Project and content management for Contemporary Authors volumes
WORK TITLE: The Hurting Circus
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: https://www.paulobrien.info/
CITY: Wexford
STATE:
COUNTRY: Ireland
NATIONALITY: Irish
https://www.paulobrien.info/contact-me
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born in Wexford, Ireland.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Author, playwright, filmmaker. Has written sixteen plays produced by the Abbey, Druid, Red Kettle Theatre Company, Town Hall Theatre, Galway, and Spare Key Productions in New York.
Staid, feature film, 2016, writer, director, editor, producer.
AWARDS:
Best Foreign Feature Film, Los Angeles Independent Film Festival, for Staid, 2016.
WRITINGS
Also the author of sixteen plays and two screenplays.
“Blood Red Turns Dollar Green” series is being developed for an American television series.
SIDELIGHTS
Paul O’Brien is an Irish author, playwright, and filmmaker. He began his writing career at the age of eighteen, penning plays for such prestigious venues as the National Theatre of Ireland, and has also earned credits as a filmmaker with his award-winning independent film, Staid. O’Brien debuted as an author with his wrestling crime novel, Blood Red turns Dollar Green, which he initially self-published and which, expanded as a trilogy, went on to become a best seller in English-language editions, as well as in German, Spanish, and Italian.
Speaking with Kevin Flanagan on BooksGoSocial.com, O’Brien commented on his decision to turn to novels: “I had an idea for a pan-American crime story for a long time. Most of my work was as a playwright, which meant small casts, small sets. So when I finally did jump into writing the first novel, I felt like a horse who had been let out of the stables to roam free. It was both liberating and scary at the same time.” On the Paul D. Brazill Blog, O’Brien further remarked on the writing of his trilogy: “I actually put years and years of research into the three ‘Blood Red Turns Dollar Green’ books. They’re set in the untapped world of pro-wrestling. That’s a world in real life that still has a lot of mystery around it, so getting the inside track was tough at first, but the more wrestling insiders read the books, the more they talked to me for the novels that followed.”
"Blood Red Turns Dollar Green" Series
The first book in O’Brien’s trilogy, Blood Red Turns Dollar Green, is set in the pro wrestling of the 1970s. Danno Garland is a pro-wrestling promoter who patiently tries to build a wrestling empire, built on the career of heavyweight champion Babu. Danno’s plans are initially blocked by the National Wrestling Council, so he makes a secret deal with Florida power broker Proctor King. The deal is that Babu will become the next title holder, but the belt will then go to Proctor’s son, Gilbert, when he gets out of prison in a few years. Things go smoothly at first, but then on the night of the big match between Babu and Gilbert everything falls apart. Shea Stadium is sold out, but neither wrestler is present. Danno’s driver, Lenny Long, who has his own dreams of breaking into wrestling, struggles out of the overturned van that was bringing Babu and Gilbert to the stadium. The only sign left of either wrestler is Gilbert’s foot. Now Proctor King is determined to get very real with the fake world of pro wrestling.
Reviewing this first series volume in OrderofBooks.com, Brandon Williams noted: “Blood Red Turns Dollar Green . . . is a marriage between wrestling and literature that has never been seen before. . . . It s a wrestling novel, but it’s not about what happens in the squared circle. Set in the late sixties and early seventies, Paul O’Brien takes you back to a time where if people didn’t believe wrestling was everything it appeared to be, they certainly wanted to.” Williams further termed this a “must-read.”
The “Blood Red Turns Dollar Green” series continues with A Shoot, in which Danno has finally made it, controlling the heavyweight champion and pretty much all of pro wrestling. But when that empire suddenly crumbles, all Danno wants is some vengeance. Meanwhile, Lenny Long, Danno’s driver, is looking for a new start. He wants out of the wrestling world and to go back to his family. First, he’s got to return a bag full of money to its owner, a goodwill deed that has bad repercussions for Lenny. Writing at Jacksonville.com, Elizabeth A. White had praise for this second installment, commenting: “Telling a good crime story is hard enough, but doing so while putting a very human face on the devastation and consequences which flow from greed and power run amok is very tricky business, one which O’Brien manages with impressive aplomb.”
The “Blood Red Turns Dollar Green” series concludes with The Hurting Circus, which is set a dozen years after the previous installment. Lenny Long is finally getting out of prison for killing his boss, Danno Garland, and professional wrestling is coming under the scrutiny of a powerful senator, intent on shutting down the enterprise. But Danno’s old crew are not finished yet, and neither is wrestling finished with Lenny Long. A Publishers Weekly reviewer had high praise for this series conclusion, noting: “O’Brien’s whip-smart prose brings the fascinating, often funny world of pro wrestling to glorious life and imbues its players with surprisingly delicate humanity.” Similarly, critic White, writing on her blog, called this a “sledgehammer final book in the trilogy… which finds the formerly gritty world of ‘60s/’70s wrestling giving way to the neon spandex, face paint, and baby oiled bodies of the flashy 1980s.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Publishers Weekly, March 20, 2017, review of The Hurting Circus, p. 59.
ONLINE
BooksGoSocial.com, https://booksgosocial.com/ (August 19, 2015), Kevin Flanagan, author interview.
Elizabeth A. White Blog, http://www.elizabethawhite.com/ (September 23, 2015), Elizabeth A. White, review of The Hurting Circus.
Jacksonville.com, http://jacksonville.com/ (May 10, 2013), Elizabeth A. White, review of Blood Red Turns Dollar Green.
OrderofBooks.com, https://www.orderofbooks.com/ (October 22, 2017), Brandon Williams, review of Blood Red Turns Dollar Green.
Paul D. Brazill Blog, https://pauldbrazill.com/ (December 5, 2014), author interview.
Paul O’Brien Website, https://www.paulobrien.info/ (October 3, 2017).*
Paul O’Brien is an award-winning filmmaker and a best-selling author from Wexford, Ireland. His Blood Red Turns Dollar Green trilogy of novels have been #1 bestsellers in Canada, Australia, Germany, Mexico, Spain, Italy, U.K., Ireland and the U.S.
At 18, Paul started out as a playwright where he was commissioned or produced by The National Theatre of Ireland, Druid Theatre, Red Kettle Theatre Company, The National Acting School of Ireland and Spare Key Productions in New York.
Staid, Paul’s first feature film—which he wrote, produced, edited and directed—premiered at the Audi Dublin Film Festival in 2016 and has gone on to be Officially Selected in Miami Independent Film Festival, Sydney World Film Festival, The Hong Kong Arthouse Film Festival and The Galway Film Fleadh. Staid won the award for Best Foreign Feature Film at the Los Angeles Independent Film Festival and was shortlisted for Best Feature Film at the Miami Independent Film Festival.
Paul co-wrote WWE Legend and Hall of Famer, Jim Ross’ autobiography, Slobberknocker: My Life in Wrestling.
The Blood Red Turns Dollar Green novels, re-written in 2017, are now published by Skyhorse Publishing in New York.
QUOTE:
I had an idea for a pan-American crime story for a long time. Most of my work was as a playwright, which meant small casts, small sets. So when I finally did jump into writing the first novel, I felt like a horse who had been let out of the stables to roam free. It was both liberating and scary at the same time.
Blood Red turns Dollar Green – An Interview with Paul O’Brien
Paul O'Brien
Paul O'Brien pic
What’s The Story?
Kevin Flanagan
Bestselling writer and journalist Kevin Flanagan interviews exciting new voices in the world of publishing. This week it is Paul O’Brien
Paul O’Brien is a writer from Wexford, Ireland. In the last fifteen years he has written sixteen plays and two screenplays produced by The Abbey, Druid, Red Kettle Theatre Company, Town Hall Theatre, Galway and Spare Key Productions in New York. Blood Red Turns Dollar Green, his debut novel, made it to the #1 Bestselling spot on Amazon’s Wrestling and Organized Crime charts in US and UK. The follow-up novel, Blood Red Turns Dollar Green Vol. 2 also made it to the top of the charts – with both novels having now reached #1 in Germany, Canada, UK & Ireland and the U.S. The novels are now being developed as a TV series in the U.S.
Paul, you have shown that self-publishing and self-promotion work – what is the greatest challenge of doing it yourself?
It’s keeping motivated when what you’re doing doesn’t seem to be making a dent. All the promotional tactics in the world only make small dents, and only last a small amount of time. Knowing that helps manage expectations. In my experience, no one thing is the thing that going to make you a bestseller. Lots of things might though.
What inspired you to write your trilogy?
I had an idea for a pan-American crime story for a long time. Most of my work was as a playwright, which meant small casts, small sets. So when I finally did jump into writing the first novel, I felt like a horse who had been let out of the stables to roam free. It was both liberating and scary at the same time.
The hardest part of writing is . . .
Writing. Honestly, everything else is easy for me. I can strategise, promote, negotiate and implement all day long. Writing is hard, lonely but at the same time exhilarating.
Where do you like to write – what is your routine?
I have no routine at all. It’s now 2.58 on Tuesday morning. I’ve just woken up from a three hour sleep. I have no idea how long I’ll write for tonight. This is half the fun — when I sit at my desk I haven’t a clue how long it will be for, or what I’m writing next.
How long did it take you to write your latest book?
I usually take about a year, end-to-end. I like to do lots of other projects at the same time. When I wrote my last book, I was also finishing a play, writing a TV pilot and writing/directing my first feature film too.
What do you do when you are not writing – do you have a day job?
Yes, I insist on having a day job. In very practical terms, having that job helps me walk away from deals I don’t want to sign. It also concentrates my time as a writer. When I sit down to write, I know I only have certain time windows to do it in. I make every second count. Plus, I only have 3 good writing hours a day in me, what else would I do with my time?
Do you work with an outline or just write?
I outlined for the Blood Red Turns Dollar Green trilogy and it was the first time I ever used that method. I knew I was writing a series of books that had over fifty characters, spanning a couple of decades and many different US States. I used a mind map to keep all the relationships in check and a good old fashioned cork board to help me visually see where the story was going.
How important is marketing and social media?
For me it was and is invaluable. I’ve just gone from self-published to traditionally published, and I will approach both the same way. My Blood Red Turns Dollar Green novels have been picked up by Skyhorse Publishing in New York but I will still be tweeting, Facebooking, setting up my own interviews, emailing them publicity opportunities and hustling as hard as I ever did.
What advice would you have for other writers?
Make your material good first. All this promotional stuff is worth nothing if your story isn’t brilliant in the first place. Don’t worry about ‘your platform’ until you have something great to put out there. Resist hitting ‘publish’ or sending your manuscript off to an agent until you write yourself into a place where they can’t say no. Then work your angles and carve a niche out for yourself.
What’s your next step?
For me it’s re-writing the Blood Red Turns Dollar Green trilogy for re-release in 2016 with Skyhorse. I’m also working on two US TV pilots and I’m writing WWE Legend Jim Ross’ autobiography. I’m also finishing up the edit on my first feature. Can’t wait!
Blood Red Turns Dollar Green trilogy is available here.
Kevin Flanagan
QUOTE:
I actually put years and years of research into the three Blood Red Turns Dollar Green books. They’re set in the untapped world of pro-wrestling. That’s a world in real life that still has a lot of mystery around it, so getting the inside track was tough at first, but the more wrestling insiders read the books, the more the talked to me for the novels that followed.
Short, Sharp Interview: Paul O’Brien
DECEMBER 5, 2014 / PAULDBRAZILL
Blood red 3PDB: What’s going on now?
Listening to Hozier, trying to talk myself out of shooting one of my characters in the face. Too late.
PDB: How did you research this book?
I actually put years and years of research into the three Blood Red Turns Dollar Green books. They’re set in the untapped world of pro-wrestling. That’s a world in real life that still has a lot of mystery around it, so getting the inside track was tough at first, but the more wrestling insiders read the books, the more the talked to me for the novels that followed.
PDB: Which of your publications are you most proud of?
Probably his last one, Blood Red Turns Dollar Green Vol.3. I had a tight deadline, numerous sets and characters to tie-up. The feedback so far has been superb.
PDB: What’s your favourite film/ book/ song/ television programme?
My favourite book is the Brother’s Grimm. Loved nothing better as a kid that to go to bed and see what else these mad bastards had up their sleeve. Favourite film is probably, As Good as it Gets. Loved the writing, acting, direction; the whole package.
I think Under Pressure is my favourite song at the moment. Love the intertwining styles that build to great finale.
As for TV show, nothing had an effect on me like The Sopranos. I still miss Tony Soprano today. Like actually miss him, like I knew him.
PDB: Is location important to your writing?
Very. But not as important as a character’s name. I could imagine whole novels just based on what I call someone. I’ll think of a name and immediately their world will become clear to me. Then comes location, plot, pacing, tone, etc.
PDB: How often do you check your Amazon rankings?
A lot when a book first comes out. And then not so much. I tend to walk away well from finished projects.
paul o brienPDB: What’s next?
I’ve got a hugely exciting 2015 already lined up. I’m going to write a screenplay with one of my screenwriting heroes, direct a music video for a superb up-and-coming band and also release another crime novel – this one set at the turn of the 20th century.
Bio: Paul O’Brien is a writer from Wexford, Ireland. In the last fifteen years he has written sixteen plays and two screenplays. He has been commissioned or produced by The Abbey, Druid, Red Kettle Theatre Company, Town Hall Theatre, Galway and Spare Key Productions in New York.
Blood Red Turns Dollar Green, his debut novel, made it to the #1 Bestselling spot on Amazon in US and UK. The follow-up novel, Blood Red Turns Dollar Green Vol. 2 also made it to the top of the charts – with both novels having now reached #1 in Germany, Canada, Australia, UK & Ireland and the U.S. In late 2013, Paul sold the option for Blood Red Turns Dollar Green Vol. 1 and Vol. 2, and both novels are now being developed as a TV series in the U.S.
In 2014 Paul was chosen alongside the likes of Michael Fassbender, Rory Mcllroy, U2, Chris O’Dowd and Jonathan Rhys Myers as Collegetimes.com 52 Irish Men for 2014.
QUOTE:
O'Brien's whip-smart prose brings the fascinating,
often funny world of pro wrestling to glorious life and imbues its players with surprisingly delicate humanity.
The Hurting Circus: Blood Red Turns Dollar
Green, Vol. 3
Publishers Weekly.
264.12 (Mar. 20, 2017): p59.
COPYRIGHT 2017 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
The Hurting Circus: Blood Red Turns Dollar Green, Vol. 3
Paul O'Brien. Skyhorse, $14.99 trade paper
(240p) ISBN 978-1-5107-0935-5
The conclusion to O'Brien's Blood Red Turns Dollar Green trilogy (after A Shoot) takes a deep dive into the
treacherous, dynamic world of pro wrestling. It's 1984, and Lenny Long has been in jail for 12 years for the murder of
his former boss, Danno Garland. Now that he's out, he just wants to get his family back and lead a quiet life. It's not to
be, though, because he's the boss of pro wrestling's long dormant New York territory, which other wrestling bosses want
to muscle in on. He needs a champ to make New York something again, but to Lenny's horror, the local championship
title has been transferred to his oldest son, Luke (aka Kid Devine). Lenny must get the wrestlers he needs to succeed at
the business, without getting offed by his foes in the process. To the victor goes the spoils, and enough sweat, blood,
and tears can lead to unbelievable glory, but power comes at a price. O'Brien's whip-smart prose brings the fascinating,
often funny world of pro wrestling to glorious life and imbues its players with surprisingly delicate humanity. (May)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"The Hurting Circus: Blood Red Turns Dollar Green, Vol. 3." Publishers Weekly, 20 Mar. 2017, p. 59. General
OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA487601769&it=r&asid=d9c89c9ae57275c412ab89777d846170.
Accessed 22 Oct. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A487601769
QUOTE:
Telling a good crime story is hard enough, but doing so while putting a very human face on the devastation and consequences which flow from greed and power run amok is very tricky business, one which O’Brien manages with impressive aplomb.
Posted May 10, 2013 07:24 pm
Blood Red Turns Dollar Green Vol. 2 by Paul O’Brien (Book Review)
He needed to mourn but he couldn’t yet, because he knew there would be more death to come. – Danno Garland
Paul O’Brien’s debut, Blood Red Turns Dollar Green, was one of the more enjoyable books I read last year, a wonderful combination of organized crime and professional wrestling circa the early 1970s. The book ended with a rather intense cliffhanger, and fortunately for fans of the first entry O’Brien is now back to pick up the story in Blood Red Turns Dollar Green Volume 2
As we learned in the first outing, professional wrestling in the early 70s was not the huge, centralized business it is today, but rather was broken into various territories held by individual owners spread throughout the country. And though the owners worked together to a certain degree for the greater good of the sport in general, at the same time each protected their turf ruthlessly.
One owner, Danno Garland, has managed to claw his way to the top of the heap and now controls the World Heavyweight Champion, which gives him tremendous power. It wasn’t an easy climb, however, and the backstabbing and double-crosses are now catching up with Danno. When his rivals lash out at him in a particularly horrific way, Danno turns his back on everything he’s ever known and loved and directs the same single-minded focus he used to build his wrestling empire to a new purpose–revenge.
The story is told by flashing back and forth between the time leading up to the lynchpin event and the days immediately following it. It’s an interesting juxtaposition, one which lets O’Brien fill in pertinent details and backstory from the first book in a very subtle way, allowing readers who may be joining the story in progress to hit the ground up to speed and running. It’s also a technique which provides for a natural buildup of tension, with the reader waiting for the inevitable head-on collision of the two storylines as they converge like runaway trains on single track.
O’Brien’s background is in writing for the stage, and that really shines through in Blood Red Turns Dollar Green Volume 2. The character development is a joy to watch unfold, with O’Brien proving to those who may have thought the wrestling setting of the first book was a gimmick (sorry, I couldn’t resist) that made him a one trick pony that they couldn’t be more wrong. Already in the twilight of his life, though at the top of his career, the events of Blood Red Turns Dollar Green Volume 2 utterly destroy Danno Garland, turning him into a man running on little more than grief, fueled by revenge, with the only question being whether he will accomplish his self-appointed mission before completely flaming out. As written by O’Brien, it’s a transformation which is both thoroughly engaging and utterly heartbreaking.
But as captivating as Danno’s breakdown is, it’s Danno’s second-in-command, Ricky Plick, who really steals the show. A loyal man, Ricky tries his best to keep Danno from running completely off the rails and destroying both himself and the business. As loyal as he is, however, Ricky is also very shrewd, and as Danno’s downward spiral progresses Ricky knows that even after all their years together a decision will have to be made as to where his ultimate loyalty lies. After all, Ricky has his own crosses to bear, simultaneously dealing with his own failing body after years of abuse in the ring, as well as now looking out for his partner, Ginny, who isn’t the same following a traumatic event during the climax of Blood Red Turns Dollar Green.
And while Blood Red Turns Dollar Green included a significant amount of detail about wrestling, including some wonderful descriptions of in-ring action, which may have made some readers a bit wary, Blood Red Turns Dollar Green Volume 2 is a straight-up crime fiction novel which just happens to have the business of 1970s territorial professional wrestling as the backdrop. There’s still enough pro wrestling flavor to make fans of the sport happy–particularly in the character of Shane ‘The Sugarstick’ Montrose, a colorful, aging superstar–but if for any reason the wrestling angle had scared you off the first one, its extremely limited “on screen” time in this outing means there’s no excuse for you to not give Blood Red Turns Dollar Green Volume 2 a try.
In fact, as much as I liked the first book, I believe Blood Red Turns Dollar Green Volume 2 is even better. Telling a good crime story is hard enough, but doing so while putting a very human face on the devastation and consequences which flow from greed and power run amok is very tricky business, one which O’Brien manages with impressive aplomb.
QUOTE:
sledgehammer final book in the trilogy, Blood Red Turns Dollar Green Volume 3, which finds the formerly gritty world of ‘60s/’70s wrestling giving way to the neon spandex, face paint, and baby oiled bodies of the flashy 1980s.
Blood Red Turns Dollar Green Vol. 3 By Paul O’Brien
Blood Red Turns Dollar Green Vol. 3“We all know the rules. Most of us live by those rules. If you don’t, then we will kill you on the vine.” — Joe Lapine
Author Paul O’Brien showed up on my radar back in 2012 with the novel Blood Red Turns Dollar Green, an engaging trip through the back rooms and shady deals that formed the backbone of the professional wrestling circuit during its heyday of the late 1960s/early 1970s.
O’Brien built the story of battling territory owners Proctor King and Danno Garland to a crescendo that was left tantalizingly hanging, before picking things up in early 2013 with Blood Red Turns Dollar Green Volume 2, which focuses on Garland, who has finally clawed his way to the top and now controls the World Heavyweight Champion.
It wasn’t an easy climb, however, and the backstabbing and double-crosses finally catch up with Garland, who gets caught in a deadly downward spiral of retaliation and revenge. Relative bit players in the first book, ring-rat/limo driver Lenny Long and Garland’s right-hand man, Ricky Plick, move out of the shadows in the second outing, with both playing crucial roles as Garland’s life and empire crumble around him.
All of which sets the stage for the sledgehammer final book in the trilogy, Blood Red Turns Dollar Green Volume 3, which finds the formerly gritty world of ‘60s/’70s wrestling giving way to the neon spandex, face paint, and baby oiled bodies of the flashy 1980s. Twelve years have passed since the climactic events that ended the previous entry, twelve years that saw Lenny Long doing the ultimate slow burn in prison, waiting for his chance to settle scores and make his own power play.
Old habits die hard, however, and the remaining territory bosses have no plans to roll over and go gentle into that good night. And while it’s Lenny’s ultimate goal to be shed of “the life” once and for all, in order to do so he will first have to get back in it up to his eyes and make some bold and dangerous moves, moves that could get him taken off the board for good should he miscalculate or misstep.
And just as Lenny and Ricky stepped out of the shadows in the second book, Blood Red Turns Dollar Green Volume 3 finds a “throwaway” character from the previous book, World Heavyweight Champion Babu, playing not only a crucial role, but one with a surprising level of grace and intelligence given the brief glimpse we’d previously had of him “in character” as Heavyweight Champ. In fact, author Paul O’Brien excels in giving his characters dignity and depth across the board, exploring several subjects one wouldn’t necessarily expect to find in a crime story set in the world of professional wrestling.
In particular, O’Brien uses Ricky Plick and his partner, Ginny, to tremendous effect. Ricky, once at the top of the heap as a wrestler, is now physically broken down, yesterday’s news and forced to work brutal matches in “exile” in Japan just to pay the bills:
Ricky’s matches weren’t about headlocks, body slams, or suplexes, but about barbed wire, blood, and sharp objects. His old body couldn’t go sixty minutes anymore, but it could bleed with the best of them, and that’s what it did to pay the bills: bleed
Far from treating Ricky as a pathetic has-been struggling to hold on to former glory, however, O’Brien boldly expands upon the previously only touched upon relationship between Ricky and Ginny, one which is powerful both because of its homosexual nature—the ‘60s/’70s world of pro wrestling was not exactly a welcoming environment for gays—as well as for Ginny’s declining mental status and need for supervised care, which is the reason Ricky keeps pushing his body beyond its limits and bleeding half a world away: to pay for Ginny’s care.
O’Brien also gives Lenny an interesting hurdle to overcome, beyond just that of his cutthroat fellow owners. While he was in prison, it turns out Lenny’s oldest son decided to take up the family business and venture into the wrestling world. It’s a situation that gives Lenny added incentive to wrap things up, but which also gives his competitors—and the in-ring thugs they have at their command—unique leverage as well.
Before all’s said and done, Lenny will have to pull off the biggest con in the history of a business founded upon them, and aging veteran Ricky will have to show the young pups that old dogs can indeed learn new tricks… and that it’s never over until the final three count.
Blood Red Turns Dollar Green Volume 3 is available at Amazon (ISBN: 978-1502440327).
Paul O’Brien is a writer from Wexford, Ireland. In the last fifteen years he has written sixteen plays and two screenplays. He has been commissioned or produced by The Abbey, Druid, Red Kettle Theatre Company, Town Hall Theatre, Galway and Spare Key Productions in New York. Blood Red Turns Dollar Green, his debut novel, made it to the #1 Bestselling spot on Amazon in US and UK. The follow-up novel, Blood Red Turns Dollar Green Vol. 2 also made it to the top of the charts – with both novels having now reached #1 in Germany, Canada, Australia, UK & Ireland and the U.S. In late 2013, Paul sold the option for Blood Red Turns Dollar Green Vol. 1 and Vol. 2, and both novels are now being developed as a TV series in the U.S. To learn more about Paul, visit his website.
QUOTE:
Blood Red Turns Dollar Green by Paul O’Brien is a marriage between wrestling and literature that has never been seen before.
ls a wrestling novel, but it’s not about what happens in the squared circle. Set in the late sixties and early seventies, Paul O’Brien takes you back to a time where if people didn’t believe wrestling was everything it appeared to be, they certainly wanted to.
Blood Red Turns Dollar Green by Paul O’Brien is a marriage between wrestling and literature that has never been seen before. And after Mick Foley put out Have a Nice Day in 1999 and it became a New York Times Bestseller, wrestling books started coming out the woodwork due to the fact that publishers realized that wrestling fans could actually read (and presumably, marry their cousins). Speaking of Foley, his recommendation of Blood Red Turns Dollar Green is what brought it to the attention of many wrestling fans and helped make it the #1 wrestling book on Amazon.
Around the same time as Foley had his success with Have a Nice Day, the internet was blossoming. What was once a business kept as secret as the formula to Coca-Cola and later exposed in the “dirt sheets” (wrestling pejorative for “newsletter”) was now readily available to anyone for free.
To many, this was equally (if not more) fascinating than what actually happened in a wrestling ring. The behind-the-scenes dealings of who is getting pushed, who’s turning babyface or heel, who has backstage heat and so on were once kept under lock and key from the public and now was rapidly becoming accessible to anyone who wanted to know.
Blood Red Turns Dollar Green is a wrestling novel, but it’s not about what happens in the squared circle. Set in the late sixties and early seventies, Paul O’Brien takes you back to a time where if people didn’t believe wrestling was everything it appeared to be, they certainly wanted to. The wrestling business was controlled by a sanctioning body called the National Wrestling Alliance (which is represented in the book by the National Wrestling Council) that oversaw all of the various territories, but each territory was its own independent business. Each territory had its own roster. The NWA controlled the world championship and had a committee in order to determine who got the championship. The champion would tour around the world, but much of the time the champion would appear for his own territory, which was the incentive for each promoter to have the champion in his (or her, in some cases) territory.
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Danno Garland is the promoter of the New York wrestling territory. In many ways, the character seems to be modelled after Vince McMahon, Jr. Like Vince, he is based in New York (although he resides in Connecticut), his father was a promoter who didn’t want to hand the business down to his son, he is Irish or Irish-American and he has dreams larger than simply running the Northeast wrestling outfit. With that said, O’Brien didn’t simply write Vince McMahon into his novel and then change his name. For instance, Garland is not exactly a physical specimen, but the similarities are still there and in many cases, quite obvious.
Like Danno Garland, Proctor King is a wrestling promoter. He runs the Florida territory. Unlike Garland, he got into the business through being a wrestler. Much the same as many of the wrestling promoters back in the territorial era of professional wrestling, Proctor King’s legacy is to be carried on with his son, Gilbert. And because Proctor never won the world title, his goal is to get the belt on his son. Not only does it mean that he can live vicariously through his son, but also he gets to make more money when the title is in his territory. It’s very possible that the author drew from many different sources on Proctor King, as probably three-quarters of the old school wrestling promoters had a son they wanted to put the “strap” on. Now, none of them went to the same type of lengths that Proctor King was willing to in order to get the title onto Gilbert, but that’s something that separates fiction from reality. There were some sketchy elements of the wrestling business during this time and there was a “mob-like” mentality within the NWA, but the extent of it was blackballing a party from the business when the party wasn’t playing by their rules.
Lenny Long is the underdog character. He isn’t a wrestler and couldn’t be one if he tried. However, he has a dream. It isn’t a lofty dream; he just wants to be a wrestling ring in order to perform for a crowd – just one time. In order to live out this dream, he can’t just go to Garland and ask him for a job. He has to work his way up the ladder slowly. He has to gain the trust of everyone in the business before they will even admit that it’s work. At the same time as he’s trying to get accepted into the wrestling “family,” he is trying to build a family of his own. O’Brien did the wrestling family mentality justice by demonstrating just what can happen when the wrestling family becomes to take away from the real-life family.
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Between these three characters, they all have their own motivations. In reading the book, it is very clear who wants what and what they’ll do in order to get – or keep – it. With that comes an unhealthy dose of mistrust, uneasy alliances and laws broken like bones in the ring.
What stood out to me about the novel was the amount of research that went in. I consider myself to be very knowledgeable about wrestling, but I had only a few days previous heard a story about Jim Ross working as a driver making a few cents per mile in order to make a few extra bucks during his Mid-South days. I picked up this novel and right there, I read about Lenny Long driving the wrestlers around from town to town for a living. That’s just one example of something that most wrestling fans would likely not know.
If I had to nitpick and mention one criticism of the book, it would be that although the story is set in New York and other parts of the States, some of the author’s Irish slang is evident in the dialogue. It’s not even that prevalent, but enough that I noticed it. Also, a quick warning to anyone who feels uncomfortable with bad language – there’s lots of it to be found here. It’s a wrestling crime novel, so it comes with the territory.
For any wrestling fan like myself who is enthralled by the inner-workings of the business, Paul O’Brien’s debut novel is a must-read. The topic is something that has never been written about before in the novel format, which is also why I think a fan of crime fiction novels will be able to get into it too because it’s an area that most have never read about. So if you fall into either category of wrestling fan or reader of crime fiction, you will surely enjoy Blood Red Turns Dollar Green. You can purchase it from Amazon in paperback format or get the Kindle edition for only $3.99! Personally, I am looking forward to reading Vol. 2!