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My debut novel,
Heaven’s Fate, due to be released on 06/26/2012 in ebook and hardcover, focuses
heavily on science fiction, fantasy, young adult, sword & sorcery and of
course, martial arts.
I have loved martial
arts for as long as I can remember. Ever since Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and
Bruce Lee dominated the television and movie screens it has been something that
has fascinated me. Not only is martial arts a great discipline that helps
people young and old stay in shape but also generates, promotes, and extends a
persons mental capacity in terms of helping the mind and body focus to become
one. Therefore, after learning different forms of martial arts while growing
up, now as an adult and choosing to go into the profession of fantasy fiction
novel writing I chose to focus on and make martial arts a major part of my
novel, as most (if not all) of my characters are great martial arts masters.
Not only does martial
arts refer to the physical hand-to-hand combat but also the ‘science and art’
of sword play which also plays a major role in Heaven’s Fate. As I am an avid
collector of swords, knives, and throwing projectiles which fascinate me to no
end, it was only natural that it gets thrown into my debut novel. As they say,
‘write what you know’; and one of the things I know more than anything else is
weapons and physical combat.
In, Heaven’s Fate,
there are several different forms of martial arts in the world of Threa. Since
there are different races (species) of humanoids that live on different
continents, it is only natural that in order for the novel (story) to be believable,
then different peoples from different parts of the world will specialize in
different forms of martial arts. Not only that but another major aspect of
martial arts incorporated into the novel is the relationship and integration
with magic seamlessly flowing together. With a plethora of weapons to choose
from and draw upon in the ‘real’ world it was almost easy to transfer those
into unique martial arts styles in the world of Threa. Not only that but I love
to keep the action live and dynamic as you read the novel. A major part of
making the story compelling to readers is having the characters focus on using
long range weapons; because then what happens when the characters confront each
other in an enclosed area where long range weapons are of little use. Even in
the military, they focus on the basics of hand to hand combat and since
Heaven’s Fate has a heavy ‘futuristic’ military presence, it was only natural
to have martial arts styles and masters in the book.
By Andre Alan
