FREE E-BOOKS FOR A MONTH!

As a thank you gift to my long-suffering and oh-so-patient audience, here’s free downloads for the first two chapters of the next book, THREE’S WYLDE. Just go here:

http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/306911 and then enter this code: LJ94P

and then go here:

http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/309900 and then enter this code: EK95Q

and you can download the e-chapters in ALL electronic formats: Kindle, Nook, PDF, Sony, Kobo, Diesel, etc.

Feel free to distribute as you like — good for a month!

Thanks for being so patient!

cheers, m

That Whole Fiction Writer Thingy Update, too…

I finished the first-words-on-page-draft of the urban fantasy I’m working on for Baen Books; I have the revision in hand with a due date around the end of the year. Assuming I get everything done on time (a dangerous assumption, given the chaotic nature of my life these days) an electronic advanced reading copy (an essentially unedited version of the final manuscript in an e-book format) will be available sometime February-March 2014, followed by a full release in paperback (yes, folks, a REAL book) and electronic versions in November 2014. So a whole year out. It’s traditional publishing! I’m having a lot of fun with it and I hope that you will as well.

The WYLDE books? Man, I’m sorry to all of you waiting for more chapters on THREE’S WYLDE — I put that on hiatus while I tend to real-life problems, but the plan is to put that out, in full, in the next two months. Stay tuned here, on my Google+ and Twitter feeds for updates as I go along with that.

I’ll also have some observations from the perspective of being a hybrid author (an author who’s had a traditional book deal, went to independent and then returned, at least partially, to traditional publishing). As Jerry said, “…what a long, strange trip it’s been…”

Also several of my friends are joining me — more on that when we get press releases cleared, etc. Stay tuned and thanks for reading!

Another Neural-Based Shooting Exercise

While I’m on a roll today, I thought I’d share another shooting-oriented exercise from the Marcus Bag of Tricks. Caveat as always — I’m not a firearms instructor, I work on enhancing performance in people who have to perform under high stress, and some of them carry guns and shoot bad people, so I have the opportunity to test this stuff out. Smiting evil and all that, you know?

GOAL: Enhance speed of drawstroke by improving bio-mechanical efficiency through improving visual and kinesthetic processing.

This exercise assumes the shooter has previously been trained on the handgun drawstroke. With modifications, can be utilized to quickly train the novice in handgun drawstroke.

1. Review elements of draw stroke.
2. Draw with eyes open. Pay attention to FEELING of body (kinesthetics) while drawing.
3. Reholster.
4. Draw with eyes open. Pay attention to FEELING.
5. When sights are aligned, and everything FEELS right, close eyes. Break shot.
6. Open eyes. Check body position, sight alignment. Shot where it’s supposed to be? Yes, proceed. No, repeat until your shot is where you were aiming when you CLOSED your eyes. Pay attention to what you FEEL — the kinesthetics — and utilize appropriate visualization (scroll down through this blog and find the post on SHOOTING WITH THE MIND’S EYE).
7. When you can consistently place the shot with your eyes closed, after steering in with your eyes, continue.
8. Now do the entire draw stroke eyes CLOSED. FEEL the process. Open your eyes when you feel you are in alignment. If yes, proceed. If not, make any adjustments as necessary until you can consistently draw with your eyes closed and have your sights aligned with your aiming point on the target.
9. When you can consistently do this, then add the shot. Eyes closed. Repeat until you are hitting your aiming point with your eyes closed…through the entire firing stroke.

Training Points:
Don’t overthink this. Pay attention to your kinesthetics.
If you’re doing this alone, be cautious of your muzzle and who’s around you.
If you’re coaching someone on this, be cautious of their muzzle and who’s around you both.
When done properly, this exercise refines the kinesthetic map of the drawstroke, smoothing out the presentation and making it more efficient. Fast way to shave a lot off your time from holster to first shot.

Random Thoughts and Numbers re: Neural-Based Firearms

I’ve been channeling Milton (and the Bible) and going to-and-fro in the world as of late, working hard to get myself out of the black hole of debt and spreading the gospel of neural-based training. I thought I’d share a few high-lights from recent trainings with you, as in specific performance milestones reached by the excellent participants in various events.

Shooter A (experienced IDPA/IPSC shooter): Took baseline for from the holster to clearing a plate rack from around 3.1 seconds down to 2.4…consistently. Was able to call shot correction in real-time and adjust accordingly. Shaved significant increments off presentation time.

Shooter J (well-trained street oriented defensive shooter): shot personal best from concealment with carry pistol — 1.98 from deep concealment to shot placement in 1.5 inch circle @ 7 yards. Shaved approximately one second off baseline from concealment with enhanced accuracy. Able to shoot faster and better from any position.

Shooters M+J (entry level IDPA/IPSC competitors): Shaved TWO SECONDS off their baseline presentation from holster to aimed shots inside three inch circle @ 7 yards. Went from 4.9 to 2.9 consistently. Increased accuracy under stress.

Shooter M1(intermediate street-oriented defensive shooter): Shaved a second off baseline for deep concealment draw — 2.9 to 1.9 consistently. Modified deeply ingrained bad habits immediately through visualization (grip, stance, head position). Able to consistently hit six-inch steel plates at speed from 35 yards while under stress (personal first) and engage human sized steel silhouette at 100 yards with .45 ACP DA/SA pistol.

A recurring theme in comments from participants: “I didn’t believe I could do this…(this fast, this kind of technique, this anything…). Through personal experience they were able to achieve dramatic and immediate results, and now their belief maps are rewritten.

Random thoughts:
* Installing advanced skill-sets directly into the other-than-conscious mind without filtering through conscious mind (traditional instruction methodology) results in dramatic improvements that come out UNDER stress…”I didn’t know I could do that.” One of the fundamental principles of accelerated learning; the methodology bypasses the levels of unconscious incompetence and conscious incompetence and conscious competence by going directly to unconscious competence. Demonstrated and validated immediately under stress.

*Pressure testing any life-saving skill IMMEDIATELY under stress accelerates the learning and integration of the skill into existing neural nets around life-saving skill(s) sets.

*Identifying existing neural-nodes of existing motor programs and integrating new motor programs into those nodes (like something as simple as the walking motor program) dramatically accelerates not only the acquisition of a new motor skill, but also the retention and more to the point, the accessibility of that skill set while the operator is under stress.

*Construction/creation of neural-based training requires a redefinition of what constitutes “Safety” — in other words, the higher fidelity a reality simulation has externally, the less safe it APPEARS (though in real terms it may be completely safe); coupled with the appropriate use by the person undergoing the training of state-management technique (self-eliciting stress so as to facilitate control of it) creates the experience of danger/non-safety — but in a safe way. Make sense, LOL?

*Perfect is the enemy of good enough. Neural-based training to install life-saving skills will never LOOK perfect/cleanly focused with excellent form at first. But then, real fights are never pretty, perfect, cleanly focused and with excellent form, either.