Just a teeny bit dangerous.

Well, I’ve now gained a large yellow stripe with which to adorn myself.  I passed my Tae Kwon Do yellow belt grading with a second A grade last week, so I guess I’m now just slightly more dangerous than I was last time I wrote a post about my martial arts exploits.  I’m really beginning to get into the process of learning Tae Kwon Do - especially now I’m able to do a few of the fancy kicks and blocks.

Where my white belt signified Innocence (no prior knowledge of the martial art) the yellow apparently signifies the earth from which the green plant can grow as the foundations of Tae Kwon Do are established … well that’s what it says in the manual anyway!  For the grading I had to perform the first of a series of fighting patterns.  I must admit that I find the history behind the patterns and their interpretations fascinating.  This first pattern is called Chon Ji, which literally translated means ‘heaven and earth’.  Apparently, in the orient it is interpreted as referring to the creation of the world, or the beginning of human history - hence it is the first pattern learned by the beginner (which I most certainly still am!).  It is a pattern of two halves.  One half signifies heaven and the other, the earth.

 The block I’m practicing in the picture is called Sang Palmok Makgi in Korean.  My front fist is a little too low - I’ll have to work on that before the next session.  It’s one of the new moves required for the next pattern I have to learn if I am to progress to get my ‘green tag’.  Being the competitive soul I am, I’m working hard to catch up with my wife, who has just gained her green belt.  So far she has had straight ‘A’ s in her gradings - no pressure!

As for writing, well I met my new editor, Heather Bateman this week. As an opener I asked her: ‘If there was one thing you could change in my writing, what would it be?’ Her response was - ‘Throw it all away and start again!’ Fortunately she had a big grin on her face when she said it, so I’m hoping she was only joking!

I am now faced with yet another edit of Imperial Traitor - new editor, new set of eyes. I’m not upset about this. If it makes the end result better, I’m not complaining. I’m still in the early days of learning to write, so I’m more than happy to have people help me improve. Edit should be complete tomorrow, so I can get on and finish the first draft of Dragon Orb book 1. Not sure that it will be called Dragon Pact any more - I’m changing my mind slowly. I may look to call it Dragon Oracle instead. I think this is a better sounding title.