Randy Packer (left) and Devon Boorman of Academie Duello, the highly respected swordfighting school here in Vancouver, give a demonstration of fighting with rapiers (and a shield, and a dagger, in this particular photo) this morning at VCon 31.
It was a fascinating presentation and left me with one indelible impression: any duel between men armed with rapiers, even if they are both of similar skill, will usually be over in a matter of seconds. Often a single pass decides the winner–and quite conceivably, in a true duel, the survivor.
(And speaking of survival skills, there were a number of questions at the start of the demonstration about what kind of sword would be best for fighting off zombies. This seemed a little…odd…to me, even at a SF convention…until I saw this.)
And yes, if I lived close enough to take advantage of it, I would sign up for swordplay lessons in an instant.
A slowish day today, con-wise. I only had two official things scheduled, an autograph session and a late panel, and I only hung around for a few minutes for the former (since I really think I must have signed almost every one of the 15 copies of Lost in Translation available in the dealers’ room before the autograph session rolled around) and missed the latter, more through inattention than anything else. I had a nice late lunch with Robert J. Sawyer and Kirstin Morrell, managing editor of Red Deer Press (with whom I have a couple of as-yet unfulfilled book contracts) and then wiled away the evening in conversation, before calling home and finally having a late dinner of lamb stew in the Foggy Dew.
I’m here for two more days on a kind of self-imposed writing retreat in the hope of making great progress on both my Janis Joplin biography for Enslow Publishers and my new DAW novel. I’ll let you know how it goes.
UPDATE: Welcome visitors from SF Signal. Why not buy my SF novel Lost in Translation while you’re here?
