Learning how to beat people up has improved my writing. All right, maybe not exactly beating people up. But the lessons I have learned in my study of martial arts, and especially competing in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, a style of submission grappling, have made me a stronger writer. Here are the top 5 lessons that I have learned by competing in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu that I have transferred over … [Read more...]
Top 5 Exotic Chinese Weapons
While my fantasy series The Hounds of the North takes place in a thinly disguised European- and African-inspired world, I have a strong background in the study of Asian martials arts. So this got me thinking. If my next series were to be written in a Chinese-influenced fantasy world, what would be the outlandish Chinese Weapons that I would include somewhere in my stories. I didn't want to … [Read more...]
Top 3 Viking Weapons
In my books The Witch of the Sands and Black River, my main characters, the Hounds of the North, are loosely inspired by a range of warrior peoples: Picts, Scots and Vikings. Given that, I added a heavy influence of Viking background weapons in the stories. Part of the fun in the stories was supplying the Hounds with an interesting variety of weapons, including those from Viking culture and … [Read more...]
Run, stupid, run
The other night, as we were watching the latest incarnation of The Incredible Hulk, my daughter turned to me during two major fight scenes and said twice, "Why don't they just step out of the way?" They were, of course, the hapless soldiers dealing with the wrath of the Hulk and the Abomination. Hulk smashed. Abomination did his reptile thing. In both scenes, the gamma radiation misfits … [Read more...]
