Home Field Advantage

     There's a literary trend I'm part of: people who once swore they'd never read romance novels and now can't get enough.  It's not anything going on in adult adult land where the offerings tend to be heteronormative and formulaic.  I mean how many new girl in town Christmas miracles can you take?It's YA works where the plots have complexity and aren't limited to he + she = we.  Home Field Advantage is a beautiful example.

     "Starting at a new school sucks enough.  Starting at a new school where you're walking onto their football team and replacing their beloved dead quarterback?  That's a whole other level."

     Jack lives to play football--so much so that she and her mother have moved to a town where she's been recruited to be high school quarterback, leaving her father and brothers at home.  She's in very hostile territory despite playing really well and getting the team out of a major losing slump.  To most of the team and the cheerleaders replacing Robbie, who has achieved saint stature by virtue of being deceased, with a girl feels like betrayal verging on heresy.

"Ready, steady, go!

     I've heard those words so many times they've practically lost all meaning.  But then again, I'm always ready and always steady.  They're requirements for an Atherton cheerleader, and that goes quintuple for an Atherton cheerleader with aspirations of getting a captain's C on her sweater."

     Amber loves everything about cheering: the routines, the camaraderie, the chance to shine.  And it's more than an extracurricular.  She's counting on a cheer scholarship to make college feasible since she's not an academic superstar.

     Let's say there's a lot of peer pressure on Amber to prove that she's captain by joining in on icing Jack out.  And Jack has no reason to trust Amber.

     But they're strongly attracted to each other in a town where coming out is not greeted with a rainbow parade.  

     Home Field Advantage, told alternatively from both perspectives, lets readers in on their thoughts and feelings in a turbulent, high stakes situation where making a wrong move can have serious consequences.

On a purrrsonal note, Sunday I was at church for a service for the first time since June.  I made an announcement about the need for money to buy clothes racks for the Upward Bound clothes room.  My good friend Joey joined me for the Advent workshop.  We had a lot of fun doing crafts.  I made some great Christmas ornaments.  (Jules)

Aren't we supposed to be getting a tree like any time now?  Can't have Christmas without a tree.  (Tobago)

A great big shout out goes out to all who participated in the workshop.

Tobago and Jules Hathaway 

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