Fight Card: Blood Freud

FIGHT CARD MMA: BLOOD FEUD

Greetings!

I realize I have been delayed in getting out this email announcing our latest Fight Card MMA title, Blood Feud, with Tim Tresslar masquerading as Jack Tunney.

         Tim has a strong background writing men’s action adventure novels and, in Blood Feud, he gives us a wonderful idea of what a Mack Bolan/ Fight Card mash up might look like.

Dubai, 2015…David Garrett never could walk away from a fight. Even when a covert mission to nab a terrorist went wrong, leaving fellow CIA agents dead and Garrett holding the bag, he had to be forced to stand down.

Angry and disillusioned, he returned to his native Chicago where he engaged in off-the-books bouts for money, settled scores and made new enemies. Still, the unfinished business eats at him. Then Melissa, his former lover and fellow CIA agent, surfaces. She tells him one of the men responsible for the debacle in Iraq has surfaced. Like Garrett, the man is a fighter and on the card for an exhibition bout in Dubai. Would Garrett come back for one last mission? Garrett never could walk away from a fight. Even one that could kill him…

        "This one-two punch from Tim Tresslar has a power not seen since Ali beat Frazier. Blood Feud is a smoking-hot thriller guaranteed to hit so hard you'll see stars the next day still. Go get it – and prepare to stay up all night reading. Yeah, it's that good." Bestselling author Shane Gericke, The Fury

Amazon link: http://tinyurl.com/kxvep48

A copy of the manuscript and the cover by David Foster are attached for your perusal.  Any mention on you blogs or social networking sites is appreciated.

         As Fight Card enters 2015 our schedule, due to books on hand, will more than likely be changing to publication every two months. We do have a third Fight Card Sherlock Holmes coming from Andrew Salmon, Job Girl – the sequel to Monster Man – from Jason Chirevas, a yet to be titled outing from J. Walt Lang, and several other irons heating in the fire.

         Thanks to everyone for all you do for Fight Card …

         Till next time … Keep punching …

 Paul

Fight Card Update

Greetings,

Our Fight Card entry this month comes from Nathan Walpow, author of the popular Joe Portugal mystery series (www.walpow.com).  Fight Card: Push takes us behind the scenes and behind the hoopla of the world of professional wrestling.

FIGHT CARD: PUSH

You’re a ‘jobber’. You make your living by losing in the wrestling ring. You’re a good wrestler, but promoters don’t think you have what it takes to become a superstar. Then Thumper shows up. Big and strong, with a bunny-rabbit gimmick and fans eating out of his hand. His finishing move is called The Thump, and most guys don’t get up from it on their own.

One night, Thumper puts his opponent in the hospital. Not a big deal. Sure, the outcome of a wrestling match is fake. But the ‘bumps’ in the ring can be all too real. Sometimes you get hurt. Part of the territory.

Then it happens again. Only this time, the guy who got ‘thumped’ is tossed into a car like a sack of potatoes. Lou Boone, the promoter who runs Central States Wrestling with an iron fist, knows you saw something and offers you a ‘push’ if you keep your mouth shut.

A push. Every jobber’s dream. To get to win some matches, to get to be on the big cards in the big arenas. You want it more than anything. You begin thinking you imagined the sack-of-potatoes guy – until it happens again.

Now, you have to choose between wrestling fame and doing the right thing. Before this is over, someone else will be dead. And you don’t want it to be you…

Based on the short story “Push Comes to Shove,” selected by Lawrence Block for the Best American Mystery Stories series.

Amazon Link: http://tinyurl.com/lbn2mrx

As always any mentions on your blogs or via your social networking connections are always appreciated.

We have also recently release or second Fight Card charity anthology, Fight Card Presents: Battling Mahoney & Other Stories, which is available via Amazon as an e-book for $2.99 with 100% of the proceeds going to help the family of the late Jory Sherman. A paperback version will follow shortly.

FIGHT CARD PRESENTS: BATTLING MAHONEY & OTHER STORIES

The second in a series of charity anthologies from the Fight Card authors’ cooperative – a writers’ community featuring many of today’s finest fictioneers – features fifteen rounds of fight fiction from authors James Reasoner, Loren D. Estleman, Len Levinson, James Hopwood, Mark Finn, Jeremy L. C. Jones, Michael Zimmer, Marc Cameron, Nik Morton, Marsha Ward, Clay More, Chuck Tyrell, Bowie V. Ibarra, Art Bowshier, and featuring an extensive essay, On Boxing, by Willis Gordon.

Compiled by Paul Bishop and Jeremy L. C. Jones, 100% of the proceeds from these anthologies go directly to an author-in-need or a literacy charity. Words on paper are the life blood of a writer. The writers in this volume were willing to bleed in order to give a transfusion to one of their own – and then continue to bleed to give a transfusion to literacy charities in support of that most precious of commodities...readers. They are true fighters, every one...

Amazon Link: http://tinyurl.com/jvofrd9

File copies of Fight Card: Push and Fight Card Presents: Battling Mahoney & Other Stories, along with their covers, are attached.

Fight Card’s upcoming line-up includes Bareknuckle Barbarian from Teel James Glenn (featuring the two-fisted adventures of Bob Howard – R.E.H.), Job Girl from Jason Chirevas (the sequel to Monster Man), Joseph Grants long awaited The Guns of November, and a new Fight Card Sherlock Holmes tale from Andrew Salmon.

Until next month … Keep punching …

Fight Card: Copper Mountain Champ

FIGHT CARD UPDATE

Our latest release Fight Card: Copper Mountain Champ by Brian Drake (writing as Jack Tunney) has just hit the virtual shelves.  Brian is another of the top breakthrough writers to become part of our Fight Card team.

FIGHT CARD: COPPER MOUNTAIN CHAMP

Butte, Montana. 1951…Back from the horror of World War II, Alex Slayton started working the copper mines of his hometown, but it’s hardly the life he intends for himself...or his girlfriend, Liz. However, when long festering problems at the mine force a union strike, Alex finds himself up against the mining company’s notoriously tight-fisted owner – a man who believes in violence as a first resort. 

Based on his raw fighting talent, Alex learned the sweet science from his mentor and fellow miner, Pete Kovich – hoping boxing would get him out from underground and on to a sunny future.  Now, caught in a web of town intrigue, violence, and sudden death, Alex is forced to face the mine owner’s son, a top boxing prospect, in the ring.  Alex knows he’s not ready, but the only way out is to fight – not just for himself, but for the whole town…

AMAZON LINK: http://tinyurl.com/of6s8rg

A copy of Fight Card: Copper Mountain Champ is attached for your reading pleasure along with a jpeg of the cover suitable for placement on blogs or social networking.  Any exposure is appreciated.  Please use the appropriate sharing buttons at the bottom of each page atwww.fightcardbooks.com to spread the word via Facebook and Twitter.

Coming up next month (May) will be Fight Card: Monster Man from Jason Ciervas with a distinctive storyline, which takes the Fight Card formula in a very different direction.

June will see Fight Card making a big splash at the Howard Day’s convention in Cross Plains, Texas, with the debut of Fight Card: The Adventures of Sailor Tom Sharkey by Howard scholar Mark Finn.  The Fight Card tales owe a big debt to Robert E. Howard’s early creation of Sailor Steve Corrigan.  Finn’s Sharkey tales pay tribute to the world and style of Corrigan, but with a distinct voice all their own.   I’m personally very excited about this collection, which sports an amazing painted cover from Carl Yonder.

Also coming up later in 2014, Fight Card: Guns of November by returning Fight Card author (Fight Card: The Last Round of Archie Mannis) Joseph Grant – in which Fight Card enters the murky waters of the JFK assassination – Fight Card: Bridgetown Brawler from rising pulp star David White, and Fight Card: Fight River from pulp guru Tommy Hancock.

This summer, Fight Card will be the focus of an intensive five week college marketing workshop known as The Space.  Jeremy L.C. Jones and I will be working with these top marketing students to come up with new ways to promote our Fight Card brand and generate more book sales for all of us.

Till next month …

Keep Punching!

Paul

Fight Card: Rise of The Luchador

Greetings,

Our latest Fight Card novel, Rise of the Luchador, with Jadon Ridler writing as Jack Tunney, has just gone live with a brilliant painted cover by Carl Yonder.

Like last month’s Fist of Africa, Rise of the Luchador takes Fight Cards readers into a new and different culture.  This time it’s the world of the luchadors – Mexican masked wrestlers. These individuals who put on the mask of the luchador have become cult heroes in Mexico and continue to inspire fans today.  Rise of the Luchador eloquently captures the mystique of these masked heroes and provides an electrifying look at the world of Lucha Libre.

FIGHT CARD: RISE OF THE LUCHADOR

San Diego 2014 … Carlos may be the deadliest vale tudo street fighter in Brazil, but he’s no match for the drug lord on his tail. Haunted by the death of his best friend and on the run from a Mexican hit squad, Carlos is forced into hiding with a traveling carnival crawling its way from San Diego to LA.  Within this world of freaks and con-men, Carlos has no choice but to become the one thing he hates – a masked luchador wrestler.

However, once he has donned the mask, Carlos finds there is much more to being a luchador than fake wrestling moves and cheesy showmanship. There is a mystique and a responsibility carried by those who become true luchadors.  But will being a fake hero, no matter how inspired or mystical, save him from the drug lord’s henchmen…Can it erase his tortured past…Or will he be forced to once again become the killing machine he has always been?

Rise of the Luchador is the next installment of the acclaimed Fight Card Series.

Amazon Link:  http://tinyurl.com/n6tn5zk

As many of you know, our crop of 2014 Fight Card tales garnered a slew of nominations for the 2014 New Pulp Awards.  Congratulations to Carol Malone (Fight Card Romance: Ladies Night), Terrance McCauley (Fight Card: Against the Ropes), Derrick Ferguson (Fight Card: Brooklyn Beatdown), Anthony Venutolo (Fight Card: Front Page Palooka), and Andrew Salmon (Fight Card: Sherlock Holmes) all nominated in the category Best Novella, Carl Yonder for Best Cover Art (Fight Card: Sherlock Holmes), and Anthony Venutolo again for his nomination as Best New Writer (Fight Card: Front Page Palooka) and for creating Best New Pulp Character (Nick Moretti, Fight Card: Front Page Palooka).  Fight Card author Bobby Nash was also nominated for one of his non-Fight Card works in the Best Short Story category.  Again, congratulations to all.

Coming up in 2014 Fight Card: Copper Town Champ (Brian Drake), Fight Card: Monster Man (Jason Chirevas), Fight Card: Guns of November (Joseph Grant), Fight Card: Bridgeport Brawler (David White), Fight Card: The Adventures of Tom Sharkey (Mark Finn), and more …

I have two exciting pieces of promotional news, both of which could help Fight Card reach a successful tipping point, which I will reveal in our next update.

Until then … Keep punching …

Paul

Fight Card: Fist of Africa

FIGHT CARD MMA: FIST OF AFRICA

Nigeria 2004 ... Nicholas 'New Breed' Steed, a tough teen from the mean streets of Chicago, is sent to his mother’s homeland – a tiny village in Nigeria – to avoid trouble with the law. Unknown to Nick, the tiny village is actually a compound where some of the best fighters in the world are trained. Nick is teased, bullied and subjected to torturous training in a culture so very different from the world where he grew up.

Atlanta 2014 ... After a decade of training in Nigeria, a tragedy brings Nick back to America. Believing the disaffected youth in his home town sorely need the same self-discipline and strength of character training in the African martial arts gave him, Nick opens an Academy. While the kids are disinterested in the fighting style of the cultural heritage Nick offers, they are enamored with mixed martial arts. Nick decides to enter the world of mixed martial arts to make the world aware of the effectiveness and efficiency of the martial arts of Africa.

Pursing a professional career in MMA, Nick moves to Atlanta, Georgia, where he runs into his old nemesis – Rico Stokes, the organized crime boss who once employed Nick’s father, wants Nick to replace his father in the Stokes’ protection racket. Will New Breed Steed claim the Light Heavyweight title … Or will the streets of Atlanta claim him?

Amazon Link: http://tinyurl.com/mqecjlq

As always, you will find a copy attached to send on to your Kindle or read on your computer along with a jpeg of the cover.  Any mentions on your social networking or blog sites are appreciated.

Next up is Fight Card: Rise Of The Luchadore from Jason Ridler with another stunning cover by Carl Yonder.

I'm currently editing books from Brian Drake (tentative title: Copper Town Champ). Joseph Grant (Guns of November), Jason Chirevas (Monster Man), and Mark Finn (The Adventures Of Sailor Tom Sharkey) along with short stories for our second charity anthology.

Look for some big news on the Fight Card marketing front in our next update ...

Keep Punching ...

Paul

Rosie The Ripper

Fight Card is kicking 2014 off with a dynamite release written by Sam Hawken, Fight Card MMA: Rosie The Ripper.

Baltimore, 2014 ... Rosie Bratton is a recovering alcoholic. Divorced, working a dead end job, and with a young daughter she only sees on alternate weekends, her life is going nowhere.  Her hopes hang on the outcome of a custody battle to regain primary custody of her daughter, and the vague possibility things might get better together.

When circumstances turn bleak, Rosie nearly retreats into the bottle, but her sponsor has a solution. Felix was once a mixed martial arts contender. Now, he’s turned his talent toward teaching his skills to others. If Rosie becomes his student, he hopes she can learn how to be a stronger, focused, better person.

Some people are born to fight – in the cage and out – and Rosie is one of them. When she’s given the moniker Rosie the Ripper, she becomes something more than she was before – and it may be enough to give her a fighting chance …

Amazon Link: http://tinyurl.com/lmka4ep