THE SWEET SPOT: Kristine Asselin's Sporty Girl Book

I can’t believe I’m actually talking about my OWN sporty girl book on the Sporty Girl Book blog. I’m sure it won’t be the last time…in fact, you guys will probably get sick of hearing about it. Though, I hope not.

My colleagues here at Sporty Girl Books all have their own sporty girl book that I hope we’ll get to hear about soon.

I was thrilled that the term “Sporty Girl” actually appeared in my Publisher’s Marketplace announcement. Here’s the blurb:

Kristine Carlson Asselin's THE SWEET SPOT, in which it is hard enough being a sporty girl in a guy's world without having to figure out who wants to destroy her family business, especially when it could mean accusing her best friend… and secret crush, to Meredith Rich of Bloomsbury Spark by Kathleen Rushall of Marsal Lyon Literary Agency.

It’s been a long road for this book. It was written, revised, critiqued, workshopped, queried, submitted, rewritten, and queried some more before being picked up by Bloomsbury Spark. I’m about to dive into editorial revisions, and I couldn’t be happier! Writers out there know what I mean. It’s exhilarating to know that the book is about to be better than it’s ever been.

And even more exciting, then it’s going to be out in the world and sporty girls everywhere are going to have a chance to read it.

My main character, Kate, is a lot like me, though I would never have described myself as a sporty girl in high school. But the struggle of being one of a very few girls playing a sport was real to me. I was the only girl who tried out for the golf team my junior year—and I went to a high school with almost 2000 kids. While no one really gave me a hard time, it was awkward and weird enough that I didn’t try my senior year.

I gave up.

Part of why I wrote the book was to metaphorically give myself another chance. To explore what it would have been like to play and win against the boys. I hope there’s a girl somewhere out there who’ll read it and relate to Kate in a way that makes her proud to represent her gender in a field of boys.

That’s too deep, LOL.

Really. I wrote the book because I know that world. It’s real to me. Everything: the grass, the boys, the shop, the competition, the risks and the financial peril that come along with a family business, the crushes and the teenage heartache. The feeling of wanting to be treated like one of the guys, but not exactly wanting that either because  you’re not a guy. Wanting the boys to notice you as a girl, but not treat you any differently from the rest of the competition.

They say write what you know. And I know that world, so that’s what I wrote. And I can’t wait for you to read it.

Stay tuned. If anyone has questions about my journey so far, please feel free to ask in the comments! I'll also be on Robin Hall's blog later this month talking about my writing and querying process.

:-)

Kris