The Other Guys - Antoine Vermette of the Phoenix Coyotes

The Kings won last night against the Sharks, 1-0. Holy moly did we need those two points! And only 24 hours later, they have to play again.

Tonight they face another Western Conference team, the Phoenix Coyotes.

Antoine Vermette is 31 years old. He's a center man and he's married. He got his third career hat trick just two days ago.

Here he is looking a little scruffy.

Here he is with is bride. They look adorable, but...what's with the umbrellas?

And because this eye candy picture was there, here he is semi-shirtless.

Photo from Hockey for the Ladies, 25Stanley, Life is Peachy.

Last Line Last Night

I'm working on the epilogue for ACROSS THE LINE, Book 2 in the In The Zone series. This is the second try for me. The first epilogue wasn't working at all. But don't worry. There aren't any spoilers in this little peek.

“Here’s the menu I chose.” He pulled a card out of his pocket and handed it to her.

Parisian Spring Rolls; Shitake Mushroom, Pork and Black Truffle Fried Won Tons; Dragon Soup; Empress Chicken; Peking Foie Gras; Seared Beef Medallions; Honey Garlic Spare Ribs; Firecracker Fish; Prawns in White Wine;  and for dessert, Chocolate Tofu Napoleons.

Yeah, there's a lot of food in this book.

Forfeiting to Harlequin Superromance

I got word today that there's a Harlequin Superromance book coming out with the title IN HER CORNER. Harlequin tries to avoid publishing two books with the same title.

Sigh.

So, since that book comes out first, I have to change my title to...

ACROSS THE LINE

I think ACROSS THE LINE is actually just as nice a title. It fits the story, because both the main characters cross a line with each other, and there are lots of lines in hockey, like the blue line, pictured here with the handsome Jarret Stoll of the LA Kings. And oddly, enough it was on my original list of suggested titles, so I thought of it. LOL

Let's hope that title sticks!

A Brief TV "Appearance"

The LA Kings have a show this season on Fox Sports West called Kings Weekly. It's a fluffy show focusing on a lot of the off-ice activities the Kings are involved in, like charity events, the Father/Son Road Trip--stuff like that. Recently they started a feature called Fan Takeover. Twitter fans request a certain player be interviewed. Then, once the player is chosen, fans tweet questions.

This week, the player was Mike Richards. Love this guy. So down to earth. I submitted a couple of questions and one of them made it! "Does Arnold ever go to practice or on road trips with you?"

I was so excited, my scream freaked out my son who thought I'd cut myself in the kitchen.

What was Mike's answer? Arnold has not been to the rink in a long time. He didn't say whether he'd gone on a road trip, but went on and on about how nice it was to have his dog with him here in California rather than with his parents.

Here's a picture of Mike and Arnold. So cute together.

Photo credit: Me and Mike Richards

The Other Guys - Jason Garrison of the Vancouver Canucks

Although depressed about the Kings recent losing streak, I am optimistic about tonight's game against the Canucks. Not for any hockey specific reason, like stats or having a history of winning against that particular team. I'm just an optimistic person.

When browsing the Canucks' roster for a handsome player to feature today, I saw the name Jason Garrison, which cracked me up because I have a friend whose husband is named Jason Garrison. Needless to say, my friend is not married to an NHL player. Anyway, the Canucks defenseman was pretty cute, so I didn't have to look any further.

It's my day off today and I have some writing to do, so I've got to go.

Photo credit: Jason Kurylo for Pucked in the Head and Hockey Talk with Courtney

Title Announcement

I just got word from my editor that the team finally settled on a title for the second book in the In The Zone series. I gave them a list of 39 possible titles. Some of my ideas were about perfection and being a perfectionist. Some had to do with the distance between them at the beginning of the book. Others had to do with Calder supporting Becca through thick and thin, which is the theme they liked most. Here are my suggestions that centered on that theme.

At Her Side

By Her Side

On Her Side

On Her Team

On Her Own

Right There Beside Her

Backing Up Becca

Across the Line

Anywhere You Are

Never Alone

But the title they chose was

IN HER CORNER

I like it! It's a preposition, like Book 1's ON THE SURFACE, and my sister-in-law pointed out they have corners in hockey! Sure, they're rounded, but you hear in broadcasts all the time, "They're battling for the puck in the corner," or "So and so just took a hard hit in the corner," so there is a dual meaning to the title, which I appreciate.

Now if I could just see some cover art for ON THE SURFACE!!!!

Photo by Sillygwailo (cc)