Category Archives: kerry freeman

Interview with the Playing Ball Authors

PlayingBallORIGI had a great time last night doing an interview with Wt Prater’s “Taste Test” segment on the Writers Online Network along with fellow authors Kerry Freeman, Marguerite Labbe, and Kate McMurray. We talked about how the Playing Ball anthology and our stories came about, as well as what we each have coming up. Check out the interview HERE and comment for a chance to win the anthology! Or if you’d like to go ahead and grab a copy, you can get it for 20% off through tomorrow at Dreamspinner Press. 🙂

Playing Ball Blog Tour Schedule

PlayingBall_tourbanner

Tomorrow begins the blog tour for the Playing Ball anthology. Here’s the full schedule for your reading pleasure! 🙂

9/21: Marguerite Labbe
9/22: Shae Connor
9/23: Kerry Freeman
9/24: Kate McMurray
9/25: The Armchair Reader
9/26: Literary Nook
9/27: Joyfully Jay
9/28: Elisa’s Reviews and Ramblings
9/29: Andrew Gordon
9/30: Paisley Smith
10/1: Southern Magic RWA
10/2: P.D. Singer
10/3: J.P. Barnaby
10/4: Naima Simone
10/5: Aidee Ladnier
10/7: The Blog of Sid Love
10/7: The Novel Approach
10/8: Zahra Owens
10/9: Tempeste O’Riley
10/10: Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words

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PlayingBallORIG“The one constant through all the years… has been baseball.”—Field of Dreams

Baseball, America’s Pastime, carries with it a mythology like no other sport, entwined with the ups and downs of the nation. In Playing Ball, authors Shae Connor, Kerry Freeman, Marguerite Labbe, and Kate McMurray explore the love for baseball and among the men who play it, from the 1920s through modern times. These four stories tell the tales of baseball men who find love off the field, whether with the heir to a baseball empire, a sports reporter, a fan, or even each other, after their playing careers come to an end.

Pre-order from Dreamspinner Press: Ebook || Print

Playing Ball Cover Reveal and Pre-orders!

I am thrilled to be able to show off the gorgeous cover for the Playing Ball anthology, which comes out from Dreamspinner Press on September 25. It’s simple and elegant and perfect.

PlayingBallORIG

So pretty! Big thanks to cover artist Aaron Anderson.

Even better, you can pre-order the book now! GO RIGHT HERE!

My story in the anthology is a novella called Home Field Advantage. The blurb:

Toby MacMillan, grandson of Atlanta Braves owner Ray MacMillan, lives for baseball and loves his team. When he meets new team member Caleb Browning, an innocent welcome-to-the-big-leagues dinner leads to a not-so-innocent night together. Toby quickly calls things off, afraid of the ramifications of their tryst, but the two men develop a friendship that soon becomes more. After Caleb takes a fastball to the head, their budding romance hits the news—and Toby’s grandfather hits the roof. When Ray MacMillan demands Toby deny the relationship, Toby must choose between the team he’s loved all his life and the man he could love for the rest of it.

To read about the other stories in the anthology, visit my co-authors’ websites:

Kate McMurray
Kerry Freeman
Marguerite Labbe

New Contract: Playing Ball Anthology

baseballandgloveI’m happy to announce that three writer/baseball-fan friends and I have signed contracts with Dreamspinner Press for a new anthology of baseball-themed stories. Playing Ball features novellas from me, Kerry Freeman, Marguerite Labbe, and Kate McMurray. The tentative publication date will be late September. To say we’re excited is an understatement! 🙂

Brief descriptions of the stories are after the cut.

Continue reading

Guest Post: Kerry Freeman

Kerry Freeman and I have a lot in common, starting with the fact that we’re both born-and-bred Southern girls and huge baseball fans. So needless to say, I’m thrilled to host today’s stop on her blog tour for her latest release, the baseball-in-the-South-themed Pine Tar & Sweet Tea. Take it away, Kerry!

Why I Love the Braves

Simple. They’re the only true Southern team in the MLB.

“What?” you screech. “What about the Marlins and the Rays?”

First: the Rays will always be the Devil Rays to me, just like Pluto will always be a planet (fodder for another post). Second: Sure, Florida is in the Southern U.S., but most Southerners don’t really think about Florida when they think of the South. Florida’s kinda like its own deal and is just Southern by association.

“Okay, well surely the Texas Rangers are Southern.”

Nope, no they’re not. They’re TEXAN. Texas is its own region. They’re not North, South, East, or West. They’re Texas, by God, and don’t you forget it. Just ask anyone from there.

“Fine, I’ll give you that one. How ‘bout the Washington Nationals?”

Wow, you’re really stretching here, aren’t ya’? Yes, DC is below the Mason-Dixon Line. So is Maryland, but the only place I’ve seen Maryland called Southern is Southern Living (and awesome magazine, btw, if just for the recipes).

“But didn’t the Braves used to be in Boston and Milwaukee? Those aren’t Southern cities, are they?” you ask in righteous indignation.

And the Braves aren’t there anymore, are they? *sticking out tongue* Because they were meant to be in Atlanta. It’s just like a romance novel. Team longs for One True City. Team hooks up with other cities, who just let Team down. Team finally meets the One True City, and they live happily ever after, amen.

And it’s ATLANTA. I LOVE Atlanta. When I get independently wealthy, I’m going to buy a Braves season ticket (okay, maybe I’ll buy my husband one too) and a swanky condo and live in Atlanta every baseball season. You may think I’m joking, but I’m so not. It’s on my if-I-ever-win-the-lottery list, right under “pay off all debt” and right before “fund niece and nephew’s college education.” Okay, I’ll move the college education up.

“So I guess this means that the Atlanta Falcons are your favorite NFL team.”

Nope, that would be the Tennessee Titans. I’ll live in Nashville during football season. 🙂

Thank you so much Shae for having me on your blog! And everyone, please visit the tour kickoff post to enter the super-duper tour giveaway.

Pine Tar & Sweet Tea
by Kerry Freeman
Buy at Loose Id

After playing eleven years in the Minor Leagues, Coach Matt Hawley has returned to his tiny Alabama hometown to lead his old high school baseball team to their first state championship. At the other end of the state, René Días, who left the Major League after one season, is getting his team ready to defend their state title for the second straight year. One is in the closet. The other is between relationships. Neither has any intention of hooking up at the state tournament.

Then they see each other.

Pre-game lust turns into an intense one-night stand neither man can forget, and when their best friends embark on a romance, Matt and René are thrown together again. This time they decide it won’t be for just a single night. But the fear of disappointing his minister father and shaming his family forces Matt to keep one foot in the closet, even as he and René find their lust is maybe something more. He’s going to have to make a choice between his family and his freedom.

Kerry Freeman was born and raised in Alabama, and she grew up swearing she was going to get the hell out of Dodge the instant she could. Turns out Dodge ain’t so bad, and she never left. Alabama’s version of a city girl, she married a country boy, and the adorkable couple lives in a small town with their two socially awkward dogs.

Kerry loves to write about love, and it turns out most of the voices in her head are men. She also loves to write about the South, so most of her stories end up there, one way or another.

A tomboy and a geek from way back, Kerry has a day job but dreams she will one day write full time. She has a weakness for yaoi, Japanese stationery, YA, and ginger-haired singers from Britain. She owns an impressive t-shirt collection. Nowaki & Hiroki are her homeboys.

Geeking Out

I had a wonderful phone discussion with fellow author Kerry Freeman last night. I’d critiqued a manuscript for her from the Help Write Now auction, and it came with a 10–15 minute phone or Skype chat to discuss it. We spent about that long on the manuscript… and then talked for another hour and fifteen minutes, mostly about writing. (And publishers, and Dragon*Con, and living in the South… LOL)

I love talking to other authors about what we write. I have two very close friends I talk to via online chat nearly every day, and a large portion of our discussions cover what we’re writing (heavier on fanfic, since that’s how we all met). I love it all: hashing out possible plot points, discussing how characters can change the course of a plot, complaining about the overwhelming number of plotbunnies in our “to be written” folders (all of which were covered extensively last night). I love talking about other authors’ stories, what we like and don’t like about them. 

In short, I am a total writing geek, and I am not ashamed to admit it! 

I’ll take just about any chance I can get to talk writing. I love that my mom is a writer, so I can talk about it with her. (To a point: she doesn’t want to talk about sex scenes, and I wouldn’t want to talk about that with my mother anyway!) I’m thrilled that some writerly friends will be here for Dragon*Con, and I know darn good and well we’ll be talking writing a lot. And one of the main reasons I decided to go to GayRomLit is to have a chance to just talk writing with some of the awesome authors who’ll be there. 

So, if you ever run into me somewhere, or if you just want to sit around and talk writing for a while, hit me up!