Exciting New Book! April 14, 2013

A short break from the fabulous Orient to announce:

Finally, the sequel from

Keepers of the Ancient Tomes:

Book Two

Black Obelisk

Coming soon to Amazon.com and Kindle books.

Short Synopsis

Charles “Charlie” Malachi Theibes is a talented linguist and historian of ancient times. But Charlie has a terrifying problem…

For the past ten years, since he and his widowed mother moved to Theibes House, the family’s Victorian mansion on the luscious Washington coast, a ghost he calls the gray lady has haunted him. But it’s his nightmares of a soul-sucking obelisk that have caused him the most trouble. So when a renowned archaeologist begs him to come to the rainforest, deep in the African Congo where the tip of a giant, black obelisk is “growing up” out of the jungle floor, Charlie is intrigue. Especially since his nightmares are about a phenomenon such as this occurring in this same place. But what are the glyphs that swarm like insects around the dark column and why does the obelisk feel “alive” to the touch?

A dark secret, traced back to antiquity, may have the answers to stop the terrors that haunt Charlie awake and asleep. It may also hold the key to keeping an unimaginable horror from ripping apart the very fabric of the world.

In Book Two of the epic adventure, Keepers of the Ancient Tomes, Black Obelisk will have you turning pages and breathless until that last word…

While waiting for the new release, check out:

THEIBES HOUSE

Book One

Keepers of the Ancient Tomes

After his wealthy mother dies, Thaddeus Theibes is furious to inherit a pittance portion compared to his older brother’s lion’s share. But when a besotted admirer bequeaths him two books of power, Thaddeus’ life will never be the same. And neither will the ill-fated denizens of Breton Washington.

Set on the windswept coast of Washington State, in the late 19th century. During a time when Jack the Ripper stalks the streets of London for his human victims and a mad man cuts off his ear in pursuit of artistic genius, a gentleman from a prominent and wealthy family becomes the keeper of magic, created in the ancient past. At first Thaddeus thinks he has acquired a great find to add to his antique book collection. Until mysterious and terrible things begin to happen to everyone around him and the finger of blame points directly at Thaddeus himself.

Buy at: http://tinyurl.com/ce2hx2x

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Tales of Nightshade: Nightshade (Part One) March 2, 2013

Tales of Nightshade: Nightshade (Part One).

Ruins of Ichijodani Castle February 28, 2013

The historical ruins are located in the Kidonouchi section of Fucui Prefrecture, Japan. During the Sengoku Period of feudal Japan, also know as the Warring States Period, this area was controlled by the Asakura clan, a family line of daimyo (feudal lords) for 103 years. Founded in 1471, the castle town became a major cultural and military center.  The Asakura family was defeated by Oda Nobunaga at the Battle of Anegawa in 1570, and were all but eliminated when their home castle of Ichijodani was taken three years later. Most of the castle and town were burned to the ground in 1573, The remaining ruins were later excavated in 1967.

Main Gate of Castle

 

Asakura Family Gardens

Fukui Prefecture, Honshu Island, Japan

Portrait of Oda Nobunaga (detail) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

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Wokou: Japanese Pirates February 26, 2013

English: Sixteenth-century Japanese pirate (Wokou) raids against China & Korea. Based on Map 23, from The Cambridge History of China, Vol. 7: The Ming Dynasty 1368-1644, Part I (Cambridge University Press: 1988) Modern provinces of China are shown. Created and copyright (2004) by Yu Ninjie, with thanks to suggestions from Ran. Released under the GNU FDL. ‪中文(繁體)‬: 16世紀倭寇侵襲中國以及朝鮮。 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

From Layers of Learning http://www.layers-of-learning.com/wokou-japanese-pirates-of-the-middle-ages/

Wokou is Chinese for pirate and literally means Japanese-bandit. They were a problem in the middle ages. The Japanese pirates would sit among the many islands of the Japanese archipelago and the Chinese coast waiting for a nice juicy trading vessel to come along and like pirates (and government officials) everywhere they had no respect for private property, but if they saw, they took. They grew bolder over the years and raided coastal towns, even traveling up rivers in China and repeatedly looting the capital city of Korea. The Wokou were supported and commanded by coastal feudal lords of Japan. Most of them were peasants who were sent out to loot for their lord. It became such a problem that the Ming court of China ordered that only government ships could sail and trade with nearby nations, which caused the unintended but obvious result of huge smuggling operations and growing pirating activities by the Chinese, until Chinese pirates outnumbered Japanese. Ah, government, what they won’t think of next.

Print this map showing the pirate activity. Color the early pirate activity areas in purple and the later pirate activities in dark blue. Trace the rivers in light blue and color the ocean light blue. Color the land green. Trace routes to the raiding coasts from Japan in red.

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Chinese New Year: Quotes, Blessings And Tips... February 10, 2013

Reblogged from Mirth and Motivation:

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"If you think in terms of a year, plant a seed; if in terms of ten years, plant trees; if in terms of 100 years, teach the people." Confucius

Wishing You 歲歲平安 Suìsuì-píng'ān - everylasting peace, year after year!

2013 is the  Year of the Snake; the Black Water Snake. "Water Snakes are lucky with finances, they always seem to have money flowing their way.

Read more… 1,028 more words

Tessenjutsu: The Art of Fighting “Japanese” War Fans January 26, 2013

In Ancient Japan, fans could cool or kill.

Types of War Fans

Japanese war fan (gunsen) made of iron, bamboo and lacquer depicting the sun (1800-50) on display at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco, California. Object ID: F1998.40.25 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

• Gunsen: folding fans used by the average warriors to cool themselves off. Made of wood, bronze, brass or a similar metal for the inner spokes. Often used thin iron or other metals for the outer spokes or cover, making them lightweight but strong. Warriors hung their fans from the belt or the breastplate.

A typical tessen of the Edo-period (1603-1868). This weapon is used in tandem with the jutte in some forms of Ikkaku-ryu (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

• Tessen: folding fans with outer spokes made of heavy plates of iron and designed to look like normal, harmless folding fans. Another version came as solid clubs shaped to look like a closed fan. Samurai took them to places where other weapons were not allowed. Also used to fend off arrows and darts.

Japanese (samurai) solid iron signal fan “gunbai or gumpai” (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

• Gunbai: large solid open fans made from solid iron, metal with wooden core, or solid wood. Carried by high-ranking samurai officers who used them to ward off arrows, as a sunshade, and to signal to troops.

The warriors Kumagai Naozane and Taira no Atsumori fro the Taira clan (Artist Unknown)

Statue of Kato Kiyomasa

 at Nagoya Castle grounds

in Nagoya, Japan on the Island of Honshu

YouTube Video: Pendragon Tessen fan kata

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kekRtwttX-0

Article Source: < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_war_fan&gt;

Photograph of Kato Kiyomasa source: <http://www.flickr.com/photos/rekishinotabi/3557084910/&gt;

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2012 in review December 30, 2012

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

4,329 films were submitted to the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. This blog had 22,000 views in 2012. If each view were a film, this blog would power 5 Film Festivals

Click here to see the complete report.