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A Universal Fantasy
Born for the Game follows a man that has worked hard for all he has in life, now he wants to create the perfect baseball player. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
The original idea grew from a story I heard in the 1970’s about a blind man who tripped over his dog’s dish, hit the wall with his head and was able to see. I thought that there are tremendous possibilities within the brain. I played a lot of ball as a kid, so I originally thought of a baseball player who hits his head in a car accident and becomes the greatest ballplayer of all time, even though he was well past his prime. The story changed over the past 40 years, but the concept of being the greatest of all time and the challenges accompanying that lofty goal, remained the crux of the story. What does it take to be the greatest at anything? This is a universal question and dreaming about it is a universal fantasy. Someone has to be the best. Why not me? Why not you? The possibility of it, albeit slight, exists, and that’s what makes it so much fun to imagine.
Ryan Stone is the result of Phineas’s plan for the perfect player. What were some driving ideals behind her development?
When I was looking at a story with all-male characters, I thought it was in desperate need of a strong female presence, so I thought that the challenges facing a female to be the greatest baseball player adds so much more fuel to the story’s fire. Once I decided on that concept, I began thinking what a female would have to do to be better than men. Just because it’s never been done before doesn’t mean it cannot be done. Those who lived before the Wright brothers could have never imagined that a ton of steel and fuel could fly through the air to deliver people and goods all over the world or that picture and sound could be transmitted through airwaves into space and then shot down into your phone or TV. Just because it hasn’t been done, doesn’t mean it cannot be done. I had to build a story where this idea was feasible.
What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?
The pursuit of dreams, love, betrayal, gender roles, and how choices drive our life’s journey.
What is the next book that you are working on and when will it be available?
It’s hard to say at this point because I decided to work on getting a literary agent this year. I’d like to see my books as films. First, I write the screenplay and then I write the novel. Writing one book for me is writing two. I have several ideas for other stories and none of them are in the sports genre. I’ve written four books and a short story in the sports genre… although I really do flip genres during my stories, so this next one will be a whole new platform. I have seven or eight ideas scribbled on a piece of paper, but I won’t even begin until at least a year from now.
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Multi-award-winning author Mike DeLucia is back with new and exciting characters, and a story about the pursuit of dreams, love, betrayal, and how choices drive our life’s journey.
Phineas Stone’s life as a dwarf and a product of the foster-care system mold his dogged determination to rise above his meager circumstances and build a financial empire. But even his magnificent wealth and influence cannot buy his lifelong dream of playing baseball for his beloved Los Angeles Greyhounds.
Together with Rollie Rollins, a former Major League knuckleballer with a penchant for mischief, and his longtime friend, Ito Hachi, Phineas effects a brilliant, yet unorthodox plan of creating an elite athlete under a veil of secrecy and pretense.
The characters in this story are driven by their dreams, but ultimately realize that chasing them brings with it the possibilities of both rapture or insufferable tragedy.
Born for the Game
What does it take to become the greatest of all time? Mike DeLucia’s new book, Born for the Game, presents a well-crafted and riveting premise where a bit of cleverness and hard work is all you need to achieve the impossible. Phineas Stone has big dreams, he’s trying to build a big, successful life for himself, and there’s nothing that can get in the way of reaching his goals. He creates a successful and profitable business through pure will, yet he knows that his biggest dream is one he can’t actually accomplish: getting the chance to play in the major leagues. Nevertheless, his immense determination and his inventiveness lead him to craft a plan through which he intends to create the greatest baseball player of all time.
Readers will find Phineas’ plan exciting to experience, from design to execution. He made sure to keep close people with talent and MLB connections to pull it all off. The plan involved the creation of the perfect baseball player from its conception, where he chose two of the most talented people as parents and only left one thing to chance: the gender of the baby. With this, we finally meet Ryan Stone, a girl and possibly the perfect player that Phineas had envisioned. Readers will have the fantastic opportunity of seeing Ryan’s unique career from the moment she was just a child, and it’s such an exciting and intriguing idea that readers absolutely will enjoy.
The book is structured in short chapters, each gripping and with a new, adventurous idea to present. DeLucia is an incredible storyteller. From the very beginning, readers will be hooked, flipping through every page to find out more, learn about Ryan’s experience, and finally see if she was going to prove herself. Phineas Stone was able to turn his plan from fantasy into reality, which will immediately captivate readers. There’s so much to love in this book, the writing, the story, the characters: everything is perfectly structured. It’s also fascinating getting to explore the idea of a girl trying to become the greatest baseball player of all time, demolishing sexist notions on her way to achieving the most significant success.
Born for the Game is a story about hard work, talent, and family. There are so many lessons hidden in this fiction story, making it entertaining and inspiring. Ryan is such a unique character with a fierce personality and unstoppable attitude that will leave readers asking for more. This riveting and enthralling story will entertain readers of sports fiction, women’s fiction, and baseball lovers of all kinds.
Pages: 179 | ASIN : B09KF6GCGN
LITERARY TITAN 