Capitol Rookie: Step Into the Story Before It’s Too Late!
With the second half beginning next week, the stakes are rising as Alex is teetering on the edge of truth. Now’s your chance to dive into the serial before the final twists unfold
Friday, February 13, 2004
Two dead after political corruption scandal unravels
A personal account of drugs, influence, and legacy
By Alex Shelby
Though bodies have been moved, the blood still covers the warehouse floor. Political corruption leads to distrust in the process and transparency, but it rarely leaves multiple murders in its wake.
My role as a journalist is to report what I research, investigate, and observe. We try not to participate. But the stain of this tragedy will be forever in my hands, and the truth can never be wiped clean. It is why journalists exist. And why we are called to hold those in power accountable to the people.
So begins my most ambitious serial yet. Set twenty years in the past, we get to understand this young, brash, and impatient reporter as he begins a new job at the Sacramento Tribune.
Capitol Rookie: An Alex Shelby story
I will release part 6 of this 11-part crime noir serial next week. Capitol Rookie follows reporter Alex Shelby on his first major story for the Sacramento Tribune. Working on an anonymous tip, Alex is drawn into a world of deception, corruption, and manipulation. How will Alex find his way through without sacrificing his integrity and himself?
Capitol Rookie is a prequel to my current project, LANDSLIDE, a novel about the redemptive qualities of gratitude. In this series, Alex is a brash 28-year-old reporter trying to prove himself. In LANDSLIDE, Alex has made it as a chief columnist for the Tribune before he loses everything. And that’s where Alex’s story really takes shape. Can you take a talented, cranky, borderline narcissist and rehabilitate him?
Alex has been living in my head for the last five years. He began as a thought during the pandemic, but eventually, I put him aside and began focusing on my baseball novel, LOSE YOURSELF. Still, Alex, being the attention seeker he is, was always hanging around, demanding that he be heard. When LOSE YOURSELF was in final production, I went to the door and unlatched the lock to let him out of his purgatory. Like Kramer in an old Seinfeld episode, Alex reentered my literary life, this time with more to say.
But, you see, Alex is an enigma. He likes to portray himself as this self-assured guy with no fear, willing to stand up to everyone and everything. Yet, he’s got layers. And even after I finished the first draft of LANDSLIDE last year, I didn’t know him. I knew the way he wanted to be portrayed to the world, but it wasn’t the way I wanted to share him.
So, this summer, I wrote this prequel serial set twenty years ago when he first came to Sacramento. He’s idealistic, looking to make his mark, and frustrated that he’s not getting the stories he wants. Was there a part of his story that helped create the grizzled curmudgeon Alex Shelby we’ll meet in the next novel?
And how could I use my newsletter to stretch myself into a new genre and style of writing? Salted Wetzel was always intended to be a sandbox for me to experiment and explore writing in new ways. I’ll be interested in your take on Alex throughout 2025. What do you think of Capitol Rookie so far? Feel free to send comments, ask questions, and suggest new plotlines. Even with Landslide slated to release in 2027-8, I think there is an opportunity for more Alex Shelby storylines.
Have you read my other serials?
Wedding Bells (4 Parts)
You're invited to participate in the wedding of Paul Buckley and Tracey Jenson from four different perspectives. More than seven years after her husband’s death, Tracey Jenson is remarrying, to local sportscaster Paul Buckley. Told in four parts, we view the festivities from the trip up to the bachelor party, the bachelor party, the last day of work before the wedding, and the wedding itself. These characters were introduced in 2021 in the novel Friends In Low Places.
The Intern (5 Parts)
Follow Javier in this five-part serial leading to the novel Lose Yourself (2024).
Javier is an intern with the (fictional reality) Oakland A’s during a historical season when All-Star Brett Austen is on the verge of a historic achievement. In this coming-of-age story, Javier navigates good-natured indoctrination, relationships, and more.
Check out my novels
Lose Yourself
2024 Best Baseball Fiction Book, The Twin Bill Baseball Literary Magazine
024 Readers’ Favorite Book Award Winner, Honorable Mention
Published 2024 by OT Press
Friends in Low Places
Published 2021 by OT Press