National Press Club member’s new thriller mirrors Washington events

Rick Pullen, a National Press Club member since 1988, has released the first part of his serial political thriller that follows the endeavors of a young reporter, Tish Woodward, as she struggles to explore the maze of Washington’s corridors of power in pursuit of her story.

In The Apprentice, Woodward is a novice reporter at the famed Washington Post-Examiner newspaper who is unwittingly thrust into investigating the new president-elect, a billionaire businessman. As she pursues her story, questions arise about the president-elect’s mental fitness, his ties to the Russian mafia and his apparent efforts at money laundering through secret real-estate deals.

The Apprentice is part one of a serial Pullen is writing similar to Netflix’s “House of Cards” television series. The book is only about 52,000 words. A typical thriller runs about 90,000 words.

In the summer of 2017 with a half-written manuscript in hand,Pullen approached Kindle Press about his serial idea because, “They’re the only publisher I’m aware of that could turn a manuscript around quickly enough for a serial.”

“I originally wanted to write about 20,000 words and to turn out something every few months,” Pullen said. “But Kindle Press insisted it had to be a minimum of 40,000 words. When I got into the manuscript, well, it just sort of took off.”

Pullen is currently writing Part Two.

The Apprentice serial is Pullen’s second novel. His first, Naked Ambition, was published in 2016. A sequel to that, Naked Truth, is scheduled for publication this spring.

For more information about the book or Pullen contact him at [email protected]. For a review copy of The Apprentice, contact Meryl Moss at [email protected].