Powerplay

by Cally Phillips

Because life is just what you do between hockey games.

First written during the 2004 NHL Lockout, this ebook was published when the 2012 lockout started. Giving hockey fans something to do while they were waiting for the sport to start up. Powerplay explores the importance of ‘the rules’ of life through three sets of relationships – and of course there’s a referee to keep them in check. It’s fast and furious and it’s everything a hockey fan could wish for if you can’t have the REAL THING.

From the play:
PERIOD ONE ‘You were born to be hockey players. This is your moment.’
JAMIE: Man, it's just hockey.
TOM: Just hockey. And life's just breathing. Hockey isn't just a game Jamie, it's a complex set of rituals. Tactics and rituals. Like life. It's how you live your life.


PERIOD TWO ‘Sometimes you have to sacrifice your body for the team.’
TYLER: Come on Marty. It's just life, like you said. And life's not hockey is it. Like you said - life's the place we spend time between games.
MARTY: You're damned right life's not hockey. Life keeps moving the goalposts. And trading players mid match.
TYLER: Ah, maybe you never really know who's on your team in life, that's the point.
PERIOD THREE ‘Life is just the place we spend time between games.’
KELLY: Listen honey. You gotta know one thing. You gotta play with everything you got. I was you. Ten years ago. Bought into it all. He (points to Marty) He was just like him (points to Tom) Cuter maybe. Maybe a bit more focussed.. but..
JAMIE: So what happened?
KELLY: The game happened. (pause) Life. (pause) Winners and losers. And don't let anyone tell you that marriage puts you on the same team. It sure don't. Marriage is the mother of all powerplays. Get me?
JAMIE: So.. why..?
KELLY: We get older and we don't get wiser, we just get bored and we get meaner.. and we learn how to play dirty. But we learn to win. One way or another.Because life is just what you do between hockey games.

Unknown Binding

First published September 3, 2012

About the author

My writing career has 'downshifted' from screen to stage to page over 20 years. And now it focuses on digital. I'm in the process of publishing my back catalogue of stage plays as well as working on novels and 'advocacy' pieces. I write short stories regularly for McStorytellers, I have been editor of the Indie eBook Review and now review for Reading Between the Lines. I'm director of the Edinburgh eBook Festival and if that's not enough I'm working for a couple of Publishers - HoAmPresst, Guerrilla Midgie and Ayton Press, all of them with different niches. Spare time - hobbies? You've got to be joking. Between reading, writing and publishing there is no spare time. And I wouldn't have it any other way.