If I Should Die Before I Live

by Penny Fletcher

Book by

196 pages, Unknown Binding

First published July 1, 1991

About the author

An author, print journalist, and editor for almost 40 years, Penny Fletcher uses her true-life experiences to write both fiction and nonfiction centered around today's world problems and news. She enjoys writing suspense-thrillers the most. Her latest, THOSE THAT DID NOT DIE, (Pub. Dec. 2024) is the result of more than 30 years of working with victims of domestic abuse; as a journalist, and as a peer counselor who relates through a horrific experience of her own.

She's written more than 12,000 news stories, features, and editorials and earned more than 20 press awards from The Florida Press Association and Community Papers of Florida. As a reporter and Bureau Editor during several takeovers, she has experienced many of the changes she writes about in Dirty News, The Sumerian Secret, and Soft News. After leaving the newsroom, she made an in-depth study of the Supreme Court, Congressional, and FCC rulings that have led to the disinformation, commentary and biased reports passed off as news over the last 25-or-so years.

Three of her publishers have gone out of business leaving several books out of print. They include, If I Should Die Before I Wake, American Gestapo, and Where the Wild Rose Grows. When she has time, she intends to reprint these herself, as she believes self publishing is now the best way to go.

While working full-time as a journalist for Sunbelt Newspapers and simultaneously as a columnist for The Tampa Tribune, she also occasionally wrote for three national magazines: Gulf Coast Fisherman, Today’s Christian Woman, and True Story. Meanwhile, online, she freelanced as an editor for Amazon’s first publishing venture, BookSurge, where she learned to edit in British English. She still operates an editorial service on her website where she has edited more than 300 books . Until 2023, she also gave once-a-week classes in creative fiction writing at The Center 4 Lifelong Learning in the retirement community of Sun City Center, Florida. When available, she still edits authors' work online.

Currently press-credentialed by the Florida Freelance Writers/Writers & Editors Network, she can be found on Facebook, X, Instagram and LinkedIn as well as her website.