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Want to Meet a Writer Who Re-enacts Fantasy?

Today’s Wednesday feature book is

The Cost of Haven: Book 1 of the series The Great Cities, an epic fantasy/young adult novel by F.F.McCulligan.

He loves re-enacting, which means he fights in a martial sport in which participants don heavy armor and helmets and hit each other with sticks. The fighting is full speed and full force– without the armor, you would find yourself rapidly concussed and badly bruised. (Here’s a video that shows you the sport!) So when it comes to writing fantasy, this author is more experienced when it comes to medieval combat.f this intrigues you, read on to know more about the book!
Damyanti Biswas

Damyanti Biswas is the author of You Beneath Your Skin and numerous short stories that have been published in magazines and anthologies in the US, the UK, and Asia. She has been shortlisted for Best Small Fictions and Bath Novel Awards and is co-editor of the Forge Literary Magazine. Her literary crime thriller series, the Blue Mumbai, is represented by Lucienne Diver from The Knight Agency. Both The Blue Bar and The Blue Monsoon were published in 2023.

I appreciate comments, and I always visit back. If you're having trouble commenting, let me know via the contact form, or tweet me up @damyantig !

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18 Comments

  • That sense of realism probably rings true in your writing FF.

  • Ice Girl says:

    I'm not sure if this is my type of thing, but it caught my eye!

    • It definitely doesn't seem to be for everyone, but I think that no matter what kind of writing you do, there is some real benefit to living it on some level. Be it through recreation, work or research. Herman Melville went out on a whaling ship before writing moby dick! what I do is nothing so in depth as that.

  • Mousumi says:

    Sounds interesting epic fantasy. Thanks for the information

  • Seeta says:

    Interesting, not sure if it is my cup of tea but will give it a thought L(

    • Not everyone finds it exciting, thats for sure. It has become so natural to me that i forget how odd i am for wanting to be regularly clubbed…

  • I did some Civil War reenacting when my daughter was young. It made me very grateful for a nice hot bed and warm shower.

    • I know what you mean! I love the outdoors though, so it works in reverse for me as well. A hot shower and warm bed makes me grateful for a bright fire and stars overhead with a silent night's sleep ahead. I have spent over 500 nights camping for work and pleasure in my life and I hope to rack up more soon.

      FF

    • I bet you could write some killer fiction about the civil war as a result… ever done it? I had a friend who was into the civil war reenacting and it seemed like a pretty fun subculture to explore, though not a time period I much care to relive.

  • Damyanti, thanks for hosting my book on your blog, I've got the best numbers I've seen so far on amazon in terms of sales rank on the kindle for The Cost of Haven. I did not expect that!

    FF McCulligan

    • Damyanti says:

      You're very welcome. All I ask in return is you help other authors 🙂 — we all need to band together to promote our books to our readers!

  • Donna Hole says:

    I do love epic fantasy. If I ever participated in the re-enacting I'd probably be the dumpy tavern wench that smiles too much and makes lousy mutton stew 🙂

    …….dhole

    • I am glad the genre interests you, Donna. I hope you check out my work at some point. I don't really think anyone can smile too much by the way, but mutton stew is a sacred art form, dishonoring it is something we may need to discuss…

      The re-enacting world that I play in is called the Society for Creative Anachronism. It is a non-profit, educational organization that strives to bring back the best parts of the middle ages. The SCA is not only swords and helmets, we also do arts, sciences, crafts, calligraphy, music, dance, camping, period cooking, drinking…

      Its kind of like a renaissance faire except everyone is in on the action in whatever way they want to be, and no one is trying to charge you 20 bucks for a beer.

      So "wenches" are welcome, no matter the quality of their stew, the SCA is there to teach you how to make the stew better!

      FF McCulligan

  • Kelly Steel says:

    Great reading this post! Thanks for sharing!

  • Now that is dedicated to your craft!

    • Thank you Alex! The writing and the fighting work nicely together. But it isn't just walking out onto the battlefield that takes time and dedication, but also preparing the weapons and armor, repairing them when they break, helping others to do the same, practicing the moves and more… I don't necessarily fight because I write, but they are both passions of mine. Thanks for chiming in.
      FF McCulligan