"Introduction to Kendo" As of July 25, 2006:
Updated July 25th Well, the time has come for me to announce what you've all been waiting for: it's done!! Yes, the big book is done. Well at least on my end...for now. Here's what the status is. In the grand scheme of things, I am very low ranked. That being said, in order to prevent any "stepping on toes" or "formality issues" stemming from my position in the Kendo heirarchy I have asked that the book be reviewed before it is made public. I have asked two different Sensei to take a look. I requested that they be bluntly honest with respect to its content and, more importantly, to be honest about anything in it which may be considered as "overstepping any boundaries" on my part. Should the book be given the "ok" by its reviewers, I will hopefully be given permission to make it available to the public. If not, I will either have to edit it again or simply make its availablility limited to club members only. Or perhaps even told not to release it. I will continue to update you all as often as I can. Keep your fingers crossed. Updated February 21st Still editing. But enough "hand-waving" and skirting the issue. "How close are you?" is a question being asked I'm sure. Well, Chapter 4 is now finished. How many chapters are there? Twelve in total. But don't give up hope just yet...the early chapters are the largest with the most description oriented material. Meaning they are the ones that need(ed) the most work. The remainder of the book ought to go MUCH faster, and I am very hopeful that a March finish date is on the horizon. I'm getting pushy with my editor-in-chief these days so, assuming I don't get its pages shoved down my throat, the book ought to be done very soon. ;) Updated January 30th Well, the editing process is still underway. Slower than I had hoped, but such is life i guess. So far, the changes made via conferring with my "Editor in Chief" has made the book "flow" quite a bit better, and the order of certain sections makes a lot more sense now. Edited a few figures, and addeda few more to help clarify things that seemed a bit vague. I'm trying to make the push to get it done ASAP, so hopefully soon. I want it done before March since that will mark the 3 year point in its construction. Sheesh. Updated Dec 4th Just finished fleshing out the section on Zanshin a bit more. Such an important topic, and one that is usually not really well understood. Hopefully this will help that. I've also finally finished my edited copy of the book, so that means over Christmas my editor in chief will be tearing into it. This is a good thing though because the end product, i.e., after making all the recommended changes, will mean that it should be ready. woot. Updated Nov 18th Kind of made a big breakthrough on the typesetting front. For those interested, this book is being typeset in LaTeX. Long story short, LaTeX can be difficult to learn, and there are a huge number of downloadable packages for it to keep the learning curve high even after you get the basics down. Anyhow, I've managed to finally get the CJK (Chinese, Japanese, Korean) font package working. Meaning, I can typeset Kanji and ideographs from all three languages. Neat huh? Well, the Japanese texts in the bibliography now have their full Kanji titles included, and I've added Kanji to the inner title page, part dividers, and one or two other places. Looking great I must say. The kata section has been worked on a bit more (ok, a lot) with more information added in general. Hence the 11 page increase since the last update. Oh, and there was a translation mistake in the title that I've finally noticed. So, I've corrected the cover as well. ;) Updated Nov 7th Ok the missing sections are done, added a couple more pictures, and removed some wasted space. So the page count is still at 407. On with the editing... Updated Oct 7th, 2005 During the editing it was discovered that I missed four whole sections. Specifically on Shizentai, Setting up Your Bogu (before putting it on in class), Carrying Your Bogu (for Seretsu), and Removing Your Bogu. No worries, the rough sections are done and have pictures to go with them. Now they just need polishing, along with the rest of the book. ;) Updated Oct 1st, 2005 Its getting closer. Final edits are being made chapter by chapter. I've also found a publisher to publish the book! The final cover art is now done as well, which can be viewed by clicking the link below. Updated Aug 28th, 2005 Its getting close to being finished...real close. So much so, that I've decided to post a preview file. There are still some re-wording that needs to be done, and has been done, since I compiled this preview file, but it should give you a nice sample of what's to come. The preview contains the full Table of Contents, Preface, Acknowledgements, etc... and the full Chapter 1. Enjoy!! Download Preview. Updated July 21st, 2005 Well, I've finished re-writing the kata sections save for going over them and tweaking the wording. Only other problem is the kata pictures...a number of them are now just plain wrong! ;) Updated July 19th, 2005 After attending the Chiba Sensei seminar at the Montreal Kendo Club on July 16th, 2005 I must make a number of corrections to the Kendo no Kata sections. I've finished ipponme through sanbonme....only seven more kata to go. Needless to say I understand a lot more about the kata then i did a few days ago... :) Updated May 17th, 2005 For some time now I have been promising to post up a project that I have been working on for a number or months... one year to be exact. The project I speak of is essentially a book; an introduction to Kendo of sorts. As it stands, the project is in its final stages of editing but an official posting date is not known. (Soon, thats all I can say.) If you have any questions please contact: hfxkendo@hotmail.com |