Boom! This is Books & Biceps #358!

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To the entire crew of Sophisticated Meatheads reading this… All 26,000 STRONG…. I am proud to announce that I have just completed the publishing deal for my next book. Check out the big announcement in Publisher’s Marketplace here. This goes so hard:

I set out to write a thriller unlike any other.

Inspired by two of my favorite novels of all time: Jaws & First Blood.

This book is Rocky meets The Revenant.

Next fall... get ready... for BEAR BRAWL.

And yes, this is my first novel. My first fiction book, in fact. And since many of you have been reading Books & Biceps for 4+ years, following along as we published 1996: A Biography and then Hoops Heist and Macho Man and Generation Griffey, I’ll share a little behind-the-scenes of my thought process and ultimate goals for my writing career.

While I was promoting my Macho Man biography last year during WrestleMania and throughout my book tour I often referred to it as a bucket list book to write. And I meant it. I’d always set out to write books on people or events that I viewed as one-of-ones: Charlie Ward, the 1996 sports year, Nate Robinson, “Mean” Joe Greene and finally the Macho Man Randy Savage.

I had a few other ideas for non-fiction books/bios written down that could have followed Macho, but the truth is that I’ve been thinking/wanting to move into fiction for a long time. Not only have sports sections in book stores been shrinking and publishers shying away from the kind of non-fiction biographies guys would read, but most of the big names who fascinate me have been done AND I also decided that after about five books in a row that required hundreds of interviews each along with hundreds or even a thousand sources and pieces of research, I’d much rather expand my creativity and start writing novels. More freedom. More fun.

In particular, I wanted to write thrillers that I’ve always loved reading from authors like Michael Crichton, David Morrell, Peter Benchley and more recently TJ Newman, Don Winslow, Jack Carr and so many others I’ve featured here in Books & Biceps.

I envision a big shelf at Barnes & Noble one day full of my thrillers and action/adventure books and it all starts with the first one.

Easier said than done, of course.

It’s frankly difficult to switch from non-fiction and biographies to novels and thrillers: both from a writing standpoint and from a publishing standpoint.

But I knew the exact idea and the exact publisher I wanted to approach for my first attempt so I felt confident I could get it done.

The idea, as you’ve just read, is this:

What happens when a bear of a man, with the ideal training, motivation and skill set, fights a black bear one-on-one with no weapons. Could he win? How would he train? How would he track the bear? What would that look like? What would his friends and family think? Why would he even do something so insane?

The answers to all of these questions, ultimately, became the manuscript for Bear Brawl.

And I 100% guarantee that you will LOVE it. The action starts on page one and doesn’t stop. You’ll have to wait a bit, and I’ll keep you posted, but this is a direct bullseye for Books & Biceps readers.

And bonus: I’m reading the audiobook as well!

The publisher of the book is Blackstone Publishing. They’ve been behind about 8 books I’ve featured here in this newsletter and I now call many of their authors friends. They were my #1 choice for this book and, in fact, I submitted my manuscript to them exclusively, telling them I was all-in. Nobody else was going to read the book until they had a chance to review it. I did this because Blackstone KNOWS how to turn thrillers into massive literary successes and I’m so pumped to work with them. One of their most recent books just got optioned to be James Cameron’s next film. That’s the level they’re operating on.

So, I’m working on some edits now and hope to have a cover to show you and a pre-order link in a few months.

I can’t wait for you all to go on this ride with me.

Thank you all for reading. These books wouldn’t happen without you, the incredible Books & Biceps crew. You’re all Hall of Famers in my book! - Jon

As I mentioned, there has been a dearth of sports books worth reading lately, but one that can’t be ignored (and that I just ordered) is Mark Kriegel’s definitive biography of Mike Tyson called: Baddest Man: The Making of Mike Tyson.

One thing I have to admit is that this has probably been my longest drought between reading a sports biography that I can remember. It’s really been a while, man. There have just been so few. There are probably several factors for this:

Many of the athletes I’d personally be interested in have been done and overall fewer are being published.

Mike Tyson, of course, is an athlete I’m interested in, and since Kriegel’s “Pistol” Pete Maravich biography is one of my all-time favorites, I’m giving this one a shot.

And in case you’re wondering, the big time, A-List athlete bios off the top of my head I’d be pumped for that haven’t been done yet are: Ken Griffey Jr… and I think that’s it haha.

I was having a conversation about Popeye with my son and we Googled “Popeye” to see where to watch the old cartoons and probably because of my fitness search history one of the first links to pop up was for a guy called “The Egyptian Popeye”.

This man, Moustafa Ismail, holds the Guinness Book of World Records for the largest biceps. They look… well… kinda gross. And non-functional and uncomfortable. And just odd. Evidently he eats like 10k calories a day to maintain his arms and size. Either way, without further comment, if you’ve never seen him, here’s the 31” pythons of the Egyptian Popeye:

This video is titled, where there’s a will, there’s a way, and it shows a dude getting his swimming done in what looks like an oversized concrete bathtub attached to rubber tubing.

I love swimming, and I even have a bungee swimming set for my backyard pool, but I may draw the line with this contraption. Feels like dungeon swimming:

This is much more like it for me. Taken after my Tuesday night practice:

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