Sports imitating romance? Thoughts from JB Salsbury, author of 'Fighting to Forget'

Sports imitating romance?

Often times I’m not even aware of how similar my fighters are to MMA fighters in real life until I look back after the character is written. I suppose it would be impossible NOT to pull from real life, and although I recognize that some of it happens on accident, I’d be lying if I said a tiny amount of it isn’t done intentionally.

Safe to say that all of my fighters mimic a real UFC fighter, either present or retired, either in looks or fighting style.

Jonah “The Assassin” Slade from Fighting for Flight was written after Heavyweight Champion Chuck Liddell who is known for his killer stand up and knockout punch. Blake “The Snake” Daniels from Fighting to Forgive with his big mouth and in-your-face attitude is a lot like Tito Ortiz. Mason looks a lot like UFC Fighter Uriah Faber, Owen is Rampage Jackson in my head, and Caleb is Matt Hughes, the list goes on and on.

But…

Rex ‘T-Rex” Carter from Fighting to Forget is my favorite.

There’s a UFC Fighter by the name of Forest Griffin, and although his name sounds just as innocent as he looks, he’s a brawler. He’ll be bloody, weak, and beaten in the octagon, but he will not fall. And the scariest part? He smiles. Ear to ear and through a swollen busted lip and bloodied face… the guy GRINS! It’s eerie and admirable at the same time.

What makes a man SMILE through the gore and the pain? I was inspired to know the answer to that very question, and that’s how Rex Carter was born.

Because pain shouldn’t feel good, right?

Fighting to Forget

Every fighter is drawn to the violence, the release that a perfect hit can bring.

But very few are drawn to the pain.

Rex Carter lives behind a wall of indifference. The demons from his childhood act as an anesthetic, keeping him distant from emotional connections. Only the ache from a knock to the jaw, the sting of a tattoo needle, or the heat from a piercing can jolt him back from the numbness. The fiery pain is all he can feel, and nothing compares to the burn.

Or so he thought.

Working in a Las Vegas bar isn't Georgia McIntyre's dream. But she hopes it'll be an end to the nightmare.

She's watched him, followed him and kept tabs, all in preparation for this moment: to make amends and share the secret she’s been carrying since she was a kid. But she didn't count on the feelings that seeing him again would stir up, the vacant look in his stormy-blue eyes, and his perfect body now mutilated by ink and metal.

And she knows why. She's lived his pain every single day, since the day he left.

Changed by time, Rex doesn't remember the girl from his past. If only she could do the same.

Will she get the absolution she's spent her life seeking?

Or will he continue Fighting to Forget?

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Author Bio

JB Salsbury, USA Today Best Selling author of the Fighting series, lives in Phoenix, Arizona with her husband and two kids. She spends the majority of her day as a domestic engineer. But while she works through her daily chores, a world of battling alphas, budding romance, and impossible obstacles claws away at her subconscious, begging to be released to the page.

Her love of good storytelling led her to earn a degree in Media Communications. With her journalistic background, writing has always been at the forefront, and her love of romance prompted her to sink her free time into novel writing.

Fighting for Flight, Fighting to Forgive, and Fighting to Forget are the first three novels in the MMA romance series. Fighting the Fall is due to be released in October 2014.

For more information on the series or just to say hello, visit JB on her website, Facebook, or Goodreads page.

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