Cat Disabato's Rooting Interest is a sexy, off-limits romance (the best kind) between a queer sports writer and the basketball player she's been assigned to cover. Jennifer Felix, known to friends as Felix because she refuses to be yet another lesbian Jen, is devastated to be abruptly pulled off the NFL beat she worked her ass off for to cover WNBA All-Star weekend. She knows nothing about basketball and expects the assignment to be a disaster. But she actually finds herself quickly captivated by the game, its fans, and especially Natalie Czapski—the league’s magnetic star, back after a season-ending injury. After Natalie embarrasses Felix at a press conference for not knowing shit about basketball, Felix can’t let it go. She starts learning the game, trying to regain credibility with her editor, and grows increasingly hooked on Natalie, who claims to be married to basketball. Will Felix be able to break her rule about never dating a subject, and will Natalie decide to try out a life outside basketball?
As in her previous novels, The Ghost Network and U Up?, Disabato writes sharply and with emotional precision, this time capturing the electric atmosphere of the queer world of women’s sports and the particular ache of wanting someone who may never have room for you. Rooting Interest is a sexy novel about desire, ambition, and (pardon me) the thrill of finally shooting your shot.
Describe Rooting Interest in three words.
Yearning, tension, catharsis.
If Rooting Interest were a song, what would it be?
“Casual” by Chappell Roan.
If it’s adapted, who would you want to play Felix? Natalie?
The problem with casting Natalie is that most actors aren’t tall and big and thick the way Natalie is. I thought about Katy O’Brien because she could do the swagger, but she’s only 5’7”. Ultimately, I think it’s gotta go to Hunter Schafter. She’s 5’10” and you could give the illusion of a few more inches by strategically casting shorter women. She’s also got the swagger, which I think is one of the most important aspects of casting Natalie.
After watching Sentimental Value, I’ve finally gotten on board the Elle Fanning train. Dye her hair black and I think she’d make a great Felix, who’s maybe a little bit too serious for her own good. Do you think Elle could pull off playing queer? Right now I sort of feel like she could do anything.
If you played basketball, what position would you play?
As a bisexual, I probably would play a small forward, a “versatile” player who scores inside and outside the paint and often “plays a hybrid role.”
Favorite time and place to write?
In a quiet bar, on a warm Saturday or Sunday afternoon, in Los Angeles.
What media were you consuming when you wrote Rooting Interest?
SO so so so SO many sports romance novels, my favorites of which are You Should Be So Lucky by Cat Sebastian and Cleat Cute by Meryl Wilsner.
Copious amounts of thirsty fan edits of hot WNBA players like Natasha Cloud.
Venus to the Hoop: A Gold-medal Year in Women's Basketball by Sara Corbett, a book published in 1997 about the 1996 US Olympic women’s basketball team. It gave me both a foundation in the history of women’s basketball in America, as well as a direct snapshot (not hindsight) about what people were thinking about women’s basketball when the WNBA was founded.
This video of Kelsey Plum falling down on the court and then doing push ups. These pictures of Kelsey Plum’s “risqué leather getup.”
A lot of LA Sparks WNBA games.
Did you outline or wing it or somewhere in between?
For Rooting Interest, I outlined the entire book before I started writing, which was a new thing for me. For my previous two books, I wrote the entire first draft without outlining, and then made an outline to guide the revision process. But for Rooting Interest, the outline was in place before I started writing. The first two-thirds of the Rooting Interest outline were very detailed, and the final third was a little bit looser, like, “in this scene Felix has a revelation,” “in this scene, Natalie does a grand gesture.” I wrote several versions of the final scenes and really only locked in the structure of the final scenes at the last possible minute.
Outlining can be a powerful tool, but it can also be restrictive. Whenever I outline, I want to use it more as guidelines or ideas rather than strict rules, and give myself space for inspiration and experimentation in the writing process.
What are your most overused words?
In this book, I kept using the word “buzz” in various forms. Buzz, buzzy. I think I even got the word “bloodbuzz” in there, which I stole from the band The National, who have a song called “Bloodbuzz Ohio.”
If you could get a drink with any fictional character, who would it be?
As I was contemplating this question, I realized that I’m really interested in fiction about characters that I wouldn’t want to hang out with. Rebecca from Rebecca is living a life of repression and regret, so she would be a total bore. Christian Bale’s character from Velvet Goldmine is also living a life of repression and regret!! Though maybe some hope as well? But still, I don’t want to get a drink with him. Lizbeth Salander is not a great conversationalist. A lot of the characters I’ve spent the most time “with” in fictional forms would either drink my blood or break my heart or both.
If you could get a drink with any female athlete, who would it be?
Natasha Cloud, with apologies to her beautiful girlfriend.
What’s a book that made you want to write?
I Was a Teenage Fairy by Francesca Lia Block, and in general YA books Block published in the early 90s, which were these magical-realism tinged books about depressive teenage girls living in Los Angeles. (Oh how I longed to be a depressive teenage girl living in Laurel Canyon! And so I became a depressive 20-something girl living in Echo Park.)
I had wanted to be a writer since I was a pre-teen, but when I first read Block’s books, at around 13 years old, it was the first time I really was overwhelmed with the beauty of prose. It was the first time I wasn’t just thinking of stories, but of the words you chose to tell those stories. It was the introduction to my interest in crafting prose.
What author’s (dead or alive) persona is aspirational?
Eve Babitz in the 60s and 70s.
Favorite recent read?
Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar. I’m always nervous to read a novel that’s gotten so much hype, because sometimes the hype can overwhelm the experience of actually reading the novel. This was one of those rare times where no amount of hype can negatively affect the reading experience. If anything this book is somehow underrated.
One word to describe what you’re working on now?
Romantic.
