I've already talked about the general lack of martial arts novels that have been published. If you were to google it, you'd find a list of some. And some on that list, I'm not even sure would be considered martial arts novels. But I wouldn't know. I haven't read them. I have picked up some of them. The "Rain" books were some that I tried to read a couple years ago. But I couldn't weather them.
I'm not dissing them. I'm sure they're good books. But at the time, I was writing Killer of Killers, and my mind was probably geared more to writing than to reading. I picked up the Rain books from the library, because I read somewhere that you should read in the genre that you are writing. But as I said, I couldn't last through even the first one.
But I'm not so sure that you have to read books in the genre you want to write. Maybe for some genres, but for martial arts novels? I don't think so. You do have to do research. And I did. I researched like crazy. I researched martial arts dojos, and actually spent a lot of time at one. It's the one my son attended for ten years. I got to know the Shihan pretty well. I interviewed him for the purpose of writing the book, even. I talked to a lot of the senseis over there, too.
I researched the moves, the throws, the blows, the philosophies, the history, and incorporated all of that into Killer of Killers. You might say that the Shoji Tokyo Dojo is based on the dojo my son attended. And that's a good thing. It gives a realistic portrayal of a dojo, and the people who train there. But I also researched a ton of medical data, too. Because Trent Smith is an expert at attacking nerves and the circulatory system. He can kill with a single strike. But he doesn't have to kill. He can also paralyze, blind, cripple, and alter the way he strikes to exact any range of the above.
So, no. Trent Smith isn't just a killer of killers. He can do and does everything in between. And as far as I know, Killer of Killers is the only book with a character who does all of those things in a single story. Yes, Trent Smith is a great hero. He's up there with James Bond and Conan. Two of my all-time favorite heroes. There's always room for another great hero. Trent Smith has arrived.
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