FIGHT CARD'S HEATH LOWRANCE GLOVES UP!

FIGHT CARD'S HEATH LOWRANCE GLOVES UP!

THE JUST RELEASED FIGHT CARD: BLUFF CITY BRAWLER IS ANOTHER HARD-PUNCHING TALE.  THIS TIME, THE WRITER BEHIND THE JACK TUNNEY PSEUDONYM – POUNDING ON HIS BATTERED, HARDBOILED TYPEWRITER – IS HEATH LOWRANCE, WHO NOW GIVES US HIS TAKE ON THE FIGHT CARD SERIES . . .

HEATH LOWRANCE GLOVES UP!

I’m not a big sports fan. When I pop up to the liquor store for a pack’a smokes and the clerk says, “Hey, you catch the game last night?” I can only smile and say, “No, man, I missed it”—while thinking, Game? What game? It’s just not anything I care about. Except for boxing.

Yeah. Boxing. Now, that’s a sport, friends. Mano-a-mano, as they say. It’s probably because I’ve never really been what you call a “team player”. Makes it hard to get interested in team sports. But boxing, the sweet science, is all about two men facing off, each with their own set of skills, not relying on anyone else. It’s a testament of endurance, wit, speed, strength. How can someone not be interested in watching that?

I came to the world of reading fight stories late in life. Like many readers, my first experience with the sub-genre was Robert E. Howard, a writer I adore with a passion bordering on obsessive geekiness. Growing up, I’d read all his Conan stuff, his Solomon Kane stories, his Lovecraftian horror, anything I could find. So, I was elated a few years ago when Wildside Press started putting out Howard’s lesser-known stuff—among them a nice collection of his best fight stories, Waterfront Fists And Others. In my 40’s by that time, I devoured those stories with as much enthusiasm as my 14-year-old self had devoured the Conan tales.

Since then, I’ve read a lot of Jack London’s great boxing stories as well, but most of my reading in the sub-genre has been through the excellent Fight Card series. I’m happy to tell you, this terrific series lives up to the high standards set by Howard and London.

And I’ve learned a great deal from them. Each writer who has taken on the mantle of Jack Tunney is an expert at delivering fast-paced, exciting stories centered around the ring. Each one knows how to keep the story barreling along in the best pulp tradition, and each one gives us fight sequences and action scenes that are sharp, clear and thrilling.

I was pleased to be given the opportunity to be Jack Tunney. My fight story is called Bluff City Brawler. It’s a man-on-the-run story, with lots of ring action, lots of suspense, and, hopefully, some characters you can get behind. It’s a fight story, that’s what it is. Because, honestly, could you see reading a story about any other kind of sport other than boxing? I couldn’t.

FIGHT CARD: BLUFF CITY BRAWLER

Tom Riley makes a meager living in the ring in Detroit, but it’s good enough for him. He ain’t ambitious. A few bucks and a rather high opinion of himself are all he needs.

But when he accidentally kills a connected mobster, he’s forced on the lam and winds up in Memphis—the Bluff City—where, he struggles to make a new life for himself. But his past mistakes are about to catch up to him, in spades. The Detroit Mob is closing in, and Tom’s future is about to be decided in blood—and in the ring.

Bluff City Brawler—Another rousing novel in the Fight Card series!

HEATH LOWRANCE

Heath Lowrance is the author of the novels City Of Heretics, from Snubnose Press, and The Bastard Hand, from New Pulp Press. His collection of short stories, Dig Ten Graves, is also available at Amazon.com, as are his Hawthorne series of weird western stories and a straight Western called Miles to Little Ridge. His other stories have appeared at Crime Factory, Shotgun Honey, Chi-Zine, Pulp Metal, and other places. He’s been a movie theater manager, a tour guide at Sun Studio, a singer in a punk band, and a regular donor of blood for money. He lives in Lansing, Michigan, and can be found blogging at http://psychonoir.blogspot.com