One of the first questions I get when people find out that I write hockey romance is—why hockey? First and foremost, because I love the sport. It’s more than that, though. I was a freelance journalist most of my career and covered a lot of NHL hockey for different publications. My hometown of Ft. Lauderdale got a team in 1993—the Florida Panthers—and I fell in love with everything hockey. I married a man who played through college, and still plays in men’s leagues, and we’re a big hockey-loving family. I’ve always been told to write what you know, so that’s what I do!
I try to find a good balance in my books between the romance—the actual relationship between the hero and heroine—and the hockey, to make hockey lovers and non-hockey lovers alike find something to sink their teeth into. Gritty, sexy, loyal, loving characters make up my two hockey series and my readers say they keep coming back for more because they like the family saga feel through recurring characters, even though almost all the books are stand-alone.
The second question I often get is where do I get my inspiration for my players. That’s an easy one because I get it right from real life. While nothing in the stories depict the lives of any of the players who inspire them, pictures of them out of the hockey world ignite my imagination and things go from there, so I’ve made a list of players around the league and the 10 characters they’ve inspired to give you an idea on how to write strong male leads – whether in their skates or under the sheets.
1 – Karl Martensson from “Las Vegas Sidewinders: Karl.”
Karl is my hunky Swedish goalie and he’s a 6’4” fictional combination of the San Jose Sharks’ Erik Karlsson and the New York Rangers’ Henrik Lundqvist. Karlsson is a defenseman and Lundqvist is a goalie, but they’re both Swedish like my character. I used Lundqvist’s fair coloring and playing style between the pipes along with Karlsson’s long hair and sense of humor as a starting point. The rest was all my whacky imagination!
2 – Sergei Petrov from “Defending Dani.”
Sergei is the hero in my second spin-off series, the Alaska Blizzard. He’s the younger, hotter brother of Toli Petrov (#3 below) and in my mind’s eye his looks came from my own version of an older, more mature (but super sexy) Elias Lindholm from the Carolina Hurricanes. Sergei’s bulked up physique was modeled after legendary player Rob Brind’Amour (retired in 2010), who was known for his intense workouts. Sometimes, a tiny snippet of information like that is all it takes.
With Brind’Amour’s body as my starting point, I made Sergei bigger and more muscular than a traditional hockey player, which led to the heroine in the story. My plan all along was to have strong, independent women in this series, so it made sense to make her strong and athletic as well. Making her an Olympic champion was a departure for me—none of my other books had female athletes—so the stronger I made her, the stronger Sergei had to be as well!
3 – Toli Petrov from “Las Vegas Sidewinders: Anatoli.”
Toli is probably one of my favorite characters and I had so much fun writing him. He’s Russian, with a crooked smile, smokin’ hot abs, and quirky personality, which includes often talking about himself in third person. I drew his inspiration from the Washington Capitals’ quirky Russian captain, Alex Ovechkin, and Hollywood hottie Alexander Skarsgard.
Initially, Toli was going to be the older, reliable friend everyone went to for advice. His character, however, took on a life of his own and it quickly became obvious he was going to need his own book. The one thing I wanted to keep was his quirky sense of humor so I devoured all kinds of videos of Ovechkin doing crazy things, like holding up a sign at the 2015 All-Star draft that said “I want to be last—I need a car.” The more I read about Ovechkin’s antics, the more Toli began to take shape. But looks-wise, he was blond and completely different, which is when I found pictures of Alexander Skarsgard that instantly spoke to me. Combining two totally different men in pictures would be difficult—but doing it in your head is amazing. And fun. 😉
4 – Drake Riser from “Las Vegas Sidewinders: Drake.”
Drake is a big, tough softie who falls in love with a female Marine who’s got burns over forty percent of her body. His character was another interesting combination—one hockey player and one TV character. His looks are mostly based on the character of Marty Deeks from “NCIS: Los Angeles.” I made him big, strong and tough—with an equally large heart—like John Scott, who retired from hockey in December of 2016.
Sometimes these ideas fall into your lap. Though the plot of the book was already in place, when John Scott was voted onto the 2016 NHL All-Star team, his story was all over the sports networks and he was foremost in my mind as I did final edits. I gave Drake elements of the big-hearted Scott while still retaining the original character traits. Though Drake’s looks remained 75% based on Deeks’ character (played by actor Eric Christian Olsen), his personality evolved with the influence of Scott’s public persona.
5 – Jamie Teller from “Temptation’s Inferno.”
Jamie is a bisexual character struggling with life, love and his sexuality, but I based his looks on the uber-hunky Roman Josi from the Nashville Predators. Jamie isn’t a big guy, but good-looking and an excellent play-maker for my Las Vegas Sidewinders as well as the (also fictional) Ottawa Generals.
Inspiration came a little backwards for this book. The first draft was written in ten days because it was a story that needed to be told and it came pouring out. However, after the first draft was done, I started thinking about who Jamie had become as I wrote it. He had brown hair and dark eyes, and part of his struggle is the fact that he’s not as big as many other players around the NHL. Roman Josi came to mind and as soon as I found pictures of him, I knew he was the Jamie in my mind’s eye. Nothing is ever exact—Roman is Swiss, Jamie is Canadian; Roman has light eyes, Jamie’s are dark. But there was no doubt he was the visual depiction of the Jamie I’d created, and when I went back through the story, I tweaked parts of it to make him a bit more like Roman looks-wise as well as his with his playing style.
6 – Brock Lassiter from “Las Vegas Sidewinders: Brock.”
Brock’s physical appearance was modeled after the one and only Brent Burns, who plays for the San Jose Sharks and is known as much for his crazy fashion sense and long beard as he is for his offensive defensive playing style. Though my character’s troubled background and reluctance to settle down in no way follows Burns’ life, I had a lot of fun creating a hero with an out-of-control beard and a fun-loving personality. Since I watch hockey daily (yes, we have the satellite hockey package), it was easy to keep Burns on my mind as I developed my character.
7 – Kane Hatcher from “Holding Hailey.”
Kane was modeled after Pittsburgh Penguins player Kris Letang. Kris’ Instagram account is full of pictures of his wife and son. Letang’s obvious love of his family inspired me to create a similar character-type. I wanted someone who resembled Kris physically. But I also wanted someone who steps into the role of a family man, dedicated husband, and loving father.
8 – Vladimir Kolnikov from “Las Vegas Sidewinders: Vladimir.”
Vlad is another Russian player on my Sidewinders team. His imaginary good looks came from (yet another Swede—I think I have a thing for them) Oliver Ekman-Larsson.
Vladimir had been a side character from the very first book of my Sidewinders series. Although I knew he would eventually get a book, I didn’t have a feel for the character yet. That is, until I saw Oliver Ekman-Larsson in a suit. That was Vlad. And I immediately started stalking Ekman-Larsson online for non-hockey pictures to help me build up his physicality. Emotionally, the story had been brewing for years, but Ekman-Larsson gave me all sorts of imaginary prompts.
9 – Viggo Sjoberg from “Temptation’s Inferno.”
I needed Viggo’s character to be strong both physically and emotionally. To do that, I drew his red-headed ruggedness from the Philadelphia Flyers’ captain, Claude Giroux. And I picked his Swedish good looks from (Finnish player) Saku Koivu, who retired in 2014.
10 – Royce Lenahan from “Las Vegas Sidewinders: Royce”
Coming in 2019! I had the opportunity to interview Erik Gudbranson in 2014 when he played for the Florida Panthers. I knew immediately I would someday model a character after him. He was strikingly handsome in person. And told me he was a big concert-goer, which will be characteristics Royce will have. Although I didn’t have a player in mind when I met Erik, when I started adding Royce as a side character in later books, I went through some of my favorite players in my mind. When I got to Erik, it clicked like two pieces of a puzzle. Now, I’m currently plotting out Royce’s character with about 400 pictures of Erik open on multiple tables on my computer… no better way to stimulate the imagination than photographs of good-looking hockey players!
It’s so much fun dreaming up these characters’ stories (and romances!) with a real-life face in your head. Since most of them are combinations of multiple players/celebrities, it’s like two for the price of one. I hope you enjoy my stories as much as I enjoy writing them—hockey hunks for the win!
And check out my newest release WINNING WHITNEY available now on NOOK! For more information on me and my books head over to www.katmizera.com.
