Winter finally came in Philadelphia, my home.  We had been waiting for it to arrive for some time, the 50s and 60s that we’ve been enjoying since just about Christmas were bound to end eventually.  The temperature for the past few weeks has been frigid at best, painful at worst.  During this wicked cold spell I got to continue my second joy in life beyond writing and that is sword fighting.

The tournament itself was called Flowerpoint and was hosted by a Hema school that the school I attend is closely associated with called L’Arte Della Bellica.  It was a fantastic event where you get to meet new people and try to stab at them with un-sharpened steel long swords.  Which, if you’ve read my books, is a passion of mine.  I gather a ton of inspiration from this fighting for my stories and try to instill this in my books which involve medieval style combat.

Overall, my goals for the tournament were to meet some new people (mission accomplished), not get into any grappling matches (mission accomplished), and to keep my point on line with my opponent so I could stabbed them (eh…).  I could have done better with my third goal.  I ranked 30 out of 60, also a bit lower than I would have hoped but as this is only my second tournament and my first in a year and a half I am pleased.

Below you will find videos of all of my fights, so you can all see what I am trying to emulate in words what I am capable of doing in real life.  I hope it shows.

video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hniDVC1pyQ

video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IMBIclV-ww

video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yc8_-op9IXA

video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z51TOues54A

video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BsR46oLmFg

video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpSsoEyBPH8&t=9s

video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkNGaCgESZw

video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DF8SeKT5Ovs&t=31s

So you have some context, the way this all works is there is a ring judge called the director.  He is the authority in the ring.  There are 4 judges on the outside that will make the call ofa  hit and who hit.  The matches last 3 exchanges with hitting anywhere on the body as long as there is good edge alignment.  Overall, I won a few, lost a bunch but it was a boat loads of fun and I left happy.

One final tidbit that has nothing to do with sword fighting.  I am currently on track and hoping that I will be releasing Eryn’s Tale: Episode 1 on May 12th.  Pre-orders will be available in April, so if you like my work, please show your support!

Thanks for reading,
-c