Michael Tinker Pearce's Blog, page 8

Going Viking…

So last week was the first demo for our little Viking-era group at the Nordic Heritage Museum’s Viking Days. Two things were apparent- one, the guys did a great job and two- I seriously need to lose weight! I look awful in the photos of the event…

This all started last year when we did this demo with our good friends Thor and Stella from Longship Trade Goods. We put on a bit of a fighting demo then but we really weren’t satisfied with it. This year the fellows asked me if I would teach them how to fight. We don’t really know exactly how people fought in the Viking era; they did not leave us any manuals. Mind you, we have clues as to how they did things from descriptions in the sagas. While these were fictional fights they must have rang true to the fighters of their time.

There are only so many sensible things that you can do with a sword and Viking round-shield, honestly, and SCA Heavy Fighters have gone a good way towards discovering them. Whittle away the safety rules and gamesmanship, add in The Rules of the Fight, footwork and a realistically weighted and balanced sword and you come up with something that makes sense and acts like the fights in the sagas. It’s all conjectural, but we’re probably reasonably close.

The guys had already gone to great lengths to make their gear authentic, so we started them out on footwork and using the Pel. In this case a section of telephone pole set upright in the ground and wrapped in carpet. I showed them how to use the sword correctly and hit the pel with basic blows and combos. The emphasis was not power, but precision. “No point in swinging the sword any faster than you can hit your marks” I told them, “elsewise you’ll just train bad habits.”

They got the footwork down and did good work on the pel, but given the limited time to train I decided to restrict the demo to ‘sword-and-board’ and demonstrate the spear and axe myself. On the big day (last Saturday) the guys armored up and put on a hell of a show. I was genuinely impressed. Just showing good footwork and control of their blades really made it look great.

These were not choreographed fights, mind you. Each fellow was trying to win, but they did not let their competitive instincts get away with them and despite the authentic armor (with no face shields, throat protection etc.) there were no real injuries. They’d probably have fared worse in a hard game of flag football.

I paired up with different fighter for the axe and spear demos, basically just showing the weapons and how they would be used. During the second demo of the day we were more confident and stepped it up a little. As the axe demo started I suddenly realized I was doing a ‘Live Steel’ fight… with absolutely no protective equipment. That should have been a horrifying prospect but I just mentally shrugged and got on with it. Honestly that probably wasn’t very bright, even though my partner wasn’t seriously trying to hurt- or even hit- me. I need to gear up a bit; I have a shirt of flat-link riveted mail but I need to cobble up a helmet and some other gear. This last weekend worked out well enough, but I’d rather not trust my safety to luck any longer than I have to.

Anyway we’ve been invited to do a demo at an event next month, and to be featured in a video as well. So today we’ll be practicing again. After their excellent work last weekend I’m letting the boys play with axes this week; I trust them not too hurt each other too badly.

We have a new member joining us today, our first Skjoldmo (Shield Maiden.) We’re going to try to recruit enough folks that we can do a four-man show reliably even if some of us are unavailable.

For now I’m going to be the group’s trainer, but eventually I want to get into a more active role. Should be fun…

The Scion IQ- High Tech/Old School

Sorry Guys and Gals- no swords this week.

The world knows this car as the Toyota IQ, and Toyota claims it’s the smallest production four-seater. The car 10 feet long and 5 feet 6 inches wide at its widest, so it’s actually more than half as wide as it is long. The claim to be a four-seater is stretching things; I suppose four very short people might manage the trick, but in terms of average-sized people the car is really more of a 2+1. This is because the passenger seat is set farther forward than the driver’s seat to accommodate a rear passenger. The car is a mouse.

That being said the IQ is a pretty nice place for a pair of people. There’s plenty of room and the seats are comfy if not overly supportive. It’s modern and efficient and all the controls fall easily to hand. Air conditioning is standard, as is a pioneer audio system with USB and iPod connectivity accessed via the console or steering-wheel mounted controls. There’s also Blue-tooth for hands-free calling. In other words about what you’d expect. Remove the rear headrests, fold the rear seat and there’s room for a large grocery run, but maybe iffy for a good Costco visit. There’s also a bit of under-deck storage and small drawers beneath the front seats for odds and ends.

The IQ is front-wheel drive with a Direct Injection 1.3 liter DOHC VVT-I 4 cylinder motor producing 94 horsepower @6000rpm with 89 lb-feet of torque @4000rpm, which is adequate for its 2127 pound curb weight. The EPA rates it at 37mpg combined city/hwy, but if you can’t beat that you’re not trying very hard. The transmission is a CVT optimized for mileage. It’s also got ABS brakes, traction control and vehicle stability control. Sounds like a recipe for boring…

Looking at the suspension things look a little better. There a McPhereson strut front suspension with an anti-roll bar and a torsion-beam rear end. All old-school, well proven stuff. Tires are tall and skinny- 175-60R16s all the way around. There is no spare, just a tire repair kit.

Normal driving offers few surprises. The turning circle is said to be 26 feet or so, but feels smaller. Turning a corner in the dealer’s parking lot the car seemed to rotate 90 degrees around it’s center of axis. This brought the first grin of the drive. Accelleration is never better than brisk, but you can keep up with traffic. The brakes feel odd and squishy and seem to add power progressively. Odd but not hard to get used to. The electrically assisted steering has a very subtle road feel, which can be disconcerting given the razor-sharp steering and short wheelbase. The car feels dart-y and slightly manic, but again it’s easy to get used to.

Very short wheelbase cars like the Smart tend to be an iffy proposition at freeway speeds, never really feeling stable. The IQ does not suffer from this- the electric assistance on the steering calms down and the cars over-square proportions, with the wheels at the corners all work together to make it feel stable at speed. It feels very fast though- at sixty miles an hour it feels like you are going a hundred. For shorter runs it’s neat but might get wearing over a long drive. Or perhaps you’d get used to it and it wouldn’t be an issue.

So- is it fun? You’d think not; the recipe is for boring and bland, and the car is a mouse.

But it’s a mouse with the soul of an axe-murderer.

It is axiomatic that it is more fun to drive a slow car fast than it is to drive a fast car slowly, and the IQ proves the rule. The car is tiny, intimate and immediate. Put your foot into it and drive it hard on a twisty road and it rewards. The tall, skinny tires scrabble for purchase and the engine, thanks to the CVT, screams at a constant 6000rpm with a surprisingly aggressive note. The unsupportive seats and mild body roll exaggerate the sensations of cornering and you find yourself giggling and pushing it to the limits. The fact that the limits are low doesn’t detract from the fun, just makes it less dangerous. It’s like an old-school British sports car; it’s never actually fast but it feels fast. Push it hard and it’s a hoot without ever crossing into license-losing speeds, and you can probably hammer it all day long without ever getting less than 30 mpg.

Before this test-drive I could never imagine why someone would buy this car given competition like the Fiat 500 or the Ford Fiesta, but now I get it. Totally. Especially with near-new IQs popping up at $12-13 thousand on the used market… Yeah. I can dig it.

Indie Interview- ‘Odyssey One: Into the Black’ by Evan C. Currie

Odyssey One: Into the Black is old-school military space opera about man’s first venture into Faster-Than-Light travel to the stars. This book starts out a little rough. Despite the fact that I apparently read the re-edited/remastered version the first few chapters contained some conspicuous editing and continuity errors. I didn’t give up on it though, and I am glad that I did not, because most of these errors disappeared as the book progressed and the story built momentum. It just got better the further that I read, until at the end it was pulse-pounding, page turning military science fiction as good as any that I have read. If you like John Ringo, Elizabeth Moon or David Weber buy this book,read it and stick with it past the initial glitches. I guarantee that you wont be sorry that you did.

Rating: Kill or die to read this**Seriously, read this**Highly recommended**Recommended **Worth reading**Meh…**Don’t… trust me!**Be Afraid**Kill it with fire

Tell us a little about yourself-

Well at 36 years old now, I’ve been writing for the largest chunk of my life, most of it for fun and not profit. Over the years I’ve done quite a few jobs, from trash man to jack of all trades at a local fisherman’s coop. Today I can honestly say that I’m a professional author and I hope and believe that I’ve found my career.

Please describe ‘Odyssey One: Into the Black’ for us?

Odyssey One : Into the Black is pure space opera escapism. The series gets a little more complicated as it moves along, but the first novel is old school black and white space opera with a modern military paint scheme.

Can you give us some links to the book?

Into The Black : http://www.amazon.com/Into-Black-Odys...

My authors page : http://www.amazon.com/Evan-Currie/e/B...

Where did the idea for this book come from?

I started it when I was maybe 18 years old, and it was a function of what I was watching on TV back then more than anything else. The Star Trek and Star Wars influences are obvious, but there’s probably a few noticeable hints of Space Above and Beyond and maybe some B5 in there too. I’ve been die hard into space fiction since I read my first novel, the novelization of The Empire Strikes Back, as a very young child. So it was inevitable that I’d eventually turn out something like Odyssey. Just a matter of time, really.

Obviously you read Science Fiction; what is your favorite science-fiction novel, and who is your favorite science fiction author?

Whew, ask an easy one. I literally cut my teeth on Ender’s Game, Dune, and Battlefield Earth. All three of these are utter classics that everyone should read, but I couldn’t in all honesty call Card, Hubbard, or Herbert my favorite author. I never really liked much of their work beyond those three books. I don’t know that I have a favorite author really, David Weber would be close but I find that I have less interest in his stuff lately. Perhaps Jack McKinney for the Robotech books? Those are a guilty pleasure I still reread occasionally.

What is the most important lesson you learned from writing this book?

Don’t assume you know how readers will react, as an author you are too close to your own work to be objective. I cringe at Odyssey One sometimes, not because I don’t like the novel but because I am hyper aware of every little habit I used to have that I worked hard to break, and they’re all there staring back at me from the pages of Odyssey. Novels are like a time machine into the past, back to the person you were when you first read/wrote a given novel… and we all would love to go back in time once in a while and smack some sense into our old self.

Why did you decide to self-publish, and how has that worked out for you?

Honestly, it was a lark. I had two novels complete and Amazon had opened up to Canadian authors so I decided to toss them up and see what happened. The first one. Thermals, didn’t do much, sold a few dozen copies or so in the first month, a bit of an ego thing I guess but nothing special. Odyssey One, however, blew my mind. By the end of a month and a half it had sold ten thousand copies and was still going insanely strong. This would have been enough to put me over the moon, but I couldn’t afford an editor back then and it was HORRIBLE. Anyone out there with an original copy of Odyssey one can attest to this, I promise you. The story may have been great, but I needed a competent editor like you wouldn’t believe. Still, sales were strong and Odyssey One got me the attention of 47North, who provided me with editors and pointers and everything the novel needed. So, yeah, it’s worked out pretty well for me. I have seven books for sale now, three more on the way, and plans for many more to follow.

If you could give one piece of advice to aspiring authors what would it be?

Aspiring authors? Just keep writing. It’s the core of what we do, write a little every day. If you even manage one thousand words, five days a week, you’ll get your book done in about five months. That’s not a bad time frame, especially for a first novel. Odyssey One took me years, and that’s just embarrassing to admit. Nowadays I can write a novel in two months or less. Just keep writing.

If you’re talking about authors who’ve finished their book and are looking to self publish… don’t spread your work around. I know people love goodreads, but it’s poison to an indie author (in my opinion). Pick your favorite site, be it Amazon, Apple, B&N, or Kobo and focus your initial efforts there. I know, it sounds counter intuitive, because more sites means more people sees your book, right? Wrong. The key to indie sales is the best seller lists, you HAVE to get up on those lists, and for that you need as many purchases as possible… and those big sellers don’t share sales information, so if you spread your books around, each site will only get a fraction of the sales. That limits your movement on the lists, and that is a bad thing no matter how you cut it. Remember, a flashlight just lights up a spot on the wall… but a LASER can cut steel. Stay focused. There is time to expand your empire once you’ve secured your home turf.

They key(board) to my heart…

Lets divert from our main theme yet again to discuss something near and dear to the heart of any prolific writer- computer keyboards. In this day and age these are the tools of our trade, and we have a relationship with our keyboards; we probably spend more time with them than we do with our spouses.

I love Mac keyboards. They are tactile, responsive, fast and a delight to use. Even better they are about half the price of comparable aftermarket PC keyboards. But there is bad news- one infinitesimal drop of liquid and they are as dead as Marley. New ones, old ones, they are all the same. My average $50 Mac keyboard lasts two months or less because I live in the real world, drink beverages and hey, excrement occurs.

Maybe there is a solution to my woes, but it does not lie at Fry’s electronics store. I spent the better part of an hour trying to find a $40-$60 dollar keyboard because the microsoft keyboard that I replaced my most recent Mac keyboard with was crap. Seriously, I wrote a blog post this morning and I spent as much time correcting keyboard errors as I did writing. I’d tell you more about but its just… too soon.

At Fry’s in Renton Washington the problem was not the lovely, helpful sales people. The problem was not the selection. The problem was the display. They had keyboards on display that they did not have in stock. They had keyboards boxed on the shelves that weren’t on display. Most of the keyboards were not priced, and most likely the boxes which were priced were nowhere near the keyboard on display. If they even had them in stock. basically I spent an hour in their keyboard section trying in vain to find a suitable keyboard. Salespeople- who really were lovely, knowledgeable and helpful, were as confused by the hot mess that is their keyboard section as I was.

Finally in desperation I went to the stores Mac section where I found stock Mac keyboards and aftermarket keyboards from Macally (see what they did there?) I called Linda and she looked up reviews on the $20 dollar Mac-compatible keyboard and I bought one.

I am typing this post on it and it is every bit as lovely to use as a stock Mac keyboard. I am geekstatic! Will a single drop of errant liquid kill it? I don’t know, but if it does it will be $20 to replace instead of $50. There’s no way that is not an improvement. So, now that I am home happily typing on my wonderful new keyboard all is right with the world.

The product is the Macally 103 key full-sized keyboard, $19.99 at Fry’s and based on the last 458 words I’d have to give it 5 stars. We’ll see how that rating holds up over time.

Oh excellent- the coffee-maker is done…

Indie Author interview: Misty Watts

This is the first of a series of Indie Author interviews concerning books that might be of interest to our regular readers or their families. I met Misty on Goodreads.com and she was kind enough to provide me with a copy of her book in .pdf format to critique.

‘Walking Among Them: Reap’ by Misty Watts

First and foremost I liked this book overall. Misty Watts writes well and knows how to tell a story. The problem with me reviewing this story is that it is Young Adult ‘Chick-Lit’ and as a fifty year old man I am pretty ill-qualified to judge how it’s intended audience will receive it. ON the other hand despite this the book captured and held my attention and I enjoyed it overall, and think that I would have enjoyed it in my early teens; it seems comparable to many of the books that enjoyed at that time in my life. The main character is interesting and the story is well-paced and enjoyable. I would recommend this book for young teens.

That’s the good news. In common with many indie books the editing was sub-standard. Misty is correcting this however, and it was never enough of a problem to put me off reading the book. Personally I would like to have seen a bit more development in the secondary characters, and I found the ending less satisfactory than I hoped. Still, I plan to read the sequels, and that should tell you something!

Rating:
Kill or die to read this**Seriously, read this**Highly recommended** Recommended **Worth reading**Meh…**Don’t… trust me!**Be Afraid**Kill it with fire

So Misty, tell us a little about yourself?

I’m originally from Cayce, Ky., and will be moving back there very soon. Right now, my husband, John, (who is a voice over artist… www.wattsvoice.com) and I live in Union City, Tn., with our three daughters. I’m a graduate of University of Tennessee at Martin with a degree in Communications. I would say I have always been a writer. I thoroughly enjoyed any and all writing assignments in high school and college. I can remember as a little girl, stapling pages together and writing my own books after learning to read.

I’ve read your first book, ‘Walking Among Them: Reap’ and enjoyed it. Can you tell us a bit about this book?

Reap is the first book in the series Walking Among Them, a paranormal/supernatural series for young adults. The story focuses on Sophie, a teenager who tended to see things from a different perspective than other kids her age.

A quaint little river town in Kentucky seemed a little boring to Sophie. When her father got transferred, she was less than excited to be pulled from a school and home she loved, to start all over… again. It turns out, however, that this small town is anything but boring. Sophie finds herself in the midst of a supernatural stomping ground that would rival her wildest dreams.

Reap is the first book in the Walking Among Them series, which I hope to be a fresh look at popular young adult paranormal and fantasy books. With a new look at the way the universe works in regards to immortal beings, time, reincarnation, signs of the zodiac, loss and friendship, this series aims to bring an exciting new twist to this genre.

What inspired you to write this book?

I was inspired to write this book merely because I needed an outlet to the amount thoughts and “what if’s” that constantly spiraled in my mind. The book is based in Hickman, Ky., which is where I attended high school. I thought it would be neat to take this small town that many teenagers deem “boring” and add a secret world, making it far more interesting than they realized. It was ridiculously entertaining to me to create these characters and write this book. At first, the book was just for me. I wrote it over 2 years ago. But, a few months ago, I pulled it out and decided I would see what others thought too.

I understand this book is the first in a series. What are the other books in this series, and what are they about?

Book two in the Walking Among Them series, Harvest, will be out this summer. It continues with the story of the teenagers in Hickman and how they come to understand the workings of a universe they had never questioned. Book three, Yield, is scheduled to be out December 2013.

Where can readers buy these books?

Reap is available on Amazon and Kindle. Copies can also be purchased on createspace.com.

http://www.amazon.com/Reap-Walking-Am...

http://www.amazon.com/Walking-Among-T...

For updated release dates, check my Facebook page.

https://www.facebook.com/mistywattsau...

What made you decide to write for the Young Adult market?

I decided to write for the YA market because it’s generally what I read. Being a young adult is fantastic. You are hopeful, full of confidence, the sky is the limit and most aren’t yet jaded by the real world.

What sort of books do you like to read?

Young adult paranormal and fiction is basically the bulk of what I read. In the last few months, I have been reading the Silver series by Cheree Alsop. I love these books and have to make myself put them down. I loved Primitive Instincts by Lauree Waldrop. I also really enjoyed The Guardian Trilogy by Liz Schulte. In the last year, I have read over 50 books by Indie authors and have really enjoyed them. I wish I could name them all.

What author or author’s do you feel have been your greatest inspiration and have had the most influence on your work?

As cliche as it may be, I’m going to have to say Stephen King. Although I have only written young adult fiction, I remember reading King as a teenager and thinking, “this man could make a supernatural extension cord seem scary.” I love his work.

Misty, you have elected to publish your works as an Independent. What made you decide to go that route, and how is that working out for you?

Since I have published Reap, I would say that the Indie authors I have befriended have had a wonderful influence on me. They truly don’t receive enough credit. Everyone is supportive of each other and always willing to give feedback. It’s a fierce little community of creative genius and I’m thrilled to be a part of it.

If you could give a single piece of advice to aspiring writers what would it be?

Feedback from fans and other authors is important. Put some thought into their advice and thoughts, especially those who have more experience than you do. Don’t take criticism to heart. It’s the only way you will improve your writing.

Given the chance what would you say to your readers?

Thanks for your support and for giving me the opportunity to entertain you. Stay tuned, there’s more to come.

Seriously- can we talk?

OK. *draws a deep breath* Let’s try this again.

There is a debate on Gun Control in this country. Actually that’s the problem in a nutshell; there isn’t a debate on Gun Control in this country. If there were a debate there might be a resolution and something might get done. Something useful. Wouldn’t that be a nice change?

We don’t have a debate. On one side we have a group that is convinced that abolishing firearms is the answer. On the other we have people that insist that no form of ban or even regulation is acceptable. These two sides scream at each other so loudly, so constantly, that the rest of us can’t hear ourselves think and certainly cannot hold a reasonable discussion about it. Neither side will budge from their positions or discuss the matter. They are right, they know it and nothing will change their minds. They will not compromise. Nothing short of complete, total crushing victory will satisfy either side. They are totalitarian and absolutist.

Screw those people. As long as they are the only voices we hear nothing productive will happen. Ever.

Let’s frame the debate in reality and have a discussion about it. Let’s leave our ‘jerking knees’ and foil-beanies at home and bring our open minds and our willingness to compromise. Let’s start with the facts on the ground and see if we cannot progress from there. Let us not ignore or disregard these facts in the discussion. Since Great Britain is frequently held up as an example I have cited some data from there as well.I encourage you to look up all citations for yourself.

Fact: Firearms ownership cannot be banned under the Constitution.

In Heller vs. DC the Supreme court ruled that the 2nd amendment means that citizens are allowed to own firearms for lawful purposes, including self defense in the home. They also specifically stated that, like all rights enumerated in the Bill of Rights, this right was subject to reasonable regulation in the public interest.

Fact: Handguns cannot be banned under the Constitution

Again from Heller vs. DC:Laws banning classes of firearms well-suited to this purpose (lawful uses such as self-defense in the home) are unconstitutional, as are laws that interfere with the ability to use firearms for this purpose. This specifically meant that Washington DC could not ban handguns, nor insist that they be kept and stored in circumstances that would prevent their lawful use.

Fact: Regardless of the dramatic increase in the number of high-capacity firearms in the USA gun-crime has reduced dramatically and steadily in the last ten years.

This is as established by national reports from law enforcement agencies to the FBI. Despite horrific tragedies like Columbine and Sandy Hook gun crime has gone down every single year in the last ten years. In the period of 1992-2012 the murder rate in the US dropped by 50%, from 9.3/100,000 to 4.7/100,000 (We should cheer!)

Fact: Firearms are used in 67% of Murders in the USA. Handguns are used in an average of 63% of gun-murders. Rifles or all sort, including ‘assault weapons’ are used in less than 2.3% of gun-murders and approximately 1.5% of all murders.

Again, this is according to the FBIs published statistics. It’s worth noting that this means that nearly 1/3 of murders are committed without guns.

Murders (per 100,000 people) occur in rural areas at one-third the rate that they occur in urban areas

From FBI statistics, and regardless of the policies of those urban areas. This holds true for Great Britain as well, by the way.

Fact: Abolition of private handgun and rifle ownership has had no effect on Murder in Great Britain

According to the British Home Office’s published crime statistics Great Britain has maintained a murder rate that is one-third of ours. This neither increased or decreased since private firearms ownership was nearly completely abolished. It should also be noted that according to these same statistics Great Britain has three times the USA’s rate of violent crime against persons.

Fact: The worst mass-shooting in history occurred in a country with extremely restrictive gun-control laws and surrounded by countries with more restrictive gun-control laws than anywhere in the USA

According to news reports. I have not actually looked up the relevant laws in those countries.

Fact: From 1945 to 1982 there were two (arguably three) mass shootings in the United States. From 1982 to the present there have been 70.

Something has caused this. In the 1945-1982 period more households per capita owned firearms than do now. Has something other than the availability of firearms affected these numbers?

Fact: According to FBI statistics mass shootings accounted for less than .17% of murders last year

This does not make these occurrences less horrific, not does it mean that we should not take rational measures to prevent or minimize such occurrences in the future.

Fact: Guns are inanimate objects, possessing no inherent volition of their own and incapable of acting without human intervention.

They are not inherently good. They are not inherently evil. Guns are tools. Nothing more, nothing less. That being said, it’s easier to drive in a nail if you have a hammer.

Things that would add to the discussion:

* Reliable reporting on the percentage of illegally purchased firearms verses legally purchased firearms used in crimes

* Reliable reporting on the effect of ‘straw purchases’ on gun crime in urban areas, particularly those with strict gun-control

* Reliable reports on the instances of gun crime in areas that allow concealed carry contrasted with those that do not

* Reliable reports on the percentage of mass-shootings that have taken place in designated ‘gun-free’ zones

* Reliable reports on the percentage of legally owned guns that are involved in accidents that result in injury or death.

* reliable reports on percentage of legally-owned firearms that cause death or injury due to misuse, in other words guns being turned on their owners, injuries or deaths of bystanders due to use of a gun for self-defense etc.

If there are any other statistics that will inform the debate (from RELIABLE sources like law enforcement and official government reports) that would be useful please do bring them up. If you bring up a study be prepared to link it or explain their methodology; many studies draw erroneous conclusions based on predisposition, faulty data or flaws in methodology, so simple quoting their results is insufficient.

PLEASE NOTE that the facts quoted above are neither pro-gun nor anti-gun. They are simply facts.

So, can we leave emotions, conspiracy theories, hysteria and personal prejudices at the door and discuss this like adults?

Mail-Armor and Armored Combat for Writers

Mail Armor for Writers

Mail armor (sometimes called Chain-Mail in modern times) was the dominant form of armor used in the west for the better part of a thousand years. It was relatively heavy and when worn over a padded coat rather hot. People wore it for one simple reason: it worked. I’ve worn armor and can tell you first-hand no one would bother with it if it didn’t. I’t's just too big a pain in the ass to put up with otherwise.

Modern mail is commonly made from round wire with the ends of the links simply butted together. In over thirty years of research I have not found a single instance where this type of mail was used historically for combat. Worn over a proper padded garment such mail would probably be better than nothing, but evidently it was not enough better than nothing to be worth the bother. When hit the links spread open. In addition the round wire is easier for the edge to ‘bite’ into and easier to cut. Modern tests show that a good reproduction of a viking-era sword will trash modern ‘butted’ mail in a big hurry.

For combat mail in European-style settings you are looking at flat-link riveted mail with four links through each link. It is worn over a padded coat (sometimes called a Gambeson.) often with a surcoat over it. The padding dramatically increases the effectiveness of the mail by spreading the impact of a blow. This padding was usually one-half inch to one inch thick. The surcoat may also be of some help. Flat-link mail also has more surface area in contact, so it is harder to cut through than middle-eastern mail made of round wire. Since swords are the most common weapons to be carried on the body (especially in fantasy novels) we’ll address those first.

General Rules for Swords vs. medieval European mail:

*Generally the later in the period, the better the average quality of armor.

*The wealthier/more important the person wearing it is, the higher the quality of the armor will be. In the case of Royals, Greater Nobility and the very wealthy is is safe to assume that their armor is effectively impervious to sword-cuts and offers moderate protection against impact.

*While mail varied in quality it was still highly protective. To cleave even relatively poor mail with a sword would require a clean, powerful blow. Most sword blows will not penetrate, otherwise why would they wear it? For two well armored opponents it would take a truly heroic blow, possibly backed by a bit of artistic license, to penetrate.

*Good quality mail prior to the use of longbows was nearly impervious to arrows. The very best mail late in the period might have resisted even armor-piercing points on longbow arrows.

*When dealing with mail-armored opponents that are using serviceable mail you can expect that bruises and cracked or broken bones will vastly outnumber cuts that penetrate armor. Battlefield archaeology indicates that the most common disabling blows struck areas with lesser or no armor- namely the left leg and the head. The head armor was good but the head is uniquely vulnerable to concussive force.

Basically as writers we can fudge a bit in favor of the story without anyone getting to picky about it if we more-or-less follow those guidelines.

Weapons Vs. Mail

Knives are going to be ineffective against mail, which is why the dagger superseded the seax (the Bowie knife of the Migration and Viking Eras) as the primary sidearm of the middle ages.

Early daggers (11th Century) were referred to by a variety of names like ‘Cutelle de Guerre’ or variations thereof that translate more or less to ‘Knife of War.’ These were narrow, very rigid blades with little ability to cut effectively. They would defeat mail by catching the point in a link when thrusting and having the hard edge of the dagger shear through the comparatively soft link as it penetrates. The higher the quality of the mail the harder it will be for a dagger to do this. In any case it would require a powerful blow to penetrate mail with a dagger and the very best mail might be impervious to dagger blows. To penetrate armor with a dagger the weapon was gripped with the blade below the fist; it is to hard or impossible to generate enough force to penetrate armor with the blade held ‘Knife-fashion’ with the blade above the fist. Daggers did not routinely become a part of a knight’s kit until almost the 14th C.

Viking Era and Early Medieval Swords

Viking Era and early Medieval swords are specialized cutting blades. You can thrust with them but these swords are too flexible to pierce mail with a thrust the way that a dagger does. In the 12thC. Larger, heavier swords for use with two hands came into use, presumably to help counter the greater quality and availability of mail. These were still specialized cutting blades but the added mass and two-handed use would have made them more effective against mail. Swords of this type were often referred to as Greatswords or Great Swords of War.

High Medieval (Mid-13th to early 14th C.) Swords

Swords in this period begin to be redesigned for effective thrusting; they are still mostly cut-and-thrust blades but they have narrower, stiffer points better suited to finding chinks in the armor or in more extreme cases thrusting through it in the manner of a dagger. Specialized thrusting swords also appear; these swords will cut adequately against unarmored opponents but will have trouble cutting against even padded cloth armor though impact effects will apply. Generally to penetrate mail with a thrust will require that a sword be gripped ‘half-sword’ with the weak-hand gripping the blade. Yes, you can grip even a sharp sword-blade without cutting your hand if you do it right.

The high medieval period also sees more and more plate being used to supplement mail. You cannot cut through plate armor with a sword, period. The transition to plate armor was helped along by the Black Plague, which killed many of the skilled workers that produced mail. Technological advances had made it easier to make plate of good quality in larger pieces. We’ll talk more about Plate Armor in a future article.

A Final Note About Medieval Swords

Medieval swords were not dull. Examples preserved in good condition, for example river-found swords, are often described as being ‘as sharp as a good kitchen knife.’ Sharp things cut better than dull things, regardless of what you are trying to cut. This is not to say that they stayed sharp through a battle; medieval sword-steel, while surprisingly good, seldom equalled modern steels and even modern steels will dull repeatedly hitting mail. Your character’s best chance of cutting mail with a sword will be early in the part of the battle where the sword comes into use while the sword is still sharp.

Mass-Concentration Weapons verses Mail

The most effective weapons against mail are weapons that concentrate the bulk of their mass behind a narrow cutting surface or point. A battle-ax might not weigh and more than a sword but most of the weight is directly behind the blade. The same is true for Maces. An ax is much more likely than a sword to penetrate mail, and even if it doesn’t it will transmit impact through the mail more effectively. A mace is specifically designed to transmit energy through the mail. Either is more likely to deliver a crippling blow through mail than a sword. A spear has a light head with a dagger-like point, but the entire mass of the haft of the spear is lined up behind that point when thrusting, and to some extent the user’s weight as well. Spears are reasonably effective at penetrating mail and transmit the most focussed shock when they don’t penetrate.

This brings us to spiked weapons- axes or war-hammers with a back-spike. These are pretty good at penetrating mail also, because the entire force of the blow is concentrated behind the point. The problem is they are fairly likely to get ‘hung-up’ in the mail if they penetrate and the user then has to rapidly switch to another weapon. Spears have this issue, but to a lesser degree.

The Role of the Sword in Armored Combat

Other than Great-Swords your character is unlikely to enter the battle using a sword as his primary weapon. In the period from the Fall of Rome to the mid-14th Century when mail was the best defensive armor a shield was routinely used as the primary defense in conjunction with an axe, mace or spear. The sword was a side-arm, much in the way that soldiers carry pistols today; it was the back-up to the main battlefield weapon. It was the weapon that you resorted to when you had lost or broken all of your more suitable battle-field weapons.

Wearing Mail for Historical or Fantasy Characters

If your character is a trained fighter they will know how to wear their mail properly and be well-used to it’s weight and the way it affects their maneuverability. They will be able to compensate for this and will not be noticeably slower than an unarmored opponent. They will tire quickly than an unarmored opponent though. If your character is traipsing about the world they are either going to ride or not wear their mail for general traveling.

A compromise for your character while traveling would be to wear a hood or mantle of mail over a quilted jacket or gambeson such as common soldiers and guardsmen frequently wore. The mantle is a circle of mail with a hole in the middle for the wearer’s head. When worn it covered the shoulders and the front of the chest to below the nipples and the shoulder-blades in back. It might be worn loose, with it’s own weight being the only thing anchoring it or might be secured in place with armor-ties attached to the gambeson. This is much lighter than a full shirt of course, and given that their shield covers the remainder of their torso quite well it offers more protection than you might think. A hood is simply a mantle with a hood that can be quickly pulled up to protect the head and neck. Ideally the character will be wearing a quilted cap to pull this over, but even if they aren’t a thick mop of hair helps and will be better than nothing… though they’ll lose some of their hair when they shed the hood. Given a chance they will also don a helmet over the mail hood. The mantle was frequently worn with a helmet already in place. This is a hugely more comfortable and practical compromise for traveling than wearing full armor.

Typically your hero is going to train in full armor, wear as little armor as they can get away with for day-to-day or travel and if they know they are going into battle will wear as much armor as they can.

Fighting in Armor

Speaking from experience in armored combat sports your character will feel very different in the course of battle than they do at other times. Assuming that they are committed to the fight when your armored character enters battle the first thing that their body does is fill their blood with chemicals, mainly adrenaline and noradrenaline. Their focus on their opponent(s) will be absolute. Hits that don’t degrade their effectiveness will register only dimly. I have sometimes had the thought “That one is going to suck tomorrow’ flit through the back of my mind but generally other than that hits simply don’t register. Your character will notice pain rather than feel it, and no level of mere pain will deter them in the fight or slow them down. They will register injury only as it affects their ability to continue fighting, and if they are slowed down or lose the use of a limb they will feel frustration or rage rather than pain or fear.

If the battle goes on long enough your character will ‘bonk.’ This means that their body will run out of chemicals and ready calories and start consuming their own tissues for energy. At this point pain becomes a factor and your character might even pass out. Dehydration is also an issue.

It is common in a fight for one’s vision to ‘tunnel in’ and lose some peripheral vision. Also time may seem to slow down but this will not normally allow your character to react any faster. In day to day life our brain processes very little of the sensory data it receives; in combat it processes 100% of that information and in retrospect it feels like time slowed down. We’ll address these factors more in future articles.

I hope this will be of some help to you in your writing, and feel free to ask questions.

No pain, no… well pain for one thing!

Helpful hint for all of you out-of-shape people like me. When you screw up your back in class in the morning don’t go teach another class in the afternoon. Trust me on this one.

Last week when I showed up early for the Foreworld writer’s meeting I popped upstairs to the Lonin Sword group to say hello, and watching them spar with longswords I got all testosterone-poisoned and had to join in. Despite not having sparred for at least a couple years I was surprised to find that I could hold my own. For, like, a minute anyway… I have no endurance. I am terribly out-of-shape at this point. It was obvious that it was time to come back to class and start getting back in shape.

Yesterday morning I showed up at Lonin Sword Group for Fiore practice. They start with individual warm-up and strength training. I had looked up some exercises; baby-step sorts of things. “How to get in good enough shape to get in shape” things. I did a lot of these exercises and then some sit-ups etc. right up to the point my back was warning me of impending disaster. Then I joined in for the Kettle-bell workout using very light clubs. I was careful- I was! So far so good.

Then we started to work on Fiore’s spear-work. Went through the basic guards and plays and it came time to work with partners, so I put on my fencing-mask and pulled on the gauntlets and everything in my back went haywire. My lower back went out and my upper back seized. Ouch. I gratefully got some Ibuprofen from Neal and hobbled out to go home and ice the back. I wasn’t able to make the motion needed to put my jacket on and threading myself into the car was… entertaining.

I wasn’t having enough fun at that point, so a migraine hit as I was driving home but I made it safely despite that, took the appropriate drugs and iced my back. After a couple of hours we decided to head over to our friend’s store, Longship Tradegoods, as we had been planning. I felt like hammered crap but what the hell.

Longship Tradegoods is a very cool store, especially for history buffs and those interested in the Viking Era. One of the things people do over there is that there are some Viking re-enactors that meet to practice fighting arts for demos and I was supposed to lend a hand with the training yesterday. The way that I was feeling that was just not going to happen.

I really meant to be good! I did!

Linda and I watched them working out, fixing up weapons etc. Then as we were watching one young lad in a mail-shirt doing pell-work with a sword and shield Linda commented, “He’s not doing that right, is he? maybe you should say something.” Well, just giving him a few pointers couldn’t hurt, right? Then I had to demonstrate striking with the sword. Testosterone-poisoning kicked in and I was off and running. Demonstrating sword-and-shield work, spear-work, using a lang-ax and against spear and shield, coaching…

Let me advise you on this- when you are an out-of-shape middle-aged man and your back is already screwed up this is a Very. Bad. Idea. I knew that I was going to pay the price but hey- they needed help and I was having fun. I could always spend the next day in my comfy desk-chair writing and icing my back…

Being a ‘man of a Certain Age’ I usually get up during the night to visit the bathroom. Little did I realize that my back was crouched in the darkened hallway waiting to ambush me. It seized up big-time, and my head, not to be outdone, launched into a world-class tension headache. So at 3:32 am instead of lying in my comfy bed cuddling my very cuddly wife I am sitting here icing my back while various drugs slowly work their way into my system and typing this.

I have become a living cautionary tale…

The good news is that today, 3/4/13, our novel ‘Diaries of a Dwarven Rifleman’ can be downloaded as a Kindle eBook for FREE in honor of my wonderful wife’s birthday. You’re welcome! Amazon.com

OUR FIRST NOVEL!!!

‘Diaries of a Dwarven Rifleman’ by Michael Tinker Pearce and Linda Pearce is now LIVE in the Createspace Store at Amazon.com! https://www.createspace.com/4186798

Also available for Kindle! http://www.amazon.com/Diaries-Dwarven-Rifleman-Series-ebook/dp/B00BLO1DDC/ref=sr_1_cc_1?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1361925969&sr=1-1-catcorr&keywords=Diaries+of+a+Dwarven+Rifleman&tag=wp-amazon-associate-20

The Epiphany

On many online sword and knife forums my signature on posts is: “Then one night as I was going backwards through a cornfield at 90mph I had an epiphany…” A lot of people have asked me about the origin of that quote, so the story follows:

Back in the eighties I had a hot rod ’78 Toyota Corolla with built TRD suspension, twin-cam motor with dual carbs and custom exhaust. It made 135hp at the rear wheels. Doesn’t sound like much, but in a 1900 pound car it gave me a better power-to-weight ratio than the contemporary V8 Mustang GT. No torque to speak of so it wasn’t as quick off the line, but quicker than you might imagine and fast as a thief once it got moving.

Anyway I fell in with bad company, by which I mean like minded idiots. Several of us had ‘hot’ small-bores: a supercharged VW Bug, a turbo’d 914, a hot ‘dime’ (Datsun B210) or two and we started chasing each other around in our cars. This evolved into the kind of thing that only bored twenty-somethings (that don’t realize they can die) come up with. We called it Rat Racing. Named for the idea of rats in a maze.

Here’s how it works: you start out side-by-side at a stoplight with your trip odometer set to 0. When the light changes you go. Whoever winds up in front decides what the course is. At the end of ten miles whoever is ahead is the winner. We eventually evolved some rules like “no freeways” and “No residential neighborhoods” and that your rear bumper had to be ahead of the other guy’s front bumper before you could take the lead and turn onto a different street. But that was pretty nearly it for rules.

This was endlessly more amusing than drag racing, and made for better stories besides. It was also completely insane. It was a form of outlaw racing where small-bores dominated for the most part. We had people try it in traditional muscle cars. They lost and generally didn’t have a good time. Muscle cars didn’t have the handling to keep up and once you got past them they could never overtake you again if you stuck to curvy roads. There were a couple of then-modern pony cars that stuck it out and sometimes even won, but these were the exception. I was chasing just such a car when The Incident occurred.

The car was a modified Camero IROC-Z (early ’80s- don’t really remember the exact year.) It was dark blue and it was driven by a guy that talked like a surfer dude and had a hair-style of the sort commonly associated with electric shocks. He got ahead of me off the line and headed out on a course that took us onto White-Knuckle Road (as we called it.) It runs along the western edge of the Snohomish Valley, and I could never quite get past him. Then he hooked a left onto Seattle Hill Road as it heads out across the flats.

There are two right-angle turns, a left and a right. I mean sharp, ninety degree turns marked ’15mph.’ I was caught up in the excitement and not paying enough attention. I didn’t know that he didn’t know where he was going; he’d panicked because he couldn’t believe my car was staying on his ass like it was. He hit the straight on Seattle Hill Rd., hammered it and pulled away under V8 torque and I went hell-for-leather after him. I had overcome the torque deficit and was coming up on him fast when he came on that 90 degree left unexpectedly. Suddenly I saw his brake-lights come on and there was a cloud of tire smoke as he frantically tried to slow enough to make the corner. Meanwhile I was storming up on his ass at about 115-120mph.

Miraculously he seemed like he might make the corner and I put the Corolla sideways. I figured that my only chance was to slide in sideways and power through the slide onto the next straight. It actually seemed like it might work for a second… then I put the power down and the back end went right out from under me. Suddenly I was going ass-first through the cornfield. I had released the brakes and stomped the clutch when I lost it, and was free-wheeling backwards at very high speed.

Ears of corn were exploding against the top of the car like machinegun bullets as I bounced along, mowing down the mature cornstalks. It was then that I had the epiphany: I couldn’t think of a single reason good enough to be sitting where I was at that precise moment.

I mean, here I was, out of control going about 90 miles per hour through a cornfield in the middle of the night. Backwards, no less. Any second now I would probably hit something and smash my car. Or flip. Or explode. It was going to be a real mess to explain this even if nothing catastrophic happened. And for what? To win the $100? For fun? I’d had fun before and I was pretty sure this wasn’t it.

Eventually I slowed down enough to brake and stop my backwards progress. I could see nothing ahead of me but savaged corn and darkness. Corn juice was actually dripping off the roof. The car had stalled so I reached down, twisted the key and miraculously the car started. I crept slowly forward through the murdered corn until I was near the edge of the road and could see the lights of the Camero.

Surfer Dude, bless his heart, had actually stopped and backed up to see where I’d disappeared to. I stopped at the edge of the corn, noticing for the first time the three-foot deep ditch between me and the road. I must have sailed over it to get into the field. So I crept along the edge of the field (more innocent corn senselessly slaughtered!) until I came to a culvert and could get back on the road. Surfer Dude pulled up and asked if I was OK with eyes the size of saucers. I said that I was, so he immediately asked if the car was OK.

“It seems to be,” I said rather bemusedly, then added, “By the way, you win!”

We returned to the Herfy’s Drive-In on Evergreen where we were meeting our cohorts in crime and I dutifully coughed up the $100. We told the story over milkshakes and assorted flavors of fried fat. I told them that I was done, and that was my last Rat Race.

A few years ago the subject came up at a dinner party and we talked about Rat Racing under the heading or “Criminally Stupid Things Done While Young.” Our hostess (who has known me almost since those days) asked “Why did you stop?” “Well,” I replied, “One night as my car was going backwards through a cornfield at 90 miles-per-hour I had an epiphany…”

Not sure what happened to the rest of the Rat Racers; nothing that ever made the news anyway. I guess it just faded away as common sense overcame the participants one by one.