book progress
“Tales” Aboard the U.S.S. North Carolina!
Recently, I was invited by a gentleman named Larry Isaac to a special event called the “2nd Annual Tournament of Champions Banquet”. At that banquet, I had the opportunity to give a speech on the process of writing my book “Tales”, as well as sharing some general thoughts and philosophies on martial arts. There was also a banquet and award […]
Write a Review – Win a Signed Book!
It’s been a lot of fun launching “Tales from the Western Generation” and seeing support from the martial arts community. I’m very grateful to everyone who decided to purchase a copy. We hit a small milestone after launch, achieving #3 rank on the Amazon Bestselling List for Martial Arts. Of course, we had no chance […]
Press Release: Tales from the Western Generation Now Available
This post marks the official release of “Tales from the Western Generation”! The kernel concept of this book began in 2008, and work in earnest began in 2012. What started as a vague idea to collect interesting stories from influential karateka eventually turned into a work of significant breadth, capturing a moment in time when […]
Facebook Share Giveaway!
We’re getting very close to publication time! I have the release date set for May 29th, and I’ll be keeping everyone updated as we get closer to that mark (to learn more about the book itself, click here). In the meantime, I wanted to create a giveaway to help get the word out about the […]
Conclusion Complete
The conclusion was easily the smallest portion of the book, but it didn’t feel like the easiest. My goal was to take the extensive information shared by the interview guests and construct a few global thoughts that either observe something interesting about their training or provide insight into our modern training. Needless to say, it’s […]
Historical Sections Completed
I recently completed the introductory chapters to “Tales.” This was an important and difficult step. Consider how huge the following topics are: history of karate, history of America, history of trade in the East, history of Judo, history of martial arts tournaments…and a whole bunch more. I had to condense all of that into little […]
New Interview Guest Revealed (#1): Eddie Bethea
I’m happy to announce Eddie Bethea Sensei as a participant in “Tales From the Western Generation.” Bethea Sensei is a veteran of the Air Force and has been diligently studying Shorinkan Shorin Ryu since the late 1960s. Bethea Sensei grew up in a strict household and experienced racial discrimination early on. Due to the dark […]
Now Writing Historical Background
I realized early on that it would be silly to simply drop readers into a bunch of interviews with no context whatsoever. To understand how and why karate came to America and became so popular we also have to understand the role of other arts. For example, Judo was the premiere Eastern fighting art in […]
2 New Interviews and Intro Research/Outlining
The interview tally continues to rise as I prepare to add two new interviews into the mix. One of the new guests is for Seibukan and another is for Shorinkan. I’m very excited to have both individuals as part of the book. The actual interview collection process is now winding down as I prepare for […]