Sean Kennedy's Blog

Tigers on the Run is now… er, running?

I will be doing a chat on the DSP blog later today - 8pm my time, 8am USA time.

More deets to follow.

I thought after the huge four week marking job I just did the last thing I would want to do this weekend is start writing again. But I just blew the dust off the current MS and wrote five hundred words. It's like a minor miracle.

Now up on Dreamspinner!




Young Australian Micah Johnson is the first AFL player to be out at the beginning of his career. Retired professional football player Declan Tyler mentors Micah, but he finds it difficult, as Micah is prone to making poor life choices that land him in trouble. Nothing Dec can’t handle. He’s been there, done that, more times than he’d like to admit. Being Simon Murray’s partner all these years has Dec quite experienced in long-suffering and mishaps.
As usual, Simon thinks everything is going along just fine until his assistant, Coby, tells him a secret involving an old nemesis. Simon and Dec’s problems mash together, and to solve them, they must undertake a thousand-kilometer round trip in which issues will have to be sorted out, apologies are finally given, and a runaway kid is retrieved and returned to his worried parents.

Available for pre-order.  Released July 13.

Okay, so proof positive that I really suck at remembering things, organising, anything that sometimes requires a logical mind (besides sudoku), I received a bit of somewhat pleasant but also 'oh shit! I have to ramp up preparing things!' news today.Tigers on the Run isn't coming out in September.It's set for mid-July.

Young Australian Micah Johnson is the first AFL player to be out at the beginning of his career. Retired professional football player Declan Tyler mentors Micah, but he finds it difficult, as Micah is prone to making poor life choices that land him in trouble. Nothing Dec can’t handle. He’s been there, done that, more times than he’d like to admit. Being Simon Murray’s partner all these years has Dec quite experienced in long-suffering and mishaps.

As usual, Simon thinks everything is going along just fine until his assistant, Coby, tells him a secret involving an old nemesis. Simon and Dec’s problems mash together, and to solve them they must undertake a thousand kilometer round trip in which issues will have to be sorted out, apologies are finally given, and a runaway kid is retrieved and returned to his worried parents.

Cait Miller pointed out a very pleasant surprise for me through Twitter: Book Riot had an article where I was included in a list of five authors 'to get you started in M/M romance'.  And I was in good company.

It's a humbling feeling to have your book, and what for me was my first, to keep getting recognition.  I in no way anticipated that when I first published in the genre.

In some ways it is also scary as you think nothing else you do will ever compare!  And believe me, I never saw it as a 'sports romance' and it's funny to think of it as such.  AFL is the only sport I follow, so to be seen as a sports romance novelist is quite ironic.

I've been dwelling a lot on the future of the series, and what the endgame will be.  Part of me could keep writing Simon and Dec forever, even if nobody else ever read them again, because they have become in that really wanky author way 'part of me'.  But I don't know if that's a good thing.  There will definitely be a book 4, it's already planned, and the boys will no doubt continue to pop up in cameos in the spin-off series, and little short stories now and again.  But I don't know.  I'm rambling on I guess.

Some late night Friday musings.

Here is the article itself!

I was tagged on Facebook to list 15 small things that make me happy.


1. In-jokes with friends, the stupider the better as it gives you warm fuzzes about your shared history.

2. Sticking my face in the cat's warm belly on a cold day.

3. Hearing the Tigers' theme song at the end of a victorious game.

4. The sound of the postie dropping off a parcel on the front door.

5. Sliding into a bed with clean sheets on laundry day.

6. Feeling the bed shift as the cats jump on it to settle in for the night.

7. The chest-destroying blow of a secret crush.

8. Opening a new (or even old) book for the first time.

9. Reading "Persuasion" for the eleventh-billionth time.

10. The opening credits to Twin Peaks.

11. Listening to eighties pop through headphones.

12. Any form of stationery.

13. Whenever Wonder Woman beats down someone who gives her lip.

14. The first cup of coffee for the day.

15. Hearing the sound of the TARDIS and that momentary flash of "YES! HE'S FINALLY COME FOR ME!"

Declan Tyler is becoming more than a cameo in the spin-off book of "Tigers and Devils", which is weird because Simon is remaining as a cameo appearance.

It's strange to have Declan be around other people and not seen through Simon's eyes.

I didn't think he'd be in it so much, but as I'm researching the draft process it became apparent that he would be much more of a major player in the plot so he keeps inserting himself as I write.

Dec, you are a show-pony after all!

I'm actually more clueless about the drafting process than I thought.

Isabelle Rowan tagged me to say 7 things about my writing life.

1. I really am a night owl. 80% of my writing gets done between midnight and 3am. It means when I'm writing my sleeping schedule is fucked with a capital F.

2. When I was writing Tigers and Devils I missed my dear friend Fran so much I gave her name to a character. Who was a het married woman. It was a bit of a contrast.

3. It's true what they say about becoming emotionally invested in your characters. I feel like Simon and Dec are real people and I get disappointed I can't hang out with them properly.

4. I love if I have to research for a book. I just ordered some stuff so I can figure out the AFL draft process properly for the Tigers spin-off I'm currently writing. I'd hate to be half-arsed and then have people nitpick. You may change things for dramatic license, but you like the gist of it to be right.

5. The best part of writing is reading. Read, read, read. The more you read, the more you will understand about the writing process.

6. I always have someone in my head who 'resembles' the character, and other people are often horrified by my vision. One hundred percent of the time I'm usually horrified by how they imagine them as well.

7. Sometimes I get scared that the only thing I can write is Simon Murray. And sometimes I think, well, if that's it, then I can be pretty happy about it as well.