Elise Hart Kipness started her career as a reporter by returning to Long Island, the place she called home throughout her childhood.
Now, she returns home again to Great Neck through her book Dangerous Play, which marries aspects of her career and her childhood.
“I really enjoy going back to places and things that are familiar to me,” author Hart Kipness said.
“Dangerous Play” is the second book in the series following sports reporter Kate Green as she covers the Olympics after returning from a public and embarrassing suspension.
But when she arrives at Yankee Stadium to cover the women’s soccer match, she finds a dead body in an ice bath in the locker room, and it’s someone she recognizes – a former teammate and good friend whose friendship ended poorly.
So Green commits herself to solving the murder to right the wrongs of her former friendship, despite the secrets it may expose about herself and others.
Author Hart Kipness says she writes what she knows.
Hart Kipness moved to Great Neck when she was in the third grade, moving on up from her start at Elizabeth M. Baker Elementary School to her graduation from Great Neck North High School.
The murder victim in her book is from Great Neck, specifically from Kings Point, with moments of the book illustrating the peninsula in which Hart Kipness grew up.
She is also a former broadcast news journalist, starting her career on Long Island where she reported for WLNY-TV based in Riverhead and later with News 12 and then WNBC in the city.
“You’re told you have to go across the country to find your job and I ended up back on Long Island,” Hart Kipness said.
Over her career, Hart Kipness covered a variety of stories, from murder trials like the Long Island Rail Road Massacre trial to natural disasters like the Pine Barren fires in 1995.
After years of covering crime, Hart Kipness said it took a toll on her.
“Every day in your life, something really tragic happens and that’s not reality and life, necessarily, but it’s your reality,” Hart Kipness said. “But at the same time, it’s not your tragedy, so it almost felt wrong to feel upset about it because it’s someone else’s trauma, and it just became very heavy.”
But now Hart Kipness channels the experiences and trauma from her reporting days into her writing. She said her writing helps her process those days of crime reporting.
Later in her career, Hart Kipness pivoted to sports reporting.
But sports reporting presented its own challenges as she was one of the few women in the field. While she followed in the footsteps of the women who came before her to initially break those barriers, there were still hurdles to overcome.
Hart Kipness said there were times she didn’t speak up for herself when, in retrospect, she felt like she should have.
“At the time, I felt like I was just lucky to be in the game,” Hart Kipness said.
Hart Kipness’ writing is inspired by her career, encompassing her experiences both as a crime reporter and covering sports. The content of her books marries both sides of her journalism career.
The main character of “Dangerous Play” is modeled after Hart Kipness’ and her own experiences as a reporter, but Hart Kipness said she is much tougher than she in order to right the moments she didn’t stand up for herself.
She described writing the main character as cathartic.
Hart Kipness transitioned out of her journalism career when her son was four in order to spend more time at home. After about five years, she said she missed writing the most.
But Hart Kipness was no longer seeking to write the inverted pyramid of journalism and began taking classes to become a novelist.
From the details of the environment to the MAC powder makeup of every on-air reporter, Hart Kipness brings a personal touch to her writing to share the unseen aspects of a reporter.
“One of my goals with writing this book was to take readers behind the scenes of moments in sports reporting and reporting that they wouldn’t otherwise see,” Hart Kipness said. “So what is it like to stand on the field of Yankee Stadium? What is it like to go into the tunnels or the locker rooms? How do players celebrate or act within the locker rooms? I really wanted to share that.”
Translated into “Dangerous Play” are also moments directly from Hart Kipness’ career, including some of the competitive sabotage that occurred within the newsroom.
Hart Kipness once reported the collapse of a supermarket roof due to snow piling. When she went live on the scene, the anchor asked her how much the snow weighed. Without any way to answer an almost impossible question, Hart Kipness said she fumbled on her answer and felt foolish.
In “Dangerous Play,” the anchor asks Green questions that are impossible to answer in an attempt to make her look like a fool. Instead of fumbling with an answer like Hart Kipness formerly did, she instead responded by asking herself a different question that was much more appropriate for her to answer.
Hart Kipness is already beginning her third book in the series “Close Call,” which she teased is about the U.S. Open and will also include a character from Long Island.
“Close Call” is scheduled to be released in Fall 2025.
