Tag Archives: cabal fang

I Broke into the Top 10?

Posted on June 30, 2014 | Leave a comment
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The Cabal Fang Martial Arts Manual at #4 in Martial Arts, top downloads

As I mentioned the other day, my eBook sales are up markedly.  So I decided to go and see if I made the Top 100 anywhere.

Obviously it’s my martial arts books that are most popular — and I’m very proud and excited about that — but I’m a little bummed about my how my fiction is performing.  Do I suck at fiction?  Or is it just that I’m a smaller fish in a larger pond when it comes to the fiction market?

Hopefully The 14th Mansion will break out and change all that.  Fingers crossed.  Release day is tomorrow, and the anticipation is killing me…

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Posted in Martial arts, Mysticism, Writing

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Book Sales up 600%

Posted on June 24, 2014 | 2 comments

CF_avatarI don’t know what happened.  Was it something I did, or something I stopped doing?  Whatever it is/was, but my book sales are up 600% in the last 30 days.

Now, when sales are as low as mine the figures are easily skewed by just a few sales.  That’s a fact.  But the trend has been up for several weeks in a row.  The increase — all of it — came from a spike in my martial arts books sales.  What is it about those that’s suddenly getting traction?  Search me.  All I know is, I’m thrilled.

If you’re a fan of my non-fiction martial arts books, let me first say thank you, thank you, thank you!  Which book was your favorite? Please comment below.

And, by the way, I have two fitness books in the pipeline — one on calisthenics and one on weight loss and getting cut.  Is either of those of interest to you?

 

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Martial Arts Mash-up

Posted on April 18, 2014 | Leave a comment

Update 7/18/19:  My club still uses the flag but we’re now called Cabal Fang Temple, and we’re a 501(c)(3) non-profit educational charity.  Visit our website or purchase our 12-week personal growth program at Smashwords, Amazon, B&N, or wherever fine e-books are sold.

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Original post:

CF_avatarThe whole is more than the sum of its parts.  Green Goddess Dressing is more than mayo and chives.  And it’s more than anchovies.  It’s unique.

The martial art known as Cabal Fang is like Green Goddess Dressing.  It might not be the most popular salad dressing, but it’s one of the most unique.

cf_FLOWCHARTAfter over 20 years in various martial arts — none of which really made me happy, satisfied, and whole — I started Cabal Fang.  I began with what I liked best from Western martial arts and Eastern martial arts.  Then I added the universal spirituality of the Western mystery tradition (initiation and lodge studies) and gave it a good stir.   Voila — there’s your Green Goddess.

Some people, like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, have a thing about anchovies, and won’t even try Green Goddess.  To the folks who have a similar reaction to an ingredient in the Cabal Fang recipe, I say the same thing I say to people who won’t try Green Goddess Dressing:

“It has anchovies in it, but it doesn’t taste like anchovies.  How do you know you don’t like it if you haven’t tried it?”

If you want to experience Cabal Fang you have two options:

If you want to experience something different, grab yourself by the short hairs,  and get yourself in shape, there’s literally nothing else like it.

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Posted in Martial arts, Mysticism

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2014 Workouts Scheduled!

Posted on January 26, 2014 | Leave a comment

For those of you who followed my twice weekly Cabal Fang WODs (“workouts of the day”) last year, I have now pre-scheduled a new batch for 2014.  I apologize for the month-and-a-half lag getting them going again.

I tweet these things too.  So, if you’d prefer to get them that way, just follow me (@12thkey).  Here’s what they look like:

They aren’t technically WODs because (1) they’re not daily, they’re just twice weekly — duh! and (2) WODs are a CrossFit thing, and I’m not a CrossFitter.  These workouts are meant to supplement martial arts training (especially Cabal Fang martial arts training).  I just called them “WODs” because, well, it seemed to make sense at the time.  Got a better name for them?  Make a suggestion.

 

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Cabal Fang, State of the Art

Posted on October 31, 2013 | Leave a comment

IMG_20121109_132322In 2008 I had an idea.  I could, based on my training in martial arts, hermeticism, mysticism and initiatory practice, found a new Western martial art unlike anything the world had ever known.  I thought it over long and hard.  Ask my friends, my wife, and my son.  I knew it would be difficult, that I’d face seemingly insurmountable barriers, that it might never take off.  Failure was definitely possible.

And that wasn’t all.  Even worse than some kind of failure there was the knowledge that when you create a martial art, you create a weapon.  How will it be used?  Who will it help or even harm?  Funakoshi basically created Karate — how did he deal with the possibility that his students could kill with the techniques he promulgated?

In the end I decided that I had to move forward.  Two things have happened in the last couple of weeks that make me feel that I made the right decision, that Cabal Fang is succeeding, that it’s on the right track.

A total stranger posted this in the Cabal Fang group on Facebook:

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The Dr. Stetson he’s referring to is Dr. Stetson Kennedy, the writer and activist who broke the back of the Ku Klux Klan.  The library he’s referring to is the Civic Media Center of Gainesville, FL.  Words can’t express how happy I am to have Cabal Fang mentioned in the same breath with with Dr. Kennedy and the CMC.

Cabal Fang, the child I gave birth to in 2008, is growing up.  She’s affecting people’s lives for the better.  And this proud papa just loves the way she’s turning out.

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Counterpunching Drills

Posted on June 14, 2013 | Leave a comment

The guys and I put together a few videos illustrating some of our favorite counterpunching drills.  Check them out on youtube.

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What Cabal Fang Looks Like

Posted on May 20, 2013 | Leave a comment

“What exactly do you guys do out there at the park?” is a question I get asked a fair amount when I tell folks about the martial arts club.

So I shot a video.  This is us throwing an intro session for a few people trying out Cabal Fang for the first time.

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WOD Project – 1st Post and Abbreviation Key

Posted on April 24, 2013 | 1 comment

I reached into my workout logs, pulled out some of my faves, converted them to a .csv file, and imported them into scheduled posts – just in case there are followers who want to shake up their workout routine a couple of times a week.

WODs will be showing up at noon on Wednesdays and Sundays through the end of the year.

I will be using the following abbreviations:

AFAYC = “As fast as you can”  AHAYC = “As hard as you can”  AMAYC = “As many as you can”  AMRAYC = “As many rounds as you can.”

Here’s the first WOD:

Dirty Dogs 25/side,Steam Engines 100,Pushups 50,Mtn Climbers 100,Jump Squats 100,Bear Sprint 100m,P/ups knuckle 40 @cabal_fang #WOD

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Fairy Pool Surprise

Posted on April 24, 2013 | 2 comments
Fairy Pool at Bryan Park

Fairy Pool at Bryan Park

The first of the Five Vital Graces of Cabal Fang is Wonder.

A powerful sense of wonder inoculates against cynicism, encourages empathy and peace, and generally makes the colors of the world around seem brighter.

On a whim, with a few minutes to spare, I pulled the truck into the park and took a walk.  I saw may wondrous things, amazing things really.

Can I prove that, when I’m not around, fairies play in splash in this pool?  Of course not.  But I can imagine that they do.  I can hope that they do.  Because a world with fairy pools in it is a much more interesting world than a world without them.

And then I can go get back in the truck, and I run my errands.  I go and practice martial arts and think about self defense, and all the dangers and horrors that the world around me threatens.

But through it all I know that for every evil in the world there are a thousand beauties, and miracles, and wonders seen and unseen.

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Posted in Green, Writing

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We Are The Order of Seven Hills Martial Arts Club

Posted on March 15, 2013 | Leave a comment
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The Flag of The Order of Seven Hills

Update 7/18/19:  My club still uses the flag but we’re now called Cabal Fang Temple, and we’re a 501(c)(3) non-profit educational charity.  Visit our website or purchase our 12-week personal growth program at Smashwords, Amazon, B&N, or wherever fine e-books are sold.

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Original post:

This is our flag.

We are the Order of Seven Hills martial arts club, and this photo was taken on Saturday 3/2/13 at Petronius S. Jones Park on Idlewood Ave. in Richmond, VA.

Next month will be our 3rd anniversary.  For three years we have met outdoors, twice a week, rain or shine in all four seasons, for an hour of martial arts practice followed by half an hour of savage calisthenics.

We are not superhuman commandos or ex-Navy Seals.  We are just a bunch of guys from all walks of life, some thick and some thin, some young and some old, getting fit enough to defend ourselves and our loved ones, cultivating our character, and expanding our minds.

We have frozen in cold dark night and baked in the hot afternoon sun.  We have boxed, wrestled, attacked with and defended against wooden sticks and knives, practiced gun disarms with airsoft guns, drilled and dissected martial techniques of every description, tested ourselves against multiple attackers, subjected ourselves to savage gauntlets, pressed 10′ logs overhead, slammed, tossed, and hefted tires, told stories around fires in the dark, faced enlightening initiations, and anointed our heads with oil.

We are The Order of Seven Hills. 

We meet on Tuesdays from 7:00 to 8:30 PM at West End Manor Civic Association, 8600 Lakefront Drive, Henrico, VA 23294-6100.  Saturdays from 3:30 to 5:00 PM we meet at Petronius S. Jones Park on Idlewood Avenue near VCU.

Membership is open to anyone over 18 years of age.  We are a club not a business, so there’s no charge.  Just come and work out with us.  If you stick around we’ll ask you to sign the scroll and you’ll become an official member.

Our martial art is called Cabal Fang.  To learn more about Cabal Fang or connect with us, here are some helpful links:

Cabal Fang info site on Tumblr
Cabal Fang Members on Tumblr
Cabal Fang on Twitter
Cabal Fang Martial Arts Group on Facebook

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