I’m currently sitting in a hotel room in the lovely town of Springfield, Illinois, badgering Piper Vaughn about writing her next chapter so that I can read it. We are having a writing retreat for our work-in-progress, “Off the Ice”, which is the first book in our Hat Trick Series. Luckily we don’t live that far from each other, so that means we can meet up occasionally to work. Co-writing when you’re in the same location is way easier, especially when one of you is super bossy. (“One of you” = Avon)

When I thought about writing retreats, I imagined a cabin in the middle of, like, Washington State or something. With mist. (There’s always mist. I don’t know.) Instead,  I’m in a retro seventies motel across from the state capital building in Illinois. There’s no mist, but there’s been a lot of HGTV, hockey, snacks and finding places that deliver sandwiches to fuel our writer brains. Also me going, “Can I read it yet? Can I? Can I?”

Co-writing this book has been a lot of fun. Piper and I met when my first book came out, and bonded over hockey. Even though she’s a Blackhawks fan and my second-favorite hockey team is the Blues (they’re rivals), we made our inherent team-rivalry a fun thing – except that time I had to change my avatar to the stupid Blackhawks logo for a week. That was not fun. But I had my revenge in the playoffs last year, and we both developed a grudging respect for each other’s teams.

It was during the Blues/Blackhawks series that I received a text message from Piper, along with an accompanying email, talking about Blues player Colton Parayko. Parayko is a young defenseman for the Blues, who was getting a degree in business administration. His reason being that hockey wouldn’t last forever, and he needed something to do when his career ended.

We were both suddenly all about the idea of a professional hockey player going to college…and possibly meeting a professor who has no idea who he is. And thus, our story was born. “Off the Ice” is about a talented young American defenseman named Tristan Holt, who plays for the Atlanta Venom of the National Hockey League. He takes a summer class in sociology from an intense, out-and-proud Puerto Rican professor named Sebastian Cruz. Sebastian enjoys the eye-candy our pretty blond Tristan brings to his class, but doesn’t think Tristan is anything but a jock. When a plagiarized paper appears in his in-box, he makes a very wrong assumption that leads to a very sincere apology. It also leads to an attraction between the two, with both pretending they’re not watching the calendar for the semester to end so they can act on it.

Writing hockey is always fun, but boy, does it require a lot of work. Piper and I have spent a long time coming up with things like team names, rosters, team colors and mascots…lots of work! And of course, we couldn’t just stop with one story, so we had to come up with a couple more to round out the trilogy. Book two, “Goalie Interference”, is about two goalies who are polar opposites and yet forced to work together on the same team – while still competing for the starting goaltender spot. Finally, our third book, “Trade Deadline,” is about a guy who gets traded to his hometown team and reconnects with his best friend, who is – wait for it – a dolphin trainer. Okay, no, he’s a marine biologist who works in a dolphin rehab facility, but still.  Close enough.

We have a second series sort of planned out, about teams in the Western Conference. More on that later, though 😉

Now there’s a hockey game on the television and Piper to badger about her chapter. And a sandwich I need to eat. A writer’s work is never done 😉

Happy Sunday! And if you’re a football fan, I guess today is a big deal for you so enjoy your Superbowl – may your team win and your snacks be tasty.