Sports writing

I'm not sure why I'm surprised to see my Twitter full of authors watching sports.  My first year of college, we were required to cover the local hockey team for the cable station.  First year students were cable runners.  I argued that I knew more about the sport than the guy on camera two.  He didn't know where the blue line was or why it was important. Aside from the fact that it's a giant line of blue painted right onto the ice, I was offended.  It took months for me to convince anyone that my point was valid. I showed up, pulled cables and discussed team strategy in the pre-game meeting. Because I had paid that much attention to the game, I was pretty good at anticipating what certain players would do with the puck once they got it.

Eventually, I challenged the guy on camera two (who went on to be a brilliant cameraman in LA so it was only hockey that failed him) to a quiz about the game. I managed to convince the teacher that IF I was  the winner, I could take over camera two. I won. Hands down. Then I set my sights on colour commentary.  Part of it was the challenge, part of it was true interest.  Of course, I ended up in the booth.  Feedback to the station was remarkably positive.  I say remarkable because my voice is not suited to on-air.  There was no disputing my knowledge.

None of that would be necessary today. Women have come a long way when it comes to sports broadcasts.  It was always ridiculous to assume gender had anything to do with knowledge in any field.

So why does it surprise me that so many romance authors love sports?  Few of them write them.  The bias still exists in publishing.  But I've been tweeting back and forth with a NASCAR team during the races lately and my head is spinning with a story idea as a result.That tends to happen no matter what subject I'm interested in - stories are everywhere. It doesn't mean that I'll do anything with that idea. Although...I do have NASCAR story started in the older files on my computer.

How do you feel about sports in romance novels?

Cars going through inspection at Indy 2013