Ramblings From This Chick: Guest Post with Author Jaci Burton

Thursday, March 15, 2012

Guest Post with Author Jaci Burton

Today I am super excited to have Jaci Burton visiting the blog. Jaci is celebrating the release of her newest book in her Play-By-Play series, Taking a Shot and has stopped by to chat about her series. Before I give the floor to Jaci, let us all get to know her a bit.

After spending too many years to count in the high stress business world, New York Times and USA Today Bestelling Author Jaci Burton is happy to be living her dream of writing passionate romance. She has written over forty-five novels and is contracted to write ten more. Jaci has a Bachelor of Science degree in Business that she is thrilled not to be using in the corporate environment anymore. She grew up in Missouri but migrated to California, where she lived for thirteen years, but now makes her home in Oklahoma with her husband and five dogs. She enjoys being outdoors in the summer and she and her husband are avid Harley riders.

Jaci writes in multiple genres, from erotic romance to romantic suspense to contemporary romance. She has won the RT Book Reviews Reviewers Choice Award, and has been nominated for the award four times. She has been a finalist in the Bookseller’s Best and National Reader’s Choice Awards, and has won The Romance Studio’s CAPA Award four times.

Places to find Jaci:

I get a lot of questions about my Play-by-Play series, which thrills me a lot because it’s been one of my favorite series to write. One of the questions I get is—what was the reason I decided to write a sports series?

The main and obvious reason, of course, is because I love sports. I always write about things I enjoy. When I wrote my Wild Riders series for Berkley Heat, it was because of my love of motorcycles and the biker lifestyle. The same holds true for my Play-by-Play series.

Of course the inspiration for this series came from my friend, the very awesome and ridiculously talented author, Maya Banks. We were talking one day while I was developing a new series to write, and it was her suggestion that I write a sports series. So the credit goes to her—feel free to send her all kinds of love for her great idea!

If you follow me on Twitter, you see me go crazy during college football season (Boomer Sooner!). I’m a big fan of NFL football and follow a few teams, mainly for favorite players, but I’m a big fan of the St. Louis Rams. I love baseball and have since I was a kid. I grew up in St. Louis, and my dad was a sports fanatic. Before the days of cable, we had one television in the house, which meant football would be on the television, and baseball on the radio. You couldn’t grow up in my house and not be a sports fan. Cardinals baseball and football in my home (before the football Cardinals moved to Arizona, anyway). And it was St. Louis Blues hockey all the way. I remember as a teenager having a crush on many players in various sports. The way they looked in their uniforms, the powerful way they play and carry themselves has quite the appeal. It’s something you never forget.

Later in my adult life I found NASCAR. Fast cars, hot men, and a rush of adrenaline at two hundred miles an hour. What’s not to love about that? Though I haven’t written a race car driver yet. Who knows? Maybe I will someday.

And every couple years when the Olympics are on, I can’t help but be mesmerized by the pure athleticism present in every sport. Whether it’s track and field or swimming in the summer or skiing and snowboarding in the winter, there’s something about all athletes I find oh so sexy.

So when the idea to write a sports series came about, I leaped on it. Obviously it’s a huge part of my life, and though I don’t play sports, I watch enough of it for sports to be one of my many loves. And I hope that love has been translated into my books. My heroes are sometimes large than life, but often just regular guys who meet and fall in love with the woman of their dreams.

I hope you enjoy their journey. It’s often filled with joy, laughter, emotion, deep passion, heartbreak, and as always, a happily ever after.

Jaci

If you want to score, you have to get in the game...

The last thing Jenna Riley needs is more sports in her life. While her brothers are off being athletic superstars, she's stuck running the family's sports bar, whether she likes it or not. Then in walks pro hockey stud Tyler Anderson. As much as Jenna would like to go to the boards with him, she's vowed to never fall for a jock—even one as hot as Ty.

Ty, intrigued by the beautiful bar owner, becomes a regular. He senses that Jenna wants to do something more with her life. And as he gains her trust, the passion between them grows, as does Ty's insistence that Jenna should start living for herself. With his encouragement, Jenna starts to believe it, too...

But first, Jenna has to figure out what she wants, what she needs, who she loves, and if she has the passion and pride to take a shot at having it all—including Ty...

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