Fourth and Goal at Amazon

Fourth and Goal is now available at Amazon for Kindle. You can buy it here:

http://www.amazon.com/Fourth-and-Goal-ebook/dp/B0058OISKC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&s=digital-text&qid=1309397788&sr=1-1

My Thanksgiving Present: Fourth and Goal has a Home

I am VERY happy to announce that I've contracted with Loose Id to publish my football hero romance, Fourth and Goal, the first book in my Seattle Lumberjacks Football Series. Finally, a new Jami book will be out next spring or early summer (tentatively).

While I don't personally believe in "books of my heart" (as every book should be the book of an author's heart if she's putting her soul into the book), but this book comes close to being that book. Fourth and Goal has been floating around in my head for close to fifteen, maybe twenty years. I've written and discarded pieces of it over the years, put it on a back burner when I found out NY pubs believe sports hero romances don't sell, and a few years ago decided to drag it out. To heck with what does or doesn't sell. After all, I also write equestrian romances, and those don't "sell" either.

I love football, and I know other women love football, too. According to statistics, an estimated 45 percent of NFL fans are female. So do NY publishers think these women don't read? And don't read romance novels? I beg to differ.

The few football hero romances currently published annoy me because the heroines usually hate football and/or know nothing about it. I wanted to write a romance novel series for women who love football, have a decent knowledge of the game, and want to read about a heroine who knows her football.

Rachel, my heroine, grew up in a football-crazed family with a coach dad and football player brothers. She has an uncanny eye for evaluating football talent and diagnosing a player's strengths and weaknesses. She aspires to be a pro football scout.

The book follows Derek, an almost washed-up football player, through his and his team's journey from basement dwellers to Super Bowl contenders.

I'm hoping there's a market for a book like mine. Time will tell, but I'm putting my faith in all those female NFL fans.

Football 101 at Seahawks Headquarters (aka VMAC)

Click here to see where I spent last Saturday. Great fun and great book research!!!!

Update

I've had a semi-productive summer. While I didn't finish many books, I started several.  ;)  I'm finally back in my zone and able to write like I used to be able to write. In other words, truly get into the characters' heads and become my characters.

I've started a new series, Seattle Lumberjacks Football Series. I've been shopping Fourth and Goal around since March. After two tough rejections and some excellent, detailed feedback from an editor, I gutted the plot and started over. I'm within three chapters of finishing my second set of edits. After that, F&G will be back out on the street again, looking for a good home. The Lumberjack series has been in my head for close to fifteen years. As a big football fan, I truly believe there can be a market for football romances. According to statistics, forty to forty-five percent of NFL football fans are women. So some of those women should be interested in romance with a football hero, don't you think?

My book will be different from most sports romances in that one of the subplots involves the team's journey to the championship. Most romances gloss over the sports part of the hero's life. Not me, I LOVE football, and I want the game to be an integral part of my book.

I am so excited to see F&G published, but it's importnat for me to find the right home for it, a task I won't take lightly.

I'm halfway through Book 2 of the series, involving an animal communcator heroine, a bad-boy quarterback, and a spoiled orange tabby cat.

A Warm Weekend

The Northwest has been cursed with some awful weather this spring and summer. Finally, we're getting a little taste of summer this weekend. As I write this, it's 8 pm and about 76 degrees outside. Lovely. It doesn't get better than this.


Our house is surrounded by trees so we're in the shade right now, but it's still warm and calm. I'm thinking it's the perfect time to sit in the hot tub with a glass of wine and enjoy the evening just watching nature do its thing.

Sunday we're going boating around Puget Sound on my ex-husband's boat. Did I say ex-husband? Yes, I did. After the inital two years of hating each other (which I think is expected when a relationship breaks apart), I forgave him and he forgave me, and we moved on. My hubbie introduced him to his new wife, as she was a friend of ours. We've all become great friends over the past few years. While most people consider it weird, they also admit that's how it should be after a divorce. Instead, many divorced couples can't seem to get beyond the hatred, their zeal for vengance against perceived wrongs, and their quest to make friends and family pick sides to further destroy the hated ex.

In fact, as I'm wandering all over the place, my next book Forward Passes deals with the results of a contentious divorce and how it negatively and tragically affects the children, even long after they've grown into adults. It's a sad situation, and mental health therapists will be the first to tell you that there's no cure for a parent who turns their hatred of their ex into an obsessive passion. You see it happen over and over. I'm sure every one of you has a story to tell from your own experiences or a friend/relative's experiences.

I'm currently shopping Fourth and Goal, book one in my Seattle Lumberjacks Football series, around to larger publishers. Forward Passes is book 2 in the series. I'm about a third of the way done.

I'm looking forward to seeing both books in print.