Steel Heart — Thomas Pluck

Thomas Pluck writes unflinching fiction with heart. Here are ten tales of fierce emotion from the streets, the underbelly, and the house next door. Gumbo Weather - A mob enforcer confronts his own past as he spars with a ruthless crime boss to rescue a child from a hellish home. A Glutton for Punishment - Terry is an MMA fighter who's never backed down from a fight, but this one might be his last. Legacy of Brutality - Denny the Dent ain't smart, but he listens good. When a woman at his gym tangles with her abusive boyfriend, it's 300 musclebound pounds of street justice to the rescue. The Forest for the Trees - A street racer finds the love of his life as he escapes from the cops. But how long will he live to love her? Six Feet Under God - A wise-cracking existential P.I. takes on the ultimate murder case: Who killed the Almighty? Tiger Mother - in 1950s Harlem, Caldonia Peele hunts down her missing son. It's the toughs who better be afraid when tiger mother's on the prowl. Freedom Bird - Vietnam Vet Harve Chundak battles to teach his unruly son to walk the straight and narrow, but will he lose the war? Black-Eyed Susan - A bad joke comes to all-too-real life for the denizens of a mill town gin mill. The Last Sacrament - The dangerous life of an unlikely altar boy. Kamikaze Death Burgers at the Ghost Town Cafe - Jay Desmarteaux is just trying to get by, running contraband in his voodoo Cadillac. When he tangles with a psycho trucker and the red hot lawyer for a violent biker gang, he fights a battle worthy of the Road Warrior in the Utah desert for his very soul. About the Author. Thomas Pluck is the editor of Protectors: Stories to Benefit PROTECT, and his essays and fiction have appeared in The Utne Reader, PANK, Beat to a Pulp, Crimespree, McSweeney's, The Morning News, Needle, Burnt Bridge, Criminal Element, and The Good Men Project. He also lifts heavy things and trains in mixed-martial arts. He 's a computer geek now, but has worked on the docks, in constru