By The Sword Forum So How Did You Start...

So we have a nice mixture of writers on here... some, like moi, so more historical fiction/swashbucklers, others more fantasy-esque and such. i'm digging it. anyways, as a nice little forum start, just wondering what hooked everyone to write the stories that they do.

for me, it's the love of a good duel. i've always been a huge swordplay fan. i use you watch the black and white Zorro movies and tv-shows as a kid (reruns, of course). then, of course, there was Pirates of the Carribean. from there i started just picking up books about pirates and such and found it to be a lot more fun and interesting for me to read. and the way i see it, you should write what you love to read (not what you think others love to read). the rest is history.

how about everyone else?

I've been into pirate history forever. the "Pirates" movies are great, but the ride is much better and was more of an inspiration to me when I was a young'n.

As far as novels that have inspired me...the Princess Bride. 'nuff said.

Also, the Count of Monte Cristo and the old Zorro movies. Brilliance.

i've yet to read Count of Monte Cristo. I own it and it's in a large pile of "Books to Read". I love Dumas. He rocks. I have two movie adapations of it as well... an American one and a French one (fun watching that one w/subtitles, haha).

The movie "Brotherhood of the Wolf" is a big inspiration for me. It's a visually beautiful movie and i'll listen to its soundtrack a lot while writing.

and yay for Princess Bride.

"Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father prepare to die"

haha, did you read my poem with that title?

Nice group pic also.

no i haven't but i'll go in search of it now!

writing is catharsis.

for me, it started with a little scene i could not get out of my head, that still lurks. perhaps it helps to write it, or makes it worse. long story as to how my current work got started, almost a book unto itself.

I've been in love with pirates since I was a little kid. As most kids were playing Cowboy and Indians (I did some but not all that much), I was a pirate. Sometimes I'd come into the Cowboys and Indians dressed like a pirate. This was in the Seventies when Zorro, The Lone Ranger, and many other shows were popular. I watched them all like crazy.

By the time I was in the fifth grade, I had started writing stories. It was then my love affair with pirates got into written form. In most books the female was a captive on a pirate ship. I always made myself a piratess until I got older. In my teens I started writing pirate erotica (while my friends were writing vampire erotica). Now I write many genres, but always go back to the pirates.

The latest pirate story I wrote was for a contest on Puzzle Pirates last Halloween. I'm working on a pirate story now with mutiny and melees involved, but it won't be done for awhile. It's quite long.

o0o0o can't wait for that one :-)

Okay, to tell you all the truth, writing began as a whisper in my ear when I was a seed. Or something like that. I'm being serious; I've been writing Bus Chronicles since I was a kid, and unfortunately there are no pirates in that book.
I have been fascinated by swords and pirates, in that order, since I was a kid, thanks to Disneyland's Pirates of the Caribbean ride. I am a huge fan of history, and I do write historical fiction- I just haven't posted here yet.
Richard Hartshorn has really inspired me to maybe write a pirate story, the characters to include the real Pirates of the Caaribbean like BlackBeard and Anne and Mary.....
Anyways, I joined this group as a privelege to read your guys's work on pirates and swordplay, because I find those stories interesting. My favorites box is having a love affair with most of Richard's work, and as of late, I've come to appreciate Justin's short stories, of course, as two are in my favorites as well.
Maybe I will have a pirate story- maybe not. Right now I am taking up fencing, and someday I hope to have a real swordmatch with another (skilled) swordsman before I die.
Ungar!

i'll fence you :-)

and post your historical ficiton/pirate stories. there's not enough of that stuff on here and i want to read more!! :-)

I was sitting in my 8th grade English class, totally bored, probably mad at a teacher, and took out some personalized stationary my friend JD had made me on his computer, he was something of a nerd with a crush....i wrote a story about a boy with AIDS - which at the time this was when Ryan White was diagnosed, big story in my state - and from there it just grew....i had always written dorky little poems as a girly girl, my aunt and brother are published writers - and after I wrote that story, I won a couple of local contests and just kept at it....when I got older I started using it as an outlet for my overly imaginative subconcious, then as a release for venting, then as a canvas for my dreams....depends on the mood i'm in what will come out of me, it's always a suprise....

justin - i STILL think there is a kiera knightly in there waiting to come out, and until then i'm paitienly waiting.....mad props for mentioning princess bride too...
"Wuv, twoo wuv"

I'll fence ya too LaLa. Which style are you learning? My first style was English. *LOL* Which reminds me of the scene from Star Trek...um nevermind.