Wednesday, August 6, 2014

The BIG DAY is almost here: Release of my novel

The big day is arriving; the day that my novel will be released.


I thought I would interrupt my current blog subject about promoting; and I will now do a different type of promoting by posting the press release for my upcoming novel.

As readers of my blog, you understand I am not into blowing my own horn, so this press release is a useful tool. This allows me to forward what my publisher is stating about me, without me sounding arrogant or indulging my ego. As I stated in my previous blog, once you start promoting, you are no longer an author, you are a salesman.

I hope that this diversion from my regular blog is not too much of a distraction for you from my normal blog subjects; and you will enjoy reading it




Wilhelmshaven – Safkhet Publishing


Safkhet Publishing and medieval history author W.A. Rusho present the Safkhet fantasy series Tales of the Mystic Knights with the release of the first book of the series: Legend of the Mystic Knights, to be published as an eBook on 15 August 2014.



Synopsis:

An evil has been released upon the world, and as a result, mankind’s development has stagnated in the Middle Ages. To fight the evil and protect the world, an order of elite knights was created: the Mystic Knights of the Dead Killers. William Cloverleaf, a young man with a hidden past, joins the order as a page. Starting at the lowest rank, William is tested mentally and physically. His trails are difficult but soon he excels above all others, rising to the top of his class. An attack of monsters on the headquarters leaves many dead, one of which is William’s best friend. To avenge the death of his friend and of the others lost to these monsters, William vows to rid the world of evil.



Will William succeed in his quest of vengeance? Will he fulfill the prophecy that one will come to destroy the evil once and for all? Find out in the first book of the Tales of the Mystic Knights in Legend of the Mystic Knights.



Although Legend of the Mystic Knights is a fantasy novel, it also depicts a realistic description of medieval life. Weapons and fighting techniques used are not simply sword fighting; the novel describes different forms of weapons and specifically how each is used in combat. Not only are knights and castles described in the novel, so is ordinary people and how they lived. There are vivid accounts on how non-royal citizens engaged in their everyday living. Their clothes, tools and how they conducted themselves is described with details worthy of a history schoolbook.



About the Author:

Many people have a day when they come into their own. Sometimes it was when they first played a sport, others when they found a calling. For W.A. Rusho, it was when he was in the military, where he discovered the dedication and commitment that he lacked earlier in life. Through dedication he found confidence. This sense of commitment and confidence he applied to everything.



Following his military career, he pursued degrees in Criminal Justice and Communication Arts, and became a private investigator. W.A.Rusho is also a professional wrestler, a 3-time inductee into the United States Martial Arts Association Hall of Fame.



Bill believes in applying real life knowledge and experience to writing, and that it is important to be true to reality as much as possible, even when writing fiction.

https://www.facebook.com/W.A.Rusho  

https://twitter.com/WRusho  

https://www.linkedin.com/pub/william-rusho/57/a86/13b  

http://warusho-author.blogspot.de/  

http://www.wwmaa.org/  

http://www.hautevibe.com/Haute_Vibe/Actor_WAR.html  

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm6064879/  

Will SuttonSafkhet Publishing ........................................................................................

Thursday, March 27, 2014

Medieval Technology and Gadgets


On my last blog, I described misconceptions and myths about medieval times. Now it is time to tell about technology and gadgets that they had. There is a misconception that technology was limited then until the birth of the renaissance. We may think the people in the Middle Ages as being limited in technology, but in fact, they used many advanced tools.


In my novel, a nearby town is destroyed. Our hero is sent to assist the villagers in rebuilding the town. He is assigned to help the local carpenter. The carpenter uses numerous tools, but the one which is interesting is the 13 knot rope. This is a rope where 13 knots are equally spaced throughout. With this rope, a carpenter could make equilateral and right-angle triangles as well as circles. This rope could also be used to make mathematic calculations and was often referred to as an arithmetic rope.

In my last blog, I mentioned the mechanical hand of Sir Berlichingen. I wanted to expand on who he was and more about his mechanical hand. Gottfried "Götz" von Berlichingen was born in 1480. During a siege of the city Landshut in 1504, he lost his right hand in combat. He had a prosthetic hand made for him, which was was so advanced it is said he could hold items from a sword to a feather pen. Even with this prosthetic hand, Berlichingen continued his military career.

Lighting a fire was an important task in medieval times. A fire was used for warmth, food and for protection. Being able to start a fire could mean the difference between life and death, especially when one was outside in the wilderness. Starting a campfire was an incredibly difficult process; this is why people carried a tinderbox. A tinderbox was a container to carry the supplies you needed to start a fire. This container could be made of pewter or clay, but it helped if it was sealed to prevent the contents from getting damp. Inside the tinderbox was a fire steel or striker, taking this and striking it against the edge of chert or comparable rock produced sparks similar to today’s flints. These sparks would land on a flammable piece of cloth called a char cloth. The box may also contain tinder like wood savings or twigs and pine needles.

History is memory written down, and when it is not written down it requires the memory of the event. When memory fades sometimes tall tales and legends replace the truth. This is true in my novel also. My hero tell the legend of Teufelsbruke , or Devil’s Bridge, this bridge spans the Schöllenen Gorge. To build it must have been an architectural marvel. However, what remains about the construction of this bridge is legend, and this legend is that the devil built it. A sheepherder got the devil to agree to build the bridge; the devil’s payment was he received the soul of the first traveler to cross the bridge. The sheepherder tricked the devil by sending over a goat first. Furious that he was fooled, the devil picked up a huge boulder and was going to smash the bridge destroying it. A quick-thinking woman carved a cross into the boulder, which caused the devil to drop it and flee.

I think it is important when you write a story set in a particular time; you make the effort to research how people performed specific actions. If you do your research you can write about a topic more thoroughly and it helps give the reader a sense of what life was like in that period.

There are so many more gadgets used during the medieval period, both in history and in my novel. We will revisit this topic later, but in the meantime if you want to make a comment or a suggestion, feel free to do so.



Next Time: A Topic about Writing