salixbabylon | signal boosting

Dreamspinner is looking for a few more submissions for the daily dose anthology. Full details are here: http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/pages.php?pID=7&CDpath=0

Make a Play - No Losers in the Game of Love

Dreamspinner Press is seeking romantic short stories and novellas containing themes and settings related to sports of any kind. This can be much more than athletes and competitions. We encourage authors to think outside the box.

Possible examples: A fan who goes to baseball games weekly catches the eye of a hotdog vendor. A physical therapist takes a job working on the football sidelines and falls for the coach. A retired athlete takes a high school coaching job and hits it off with another teacher. A college student joins the cheer team and gets more than just a tumbling partner. A single father meets another while they watch their sons at T-ball. Two players face off first at a cutthroat chess tournament and later in the bedroom. The owner of a sporting goods store sponsors an athlete in a local competition and becomes his biggest fan. A rookie player goes to a near-retirement veteran for pointers in the game, life, and love. The kid who was always picked last for teams in gym class falls for the reporter interviewing him when he grows up to buy a major sports franchise.

shannon just brainstormed up a ton more ideas.
There's archery, sharp shooting (I come from Gundam Wing fandom and shoulder holsters are Sexy), the Highland Games (half-naked guys in kilts... Well in Florida they're half-naked. It's hot here.). Then the medieval games like Jousting and sword battles.

There's Lacrosse and just think of the history of that game. It was originally played by various Native American tribes and is the oldest North American team game. Warriors played it and they would win brides, land, and so forth.

There's knife throwing. Ax throwing. Hiking. Mountain climbing. Car racing. Swimming. Diving. Deep sea diving. Dueling with swords or guns depending on the time period. Water polo. Ballroom Dance (Oh, the elegance...). Pole dancing. Martial Art bouts (Kung Fu, Karate, Taikwondo, Jujutsu, Muay Thai, Judo, Aikido, etc.). Boxing. Triathlons. Iron Man competitions.

The bar-room sports like darts and pool. Lets not forget the spectators, sports reporters, announcers, managers, medics, physical therapists, individuals making or selling sports equipment, and the bands. The band competitions. There are male cheerleaders.

And then there's the western sports such as barrel racing, cutting (team sport- Can so see a threesome/moresome from that), bull riding, bronco riding, roping competitions (I'm keeping this Pg-13, but I'm sure you can imagine...). Let's not forget the English riding sports. Dressage, Eventing, Endurance riding (long distance race), horse racing in general and these events have existed for centuries so the timeline is your playground.

Polo on horseback... (I seriously thought our soccer team's rarely used back field would have been much better used for Polo).

Then there's the more intellectual sports like board games, Chess, Mahjong, Go (Have you ever seen two people play this? It's intense and the board when they're done is art.)

Then aside from contemporary themes there's what you can do in non-contemporary worlds. Mermaids--Just think of all the water sports. A winged race--so many aerial sports. Magic--Mages would have magic competitions. Would it be elemental? Spell-based? Duels? Steampunk. Now wouldn't that be fun?

I'm not a sports person. I spent the entirety of high school re-organizing my History teacher's stockroom *by choice* because I wanted to avoid Pep Rallys. But I love the possibilities inherent in this prompt. There's so much to do with it.