Skip to main content

By the sword...





I wanted a few "big fight" scenes in Bridge of Souls but I wanted to make them different from those we see in most action adventures. After 35 years of experience practicing and studying various martial arts I believe the best action is where two radically different styles clash. It allows the reader to understand and experience divergent approaches to dealing with combat.

In Bridge of Souls I made a conscious effort to include a series of different action sequences that included a wide range of different weapons and different close quarter combat scenarios.

In the classic sword combat set piece I thought about the question that I used to get asked all the time by students when I was teaching Japanese Sword techniques..

Who would win a match between two equally skilled fencing masters, one skilled in European 16th century techniques, the other in Japanese 16th century weapons and techniques.

Katana verses Rapier.


Classic Katana By CT Snow from Hsinchu, Taiwan - Tokyo National Museum at UenoUploaded by bamse, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=8755516
Classic Rapier by Wendelin Boeheim. Handbuch der Waffenkunde. Das Waffenwesen in seiner historischen Entwicklung vom Beginn des Mittelalters bis zum Ende des 18 Jahrhunderts, Leipzig 1890, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=6553152


 To make it more interesting, in Bridge of Souls the clash between fencing styles and masters is to the death.

Experience the way of the sword in the epic adventure Bridge of Souls.

Click here to read free extracts from Bridge of Souls

 #BridgeOfSouls #Sword #MartialArts

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Life Experience: a catalyst for inspiration and realism

“Write what you know.” ― Mark Twain Role Models for Aspiring Authors When aspiring writers look for advice on how to guide or develop their own writing they often come across the axiom “ Write what you know ”, a saying attributed to both  Twain  and  Hemingway  (I have cited Twain as he was the earlier of the two writers).  As a novice writer one can understand how life experience acted as a powerful catalyst for some writers to make their work both realistic and highly detailed.  If we take the action and espionage genre of fiction, then we can see clear examples of how individuals who enjoyed careers in the intelligence community went on to write highly successful spy novels.  Ian Fleming served in the British Navy Intelligence during the second world war and his experiences were used to create the James Bond series of spy novels.   David John Cornwell  (better known by his ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Forbidden Knowledge: Eastern Esoteric Traditions of Reincarnation, Consciousness and Death

Citipati, Lords of the Cemetery. Bardo Thödol. Tibetan Book of the Dead. If you have been following my posts you will already know that in writing Bridge of Souls I wanted to include, not just classic action and adventure, but also elements of the supernatural. And, when I say supernatural, I do not mean just made up hokum, as is so often the modern trend in supernatural fiction, but story elements that reflect genuine esoteric traditions and techniques. As you have gathered, mysteries have had a life long fascination for me. I have been fortunate enough in my working life to visit some of the most remote places on earth and meet some extraordinary people. During these travels I frequently came across reports of reincarnation and, when talking with advanced practitioners of esoteric paths, such as Raja Yoga , of specific techniques which manipulated the life force and consciousness. In researching these techniques I came across accounts of how advanced mysti...
Post a Comment
Read more

An alternative to the glorification of violence within the action genre

I  object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary; the evil it does is permanent.  Mahatma Gandhi When I wrote Bridge of Souls I wanted to create a story that would provide an alternative to the existing format within much of the modern action genre, of violence for amusement or spectacle.  Since the Bridge of Souls story is an action adventure there would, by necessity, be some violence but I carefully planned the plot so that the protagonists clearly only use violence as a final resort. For example, if you examine the behaviour of Tavish Stewart in the beginning of the story, he is bound within what is often termed " the rule of law ".  His responses to extreme violence are measured and appropriate to the threat facing him and those around him. As the story progresses, and the actions against him become more and more extraordinary, his responses change, but his behaviour is always in proportion to the threat facing...
Post a Comment
Read more