Video Trailer: The Huguenot Sword

For Faith. For Friendship. For Freedom. In the time of Louis XIII and Cardinal Richelieu, when being a Protestant could mean death, The Huguenot Sword roamed the streets of Paris by night, defending those faithful to the young heretical religion. The nobility scorned them as ruffians, to the oppressed Protestants they were saviors, but to the Cardinal Guards they were a pestilence needing to be terminated. The situation becomes desperate when those in power launch a bold plan to destroy the group. One wrong move can be fatal. But the ordeal of Paris pales in comparison to the possible annihilation of their faith and people at the battle of La Rochelle.

The Huguenot Sword, by Shawn Lamb is available from Amazon.

 

Author Tom Szollosi Announces the Release of “Dead Set on Tuesday”

Dead Set on TuesdayHomicide detective Louie Wall must stop drug mule Wagner W. Curry’s vendetta against the smugglers who tried to kill him a year ago, on Fat Tuesday. Curry survived, thanks to a large, unexpected rescuer named Jackie Del Fain. They forge an uneasy alliance–Curry to kill those who targeted him, Jackie to avenge a sister’s overdose death. To Louie, defending members of “The Coke Machine” from a killer striking every Tuesday is ironic but necessary: among Curry’s targets is Louie’s own son. As cop and killer play a high-stakes mind game, they’re both DEAD SET ON TUESDAY.

This independently published book has been available for less than three weeks, and can be purchased exclusively as an Amazon Kindle Select title for $3.99. Amazon Prime members can also “borrow” the book from Amazon’s Kindle Lending Library, free of charge. Click here to learn more.

Tom Szollosi has written five produced motion pictures and more than one hundred hours of television. DEAD SET ON TUESDAY is his fifth novel. He has taught screenwriting at UCLA Extension. He lives in Los Angeles with his family.

 

Stories…

He reclined on his couch, sore and tired, eyes drawn to the soft undulations of the tree beside the window. His mind was cobwebbed and dusty. His bed was calling him. But he had a blog post to write. He could feel it flitting behind his memories…hiding in the shadow of his regrets and triumphs.

Continue reading “Stories…”

Getting It Right: Throwing a Right Part 2

[This is part 2 of a two part “Getting it Right” series by author and martial arts instructor Mark Jacobs. This series is aimed at helping authors understand and add meaningful and convincing detail in writing fight scenes. Part 1 can be found here.]

The Principles of Unarmed CombatAnother fallacy is that a trained martial artist can kill an opponent with a single blow to the heart. Though I’ve previously written about my enjoyment of the martial arts action/adventure novels by author Eric Van Lustbader, and have even praised some of his written fight scenes, when he starts describing the deadly “heart kite” strike, he strays into the realm of fantasy. Yes, in rare instances, people do die from blows to the chest that interrupt the heart rhythm – it’s occasionally happened in little league baseball games when fielders are hit with a line drive – but this is essentially a million to one shot that could never be done intentionally by a fighter.

Even more ludicrous is the concept of a “delayed death touch,” a strike that can be timed to kill a person at a later date. Again, a person might receive an injury during the course of a fight that later causes him to fall over dead but this is sheer bad luck and not something anyone can intentionally do to another person.

Besides technique fallacies, the second major category of mistakes seen in this area are the simple informational/factual errors that authors commonly make when writing about the martial arts. Years ago, it was common to refer to “the judo chop.” But anyone who bothers to do a little bit of research will quickly discover judo is a wrestling style and has no “chop.” That is a karate technique, where it is more commonly known as a “knifehand” or, in Japanese, as a “shuto.” Continue reading “Getting It Right: Throwing a Right Part 2”