Between the Bases

Publication date:
Jun 20, 2024

£3.99

To work

Author

Saskia Louis

Interview Saskia Louis talks about her Sports Romance

Whats your book Between the Bases about?

It's about what every good romance is about: friendship, family and great love.
In this case, the friends are just rich baseball players and the great love revolves around Philadelphia's high society :)

How did you come up with the idea of combining a romance novel with the subject of sport?

I've always loved reading sports romance myself. I practically survived my youth with the support of Rachel Gibson's Chinhooks and Susan Elizabeth Phillip's Chicago Stars. I always loved the cohesion of the sports teams forming their very own family and the feeling of meeting old characters again in each new volume. So the idea of writing a thematically similar series myself wasn't far off.

Why did you choose baseball out of the whole range of sports? Are you a baseball fan yourself?

Well, I'm actually more of the "I don't use my sweatpants for sports, but to sit comfortably on the couch in them" type. I played badminton for years (and still love it), but the sport is rather unsuitable for a book series.

However, when I was 18, I visited my aunt and uncle in the USA. I spent six weeks near Philadelphia. My uncle is a big baseball fan and took me to a game one evening - and I thought the atmosphere in the stadium was so great that it really boosted my creativity.

I wouldn't call myself a fan. I think it's a great sport and have actually swung the sticks with my family, but I don't really follow any team. However, I can recommend everyone to go and watch a game if they get the chance. Germany also has its own league :)

Saskia Louis im Interview
Source: © Saskia Louis

If you could take on the role of one of the characters in your Baseball Love series - who would you choose?

Oh, that's mean! I would like to be everyone once. Whether man or woman! But if I had to choose, I'd like to be Emma for a day, who doesn't mince her words, or Savannah, who has bossed every baseball player around - not to mention her boss. Leaving a few arrogant, rich men behind with perplexed expressions is quite something ...

In addition to the Baseball Love series, you have also written other series. What makes a series so special for you? Do you have a particular approach to writing a series?

I love a book series!
I always feel like I'm creating my own little family that goes through thick and thin with me.
It's just great to create characters that you don't just follow for one book, but meet again and get to know better in each volume.
With book series, you can incorporate inside jokes across volumes, build up internal secrets and simply create a much larger and more detailed world and community than with a single volume.

So unlike single volumes, with series I don't just create the entire past and character traits of the protagonists at the beginning - I also lay out the history of each secondary character who might eventually develop into a main character.
So the beginning is incredibly time-consuming because you create so many characters at the same time and design what feels like a hundred locations. Before I start with volume 1, I usually already have the rough plot for the next two volumes so that I can give out hints and raise expectations.

You also co-wrote a football series. Do you have to do a lot of research for your sports novels?

Yes, I do.
I wasn't at all familiar with the rules of football, for example.
But I'm not the type of person who reads through Wikipedia articles. I prefer to do my research by asking friends who are big sports fans, watching a few games on TV and watching movies about the material. If any questions come up while writing, I always have my best friend Google!

What are you working on at the moment?

I'm currently plotting the latest Louisa Manu book :)