I mention college football, too. I don't actually show any pro or college games. I just talk about them in the book. What I do show in the book mostly, (three full games and the second half of another,) is high school football games. That is the focus. High school football. And there's a lot of it. I had to be sure I had the high school football rules right. There are some differences between high school rules and pro rules which I'm more used to, and probably a lot of people are more used to. But I had to be sure I had the high school rules right. With three full games portrayed in my book, and the second half of another, it was very important I had that right. The plot of the story is the high school games. It's what drives the storyline.
There's a city parks and recreation flag football league portrayed in the story, too. The main character is actually a city parks and rec employee, and it's his job to organize and referee those parks and rec flag football games. It's a major part of the storyline, too, btw. And there's at least two or three city flag league games portrayed in the story.
There's sandlot football, too. As early as chapter one. If you don't know what sandlot football is, I will tell you. It's when a group of guys, (or gals) get together and play a football game. There's no refs, no pads, sometimes not even a football field. Maybe it's at a park, and sometimes it's on the street. If it's on the street, it won't be tackle. But if it's on a grass field often the guys play tackle. Even without pads. It can be brutal. It can be painful. But it sure is fun. That is if you love the game of football. And a lot of people do. So much so, that football is America's number one sport. It has been for a long time. It's my favorite sport, that's for sure. It always has been.
Not just my favorite sport. It's one of my all time favorite things, period. Sure, I have a wife, I have two sons, (both of whom play football, btw,) and even a mother-in-law. Sure I'm a teacher with hundreds of students and a classroom, (two classrooms, actually, one for drawing and one for ceramic sculpture,) and sure I love all of those things. Sure I love art, (being an art teacher, that's a given,) and sure I love music, like everyone else. (I even write and compose my own music!) And sure I love writing about things that fascinate me, like great heroes who are magnificent martial artists, like Trent Smith in my two Killer books. And sure I love history, which is what propelled my book about the true life story of John Dunn, and even my Middle East thriller called The Vase.
Yes, I love all of those things. But football is right up there at or near the top of all things I love. So one day I wrote a novel about it. You know already how it came about, because I've blogged about it before. I had a dream. No, not like MLK. I had a dream about football. Several dreams, actually. Since high school, I've said many times, I've had recurring dreams about football. If you want to get into the psychology of it, it's probably because my own football experiences were never fully realized. I never reached my full potential. Bad decisions and bad luck were large parts of that.
I had some minor success at the high school level, but I fell far short of what I should have accomplished. And mostly, it's my own fault. Sure there were the bad luck injuries. But again, had I made better decisions, who knows if those injuries would have happened. It affected my later bad decisions. I might have played in college, but I didn't. Bad luck? Bad decisions? They went hand in hand in my case. Sure I played sandlot football. A lot of sandlot football. And my last hurrah, so to speak was a stint in a city parks and recreation flag football league.
But again, it was far short of my potential. Okay, that's the psychological angle behind my recurring football dreams. Which led to the story in Second Chance, my football novel. I dreamed it. When I woke up, I thought, wow, that was like watching a movie. So then I thought, I should write it down. I did. Then I thought, I should write it as a novel. I did. And now it's being published. So that's the history of how Second Chance, a Football Story came about. It's a great story. If you like football, you'll love this book. Watch for it next month. Stay tuned.
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