Interview with C. David Belt part 2
Interview with C. David Belt part 2
In our previous talk with C. David Belt, we discussed his weapons collection as well as his passion for history. In our second part, we learn more about Mr. Belt’s writing, his history classes, how to get into contact with him to learn more, and why he loves Renaissance Faires.
Sword Experience (SXP): So, it seems like most of your classes are at Renaissance Faires. If people would like to experience your class, how would people know which Renaissance Faires you are attending, and how would people be able to take your writing class?
C. David Belt (CDB): I normally publish this on my website, unwillingchild.com. There is an events link, and there I will usually list where I’m going to be and what hours I’m going to be there. Of course, right now with the Coronavirus, it’s been very limited. I did my first class since February just last month and that was for a private event. They brought us out to do that. But, most of the writer’s conferences in and around Utah, I will teach at. Sometimes only every other year, but I’ve done the Life, The Universe, and Everything symposium. I’ve done Kanab Writer’s Conference. I’ve actually presented at Horror Con, which is like a Comic Con with a horror theme here in Utah. I do Wizarding Days. That’s a newer festival that is Harry Potter themed, but they’ve had me back two years in a row to present this, because it’s so popular. People come back to the shows, because I always have new stuff. Or I’ve always learned something new about something I’ve talked about before.
So, the website, the events link will have what’s upcoming, and right now things are shifting too much, so there’s nothing current posted on there. I’m expecting to do one in the Utah Renaissance Faire in August at Thanksgiving point in Utah. It’s a two-day event, and they want me back every year, so I’m happy to do that one. (Sadly, this faire was just canceled for 2020.)
SXP: Have you thought about doing any Zoom classes or anything like that considering the current state of things?
CDB: Well, I did actually film something for one of the local online high schools. Because they were supplying the studio and crew and so on, we had several of them dress up in various sets of armor and outfits. Roman, Viking, Thirteenth-century chain, so I’ve done that.
We filmed one of the classes at the Evanston Celtic Festival, I think it was last year. It got cancelled this year. I’ll also do personal sessions, with authors usually, because if we can’t physically get together, they want to see the weapons that they’re describing and see what some of the problems are with it. It’s kind of enlightening when you show them the balance point on a Roman Spatha for example, which is really bad, but then you explain why the sword was invented. The Romans needed a greater reach for their cavalry, so they invented the Spatha. But just because the sword looks cool, I wouldn’t pick it as my fantasy weapon unless you are trying to depict a Roman or Arthurian knight. So, I will do those sessions, but those are one-on-one.
SXP: And they can contact you on your website if they want to do a one-on-one?
CDB: Absolutely. There is an “about the author” link, and if you click on that and then “contact the author.” It goes directly to my email, and I answer questions all the time from folks, so there is a way to get ahold of me very easily.
SXP: And you said you’ve written several books as well, correct?
CDB: Yeah, I write what I would call Latter-day Saint horror. It’s horror with a strong Christian theme to it. I’ve got a vampire trilogy about an unwilling vampire. In my mythos, vampirism is a choice. No one can be forced into it. I’ve never liked the idea that you’re just in the wrong place at the wrong time, and you get bit on the neck, and you are damned forever. So, it’s always been voluntary, except for the male protagonist of the trilogy, who is the world’s first and only unwilling vampire. And how he got to that state, that’s part of the story. That one involves a lot of swords for the simple reason that there are only so many ways to kill a vampire. So, to defend themselves against each other, they would frequently use swords or axes or something of that nature. Because the surest way to kill a vampire is beheading. So, lots of sword fights, lots of swords from different eras.
Then I have something called The Sweet Sister set in modern-day Utah, but it doesn’t involve vampires. At least that isn’t obvious (about vampires). And I have a science-fiction novel out. It came out last year called Time’s Plague. No swords except for a homemade machete. But it’s set on one of the moons of Jupiter, so swords are not the most practical weapon.
I just came out with one set in First-century Roman Britannia, with a Roman officer, an Option, who is second-in-command of a centurion of eighty men, but is a convert to early Christianity, and he has to go face a demon. That’s called The Arawn Prophecy, and with that I was researching Roman military life. Specifically, in First-century Britain and the Boudiccan uprising and all the things that were fascinating about that. And because of doing that type of research on Roman weaponry of that period, I also wrote a non-fiction book on the whole Armor of God analogy that Paul uses, using the Roman imagery that his audience would relate with. Because as I researched all of this weaponry and armor, there’s all this symbolism built into it, and that was fascinating.
I have a new one coming out as soon as my publisher gets the edit back to me, called The Witch of White Lady Hollow, which is set in 1978 Southwest Missouri. It’s semi-autobiographical, except I’m not a girl and I’m not a witch. No swords or weapons in that, but the sequel is done and I’m waiting for the publisher on whether they are gonna pick that one up, because the first one hasn’t even come out, and that one is called The Witch and the Devourer of Souls. And currently I’m working on a book called The Executioner of God, which is about a Thirteenth-century Scottish Templar knight who is moving forward in history sixty years at a time in the company of a Fifteenth-century Irish nun, in pursuit of three witches. He never quite catches up to them and he eventually ends up in Twenty-first-century Utah. It will tie all my horror books, except for the witch series, together.
SXP: So, if you’re interested in reading these books, how would one go about finding them?
CDB: They’re on Amazon and Barnes & Noble, Kindle and paperback. They are also available on my website, unwillingchild.com. There’s a couple of links to Amazon and Barnes & Noble and iTunes and so on. But there’s also a link to order an autographed copy, which I will sell at the normal price plus priority shipping. But yeah, they are available. I’ve seen them in bookstores, not very commonly, but I have seen them in bookstores.
SXP: That’s awesome, congratulations by the way.
CDB: I was thrilled!
SXP: Absolutely, that’s a huge deal. So, for my last question, I wanted to ask you about Renaissance Faires. Obviously, you’ve been going to them for a while now, but there may be some people that are a little hesitant to go. For those people, how would you sell it to them?
CDB: Just come and have fun! Some people dress up… a lot of people dress up. Most people don’t, so just come and have fun. There are so many things to see. This one that I’m doing in August is just a delight. They have jousting. Most of them are professional jousters. They make their living doing this. There’s a Shakespearean play put on each night. You know, William Shakespeare himself is walking around and conversing with people. And the music! I love music.
If the Ren Faire is not quite your thing, we’ve done the Celtic festival in Evanston, Wyoming for a few years. That’s a much more low-key thing, and a lot of people come for the music. There’s nothing like a Celtic band or Celtic rock group or traditional Celtic singers. We’re just starting to do the one in Moab, Utah called Scots on the Rocks. Last year was my first year going and we didn’t do the full show. We’ll see if they progress to wanting the rest of it, but yeah, Ren Faires are just entertainment. Yeah, you’re gonna find folks dressed up in various ways. They may be pirates, they may be fairies, they may be Scotsmen. You see a lot of kilts, but you don’t have to play along. And Ren Faires run the gamut. You have ones that are totally immersive, where you are immersed in the story, and all the players are moving around and things are happening around you. Including sword fights and so on. Then you have ones that are just basically you just go and visit the various booths and tents and… There’s actually a Viking ship builder here in the area, and he shows how Viking ships were built. He’s there, working on one.
So, if you like history at all, enjoy that. If you like fantasy, enjoy that. And if you just want to come and see something just really different, that’s fun too.
Ghost of Tsushima Review
Ghost of Tsushima is an open world Action-Adventure game from Sucker Punch Productions. Set in 13th Century Japan on Tsushima Island, the game centers around a young samurai warrior, Jin Sakai, as he comes face to face with a Mongolian invasion led by the dangerous and brutal Khotun Khan. After a devastating defeat at the hands of the Mongols, and with Jin’s uncle, Lord Shimura captured, Jin must adopt less traditional means of a samurai to stop this devastating force and free his people from Mongol rule.
It must be first noted how absolutely gorgeous the open world of Tsushima is. Sucker Punch has done an incredible job filling the landscape with intricate details. The trees sway in the wind beautifully as a cascade of leaves flutter about. The amount of particle effects on display is quite astounding and pushes the limits of what can be onscreen in this generation of consoles. What the Red Dead Redemption series did in recreating the visual aesthetics of late 19th Century America, Ghost of Tsushima has done the same for 13th Century Japan. It cannot be stated enough just how beautiful this game looks. The color pallet in this game is so incredibly wide and well utilized that at no point will you become bored with the same bland looking environments. Visually, the world feels alive, but visuals do not make the game. Does it actually play well?
The answer to that question is a mixed yes. There are two approaches to gameplay in for Ghost of Tsushima, confrontational and stealth. When it comes to the confrontational gameplay style, Ghost of Tsushima excels tremendously. As you progress through the game, you will unlock various skills, stances, and weapons to dispose of all of your enemies in a quick and deadly fashion. Using your assortment of weapons and skills to take out swaths of enemies never gets old or tiresome. You can start an encounter by initiating a “Standoff.” Enemies surround you as one enemy approaches. These instances feel like a game of cat and mouse as you wait patiently for your enemy to attack before striking a deadly blow with your katana. Enemies will attempt to force you to attack first by feinting an attack to draw you in to deliver a near fatal blow, which puts you at a severe disadvantage in combat afterwards. From there, it’s up to you to choose how to dispatch your foes. You can throw a kunai which breaks your enemy’s guard in order to strike. You can time your parry’s perfectly to deliver an instant kill. You can unleash one of several devastating moves to dispatch multiple enemies at once. There is a lot of creative leeway in how you approach direct combat. Which makes the stealth gameplay feel like more of an afterthought than anything else.
Stealth is the least fun aspect of Ghost of Tsushima, which becomes all the more glaring when certain story missions force stealth onto the player. There is nothing unique or interesting about the stealth, which is a shame considering that this is coming from the makers of the Sly Cooper franchise, which was a fun stealth platformer from the PS2 era. There could have been endless opportunities with the stealth in this game, and it is a shame that so much of it is simply stay behind this character until you’re close enough to stab him. It really slows down the pace of an otherwise fast paced game. But this is a minor complaint considering that stealth missions are few and far between and the game tends to leave players to their own devices when choosing how to deal with enemies in the open world.
As far as the open world is concerned, Ghost of Tsushima doesn’t do much to break the formula of the open world game, but it does refine some aspects of it. First, the waypoint system is one of the greatest systems ever implemented in open world gaming. Gone is the radar system. Gone is the blip on the screen that you have to run towards. Instead, Sucker Punch has created the “Guiding Wind” system, which revolutionizes how players traverse the open world. How this works is you place a waypoint on your map in the menu screen. Instead of that waypoint cluttering up the screen as it does in most open world games, you must follow the direction of the wind. This does two things for the game. First, it minimizes the amount of pop ups onscreen which allows the player to fully appreciate the scenery of the world. Second, it showcases just how incredible the physics system of Ghost of Tsushima is. Not sure where to go? Just look at the direction the grass waving in. It’s truly a remarkable navigation system and it also allows for the player to discover the secret areas of Ghost of Tsushima on their own. And there are a lot of secrets to uncover. While some have complained that the various diversions overstay their welcome, this reviewer found them to be wonderful distractions from the quests and showed an attention to detail in the nooks and crannies that encompass the island of Tsushima. But when you just want to get somewhere quickly and are tired of running around open fields to your destination, Ghost of Tsushima has one of the best fast travel systems to date. Gone is the five-minute long load times associated with most fast travel systems in open world games. You’ll barely have enough time to read the tip on the load screen before being plopped in front of your destination. This is a welcome reprieve for people that just want to get through the game quickly, though doing so may make you miss some exciting fights and random encounters.
Another fun aspect in gameplay are the duels. Duels act as a sort of boss fight between Jin and one other character. These battles are usually much more intense than your standard sword fight as they require you to pay more attention to your dueling partners moves. As the game progresses, these duels become a lot easier when you have more tools at your disposal, but early on they can be brutal and unforgiving at times. That being said, these duels give way to some of the most cinematic moments in the game. As a side note, if you successfully complete all the duels in the game, you are rewarded with a trophy titled “There Can Be Only One.” So, while Ghost of Tsushima drew a lot of inspiration from early samurai films, clearly the developers had a love for the Highlander series and used some of those duels as inspiration.
As far as story is concerned, Ghost of Tsushima tells a surprisingly well-crafted story. While the first introduction of villain Khotun Khan seems almost text book bad guy, as the story progresses, Khotun Khan becomes a villain with depth. Khotun Khan understands his enemies and how they operate and uses their pride and their honor against them in strategic and terrifying ways. Many villains in video games are boiler plate baddies, but there is a subtleness and deftness to how this villain operates that sets him above the rest. Speaking of subtleness, there are several side quests that deal with heavy issues such as child molestation or a homosexual relationship that in other games may have come across as heavy handed, but Ghost of Tsushima is able to navigate these ideas in incredibly precise ways without telling the audience specifically what is happening. This does not happen in all the side quests as one involving dementia becomes a little too on the nose for the topic, but there are very minute details sprinkled throughout the various quests and side quests that make the story of Ghost of Tsushima work and call for repeat playthroughs.
We’ve already mentioned in our previous blog about the Kurosawa mode, which makes the game black and white, adds a film grain filter, ups the wind settings, and changes the frame rate, but the question is, does it truly add anything to the game? The answer is a simple no. While it’s a neat feature, frankly it detracts a bit from the game. First, it’s already been mentioned that the color palate for the game is absolutely breathtaking and is a true site to behold. Placing the game in black and white simply eliminates this aspect of the game. It also becomes much more difficult to see when entering a building. It may be something fun to mess with when doing a second playthrough, but we certainly wouldn’t recommend it on your first.
Overall, Ghost of Tsushima is a wonderful open world Action-Adventure game. It never overstays it’s welcome and it creates a beautiful world that is fun to explore with an engaging and deep combat system that overshadows its weak stealth counterpart. We’d definitely recommend this game to fans of open world games, or classic samurai films. On a scale of 1 to 10, we’d give this a solid 9.5/10.
We’re Getting Back into the Swing of Things
Well, ladies and gentlemen, after months in quarantine, we’ve just had our first successful Sword Experience Event in Santa Clara on August 1st. We’ve been working diligently in an effort to bring back the best fitness and travel event in the world, while also keeping your health and safety in mind. Thank you to everyone that participated in our Santa Clara event and thank you for sticking with us while we figured out the complexities of these crazy times. We are excited to finally be getting back to what we love to do by bringing fitness and fun together with sword training and sword choreography. We have another event lined up this year in Pittsburgh and we can’t wait to see more of your smiling, but masked, faces! We’re still working on getting our Lakeland event off the ground, and will let you know as soon as possible when we’ve secured a venue and date!
