St. Martins Press are crazy happy about this. My great thanks to Hawaii KHON-TV News Anchor Joe Moore for introducing me to Mr. Sajak. Joe and Pat served together in Vietnam. When Joe’s not busy being Hawaii’s best known news anchor and Pat isn’t spinning the “Wheel of Fortune,” the pair dabble in acting. They recently appeared together as “The Odd Couple” in a run at the Connecticut Repertory Theatre.

We’ve been lucky enough to get blurbs of support from some incredible people, including Kinky Friedman (who has a new book out now with Billy Bob Thornton), Andre and Maria Jacquemetton, executive producers and head writers of the Emmy-winning TV show “Mad Men,” Frank South, producer and head writer of “Baywatch Hawaii,” noted futurist and author David Houle, and others. As a little (metaphysically speaking, not physically) unknown writer way out here in Hawaii, it’s humbling to get this kind of support. (We have blurb commitments from some other amazing nationally-known authors and hope to be able to announce them soon.)