Look! A New Entry!

I’m not even going to mention the amount of comments in the last entry.

In a few days, I’ll talk about the tour and the events and how well it all went, but right now I’m going to talk about how much I’m hurting.

Your Golden God is bruised.

I have recently returned to martial arts, and the main thing that I’d forgotten about it all is how much it HURTS. Getting thrown around a room is SORE. Getting punched is ANNOYING. Being strangled is NOT FUN. At the end of every session I limp out to my car, panting and perspiring, with every part of my body complaining very loudly indeed.

God I’ve missed it.

I used to train in Kenpo Karate. I got my black belt, became an instructor, began to train others. I loved it, for the most part. Yes, there were aspects of the style that were totally unrealistic, techniques you would never attempt on the street, but all in all, it was a nice, effective martial art.

Then I stopped training, and became lazy, and put on weight and lost my fitness. But I was still a blackbelt, and it was always uppermost in my mind when I came to write the Skulduggery books. I wanted the fights to be as realistic as possible. I wanted them to be entertaining, sure, but I was determined to show the consequences. You might notice, as the books progress, that the fights get harder and meaner. Valkyrie gets some real injuries- injuries that I’ve suffered myself. I didn’t want to give the impression that a teenage girl can go up against a grown man and emerge without a scratch. The reality is, that’s not going to happen. If she does win, she’s going to be battered and bloody. If she doesn’t win, it’s going to be much, much worse.

So my training played a big part in my writing, because my passion for martial arts never went away. I always wanted to get back into it. I wanted to train again, but I was older now, and I didn’t want to suffer through egotistical instructors- which are a BIG problem in any club you go to. And then I found my ideal match.

Actually, Krav Maga is not, technically, a martial art. It’s a fighting system, developed by the Israelis and now taught around the world. It is BRUTALLY effective, wonderfully economic, and it doesn’t matter what shape you’re in, or what size or age you are- it’s designed to help YOU defend yourself.

So I’ve been training in Krav Maga for a few months now, and loving every bruise and scrape that I get. The people I train with are cool, the instructors have no ego, and everyone is there to learn and have fun while doing it. I just got back from a class about half an hour ago, and I’m about to go and have a shower, but I realised I hadn’t posted a new entry in AGES, and this was on my mind, so I figured I’d give you an entry you wouldn’t be expecting.

I think that everyone should know how to defend themselves. Lads, you need this knowledge and these skills because violence is a part of life now. There are ALWAYS thugs out there and, unless you’re very lucky, one of these days you’ll be dragged into it. You need to learn how to defend yourself and you need to learn to be one of the good guys.

Girls, you need those skills and that knowledge for the exact same reasons, plus a whole lot more. You need to be formidable. You need to be able to save yourself AND save others.

Look around, visit a few clubs, try out a few styles. Join a club that’s friendly, get a few mates to join with you. Have fun. Get some exercise. Learn how to throw a punch and defend against one. I want my Minions to be unstoppable fighting machines, dammit.

Next entry, I shall talk about the tour, and address the MASSIVE amounts of comments that have been building up in my absence. Also, there’ll probably be more jokes in the next entry, too.

(One final thing: is anyone else disappointed with the new Spider-Man game? And is anyone else enjoying killing zombies as much as I am in Dead Rising 2? Just wondering...)