Robyn Paterson's Blog, page 54
February 2, 2012
American Fencing in the 18th Century
When we think of fencing during the Renaissance we tend to think of France or Italy, which were indeed the centres of the sword arts.
But did you know there was another major center of fencing?
Between 1754 and 1787, New York City was a veritable hub for American fencers, with at least fourteen fencing schools total, eleven of which operated in a concentrated area of lower Manhattan that could be spanned during a twenty-minute walk. By way of comparison, Paris, traditionally thought of as the...
Fencing with five different medieval weapons – YouTube
Wow, some of those moves are very systemized and logical. Quite cool, actually.
Fencing with five different medieval weapons – YouTube.
January 31, 2012
Creative Experiments- KFAT Historical Flash Fiction
Hi All,
Last week over on the KFAT site, my first weekly webfiction story The Inuyama Rebellion posted its final chapter. It's been a fun run, and I have to say I've enjoyed the experiment of writing a weekly piece of fiction in addition to my other writing projects. Of course, I also got a huge kick out of it, since my friend Brushmen was doing great fan art to go with each weekly chapter. (If you haven't checked them out, then definitely do so.)
Having enjoyed the process, I've decided to...
Dean Wesley Smith » The Secret of Indie Publishing
A must read for anyone who wants to be an independent/self publisher getting into the eBook market. (Especially those who want to make money at it!)
I have heard over and over and over from indie publishers how their sales are not what they expected, or how they hope to promote their way to a big seller on their one book. Up to now I have mostly just bit my lip and kept my mouth shut
.It just doesn't work with one or two or even five stories up. Or at least it doesn't work that way unless you...
January 28, 2012
Good Show Sir – Only the worst Sci-fi/Fantasy book covers
What you don't want your book cover to look like!
A couple "winners"…
What scares me is that this new age of ebook covers will probably produce much worse!
If you want to see more, check out this guy's collection here:
Good Show Sir – Only the worst Sci-fi/Fantasy book covers.
January 27, 2012
Among the Rivers and Lakes Wuxia Community
A new WuXia fan community forum has appeared!
Among the Rivers and Lakes Wuxia Community.
John D., the prolific translator and scholar of all things WuXia has started a new forum for people with a fascination for Chinese adventure fiction. Go check it out!
If you want a crash-course into WuXia fiction, and are pressed for time, check out the (very) short stories he's translated. None will probably take you longer than 10 minutes to read, but all are bursting with style.
With luck, it will...
January 23, 2012
America's Science Decline – Neil deGrasse Tyson
Neil deGrasse Tyson shows North America's (sadly, Canada as well) place on the world stage in terms of the development of new science and technology as we fade into irrelevance. Watch it and weep!
January 17, 2012
Traditional Publishers are in Trouble
From J.A. Konrath's Blog:
(Note- Legacy means "traditional publishers" aka Established Publishing Companies.)
Right now I'm looking at the Top 10 Kindle bestsellers in occult fiction.
Every one of them is self-pubbed. In fact, there are only three legacy authors in the Top 30. I count only ten legacy pubbed in the Top 100, and most are brand names.
That's… staggering.
It also doesn't bode well for legacy publishers.
Long ago, I said ebooks aren't a competition. But that only applies when they are...
