While my Hounds of the North fantasy series was inspired by Northern European history with a heavy nod to Vikings, Celts, and Picts, my current series is inspired by Southeast Asia. Indonesia is a fantastic place with friendly people and diverse cultures, magical forests, and amazing ocean life. So I got to thinking about what Indonesian weapons I might include in this series. Here's my top … [Read more...]
The Revenant: Thoughts on the Film
Last night, my wife and I saw Leonardo Di Caprio's latest film: The Revenant. First off, great film. Fast-paced, gritty tale of revenge. Often a great story does not depend so much on the protagonist as much as it does on a fully fleshed out antagonist. The character of Fitzgerald played by Tom Hardy is an incredibly written antagonist - from the early scenes establishing his mad desire for … [Read more...]
Grim Tidings Podcast and Reading
Hear me read the first chapter of Five Bloody Heads ...as well as talk about writing and martial arts. I just did an interview and an exclusive reading on the Grim Tidings Podcast and I thought you might want to hear what I said about writing, martial arts and my upcoming book Five Bloody Heads. To get things started, you can hear a short reading of the first chapter of my upcoming book … [Read more...]
Writing Advice: Grappling for Writers: Common Terms
The other day I was reading a fantasy book and, in an early fight scene, the hero tackled someone coming at him with a knife. Red flag alert. As someone with a long history in martial arts training, I nearly tossed the book out of my lap. No experienced fighter (which is what the hero was) would ignore the immediate the threat of a blade and try to tackle an enemy's knees. That's a good … [Read more...]
Writing Advice: Fight Scenes
Always with a mind to improve my writing craft, I have been on the lookout for advice from other authors about how to write effective fight scenes in books. First a video from Brandon Sanderson: A blog post from sword and sorcery author Seth Skorkowsky entitled Writing Fighting. A solid blog post from a writer who also participates in events with the Society for Creative Anachronism … [Read more...]
Writing Advice: The Long Road
Belt Burning I recently had my worst night ever on the mats in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Worse than those bruising, no technique battle-to-the-death rolls as a white belt. Worse than the long series of competition losses at blue belt. Worse than the night my knee went snap-crackle-pop. I'm not going to go into the details of the night. But it was a bad night - for my ego and my expectations. … [Read more...]
