Bad Boys, Baseball, and Romance with Linda Morris, author of HIGH HEAT

Linda Morris, author of HIGH HEAT, the first the new Hard Hitters series, joins us today to talk romance, baseball, and the bad boys we love to love!

Jen: Hi, Linda! Thank you for joining us at Fresh Fiction! For someone whose entire knowledge of baseball comes from watching A League of Her Own, I’m interested in how much research went into writing HIGH HEAT, for the PR side and also the sports side? Where you always a baseball fan (or fan of baseball players perhaps…)?

Linda: Hi, and thanks for having me here today! I wasn't always a baseball fan. When I married my husband, I thought it was boring. But I went along and watched the playoffs with him because he got so into it. At first, I was just humoring him, but eventually, I began to find the game absolutely riveting. My first World Series I watched all the way through was the Yankees/Diamondbacks epic struggle of 2001, taking place partly in New York just a month after the 9/11 attack. Some consider it the best World Series of all time (admittedly a subjective choice). After a series with more twists and turns than a bowl of spaghetti, Luis Gonzales won it in thrilling fashion (unless you were a Yankee fan) for the Diamondbacks with a bases-loaded walk-off hit in the bottom of the ninth inning.

After that, I didn't need to be convinced. I loved baseball and by the time I sat down to tell this story, I needed to do very little research. Okay, I had to do some research into how sexy baseball players look in tight pants. I mean, that isn't something you can just wing without hours and hours of painstaking, meticulous research. I suffer for my art, Anyway, I also did some research into specific pitchers to get the details of Tom's story right. He's a hard thrower with an unconventional style that puts him at high risk for injury and career suicide, which unfortunately describes some real-life big leaguers too.

Jen: Tom is very much the bad-boy. He has the swagger, the talk, the charm, not to mention the looks. Why do you think the bad boy character is so satisfying to read (and hopefully write!) in romance?

Linda: I think at heart, we all like to think we could tame a bad boy. The bigger they come, the harder they fall! And they're exciting. You really never know what is going to come out of Tom Cord's mouth. He could just say or do anything at any time. He doesn't care what anyone thinks because he's supremely confident in himself. That might be a tricky characteristic to handle in a real-life husband, but in fantasy- land, it's great!

Jen: If you could pick any actor or actress, who would you choose to be Tom and Sarah?

Linda: I totally see Mark Ruffalo as Tom. That dark wavy hair, melting dark eyes. . . . sigh. For Sarah, I can see Nina Dobrev from Vampire Diaries. (My husband insists on calling that show "Vampire Dairies," which kind of takes all of the cool sinister angst right out of it, doesn't it?)

Jen: SCREWBALL, the second book in the Hard Hitters series comes out in September! Can you give us a sneak peek into Paul and Willow’s story or what is coming next for the Plainview Thrashers?

Linda: Sure! This was such a challenging book to write. Paul is so different from Tom. Paul is quiet, responsible, with a certain anger running through him that is never expressed openly. He's always taking care of everyone else, and I wanted readers to understand he was brave and loyal, not a doormat. Willow sees him as a man who has no time or energy for anything besides his responsibilities to his family and their baseball legacy, the Plainview Thrashers. But when she gets pregnant by him after what was supposed to be a one-night stand, she has to give Paul a chance to be a better father than his own was to him.

Jen: One last question, what’s on your summer reading list?

Linda: I seem to *never* be reading the current book everyone else is reading! I'm rereading an all-time fave, IF WISHES WERE HORSES by Curtiss Ann Matlock, who writes cowboys the way they should be written. Next up is TRUE COLORS by Kristin Hannah, whom I've loved ever since she was writing historicals back in the day. I also loved A DANCE WITH DANGER by Jeannie Lin. I'll read anything she writes!

About Linda Morris

Linda Morris is a multipublished writer of contemporary and historical romance. She writes stories with heart and heat. Her latest book, By Hook or By Crook, will be coming in winter of 2013 from the Wild Rose Press. When she's not writing, working, or mommying, she's doing yoga, reading, working in her flower garden, or baking delicious things she probably shouldn't eat. Her years of Cubs fandom prove she has a soft spot for a lost cause. A beat-up old copy of Kathleen Woodiwiss's "Ashes in the Wind" that her mom bought for her at a garage sale years ago was her "gateway drug" into the world of romance novels.

Website | Twitter | Facebook

About HIGH HEAT

The author of MELTING THE MILLIONAIRE'S HEART gives readers a front- row seat to her new Hard Hitters baseball series. First up at bat: a hotshot pitcher and a PR pro battle it out on and off the field…

Small-town Indiana tomboy Sarah Dudley grew up living and breathing baseball, since her father owned the minor league Plainview Thrashers. A talented player herself, she idolized her brother’s best friend: Tom Cord, a pitcher with a wicked fastball and an even more wicked reputation.

Now, Sarah is the Thrashers’ VP of public relations, and Tom—a star in the major leagues —has been assigned to the club while rehabbing from surgery. It’s Sarah’s job to keep the hard-throwing, hard-living star out of trouble. But when she gets a glimpse of the man behind the bad-boy image, they start to generate more heat than an inside fastball…