The Making of Desk Jockey Jam – A Fab Freebie

I saw my first roller derby bout under protest.  I got dragged there.  Hordern Pavilion – Sydney Roller Derby League:  Beauty School Knockouts v Screaming Assault Sirens v D’viants v Team Unicorn.

What a blast.

I loved the speed, the music, the fans.  And I loved the girls.  Derby girls rock.  They come in all sizes, ages and outrage with at least two things in common:  guts and skill.

And because it’s a chick’s sport they are unremarked, unaccounted for and unrewarded.  So what else is new.

For a while now I’ve wanted to write a story with a derby doll heroine.  It was something about the fabulous fantasy of the sport and a desire to address the whole gender in sport imbalance in some way – plus kissing.

The fit came about when it was pointed out (firmly!) by readers of Grease Monkey Jive that I’d left out a HEA for Ant.

Rhian Cahill, fellow Escape Publishing author said, “Well fix it’, or some such instructional words.  And the thought was born.

Who best to pull down the arrogance in a suit that was Ant Gambese than a roller derby doll.  He’d never see her coming, especially if I made her as clever on the flat track as she was in the brokerage office.

So I did.  And it was fun to see my last man standing dumped on his butt when he least expected it.

It was also fun to revisit the Jive crew, put the band back together.

Desk Jockey Jam is a novella of 40,000 words that picks up after Jive and gives Ant his day of reckoning.  It’s got 80’s music, dress-ups, boys discussing equal opportunity and a twist on gender politics on and off wheels.

It can be read on it’s own (I think it stands up!) or as a spin-off (it’s the wheels) to Jive.

It’s live on Amazon and will be free for five days from June 7-11.  After that it will retail for a mere .99 cents.  Cheap for all the thrills and spills!

Here’s the blurb:

Whip it meets Wall Street

Anthony Gambese thought he had life sussed.  Happy family, good mates, the freedom of surfing, a new career, and enough action in the bedroom to keep him well satisfied.  He had no idea.  But two chicks were about to show him the error of his ways, trashing his love life, stealing his promotion and challenging his honour.  And that was before he discovered what a roller derby doll could do by skating over his heart.

Like a roller derby jam, this novella is tight packed, fast and furious.

It can be read alone or as a follow up to Grease Monkey Jive.  It tells the story of Ant Gambese, the last of Dan’s mates not felled by a girl who was exactly what he needed, and didn’t see coming.

And a little excerpt:

Bree eyed the penalty box.  It was only a bench seat positioned at the side of the track, but it was where roller girls who’d pulled something illegal got sent for a minute.  Perhaps if she looked at it hard enough she could avoid going there during the bout, because her mood could best be described as savage.  She felt like pushing, punching, elbowing, head-butting.  She felt like ignoring safe contact zones and doing some damage.

Last night with Ant had been out of bounds, off the track, and she only had herself to blame.  She’d acted like fresh meat who didn’t know her arse from her elbow in a jam.  She knew better.  She’d known players like Ant all her adult life.  They were heart crushers.  They were sanity wreckers.  They were a plague of bad skin and hideous weight swings.  They were the stain of regret that never quite washed off.  They were a good reason to skate alone, because they’d whip you into a brick wall soon as a better option showed up, or you challenged their notion of the world.

She did not need a man like Ant in her life.  A colleague.  A competitor.  A stickyfoot.  He made Tom, with his demands and his assumptions, look like a safe option, a reasonable person.

But she’d wanted him.  She’d wanted his big sticky paws all over her.  And now she wanted some violence with a capital Vee.

The fab cover was done by the equally fab Rebekah Turner, mother of Lora Blackgoat from Chaos Born and boy did we have trouble with those skates – yeah we know they’re not quite right – more fresh meat than true doll.  Ah well, it’s fiction.

Anyway, don’t be a stickyfoot, get yourselves some free Jam.