In my latest short fiction, two small-time hoods find a way to avoid the stress of dealing with sassy kidnap victims. Turns out, that’s the least of their worries.

Check it out here:

Never, Ever Bring This Up Again

I just signed the contract with Medallion Press to publish Suckerpunch. My great agent Margaret worked with the Medallion staff to work everything out, and it all looks great.

I didn’t see anything in there about firstborn children or souls, but the crew at Medallion are a cheeky, clever bunch…my kind of folks!

Pretty cool – I used to get these updates and drool over the deals while I worked on my stuff.

“Jeremy Brown’s SUCKERPUNCH, pitched as Elmore Leonard meets Fight Club, featuring a wise-cracking, southpaw heavyweight, a modern-day cage fighter trying to shake his criminal past as he works his way toward the title, to Helen Rosburg at Medallion Press, in a nice deal, by Margaret O’Connor at Renaissance (World English).”

What is Publishers Lunch?

From their website:

Publishers Lunch is the industry’s “daily essential read,” now shared with more than 40,000 publishing people every day. Each report gathers together stories from all over the web and print of interest to the professional trade book community, along with original reporting, plus a little perspective and the occasional wisecrack added in.

My fantastic agent Margaret secured a deal with the great crew at Medallion Press, and Suckerpunch and Woodshed Wallace will be published in 2011!

You have one year to prepare for the jaw-busting action and neck-torquing plot twists, so get your page turning techniques trained into muscle memory.

I’m about halfway through right now, and it might turn into a complete tire fire in the second half, but I doubt it. Some literary snobs might find the characters cliche and the plot formulaic, but who cares?

The characters are interesting and flawed and I want some of them to live and some of them to die, and I can’t wait to find out what happens. The foreshadowing is fantastic, with characters and locations lurking around the corners ahead and peeking out every now and then to make sure I’m still coming. No worries, you scamps, I’m on my way.

This is the kind of book that is both intimidating and inspiring to me as a writer. I read it and think, “This is incredible. Why would someone read my book when they can read this one?” Then I think, “What’s stopping me from writing something better?”

This is the first book I’ve read by Dennis Lehane so if you can recommend the next one I should read, please do.

Update

I finished Shutter Island and it was fantastic. Go get it and read it. I’ve just read A Drink Before the War and Gone, Baby, Gone, and highly recommend the Patrick Kenzie series as well.

Scratch one item off the lifetime wish list: Last Thursday I went with Ellen to Schuler Books in Lansing for a book talk and signing by Elmore Leonard and his son Peter.

Peter and Elmore Leonard

It was an honor to meet the man who created Get Shorty, Out of Sight, Stick, 52 Pickup, Killshot, and so many more. He and Peter told stories about the craft and some of the characters and situations they’ve come across, and it was great to watch them convey information and answer potential questions just like they do in their novels: through action and dialogue.

And even in person, Mr. Leonard left out the parts people skip.

The latest revision is being reviewed by my agent, and will hopefully go out to editors soon.

Back up – what the what is Suckerpunch?

Suckerpunch is the first book in a series featuring heavyweight mixed martial artist Aaron “Woodshed” Wallace, who is stuck on no-name cards for tiny organizations. Woody is trying to put his violent (and, ahem, possibly illegal) past behind him with help from his trainer and mentor, Brazilian jiu jitsu black belt Gil Hobbes.

When Banzai Eddie Takanori – president of MMA’s largest organization, Warrior Inc. – offers Woody a short-notice fight against a highly favored poster boy, Woody sees his shot at salvation.

By the time Woody figures out he’s just a pawn in a high-stakes game between psychopaths, he’s in way too deep.

Good thing he knows how to take a punch.

And give a few back…