GeneChing
08-16-2011, 09:36 AM
Not to be confused with Sucker Punch (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/ezine/article.php?article=954), the 2011 film.
Author Jeremy Brown threw himself into mixed martial arts for 'Suckerpunch' (http://www.mlive.com/entertainment/kalamazoo/index.ssf/2011/08/author_jeremy_brown_threw_hims.html)
Published: Monday, August 15, 2011, 7:00 AM
Mark Wedel | Special to the Kalamazoo Gazette By Mark Wedel
http://media.mlive.com/kzgazette/entertainment/photo/9880967-small.jpg
TEXAS TOWNSHIP — In doing research for his first novel, Jeremy Brown faced a question likely very few authors face: “How many times do I want to get kicked in the face when I can pretty much give someone a good idea what it feels like on the page?” he said.
Brown’s “Suckerpunch” (Medallion Press, 2011, $14.95) is a work of crime fiction, set in the world of mixed martial arts competition.
The Paw Paw High School alum (’93) and Western Michigan University English graduate (’98) has followed a number of eclectic interests. He has worked in technical writing, in haunted house design and writing young adult fiction. He managed to get about two-thirds of the way through FBI training. The Texas Township
resident also is trained in martial arts and close-quarter combat with “knife, stick and all kinds of dirty little tricks,” he said.
How does that feel?
When Brown started writing “Suckerpunch,” he began training in MMA, a full-contact combat sport practiced in bouts. Wrestling, boxing, karate, jiujitsu and other styles are allowed.
So ... getting kicked in the face. What does that feel like?
“Um, it’s really loud. It’s a big ‘thunk.’ And, usually, you don’t realize you’ve been kicked in the head. ... I didn’t realize it until I’m looking in a complete opposite direction than I’d thought I’d been in. And then, ‘Oh, I’ve been kicked in the head,’” he said.
“And, after a couple dozen or hundred times, you get used to it. But I never really did.”
Clearly, it’s not a good hobby sport; only those who desire serious competition stick with it, he said. Brown had to quit, “because, for one thing, I was just too sore to write.” Literally. He had difficulty using his fingers on a keyboard after being worked over. But he didn’t want to tell the trainers, “go easy on me, I’m just here to write a book.”
Typically, crime fiction features a detective, private eye or some other familiar protagonist.
“I thought it might be a nice twist to have somebody who is a fighter,” Brown said.
In “Suckerpunch,” that character is Aaron “Woodshed” Wallace, a pro MMA fighter who is kept from being a rising star by rumors of a shady past.
“His usual tendency is to break the law as fast and as violently as possible,” Brown said.
Woodshed gets a chance to fight in a televised bout, but becomes “a pawn in a high-stakes game between psychopaths,” according to the cover. He’s not a flashy fighter, he’s just determined that “his will would triumph over someone else’s skill. He’s not the most glamorous fighter; he just goes for a straightforward down-’n’-dirty, get-it-on kind of thing,” Brown said.
“The gore inherent in no-holds-barred fighting may be excessive for some, but seasoned noir fans will find plenty to savor,” Publishers Weekly wrote of the novel.
Brown has faced the choice between action-filled — and likely painful — activities and the physically safe and passive job of writing a few times in his life. He dropped out of FBI training when Scholastic chose him to write “Crime Files: Four-minute Forensic Mysteries,” a two-book series for kids that Brown describes as, “‘Encyclopedia Brown’ meets ‘CSI.’ It was a huge, lucky break.”
The books were published in 2006, as he was beginning his adult novel.
Could be a series
Though not like being kicked repeatedly in the head, Brown said getting “Suckerpunch” sold and into print was a long process of rewrites with editors who liked the book, but wanted just a few tweaks.
Brown took the editors’ many suggestions like a man.
“I don’t want to be the guy stomping his feet in the corner, going ‘I’m not changing a thing,’” he said.
The result is one book in print, and a sequel in the works. Brown will send Woodshed into battle again, possibly through a series of five books, depending how well the first novel sells.
He plans signings at Kazoo Books and the Portage Barnes & Noble. “Suckerpunch” is available on Amazon and Barns & Noble sites, and as an e-book. Medallion is printing 3,000 copies, a fairly low run.
“I can see it getting bumped into a second printing,” Brown said, if it sells.
If the book makes it to the screen, it should sell. The story has been optioned by a production company, and Brown said the screenplay version is being shopped around Hollywood. (Note that Brown’s novel has nothing to do with “Sucker Punch,” the Zack Snyder action-fantasy film released to bad reviews last spring.)
Brown said he’s been thinking of who might play Woodshed.
“I always have to picture a face with a character,” he said.
He thinks actor Sam Worthington (“Avatar”) would do well, but Woodshed is a heavyweight at 6-foot-3, 230 pounds and built like Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson in his professional wrestling days.
Brown thinks of his central character as someone who, “When he steps into the room, people are like, ‘whoa.’”
But unlike sparring with real MMA fighters, Brown can work Woodshed for a while without fearing any “thunks” to the head.
Author Jeremy Brown threw himself into mixed martial arts for 'Suckerpunch' (http://www.mlive.com/entertainment/kalamazoo/index.ssf/2011/08/author_jeremy_brown_threw_hims.html)
Published: Monday, August 15, 2011, 7:00 AM
Mark Wedel | Special to the Kalamazoo Gazette By Mark Wedel
http://media.mlive.com/kzgazette/entertainment/photo/9880967-small.jpg
TEXAS TOWNSHIP — In doing research for his first novel, Jeremy Brown faced a question likely very few authors face: “How many times do I want to get kicked in the face when I can pretty much give someone a good idea what it feels like on the page?” he said.
Brown’s “Suckerpunch” (Medallion Press, 2011, $14.95) is a work of crime fiction, set in the world of mixed martial arts competition.
The Paw Paw High School alum (’93) and Western Michigan University English graduate (’98) has followed a number of eclectic interests. He has worked in technical writing, in haunted house design and writing young adult fiction. He managed to get about two-thirds of the way through FBI training. The Texas Township
resident also is trained in martial arts and close-quarter combat with “knife, stick and all kinds of dirty little tricks,” he said.
How does that feel?
When Brown started writing “Suckerpunch,” he began training in MMA, a full-contact combat sport practiced in bouts. Wrestling, boxing, karate, jiujitsu and other styles are allowed.
So ... getting kicked in the face. What does that feel like?
“Um, it’s really loud. It’s a big ‘thunk.’ And, usually, you don’t realize you’ve been kicked in the head. ... I didn’t realize it until I’m looking in a complete opposite direction than I’d thought I’d been in. And then, ‘Oh, I’ve been kicked in the head,’” he said.
“And, after a couple dozen or hundred times, you get used to it. But I never really did.”
Clearly, it’s not a good hobby sport; only those who desire serious competition stick with it, he said. Brown had to quit, “because, for one thing, I was just too sore to write.” Literally. He had difficulty using his fingers on a keyboard after being worked over. But he didn’t want to tell the trainers, “go easy on me, I’m just here to write a book.”
Typically, crime fiction features a detective, private eye or some other familiar protagonist.
“I thought it might be a nice twist to have somebody who is a fighter,” Brown said.
In “Suckerpunch,” that character is Aaron “Woodshed” Wallace, a pro MMA fighter who is kept from being a rising star by rumors of a shady past.
“His usual tendency is to break the law as fast and as violently as possible,” Brown said.
Woodshed gets a chance to fight in a televised bout, but becomes “a pawn in a high-stakes game between psychopaths,” according to the cover. He’s not a flashy fighter, he’s just determined that “his will would triumph over someone else’s skill. He’s not the most glamorous fighter; he just goes for a straightforward down-’n’-dirty, get-it-on kind of thing,” Brown said.
“The gore inherent in no-holds-barred fighting may be excessive for some, but seasoned noir fans will find plenty to savor,” Publishers Weekly wrote of the novel.
Brown has faced the choice between action-filled — and likely painful — activities and the physically safe and passive job of writing a few times in his life. He dropped out of FBI training when Scholastic chose him to write “Crime Files: Four-minute Forensic Mysteries,” a two-book series for kids that Brown describes as, “‘Encyclopedia Brown’ meets ‘CSI.’ It was a huge, lucky break.”
The books were published in 2006, as he was beginning his adult novel.
Could be a series
Though not like being kicked repeatedly in the head, Brown said getting “Suckerpunch” sold and into print was a long process of rewrites with editors who liked the book, but wanted just a few tweaks.
Brown took the editors’ many suggestions like a man.
“I don’t want to be the guy stomping his feet in the corner, going ‘I’m not changing a thing,’” he said.
The result is one book in print, and a sequel in the works. Brown will send Woodshed into battle again, possibly through a series of five books, depending how well the first novel sells.
He plans signings at Kazoo Books and the Portage Barnes & Noble. “Suckerpunch” is available on Amazon and Barns & Noble sites, and as an e-book. Medallion is printing 3,000 copies, a fairly low run.
“I can see it getting bumped into a second printing,” Brown said, if it sells.
If the book makes it to the screen, it should sell. The story has been optioned by a production company, and Brown said the screenplay version is being shopped around Hollywood. (Note that Brown’s novel has nothing to do with “Sucker Punch,” the Zack Snyder action-fantasy film released to bad reviews last spring.)
Brown said he’s been thinking of who might play Woodshed.
“I always have to picture a face with a character,” he said.
He thinks actor Sam Worthington (“Avatar”) would do well, but Woodshed is a heavyweight at 6-foot-3, 230 pounds and built like Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson in his professional wrestling days.
Brown thinks of his central character as someone who, “When he steps into the room, people are like, ‘whoa.’”
But unlike sparring with real MMA fighters, Brown can work Woodshed for a while without fearing any “thunks” to the head.