Experience

My Words

A national award-winning journalist, investigative reporter, feature writer, communications specialist and editor -- that's me, according to my bio. I've also earned my chops as a public relations professional and non-profit executive.

I've worked in mass media, now reconfigured as new media, most of my career but have recently transitioned into state government positions as a communications specialist, ombudsman and public liaison -- first as assistant secretary of state and now with the state's child protection services.

Regardless of my job title, writing remains my passion and will continue to pull me out of bed most mornings -- and keep me up late at night. Media varies from newsprint to websites to annual reports. The message remains. It is what matters. To tell the story well.

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Got Ink?

Have you ever held onto a dream so long or kept a secret hidden away so safely that you begin to believe it will never see the light of day, never transform into reality?

I have. For decades now, I've dreamed of writing and publishing a book. Or, rather, books. Of telling stories I want the world to read. Of finally becoming the person I know I was created to be and penning the words I have longed to type into truth. But I've only dreamed.

Now, thanks to a good man who loves me, a publisher who encourages me and an amazing writer who believes in me, I'm doing it. I am writing. I am becoming an author, whatever in the world I may discover that label to mean.

My projects-in-the-works include a narrative non-fiction thriller, a memoir and a few more tomes of truth-saying.

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"Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me."  ​NOT!

I realize more every day that I grow grow older, if not wiser, how much our words have the ultimate power and sway over our lives, our direction and our influence and impact on those with whom we do this journey we call life.

I have also come to discover we each have our own amazing stories to tell, be they tremendous, tragic, traumatic or terrifically hilarious. We also have a voice. Soft or strong. Loving or hateful. But, always, each as unique as the wrinkles on our big toe.

Learning to use my voice to tell my story, I'm putting words to paper. I'm baring my soul and telling my secrets. Listen if you like. Read if you will. They are yours for the taking.

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"You can't go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending."

​                      C.S. Lewis

Telling the tales that need to be told. 

I am a recovering journalist who began reporting before there were desktop computers and Twitter feeds. I edited stories by literally cutting and pasting typewritten paragraphs back together again using Scotch tape and scissors. I love freshly sharpened #2 yellow pencils and cherish my grandmother's Underwood manual typewriter but can't function without my smartphone or Google. I've interviewed five presidents, testified before Congress and been detained by the Secret Service for three hours in a locked closet. I've seen some of the worst that humankind has wrought and yet been rekindled by the kindest and wisest of souls. 

My passion is the underdog and I tend to draw blood over injustice. In my three score and some years, I've written a skyscraper of newsprint pages and magazine glossies but there remain more stories filling up my head and heart that I must tell. Some days it seems I cannot do them justice but still I must still try. They are my stories to tell. My truths to seek and to share. My wrongs to help right.

                           Stone turner.

                           Truth teller.

                           Writer. Reporter. 

                           Author. 

             Lea Anne Brandon