Call me copycat, I don’t mind

When I was getting ready to publish FLIP SIDE, I had to provide the novel’s genre. It may seem like an easy task, but I hesitated when I had to select the primary category. Should it be Sports or YA Romance? Would gymnastics fans be annoyed by a gymnast who has time to fall in love? Or would the YA romance readers hate the gymnastics lingo?

As I was working on the 2nd edition of FLIP SIDE, I decided that Nina’s Mom should be a huge fan of The Cutting Edge. It’d been a while since I’d watched the movie, and when I googled it, I found articles that called it “an epic sports romance” and even “a cult classic.”

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One of the critics wrote the following review: “The Cutting Edge” is a marriage of two durable Hollywood genres: It’s an Underdog in Training sports film, crossed with that most beloved of all romantic formulas, the Incompatibles in Love.”

This description would fit dozens if not hundreds books about sports and romance. On a high level, most novels and movies can be boiled down to a simple formula, but that doesn’t necessarily make them boring. A lot of things in life are formulaic. When you go to a restaurant, you can order appetizers, main dishes, and desert. The best restaurants don’t serve shoes instead of main dishes, they excel in preparation and creativity. When you go to watch ballet, you wouldn’t be pleasantly surprised if the ballet troupe has been replaced by a football team. Sure, they both wear tights and many football players are good dancers, but no matter how many times I’ve seen the Dance of the Little Swans, I’d still prefer to watch the ballerinas’ version.

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FLIP SIDE tells the story of an elite gymnast who has to overcome several obstacles to achieve her dream of making it to the Olympics. And like the figure skater in the Cutting Edge, the gymnast in FLIP SIDE falls in love at the worst possible time.

If somebody calls FLIP SIDE the gymnastics version of The Cutting Edge, I would not be offended, in fact, I would use that to pitch my book to movie producers. So, go ahead, call me copycat, I think we’re overdue for another “epic sports romance.”