Venture's Heart: A Fighter's Heart

I'm excited to present Venture's heart from the Venture series by author R.H. Russell. Venture is the first male character I've collected, so I can imagine he's thrilled with the heart motif. :p

I don't know how to tell you how I feel when I fight. Free. In control, even though in so many ways, I know that I'm not. I love the feel of the rough canvas under my feet, of landing a punch just right, of reversing my opponent and bringing him down, just when he thought he had me. I even love the burning in my chest when a round goes long. And the victory of simply surviving, going the distance with one of the bigger, better guys.

My first six months on the mat, this little prick named Border beat the stuffing out of me. I was the first bondsman to step on the mat, and Border didn't like that one bit. I'm a member of the lowest class in the world. I don't deserve to be at Beamer's Center, and I'm not to be trusted. The fact that I've gotten into more than my share of scuffles sure doesn't help my case.

Border got plenty of chances to try to prove that I didn't belong, because I picked him every chance I got. Every time I sparred with him, it was a chance for him to pound me, but it was also a chance for me to figure him out. When I got close, I could see the fear in his eyes. Not just fear of what I'd be able to do to him one day, but fear that he was wrong. That something about the order in our world was very, very wrong. And that because of me, other people were going to see it, too.

I'm bonded to Grant Fieldstone. He's a good man, and it ought to be enough that he treats me well, that I never go hungry, that I even get to have an education. I work hard for Master Fieldstone, but he promised my mother I'd be trained to do something other than be a servant, so that when I was nineteen and my contract was up, I could choose freedom, and I could support myself.

Master Fieldstone took me to Beamer's, one of the best centers for training boys in the fighting arts, because I was out of control, and he didn't know what else to do with me. Now I get to take sport fighting lessons just for fun. The guys at Beamer's beat some sense into me when I get out of line, but there's nowhere else I'd rather be.

Doesn't sound so bad, does it? Things could be a lot worse for the orphaned son of parents who grew up bonded, and I know it. And I am grateful.

But it isn't enough. You're from a different world. So I guess it doesn't matter if I tell you the truth. The truth is, I've always wanted to be a prize fighter--a champion in the arena, just me and my opponent and our bare hands and feet battling for the title. I know I have what it takes, and my trainer, Earnest, does, too. I can see it on his face. He wants it for me almost as bad as he wanted it for himself.

I don't know how I'm going to tell him that when I turn fourteen, the age of choosing a career path, I'm going to stay at Beamer's to train--but not as a prize fighter. As a guard. I'll end up working for some wealthy merchant, or rounding up my friends outside the pub when they get too rowdy.

Earnest won't understand why I'm doing it. Why I'm giving up what I love. No one will, except for Jade. She's my master's daughter, but she's also been my best friend from the time we were little. Jade loves to watch me practice. A fighting center is no place for a lady like Jade, but the guys know better than to mess with her. And they sure don't mind having her around. She's beautiful. And no, I'm not about to tell her that. She'd probably pop me right in the nose if I did.

Jade knows things about me that no one else does. That no one else ever will. She knows what it is to want more. She knows all of who I really am, even the part I'll never get to be--not just a fighter, but the best in the world. The Champion of All Richland.

Venture Delving, of Twin Rivers, Richland.

About the awesome author R.H. Russell--The ambitions, the struggles, and the triumphs of the fighters in The Venture Books are inspired by the author’s involvement with combat sports. Eighteen years on the mat with talented young fighters have given R.H. Russell not only the experience to write about fighters in an authentic way, but a heart for the fighter in all of us.

R.H. Russell's website, Facebook page, Twitter page, and Goodreads page. Venture Untamed is available on Amazon.

Venture Delving is a bonded servant, a member of the lowest class in the world. Already fatherless, when he loses his mother, he veers from energetic to out of control. But when Venture's rage saves the life of Jade, his best friend and his master's daughter, Venture finds himself in the last place he ever expected—a center renowned for training young boys to be professional fighters.

When Venture realizes he's fallen in love with Jade, he knows that the only way he'll ever have her, the only way he'll ever be free to live the life he's meant to live, is to defy convention, common sense, the trust of those he cares about most—and sometimes the law—and become the best fighter in the world, the Champion of All Richland. Venture must battle not only rival fighters, but the ghosts of his past and the members of a privileged warrior class who stand between him and his dream.

Book one of the Venture series. Approximately 60,000 words (About 240 standard pages). Ages thirteen and up.

In Venture Unleashed, Venture Delving leaves his home in Twin Rivers to train at the renowned Champions Center, in pursuit of his dream to escape his bonded class by becoming a champion fighter. There, Venture meets two men who hold the title he longs to claim himself one day—Champion of All Richland. But a violent encounter with one of them nearly ends his life and destroys his dreams.

Thrust into the center of growing political turmoil and confronted with choices he never imagined he’d have to make, Venture must find a way to keep his hope and his love for Jade, his master’s daughter, alive. Thanks to the privileged Crested warrior class who’d rather see him die than live his dream, the worst nightmares of Venture’s past and his future are about to follow him onto the mat as he fights the match of his life.

72,000 words (about 290 standard pages). Ages 15 and up.