Francine Beaton

When I've plotted the series, Playing for Glory, Jakes was only a number of the team. He didn't have a story. While watching a rugby game during the 2017 Super Rugby Competition, a scene popped up in my head. I had to write it down because it had been so vivid. When I finished, I had a couple of hundreds of words and the names of the two characters, Jakes and Angie. The days that followed, that scene kept on popping in my head and I spent more time thinking about Jakes than I did the manuscript I’ve been working on. A few days after I’ve written that scene, the rugby world was shocked by the passing away of the Wallaby Dan Vickerman. There were many panel discussions and articles about his passing, but a discussion on a New Zealand talk show about Dan’s death and the struggles of professional sportsmen and women really caught my attention. One panelist said that it was not uncommon that men in a macho environment don’t talk about their emotions and fears as they don’t want to appear weak. That phrase caught my attention and stuck. I thought about it constantly. The only research before I continued writing was what could cause men in macho environments to fear that they were weak—or any man for that matter. I had my story in a matter of minutes.

I've completed two more books. Making the Right Call is the first book in the prequel series to Playing for Glory called Kick-Off. It would be published in October 2018. It would be followed by Running Interference, book two in the Playing for Glory series. I'm currently working on an anthology piece, set in London and the Scottish Highlands. I'm also finalizing a novel called Taste for Coffee, set in Edinburgh. Then I'm working on a manuscript, in the similar vein as Eye on the Ball but in my native Afrikaans, which I would like to enter in a competition. After that, it is back to Wrecking Ball, book three in Playing for Glory series and Kick-Off, book two.