On Doing Historical Fiction Research with Carol Malone
In my weekly live #askaWritingCoach chat this week, Carol Malone and I chatted about tips for doing research for historical fiction. We also gave away prizes. Catharine gave away a copy of her novel, Fight Card Romance: Ladies Night, and one of its sequel, Fight Card Romance: Ladies Night Christmas: A Short Story. (See below.) I gave away one digital copy each of my books, Twitter for Authors, and A Cupcake Christmas. When you show up live and ask questions, you have a chance to win prizes!
Los Angeles, 1954 … Gangsters, crime, boxing – and romance …
Jimmy Doherty, a hard-luck orphan from the south side of Chicago, was mentored in the sweet science of boxing by Father Tim Brophy, the Battling Priest of St. Vincent’s Asylum for Boys. Jimmy’s fists were good enough to take him to LA where he has begun his rise up the local fight-cards. He has big plans to be a contender and even bigger plans for Lindy – his trainer’s only daughter, who’s sweeter than apple pie and harder to resist.
But when Lindy is arrested for killing a boxer with ties to gangster Mickey Cohen, Jimmy is forced to join forces with the arresting detective – who would like to do much more with Lindy than put her in handcuffs – in a desperate search for the real killer.
Love can be murder – in the ring and out …
Christmas, 1955 … Hollywood Legion Stadium …
Light heavy-weight champ, Jimmy Doherty is boxing Carlo ‘Toro’ Bassani for the Christmas benefit, even though Jimmy is sure Toro is under the thumb of gangster, Mickey Cohen. He doesn’t know if Toro will deck him with a ‘Sunday punch’ in the first round or flop in the third. Even though Jimmy feels sorry for the pug who has cast his lot with the devil, he isn’t sure if he should give this boxer an early Christmas gift of his self-respect, by forcing him to fight like a man, or let Toro kiss the canvas.
Jimmy’s bride, Lindy Doherty, is front row center where she always is when he fights. Not many dames would stay in their man’s corner consistently cheering him on. She’s taking in the action and praying her husband won’t get his head handed to him on a Christmas platter. While waiting to watch Jimmy duke it out in the center ring, she and her six month old son, Patrick, along with her two Precious Roses, meet the brightest star in the Hollywood Christmas sky.
Can Jimmy retain his light heavy-weight title and keep a fellow boxer from accidentally “falling” off the San Pedro Pier? And what is Lindy’s special Christmas gift for Jimmy?
ABOUT CAROL MALONE
For award winning author, Carol Malone, living with passion means discovering what you’re good at and doing what you love. Happiest when she’s painting word pictures, her passion is cranking out sweet, tender stories both in the contemporary and Noir genres.
