Ralph Ellis, a journalist and former resident of Peachtree City, will be holding an event at the Peachtree City Library on August 12^th at 1 PM to talk about and celebrate his upcoming novel, The Accident Report.  The Accident Report is a somewhat-satirical novel about Ronald Truluck, a long-haired, anti-establishment 1970s crime reporter looking for a big story to cover in a post-Watergate era.  

Ralph Ellis states that “The protagonist, Ronald Truluck, is a little bit like I was in my early 20s. He drives the same kind of car, has long hair, and lives in a dumpy apartment.”  Ellis’s own journalism career began in the 1960s when he joined his high school’s underground student newspaper designed to protest the school’s dress code- specifically the banning of long hair for boys.  

Ellis went on to graduate from The University of North Carolina with a journalism degree, and pursued a career in journalism, working for various newspapers in various cities throughout the Southeast.  “A few of the characters are inspired by people I worked with on those papers, but the large majority of characters and events are entirely fictional.  Ronald does make one mistake that I actually made. He misinterpreted an officer’s shorthand on a traffic ticket and reported a man was charged with simple possession of marijuana when he was actually cited for improper passing.”  When asked why he chose this particular era for the book, Ralph Ellis told The Citizen that not only is this the same era he began writing in, but that the post-Watergate era was an especially exciting time to be a journalist.  “Watergate changed journalism. Reporters became more aggressive and even more suspicious than before.” 

Ronald’s opportunity for a groundbreaking report comes in the form of a suspicious accident in a nearby neighborhood, which appears to have involved a corrupt but influential local politician with police connections and a reputation to protect.  Therefore, Ronald finds it very difficult to procure the necessary police information: which he is dead set on obtaining in hopes of proving himself as a serious journalist.  The novel also follows his tumultuous relationship with a college graduate named Monica.

Ellis says of his book, “Almost every journalist thinks they have a novel inside them. I’ve written two other complete, unpublished manuscripts. As my journalism career wound down (I’m 73 years old), I looked back on my early years more and more. I realized the convergence of my first days as a reporter with the Watergate years created a lot of possibilities for comedy. I intended ‘The Accident Report’ to be a coming-of-age story combined with a satire of journalism in a small-town setting. I hope I got it right.”