Category: Defending Irene
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U.S.A. vs Colombia at 6:00 pm Eastern and 3:00 Pacific!
During so many events at the Olympic games, the local crowds have tended to cheer against the U.S. But will they feel the same about the women’s soccer team? We’ll see. One fan thinks that Tobin Heath is secretly Brazilian. And there are rivalries in South America. My Peruvian sister-in-law is always happy to cheer…
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Defending Irene was Released as an E-book Today
My soccer novel about an American girl playing on an Italian boys’ team in Italy was released as an e-book today. Since DEFENDING IRENE originally came out in 2004, a few sections will undoubtedly read more like historical fiction. But so many things hold up. Italian women and girls are making slow but serious headway…
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Italy vs. German: Euro Cup 2016
My name and heritage might be German, but I’ll be cheering for the Azzurri this Saturday, July 2, at 3:00 Eastern time and noon Pacific time on ESPN 2 when the Italians take on Germany in the Euro quarterfinal match. After all, once upon a time, my American son dreamed of playing for the Italian World…
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A Few International Reads
On my bookshelf, I have all sorts of outdated Rick Steves guidebooks from the days my husband I roamed around Europe with our kids. In one of his books, he recommended that parents have their kids watch movies to help get them excited about different locations before they arrived. I remember picking up the Italian-dubbed…
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Finding a Way to Win
I”ve been watching the U.S. Women’s Soccer team with delight. Less than 10 minutes after this blog post goes up, I’ll be plopping myself in front of the TV to watch them take on Japan. Both teams arrived at this moment because of their skill, determination, conditioning and desire. Players like Abby Wambaugh, Hope Solo, and…
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Reverse Chronological Order/Explanation of Dedication Page
One thing about blogs is that people will generally read things from newest to oldest. So I’m going to work my way backwards from my decision to submit SUSPECT to Peachtree to how I came up with the original idea for SUSPECT in the first place. It was essentially a ten-year journey from my first scribbles on…
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“O Light the Heart that Lingers in Merano”
I first heard the songs from the musical CHESS back in college. One of the guys in my Douglas Houghton Hall dorm at Michigan Tech was demonstrating the astonishing clarity that his new CD player brought to the music. (And yes, this was the latest thing back in the early 80’s.) He started with the radio hit “One Night in…
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Soccer in any Language
I’m sure that it’s difficult for World Cup soccer players to hear each other over the vuvuzelas. When the words do make it through that drone, they probably have a difficult time understanding their own teammates. In many matches, they can only guess at what their opponents are saying. Goal appears to be universal even if the O-sound has a slightly different…
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Contemporary Fiction
Editors warn authors against putting things in their contemporary novels that will “date” the books unless a project is already anchored somehow in time. As I watched the Italians lose their final game of group playof th 2010 World Cup, I wondered whether DEFENDING IRENE had made the jump from contemporary sports fiction to historical sports…
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Best of the Best
Every year the Bank Street College of Education Book Committee reviews over 6000 titles. They put 600 of those books into their Best Children’s Books of the Year publication. The Bank Street College of Education recently put out a list of their Outstanding Books for the years 1997 to 2008 on their website. Each of the books on…
Kristin Wolden Nitz 