"THROUGH HER, ALL LIFE COMES AND YET DEATH IS HER DOMAIN"

Such is Moi power that...that....the martial arts even come to engage with Moi loving poetics! To wit, Meritage Press's last book to be released in 2006 will be the groundbreaking KALI'S BLADE by poet and black-belt kali master (not to mention Jedi in Star Wars) Michelle Bautista. With that, what do you do for a blurb? You get Grandmaster himself:

"She is deep, she is dark, she is unseen. She is the Goddess of both death and destruction, and birth and creativity. Through her all life comes and yet, death is her domain.

Kali is a duality...a beautiful woman that hides a secret. Hidden from all to see, she keeps her weapon near her belly. It is the power that is her fury. A two-edged knife... whose glint of light is best kept in the dark, before it pierces."
--Grandmaster Joseph T. Oliva Arriola, Kamatuuran School of Kali on KALI BLADE by Michelle Bautista

Which is all to say -- this explains the logic of this cutting-edge Author Photo:



This lady can take down three -- was it four? -- men in open-hand combat. I won't say her pen is mightier than her sword; I will say the sum of her pen and sword is greater than two -- a menage, oh Reader, with YOU.

*****

Meanwhile, Jerrold Shiroma just put up my latest book link at the Meritage Press web site for Bruna Mori and Matthew Kinney's Dérive. One down, one to go and Meritage Press ends the year with the power of the martial arts! Yeah.