First, I want to thank the ladies at Romancing the Genres for
hosting Romancing the Jock authors this month.
Do you love sports and romance?
I'm a sports fan--a BIG
sports fan--especially football. I haven't missed a Seahawks game since their
inception in the 70s (unless they were blacked out on TV). I watch sports as
much as my sports-addict husband does. I've been writing football-themed
romances since I was a teenager. I love athletes as heroes and judging by the
growing popularity of sports romance obviously I'm not alone.
Romancing the Jock is the creation of Cassandra Carr and me
(Jami Davenport). For a year, we batted around the idea of a blog written by
sports romance authors for romance readers who are also sports fans. This niche
wasn't filled by any other blog so we saw an opportunity to interact with our
readers about the sports we love.
Female fans of professional sports are growing in large
numbers, and why shouldn't those fans be romance readers? To us, the
combination of a hot, alpha jock tamed (or partially tamed) by a strong-willed
woman is a win-win.
We sent invitations to over thirty authors with published
sports romances. Some authors declined because while they wrote sports romances,
they weren't sports fans. Many were very excited about the opportunity to write
about their love of sports.
We launched RTJ on January 1st of this year and have been
pleased with the response we've gotten. Our authors are passionate about sports
and represent a variety of genres from sweet to erotic to gay romance. We are
fans of football, basketball, hockey, NASCAR, golf, soccer, rugby, and tennis
to name a few. Our blog posts cover tailgate recipes, hot athletes, fan
moments, and sports information, to name a few things.
Any author who is a sports fan is invited to do a
sports-related guest post.
Our contributing authors (and one editor) are:
Angela James Cassandra Carr Chanta Rand
Deirdre Martin Destiny Blaine Elley Arden
Emily Cale Emma Lai Jaci Burton
Jami Davenport Kelly Jamieson Koko Brown
Lex Valentine Liz Matis Luann McLane
Lynn Shurr Pat White Patricia Sargeant
Roz Lee Toni Aleo
Contact info for Romancing the Jock:
Website: http://www.romancingthejock.com
Twitter: @romancingjock
Jami Davenport: A little about me:
Jami Davenport: A little about me:
 |
| JAMI DAVENPORT |
I'm a charter Seahawks and Mariners fan. I
was a long-time Sonics fan, too. I'm slowly learning about hockey and hoping
that Seattle gets an NHL team in the next few years. I write a popular sports
romance series featuring a fictional pro football team, the Seattle Lumberjacks.
The third book in the series, Down by Contact, was released by Boroughs
Publishing Group in March. An additional two books in the series are planned
for this year, Backfield in Motion and Roughing the Passer, with more in the
works, including a hockey spin-off.
Website: http://www.jamidavenport.com
Twitter: @JamiDavenport
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/jamidavenport
12 comments:
Jami, thank you for stopping by. When I learned about RTJ, my reaction was, "It's about time!"
Susan Elizabeth Phillips' football romances inspired me to learn the basics of the game and become an Iowa Hawkeye Fan.Can't wait to read more of yours!
I agree that the advancements of women's sports have greatly expanded the potential audience for Sports-related romances.
It's hard to believe that years ago Romance writers were told that jock heroes wouldn't sell!
I have no doubt Romancing the Jock will find a huge readership. They've been waiting for you for a long time.
Welcome, Jami! The world has certainly changed in my lifetime. My granddaughter, who plays high school softball, is astounded that when I was in high school there were No Women/Girls Sports in school.
Wishing you much success with RTJ and your writing.
And baseball!!! Don't forget the best sport of all! :-)
Hi, Jami! Thanks so much for inviting me to be a part of Romancing the Jock. It's about time readers have a place to go to find books and authors who share their passion for sports and romance. Love being part of the group and reading everyone's posts.
I'm just so excited that these books are getting published! When I first started writing I was told NO SPORTS HEROES. Now I have my pick of sports heroes -- whoo-hoo!
Hey everybody! I'm so glad Jami kept on me about this and we were able to get it off the ground. I've had a lot of fun with the blog and I look forward to learning more about the sports I'm less familiar with. I invite everybody to come and check out Romancing the Jock. I posted this past Tuesday about how fans become attached to athletes. The next day my favorite Buffalo Sabre was traded.
I'm having a blast contributing to the Romancing the Jock blog and I appreciate the interest and response we're getting from readers. It's a win-win. :)
Patricia Sargeant / Regina Hart
I have to agree with Roz--don't forget baseball! :) I'm thrilled to be a part of this wonderful group of women who love sports and athletes. And thank you to Romancing the Genres for hosting us!
~Elley
This is such a fun group to belong to! I love romance and sports... so reading a romance novel with an athlete as the hero has always been a fun premise for me. I love college basketball (not so much this year since my UK Wildcats had a tough year), Cincinnati Reds baseball, and Bengals football.
Jami,
Romancing the Jock was a brilliant idea! As a fan of most sports, I learn something new all the time from the contributing authors of Romancing the Jock. ;)
Destiny
Jami, kudos to you and Cassandra for starting the RTJ blog. I am so honored to be a part of it. I thought I was the only female–besides the crazy ones in my family–who enjoyed sports so much. Seriously, I had a life-size poster of Michael Jordan in my bedroom back in 1985.
Since I’ve been participating in this blog, I've found that there are fanatical female sports fans just like me! The cherry on top is the romance. What woman wouldn't love that combination?
The ban on sports heroes wasn't all that long ago. I wrote Goals for a Sinner in 2004 and received lots of rejections solely based on using a football player. In 2010, Wild Rose Publishing picked up Goals and the Sinner series has grown to four books with more to come. Thank heaven for the more open-minded e-presses out there that bring us the sort of books we love.
Yes, I agree with Lynn. I shoped Fourth and Goal around to traditional presses in 2010-2011 and was told the same old thing: Sports romances don't sell. Well, guess what, they do and more and more female readers are actually knowledgeable sports fans.
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