Attacking the Page

What makes a great readers’ event? This year Liberty States Fiction Writers is expanding their conference to include panels and activities geared toward readers. Our hope is to create a setting where readers and writers can meet, mingle, and have a great time together. I’ve been to a couple of these events and have really enjoyed them. I’ve loved meeting other people who love to read just as much as I do. There’s nothing more fun then finding  someone with the same tastes in books as you. As a writer, it’s thrilling to meet people who are enthusiastic about your books.

In trying to put an event of this nature together we started by getting a great Keynote Speaker. We’re really looking forward to having Larissa Ione join us. From what I observed at other events that was not enough, so my next step was to create a collection of fun and engaging panels where readers could pick writers brains and learn more about their creative process.

Next we invited Lady Jane’s Salon to take part in our event.  We will serve coffee and dessert as we listen authors read from their own work. Plus we have a few other things cooking in regards to the Salon event so stay tuned for announcements. We also got a number of publishers to donate books and goodies so that every attendee will go home with a bag full of fun stuff.  Finally, we added a party so that writers and authors can dance the night away.

It should be a really fun event. If you’re interested in finding out more you can visit LSF Writers’ conference page for details.

Have you ever been to a reader’s event? What things did you like? What would you like to have seen done differently?

~Rayna

PS – Melinda and I are guest blogging and giving away copies of Amazon Heat on As the Pages Turn today and Bitten By Paranormal Romance tomorrow. We hope you’ll stop in and say hello.

An oldie, but a goodie from year one of Attacking the Page:

We already reviewed how you can use fighting terminology to make your action scenes more interesting in the Add PUNCH to your Action Scenes post.  More specific words add power to your pages.  This week we’ll focus on kicking.

Kicks are stronger than punches because leg muscles are larger than those in the upper body.  In the Fight Like A Girl self-defense seminar, we teach women to use kicks, which engage the strongest part of her body, her legs, against her attacker’s weakest targets, which fall in a straight line from his nose to his groin.

Other styles of martial arts may have additional, less common kicks, but these are the basic kicks in kenpo karate.

Front snap kick – a quick kick that utilized the snapping of the knee joint for power. The toes are curled back and the ball of the foot is used as the weapon. Knees, groin and stomach are common targets.

Front thrust kick – a stronger kick using a forward thrust from the hip to add power. The weapon can be the ball of the foot, the entire sole of the foot or the heel, depending on position.

Roundhouse –  a turning kick with the rear leg. The fighter turns 180 degrees, using the top of her foot or shin bone as the weapon in a sweeping arc.  The roundhouse is a strong kick due to the torque created by the twisting of the fighter’s body (similar to a golf club or baseball bat swing), but has one big drawback. Since it has a wide arc, the opponent can see it coming.

Side kick – The fighter draws her knee to her chest and fires the kick outward, stomping her heel and/or blade of her foot on her attacker.  The sidekick is very strong due to the engagement of most of the major leg muscles.  Side kicks are debilitating just about anywhere, but I love the knees and ribs as targets.

Stomp – A variation of the side kick and just what it sounds like. You heroine can stomp on her opponent’s instep. If you like, she can scrape her shoe all the way down his shin on the way.

Hook kick – The foot is extended beyond the target. The lower leg is drawn back in a hamstring curl, striking with the heel of the foot. Not terribly powerful but very sneaky if executed properly.

Knee strikes are effective blows when your heroine is too close to fire off a kick. You all know the best target for knees is the groin. But consider knees strikes to the face or abdomen if your opponent is bent over.

The standard kicks above can be combined in a series. Each of these kicks can also be done while spinning and/or jumping as shown in many TV shows and action movies. For some awesome karate fight scenes, check out the Transporter 2. Jason Statham has a background in martial arts that enables him to performs his own fight scenes.  Although the usefulness of these fancy kicks in a real fight (as in not choreographed for film or TV) is questionable, they sure are fun to watch.