Girl Fights Back (Go No Sen), ch. 1... as promised!

Here it is. Enjoy! Check back soon for the next installment.

Chapter 1

Kung Fu

It’s like a kid swinging a bat in his first little league baseball game. He has no idea what to expect, when to begin his swing, when to commit to it completely, not to mention where to swing the bat. Sure, he’s probably already practiced swinging at balls with his dad out on the local ball field or at a batting cage. He knows how to hold the bat--dominant hand on top, knuckles of both hands lined up, bat off his shoulder--maybe even how to step slightly into his swing, shift his weight to his back foot, swivel his hips and then his shoulders.

But facing the opposing pitcher in a real, live game; now that’s something completely different. That kid on the mound is not trying to teach him how to hit the ball. He’s throwing as hard as he can, trying to get him out. His throwing motion is different from his dad’s. It’s really hard to see the ball until it’s almost too late. His eyes don’t focus on the right things; they don’t look in the right directions. He doesn’t know what to look for. He closes his eyes and swings. Here’s what it sounds like in sequence: thud... swish. Thud (the ball hits the catcher’s mitt), then swish (the bat cuts the empty air). Later, after a lot more experience in game conditions, he learns how to train his eyes to look and his mind to attend to the right things.

That’s how sparring always seemed to her. It was just a matter of seeing, of knowing where to look and what to look for. She saw the telltale signs of her opponent’s intentions almost as soon as he had formed them, certainly as soon as he was committed to them. This was her third martial art. First was aikido, a beautiful, meditative discipline. All round, soft movements, deflecting the opponent, but also absorbing him, enfolding him in the subtle folds of her own movements, a caress, a rebuff. It was almost a kindness. Soothing the opponent, allowing him to expend his energy fruitlessly, turning him around, twisting him in an unexpected way. Perhaps he sees that his effort is going awry even as it’s happening to him, but there’s nothing he can do about it. The surprise she saw written across his face was a supreme satisfaction, better than victory and his admission of defeat. Tap.

Girl Fights Back (Go No Sen) goes live!

My new book, Girl Fights Back (Go No Sen), is live on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. This is a martial arts - espionage - coming of age thriller.

http://www.amazon.com/Sen-Emily-Kane-Stories-ebook/dp/B005CIRTSG/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1310827580&sr=8-2

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/go-no-sen-jacques-antoine/1104281101?ean=2940012865601&itm=1&usri=go%2bno%2bsen

I'll be serializing it here over the next few weeks, so check back here if you're interested in super karate ninja girl-power stories.

Here's a capsule of the story:

In ancient Greece, one spoke of tolma, the daring that holds itself in reserve, that endures. There is more than one way to control the outcome of a conflict. The one who endures, in not simply seizing the initiative, also dares. The most famous instance of one who dares by holding himself in reserve is the resourceful wanderer, the hero Odysseus.

Sen, in Japanese, the initiative: it can be taken up in more than one way. In holding oneself in reserve, one seizes the initiative hidden within the opponent’s attack. This is called Go No Sen.

Emily Kane, 17, high school student, martial artist--when her family is shattered by covert operatives who attack their home, they go into hiding, but she refuses. She insists on staying behind, staying in school, confronting the people who attacked her family. She will do what it takes to wrest control of her life from the people seeking to destroy her.