Only nine years later
Published: Thu, 11/30/17
On my notice board I have a print out from an email which I received almost nine years ago. I had had an article published in an American Martial Arts magazine, I can’t remember which one offhand. My contribution had caught the attention of a project editor at North Atlantic Books, a publishing house based in California. For those not familiar with NAB the company publishes a wide variety of titles on slightly offbeat subjects. They are a major publisher of martial arts books including one of my all time favorites, ‘In Search of the Warrior Spirit’ by Richard Strozzi Heckler. This book is an account of teaching awareness disciplines to the Green Berets back in the 1980s. Heckler’s account combines the military experience, ethics, personal development and of course martial arts. The author contributed his expertise in teaching Aikido to the project.
The email invites me to submit a detailed proposal for a Stav book. I have to admit that I never followed up the invitation. I have been told that I was crazy not to. It is usually very hard to get publishers interested in your work and there was I with an open invitation. There have been occasions when I have been angry with myself for not making the effort and getting on with a book while the offer was fresh. I guess the time was not right. In the last nine years I have learned so much that anything I could have written then would have been sadly incomplete. A great deal has happened in the past nine years. Not least has been the various training opportunities I have engaged in. These include Geoff Thompson’s masterclass, the HEMA training I have engaged in and many other experiences. Then there was the experience of having the Stav Centre for three years and all that happened there. I may well look back in another nine
years and realise again how little I know now. Socrates apparently said. ‘The more you learn, the more you realise how little you know.’
I will accept that as being my experience.
However, since I have managed to write 56,000 words in the past month I think it might be worth putting together a proposal for North Atlantic Books. We will have to see if there is any chance of my effort being listed alongside such an august work as Richard Strozzi Heckler’s book. Of course self-publishing has become much easier than it used to be and that may be the route I go down. On the other hand, having the support and guidance of a well established publishing company may well result in a much better product than I will be able to produce myself.
Putting the proposal together will focus my mind and the time was right to engage in a writing project. This is what I call a chaos point on my web of wyrd. I am at a point of change and opportunity. I would not be here without all that has happened in the past, especially in the past nine years, I can’t tell for sure which line will actually open up for the next stage of my journey. All any of us can do is be as ready as possible when opportunity arises.
Will NAB still have any interest in Stav? We shall see. You may have been wondering about doing some Stav training for a long time. Just as I have been waiting for the right moment to write a book. It isn’t too late for either of us. I have several training dates for the new year to confirm. I will post those early next week.
Regards
Graham
PS One of the main things that has helped made the book possible now is the training I have done with some very special people. Three of them, Fox Walters, Allen Reed and Milo Thurston will be teaching with me on the HDC event next June, more details and book your place at http://www.iceandfire.org.uk/hdc.html