I Have A Book!

Short post this week, but I HAVE A BOOK! That’s right, my full length book on how to beat up your friends and have them asking for more is out right now. While I started writing this book back in July of 2023, I’ve been studying Bolognese longsword in particular since the summer of 2019. Before that I’d been doing Bolognese sidesword since 2017 and even before that I’d been doing Italian rapier since March of 2008. This book is the culmination of a project I have now spent the majority of my life on. While I know that this marks a new beginning and in no way an end, that doesn’t mean I’m any less teary eyed.

This 250 page book (with 807 pictures) contains every last thought I’ve ever had about longsword, painstakingly broken down into a highly digestible format approachable by both the seasoned instructor and the novice fencer. While there are plenty of books explaining Fiore, Liechtenauer, and Capoferro for the modern practitioner, this is the first of its kind in English exploring Bolognese longsword in particular. I know of one modern how to in Italian, another book in English that’s more of a study guide for the Bolognese assalti, and a how to for sidesword, but there seems to be a need in our community that I dearly hope this is able to address. Most of the longsword I see out there these days is Meyer based, but most practitioners of Italian longsword are pulling from books that are hundred to a hundred and seventy years earlier and aren’t always able to compete as a result. Thankfully, the Bolognese system is contemporaneous with the later German sources and likes to use an EVEN BIGGER longsword. I personally can’t wait for the day when I enter an event only to see lugs on everybody’s swords.

Even if longsword isn’t your thing, this book should do a pretty good job of explaining how swords work more generally. A few people had asked me if I was going to write a how to covering all the weapons in the Bolognese tradition (sidesword, sword and buckler, longsword, polearms, etc.) and my reply has always been that I’d like to some day actually be able to finish. Longsword has seen a huge swell in popularity in the past decade or so and while I’ve taken plenty of Bolognese sidesword classes with other instructors, there aren’t a ton of people out there using Bolognese for what’s arguably the most popular weapon out there. Hopefully we’ll see that start to change.

While I would have liked to have gotten the book out in time for people to have it for the holidays, the reality of publishing is that there’s always about three more things you have to do even when you think you’re standing right at the finish line. Relatedly, there will be an ebook version ready in a few days, but I didn’t want to delay publishing the print version any longer than I had to.

So if you know of anyone who thinks swords are neat, someone who’s looking to add someone new to their repertoire, or just have a niece who’s parents you want to tick off by showing her the cool stuff, please go right ahead and order yourself a copy here. The book is available worldwide with IngramSpark printing it in both the US and Europe, so you won’t have to worry about spending an arm and a leg just to get it shipped and can instead focus or keeping them attached by using proper structure when you go to parry.

I’ll be returning to my regular content shortly, but in the meantime, please go right ahead and grab a copy of my book.