Of interest to editors and journalists covering: Books/Publishing, Sports/Volleyball, Film / Entertainment, Libraries, General Editorial, CA News, MA News.

BEACH VOLLEYBALL ACTION JUST THE TURN OF A PAGE AWAY

BOSTON, MA – April 2023 – re: /PRNewswire/ – For those whose curiosity was piqued by the wildly popular 2022 AVP National Beach Volleyball Tour, for those die-hard fans who can’t get enough fun in the sun, and for those who waited in vain for beach volleyball to appear in last summer’s Top Gun: Maverick – there’s a new alternative to quench that thirst for action on the sand. And it’s just the turn of a page away. Beaconridge Press has today announced the first in its series of extreme/beach sports themed novels, the beach volleyball thriller Burning Sand by author R.J. Ruggiero.

“There’s a reason why the fans came back in droves to this past summer’s 2022 AVP Tour,” says Beaconridge president Eric C. Dahlgren. “It’s an exciting sport that’s once again getting its due. And R.J. has really captured that energy, that fast-paced action in a great story with compelling characters.”

Like all professional sports, beach volleyball took a hit over the last few years, but the AVP Tour was back in full force this past summer. “Whether we were in the beach volleyball heavens of Hermosa and Manhattan or an NBA arena…every tournament felt fun and festive,” says the AVP’s Kim Schuermann. “The volleyball community is wildly entertaining, intensely supportive, and unlike any other sport.”

For the uninitiated, beach volleyball is an American-born sport which has come to be embraced internationally.

Its Olympic debut was in Atlanta in 1996. Volleyball itself originated just west of Boston, in Holyoke, Massachusetts in 1895. Its sun-drenched offspring grew out of the sandy shores of Santa Monica, California in the 1920’s.

So how does a kid from Boston become so interested in this unique offering of the beach? “My brother played six-man college ball in Southern California, then began to play pro-beach. He ate, slept, and breathed beach volleyball. I just had to see what had captured him. And when I found out, I was hooked,” says author Ruggiero, whose writing credits include television’s The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. “The athletes, the atmosphere was amazing. I knew I had to craft an adventure around this sport in a way that brought the reader into this unique world with the open, eager eyes that had so captured me.”

But Burning Sand is not just about beach volleyball. Part thriller, part adventure, part dark comedy, the story twists and turns from its mob beginnings in Boston’s North End, eventually ending up in the California sun. “It’s a terrific synthesis of intrigue and finely- crafted sports action,” raves WFXT-TV’s Gene Lavanchy. “It brings the reader into a sub-culture rarely if ever seen in fiction, in a way that’s as entertaining as it is original. Exciting and heartfelt, quirky and compelling… it’s the perfect beach book.” Fans at a recent early-release book signing agree. “The characters just leap off the page,” states Los Angeles-based guitarist Matthew Thomas. “They are really alive. Reading it is like watching a film. If I had to describe it, it’s like Goodfellas meets Point Break.”

And in this age of book/movie deals being so synonymous, what exactly is the film status of the novel? Could Burning Sand be to beach volleyball what Bull Durham was to baseball, what Rocky was to boxing? “It’s funny you should say that,” says Ruggiero. “I wrote a screenplay version for Chartoff Productions (producer of such sports films as Rocky and Raging Bull). So we’ll see. But for now I’m just happy that beach volleyball is hitting the mainstream so hard. It’s a terrific sport that is well-deserving of all the attention it’s getting. And if Burning Sand can get even more people excited about the sport, I’m thrilled to be a part of that.”

Burning Sand is now available on Amazon.com in both paperback and ebook editions. For further information please visit http://www.beaconridgepress.com.

Publication summary:

Title: Burning Sand
Author: R.J. Ruggiero
Publication Date: December 2022 (Beaconridge Press)
ISBN 978-0-9704135-5-0 (trade paperback, 369 pp.)
ISBN 978-0-9704135-7-4 (ebook)

MEDIA CONTACT:
pressroom@beaconridgepress.com
ph. +1-978-790-1139
/note to editors: cover images available/

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