Tonight’s blog entry will touch off the next several articles, all of which will be covering aspects of science-fiction, progressing from the present and near-future (powered prostheses to cybernetics), up towards more speculative and far-flung concepts, such as the Singularity. If you haven’t heard of some or all of this, great! It means you get to learn about some amazing trends and topics in science fiction writing. If you’re an aspiring author that is familiar with these devices, then you’ll benefit in seeing how these concepts can be applied to your writing.

One of the beauties of science fiction is that it looks to the past and present while hiding in a shroud of the future. These technologies, though they may seem the stuff of fantasy, are really just a few evolutionary jumps away from being your everyday reality. Or your augmented reality, for that matter. I’ll be developing a more comprehensive list of subjects that will be covered through a high level overview, as well as providing articles and supporting works that can be pursued for those that want to delve deeper into the rabbit hole. Some of the more immediate topics to cover include:

-          Prostheses
-          3D printing
-          Cybernetics
-          Power armor
-          Augmented reality
-          AI
-          The Singularity

I’m sure a few other side topics will crop up along the way as we go exploring. For you cyberpunk authors (and conspiracy theorists), you’ll get the added benefit of seeing just how these technological advancements can be twisted and manipulated, depending on who holds the keys. What happens, for example, if you have something like an i-limb ultra and the company that owns the IP goes out of business? How do you get software support? I don’t think common criminals would necessarily commit murder by hacking pacemakers, but a government assassination could not be ruled out.

Science fiction, especially cyberpunk, has a darkness to it. The street finds new uses for technology. High-tech and low-life are the norm. Cyberpunk understands that at its core, these new forms of technology are tools like any other. They are inherently neutral; the intent of the user determines the outcome of the device, just as with firearms or baseball bats. Of course when we’re writing about our anti-heroes, they’ll learn to do all sorts of mean and nasty things with these toys.

As a great introductory example, when we hear the phrase ‘hacking’ we automatically think of a type of activity that wasn’t carried out until the invention of computers. The truth is that hacking or cracking is any type of intrusion or manipulation of a data system. History shows that in 1903 Nevil Maskelyne disrupted a supposedly secure form of wireless telegraphy. What did he do with it? Sent insulting messages, of course, because even before the internet we had trolls.

The cracking of the German Enigma machine during WWII is another example of hacking, which is covered brilliantly in Neal Stephenson’s Cryptonomicon. If you haven’t read it, you need to read my book first, then his. Now, more than a century later, and hacking has taken on amazing dimensions, including attacks to destroy uranium enrichment plants (STUXNET), and claimed attempts at hacking into the avionics systems of commercial aircraft. What’s particularly interesting is that hacking is the manipulation of existing technology, not even a technology itself, which is part of what makes it such an intriguing topic.

Our sci-fi heroes often have to battle against impossible odds. Learning about the topics I’ll be covering will be a great way to give them the upper hand and inspire writers to come up with creative solutions to challenging problems. I’m looking forward to jumping down the rabbit hole with you.


A.C. Harrison
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It’s interesting to think that this little series covering what makes me tick as an author has stretched from mid-February through to the end of April. I know there were a few missed weeks (bad author, no treat), but overall the experience has been very enjoyable and eye opening.

It’s a very curious sensation to actually sit down and categorize the things that you value in your life and career. I think that anybody in any profession could benefit from just making some of the simple lists and articles I assembled, taking stock of what motivates them, what helps them creatively, and even what pitfalls they recognize and can avoid. We’re complicated beings hurtling through this life at a breakneck pace, and technology is only increasing that speed. Being able to sit back and recognize your own inner workings is absolutely invaluable.

Some of the articles posted came naturally to me, as I think they would to most people. Picking your top five movies, books, or games may seem a bit challenging because the area to cover is so broad, but when you realize it’s just a list that you’re free to change, you suddenly feel free to delve deep and explore, as well as share your insights with others so that they can come to better know you and glean a little bit about your work, whether that’s writing or something else. It puts the author into the work, two pieces that are usually held apart, and makes for a more holistic experience.

Other articles, naturally, provided more of a challenge. Reflecting back, the article on defining my values was probably the most challenging to write, as putting your entire life philosophy into a simple, 1,000 word framework is, well, not so simple. It’s made worse by the fact that blueprinting your values is not something done very often, if at all. It’s a challenge I would put forward to anyone, even if it’s just a cursory list of floating ideas. Saying you stand for truth, respect, and honor is still far and ahead of just saying you don’t know if you even stand for anything. It puts some punch behind your words, lends them authority, and offers some intent and direction.

Speaking of intent and direction, writing these articles has reminded me of the importance of how to present a topic, something that was drilled to me in grade school and college and then promptly forgotten when I decided to write novels. Maybe not forgotten, but certainly not emphasized as much as it should have been. As a result, I feel that my writing has improved in both content, presentation, and efficiency. Being able to structure your thoughts, even loosely, will speed up your writing so you spend less time picking your brain and more time putting down well developed points.

Seeing as this is the outro, I do want to say I’ve greatly enjoyed this series, and hope that my readers have as well. The information put out on websites, at the end of ebooks, and inside book jackets is usually so sparse. As a reader, I very often want to know much more about the creator of my favorite series or novel, and I hope that I gave a little bit of that insight here. If there’s something I missed that you desperately wanted me to cover, please drop a line in the comments or fire off an email using the contact button at the top of the page. I’d also recommend hitting the Twitter button as well, as I’m quite active in that community, posting articles on many interests, as well as pertinent news stories that I feel we should all be aware of. Tweets run the gamut from travel scenery, to cars, to articles on nanotechnology and cybersecurity, with a little bit of war and politics thrown in just to make people nervous. War, of course, being politics by other means.

Lastly, even though I missed last week, I am still now posting new blog entries on both Monday and Wednesday so that I can bring you all more original content and hopefully delve deeper into topics of relevance to my novels, exciting topics in science and technology such as the evolution of prostheses to cybernetics. I’ll also continue to compose articles on the method and madness of writing, sharing my insights and experiences to help other aspiring authors, as well as to exchange ideas with authors that are already published.

So a relatively short goodbye, but back again on Wednesday for something fresh. If you haven’t had a chance to read through the entire ‘Meet the Author’ series, I would say now would be a good time, with the takeaway being that you get to learn more about me and also think about your own flavor of life. As for this Wednesday, I hope you’re looking forward to reading my new entry as much as I look forward to writing it. Until then, thanks again for your interest and support.


A.C. Harrison
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It took me roughly twenty one hours to travel from Mesa, Arizona, to Hiroshima, Japan. The path itself would have me go by car to Phoenix Sky Harbor Int’l Airport, then a quick hop through the sky to LAX. From Los Angeles it was then onto a 777 to spend over twelve hours chasing the sun, which still beat us and came around behind our jet, leading to the longest sunrise I’ve ever suffered through. Landing in Tokyo, I then had to scurry through Haneda Airport to once again skip through the sky to Hiroshima Airport, staggering off the plane in a complete haze of bleary eyed fatigue mixed with adrenaline, excitement, and fear. Before I could even process my emotions, it was on to a bus to head down from the airport, through Hiroshima proper, and then finally up the mountain to the campus that would be my home for the summer: Hiroshima Shudo University. The course was rigorous, fatigue inducing, and fast paced.

So why bother? Why go through all the vagaries of travel and hardship of study? Why would anyone want to be shoved in an aluminum can and be hurtled halfway across the world at 600 miles per hour with absolutely no room to move inside that tube? Let’s not forget you still have to then do the entire thing in reverse to get back home. The truth is, when I first went, I wasn’t entirely certain why I was going, other than a gut urge that kept driving me to see Japan. What I found was a benefit far beyond what I expected, something that reaped endless benefits for me, something that any traveler can experience when exposed to a new place and a new culture.

Doctor James Ford, one of my stewards on my quest in Japan, summed it up best: you don’t know your own culture until you step outside your own. While I learned many new things while taking courses in language, history, and religion in Japan, that foundation is what has made the greatest impact on me; it is the quintessential point that guides the compass of my world outlook and personal development. That point alone was worth the price of admission to study abroad in Japan, and believe me, that bill was not inexpensive. Living in another culture, not just looking at it from a distance, allows one to then see his or her own culture in a new light, while before the image was so close to the lens that it simply could not be focused on. Traveling thousands of miles really let me understand my home, as well as to become enriched through the culture of Japan.

To briefly dabble in background, my desire to study Japanese language traces back to my involvement in the martial arts, something I’ve touched on in my earlier blog posts. I began as an apprentice of karate, but became enamored with the history of the samurai—the historical Japanese warrior class. This led me to branch out in my martial arts, from karate to kendo and iaido, but still I felt I needed more. I read “Shōgun,” by James Clavell, an eye opening epic novel about Japan written by an Australian. I read books by Japanese authors translated into English, but still felt a step removed. Then I found myself picking courses in college, and I knew I had to study Japanese language. And, as a result of my chosen major, I wound up cursing to myself as I endured the grueling trip that would take me all the way from the Phoenix metro area to Hiroshima Japan, from a massive, continent spanning country of diverse ethnicities to an island nation where the population was almost 100% homogenous Japanese. To say that things were interesting would be an understatement.

From the viewpoint of an American, experiencing Japan is an exercise in contrasts. You can even begin with the language, which is written in a mixture of Chinese characters and native script, and the verb comes at the end of the sentence rather than in the middle. While we as Americans strike out on our own, forming our own small family units, the Japanese retain their ancestral ties, with multiple generations living under one roof. Their history stretches back thousands of years, while America isn’t even 250 years old. In dealing with the Japanese I met, I found them to be reserved, humble, and polite. Their mass transit is a model to be held up to the world, their education system produces fine students with excellent technical skills, and they even distill a mean whisky that will fight any Scotch single malt for top honors. And the food! Seafood obviously features heavily, with fish, crab, shrimp and eel being very common. They consume large quantities of vegetables, drink tea like it’s going out of style, and have one of the highest life expectancies in the entire world. Sounds like things are all figured out in the land of the rising sun, eh?

Of course, as you begin to learn of these contrasts and see how your own nation is different, you also come to appreciate the similarities. The most important fact is that we are all humans, and that is a great linking force, a powerful bond that even a terrible war could not sever. Part of studying in Hiroshima involves visiting the site of the atomic bombing, the “bomb dome” standing in mute testimony to the terrible, grievous wound that was torn open in the fabric of Japanese society when America released atomic weapons on the world. Being in the Peace Park and the museum creates an empathetic connection, making you realize that we’re not so different, that we have many similarities.

Yes, the language is very difficult to master, but not impossible. While the Japanese work cooperatively and American’s tend to view themselves as going and doing things on our own, we still lean on our coworkers, our families, our friends, especially in times of great hardship and distress. We may not have a daily connection with all our family members or fellow citizens, but if there is a threat, we band together in support. Our history is one of a new nation, but it stretches back in time through the ancestors that we trace back to Ireland, Italy, Germany, England, China, and even Japan. We take the best of their culture and make it part of our own, not because we’re greedy, but because we can see and appreciate the benefits of what that outside group offers. We receive their outlook as a gift, even as we receive their people as new Americans. As a people, we’re loud and bombastic, yes, but we like to think we use it to charge headlong into the problems that others would fear to approach. Though we haven’t always made the right choices, we’ve always had our hearts in the right place. And when it comes to food, it’s very obvious that we love to eat, and we love to eat dishes from all over the world.

The single biggest takeaway from my time spent in Japan, though, is the understanding of scale. America is a massive place, and that means all our problems are magnified. While this leads to some terrible problems in crime and corruption (don’t smile, Japan, we know about the yakuza), it also leads to amazing innovation and the willingness to take risks. It’s easy to miss the forest for the trees, especially when you’re standing in the woods. Move several thousand miles off the coast, though, and you’ll be surprised what you see. It’s an understanding of the larger picture, of how we fit in with the rest of the world, since we so often think of America as the center of it. Right now things are changing very rapidly. We have dynamic situations in Russia, China, and the Middle East. We have many difficult challenges to navigate, atop our own internal conflicts that are coming to a head as we push into a new, interconnected age of technology. Realizing how America fits in gives one a leg up, and lets you speak from a position of knowledge when discussing what it is that makes us who we are and why we do the things we do. You also gain appreciate for the differences found in other cultures and you learn to bridges those gaps, especially if that means survival in a foreign land with limited language skills. 

I would extend as a challenge to anyone reading this: go out into the world and take that opportunity to find your own home. Whether you’re from America, Europe, or anywhere else, you can learn so much about this planet, its people, and your place in it. It doesn’t have to be a college course (though structure certainly helps). The benefits of being outside your own silo will become readily apparent soon enough to any world traveler. I feel that those who have also traveled to other nations can appreciate my statements and confirm them as truth. The coming decades could promise to be very interesting. I write books about a world where all the things go wrong. I feel, however, that if we all step outside our comfort zones and learn to see things from a global perspective, than hopefully my novels will be nothing more than the soundings of a mad man instead of a terrifying possibility.

A.C. Harrison
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Writing a novel is one of those ‘bucket list’ items that I would guess most people never accomplish. Seeing it all the way through to the end, from initial manuscript to published book, has an ever smaller chance of success. Those of you that are going through this process, or those that have completed it, are nodding right now in agreement. It’s an act akin to conduct an entire orchestra in your head, except not all the instruments are playing at the same point in time, forcing you to stretch backwards and forwards in order to put together a coherent piece of music. Pull it off, though, and you’ll have on your hands something you can genuinely be proud of. There’s only one problem: now you have to sell the damn thing.

I don’t want to say it’s not possible to be successful as a writer, but even a cursory glance through the Amazon or Apple ebookstore will flood you with a torrent of titles. As you scan through them, you’ll likely notice that none of them really appeals to you. At the same time, you have on your hands your own masterpiece that you have now pushed out into the world, and you now realize you’re an author at best, an editor at worst. Never does ‘salesman’ enter into that equation. And yet within that chaotic mess of ebooks, a small number of independent titles rise to the top, not just selling, but selling well. After some time with my book on the market, and having analyzed the way sales move (or don’t), I’ve finally come up with a conclusion. I’ve found the magic bullet that you can use to sell your book. The answer? Be lucky.

Okay, that’s a bit unfair, I know. Then again, we’re constantly reminded that life isn’t fair. The reality is that many, many good books go unread, go unsold, and eventually fade into the aether of the internet. An easy example outside of books is music and the artists that suffer their entire lives for virtually no payoff. One of my favorite bands in the ‘90s was a group called The Mayfield Four. I saw them live as an opener to Everclear, and I was immediately blown away. From that day on I was a supporter of theirs, but I didn’t get to enjoy it for long. The band folded and the members went their separate ways. Now, that example doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t continue writing, it just means that you have to temper your expectations. More importantly: a successful author will make moves to create his or her own luck so that they are in a good position to strike when the opportunity arises.

Here’s where the story of the Mayfield Four gets interesting. One of the members, the lead singer and guitarist, is a man named Myles Kennedy. While the name might not be familiar to some, Kennedy went on to join a new band called Alter Bridge, made up of former members of the band Creed. The band has enjoyed success to this day. Beyond Alter Bridge, though, Myles and his talents have been leveraged in a solo career that includes working with the great Slash of Guns & Roses fame. All in all, Kennedy’s perseverance, maybe even stubbornness, combined with his talent and work ethic, meant that even though he saw several failed ventures, he was eventually able to push through. He was there when the time was right. He was very, very lucky. On the other hand, he worked hard to make something materialize from that luck.

As I like to tell my karate students, the sixth rule of Isshin-ryu karate is this: the time to strike is when the opportunity presents itself. If you got in an elevator tomorrow and Bill Gates was in there with you, how many of you could come out of it at the end with something to show for it? As authors, much of what we are given is at the whim of the universe, but we must always be working to improve our craft, striving to outdo ourselves at each turn, and showcase our progress so that people take up and notice.

Nobody ever sold anything by siting in their office typing. You’re not a salesman. That’s okay. Meet someone. Meet lots of people. Let them get to know you. Some of them may be salesmen and not know it. They’ll read your book and become advocates for it, pushing it forward. Create your brand and forge a following so that when luck does appear, you will be ready to strike. To do otherwise would be an injustice not just to yourself and your work, but to the hundreds, hopefully thousands of people that will miss out on your great work because you weren’t ready when luck came. At the end of the day, all you were was good.


A.C. Harrison
Like what you see here? Spread the word and support indie authors! Follow me on Facebook or Twitter. Find me on Smashwords and Kindlemojo. 

The topic of this week’s ‘Meet the Author’ posting is that of values, and I found it a challenge to define and approach. Everyone has a different worldview and a different way of living; who am I to say one is better than the other? What I’m really seeking to do is to give insight into my own belief system, explaining my outlook and how it influences my behavior, my relationships, and my work, including my writing. I think there’s a great benefit in looking at the world through a different set of eyes, especially if you are interested in a creative field such as art or literature.

I grew up in a normal, suburban household in the southwest. My father was an accountant, my mother a homemaker. Both my grandfathers worked hard in their lifetimes to that their children could benefit. Many of us have parents or grandparents we look up to, and that link is a valuable one. It gives us inspiration and guidance, and I feel I benefited greatly from the family that surrounded me as I grew up.

My childhood heroes were paragons of justice: Batman (of the Adam West variety), Andy Griffith, Optimus Prime, Luke Skywalker. The franchises and figures I followed all had larger than life qualities, standing tall above the masses with their sense of justice and pure worldview. Reality has a way of tempering such things, but I wholly believe I still carry those beliefs in me, that I do what I can to lift myself to a higher standard, doing what I can for others even if it means giving up something for myself. I remember The Magnificent Seven. I remember Davey Crockett. Growing up in Arizona, especially before it became so heavily urbanized, you become enamored with the legend of the American cowboy. I think it’s no coincidence that my love of spurs and six-shooters transformed into a passion for the samurai ethos as I became older and began to study martial arts.

In my time spent training in karate, I gained many things. Chief among them, though, was an extended family. My parents did their best to set a good example, to reason with me, and to make me understand right from wrong. Kids, however, have other ideas. My sensei, though, was someone I treated with the utmost respect and reverence. My mother knew that if there was a problem that I wasn’t treating (whether it be behavior with friends or performance in school), all she had to do was sit me down in my sensei’s office and relate the story to him. I didn’t need to hear his counsel. Simply knowing he had discovered my shameful behavior was enough to instantly transform me.

Enter high school, college, and then corporate America. I struggled greatly to balance my sense of honor with the desire that every young male has of fitting in with a crowd. In a time and place when everyone wanted to misbehave to gain attention, I swayed back and forth between periods of great difficulty, being ostracized by one group or another, unable to find a social circle that shared my viewpoint on simply doing the right thing, especially when nobody was watching. My support came from my karate family, with many of the same students attending my high school and laying the foundation for what I could carry into college. Once I transitioned into corporate America, though, things would become complicated on an entirely new level.

As a child, even up until college, your worldview is very narrow. I wouldn’t dare say I have a very wide perspective at my current age, but it grows brighter by the day as details slowly fill in with the acquisition of more knowledge. When I started learning real history at university, when I saw how people behaved in the corporate world, when I read the news outside of the spoon-fed major networks, I saw a terrifying amount of injustice, corruption, greed, and pettiness that I didn’t want to be a part of. I was frustrated to the point of wanting to just tear it all down. I think I still have this reaction at times, finding the best solution to a problem is to just burn it, consequences be damned. Of this, though, I have learned to temper myself, instead using knowledge and social media to spread awareness.

There’s a reason I chose to write cyberpunk novels. It’s key to note that my first book, “Jupiter Symphony,” is about a popular uprising against an elitist upper-class. It’s dystopian and dark, but at the same time it reflects the reality we are walking towards. I’ve had many readers tell me that they really enjoyed the book, but it scared them just a little too much because they could very easily see our country and our world developing in the way outlined in the novel. Science fiction, well executed, will take current events and magnify them until you either get the message, or else hide them in times when topics aren’t ready to be approached by the general populace.

That corruption and greed I had found in the world, the racism, the hatred, the pent up frustration, was all channeled into my novel. We have crooked cops killing in cold blood. We have judges that find these officers innocent despite overwhelming evidence. We have people forcing their worldviews on others under the guise of religious freedom, though nobody was knocking on their door and telling them they could or could not do something. We work for corporations that have no qualms with destroying the environment, with toppling countries, and with squeezing out every last drop of blood from employees. The rich are only getting richer, the poor lack any upward mobility, and the middle class is shrinking. Politicians sit around with their thumbs up their asses, earning far more in campaign donations than from their drawn salary. The media is controlled, and every day we are being watched to a greater and greater extent by the government agencies that are supposed to be protecting our freedoms.

It all sounds like something out of a crazy dystopian adventure, and it is. It’s also reality right now. My values, my sense of justice, my inner Luke Skywalker, cannot stand before this onslaught. Not alone, anyway. But with each day, with each new bit of revealing news, with each person that picks up a novel that makes them realize just what a world we live in, so grows the support to my left and to my right. We learn that we can change things. We can push forward, we can force others to take notice. It’s not something that will change overnight, and many will relent before the struggle is over, but it is winnable. We’ve done it in the past, and we can do it again in the future. Because Batman told me so.


A.C. Harrison
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“Your book’s setting sucks.”

“This novel doesn’t have any details.”

“Completely unbelievable… in a bad way.”

I’m honestly hoping nobody reading this has seen comments like these on their novels, but let’s face it, there are a lot of aspiring novelists, and even more aspiring critics. While it’s true you can’t please everybody, there are things you can do to make sure that the content of your novel is rich, unique, and invigorating, and it starts by stepping away from your keyboard, putting down your pen, and stepping outside. What I’m emphasizing is the enrichment of your own mind by experiencing things outside of the ordinary. By visiting museums and parks, by reading classic works, by exploring history, you can create a foundation from which to draw on that will spark your imagination and really add color and depth to your writing, whether that’s as short as a poem or as long as an epic.

The first order of business is to acknowledge that many writers consider themselves introverts and may not want to go tearing off into the wild beyond. That’s perfectly fine and perfectly normal. I think most self-diagnosed introverts don’t give themselves enough credit when it comes to taking on new challenges, but I’ll try to make things as painless as possible. Writing is acting in your head and then copying it down. Without set pieces, background, props, and characters, things aren’t going to go very well. It’s really in your best interest to take a step forward and try something new. To minimize the discomfort, pick something local and plan the trip very specifically. If you like to be on your own, try to go during a weekday when things are less crowded. Keep to yourself and bring along a camera and a small notepad so that you can record your experiences. Really, you can stay inside your own bubble, just take that bubble with you.

The second point to make is regarding content. While we all would love to visit every country in which our globetrotting protagonist finds herself in, that’s obviously not very cost or time effective. If it turns out you’re loaded, go hog wild (take me with you!), but for most of us we have to be a little more humble in our aspirations. Plot a destination that intersects with three points: your own personal interests, something you want to learn more about, and something that is relevant to your novel. This way you can maximize your time and really gain something that will help illustrate the point you’re trying to make in your writing.

I can give an example of one of my recent trips that I took to the Pima Air and Space Museum in Tucson, Arizona. My writing style can be very detail oriented, especially when it comes to vehicles and weapons. Since I write science fiction, this is generally a good thing. I’m also a lifetime lover of aircraft, especially vintage warbirds and Cold War fighter aircraft. That said, there’s always more to learn in this arena. Lastly, my novels are action based and rely heavily on vehicles of all kinds. If I can describe them better, especially from first-hand knowledge, then I can really make the words jump off the page for my readers.

With that in mind, I packed my Nikon D90 and headed south. I spent the entire day in the museum and only spent a minimal amount on admission and food, plus gas. I literally stayed until they kicked me out. Side note: the Pima Air & Space Museum really is a fantastic place that people of all ages can enjoy. It really is amazing, and directly across from Davis Monthan Airbase. In return for my time invested there, I came away with great memories, new knowledge, and fantastic photographs. I even refreshed my knowledge on several topics I had become rusty on, knowledge which I’ll now take back and apply to my writing. All in all, it was a very refreshing and rewarding experience, and this is just one example of things you can do to enrich your knowledge of the universe around you.

I would challenge any writer (aspiring or established) to remember that much of what they produce is drawn from within. The deeper the well, the greater the experience. Take a chance and see something new. As a bit of inspiration, I’ve included some of my favorite photos of my trip. Feel free to look and share. With any luck, you’ll soon be sharing your own memories as well.

A.C. Harrison
Like what you see here? Spread the word and support indie authors! Follow me on Facebook or Twitter. Find me on Smashwords and Kindlemojo. 

All work and no play makes me a dull boy. It certainly leaves me listless, stifles my creativity, and prevents me from seeing the outside world so that I can then reflect it in my writing. The point I’m trying to make is this: have a hobby. Nick Offerman prefers to call them ‘disciplines’, and I can agree with his point, that people hear the word ‘hobby’ and conjure up frivolous pursuits and time-wasting activities. The point he and I are trying to make is that you should take up something for the long term, something you can commit yourself to, something that you gain increased satisfaction with over time, that relieves you from your daily grind, and otherwise makes you a better person. Improve upon yourself. Learn a craft. It’s amazing the benefits you’ll find by really dedicating yourself to something. As to what that something is, that’s entirely up to you, and that’s one of the best parts.

If I were to sum up my core disciplines (hobbies), they would be motorsports and martial arts. I’d throw in music, but I just don’t have enough time to dedicate to playing guitar so I’ll file that under relaxation. A discipline, while fun, should still challenge you. I like disciplines that try both my mind and my body. There’s nothing quite as satisfying as being completely hands-on with something and gaining that visceral, tactile feedback. In both motorsports and martial arts, I’ve learned to expand my mind, to think outside the box, and to dedicate myself to long term goals, all things which will benefit the aspiring writer.

In my case, motorsports is a rather all-encompassing term that includes collecting cars, modifying them, showing them, driving them, and racing them. I’ve had the privilege to have some amazing experiences in automobiles, including time spent at the Bob Bondurant School of High Performance Driving. Which brings up another important point about taking on a discipline: expect to spend a lot of time working on your own, but seek out a teacher, a master, a mentor, a sensei, who can take you to that next level. I’ve spent time with men who have degrees in aerospace engineering just so I could become more technically proficient with turbocharger systems (and you really do have to think of the whole system). I’ve taken apart and put back together so many third-generation Toyota Supras that I can see the individual parts and fasteners in my head. I’ve broken things. I’ve burned myself. I’ve cursed and cheered. I’ve spent hour after hour after hour on the karting track, hunting down that last hundredth of a second. And while I wish I could spend more time doing this, I do it enough to keep growing, to keep pushing, so that I don’t become stagnant. I have my long term projects and my short term ones, but I never am lacking for things to do.

It’s quite possible that martial arts go beyond a discipline for me and have become a lifestyle. Once you’ve trained for 18 years (and taught for 14 of them), things become fairly engrained. One important thing to note about the martial arts side is that I have spent most of my time teaching it, which gives me a whole new understanding and appreciation of what exactly it is I’m doing. Martial arts as a discipline filters down to include cardio fitness and weight training. It expands outwards to include weapons, both ancient and modern. I’ve trained in bo, sai, katana alongside AR-15s and 1911s. Self-defense is the same, whether your hand is a balled fist, wrapped around a stick, or gripping a pistol. You gain an appreciation for life. You find that the best way to win a fight is to never be in it. Diffusing situations becomes a skill, one that you can use on yourself to calm down, or in the workplace to deal with a coworker who, frankly, should probably just shut up.

This may sound Spartan or come off as compensation, but the reality is I’m humbled by my experiences. I’ve learned so much from so many good people, some of which are no longer with us. I’ve grown as a human and certainly as an adult. I’ve gained social connections and lifelong friends. Martial arts even introduced me to my wife, and it was a fantastic day when I watched her earn her black belt after helping her train for so long.

Yes, I still do frivolous things. I waste time. I play video games, I watch movies, I dink around on my guitar. I’ll spend a weekend horsing around with friends, drinking single malt Scotch and smoking cigars. But those experiences are appreciated all the more from what I have gained in my disciplines. Without them, I would not be the person I am, I would not have the relationships I have, and I most certainly wouldn’t be the writer I've become.


A.C. Harrison
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