R.H. Russell's Blog, page 3
March 6, 2012
Boundless, Coming Soon to Your Kindle or Nook!
If you've been patiently—or impatiently—waiting for more of Venture Delving and Jade Fieldstone, your wait is almost over. Boundless, a new novelette, will be available on Amazon and BN.com on March 23.
Sixteen-year-old Venture Delving always believed he was meant to be a champion fighter, in spite of his status as a bondsman. But Venture's confidence is shaken by an unexpected challenge from his old friend and rival, Lance. On the road with his trainer, Earnest Goodview and the reigning Champion of All Richland, Dasher Starson, Venture has already been struggling to adjust to his double life—up-and-coming fighter, and bonded servant to wealthy entrepreneur, Grant Fieldstone. Now, Spurned by Grant Fieldstone's daughter, Jade, and rattled by his failure on the mat, a deadly encounter has Venture questioning everything.
Soon he'll return to Twin Rivers, just in time for Jade's sixteenth birth day—the day every eligible bachelor in Springriver County has been waiting for. Amidst the rumors that Jade's been waiting for this day—and for another man to have his chance to court her—will Venture be able to serve Jade and her father? With his dream of marrying Jade coming undone, will his equally impossible dream of becoming Champion of All Richland survive?
Boundless is a novelette, and is part of the Venture Books series. It takes place during some of the time that lapses in the novel, Venture Unleashed. Though Boundless can stand alone, you might enjoy reading Venture Untamed, the first novel in the series, and then Venture Unleashed first.
About the Venture Books:
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'd rather see him die than live his dream.
Ages 15 and up.
March 1, 2012
New Covers for the Venture Books!
I have new covers for Venture Untamed and Venture Unleashed! What do you think?
Venture Untamed
Venture Unleashed
January 30, 2012
Venture Writes His First Blog Post!
Recently I agreed to do a guest post on author Danyelle Leafty's blog—as Venture Delving. Cool. But when Venture got wind of my plans, he stiffened up with resistance. He wasn't certain what a blog was, but he was positive he wanted nothing to do with it.
"Come on," I said. "People want to know more about you."
Oops. That was the wrong way to persuade Venture Delving. I could see the eighteen-year-old Vent, from the end of Venture Unleashed, cross his arms and give me that look. The look that says, Are you crazy? You, of all people, ought to know that I have enough to worry about right now. And I couldn't care less what people want to know.
I started to panic. If Venture Delving decided to put up a fight, I didn't stand a chance. But I couldn't give up. I explained to him that he'd be talking to people from a different world. He was unmoved. But then Venture's thirteen-year-old self stepped forward, intrigued. He could say whatever he wanted? And no one could give him a thrashing for it? He shrugged as if it were no big deal, but there was a glint in his eye. Sure, he had a lot of things to say. He nudged his older self aside and started talking. And talking . . .
Come over and see what Venture has to say. He might even be provoked into answering some questions in the comments. But whatever you do, don't laugh. He just found out his post is part of Danyelle's "Character Hearts"—yes, hearts—theme, and he is in a foul mood.
January 6, 2012
Fun Fact Friday—Straw Tatamis Hurt
In my Venture books, the fighters in Richland practice on canvas-covered straw mats. Though the canvas covering is something I added, the mats in my books are generally modeled after traditional Japanese tatamis, which are rectangular slabs of tightly woven straw.
When we were first starting a new judo dojo in 2001, we put the word out that we were looking for mats. A friend "generously" volunteered two stacks of tatamis that he'd meant to use someday, but were clogging up his parents' garage. Why is generously in quotes? Because these were old-school straw tatamis. Before the Budokan in Seattle used them, they'd been used in the Kodokan, in Japan—in some other century.
Ooh! Historic mats! They weren't completely archaic; at least they were covered with vinyl, in that traditional grayish green color that every judoka knows as "tatami green." You could see the straw through the rips in that vinyl. Vinyl with mysterious dark stains imbedded in its texture. We had a good time speculating on whose blood it was and how it got there, while we scrubbed those mats with bleach.
Certain members of my team are especially skilled in the use of duct tape. They fixed up the unglued corners and the rips. The mats weren't pretty, but they were functional. Or so we thought.
I knew I was in trouble when I demonstrated a simple judo breakfall for a couple of karate instructors who were interested in judo. Just a roll, without anyone throwing me. I noticed the mats were . . . firm.
Our fearless leader, Jason Harai, reminded me that the Budokan had used these mats for years. Decades, actually. Of course, the Budokan had a second-story wood floor, and we'd laid those mats out on concrete. For some reason, concrete just doesn't give the way wood does. Go figure. And I'm sure it didn't help that before that, we'd been working out on a spring-loaded gymnastics floor. Maybe I was spoiled.
Then came the demonstration of the actual throws. We're talking nice, clean, throws, not slams. My skin stung and my bones rattled on impact, in spite of my partner's carefulness. Talk about a whole new level of incentive not to get thrown in randori (sparring)! In randori, we resisted, and throws became more forceful, and often, due to the intensity of the battle or muscle fatigue or both—less careful.
I exchanged looks with my teammates. Looks that conveyed the imagined years of agony we'd spend working out together on those mats that seemed to smack us when we were down, rather than cushion our falls.
Before we could revolt, we were spared by unforeseen events. Within a few weeks, we ended up back on that glorious spring-loaded gymnastics floor, and the straw tatamis went into my garage. Eventually, we purchased modern foam tatamis.
I'll never forget what it felt like to land on those straw mats. I've relived it many times as I wrote scenes in the Venture books. I cringe on behalf of my characters as their bodies slam down onto unsympathetic straw mats, often with the crushing force of another fighter coming down on top of them. Though their mats are laid out on wood floors, I keep in mind that they're not landing on the modern miracle that is Dollamur foam mats.
A couple of years ago, we said our final good-byes to those straw tatamis. They may have been a pain to fall on, but they made a pretty impressive bonfire.
December 13, 2011
Interview and Giveaway at Workaday Reads
December 6, 2011
Dream Crusher?
Yesterday I read this encouraging post by Donna Earnhardt at Word Wrangler (no relation or association to my online persona, Word Wrestler) about how even a casual comment can snuff out someone's joy. I wasn't just encouraged by her post, I was convicted, thinking of the times I may have "POOF"ed out someone's joy with a stupid remark. Since my mind's been on welcoming new people to judo lately, I thought of an embarrassing incident during my early days of coaching beginners. A time I might have inadvertently extinguished something just as precious as someone's joy—her budding dream.
During my judo team's early years, we had a constant stream of new athletes trying judo for the first time. One of these, a teen girl, asked me what the odds were of someone who started judo at her age medaling in the Olympics. I took her question as a casual comment, and without a second thought, explained what the odds were—not great.
The stereotype is that young people are more idealistic, and older people more jaded. But I've discovered that young or old, we can move in either direction. At that point in my life, over ten years ago, I'd just begun to help out with coaching and I had yet to see so many young people who seemed completely ordinary go on to do extraordinary things.
Jason Harai, the head coach of my judo club, is one of the reasons that I've had the opportunity to witness such dreaming, drive, and accomplishment over the years—amazing things that inspired me to write a series of novels about a young fighter with impossible dreams.
It was Jason who took me aside that day and said, "Never crush someone's dreams like that. You don't know what she can do. She doesn't even know what she can do."
Ouch. Was I a dream crusher? Dense as I was, it hadn't occurred to me that this girl, who'd just found out judo was an Olympic sport and who had yet to actually step on the mat, might be hatching a brand-new dream as we spoke by the matside.
I'm still learning what it means to have big dreams, both for myself and for the people around me, and still working at putting what I've learned into practice. Here are three of the things I'm working on:
Coaching big dreamers, Lesson # 1—Recognize the dream! Be on the alert for the sometimes subtle tap-tap-tapping of a dream trying to break through. Don't be so quick to shoot down the bolder claims that may seem more like empty, obnoxious boasts, either. Carefully consider the possibility that the athlete is trying to say something more meaningful than what she's articulating.
Lesson #2—Handle new dreams, or newly shared dreams, with care. Yes, there is a place in coaching, teaching, and parenting for being realistic and managing expectations. But the time for that is not when those dreams are brand-new, tender things.
Lesson #3—Steer; don't squash! People need to know what pursuing their dreams entails. There is a time to help them understand the hard work, the difficulties, even the injustices that may be involved. The more commitment the athlete shows, the more he deserves to know. But we have to find a way to tell him what he'll need to do without telling him it's impossible or not worthwhile. That's for the dreamer to decide. Because dreams are just as personal as they are precious.
I'd love to hear from you in the comments. How do you recognize a dream in others? Has anyone crushed a newly forming dream of yours?
Wait! Are you wondering what happened to the teen girl who unknowingly helped me get started learning these lessons? Well, it turned out she was a great athlete. She'd been involved in competitive figure skating for years, but was feeling burned out and was looking for something else. Unfortunately, every time she got hot, she got a gushing bloody nose, and judo is a sport where things get really heated, in more ways than one. After several months of fighting every match with cotton stuffed up her nose, she decided she was better suited to the ice, and she returned to the much cooler sport of figure skating.
November 30, 2011
Release Day Is Here for Venture Unleashed!
Venture Unleashed is here!
"You'll find yourself itching to get the next book once you're done with this one!" says this review of Venture Untamed. And now that next book is here!
In Venture Unleashed, the second of the Venture books, 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. Ages 15 and up.
You can find Venture Unleashed at Amazon, Amazon UK, Barnesandnoble.com, and Smashwords.com.
November 29, 2011
Beginner Bliss
Last night I had the pleasure of welcoming three new beginners to our judo club—two five-year-old boys and a woman in her twenties. Since our judo club has grown over the past few years and we retain most new members, it isn't often that we take beginners anymore, especially kids.
When we were first starting out, there was a constant flood of newbies, only about a quarter of whom stayed more than a month or two. It was exhausting and frustrating teaching them how to fall, along with the other basics they needed to survive on the mat, all the while knowing only a fraction would stick with it long enough to really benefit from judo. But we made it through that period, building a strong team, one newbie at a time.
Now, nights like last night are a real treat. Those two five-year-olds? They have older siblings in judo and they've been playing by the matside since they were babies, waiting for their turn. There was a gleam in their eyes as they put on their judo gis and bowed onto the mat for the first time. Nerves turned to smiles as they fell into place next to the others they'd been looking up to for so long and began moving through the drills like little pros.
Then there was the young woman, who'd never found a sport she loved, who was truly starting from square one. She was full of questions. She pointed to a couple of other adults who were grappling nearby. "Do that to me!" she said. "Show me how to do that."
After I showed her some basic grips, pins, and escapes, she felt the rough fabric of her borrowed judo gi. "Why does it feel wet?"
"Um, that's sweat."
"I'm sweating!" she said. "This is really fun!"
Yes, it's fun. And I get to be a part of it, sharing in the joy and growth of new teammates, from those kids I've known from infancy to adults I've just met.
November 14, 2011
Cover Reveal for Venture Unleashed
Venture Unleashed, coming December 1, 2011
Here's the cover for Venture Unleashed! Yes, that's a sword, on the cover of a book about a hand-to-hand fighter who also happens to be a bondsman who's prohibited by law to carry weapons. Find out what happens to Venture after he leaves Twin Rivers in his quest to become a champion fighter, and how he ends up in the fight of his life, on December 1, 2011.
Did you miss Venture Untamed, the first book in the series? Sample it for free here.
November 1, 2011
An Interview on Shana Norris's Blog
Today Shana Norris, author of The Boyfriend Theif, interviewed me on her blog about Venture Untamed, my own personal theme song, and what one food I would choose to eat for the rest of my life!
Check it out and find out what inspired the book and how you can get a free copy of Venture Untamed through a giveaway I'm doing.
[image error]
