Saturday, May 16, 2020

Hitting a Homerun on Inspiration by Nicole Asselin

Well, we made it through week 4306586 (does time even matter anymore?) of social distance and isolation. Congrats everyone!

One thing I miss is baseball. Probably not surprising since my debut cozy mystery is titled Murder At First Pitch. It is set in the fictional world of an independent league baseball, located on the South Shore of Massachusetts. Luckily, my second book was completed (and currently in edits) before the quarantine. I’m not going to lie, creativity has been a little lacking for me since we locked down. Usually I have the Red Sox games to keep my creative juices flowing, but now there is nothing.

The first book in the Ballpark Mysteries was written exclusively during the historic Red Sox baseball season in 2018. I used the team as inspiration and found myself loving to write during summer days out on the deck with Joe Castiglione (voice of the Red Sox) on my radio.  This year, with no sports on, I’ve found it harder to get into the headspace of my own fictional baseball team.

A breakthrough came this week when ESPN began airing Korean Baseball League games. It’s a surreal experience to watch baseball when I wake up at 5:30 in the morning, but I found it helping me get new ideas and finding more inspiration to write. For those who don’t know, the Korean league is a little different from the majors. They have a cheerleading dance team, which performs on the dugouts between innings. Even with no fans in the stadium, there are plenty of people watching on the computer, and they love all the pageantry.  It’s something I hope the MLB brings to the season if/when they start.  And I know I will be putting some of the fun things I’ve seen into future books.

For some people, writing is a quiet time of reflection or introspection. For me, writing is a way to put my passions on paper. Baseball has been one of my passions for a long time now, and I can’t wait for it to come back. Until then, I can retreat to the world of the Abington Armadillos to get my baseball fix in.

Stay safe, and keep reading!



Nicole Asselin grew up a Navy brat and spent her formative high school years in the middle of Pennsylvania but always identified with her New England roots. Her grandfather introduced her to Red Sox Nation and her grandmother introduced her to mystery novels.

Nicole graduated from Curry College in Milton, Massachusetts, in 2004 with a degree in English/Creative Writing, minoring in Dance. Now working in just outside of Boston as a technical writer, she lives on the South Shore of Massachusetts with her three cats Julia, Jacques, and Madeline. Nicole is a current member of Sisters in Crime (National and New England) and the Mystery Writers of America. She sits on the Board of Directors for the NE branches of both groups as Social Media Liaison.

7 comments:

  1. Congratulations on your debut! Great setting.

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  2. That was so interesting hearing how baseball is done in Korea. Also interesting that you can listen to a game while writing. I need quiet. But since you are writing about baseball, you probably would find it inspiring. I grew up in central Pennsylvania, Altoona, and it was such a beautiful spot in the Allegheny Mountains. And although I live now in Virginia, I set my books in a fictional town in the midst of the Allegheny Mountains.

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  3. Yes, many sources of inspiration have dried up. I wonder if anything you write while you're following the Korean baseball will have an exotic flavor. One of my brothers lived in South Korea for a while, and he had lots of fascinating anecdotes about the people and the culture.

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  4. Nicole, congratulations on your debut!

    I'm from Kentucky, and when basketball got canceled in March I almost went into shock. I totally understand missing baseball. We're a sports family, and I think I'll love reading your book.

    Again, congratulations!

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  5. Congratulations! Sounds like an interesting series, and, like Grace, I find it amazing that you listen to baseball while you write.

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  6. Congratulations on your debut novel and best of luck with the second. When will it be released?

    Like Grace and Susan, I cannot imagine writing with background sound. Plenty of writers do, though, I know a few who cannot write without a playlist. They say it sets the mood and brings them to a higher level of creativity. So glad that you found your muse again with Korean baseball. Are you considering a traveling game in your next novel?

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  7. Someone once asked me if I write to music and I said "Only if the music in my head counts."

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