Brenda Hodunk
| Brenda Hodunk | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Sex | F |
| Birth date | 1976 |
Brenda Hodunk is a lead character in Andromeda Chained, but appears on occasion in other books. She was raised in Camden and graduated from Ackerman High School there. She got her journalism degree from Weatherford College, although most of her classes were at Riverside Community College and her degree was through extension coursework. Her educational experience was generally unhappy and she found solace in the online computer game Dragonslayer.
In August 1997, she is hired for her first job out of college as the junior reporter at the Spearfish Lake Record-Herald, with some help from her uncle, Greg Mears. Details of her interview and introduction to some other characters were provided in the short Brenda. Initially Brenda is not that pleased to be working in such an out of the way place as Spearfish Lake, but as time goes on and she makes friends, such as Carole and Wendy Carter, she comes to like the place. She puts her job on the line over an article about a high school kid named Jason Bailey.
By the end of 1998, after she receives an award for her article on the events described in the book Andromeda Chained , she moves to Camden as a city editor for the Camden Press.
After her stint in Camden, where she was instrumental in their winning a Pulitzer, she appeared at the Nashville Tennessean as assistant City Editor; she was known there as "Brenda the Hun". When we meet her in July 2001. she is about to leave for a reporting job for CNN.BB28 In September 2001 she appears on screen reporting from the World Trade Center terrorist disaster.
By September 2002 she has finished four months overseas with WNN (World News Network). She finds herself on an airliner sitting next to Jennlynn SwiftMC34and manages to get the first interview since the airliner hijacking. This turns into a documentary The Fast World of Learjett Jenn aired on WNN Newsmagazine. When Jennlynn is unhappy about the excessively positive view of prostitution portrayed in Fast World Norma Franceour suggests she contacts Brenda to produce a follow up showing the gritty side of prostitution.HOG5 It took nearly two years for the program to be made and it was first aired in February 2005.HOG23
In 2009 she is reportedly still with WNN, this time in Iraq. She still talks with Wendy Carter "on the phone once a week or so."HP12
Fred Appleby sent Brenda to Hawthorne to get background and human interest stories for WNN Newsmagazine out of the shooting at Southern Michigan University in September 2011.SLH30
She didn't recognise Susan McMahon despite thinking she looked familiar, but was pleased when she realised she had a point of contact with her.
Susan gave her ideas for a number of feature articles and introduced her informally to Cody and Jan Archer, Alan Jahnke and Summer Trevetheck, Laura Delacroix and formally to Mark Thompson.SLH37 Though she didn't include Alan and Summer she did get a good WNN Newsmagazine program out of the interviews and provided good publicity for SMU.SLH38
