If you could sit down with one other writer, living or dead, who would you choose, and what would you ask them?
It’s tempting to say, since I’m launching a baseball novel, that I would want to sit down with Michael Shaara (author of For the Love of the Game) or W.P. Kinsella (author of Shoeless Joe and many other stories about baseball). Both writers that I love who have left a definite mark on me as a fan and an author. And I would be thrilled at the chance to spend time with either one. Sadly, neither is still with us.
But the real answer, if I can only pick one author out of the history of literature, I’d pick E.B. White. For me, Charlotte’s Web was THE book, the one that crated my life-long love of reading, the one that taught me how to think about other creatures that share our world, and the one that made me want to write. And White’s love of language, his determination to always find the neatest, most elegant, way of saying anything, are values I try to live up to.
How would you describe your writing style/genre?
Oddly, I thought I was going to be a science fiction writer. That’s what I always expected growing up, that was my ambition. And it’s still something I want to do. But I seem to have gravitated to something else. I wrote a couple of westerns with a strong family focus and LGBTQ characters. I have written two mysteries with an anxiety-ridden attorney and her hand-puppet alter-ego – also with LGBTQ subplots. But mostly, right now, my focus is on romance. Diamond Heat is the second in my sports romance series and there are several more in the planning stages. I’m also planning an LGBTQ time-travel romance series. I guess I would describe what I do as: geeky romance and romantic geekery. Books about characters who are passionate not only about each other, but also about other things: mathematics (Blaise in Simply Connected) or baseball (Daisy and Jonas in Diamond Heat), for instance. Books written for fans who aren’t afraid of getting into the tall grass of the character’s obsessions a little – who might, in fact, love that aspect of the story. That’s the kind of reader I am and I that’s who I try to write for.
Are there underrepresented groups or ideas featured if your book?
Absolutely. I’m writing LGBTQ fiction. That’s who I am and those are the stories I want to tell. Lucas Westbrooke (in my western novels Land of Iron and The Big Die-Up) is a trans man trying to find his place in the old west, and in his storied family. Blaise (in Simply Connected) is coming out as nonbinary. Josie (an important supporting character in Diamond Heat, who will eventually have her own book) is a Furry. I made the decision with this series to make it LBGTQ+ romance, not just Lesbian romance or Transgender romance or Gay romance, because I wanted to be inclusive and to explore different kinds of pairings. Each book will be a little bit different that way. I know that runs the risk of alienating readers who want one kind of relationship in their romances, but I hope that are others like me who revel in the diversity.
What are you working on now, and when can we expect it?
I currently have two projects on the front burner. Uh … burners? The third book in the For the Love of the Game series, The Comeback, features Cameron Shaw, a gender-fluid supporting character from Diamond Heat, and Teresa “Kwanjai” Gutierrez, an MMA fighter struggling to come back from a devastating defeat. In addition to the sports theme, it’s a Christmas romance, because I love Christmas romances and have always wanted to write one. It will be out in November. Also, Sweet Paladin, the first of my In the Queerness of Time series about a 12th century knight who finds herself in the twenty-first century and falls in love with a celebrity chef named Holly. That book should be out the first of February, just in time for Valentine’s Day.
Daisy Flowers is a one-time college pitching phenom whose career was sidelined by misogyny and transphobia. For over a decade she’s toiled away in the minor leagues, doing any job she can to stay in the game she loves. But her heart has grown bitter, and every fastball she throws is fueled by rage. When the Majors finally give her the call, she has only one dream left: to take on the entire baseball world and leave it scorched and ruined in her wake.
Jonas Sutton, in his third season in the Majors, is a talented player who has never quite lived up to his potential. Struggling to break through, but thwarted by the secret he can never reveal.
Daisy’s arrival, in the midst of a pennant race, with everything on the line and the bright glare of the spotlight burning all the time, ignites tempers and passion. She’s prepared to fight every inch of the way for the glory she deserves, and Jonas desperately wants to stand by her side.
But no matter how powerfully he’s attracted, Jonas knows Daisy is the fuse on the explosion that could blow his world apart.
Warning: Contains interactions with transphobic characters (mild) and memories of childhood struggles
About the Series: The thrill of high-level professional sports and the magic of LGBTQ+ romance collide — with sparks and heat aplenty.
Alex is giving away an Amazon gift card with this tour:
Now pitching for the Seattle Navigators … Daisy Flowers!
The crowd exploded. People were yelling. Most of the Chicago players came out of the dugout to watch her take the mound. Daisy sprinted across the field. Heff met her at the mound, and they hugged.
I felt a twist of jealousy — I should’ve been the one to greet her out there. I wanted to be beside her at this moment. And at the same time the idea of all the eyes now focused on her made me want to dig a hole in the field and crawl into it.
When Heff was back behind the mound, she started to throw her warmup pitches, but stopped when the crowd didn’t settle down. She took a deep breath, turned all the way around, surveying the stadium. Like she had the other day, she took off her hat and held it up, with the Pride pen showing.
Daisy. Daisy. Daisy.
She turned back toward home plate. I couldn’t see her face, but her shoulders squared up. She tucked her ponytail back under the cap and began to work.
I’d seen her pitch before, of course. As a teenager, then on TV, and in dozens of magazine photos. As she faced the first Chicago batter, she went into her elaborate wind up. Starting with her hands behind her back, then lifting them over her head, the ball completely hidden in her mitt. Her left leg drew up, until the foot was even with her knee. That’s the picture I had of her on my wall in high school. Those long, powerful legs in tight fitting baseball pants. Poised there, for a long half-second, serene and frozen like a crane, she was still breathtaking. I felt like my chest was cracking open.
Then she exploded outward, her hand shooting toward home. It would be almost impossible to pick up that release. I’ve been thrown at by some of the best pitchers in the game, and I could imagine how that looked to the batter. Like the ball suddenly appeared with a crack halfway there. The fastball seemed to leave shockwaves in the air. It punctured the center of the zone and all the batter could do was step back.
The force of her pitch spun her around on the mound, and she followed through, ending with her back to the plate. She stood like that for half a second, as if nothing else mattered, as if the catcher and the batter and her teammates didn’t exist.
I thought of two things.
My Grandpa loved to watch old jazz films. His favorite was Miles Davis, who would come out on stage and turn his back to the audience when he played.
“People got pissed,” Grandpa said. “They thought Miles was disrespecting them. Or it was some kind of political statement. But it wasn’t that at all. He just didn’t care about performing, or what they thought. All he cared about was the music.”
Daisy turned back toward the plate. Her eyes brushed across me. She lowered her head just enough to acknowledge me. But that was all I got.
Heff signaled for a change-up outside. She nodded, her hands slipping behind her back again.
The second thought? I had a lit professor in college who loved Emily Dickinson. There was this thing he quoted almost every class. “If I feel physically as if the top of my head has been taken off, I know that is poetry.”
I know a little bit about jazz. Nothing about poetry. But like I said I have been thrown at by some of the best.
I didn’t understand any of that until now.
Alex lives with their best friend and one (and a half) cats. They enjoy reading and writing romance, cozy mysteries, westerns and speculative fiction, all with an LGBTQ+ twist.
Author Website: https://www.alexwashoe.com
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