Brooke Bentley

Houston, TX

Former Communications Coordinator with the Houston Texans NFL Team, Former TV Anchor and Award-winning Sports Journalist, Writer, Author of Sideline Confidential

Booking Info

Marlena Brown

512-501-4399 x710

BOOK COVER

BOOK DETAILS

Pub Date: August 15, 2023
Genre: Commercial Fiction, Women’s Fiction
Publisher: Greenleaf Book Group Press
Page Count: 280
Format:
Paperback, eBook
ISBN: 979-8-88645-086-6 Price: $16.95

Reading Guide

Appearing in:

Mom Talk: The Pressure to Have It All

ABOUT THE BOOK

From former sports anchor and award-winning sports journalist Brooke Bentley comes Sideline Confidential – a behind-the-scenes peek at the obstacles and double standards facing women in the male-dominated space of sports journalism.

When young sports journalist Blake Kirk lands her dream gig – working as a reporter for her hometown’s pro football team – she anticipates many of the challenges that accompany the gig – long hours in the office and on the field, many days of travel, immense pressure to succeed as a woman in sports journalism. What she doesn’t expect are the double standards and old-school entitlement that trip her up at every turn. From day one, Blake faces off with her boss who does everything in his power to make her job difficult—from forcing her to ride a separate bus to the games; to blocking her from interviewing players in the locker room; to pushing her to “network” with colleagues at a strip club. As suggestive notes appear on her desk and a consensual celebrity hookup is weaponized against her, Blake’s dream devolves into a nightmare, and she is forced to choose between her dignity and her career.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Brooke Bentley is a former television anchor and award-winning sports reporter. After graduating with a master’s in journalism from the University of Southern California, she spent two years working for the Houston Texans as a media personality and over a decade working in sports journalism. Brooke now devotes her time to championing local nonprofits, including Homemade Hope, where she served as the development director. She and her husband live in Houston and are raising two young boys. 

Sideline Confidential is Brooke’s debut novel, where she shares her firsthand knowledge of the challenges women professionals face in the male-dominated world of professional sports.

TIMELY TIE-INS

Current Events
**Attorney General Letitia James (D-NY) and Attorney General Rob Bonta (D-CA) have launched a joint investigation into the NFL, probing allegations of gender pay disparity, harassment, and discrimination.

June

  • Audacity to Hope Day - 4


July

  • World Sports Journalists Day - 2
  • National Football Day - 19 


August

  • NFL Preseason begins
  • Book Lovers Day - 9
  • Women’s Equality Day - 26 


September

  • NFL regular season begins 
  • Read a New Book Month
  • National Live Fearless Day - 2
  • National Read a Book Day - 6
  • Buy a Book Day - 7
  • National Woman Road Warrior Day - 19


October

  • National Book Month


November

  • National Author’s Day - 1
  • I Love to Write Day - 15
  • Choose Women Wednesday - 29

SAMPLE INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

  • It’s obvious from the start that gender plays an important role in this book. What inspired you to write such a pointed story? Why now?
  • How has your own experience with gender and discrimination informed the contents of Sideline Confidential? Was it painful to relive these experiences?
  • You’re a seasoned sports journalist, so your connection to Blake’s character is clear. What other aspects of her character do you identify with?
  • Who was your support system in your time as a media personality? Did you have someone like Sheridan to look up to as a mentor? Or people like Hal and Emily who had your back?
  • How do you think it would have affected Blake to not have that support system?
  • Blake makes it her goal to empower other women in professional sports using the platform she’s been given. How does this relate to your personal mission?
  • What would you like readers to know about you? 
  • Besides you and your uncle, Grammy-nominated country music artist Dierks Bentley, is there anyone else in your family involved in the creative arts? 
  • Is there anything you didn’t get to say in Sideline Confidential that you wish you could say now?

BOOK DETAILS

Pub Date: May 17, 2022
Genre: Memoir / Christian Inspirational
Publisher: She Writes Press
Page Count: 304
Format: 
Paperback
ISBN: 978-1647429003
Price: $15.99

ABOUT THE BOOK

ABOUT THE BOOK

In the age of social media, what does it mean to connect through a hand-written letter?

 

True Story: When Amy Daughters reconnected with her former friend from camp decades ago, Dana, via Facebook, she had no idea how it would change her life. Through social media, Amy learned Dana’s son Parker was at St. Jude battling cancer–devastating news, but what else do you do besides comment an “I’m so sorry,” nowadays? 

 

But more than a comment happened, Amy woke up in the middle of the night and felt called in a way she couldn’t fully explain to write handwritten letters to Dana–someone who through time and distance, had become nothing more than several hundred other faces on her Facebook account. 

 

When Parker died, Amy, not knowing what else to do, continued to write Dana. Eventually, Dana wrote back, and the two became pen pals, sharing things through the mail that they had never shared before. The richness of the experience left Amy wondering something: If my life could be so changed by someone I considered “just a Facebook friend,” what would happen if I wrote all my Facebook friends a letter?

 

A staggering 580 handwritten letters later Amy’s life would never be the same. As it turned out, there were actual individuals living very real lives behind each social media profile, and she was beautifully connected to each of those extraordinary, very real people.

AUTHOR

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

A native Houstonian and a graduate of The Texas Tech University, Amy W. Daughters has been a freelance writer for more than a decade — mostly covering college football and sometimes talking about her feelings. Her debut novel, You Cannot Mess This Up: A True Story That Never Happened (She Writes Press, 2019), was selected as the Silver Winner for Humor in the 2019 Foreword INDIES and the Overall Winner for Humor/Comedy in the 2020 Next Generation Indie Awards. An amateur historian, hack golfer, charlatan fashion model, and regular on the ribbon dancing circuit, Amy — a proud former resident of Blackwell, England, and Dayton, Ohio currently lives in Tomball, Texas, a suburb of Houston. She is married to a foxy computer person, Willie, and is the lucky mother of two amazing sons, Will and Matthew.

TALKING POINTS

TALKING POINTS

  • Lost Art of Letter Writing – The deliberateness of a letter, honest, believable and genuine, more than Social Media could ever be. Bringing back the beautiful connection of a hand-written letter. 
  • How can we teach our younger generation to value a pen & stationery? 
  • The stages of grief and how to remain a constant and connected friend experiencing the grieving process.
  • The power of prayer and finding purpose.
  • The evolution of friendships and connections due to social media.
  • Work from home and the disconnect it creates–how letter writing can bring back more meaningful relationships.
  • Women in Sports – Amy is a decades long sportswriter–a position with its own trials and tribulations as a woman in a male-dominated field. 

TIMELY TIE-INS

TIMELY TIE-INS

December

  • Read a New Book Month
  • National Letter Writing Day – December 7
  • National Christmas Card Day – December 9

January

  • Self-Love Month
  • Universal Letter Writing Week – Jan 8-14
  • Hunt for Happiness Week – Jan 15-21

February

  • International Boost Self Esteem Month – February

April

  • Month of Hope; Day of Hope –  April 5
  • World Health Day – April 7
  • Tell a Story –  April 27
  • Trauma Awareness Month – May

PRAISE

PRAISE FOR DEAR DANA

“Dear Dana is an inspirational memoir about caring for friends near and far by reviving a lost art.” — Foreword Reviews

 

“. . . a captivating study regarding writing letters to friends and rethinking how people successfully bond in the modern world. An intriguing and inspiring exploration of different forms of communication.”— Kirkus Reviews

 

“This is a book for anyone who wonders about the differences between a Facebook friend and a Real-Life friend and who yearns to see a person’s real life behind their Facebook image. It is also about the power of prayer and the abundance of kindness in our world. But ultimately, it’s about connection and how we are all connected when we come from love.”    — Rivvy Neshama, author of Recipes for a Sacred Life: True Stories and a Few Miracles

 

“Captivating . . . I laughed and I cried as I followed the pleasures of real mail, and the lesson hit home: Whether written or spoken, our words matter. They have the power to illuminate someone’s darkest day.” — Laurie Buchanan, PhD, author of Note to Self: A Seven-Step Path to Gratitude and Growth and The Business of Being: Soul Purpose In and Out of the Workplace