The Origin of a World with Elizabeth Spaur

The Write Way Café welcomes Elizabeth Spaur, a die-hard football fan who discovered a whole new world while exploring the marriage of football and fiction.

Second Chance Option, currently available on most platforms, is the first book in my Gridiron Knights series. When I first got the idea for Gridiron Knights, I was knee deep in my Regency series, submitting it to agents and editors and getting a lot of amazing feedback. I wanted to write contemporary but had no desire to jump into that subgenre at the time, because I was so immersed in my Regency world.

Then I got the idea for a series set in a struggling college football program. As an alumnae of University of Southern California, and a die-hard football fan, I was familiar with what could happen to a college program when it was hit by sanctions. I got an idea for a program, which was sanctioned to the brink of extinction, that hired a group of former players, all military veterans, with no coaching experience to build something completely new. The idea interested me but didn’t call me away from my Regency world.

My brother played college football for a Division 1 program and was on a conference championship team. He was also going through a rough time. I thought I would run the idea by him, give him a chance to step in as my big brother (age and distance don’t allow him to do it very much these days). I described the idea and his response was “that would never happen.” My next thought was, “oh well. It was an idea. I can talk to my brother for a while and get back to my Regencies.”

His next words changed everything. “If you had a group of older, experienced coaches mentoring them for a few years, that would work. It would be seen as experimental, maybe crazy, but it might happen.”

Suddenly, the idea intrigued me. What if a group of coaches, forced into retirement by the very man whose misdeeds almost destroyed the football program, came back to the university to train a group of talented former players, who, for a variety of reasons, didn’t get their shot at the pros and joined the military instead, to be the coaches for the next generation?

Gridiron Knights was born. But a funny thing happened as I started writing the series. A whole world exploded on the page. This small-town took on a life of its own. Football rivalries made themselves known. Families jumped onto the page with a half-dozen more stories to tell. Characters started jumping out at me, demanding I tell their stories too. Even if they had nothing to do with the football program. I found myself writing a series set in a world where multiple other series would live.

I will be forever grateful to my big brother. He didn’t just say “that idea won’t work” and move on to a conversation about our lives. My amazing brother, whose strength lies with numbers not words, took my idea that wouldn’t work in the world of college football and thought of a way to make it work. As he’d done so many times while we were growing up, he stood up for me and my dreams. He had no idea that I wasn’t invested in the idea, yet. Because he didn’t, he gave me way to fix it and helped me create a world I’ve lived in for three years. A world I am so excited to share with my readers.

That’s not to say I’ve abandoned my Regencies. That world is coming.

For now, I’m writing in South Carolina, in a small coastal town that thrives based on its proximity to the beach and a national forest. King’s Folly is a town that loves its football team and has embraced the daring program filled with men and women who are ready to step up and build a program that honors the best of the sport.

The first few releases are all about the Gridiron Knights, but their rival team, the Gridiron Dragons are coming soon.

Readers will enter the world with Tess and Cade. She’s a genius veterinarian who’s used to doing everything for everyone else and nothing for herself. He’s a former Navy Seal who once had a shot at a football career but traded it for a military career after a profound betrayal. They meet after his dog is hit by a car (don’t worry, Tess saves Sonny). They aren’t looking for love, but they find it. Or it finds them.

Book 2, Shotgun Romance, is Olivia and Nick’s story. It will be out on August 31.

I hope readers enjoy reading about these characters, and this world, as much as I’ve enjoyed writing it.

He was looking for a fresh start. She was looking for a new path. Love is what happens when they least expect it.

At loose ends after a medical discharge from the Navy, a call from Cade Maguire’s college coach gives him a new objective. Help save his alma mater’s football program. A gut-wrenching betrayal drove him from the game once. Can he finally stop running long enough to let go of the past and find his future?

Veterinarian and genius Tess Gallagher has an abiding love for home and family. She’s spent her life taking care of everyone else. Doing what was right always came before doing what she wanted. When her younger brothers enter her in the American Ninja Warrior competition, can she finally stop hiding her true self from the world?

Sparks ignite between Tess and Cade when she saves his injured dog and love is on the horizon when Cade’s new job is put in jeopardy before it even begins. Will Cade realize Tess is the second chance he really wants? Will Tess realize that Cade has always seen her for who she truly is?

Will they realize that love is the only option that matters?

Welcome to Second Chance Option, the first book in the Gridiron Knights series where football is king in King’s Folly, South Carolina and the locals have something to say about everything. When you come for a visit, you’ll never want to leave.

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About Elizabeth: 
When her physics teacher gave her detention for reading a romance novel during class, Elizabeth Spaur knew she was destined to be romance writer. Her journey from physics class to published author as gone from coast to coast and led her through multiple industries, including film and television, banking and the law. Every step along the way has enriched her life and helped her tell stories that always come with a happily ever after and, usually, a side of snark. Elizabeth writes contemporary, historical and paranormal romance. She lives with the love of her life and two pairs of cats and dogs, all of whom are named after television crime fighters. She enjoys hearing from her readers at elizabeth@elizabethspaur.com

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