Hi! Happy New Year! I personally think that moving the change of the year from after the Spring Equinox to after the Winter Solstice was a mistake, but no amount of my complaining will change that. Word to the wise though: if you’re in the northern hemisphere it’ll be much easier to make and stick to resolutions in April than it will be now. So take it easy. I have a couple of things that may help: the Swordschool Training Year Planner, and a discount on my online courses. The Swordschool...
15 days ago • 3 min read
Hi! This is the last missive from me before I wiggle off for a family Christmas in London next week. I hope you all have a lovely holiday. I know a lot of folk on this list are in circumstances where that’s unlikely, so a special cheery halloo to them too. I won’t be doing much in the way of emails over the Christmas period, but I’ll check in on Sword People, so feel free to ping me there. You may be thinking about your sword training in the New Year. I know I am. I thought I’d ease you into...
29 days ago • 3 min read
Hi! Well, it seems people like the new Fiore facsimile and translation. Thanks to everyone who bought it, and everyone who took advantage of the birthday sale. People like you buying my books and courses literally feeds my children, so I do appreciate it. Unfortunately we have encountered a problem with the print files; some copies may have lines missing in the translated portion (it’s as if the printers cut off the last line of each text block. Weird!). We are working with the printers to...
about 1 month ago • 4 min read
Hi! First up- my previous email was clearly unclear, as some folk tried to use the discount code for the digital products (GUYSBIRTHDAY30) on the new print book. Sorry for the confusion. Basically, print costs are so high that offering discounts on print books is a bad idea, unless you're ordering a whole lot. But you can use the code to get 30% off any digital product at the Swordschool Shop, and on the Courses platform. I also misspelled "exciting", which my mum noticed immediately. Oh...
about 2 months ago • 1 min read
Hi! oh it’s an exiting time this week. We have a brand-new book out today, and, as it’s my birthday on Saturday (I'll be 51), we’re also running a birthday sale on all ebooks, audiobooks, and online courses. Hurrah! Just use the code GUYSBIRTHDAY30 to get 30% off at checkout. First up, the new book: I have completed my translation of Fiore’s Il Fior di Battaglia, as found in the Getty manuscript. You may recall I produced an affordable facsimile of the Getty a few years ago. Well, we’ve now...
about 2 months ago • 1 min read
Hi! I hope this finds you well. I’m cracking on with writing the new dagger book, From Medieval Manuscript to Modern Practice: the Dagger Techniques of Fiore dei Liberi. I already have all of the transcription, translation, and video clips done, so I’m now bashing the book into shape around them. It’s the sort of grunt writing work that is relatively straightforward, just very labour intensive. I’m also updating all of the video clips that go with From Medieval Manuscript to Modern Practice...
about 2 months ago • 3 min read
Hi! I’m currently working on a new online course- a set of wrestling plays from Von Baumann, which Jessica Finley has interpreted, and we shot together in July this year. It’s a fascinating little mini-system embedded in the larger treatise. Watch this space… Speaking of online courses, I’m working out ways to open up my platforms to other instructors. I have two services for distributing courses: teachable, and swordpeople.com. These cost several thousand dollars a year to maintain, which is...
2 months ago • 4 min read
Hi! The big news this week is that I have hashed out an arrangement with Freelance Academy Press, publishers of my The Medieval Dagger and The Armizare Vade Mecum, that allows me to sell all versions of these two books on my shopify store. Hurrah! If you’re not familiar with The Armizare Vade Mecum, it’s a series of mnemonic verses for learning Fiore’s Art of Arms. It began when I was thinking about the verse structure of Fiore’s writing, and noticed that one of the paragraphs on folio 9v has...
3 months ago • 3 min read
Hi! It took longer than expected to recover from my Mexico trip, and I actually follow my own rules of putting health ahead of work, so I’m a bit behind on various projects. But that’s ok- it’s not like this year has been unproductive with four book launches so far (From Medieval Manuscript to Modern Practice: Wrestling; From Your Head to Their Hands; Get Them Moving; and The Swordsman’s Companion 20th Anniversary edition) and another one likely (see below). So I took the time I needed to lie...
3 months ago • 4 min read