Maggie Hill joins the Author Spotlight this week to chat about her latest novel, Sunday Money

Author Name: Maggie Hill

Book Title: Sunday Money, a novel

Book Genre: YA, basketball, coming of age

Release Date: May 14, 2024

Publisher: She Writes Press

Welcome, Maggie! Please tells us about Sunday Money.

Sunday Money is a coming of age story set in 1970’s Brooklyn. The novel follows Claire as she navigates her way through a changing world, on and off the basketball court, striving to break free of the turmoil in her home and the rulebook “good” girls are supposed to follow.

What sparked the idea?

I watched a WNBA game, followed by a few women’s college basketball games (before Caitlin Clark), and thought those players were such badasses. I realized that women’s basketball was a full-on, magical, driven game now – unlike when I was coming up. Of course, now, the mighty Clark has helped catapult women’s college basketball into the unheard of popularity that mens’ basketball enjoys. What a sea change!

What drew you to historical fiction?

I think it was the juxtaposition of today’s player with an image I had in my head of girls’ basketball in the early 1970’s. The restrictions, the clothing, the court personality – girls had to adhere to such a strict code. Somehow it was a deep metaphor for how girls were being trained to become women. Thankfully, the women’s movement, Title IX, and a groundswell of equality pushed us into the next phase of parity.

What do you hope readers will take away from this story?

Of course, I hope they like the story. It would be great if readers could intimately understand and maybe identify with teen passion, girl athletics, family dynamics – the whole gamut of human experience. I hope, finally, that the interactions of the main character would offer something to both female and male readers. So far, the guys seem to like it as well as the women. Yay.

Sunday Money

It’s 1971, but for Claire Joyce and girls’ basketball, it might as well be 1871. Stilted rules (three-bounce dribbling, two roving players for full-court games, and uniforms that include bloomers) set their play unfairly apart from the boys’ basketball Claire’s older brother John has trained her in.

Basketball is the only constant in Claire life, and as she enters her teen years the skills she’s cultivated on the court–passing, shooting, and faking–help her guard against the chaos of an alcoholic mother, an increasingly violent younger brother, and the downward spiral her beloved John soon finds himself unable to climb out of. Deeply cut from the cloth of the Catholic Church, Brooklyn’s working class, and the limited expectations her world has for girls, Claire strives to find a mirror that might reflect a different, future self. Then Title IX bounces on the scene. Suddenly, girls’ basketball becomes explosive, musical, passionate, and driven–and if Claire plays it just right, it just might offer a full ride to a previously out-of-reach college.

Sunday Money follows Claire as she narrates her way through 1970s Brooklyn, hustling on and off the court and striving to break free of the turmoil in her home and the rulebook “good” girls are supposed to follow.