Chris Colston
The James Hoak series
Meet James Hoak, a quick-witted national sportswriter who forever finds himself in the middle of mayhem. He has an uncanny knack for infuriating Heisman Trophy winners, major newspaper editors, owners of pro football teams, fellow sportswriters, and even his best friends. But thanks to his out-of-the-box thinking, a code of ethics, mad journalism skills, and a love of life, he breaks the biggest stories in the country. (That is, when he's not wooing budding actresses in L.A. convertibles, maxing out his America Daily expense account, or finding himself on national television for all the wrong reasons).
With 26 years of sportswriting experience, novelist Chris Colston (right) gives his JAMES HOAK series the stamp of authenticity, taking readers behind the scenes through twentysomething sportswriter James Hoak's eyes. To shop for the books on AMAZON.COM, CLICK HERE. For individual books, click on the BOOK COVER. All books are available in both eBook and paperback.
Mr. Colston's journalism career began at a rural newspaper in Craig County, Virginia (circulation: 300). From there he spent 11 years spearheading a sports newspaper in the athletics department of his alma mater, Virginia Tech (circulation: over 3,000). He then joined USA Today Baseball Weekly, where he worked his way up from copy editor to assistant operations manager (circulation: over 300,000; so basically, he found papers with circulations that start with the number three, and then kept adding zeroes).
When the magazine became Sports Weekly, Mr. Colston jumped into the world of pro football and served as the pool reporter for two Super Bowls, where he once incurring the wrath of former Pittsburgh Steelers coach Bill Cowher for asking too many pressing questions about the status of his star receiver's shoulder. During that time he won national writing awards covering the NFL—and once stumped Hollywood's The Rock by asking him who might play New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick in a movie.
After Sports Weekly merged with USA Today, he covered the NFL for both before becoming a full-time NBA reporter for USA Today (the circulation trend continued: at the time, over three million.) In his travels, Mr. Colston banked a wealth of memories by covering big-time sports from the inside. He has weaved those experiences into a rollicking ongoing series featuring young sportswriter James Hoak.