Callie Pender
Age: 40 (at the time of the series premiere)

Callie Pender was born in Seattle and went to NYU. After college, she started working at the New York Post. She watched--rather discontentedly--as, one by one, her colleagues advanced at the paper, getting their own by-lines. Determined to move ahead, she wrote an incredible story about a welfare mother that got her noticed. However, when doing a follow up story, the newspaper's fact checker could not find the woman Callie wrote about. Soon, the truth was discovered--Callie had fictionalized the story. She was fired from the paper and went back home. Tarnished by this story, she was unable to get a job anywhere else. Callie finally took a job in a bookstore, lamenting her life.

Ten years ago, her great aunt died, leaving her quite a bit of money. Callie took this money and searched for a place where she could start her own paper. Having visited Hope when she was a child, she took a trip back and quickly determined this was the place. She would write human interest stories, report on island life, and hopefully, find "that award winning" story.

Here, Callie owns the local bi-weekly newspaper and serves as its reporter/editor/photographer, sometimes even delivering the papers herself. Her enthusiasm is infectious. Her hope for redemption is strong. Report the truth, become a better writer, and come across that story that will bring her back to the limelight. She has pre-written the obits for everyone on the island. She has very little time for a social life. Like Brian, she too is very single-minded. The one love relationship she has is "online" with a man from Kansas. They have never met, but have been corresponding for years.

Since her paper, "The Lookout", is the only one in town, and there is virtually no overhead, she actually turns a profit.