Jack Tunney's Blog, page 34

FIGHT FICTION: THE FIST OF THE FAE

FIGHT FICTION: THE FIST OF THE FAE!

A BOB HOWARD ADVENTURE ~ TEEL JAMES GLENN 

ANACHRON PRESS

A trip to the Emerald Isle is one Howard will remember forever.

Texan writer, Bob Howard, travels to Ireland, the home of his ancestors, and quickly finds himself in a local pub and in the thick of trouble. 

Befriending a curious father and son pair, the Mac Tirs, Howard is exposed to a world of amateur wrestling. When the young Mac Tir is accused of throwing a match and is sucker-punched to the ground, Howard steps in against the bully.

Making an enemy of the outraged brute, Howard marks himself as a target. His opponent threatens him and makes suggestion of an upcoming fair. 

Howard soon learns more about the fair and is transported into a parallel world full of mythological creatures. The rivalry with the bully has carried over, and Howard is challenged to defend his, and his friends’, honor in the ring under the observation of Morgana, the Fae Queen. 

Can Howard perform in the ring, beat the bully, and uphold the respect of his friends?

KEEP THEM TIGHT – DOMINIC DUNN

KEEP THEM TIGHT

Keep Them Tight is an original song written by 16 year old Dominic Dunn from Kirkdale in Liverpool.  The video also features Derry Mathews (Commonwealth Lightweight Champion and Patron of Fazakerley9), Jamie McVey (Fazakerley9) and Adam Unsworth (Rotunda ABC). The song was recorded as part of the Threshold Northern Lights Showcase Programme.

Keep Them Tight: Written, performed and co-produced by Dominic Dunn.

Produced by Mark Brocklesby and Kaya Herstad Carney for Threshold Northern Lights Showcase Programme.

Vocals, acoustic guitar and electric guitar: Dominic Dunn

Backing vocals: Kaya Herstad Carney, Ian Prowse, Muireann McDermott-Long and Amy Freeman

Bass: John Fellowes

Drums: Ashley Turner

Trumpet: Michael Mohebbi

Percussion: Mark Brocklesby

Video: Director & Editor: Andrew AB, Assistant Director: Tom Lox, Lighting: Ste Webster, Production Assistants: Jo McNeill & Kaya Herstad Carney

Recorded by Mark Brocklesby at Western Recording Company, Liverpool.

Mixed by: Mark Brocklesby, Kaya Herstad Carney and Dominic Dunn. Mastered by Mark Brocklesby 

©Dominic Dunn and Threshold Ltd ℗Dominic Dunn 

ON THE WEB 

https://www.facebook.com/Dominic.Dunn 

Twitter: @Dominic_Dunn22

COVER ARTIST CARL YONDER JOINS THE FIGHT CARD TEAM

COVER ARTIST CARL YONDER JOINS THE FIGHT CARD TEAM

Fight Card is delighted to announce cover artist Carl Yonder will be getting into the ring with the Fight Card team.  Carl is an accomplished artist and illustrator who will debut Fight Card’s first painted cover on our December release Fight Card: Sherlock Holmes, written by Andrew Salmon.

Growing up a military brat, Carl Yonder and his family traveled around the country and eventually the world. With all of the relocating, his parents and his artwork were the two biggest constants in his life. Over the years, his initial love of art developed into a passion, which he continues to pursue primarily through sequential art and painting. 

Carl’s works has been presented in foreign embassies, newspapers, and many other publications.  In 2004, he received The Columbia Scholastic Press Association’s 21st Gold Circle Award for his work with Grub Street. 

Currently illustrating the comic Pirate Eye – a hardboiled take on the high seas – written by Josiah Grahn (published quarterly through Action Lab Comics), Carl also has several other comic stories in various stages of development. All of these projects allow him the opportunity to experiment with his art and continue to travel. 

“Though I don’t always enjoying speaking openly about myself, I do believe my work, in whatever form, will always speak for itself.” – Carl Yonder

ON THE WEB: 

www.carlyonder.com

www.comixology.com/Pirate-Eye/comics-series/9739

BOXING SHADOWS WITH DERRICK FERGUSON

BOXING SHADOWS

DERRICK FERGUSON ON WRITING FIGHT CARD: BROOKLYN BEATDOWN

I actually was supposed to have this thing written months ago, y’know.  I mean, Brooklyn Beatdown has been in print for about three months now.  Prior to the book’s due date, series editor Paul Bishop mentioned he’d like to have a short essay from me on the how and why I wrote this particular Fight Card novel – particularly as it was the first Fight Card novel to feature an African-American protagonist.  

So, why didn’t I write the thing when I was supposed to? Didn’t I take it seriously? Well, of course I did. There are other African-American writers Paul could have invited to write for the series – writers who easily leave me in the dust when they stomp on the pedal and get their word engines cranked up to where she’ll run like that black Trans Am from Smokey and The Bandit. No, I took it very seriously when Paul came to me and asked me to contribute a book to an excellent series of novels, which certainly didn’t need me to help it.

Maybe I’m just lazy? Hardly. I think my output proves, despite all other evidence to the contrary, I’m not a lazy guy.  Not when it comes to writing at least.  So, what was the holdup? To be honest, I felt like a fraud much of the time while writing Brooklyn Beatdown.  Really.  I mean, I’ve got no boxing background at all. I’ve been in some fights in my time.  You didn’t grow up in Bed-Stuy during the 1970’s without getting into a fight on occasion. And I haven’t watched a boxing match in quite some time. 

I was a big fight fan during the 1970’s and 80’s, though.  Thanks to my father.  And I feel very lucky to have grown up during a time when boxing was so vibrant and alive with such personalities such as Muhammad Ali, Sugar Ray Leonard, Joe Frazier, Tommy Hearns, Marvin Hagler. And this was during the glory days of ABC’s Wide World of Sports, which would show a lot of boxing matches on Saturday afternoon. This was before the rise of cable which jumped on sports programming, boxing especially, and took it away from the networks.  So, I got to see a lot of the classic boxers do their thing during their glory days. However, what I always took away was not only their phenomenal skill, but their larger-than-life personalities.  

That was my hook for the character of Levi Kimbro. I wanted him to be a personality with dreams and hopes and ambitions outside of the ring.  The ring wasn’t his life. It was a tool to get where he wanted to go in life. The clincher was everybody else except for Levi knew that being in the ring was the thing for which he was best suited. So, that was my inspiration for Levi. As for the rest, I watched a lot of boxing matches on YouTube and Warner Brothers fight films I borrowed from the library. In my head I saw Brooklyn Beatdown as an homage to not only those great old Warner Brothers fight films, but also blaxploitation films of the 70’s. I doubted my ability to pull it off, but I hiked up my pants and took my best shot at it.  

But again, that specter of being a fraud nagged at me. What business did I have writing a boxing novel? But then again, I write novels about mercenary adventurers, spies, superheroes and supernatural gunslingers and never lose any sleep over it. So, why was I chewing my toenails about this particular book? 

In my gut, I knew why – for the first time in my career, I was being asked by a professional writer/editor to deliver a book about real people in a real world. No falling back on tricks like bringing in fantastic superweapons, diabolical supervillains, or mythical martial arts. In the popular vernacular, I had to keep it real. 

And I guess that’s why I didn’t get around to writing this when it was supposed to be written – I didn’t feel as if I had kept it real. I felt like I had made it all up. And that’s when it it hit me – That’s what you do anyway, stupid. You make up stories. The good news is, you make up stories people like to read. And at the end of the day, that’s all that matters. 

And so I wrote Brooklyn Beatdown and it was published and apparently a few of you think it’s a good story and that’s all that matters.  Still doesn’t explain why I didn’t write this essay when I was supposed to write it. 

Maybe I am lazy. 

FIGHT CARD: BROOKLYN BEATDOWN  

Brooklyn – 1954 … Bare knuckler brawler Levi Kimro battles his way through the bloody backroom ghetto bars of Brooklyn in pursuit of his dream of owning his own business. It’s a hard and vicious road he walks and it becomes even more complicated when he falls hard for the electrifying Dorothea McBricker.  

Dorothea’s brother, Teddy, has fallen under the influence of notorious gangster Duke Williamson – a powerful man who is pressuring Levi to join his stable of fighters or face off against the human killing machine, ‘Deathblow’ Ballantine. A knock-down, drag out, Brooklyn Beatdown is brewing, and Levi will need every ounce of his fighter’s heart if he wants to save not only himself, but the woman he loves …

FAST FIVE WITH FIGHT CARD’S CAROL MALONE

FAST FIVE WITH FIGHT CARD’S CAROL MALONE

PAUL D. BRAZILL’S BLOG, YOU WOULD SAY THAT WOULDN’T YOU, TALKS BOXING AND ROMANCE WITH FIGHT CARD’S CAROL MALONE …

Writing as Jill Tunney, Carol Malone has recently injected a touch of romance into the two-fisted, pulp-infused, Fight Card series with her debut novel, Fight Card Romance: Ladies Night … Boxing and love? What’s going on here?

FOR THE FULL INTERVIEW CLICK HERE

HISTORY OF FIGHT FICTION PART II

HISTORY OF FIGHT FICTION PART II

I CONTINUE MY EXPLORATION OF FIGHT FICTION OVER AT THE BOOK LIFE NOW BLOG …

As the ‘70s progressed, the public became primed for a change in their fight fiction.Unlike with prior generations, this change in popular entertainment would not betied to the socio-economic factors of the day.Instead, a blurring of the lines of fact and fiction – especially in the world of boxing – was occurring, reflecting the hyper embellishments of celebrity being inflicted upon larger popular culture as a whole …

FOR THE FULL ARTICLE CLICK HERE

HISTORY OF FIGHT FICTION PART 1

HISTORY OF FIGHT FICTION PART 1

I GO DEEP INTO THE HISTORY OF FIGHT FICTION OVER AT THE BOOK LIFE NOW BLOG …

The fight fiction genre has become an integral part of our cultural history – especially when economic times have been as tough as the character’s in a fight fiction tale.Even before the explosion of fight fiction stories in the pulps of the ‘30s and ‘40s, Jack London was penning fight stories for the masses, such as his classics A Piece of Steak and The Abysmal Brute, among others.Feeding the need of the everyman to rise above his daily struggle for survival through vicarious fight entertainment, London’s fight tales were devoured.

London learned to box by sparring with his friend Jim Whitaker, and his love of the sport never waned.  Wherever his wanderings took him, London always had a pair of boxing gloves, always ready to mix it up with any challenger.  Most often, however, London’s regular sparring partner was his wife, Charmian Kittredge, with whom he routinely sparred …

FOR THE FULL ARTICLE CLICK HERE

BOBBY NASH PUTS UP HIS DUKES

BOBBY NASH PUTS UP HIS DUKES

AND IN THIS CORNER … BOBBY NASH TELLS THE BOOK LIFE NOW BLOG ALL ABOUT WRITING FIGHT CARD: BAREFOOT BONES …

When I agreed to write a Fight Card story, I approached it as a character piece about a boxer. Knowing

the character is the most important thing for me and when the plot started to gel together in my mind, it was James Mason, the boy the bullies called Barefoot Bones who sold me on the idea of telling this story. I’m not sure where the name came from. As I was plotting out the ideas for this story, it was the week between Christmas and New Years Day. On one of the many drives to family events, it just popped into my head and it fit…

FOR THE FULL ARTICLE CLICK HERE 

BOXING AND ROMANCE

BOXING AND ROMANCE

CAROL MALONE GETS IN THE RING WITH THE BOOK LIFE NOW BLOG TO PROVE FIGHTIN’ AND SMOOCHIN’ CAN GO TOGETHER …

I started to write Ladies Night in March, 2012, all the while working on other romantic manuscripts. For boxing research, I watched fights from the 50′s on YouTube, typing the descriptions of the punches into my computer while announcers describe the action. I rounded out the research with old LA city maps, period

photos, boxing statistics, and scads of boxing technique videos…

FOR THE FULL ARTICLE CLICK HERE

JUST WHAT IS A FIGHT CARD ROMANCE?

JUST WHAT IS A FIGHT CARD ROMANCE?

ANSWERS TO LIFE’S BIG QUESTION … FIGHT CARD’S CAROL MALONE (WRITING AS JILL TUNNEY) SPELLS IT OUT OVER AT BOOK LIFE NOW …

Wh en I was in high school, I started reading and writing romance, and have since then written numerous manuscripts. So, I decided to take a dare and without Paul’s knowledge began pecking out my own Fight Card tale. I didn’t start out to necessarily write a romance, but the main characters dictated their story, I simply jotted it down. A year later, voilà – Ladies Night …

FOR THE FULL ARTICLE CLICK HERE