Welcome to Good Game with Sarah Spain, where it's two weeks until Christmas. Have you bought all your friends and family women's sports inspired books yet?
Well, You're in luck. Keep listening.
It's Wednesday, December eleventh, and today we chat with former television sports reporter turned mystery and suspense novelist Elise Heart Kipness. She tells about the transition from locker rooms to book editors' offices, how her work as a crime reporter influences her writing, and her latest book, Dangerous Play, which sees fictional reporter Kate Green on assignment covering the US soccer team at
the Olympics when a murder occurs. Plus, we'll share a handful of other Good Game with Sarah Spain approved books that are sure to make great presents this holiday season. It's all coming up right after this welcome back slices Miche has your need to know today, Take it away, Misha.
Thank you, Thank you, Sarah Beck again, so Ludacris said, right anyway. In college soccer, UNC is back on top. The tar Heels won the program's first national title since twenty twelve with a one nil win over Wake Forest on Monday, night, Sophomore Olivia Thomas scored the game winner on a free kick in the sixty second minute. And listen to this stat Of the forty three NCAA women's soccer titles ever awarded, UNC now owns twenty two. That's
fifty one percent. No other women's college soccer program has more than four. In WNBA News, Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark has been named Time Magazine's Athlete of the Year. A quick refresher on a few of the things Clark accomplished in twenty twenty four, because it's been a long year. She became the top scorer in NCAA Division One women's basketball history and led Iowa to a second straight national
championship appearance. She was the number one pick in the WNBA draft, set a new single season rookie scoring record, set the league's single season record for assists, and so much more en route to earning Rookie of the Year honors. In Sean Gregory's story on her, Clark reflected on the incredible career she's had already, the difference between college hoops and the pros, and on the ways white privilege has impacted her stardom.
She told Time.
Quote, I want to say I've earned every single thing, but as a white person, there is privilege. A lot of those players in the league that have been really good have been black players. This league has kind of been built on them.
The more we can.
Appreciate that highlight that talk about that and then continue to have brands and companies invest in those players that have made this league incredible, I think it's very important. I have to continue to try to change that. The more we can elevate black women, that's going to be a beautiful thing. End quote. We'll link to the Time cover and story in our show notes to college hoops number eighteen Iowa State in number twenty one, Iowa meet tonight as part of the Iowa Korn Syhawk series, which
is sponsored by Iowa's Corn Farmers. That game tips off at nine pm Eastern on FS one. Do y'all remember corn Kid? I hope he got free tickets to that game. He is the most prominent spokesperson for Coorn that I know of it. Also in college hoops, Tennessee is back in the AP top twenty five after a win over
Iowa last weekend. The Lady Balls fell out of the national rankings back in November twenty twenty three, and their twenty two week absence from the poll was the program's longest drought in the forty eight year history of the women's basketball rankings to the NWSL. Angel City has fired head coach Becky Tweed after the club finished the twenty twenty four season in twelfth place with a seven to win,
thirteen loss and six draw record. First assistant Aleiri Earnshaw will serve as interim head coach until a new head coach is hired. And finally, the US women's national soccer team announced that it will host Brazil for two friendlies in California. A rematch of last summer's Olympic gold medal game. Game number one is scheduled for April fifth at SOFI Stadium in Inglewood, and game number two is on April eighth at PayPal Park in San Jose.
Thanks me, we got to take a quick break when we come back. Crafting a murder With Elise heart Kipness joining us now, She's a former television sports reporter turned mystery and suspense writer. In addition to reporting for Fox Sports Network, Elise was a reporter at New York's WNBCTV News twelve, Long Island, and the Associated Press. A graduate of Brown University and a super fan of coffee ice cream.
The first two books in her Kate Green fictional thriller series, Lights Out and Dangerous Play, are available now.
The next book, Close Call, will be released.
In October of twenty twenty five. It's Elise Heart Kipness. Elise, thanks for joining us.
Oh, thank you for having me. It's so great to be here.
I want you to take us back to your sports reporting days. How did you first get into that?
It was such a roundabout way. I had been covering news for a while and I had the opportunity to cover the NBA lockout of nineteen ninety eight. It gives you an idea how old I am. And I went and I covered it. You know, it was like a news story but also a sports story, and it was it was I hate to say this poor lockout, but
it was great. I'm going to say it was great because I have been covering murders and crashes like the Flight eight hundred crash and trials of serial killers, and I covered the monoc Lewinsky grand jury hearing, and it was just like, like covering something like the Lockout was very interesting, but it didn't have the same stakes in my mind. And then I got to cover sports, like we just hit it off, and covering games was so fun. It was just exciting and very adrenaline rushing, you know.
But it was also a nice break from like the gloom and doom of what I covered in news.
I mean, one thousand percent.
I watch a lot of people who are really deep into very serious news or even reactions of nightly news, where so much of it is really sad and really hard, and so I'm always glad I get to be in the toy department, even when the toy department can get serious at times too.
I did look at on your website.
There's some great old photos and shots of you at a whole bunch of different sporting events.
So you did a good job of making the rounds and getting to lots of fun stuff.
So how did you decide to make the transition from reporting to writing fiction.
When my first son was born, I made a decision not to keep traveling. I was covering things like a month at a time. So I went to Florida for spring training for a month, and I cover March Madness for a month. I always got lucky and got assigned to Duke, which was a super fun highlight of my career. Me and a couple of other people were the East Coast bureau for Fox Sports Network, so we were traveling all the time, and I just decided it was time
to stop or take a break. And then about five years later, of all the things that I missed, I actually found I missed writing the most, which really surprised me, because you know, even though we write our own stuff, it's like one page, and you don't really feel like that in your brain is the most primary part of your job. It's one aspect, but it's not the thing. And I thought I would miss the adrenaline. I thought I might miss going to the locker rooms or you know,
the interviews or any of it. But I missed writing. And I started to take classes because I only knew how to write one page. And the first draft of my book was so bad. I wrote it as a reporter and I wrote the who want where? When? Why write no suspense? It is so boring? And then I just learned, and I mean one of the benefits, as you know, you would know it's it's like I didn't have to do my hair, I didn't have to put makeup on. I could sit in my bed and.
Write and make your own schedule those things.
Yes, yes, And actually don't you find like you're more of a late night person, yes, than a morning person because you're covering games and it's like really late. So I've never gotten over the like sleeping in part, but I just do it on my own schedule. My commute is much shorter.
You and I were chatting about me trying to finish my first book. I'm impressed by your prolific efforts in the last couple of years, continuing to churn them out.
But yeah, it is.
It's a very different workflow, and so if you are very disciplined and good at keeping yourself on track, it's great to be able to say, Okay, well, this day something came up, I'm going to go do that instead, and then the next day I'm.
Going to get back to writing. You know.
It is a transition though, like you just said, both in the approach to the work but also in the actual writing. You also were a crime reporter, like you said, So is that how you decided I'm going to take my interest or background in that into writing thrillers as opposed to some other type of fiction.
Yes, but I didn't realize it at the time. What happened was I just liked reading thrillers. So the decision to write a sports a sports reporter as the main character is logical, but I didn't really consider the deep reason why I went into thrillers. And then I was listening This is a year after or six months after my first book came out, and I was listening to Lisa Unger, who's a big suspense author, talk, and she said she writes thrillers to get like the darkness out
of her, to purge. And it was like one of those aha moments, because I'm like, that's what I'm doing. I mean, I remember my mom saying to me when I was covering I think it was specifically when I was covering Flight eight hundred and I was out there for a month, and my mom said, you were always depressed.
You know, your days are so full of tragedy. You know, as a reporter, whatever's happening, it's not happening to you, So you almost feel guilty if you're upset about about it because it's someone else's tragedy, but you still have the emotions of what's going on. So it's a very weird thing, like awkward, uncomfortable. But I think it really is me processing all this stuff that I saw back then.
It's interesting how for you writing about it releases it. And for me when I work on things like that, I like I internalize them and it's very hard for me to like get out of that funk. So I'm glad you found this outlet. You've written about this reporter Kate Green. This is your main character and the most recent book called Dangerous Play. She's on assignment covering the US women's national soccer team at the Olympics and then a famous designer and old friend is found dead in the locker room.
How did you come up with this premise?
This book was so much fun to write because Kate is also a soccer Olympic soccer gold medalist. I like to say Kate is a way cooler version of me. So I mean, we're both TV sports reporters, but she's an Olympics soccer gold medalist. I'm a soccer mom, which I am. You know I made her tall, you can't tell, but I'm five feet zero inches, so every interview I've ever done, I stand on a milk crate. So then
with dangerous play. My son used to play at the NYCFC Soccer Academy and they would play at Yande Stadium. They would play soccer, and he plays D one soccer now, So this was a chance to merge from an observation place as a reporter who covered sports and covered soccer a bit, and also what I experienced with my son and more specifically his friends on the girls teams who had gone through the youth academies and national teams, and I really wanted to dive into what it's like to
have pressure as a youth athlete. Now, my plot is fiction, but I did interview these women who who described the way people are chosen from the youth camps and the national camps to make it to the teams. You know, based on things that they told me, Yeah, it's pretty brutal. So it was something I really wanted to explore. And then you know, I just fanned girl over Yankee Stadium all the time because I cover so much baseball there and I just couldn't think of a better like spot
to set a book. It's just like you kind of can't believe you're there on the field and in the dugout and hanging out there.
Yeah.
I mean it sounds like you're using your background in journalism to inform the backbone of the book, to make sure it fits with reality, and it uses the elements of real life, and then you get to create a little fiction on top of it. Do you ever find yourself veering back toward the truth and then saying, no, I don't have to I don't have to make it real.
This is fiction. I can bend it and I can move it in whatever direction I want.
Yeah, that's such a great question, and I think I did that more with book one, The Lights Out. You know, when you're learning to ski and your natural reaction is to kind of lean back against like what the right move is, You're supposed to lean into it. And I think and that's a very common mistake, I guess, is the right word or tendency for beginning fiction authors that you veer away from making things more dramatic and kind
of blowing things up. So, yes, that was something that was edited and re edited with the first book, but then with the second I kind of learned to lean into my writing skis in a different way. And just so you don't feel bad about how long your book is taking you. I mean my first book took me like eight years. Like it takes a while because you're learning new skills and then once you get them, you're building on top of it.
So you're thank you, thank you.
This current book, Dangerous Play, is a follow up to lights Out, which also features reporter Kate Green character I right on your website. It's being developed into film or maybe TV by a major studio.
Can you tell us about that process?
What I'm allowed to share is that it's for television. Film agents came to my agent before Lights Out even came out. It was kind of like I couldn't believe it. I was so excited and then and then it's just sort of snowballed in a very very happy way to get to this studio. And you know, we signed papers very excited a month ago or something. Yeah, it's exciting, it's really exciting.
Do you have any stranger specific writing quirks or habits.
What you were talking about? Coffee, ice cream? I am never ever without coffee. I mean, I'm I'm so addicted to coffee. I think most reporters are. Do you drink coffee?
I do.
I try not to be addicted, in waves of being able to only go a couple times a week, and then other stretches where it's every day.
Yeah, I am a coffee coffee person. If I start in the morning, I always have a better writing day than I do in the afternoon. I do write in bed a lot. I guess nothing specific, like nothing like you know, candles on or things like that.
Writing in bed is very quirky to me.
But also that you mentioned earlier you are not a former professional athlete, which is probably how your body allows you to treat it like garbage, because my body would never write in bed without me like hobbling my way out of there with like my bad back and.
My neck hurting. And Okay, do you still live on a farm.
Sometimes I read about at least splitting times with a farm, and this is my dream later in life.
So what animals are we talking here?
Okay, so our farm has narrowed, but I do have to tell you about my farm. My husband, who's an attorney and in real estate, really should have been a vet and wanted to be a farmer. So we live on not what you would think as farmland. We live in Connecticut. But all of a sudden he's like, we're having a farm. So it starts with chickens, then it goes to goats, and then we ended up and this is a funny story. We ended up with pigs.
Yes, but he knew.
That I wouldn't be quite on board with the pigs, so he got up the pigs. And it's like behind a house where I don't look. I look this way, like when I get engaged in what I'm doing, I don't really focus on anything else. There was a bet going in the soccer carpool about how many days it would take me to notice the pigs. It took me ten days.
Oh my gosh, amazing by the way pigs, pigs get a bad rap. Pigs are smarter than like toddlers and dogs, and they're wonderful creatures. They like mud because if they aren't being handled well and they aren't being kept moist, it's like uncomfortable for them. So they don't actually want to be dirty. They're just trying to like suit their skin when they get all muddy. So like people always think of pigs in a bad way. But I'm definitely gonna have pigs on my farm.
So what kind of farm do you want?
I mean, yeah, just like I want all the animals, but I also need horses and a couple of donkeys and some chickens and maybe like an alpaca or a lama that I can use for like people to come visit. I'm still it's in the future, although the way the world is going, it might be sooner rather than later. All right, last question for you, Elise, other than your brilliant work, what is the best thriller you've ever read?
Because I'm hoping that over the holidays I'm actually gonna have some time to sit and read, and so I need some suggestions.
Best thriller you've ever read?
My favorite thriller these days is Sarah Pekinon and Greer Hendrix, The Wife between Us. Okay, really good.
We look forward to the time to read it and your books as well. Thank you so much for hopping on with us a lease, We appreciate it.
Thank you for having me.
Thanks again to Elise for joining us when we get back from break, a whole new batch of books to add to that unwieldy stack. On your bedside table just me. Sorry, Marie Condo, welcome back. We love that you're listening, but we want you to get in the game every day too. So here's our good game play of the day, and it's a fun one. Just consider buying a few of the books that we've featured here on Good Game with
Sarah Spain. Buying a women's sports book supports not just the author, but it helps give the folks in your life the gift of knowledge about athletes, teams, and women's sports history.
So write these down.
Hail Mary, The Rise and Fall of the National Women's Football League by Britney Dela Creta and Lindsay dark Angelo, Locker Room Talk by Melissa Lutkey, and Dangerous Play by Elise Heart Kipness. Few other books we've mentioned also include Standing Tall, The ce Vivian Stringer Memoir, and The National Team by Caitlin Murray. Now, please buy these books at a local bookstore, or at least order from a local spot like the legendary Powells Books in Portland or Semi
Colon Books, Chicago's largest black woman owned bookstore. Amazon is not a cute place you can go settle in with a coffee in a book and lose yourself. It doesn't have a counter with adorable bookmarks and stickers and knickknacks that make perfect present toppers. There's no cozy kids section with cardboard cutouts of beloved characters and little pillows strewn about for reading and lounging. Those shop around the corner type bookstores will not exist anymore if you don't buy
stuff from them. So go there and shop, or at least go to their website if you're not willing to leave the house. You know we always love to hear from you, so hit us up on email, good game at Wondermedia neetwork dot com, or leave us a voicemail at eight seven two two oh four at fifty seventy, and don't forget to subscribe. Rate and review slices. It's easy. Watch pawcrastinating rating five out of five Boops and Snugs review.
Can we really be expected to be productive on late winter afternoons when the weather dips below thirty and darkness arrives before four pm? Of course, not Pauw crastinating snuggling with your dogs or cats on the couch instead of I don't know tackling your to do list or responding to your boss's email. It's not just allowed, it's recommended.
Work can wait. Those boots and snugs can't.
See not that hard. Subscribe rate and review. Thanks for listening. We'll see you tomorrow. Good game, Elise, Good game, My little snugglebugs, Fletch Banks and Indie Few. Not enough hours in the day to read all the books in our pile. Good Game with Sarah Spain is an iHeart women's sports production in partnership with Deep Blue Sports and Entertainment. You can find us on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Production by Wonder Media Network,
our producers are Alex Azzie and Misha Jones. Our executive producers are Christina Everett, Jesse Katz, Jenny Kaplan, and Emily Rudder. Our editors are Emily Rudder, Britney Martinez, Grace Lynch, and Lindsay Craterwell. Production assistant from Lucy Jones and I'm your Host Sarah Spain