A warm welcome to author Jeff Adams joining us today for his blog tour on the blog tour for his newest release HatTrick #3: Penalty Shot

Welcome Jeff 🙂

It’s great to be back here on Love Bytes to wrap up the Hat Trick 3: Penalty Shot blog tour. Many thanks to Dani for hosting me today.

Hat Trick 3 completes the trilogy that began back in 2013. As with the other books, it’s the romance between hockey players Simon and Alex that’s at the forefront. However, in this book the guys aren’t just playing hockey on their college team, they take up coaching a new team of young people. It starts as a sixteen-year-old goalie approaches the couple about coaching a team he’s put together.

Initially, Simon and Alex can’t believe that Scottie is a goalie. He’s flamboyant, thin. Nothing at all like they expect a goalie to be. The kid’s got guts too because he calls them out on the perceptions because he knows he doesn’t fit the goalie mold. Scottie’s sure he didn’t get placed on a youth league team, despite having a great tryout, because the coaches couldn’t get past his overall look. Simon and Alex set aside their perceptions and invite Scottie to show them what he’s got.

Adding a youth team into the Hat Trick mix made a lot of sense. It’s an opportunity for Simon and Alex to give back to another team. They’ve had accepting coaches during their career so they’re perfect to lead a team to show both the players and the other coaches what it means to run a team in the era of out student athletes.

It’s not an easy task, for sure. The team is put together at the last minute, so there’s not much time for practice. Not everyone is welcoming of the new team either. For Simon and Alex, as well as the players, it means they’ve got a lot of work to do to put a solid game on the ice while dealing with some of the naysayers.

It’s a growth opportunity for all the characters involved and I had a great time writing it. Infusing the book with a new set of teens also gave Simon a chance to flex some of his social work skills because, at times, the team needed more than a coach. I enjoyed writing the team so much, I’m planning a book that focuses on a couple of team members. That would give Simon and Alex the opportunity to have a cameo as well.

Below is a Hat Trick 3 excerpt featuring the youth team to give you an idea of what they’re all about.

Also, make sure to leave comments below as one lucky commenter will receive an ebook from the Hat Trick series. Feel free to ask questions. I will stop by over the next few days to see what you all are saying. Good luck!

“Hey, Miller? Roberts? Can I talk to you?” A loud, but lilty voice shouted as we exited the rink.

From the parking lot, one of the thinnest guys I’d ever seen came towards us. He was tall and seemed even thinner than the word lanky could accurately describe. He wore a loud outfit—bright yellow cargo pants, teal t-shirt underneath a beaten up denim jacket that had more buttons than denim showing. Most of the buttons featured a variation on a rainbow logo.

“’S up?” I asked as he got close enough to talk without shouting.

“I’m hoping you guys can help me out. Can we talk a minute?”

“Do we know you?” Alex sounded as confused as I felt.

The guy gave a quick laugh. “No. But you will after we talk.” Alex and I looked at each other. His eyes said that he just wanted to go eat and my stomach rumbled in agreement. “Please?” The word was stretched out and he gave us a pouty face. Before we could respond, he continued. “I’m Scott. Scott Polan. Friends call me Scottie.”

He put his hand out to me.

“I’m Simon.”

Scottie’s handshake was surprisingly strong. The grip didn’t match his overall demeanor.

I glanced over at Alex, who eventually introduced himself.

“Totally. I know you guys. Can’t believe I’m freakin’ talking to you.” The more he talked, the more he bounced. He paused, collecting himself. “So like I said I could use your help, I mean if you’ve got time. I know you must be busy.”

I smiled. They guy was kind of adorable as he tried not to stumble over his words. “What can we do?”

“Can you coach a hockey team?”

Of all the possibilities, that wasn’t anywhere on the list of what I thought he’d ask.

“We’ve coached,” I said.

“Sorry. I know that. I mean, will you coach a team I put together?”

“You’re putting a team together, but don’t have a coach?” I asked.

“Okay, from the top.” He paused and took a deep breath. “I moved here over the summer. My school doesn’t have a team, so I went to tryouts at two rinks and got rejected. I’m a fabulous goalie.” He dropped into a goalie stance, squatting down, one arm up with his hand open to catch and the other in blocker position. “I had a letter of recommendation from my last coach. But it seems all anybody here sees is this.” In a flourish he moved his hands to showcase himself.

I opened my mouth, but before I could speak he held up a single finger to indicate I should stay quiet.

“I know I don’t look like a goalie,” Scottie said with a quieter, more serious, tone. “But this is who I am. I play damn good hockey and I should be able to get on a team. You know, ‘If you can play…you can play” and all that.”

“So you were passed over because you’re gay?” Alex asked.

“No one flat out said that. But I saw the goalies I was against. I’m as good or better, but the coaches all by-passed me, even to be a backup. So, I thought I’d put together a team and find a coach to make us great.”

“How long have you been working on this?” Alex asked.

“Couple of weeks.” His excitement was building again. “I’ve already got ten guys. It occurred to me during lunch today that you guys would be great!”

“You realize we’ve both got full schedules, right?” Alex said. “School, team, work.”

“Of course.” He wasn’t done trying to sell us on this yet. “I can run everything about the team, but there’s got to be at least one adult coach on board. Plus we need practice. We have to become a team and that takes a coach.”

The request intrigued me. We enjoyed coaching. How it would fit into our schedule was another matter, but Alex had a point.

“We’ll need some time to talk about this,” I said. “We need to see you in action, too. When…”

“Name the time and place and I’ll be there.”

His tendency to interrupt was annoying, but his enthusiasm was good. Alex’s body language shift was subtle, but he wasn’t thrilled I’d opened the door to the request.

“Let me have your number and I’ll let you know.”

 

Hat Trick 3 Blurb

Life has a sneaky way of checking you into the boards.

The relationship that began when Simon Roberts and Alex Miller were in high school is about to cross another milestone as they begin their final year at the University of Michigan. It’s been four amazing years of love, friends and hockey.

Now it’s time to help pay it forward.

When a talented sixteen-year-old goalie is denied placement on a youth league roster, he asks Simon and Alex to coach a team of LGBT youth and allies. With the determination, hard work, and help of an amazing group of friends, they rally the team towards a winning season.

In the final installment of the best selling Hat Trick trilogy, Simon and Alex find everything they’ve worked so hard for is in jeopardy. When they’re thrown a devastating curve ball, the far-reaching implications put their entire future together on the line.

 

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Jeff’s written stories since he was in middle school and became a gay romance writer in 2009 when his first short stories were published. Since then he’s written several more shorts and novels, including some in the young adult genre, and he plans to keep writing as long as wonderful readers keeping picking up his books.

Jeff lives in rural Northern California with his husband of twenty years, Will. Some of his favorite things include the musicals Rent and [title of show], the Detroit Red Wings and Pittsburgh Penguins hockey teams, and the reality TV competition So You Think You Can Dance. If forced to pick his favorite book it would be a tie between Michael Chabon’s The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay and David Levithan’s Every Day.

Learn more at jeffadamswrites.com