I grew up in what I, to this day, call a “cow town.” My
hometown is the home of the California
Rodeo and I grew up across the street
from a dairy. I was horse crazy which was fine because there were lots around
that area.  |
| Lex Valentine |
I loved western riding for a long time and then I discovered
Walter Farley’s books and I yearned to be a jockey. That didn’t work out too
well when it appeared at eleven that I was going to be over five feet tall.
Still, I loved horse racing and I began to follow it.
One of the other things I began to follow was football. My
oldest brother (he’s 20 years older than me) was a professional referee and a
total football addict. He watched both college and professional football. That
meant that I watched football too. I
grew up unable to avoid sports.
When I began writing, everyone around me espoused “write
what you know.” For me, that meant I could set my books in a small town world
with people who lived on ranches and were former rodeo athletes. It meant I
could write about characters who played football in college and were drafted to
NFL teams. And so I did.
My Christmas Cowboys series is set in the fictional
town of Heil, California. It’s a central California town and the main
characters all own land adjacent to each other. The very first of these short
stories is Christmas Hookup which is
free and features a cowboy turned model. In Christmas
in Hell, the hero is a former bull rider. For Christmas Catch, one hero is also a former rodeo star. Christmas Wishes features a cowgirl and
in Cupid Christmas one hero is a bull
rider and the other provides livestock to rodeos. The town is loosely based on my hometown and
the characters all find their HEAs on Christmas Eve. Some of the stories are
M/F and others are M/M.
When I decided to write about football my ideas sprung from
the controversy over where to build a stadium in Southern California. One
proposal for a complex in the City of Industry really took my fancy and thus,
the Los Angeles Stars were born in my head. The first of my Out in the NFL
books about men who come out while playing or working in the NFL is Scrambling. It’s the story of two best
friends who go from the Peewee field to college champions to a new NFL
expansion team, the Los Angeles Stars. The two heroes are in love with each
other but afraid to say so. What they aren’t afraid to do is come out. With the
help of a savvy PR woman, the two men become the first two openly gay players
in the NFL.
It’s an angsty book. It’s a tough road for the players. But
it’s a story I wanted to tell. I’m working on the sequel now which features a
secondary character from Scrambling. Writing
about gay athletes is really different than writing about straight ones. Not
many professional sports have out athletes.
With these kinds of books under my belt, joining Romancing
the Jock was like a Cinderella slipper fit. Just right. I’ll be visiting my
horse racing obsession this spring on the blog as I take a look at the Kentucky
Derby and thoroughbred horse racing. I’ve played a very realistic horse racing
sim for over ten years so I’ll be talking about DerbyFever.com too. I hope you
sports fans will come by and check it out!
Lex Valentine
Website: http://lexvalentine.comBlog: http://sunlightsucks.com
Romancing the Jock Posts:
http://romancingthejock.com/2013/02/personal-foul/http://romancingthejock.com/2013/01/fear-and-denial-in-professional-sports/
Scrambling Trailer: http://youtu.be/DKf9I3q7Ei8
Cupid Christmas Trailer: http://youtu.be/r-J9SHWnwtQ
2 comments:
Lex, You must be in your element with the Derby coverage starting in a couple of days! Glad you found Romancing The Jock --- it's great when the slipper fits!
Hi Lex,
I love that you write about sports and characters you are passionate about! I never knew there was a Derby Sim Game, but it makes sense that there is! I'll check it out.
Romancing the Jock has introduced me to so many wonderful sports Romance writers!
Thank you for contributing to Romancing the Genres!
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