Stu Bykofsky

Press Card Stu Bykofsky

A street-smart news reporter battles with editors, and others, in the days before big-time newspapers lost their mojo and became ink-stained dinosaurs

Did you ever have a bad boss? Sure, you have.

Did you ever do anything about him (or her)?

Probably not. Claude Shelby does.

He's a straight-talking, wisecracking, street-savvy reporter who doesn't like his bosses -- and they don't like him.

That conflict provides the framework for Press Card, which is funny, sad, poetic, obscene, sexy, and knowing.

Following his demotion for cutting corners to get a political story, Shelby struggles with his bosses, and with what his job sometimes requires him to do.

When he's at his lowest point and floating aimlessly, he stumbles into clues that could lead him to the biggest story of his life -- finding fugitive Black revolutionary Sister Sojourner.

He chases the leads he digs out all the way to St. Lucia in the Caribbean, where he receives help from an unexpected source in a skintight dress.

In this picaresque novel, Claude Shelby interacts with memorable characters: a rags-to-riches millionaire, a close friend who regrets quitting journalism for the big bucks of P. R., the Philadelphia artist who designs neon tube clothing accessories that double as dildos, and a predatory female reporter.

Press Card takes readers inside the Fourth Estate and reveals how some newspapers make decisions. It unmasks power plays between union and management, and reporters' tricks.

It is fiction based on fact.

Press Card crackles like a police radio and rolls as fast as the presses that print the fictional Philadelphia Free Press.