Why Philadelphia Bulldogs?
So why set my hockey romance series in Philadelphia? Well, for starters, I’m from the Philly area, so it felt the most natural when writing this series to set it in a place I was familiar with. I have thought about writing a spin-off about a different hockey team in a different city, but I feel comfortable writing about this area that I’m not sure I’ll write outside of it. At least this far in my career!
So how did I come up with Bulldogs as the hockey team name? Why didn’t I just use the Flyers or something related to the city?
For one, I don’t like to use real NHL team names at all in my books. I actually created team names for the ENTIRE league! As a reader it’s jarring to me to read a hockey romance with the real team names, and I also didn’t want to get into any legal trouble. I love being able to create my own world in this way. Once I made this team into the Bulldogs, they became my own. But I will be honest, one of my hockey players’s personalities was definitely inspired by one of the Flyers. People who read the first book can figure out who that is!
So why Bulldogs? To be perfectly honest the Bulldogs name was a placeholder! I originally wanted to call them The Bruisers, but Sarina Bowen already had that. Then I was thinking maybe The Patriots, or something that related to the city’s history, but I didn’t end up liking anything! The Flyers back in the 70s had the nickname “The Broad Street Bullies.” If you’re unfamiliar with hockey, the Flyers play on Broad Street, and at the time, the team was known for fighting a lot. I thought about playing off that but it didn’t really work, so “Bullies” became “Bulldogs” and it ended up sticking.
Coming up with team names is SOOOOO hard! But I do think it’s worth it if you’re gonna write in the sports romance genre, because you make it your own.
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