From: Curt McCauley, Chief Instructor, Channel Town Soo Bahk DoI just wanted to take a moment and thank you for "Always". Now I will have to go out and find your other writings.
Keep up the good work.
It's very cool to get email from an ex-police officer/woodworker/martial arts teacher who thinks I got some of it right. Thank you. The way I work is based on a little research and a lot of imagination. It's such a relief when readers tell me I haven't screwed up totally.
When I start to imagine things--such as Norway, or being police, or facing marriage in the seventh century--I can tell when it starts to feel right. It's a bit like doing that martial arts multiple attacker thing, where you stand in a circle of 'attackers' and turn off the frontal cortex, just became a fluid instant-reaction organism--it sounds impossibly zen, and it must look like a ridiculous scene from Star Wars with Luke trying to feel the force--but I can tell when I drop into the zone. I feel very, very calm, but also as though I want to bubble with laughter, and my blood feels super-oxygenated.
But just because it feels right doesn't mean it is. So it's extremely reassuring to hear from you.
I know that martial arts don't necessarily have much to do with self-defense, but if you're involved in teaching/thinking about self-defense there's a new website, 320Sycamore.com, that you might find interesting. (It's brand new to me--they contacted me yesterday, after they read my Huffington Post rant about tasers--so I'm not necessarily recommending it, just pointing it out.)
So, thank you once again, and I hope you enjoy the other books.
