I’m so thrilled to have fellow NEC-RWA member, Jennifer Doyle, on my blog today! Her debut sports romance, CALLING IT, is out for preorder and I can’t wait to read it. 😀 Read on to learn more about Jen and her journey to publication.

Welcome, Jen! *hands you a martini…at 6AM* Tell us about your latest release!

First, thanks for having me. As a debut author, it is wonderful to be part of such a welcoming and supportive community of writers! (Agreed!)

CALLING IT is my debut book and I feel so grateful to have this first experience be with Carina Press. The book is about Nate Hawkins, a big-time baseball player whose life is crashing down around him so he heads home to small-town Iowa. Where, of course, he meets feisty librarian Dorie Donelli. Although she’s wearing her bathrobe at the time, as the youngest in a family of seven—the other six of whom are her older brothers—Dorie isn’t in any way intimidated by the hunk of man standing in her kitchen. It makes an impression on Nate that he isn’t quite ready for—and to his surprise, he keeps coming back for more.

Sounds fabulous! What was the hardest thing about writing this book? The easiest?

The hardest? Cutting! The original manuscript I queried was almost 125K. (Don’t try this at home, folks.) Anyone who knows anything—which, clearly, I didn’t at the time, LOL—knows that this is way too long, and the final product ended up at 101K. It was soooooo hard to cut complete scenes. But at the same time, my agent and editor were brilliant in their comments and those scenes definitely needed to go.

(And although most of those scenes went directly to the cutting room floor, there are some deleted scenes—and, perhaps, an Epilogue—that will show up in my newsletter when the proper time comes. If you’re interested, you can sign up at my website, which is listed below.)

In terms of the easiest? Falling in love with my characters. Some of the scenes between Nate and Dorie just came so naturally that, even after the multiple rounds of edits, almost no changes were made because they were just that right for each other.

I definitely feel your pain on cutting–you already know what my first manuscript clocked in at! 😛 And as for Nate and Dorie, I absolutely love when everything falls perfectly into place. 😀  Speaking of which, if you could bring one of your characters (villain or hero) to life, who would you chose? Why?

Ugh—I have to choose just one? Well, I wouldn’t mind having Nate around, that’s for sure. I mean, he’s gorgeous (surprise!), has a great sense of humor, and just enough of that Alpha that, well… (Is it getting hot in here?)

But Dorie is one of those people who would be your best friend ever. And then there’s Wash. And Fitz, and Deke…

Next question? LOL.

Haha, what the heck, bring them all to life! Paramount Pictures wants to make a movie about your latest novel. Who plays the main characters?

Ooooooohhhhh… Come check out my Pinterest boards for my casting!

I’ve got Marc Blucas as Nate,

Sarah Shahi as Dorie,

Chris Pratt as Deke,

Anna Kendrick as Fitz,

Mehcad Brooks as Wash…

The list goes on.

That is one SEXY cast! *fans self* So tell us a little about yourself.

I have a master’s degree in Library and Information Science (thus my love of librarians) and, after practicing as a librarian for several years, went back to my grad school program and worked there as the director of curriculum and communications for ten years. I now do a very similar job for a group of preschools in the Boston area. Luckily, my bosses and co-workers know about my sideline activities so I don’t have to hide it, thank goodness! I have three kids, three cats, and a husband who loves the kids (as one would hope, LOL) but could probably do without the cats.

LOL, my hubby says he could do without our cats, but then I catch him snuggling them intermittently. 😛 Tell us one thing about yourself your readers may not know about you.

I came very late to the romance genre. I’d grown up reading mysteries and thrillers almost exclusively (I know, I know—bad librarian; but I worked mostly in the insurance industry so it wasn’t like there were any Harlequins in among the stacks 🙂 ), and had never even picked up a romance novel until about four years ago. But once I started, I never looked back.

Romance is (obviously) my favorite genre too…but I’m always game for a thriller or mystery. 😉 What are you working on now?

I turned in the first draft of book two—CALLED UP—at the end of February. It will be available later this year. I took a couple of weeks for my brain to settle a bit, but my characters are calling to me…

That’s awesome, congratulations! Where can we find you? 

All over!

Website: http://www.jendoyleink.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jendoyleink (come join my Facebook Party on 4/11/16! https://www.facebook.com/events/1769646836591549/)

Twitter: @jendoyleink

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/jendoyleink/

I also have author profiles on Amazon and GoodReads.

AND I’ll be doing a blog tour April 11 – 22 so I’ll be all over the blogosphere. Details will be coming soon and will be listed on my website.

AWESOME! I’ll be checking out your FB party for sure. 😀 Thanks so much for stopping by and sharing your story with us. And thanks, dear Reader, for joining in on the fun! But don’t leave yet…there’s more!

Check out CALLING IT:

Preorder now at:

Amazon: http://bit.ly/CallingItAZ3

Barnes & Noble: http://bit.ly/CallingItBN

iBooks: http://bit.ly/CallingItDoyle

Kobo: http://bit.ly/CallingItKobo2

BLURB:

After a near career-ending car accident and with paparazzi surrounding his penthouse, all-star catcher Nate Hawkins can only think of one place to go: home. But when he finds his old apartment occupied by a half-naked woman wielding a baseball bat, he’s not sure what to think…except that maybe his luck has finally changed for the better.

Librarian Dorie Donelli never thought she’d get to meet her fantasy man in person—much less while she’s wearing her bathrobe. To her surprise, her nearly naked run-in with Nate leads to more unclothed encounters. But Dorie is sure their fling is only temporary. As long as she remembers he’ll be gone once his life gets back on track, she won’t get hurt. In the meantime, she throws herself into enjoying their three weeks together before he has to report for spring training and go back to his old life.

SNIPPET:

This is from Chapter 8, immediately after Nate Hawkins, i.e., Dorie Donelli’s long-time celebrity crush, has asked if he could see her later that night:

Wait, like an actual date? With all these crazy emotions and strange feelings swirling around them? It was one thing to hang out. To banter and tease. To strip naked and do his bidding. “Uh… Um…”

She wanted sex with her imaginary boyfriend come to life, with the gorgeous fantasyland superstar baseball player. She did not—could not—allow herself to think beyond that. Not when the true-to-life man was so much more than she’d ever dreamed—so much more that she could see herself losing focus. Getting caught up and taking her eyes off her own goals. And if Courtney Knight, billionaire trust fund baby, beautiful muse for, at last count, three musicians and one painter, and brilliant morning news anchorwoman, was now primarily known as Nate Hawkins’s Ex-Fiancée, well, Dorie Donelli did not stand a chance. It was so against her New Life directive that it wasn’t even funny.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

A big believer in happily ever afters, Jen Doyle decided it was high time she started creating some. Jen is a member of the Romance Writers of America, as well as a member of the New England Chapter, New Jersey Romance Writers and Music City Romance Writer chapters of RWA. She is represented by Sarah E. Younger of the Nancy Yost Literary Agency.

She has an M.S. in Library and Information Science and, in addition to her work as a librarian, has worked as a conference and events planner as well as a Communications and Enrollment administrator in both preschool and higher education environments (although some might say that there is very little difference between the two; Jen has no comment regarding whether she is one of the “some”).