Guest Post: Andre Alan

 Hey guys! Today I'm welcoming Andre Alan, author of Heaven's Fate, a novel due to be released June 26th. It's filled to the bone with martial arts and so today Andre will be talking about his book and why he decided to have such a huge aspect of it be on martial arts. I personally love watching my brother do his Karate, when I get the chance, so I'm really excited to read Heaven's Fate. Here's the sypnosis:

 Thame Elliot, an expert Rietsu martial artist, is consumed with thoughts of avenging his father’s death and rebuilding the legendary Tundra Sword. Little does Thame know that his aunt, the first empress of the human continent, Eioda, Autumn Augustus, has set the nation on a course that can only lead to war with the Orcs. The mystical inhabitants on the planet, Threa have been plunged into a struggle for the ancient artifacts buried in the mysterious, Consummate of the Trust. Not only that but his aunt is hell bent on marrying him to a corrupt military admirals daughter while Thame’s spiritual guardian, Masaya from the Astral Plane tries to manipulate him in order to keep the heavens from falling apart. The fate of mankind rest in Thame’s young hands but does he even want the responsibility that goes along with being the chosen one. Or will Thame’s spiritual twin, imbued with dark powers granted by the evil one, assassinate him before he can fulfill his destiny.

Martial Arts is Only Natural

My debut novel, Heaven’s Fate, due to be released on 06/26/2012 in ebook and hardcover, focuses heavily on science fiction, fantasy, young adult, sword & sorcery and of course, martial arts.

I have loved martial arts for as long as I can remember. Ever since Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Bruce Lee dominated the television and movie screens it has been something that has fascinated me. Not only is martial arts a great discipline that helps people young and old stay in shape but also generates, promotes, and extends a persons mental capacity in terms of helping the mind and body focus to become one. Therefore, after learning different forms of martial arts while growing up, now as an adult and choosing to go into the profession of fantasy fiction novel writing I chose to focus on and make martial arts a major part of my novel, as most (if not all) of my characters are great martial arts masters.

Not only does martial arts refer to the physical hand-to-hand combat but also the ‘science and art’ of sword play which also plays a major role in Heaven’s Fate. As I am an avid collector of swords, knives, and throwing projectiles which fascinate me to no end, it was only natural that it gets thrown into my debut novel. As they say, ‘write what you know’; and one of the things I know more than anything else is weapons and physical combat.

In Heaven’s Fate, there are several different forms of martial arts in the world of Threa. Since there are different races (species) of humanoids that live on different continents, it is only natural that in order for the novel (story) to be believable, then different peoples from different parts of the world will specialize in different forms of martial arts. Not only that but another major aspect of martial arts incorporated into the novel is the relationship and integration with magic seamlessly flowing together. With a plethora of weapons to choose from and draw upon in the ‘real’ world it was almost easy to transfer those into unique martial arts styles in the world of Threa. Not only that but I love to keep the action live and dynamic as you read the novel. A major part of making the story compelling to readers is having the characters focus on using long range weapons; because then what happens when the characters confront each other in an enclosed area where long range weapons are of little use. Even in the military, they focus on the basics of hand to hand combat and since Heaven’s Fate has a heavy ‘futuristic’ military presence, it was only natural to have martial arts styles and masters in the book.

Andre Alan is from Hartford, CT and attended college in New Haven, CT. After graduating with a degree in international business and a brief career as an IT data analyst, Andre Alan decided to follow his lifelong passion of creating fiction entertainment. With a small amount of artistic talent, some of his first memories are of drawing. After a brief stint at poetry and comics, the timing seemed ripe to pursue fantasy novel writing. An avid video gamer, when there is time and an addict for cup noodles. Andre is a sports fanatic and a lifelong student of business.