The Strangest Email I Said Yes To: Turns Out I’m a Hockey Romance Novel Editor Now (Part 2)

Welcome to part two of my dive into consulting as a hockey expert on an Austin-based hockey romance novel, "Dances with Pucks". If you missed yesterday's article, you can read it here. Today we dive into the specifics of creating a new NHL team, the value of connected series, BookTok and more.

If you comment on this article or the yesterday's, you will be entered to win a free copy of the book. I will select the winner by random number drawing on Friday at puck drop for Game 3. Winners will be notified with a reply to their comment.

Stephen Meserve: Austin doesn't have an NHL team, so that allowed you some creative license to go in and create a team from nothing. You got to come up with team names, team logos. That was pretty fun, and I got to participate in that a little bit. Talk about that process of coming up with the team.

Debbie Charles: So I looked at the real NHL team names, and they are kind of equally shared between rather aggressive animals, weather and a few other things. Given that it’s Texas, and specifically Austin, I don't have an animal that's really an aggressive animal that's native to Austin. Obviously I couldn't use the Stars because that's trademarked. The NHL is also trademarked but they have been very, very flexible and very approachable with authors and very open to authors using their [league name]. 

If I remember correctly, there's a team called the Cyclones [ECHL Cincinnati]. So I decided on Texas Tornadoes. It had that alliteration, so I went with that. 

Then I was looking at the existing mascots and insignias and also remembering past ones from when I went to more hockey games when I was living in New York City. [My first draft] I went over simplistic with it or just went too cartoony with it. And thank God you redirected me and my graphic designer is very easy to work with and she just totally changed directions. She's like, “Okay we can toughen this up, slim it down.” When I sent it back, you were like “Yes!” So that was very helpful, too.

Stephen Meserve: Yeah, it's one of those things. The ECHL and some of the older franchise logos, even the had more of this cartoony look to them, and now the franchises have gone to more of a minimalist design. It has a more clean, sleek type of look to it. And I wanted your logo to fit in with all of that.

It’s great to build this franchise in Austin because this is not just a one-and-done story, right? You've got a whole universe that you're building. You mentioned the international novella teaser that's a common thing that folks do in the romance genre that I wasn't aware of. There's 18 skaters, two goalies and a ton of others that make up a hockey team. You have a lot of opportunity.

Debbie Charles: Correct, that's what most authors do. What romance as a genre has found is that readers like to stay within a world, but they like standalone stories. Every one of my books, even my historical romance written under Maggie Sims, are standalone stories. You can pick it up and read it in any order, but there are a series where they work within one world. They're called ‘connected series’, and that's what this will be. 

Each couple will have their own book, and you can read them in any order for the most part. You'll see familiar faces in these stories as you go along because it is all about the same team. Even the owners will potentially get books. The coach may get a book. Maybe the bar owner of Chasers bar (because of tornado chasers but also shot chasers).

Stephen Meserve: I did not catch that connection, but I love that. That's perfect.

Debbie Charles: (laughing) Some of these little nuggets in there are just for me to enjoy.

Stephen Meserve: Obviously it's a romance novel. People are there for that purpose, but also there is the technical accuracy. Sometimes I was reading through some of the sections that I helped you with where you were writing from the male POV about what's happening on the ice. He is fielding shots and watching faceoffs, but he's also thinking about Christina in the stands. How did you balance the technical accuracy and wanting to have the game have a flow to it with the narrative flow and the emotion that you wanted to also convey for the chapters where we weren't on the ice and we were back at the apartment or wherever we else for the more direct romance aspects?

Debbie Charles: That is just a gut thing. Partly I will say probably from reading other hockey romances. Whatever the reality might be, I also have to be meeting the reader's expectations. On the other hand, these are professional athletes and when I have them think about their significant other, it's for a few moments and then they're like, "Nope, head in the game." And it's very rare that they allow themselves to be distracted. 

So it's as they come out for warm-ups or as they go to intermission or after a win or a loss, and that's just me trying to be respectful of a professional athlete's focus.

Stephen Meserve: I personally am not a multi-arc novel writer. My writing is pretty short. But you're talking about a goalie who you have to build a character arc for. You want this character to have a long career potentially or maybe a short career and that's part of the story. How do you approach when you're writing this first couple in the story? Do you know where he's going to end up? Is he going to stay with the Tornadoes for ten years and then he's going to retire or do you play it as you get to know the characters book by book?

Debbie Charles: I don't know where he's going to be in more than five years, say. I do know how the first few books are going to flow, and I do know that I might need a character to transfer to another team to then do a different series for that team if I'm successful at this. But in Cam's case [the male main character], he is with the owner of the team who has been in Austin for most of her life. She could potentially move, but her brother is an owner who has a whole conglomerate here as well as owning the franchise here. He could not move. 

I don't have a lot of older players on this team because I wanted as many single guys as possible to write about, but there's one married guy, and we'll see. He might get his story. In fact, their PR director is Cambodian-American, and her passion is going to be not only the PR for the team, but also poking at management to make sure they have as diverse a team as possible. I'm in the process of researching that right now. There's Korean players, there's Chinese players or Japanese players, there's number of Black players or players of color. Many of them are from Canada, but they have various country backgrounds behind that. I'm just trying to make sure I do that aspect of the NHL justice.

Stephen Meserve: It's cool to have a connected story that surrounds the whole thing. Speaking from experience with the Texas Stars, fans love anything that touches the Texas Stars. I have had the opportunity this year to write stories about the head equipment manager, the head athletic trainer and aspects of what their job is like. For fans, anything that touches the team that you love, and you want to be connected to it whether it's even just the most tangential touch. 

With that, of course, I can see why fiction writers often go back to the well of sequels, reboots or telling a parallel story. I know it's especially common in fantasy and science fiction. People love being part of a universe. It's so great that you get to draft off of that with hockey. 

Debbie Charles: Right and I will say your interviews of these people behind the scenes for the Texas Stars are very helpful for my research so thank you. 

Stephen Meserve: Absolutely. You’re welcome. 

The book's been out now since April 16. What have you heard so far from folks that have read it or folks who've bought it? 

Debbie Charles: It's been overwhelmingly positive. It's definitely got an over four-star review on Amazon and Goodreads. I'm happy with the volume of readthroughs. It is part of Kindle Unlimited, so that's also part of how I judge how well it's doing, not just purchases.

Stephen Meserve: For my knowledge as much as anything, are people tending to read romance novels on digital or Kindle and then just kind of get rid of it or do people prefer physical books for that genre? 

Debbie Charles: That's an interesting question. With the growth of TikTok, it's been a weird mix. For a long time there (I say a long time but in the romance world five years is a long time) but for the last decade, I would say more than 70% of sales of romance books have probably been digital. However, with Bookstagrammers [Book + Instagram] and BookTokers [Book + TikTok], they like physical copies to do their posts. So there are a lot of people who will literally get the Kindle version to read and then they will get the physical copy to put on their bookshelf and be part of their story. 

Stephen Meserve: You have to be loving the social media buzz as a newly minted hockey romance writer because that has been a huge part of the growth of the subgenre is people talking about it on these digital platforms and social media and bringing those books to the forefront in in their stories and reels.

Debbie Charles: Yes. It helps me find more hockey romance as a reader, and it also helps me find the influencers who I want to read my book and post about it.

Stephen Meserve: Have you done a decent amount of outreach via social to BookTokers? Are there any who've read and reviewed the book?

Debbie Charles: Yep. There have been a few who have been very kind and generous with posting and there were a few from my Maggie Sims historical romance persona who read and review both historical and contemporary, which is not a big overlap in readership. I found that each new book I gained a few more influencers who were willing to work with me. It'll take this first book showing sales and appearing in front of people and maybe actually them picking up of their own accord and reading before they're probably willing to work with what they see as a debut author even though I've got twelve other books out.

Stephen Meserve: What would you say is the biggest difference between writing contemporary hockey focused and historical novels?

Debbie Charles: Oh, wow, there's a few. Um, language and even dialogue needs to be more formal [in historical novels]. Even in narrative, not as many contractions. You also can't use [anachronisms] like step on the gas. You also have to be very careful with your analogies. Thank God for editors!

Also, as a historical writer because it's set 200 years before now, it doesn't matter who I am as the author. I just need to write for the period. As a contemporary romance writer, I am, let's just say, over 50 and I am writing 25 and 30 year-old [characters]. I don't always have the lingo. I'll watch TV shows to make sure I'm up on it. Obviously my romance reading helps me, but I also rely on friends, family members and editors to make sure that my characters don't sound over 50.

Stephen Meserve: It's a good point. I hadn't thought about that. 

I don't want you to give any spoilers for what's next, but what's something that you're excited about in the next book that you're working on that maybe is different than this one? 

Debbie Charles: So, I did actually put an intro to the next book in the back of “Dances with Pucks” with a pre-order link. It's not a surprise to anybody [who reads the book] that the French-Canadian winger and one of Christina's friends [are the main characters in] the next book. That's going to be cool because I was so heads down on researching goalies that now I need to figure out what the forward line does and how to describe it properly. Watching the playoffs as I'm writing is very convenient timing. Then when I can't fill in the gaps from that and from the postgame commentary, that's when your editing skills for the hockey segments come in.

The dedication to
"Dances with Pucks"

Stephen Meserve: It's a lot of fun to help. I'm super happy to have had the opportunity to do it.. It's just one of those wild connections that I wouldn't think about otherwise. I also did not expect to see my name on the dedication page. I was blown away by that. Thank you so much for doing that.

Debbie Charles: You deserve it. You have just been invaluable as a resource and just so giving of your time and your friendship and I really I can't say thank you enough. That's why I tried to raise it during this conversation because I don't think people realize how much time you spent.

Stephen Meserve: You're welcome. It was a lot of fun to share stuff and I'll be honest, there were some things that I didn't know the answer to, but I went and did the research for you. I called some people and tried to get some stuff for you that I didn't even know. I just tried to get you the best stuff that I could.

Debbie Charles: I figure that if you don't know it then 99.9% of my readers are not going to know it either.

Stephen Meserve: Ha, that's a good point. It’s funny because some of the questions that I asked when I interviewed the head athletic trainer, Mike DeGaetano… You mentioned the CBD and that kind of stuff. How do you get them to relax between games? I was thinking in the back of my head, ‘This would be good color stuff for Debbie. These guys exist in the fans’ minds for three hours at a time 82 times a year, but they also exist the other 160+ hours of the week every week. How do they fill that time? How much of it is dedicated to their professional pursuits and how much of it can be fun and interesting, like learning how to ballroom dance?

The questions you've asked have made me think about things that I haven't thought about before and have made me ask different questions and about more things that I hadn't thought about before.

Thank you again for your time, and we're all looking forward to book number two!

Debbie Charles: Thank you again for all of your help.

You can find Debbie's first novel in the Texas Tornadoes series on Amazon.