Coming this week: Fighting Alaska

I join the ranks of the Fight Card writing stable with the upcoming publication of Fight Card: Fighting Alaska. I'm looking forward to this release. It will appear first as an eBook, and the print version will follow soon after. The cover is by Carl Yonder.

The Fight Card series of books works this way: the eBooks are published under the house name, Jack Tunney. The subsequent print versions appear with the authors' actual names.

The Fight Card series was launched by authors Paul Bishop and Mel Odom and was "inspired by the fight pulps of the ’30s and ’40s – such as Fight Stories Magazine – and Robert E. Howard’s two-fisted boxing tales featuring Sailor Steve Costigan."

Many of the stories are set in the boxing milieu of the 1930s and '40s. However, there are stories set outside those confines. For example, one series of tales within the Fight Card ring feature Sherlock Holmes in boxing-related mysteries. My entry, Fighting Alaska, occurs during the turn of the 19th Century to the 20th. Here's the promotional blurb:

1900 Alaska … Gold, greed, and gamblers – a dangerous combination in a gold rush boomtown. Itinerant boxer Jean St. Vrain has a lifetime of rootless wandering behind him and ten years of knuckle-busting boxing, bar bouncing, and disillusionment. He wants to call quits to the fight game, but he needs a way out. Joining a mob of desperate men heading for the Alaskan gold fields, Jean is caught between crooked judges, crooked businessmen, a soiled dove, and infamous gunman Wyatt Earp and his cronies. With his future looking as harsh as the Alaskan landscape, Jean has one chance left – fight again.

Review of Pretty Polly

Texas gentleman James Reasoner has posted a positive review of Pretty Polly over at his blog, Rough Edges. I greatly appreciate it.

James is a fine writer with more than 200 books to his credit, and more to come. Everything I've read by him has been entertaining. One of my favorites is Under Outlaw Flags, which combines the western with World War I action.

He has two recent releases:

One is a western, Rancho Diablo #2: Hangrope Law, under the pseudonym Colby Jackson. Jackson is a name shared by three writers--Mel Odom, Bill Crider, and James--who are writing a western series they've created under a single nom de sixshooter. They are releasing the Rancho Diablo series as eBooks for the Kindle and the Nook.

His second new release is from Berkley, Redemption, Kansas. It's available both as a paperback and an eBook. Troy D. Smith has a nice review of Redemption, Kansas, over at the Western Fictioneers blog.

James' review of Pretty Polly suggests that the villain, Griswold Bear (aka Grizzly or Grisly, depending on whom your talking to), should make a return appearance. I have to admit I hadn't thought about that. I fully expect Sheriff Shoat to show up in another story, but maybe Griswold also deserves another fictional outing. I'll have to let that percolate in the brain pan. It's worth considering.