FIGHT FICTION: WATERFRONT FISTS!

FIGHT FICTION: WATERFRONT FISTS!


JOE ACKERMAN OVER AT TWO-FISTED TALES OF TRUE-LIFE WEIRD ROMANCE BLOG HAS POSTED ONE OF ROBERT E. HOWARDS BEST BOXING STORIES, WATERFRONT FISTS, FROM THE PULP FIGHT STORIES VOL. 3 #4 . . .


TO CHECK IT OUT CLICK HERE

FIGHT FICTION: SMOKER

FIGHT FICTION: SMOKER

JAMES REASONER REVIEWS MEL ODOM’S BOXING NOVELLA, SMOKER (A TASTE OF WHAT'S TO COME IN OUR FIGHT CARD SERIES), ON HIS ROUGH EDGES BLOG . . .

Mel Odom gives you a lot for your money in SMOKER. This original e-book set in 1952 is a boxing yarn with action like you might have found in the pulp FIGHT STORIES, a hardboiled crime story that would have been at home in MANHUNT, and then . . . something else. I can’t go into detail without giving away too much of the plot, but it’s a very nice twist.

FOR THE FULL REVIEW CLICK HERE

The Harder They Fall

Humphrey Bogart is one of my favorite film stars.  I love him in Casablanca, The Maltese Falcon, and The Big Sleep.  I'm a big private eye buff as well.


In 1956, Bogart's last film was released.  He died in January 1957 of cancer.  It's ironic that he's shown here smoking a cigarette.  The Harder They Fall is one of the first boxing films I ever saw.  I think Kid Galahad starring Elvis Presley was the first.

In this one, Bogart plays a down-and-out sports reporter hired by a boxing promoter to build up a luckless boxer whose only real skill in the ring is his incredible toughness.  The boxer, Toro Moreno (Mike Lane), is a South American heavyweight who's being thrown to the wolves to make the fight syndicate money.


As the film progresses, Bogart is shown to be good at his job because Moreno fast tracks into fights, but those fights are getting him beat to pieces.  Along the way, Bogart becomes torn over doing his job and making money, or exposing the fight racket as evil and manipulative.

At the time of its release, this was an accurate picture of what boxing had become, and Bogart becomes an excellent vehicle for showing both sides of the sport.  I was young when I watched this, but I've never forgotten it.  If you haven't seen it and you like boxing and movies, you should.  It'll give you an idea of where Sylvester Stallone might have gotten his idea for Rocky less than twenty years later.

Coming In May!

1953:  Ex-Korean War vet Mickey Flynn has been through some harsh battles in his life, and his latest is in Havana, Cuba.  While on a layover from his job as a merchant mariner, Mickey runs afoul of a local crime boss over a women -- one of Mickey's greatest weaknesses.

When the woman ends up murdered and Mickey is framed for the killing, he ends up in an illegal fight to the death in an off-the-books arena manged by the Mafia and guarded by the Havana police.  Even if he defeats the hulking monster in the ring, there's no guarantee he can get out of the city alive.

KNUCKLES AND GLOVES!

Bish here.

Mel has given you the rundown on what we hope to do in designing our new fight fiction series, Fight Card. I’ve written a number of previous novels (though only a tenth of Mel’s output), but this is a project I am really excited about.

I’ve read a lot of fight fiction over the years, much of it from the sports pulps of the ‘40s and ‘50s, and there is something about boxing as a theme that just resonates with me. It strips away all pretence, leaving behind the things of most importance – courage, endurance, and the beauty of muscle against muscle. Inside the ring a fighter stands alone, his greatest opponent not the man who stands in front of him, but the man who stands inside of him . . .

Doing this project with Mel has me psyched. He’s a hell of a versatile writer and an inspiration to me. So, we’ll be knocking the words out on paper (well electronic paper anyway) and we hope you’ll find characters to root for and stories to cheer for . . .

Welcome to FIGHT CARD!

LAPD Mission Division Special Assaults Unit leader Paul Bishop and I met over the internet.  He likes some of the books I've written, and I enjoy his blog (here).  It was simply fated we'd meet eventually, given our similar interests.


So we did.  We still haven't met face to face, but we have now talked over the phone.


Paul at one point mentioned how much he liked my novella, Smoker.



Only 99 cents for Kindle at Amazon.  Click here.

 I mentioned that I would like to write more Kindle based properties about 1950s boxings, gangsters, and noir themes, but I knew I'd never be able to sell those in New York publishing.  Thankfully with ebooks, I can pursue whatever interests I have.


Paul immediately warmed to the idea.  He's a big fight fan too, and I hadn't known that.  In fact, he's got his own fight blog called Knuckles and Gloves (here).


As we talked, we decided to try to do a series of boxer novella under the umbrella title FIGHT CARD.  The books are going to center on young men that came out of an orphanage affectionately called Our Lady of the Glass Jaw.  Father Tim, the priest that took care of raising these boys, is an ex-boxer, and ex-cop, and one badass father among the parishioners.  Father Tim manhandles abusive husbands, drunkards, and criminal types that prey on his congregation.


These young men age out of the orphanage with roots in boxing, and those roots show up in these stories as they go out into the world.


Paul and I have each got a novella we're working on now and we'll be getting those out soon.  We think there's an audience out there waiting to hear those stories, and we're excited to bring them to you.