My Love Affair With Baseball

TBT of another kind... As I gear up for the release date of CALLED UP (25 days away, but who's counting?), I thought I'd share this post that I wrote back in April for the Carina Press blog. Here goes:

There’s something about baseball that has always appealed to me. The crisp green grass, the crack of the bat, the way those baseball pants fit so well…

Baseball pants aside, some of my most vivid memories revolve around baseball, starting when the Red Sox and Yankees played the AL East tie-breaker in 1978, my parents and their friends cheering as they crowded around our tiny little TV.

Baseball was always a part of our life growing up. My mom came from a Brooklyn Dodgers family—the family legend is that her uncle moved to L.A. specifically to express his displeasure from the stands of Dodger Stadium. My dad, on the other hand, was a Yankees fan through and through, raising his three daughters to be the same.

Ron Guidry and Bucky Dent were my first celebrity crushes (just barely inching out Mark Harmon in his 240-Robert days), but it was Thurman Munson who I truly fell in love with. Despite the awards he racked up—Rookie of the Year, three-time Gold Glove Award, and seven-time All-Star, just to name a few—his being the first Team Captain since Lou Gehrig was what truly hooked me. The respect of teammates and management alike spoke to me not just of his talent, but of his humility and love for the game and for his team.

Despite this history, in real life, I managed to fall in love with a Red Sox fan. Although his allegiances weren’t unexpected—my husband grew up in Boston, after all—it came as a blow to my family. And I had no intention of converting.

Sure, we moved to Boston. Sure, we went to Fenway Park regularly. But me, a Sox fan? No way.

Flash forward to 2003. On that fateful October night, as I watched Aaron Boone hit his walk-off home-run and felt that bone-crushing disappointment, I realized I’d succumbed. Because I, like the rest of Red Sox Nation, had believed that maybe this time they would win.

They didn’t; not that night. But the Red Sox of 2004 were an entirely different ballgame. (Yes, I went there.) Damon, Lowe, Ortiz… Although the list goes on, it wasn’t any one individual—it was the team. It was everything baseball should be.

And on that October night when the Red Sox beat the Yankees in their historic win—when my dad called my husband and their conversation was the very definition of sportsmanship—I realized I’ve been blessed to have these men I love up close and the men I love from afar. And that writing CALLING IT gave me the chance to put my love affair into words.

How about you? Is it the crack of the bat that gets your heart racing? The pants? Do tell…

(See the original post at: http://carinapress.com/blog/2016/04/my-love-affair-with-baseball/)

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August Release Blitz & Giveaway

I'm so happy to be in the great company of some amazing  authors who all have new books coming out in August. Rachel Lacey, Jessica Linden, and Lisa Marie Perry are all beginning new series, while Bronwen Evans, Codi Gary, Annie Rains and myself have new installments in currently running series. And in honor of this release blitz, we're giving away a $50 gift certificate to the e-retailer of your choice. All you need to do is head on over to Rafflecopter to enter. Good luck, and happy reading!

August 2: Rock With You, by Rachel Lacey Amazon | B&N | More info and links...

Welcoming the Bad Boy, by Annie Rains Amazon | B&N | Google Play | iBooks | Kobo

August 16: Hero of Mine, by Codi Gary Amazon

A Taste of Seduction, by Bronwen Evans Amazon | Amazon UK | Amazon Ca | Amazon Aust | Nook | iBooks | Kobo | Google Play

August 29: Called Up, by Jen Doyle Amazon | B&N | iBooks | Kobo

August 30: Fight for Me, by Jessica Linden Amazon | B&N | Kobo

Meant to be Mine, by Lisa Marie Perry Amazon | B&N | iBooks | Kobo

Run to You, by Rachel Lacey Amazon | B&N | More info & links...

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Harlequin Junkie Spotlight

Going back through some old links and I thought I'd share one of my favorite memories of the CALLING IT release blitz: being highlighted on Harlequin Junkie. With questions ranging from "Random Facts" to "Did any scene have you crying or laughing (or blushing) while writing it?" I got the chance to really think about different aspects of the writing process. If you didn't have a chance to read it back in April, you can check it out now at: http://harlequinjunkie.com/spotlight-giveaway-calling-it-by-jen-doyle/  

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The Only Way I Take the Bed...

So, as I mentioned, oh, a month ago, I've been trying to catch up on everything that has happened in the two months since the release of CALLING IT, and one thing I wanted to call attention to was this awesome fan art by The Lusty Literate. I am in awe of people who can take a snippet of text--the right snippet of text--put it together with a photo, and make it into the perfect bite, for lack of a better word. The Lusty Literate was part of the blog tour I did with Tasty Book Tours, and I am again so very appreciative of everyone who took part in that. If you have a chance, stop by and say thank you for me.

Author Spotlight on Anna Harrington's Blog

My very dear friend Anna Harrington is an author of historical romance, with three books out at the moment: Dukes are Forever, Along Came A Rogue, and How I Married A Marquess. I was so honored to be the first in her "Author Spotlight" series (I'm the featured author for May).

The interview starts off with:

Anna: What would readers be surprised to find out about you?

Jen: That I can’t talk about sex. I can write the hell out of it, but to actually talk about it with anyone? Nope.

...And it goes from there. ;)

Read the rest on her website!

Thank you, Tasty Book Tours!

So it's been quite a crazy month and a half since CALLING IT released on April 11. I have to admit, I was a bit unprepared. But rather than lament all the things I did wrong, I thought I'd focus on the things I did right--and one of those was working with Tasty Book Tours and all of the wonderful bloggers that took part in my virtual tour in April. Because I have some catch up to do, over the next few weeks I'll be posting links to some of the interviews I did there as well as some of the reviews because I think they might have gotten buried what with everything that was going on. But I look forward to working with them again in August when CALLED UP (i.e., Book 2 ;) ) is released.

In the meantime, I thought I'd leave this screen shot here of all of the incredible bloggers that reviewed and promo'd CALLING IT, whether they were fans of the book or not. I've written a bunch of reviews in my time and, frankly, sucked at it. I'm in awe of those who do it all the time.

And a special thank you to Lisa at TBT. What a great way to start out this journey.

What They Mean To Me...

As I had mentioned in last week's post about tonight's Facebook Party (join us from 7:30 - 10:30 p.m. at https://www.facebook.com/events/1769646836591549/), each of the guest authors has some significance to me. For the past week and a half, I've been posting on my author page about each of the guests, but I thought I'd pull it all together here. (Note, the posts got shorter as time went on and release day got closer--thank you, Real Life. So don't go reading anything into that, LOL.) In order of appearance at the party, here's the lineup:

7:30 p.m.: Marina Adair Marina is up first because she's one of the first authors I read when I began reading romance, and she pulled me right in.

I, like many others out there, had a skewed view of what a romance novel was. So when I came upon Kissing Under the Mistletoe, the first in Marina's St. Helena Vineyard series, I was utterly delighted and surprised by the amazing heroine, the great cast of characters, and the humor throughout the book. (O.k., yes, Gabe, too. :) ) I devoured each book in the series, albeit slowing down after the first three as I didn't want it to end. Kissing Under the Mistletoe was one of the books that changed my entire outlook about the genre (and, with my first book published today, my actual life).

And then I met Marina in person at the 2015 RWA conference, and she was/is as incredible in person as I had wanted her to be. Not only did she provide encouragement to an as-yet-unsigned author each time she saw me--and remembered me!--during the conference, she has been an incredible support to me since then despite her own hectic schedule. It was an incredible honor that she read my book and gave me a wonderful comment that I've heralded far and wide, and an even more incredible honor that she enthusiastically agreed to be a guest author at my release day Facebook party.

7:50 p.m.: Lisa Marie Perry The next step along the journey to publication was writing something that was actually publishable. (Um, because the first manuscript, at 360K words, was decidedly not.) And, since this was the beginning of Calling It, you are likely well aware that Nate Hawkins, the hero of the book, is a baseball player. Thus a sports romance was born.

Lisa is the author of The Blue Dynasty series, which follows the Las Vegas Slayers football team. One More Night With You, the fifth and last book in the series, was just recommended as a "must-read romance" by USA Today. She has several other novels coming out soon, all of which you can read about on her website. I first (virtually) met Lisa as a member of the incredibly supportive ‪#‎TeamSarah‬, i.e., the group of authors represented by the awesome Sarah E. Younger (Nancy Yost Literary Agency).

8:10 p.m.: Nicole Michaels Guest Author #3 (and CALLING IT Facebook Party co-host) is another ‪#‎TeamSarah‬ member, Nicole Michaels. Nicole is also a fellow contemporary romance writer and the author of the amazing Hearts and Crafts series. (Her latest, Draw Me Close, is getting some rave reviews. Among other things, it was chosen by Amazon as one of the Best Romance Books of the Month in March.)

Nicole, herself is also awesome--without her generosity and support, I truly don't think the Facebook Party would be happening. And that would be so very sad (because it, too, is going to be awesome.)

8:30 p.m.: Adriana Anders I met Adriana at the NJ RWA Conference in 2014--the NJ RWA conference, incidentally, where I pitched to four people, one of whom would become my agent, and one of whom would become my publisher (Carina Press). But neither of those things would have happened if Adriana hadn't been with me when the slot for my agent-to-be became available and, as I sat on the fence (thinking, "I'm not ready! I'm not ready!"), Adriana gave me a push right off ("Are you kidding, girl? Of course you're ready!"). And the rest is history.

Adriana's debut, the first book in her Soucebooks Casablanca series, Blank Canvas, will be out in January 2017.

8:50 p.m.: Jennifer Hallock The next (Facebook Party Guest Author) batter up is Jennifer Hallock. Jennifer is a fellow member of the New England Chapter of the RWA and the author of Under the Sugar Sun and Hotel Oriente, both set in the Phillippines in the early 20th century. Although I am a proud member of the NJ chapter (and that was the first chapter I belonged to), it very quickly became clear that I needed some local peeps. At one of my first ever meetings of the chapter, I had the chance to hang out afterwards with Jennifer and a few others and it was like coming home. I truly could not have been blessed with a more welcoming and supportive crowd, with Jennifer at the helm. (Of course, I seem to find myself saying that with just about every post, but it's true. The romance author community is, I think, one of the best professional communities that there is.)

9:10 p.m.: Melissa Cutler Like Marina Adair and Shannon Stacey, Melissa was one of the authors that pulled me into the genre when I first started reading romance. Her Catcher Creek series is one of my favorites of all time, and I can still vividly recall some of the scenes from those books (which, given that I tend to read at least one book every few days, is saying something). So it felt like fate when I was trolling around the Interwebs and trying to figure out exactly how to go about hosting a Facebook Party that I found a post she'd written detailing that very thing. Having also met her at RWA, I thought I'd take a chance and ask if she'd take part in my release day party--and here we are.

Melissa's latest, One Hot Summer, just came out this week.

9:30 p.m.: Joanna Shupe I met Joanna at one of my first conferences and she has been another amazingly helpful and supportive fellow author (answering questions as basic as, "Um, is there a standard number of lines I'm supposed to have between where I say 'Chapter X' and the first line of the chapter?").

Her debut series, Wicked Deceptions, earned some rave reviews and her second series The Knickerbocker Club, is heading along the same path. (Magnate, the first in the series [available 4/26] has been given starred reviews by both Library Journal and Publishers Weekly *and* has been named an RT Book Reviews Top Pick.)

9:50 p.m.: Sheryl Lister Another member of ‪#‎TeamSarah‬, I met Sheryl in person at last year's RWA conference in NYC. As with so many of my fellow authors, she was so incredibly welcoming of me into the group that it felt like I'd come home. (And her love of Canva is catching!) Sheryl writes contemporary and inspirational romance, as well as romantic suspense. Her latest, Tender Kisses, came out in March.

10:10 p.m.: Shannon Stacey And the last, but most definitely not least, is Shannon Stacey. As with Marina Adair and Melissa Cutler, Shannon's books were among the first I read when I started reading romance--and among those that sucked me right in. The extended Kowalski family and their [you name it] of DOOM feels like a part of my own family.

But it's not just the reading of her books, it's also that Shannon has been yet another amazingly supportive author along the way. From her encouraging words after I pitched my book at NJ RWA's Agent/Editor sessions, to her support along the way, it is an incredible honor to be joining her as one of Carina Press's authors.

Shannon has several books out this year, the latest of which is Fully Ignited, the third in the Boston Fire series.

Designated Hitter: Anna Harrington Anna is, yes, another member of ‪#‎TeamSarah‬ (also awesome). I met her at RWA's 2015 conference in NYC, at a reception for NYLA's authors. We headed out for a "quick bite" of pizza and, four hours (and a couple of slices PLUS one conversation about Buffy the Vampire Slayer) later, couldn't deny that we were kindred spirits. And, since that time, she has encouraged, commiserated, supported, and been one of my biggest cheerleaders--i.e., pretty much everything one could hope for in a fellow author and friend.

Anna was recently named All About Romance's Best Debuting Author in 2015.

Facebook Party Jen-Style

 

Because I can't ever go about anything in a straightforward way, for the Facebook Party celebrating the release of CALLING IT (on Monday, April 11, just in case I haven't mentioned that, oh, a billion times already), rather than just have a flat-out party, I decided to go with a theme approach. A theme within a theme, in fact.

There's the baseball aspect, of course, complete with a starting lineup of ten authors (designated hitter included). But then there's also the part where each of those authors represents a specific aspect of my journey to publication. So since we're ten days away from my release date (!!!!!!!!!!), I thought I'd do a ten day countdown on my Facebook page, introducing one guest author per day in the order in which they'll be appearing:

7:30  Marina Adair (Featured TONIGHT [3/31]) 7:50  Lisa Marie Perry (Featured on Friday, 4/1) 8:10  Nicole Michaels (Sat., 4/2) 8:30  Adriana Anders (Sun., 4/3) Inserting Designated Hitter, Anna Harrington, here. :)  (Mon., 4/4) 8:50  Jennifer Hallock (Tues., 4/5) 9:10  Melissa Cutler (Wed., 4/6) 9:30  Joanna Shupe (Thur., 4/7) 9:50  Sheryl Lister (Fri., 4/8) Inserting 7th Inning Stretch here, which mixes everything up entirely, but is appropriate so that we can take a break for my in-person CALLING IT A Book Party on Saturday, April 9 (if you're in the Boston area and are interested in going, please see details on my Events and Appearances page) 10:10  Shannon Stacey (Sun., 4/10)

To see all the posts, like my Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/jendoyleink/

And to join the party, please go to: https://www.facebook.com/events/1769646836591549/ (and click on the "going" button). We hope to see you there!

Where Am I? - Part 2

From today's post at Scribblers Ink, "A Perfect Process":

I consider myself a perfectionist—this is not a good thing. Things may be collapsing in chaos around me, but, darn it, I’m going to make whatever it is that I’m working on the absolute best it can be. For example, in preparing for this blog post on the writing process—and knowing what I consider my writing process—I spent several hours researching others’ definition, not to mention all the different ways every other writer in the world approaches her/his craft. (Full disclaimer: I gave up after two.)

Read more at: http://scribblersink.com/new-blog/2016/3/28/a-perfect-process-by-jen-doyle.

Thank you, Bobbi Lerman, for having me!

Where Am I Now? (Part 1)

I'm so excited to be appearing on Linda Rose's Romance At Its Darkest blog today. Here's the very start of the interview. Read the rest at: http://writerldrose.com/2016/03/30/author-interview-with-sports-romance-author-jennifer-doyle/

Author Interview with sports romance author, Jennifer Doyle!

I’m so thrilled to have fellow NEC-RWA member, Jennifer Doyle, on my site today! Her debut sports romance, CALLING IT, is out for preorder and I can’t wait to read it.😀 Read on to learn more about Jen and why

Welcome, Jen! *hands you a martini…at 6AM* Tell us about your latest release!

First, thanks for having me. As a debut author, it is wonderful to be part of such a welcoming and supportive community of writers! (Agreed!)

CALLING IT is my debut book and I feel so grateful to have this first experience be with Carina Press. The book is about Nate Hawkins, a big-time baseball player whose life is crashing down around him so he heads home to small-town Iowa. Where, of course, he meets feisty librarian Dorie Donelli. Although she’s wearing her bathrobe at the time, as the youngest in a family of seven—the other six of whom are her older brothers—Dorie isn’t in any way intimidated by the hunk of man standing in her kitchen. It makes an impression on Nate that he isn’t quite ready for—and to his surprise, he keeps coming back for more.

Read the rest of the interview at: http://writerldrose.com/2016/03/30/author-interview-with-sports-romance-author-jennifer-doyle/

T - 2 Weeks!

Two weeks from today, CALLING IT is available! After all of this time, it's hard to believe that it's finally here. And since I've been warned by so many about the letdown after it officially hits the (virtual) shelves, I've decided to milk the ramp up for all it's worth. :) To begin, this week, I'm appearing on two blogs: on Wednesday (3/30), I'll be over at L.D. Rose's blog, Romance at its Darkest, doing an author interview. And on Thursday (3/31), my guest post on my writing process will be at Bobbi Lerman's Scribblers Ink.

And there's so much more to come! I'll be doing in-person events on Tuesday, April 5, and Saturday, April 9. More details on all of these will be posted soon here on my website. But not right now because I need to get to the day job. :) Stay tuned!

Let's Talk About Sex. Or Not.

So there I was on Friday night at the (AWESOME) Romance Roundtable sponsored by Porter Square Books and one of the first questions asked from the audience was, essentially: men and women experience sex differently--how do you, as a woman, write it from the male point of view? Give explicit details. Ok. So the "give explicit details" wasn't stated, but it was pretty much implied. And, yes, I had one of those OhHolyCrap moments.

I mean, it's not like I haven't considered the idea that someone might ask me a similar question. But, well...

I can't talk about sex.

I just can't.

I can write it. I can write about it. But I can't talk about it. It's the biggest joke ever in my family, especially when my mom, sister, and cousin are some of my main beta readers and I write some fairly explicit scenes.

But it was also why I thought it was kind of hysterical that my first Facebook ad ever got flat-out rejected due to "sexually suggestive" content. (Not nearly as hysterical as the fact that, due to various likes and comments, after the ad was rejected, Facebook kept telling me that I should consider boosting the post due to its being an "engaging" one. But I digress.)

First, the ad:

I've learned a lot about FB ads over the last few days, I have to say. For example, all those really out there pictures that get posted? Not ads, therefore there's no problem. The pictures in the headings? Also not ads, so ditto. If you don't pay for it, it's not an ad, and FB apparently keeps its hands off. (NOTE: I'm actually fine with that. Yay, Facebook, for trying to find a line between control and censorship.)

One of the main issues of my ad was actually the amount of text involved. FB is very clear that they allow no more than 20% text in the images used as ads. There are even tools involved to test it out. See http://www.social-contests.com/check-image/ and https://www.facebook.com/notes/living-fabulous/facebooks-20-percent-text-rule-on-ad-images/828458160511405/.

I, incidentally, totally didn't do that.

Um, oops.

Also, a few people mentioned it might be because of the amount of skin showing in the picture. And, yes, I did choose that picture quite intentionally to use pretty much across the board. (You may have noticed it's used as the heading for my author page, and on Twitter, and on my website [look up above!], and on my business card, etc.) And I chose it specifically because it was, yes, suggestive--in a way that I think fits my first two books quite perfectly, thank you very much. Jeans and t-shirts, baseball and apple pie, Nate and Dorie and Deke and Fitz--and lots of happy (and not so happy) sexy times--in small town Inspiration, IA.

There was also the matter of the quote itself:

“Just because you like my cooking,” she whispered, “doesn’t mean you get to have everything in the kitchen.”

He stared at her, seeing every iota of doubt and vulnerability she kept bottled up inside. Then he smiled. “Guess I’ll have to keep coming back until I’ve licked the cupboards bare.”

Um... O.k., yes, that's pretty suggestive, too, in a way that makes me both blush furiously and, well, smile. Because, hey--since I can't talk about it straight out, I do my absolute best to be suggestive.

But then my mom walks into the house to visit and the first thing she says to me (before even saying hi), is: "Well, of course, Facebook rejected your ad! 'Lick the cupboards bare?'"

And that right there was when my worlds collided and I pretty much self-combusted.

Write it? Yes.

Write about it? Yep.

Talk about it with my mom? Absolutely freaking NOT.

So, Facebook, you got it right. And there's no way in hell I'm going to say a word out loud about it.*

* But if you'd like to see how I write about it, please feel free to preorder CALLING IT. I'd be 100% o.k. with that.

Guest Post at EverAfter Romance

Hey -- did you catch my guest blog post at EverAfter Romance (from Feb. 12)? It's all about the day I became a writer. And, yes, I can give you the date, almost to the minute. Check it out at: http://www.everafterromance.com/guest-post-jen-doyle-becoming-writer/

COVER REVEAL!!!!!

Drum roll please...

Did I not tell you it was amazing?

A. Ma. Zing.

Loving it so hard right now.

And Here We Go...

THREE MONTHS FROM TODAY my debut book comes out. Wow. It's still hard to believe. It was a little less hard to believe on Friday, when I received a draft of the cover in my inbox and it was...spectacular.

I've heard horror stories, I have to admit. And although I had absolutely zero ability to explain what I hoped it would look like, my expectations were high:

• Sexy, but not so embarrassing that I couldn't show it to my kids, or post it on Facebook where my friends from, say, high school will see.
• Something that somehow showed baseball, and Iowa, and the couple I'd fallen in love with (and hope everyone else will, too) without being heavy-handed about showing baseball, Iowa, and the couple I'd fallen in love with.
• A cover that I liked enough that if it weren't mind, I'd add it to my "Judging A Book By Its Cover" board on Pinterest (because, yes, we all do).

Oh, and although I didn't realize they'd come hand in hand, I wanted the amazing title that I hadn't quite been able to come up with on my own.

Well, guess what, folks. The Carina team delivered. BIG time. Several days later, I still pull up the picture on my phone so I can look at it and cry.

So, thank you, Heather Goldberg and crew. There will be other books and other covers, but this will always be my first and it will always be incredible.

Welcome!

Hello, and welcome to my website! I'll be posting more information here soon, but for now, thank you for visiting!

:) Jen