I’ve always been a writer. But for most of my life, I have also been an actor. As a matter of fact for many years, I was a classically trained professional stage and screen performer.
That meant I had to learn how to use a sword.
I took classes in stage combat, but I also joined my college fencing club, picking up the saber (which was the closest thing to the kind of sword fighting I had already learned as an actor).* Continue reading Twelfth Night: Training Kunoichi, Pt. 2
Anyone who’s read Jim Butcher’s books knows he loves his mashups. His Dresden Files combines a classic gumshoe-detective tone with elements and tropes from every type of fantasy fiction and mythology you can think of. His Codex Alera novels were inspired when he was challenged to write a mind-bending combination of prompts: the Roman Empire and Pokemon.
The Aeronaut’s Windlass, the fun first novel in Butcher’s new Cinder Spires series, is yet another mashup: a rollicking nautical(ish) tale in the tradition of C.S Forester’s Horatio Hornblower set in a Steampunk world where steel rots and electricity doesn’t seem to exist but the ability to use a quasi-magical substance/force called aether allows for interesting takes on familiar technology, and in which the planet’s surface is barely habitable, leaving humanity confined to spires — enormous, nation-sized towers built in the distant past. Continue reading Book Review: The Aeronaut’s Windlass by Jim Butcher
I spent last night training a kunoichi.
My wife Maura is directing a production of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night at her school. As often happens, I’m helping out, working with the actors on the language and teaching them combat. It’s fun to break out the scansion and fencing I learned as a young actor.
The students enjoy it too — though I’ll admit they prefer the sword fighting to the verse. Continue reading On Training Kunoichi
Thanks so much to all of you who helped me complete my 2017 SAG Awards ballot! It was a lot of fun — and very interesting to see what choices you made (and where they did and didn’t agree with mine).
I’ve compiled the list of the winners here. In the single case of a tie, I gave myself an extra vote. Shh!
This was a ballot I was very pleased to be able to cast:
Waiting for next Seasons of the Sword book? Author David Kudler just shared this sneak preview from the next exciting installment in Risuko’s adventures:
I love to climb.
I 
suppose that’s a silly thing for me to say, at this point. Of course I love to climb. Still—it’s true. It’s always been true. That earliest memory—of my mother weeping with my sister in her arms: I see it from above. Even though we had just moved into the tiny house, even though I was just four years old, I had already found my way up into the rickety rafters. I had always felt more at home up in the air than on the ground. Safer.
There was a reason that my mother came to call me Squirrel.
Yet as I stared at that sheer rock face from within the confines of the Full Moon, I must admit that I was nervous. Afraid.
Toumi snorted as she and Emi shouldered past me, bows and quivers over their shoulders. “Scared, Mouse-chan?”
I shook my head. But we both knew it wasn’t true.
Emi smiled as they walked out the gate. I think she meant it as reassurance. It felt as if she were consoling me: It’s been nice knowing you, Murasaki.
Yesterday, I proudly joined my eldest daughter, my wife, and millions of others for the worldwide Women’s March. We were in San Francisco, but friends have shared images of themselves marching in huge cities and small towns across the United States and around the world.
I’m proud for many reasons. I’m proud because it was wonderful to show support for people and a cause in which I believe, and wonderful to see so many people share that support. I was proud to see the power of young women (and not-so-young women, and men of all ages) to make their wills and voices heard. I was also proud because I wrote Risuko: A Kunoichi Tale in part as a way to show my daughters and their peers that young woman can have and have had the power to change the world, even when society seemed least likely to let them. Continue reading #WomensMarch and the power of young women to change the world
Help David Kudler cast his vote for the 2017 Screen Actors Guild Awards! Select your choices below, and he’ll compile the results and use them to fill out his ballot.
VOTING MUST BE COMPLETE BY FRIDAY, JANUARY 27 IS NOW COMPLETE!
Thanks so much to all of you who helped me fill out my 2017 SAG Awards ballot! If you missed your opportunity, don’t fret — I’ll be voting again next year, I promise. Sign up for my newsletter and you’ll hear about any other opportunities that I have to tap into the brain trust. 🙂
(Note: you need to be signed in to your Google account just so that no one can stuff the ballot box. I’m not collecting any personal info. Just so you know.—DK)
Continue reading Help David Kudler cast his 2017 SAG Awards ballot! (COMPLETE)
The Alliance of YA Authors is a community of over 1000 young adult writers. Many of us are award-winning, bestselling authors. Others are brilliant debut authors just starting out. I’m honored to have the group choose my Kunoichi Companion Tale “Silk & Service” among the dozens of thrilling stories from all of your favorite genres in a new anthology.
We’ve put them together into an epic anthology of young adult fiction: That Moment When. Some of them are just the beginning of a unique adventure, while others are complete stories that will spark your imagination.
I invite you to check out That Moment When. It’s available for FREE download on all platforms and features some of today’s hottest new talent in young adult fiction. Continue reading Get the FREE YA Anthology – That Moment When
We’re excited to tell you that “Silk & Service,” one of David Kudler’s Risuko prequel stories, was chosen for inclusion in That Moment When: An Anthology of Young Adult Fiction. Not only is the book is available now in both print and ebook form, but the ebook is FREE for a limited time!
ORDER FROM AMAZON | ORDER FROM ANOTHER BOOKSELLER Continue reading That Moment When: Risuko prequel in YA anthology
A radio interview that I gave recently is now up as a podcast!
I talked with Gil Mansergh, host of KRCB’s Word by Word, about Risuko, including what inspired the book and what it was like to write , and how my work with Joseph Campbell Foundation on books like The Hero with a Thousand Faces and Pathways to Bliss influenced my writing. I also read some fun sections of the book aloud — my version of Kee Sun probably reminds you of another literary character (not intentional)!
Catch it here: Continue reading Radio interview: David Kudler talks Risuko and the Hero’s Journey
