All about the novel The Signature Move

Who is Cassandra Diviak?

Cassandra Diviak is an indie author who resides in California. An avid reader and writer since she was young, Diviak aspires to write stories that not only entertain people but embody lived experiences and reliability. She loves stories of fantasy adventures and meaningful romance with heroes and heroines who belong to underrepresented groups in fiction.

What is The Signature Move?

LOGAN BECKETT has one final season to secure his pro or college hockey dreams. As the team captain of the Waybrook Winter Wolves, the USHL’s worst-performing team, Logan works tirelessly to transform his teammates from the league’s laughingstock into the next Anderson Cup champions. With the upcoming season and some promising performances under his leadership, all eyes are on him to take the underdogs to victory.

But when a world champion figure skater moves into his small town, taking up rink time and snatching the spotlight away from the team’s efforts, Logan’s determined to hate her. Yet that becomes more of a challenge than he expected when facing off against a gentle, graceful skater like Ava.

AVERIE “AVA” LAURIER plans to spend her first independent season living with her coach in the small town of Waybrook, dreaming of a fresh start. Without her parents looming over her every decision, her hopes to reinvigorate her love of skating seem promising. For the first time in almost nineteen years of life, she has a chance to taste true freedom from the expectations befitting a former world champion and the darling of Team USA.

She doesn’t understand why Logan dislikes her so heavily, but she commits to ignoring him and scoring an all-gold season. However, Waybrook isn’t a big enough town to stop their paths from colliding.

When the gold-medalist skater and the underdog hockey captain clash, it’s only a matter of time before ice-cold hostility melts into passion

Interview

What was your inspiration for The Signature Move?

As a child, my mom adored the movie “The Cutting Edge,” along with other skating-based romance movies. While I never got the hype for those love stories, movies like “Ice Princess” developed an interest in figure skating within me. I admired the grace and technical demand required to be a good skater, so skating became the only sport I would tune in for when the Winter Olympics came around like clockwork. Then, in 2021, I sat down with a former creative partner of mine with a vague idea for a rivals to lovers sports romance. Originally, the options were hockey/figure skating or baseball/softball and I went with the former, drawn in because of that longstanding interest in figure skating. Once I decided, so many other pieces fell into their rightful place. Namely, the dynamic between Ava and Logan informed my creative choices; Logan isn’t a famous hockey player yet but could be under the right circumstances, and Ava is a dazzling star of the skating world on the fast track to burnout if she doesn’t save herself from her situation. 

What drew you to writing romance? 

Honestly, romance writing took me by surprise. As many young people do, I went through a “pick-me” phase in elementary and middle school and promised myself I would be a “serious” fantasy and science fiction writer. However, I grew up around high school and began to unpack what my issues were around love, romance, and sex, deconstructing the narratives around me that imposed purity culture, religious conservatism, and anti-feminist values. Writing romance stories from age 14 onward became therapeutic for me to address what I wanted and needed. As a demisexual and demiromantic woman, writing became a safe place for me to explore sexuality and romantic interests without judgment from the real world. I fell in love with the genre and its focus on centering happy endings and positive representation in many online circles. 

Now, I’m proudly a romance writer who dabbles in subgenres. I call myself a romance writer and no longer hide my desires as shameful things because of something as stupid as patriarchy. I don’t have a partner, but romance books allow me to share the love I want with eager readers through creating happy endings. 

How did you choose which character to focus the story? 

Dual POV is wildly popular in romance, and I prefer it when I’m writing/reading. When I decided the amount of chapters, I saw the chance to split the point of view equally. For the rivals arc to work, the readers needed to see Logan’s motivations and Ava’s responses to him. However, I made a pointed choice to begin with Logan and set up the inciting incident from the jump. The dynamic between him and Ava of annoyance and tension wouldn’t have worked if I started with Ava and her backstory whereas Logan needed his closer to the front. We grow with Logan while unraveling Ava’s mysteries simultaneously; readers realize they’re both teens doing their best to navigate their traumas. 

What is your approach to world and character-building?

Worldbuilding depends on whether I focus on a more fantasy or contemporary project! I established “worldstates” in my notes, determining if certain books are set in the same overarching world. I keep a running list of references (places, people, events, etc.) that can be inserted into a specific project and anchor the story within the same world. I love easter eggs and hiding them for the astute reader to find. As for character building, I’m fortunate to have a process that relies on intuition. Often when I’m assembling the first iteration of a story, I think up a few character details. These details include physical appearance, backstory, personality, voice, and dreams/interests. For example, Ava gave me these details: purple, figure skater, running from her home life, and sparkles like a star. I assembled them into a coherent narrative with several weeks of brainstorming and consulting with friends. 

Did you have a favourite moment to write in The Signature Move?

There are so many moments within The Signature Move that I could reasonably point to as my favorite. So, some honorable mentions include the jersey scene in Ch 27, Logan’s arc between Ch 11 and 13, the apology in Ch 16, the banter from Ch 7, and the reunions in Ch 25 and 29. 

If I can only pick one scene, it would be Ch 23 where the build-up finally explodes into an epiphany. This is the italicized “oh” moment in every fanfic I used to eat up. After deluding himself for so long, Logan finally succumbs to the truth, and the readers are rewarded for their patience. 

How would you describe The Signature Move in five words?

Slow-burn rivals overcoming trauma together. 

What was your favourite book growing up?

Percy Jackson and the Olympians. I read a lot of classics before the end of middle school (Hemmingway, Dickens, Shakespeare, etc.) but I read the PJO series from seven years old to about fifteen at least twenty times, and I’m not counting any of the spin-offs from the Heroes of Olympus or the Kane Chronicles by Riordan. Seeing a protagonist with ADHD in Percy revolutionized my conception of being diagnosed at age seven and how the thing that made me different could help me be heroic too. 

Do you have a favourite genre to read?

I love romance and fantasy in equal measure. Both have their merits for me and provide different forms of entertainment, so I can’t choose one over the other.