A big, huge shout out to "Friend of the Blog" author Peggy V. Beck.

Her book, "Sweet Turnaround J" has been published by "Friend of the Blog" publisher Bedazzled Ink. (Here's a review and you may recall Steve mentioning he was reading it.) From the flyleaf:

Sweet Turnaround J is sixteen-year old Janey Holmes’s account of her sophomore basketball season. An all-state player, Janey Holmes is devastated, her dream shattered, when her old high school suddenly closes over the summer and she finds herself at a new school, on a basketball team that hasn’t won a game in over three years. As the Riverside Ravens climb from a hopeless start to challenge the best teams in the district, Janey learns what happens when her passion for the game and loyalty to her team is threatened by her explosive temper and the free-fall desires of first love

Well, Peggy's been interviewed by yet ANOTHER "Friend of the Blog," Pat Griffin, Director of It Takes a Team!

PG: How did you decide to write a young adult novel about a high school lesbian basketball player?

PVB: The project began as my “what might have been” fantasy. As a kid I played every sport, ran track, and swam, but basketball was my passion. Unfortunately this was at a time when there were very few high schools with organized sports for girls, including my own. Being gay was not even on peoples’ radar screens. So I wanted to write about a girl, who like myself, was a basketball fanatic and who was also dealing with other issues that ultimately had an impact on her game and her dreams.

When I actually began writing the book it quickly became Janey Holmes’s story, not mine. Also, during the early phases of researching the novel I had watched high school girl basketball players trying to come to terms with their feelings towards other girls as well as kids’ and adults’ prejudices about being gay. I identified with these girls and wanted to turn their struggles into a dramatic sports novel. In the novel the players deal with abusive and over-zealous parents, jealousies over boys, homework anxiety—and face the unique problems of young lesbians.