Everybody Was Kung-Fu Fighting
The best workouts I have ever had in my entire life were the ones I endured for kick boxing and Muay Thai classes in my early twenties. Absolutely fantastic. They were the most fun, the most demanding, and gave me the best physical results I have ever had in my life from exercise as an adult. The unexpected benefit? A sense of badass confidence when walking down the street. This was the feeling I wanted my character Cecilia “Ceci” Bradford to have in Dreams of a Wild Heart.
There was no mercy. There was no pity. There was no empathy or sympathy from my instructors. From the moment I began taking these classes, I was perpetually sore. Push-ups (and not the girl kind because they weren’t allowed) were a challenge, where I could maybe do one or two full and complete ones to begin with. Burning muscles accompanied my every step forward, my every reach. Who knew you needed shoulder muscles to keep your hands up in a fighting stance? I never sweat so hard or slept so well on a daily basis, and before long, I began noticing changes.
I could do more push-ups. Good ones. Strong ones. Then, my legs didn’t burn so much, they started feeling like I was walking on springs. And when I did a roundhouse kick to the heavy bag, it made a great, satisfying, cracking sound that echoed in the gym. Another great result? I could jump rope like a pro, looking all Rocky Balboa-like. The extra few pounds I’d carried for most of my life, not a lot but enough to give a friendly jiggle, just melted away almost visibly, day-by-day until one day I looked in the mirror and saw that I had a faint six pack where my stomach used to be. 
Okay, and this is wrong of me, I know, but there was a part of me as I walked down the street that silently dared anyone to try and f*ck with me, not that I really wanted anyone to attack me. More than anything, this is just evidence that I walked with more confidence, and from what I’ve been told, most attackers look for someone who has more of a meek, uncertain mannerism. A funny side note: My husband and my first date was to a muay thai fight.
In Dreams of a Wild Heart, Ceci worked her *ss off to finish school early, work as a trauma ward physician and immerse herself with anything that would keep her from remembering the tragedy of her past, and one of those activities was mixed martial arts. Her best friend since birth, she and Carlos were inseparable, even moving on to more than just friends as they got into high school, but he was killed when she was just seventeen, leaving her with a yawning emptiness. She filled it with work, study, hobbies, doing everything to keep herself from having to think until Tabron, a dark, brooding soldier, brings a spark back to her life, though he’s got secrets that are from out of this world. Literally.
A few of my favorite scenes in Dreams of a Wild Heart are action scenes and include Ceci using her mixed martial arts skills, kickboxing and jujitsu. I wanted her be a strong, confident, I’ll-do-it-myself kind of heroine, and she surprises the Braussian warriors on the planet Te`re by defending herself with modern moves when they’re a dying culture stuck in what we would call the Middle Ages. She doesn’t wait to be rescued. She doesn’t need to look for the big, strong man to save her. She meets her match with Tabron, a big, strong man who ultimately can’t deny that he’s drawn to exactly the kind of woman she is.
Thanks so much for taking time with me today. I’d love to hear from you. Have you ever tried a martial arts class? If so, how did you like it? If not, would you want to?
New Release!
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Dr. Cecilia—Ceci— Bradford at your service.
I dance, rock climb, and have mastered MMA, because just being a twenty-six-year-old doctor isn’t enough. It doesn’t keep me from remembering the terrifying night my life changed, the night my true love died. I was nearly seventeen.
Life goes on, but the secret I keep is that I still talk to him in my dreams. That was getting me by until Tabron showed up—or, more specifically, until the six-foot-two brute of a Viking whisked me off to another planet because his leader is dying. And the joy didn’t end there. I’m being forced to choose a mate. The Brausa are facing extinction.
Tabron has no need for a mate, himself, and he’s told me as much. Multiple times. What he does have are hands and wicked lips that stir feelings I thought lost forever. Choosing him (just to play along until I can find a way home) seems to irk him and I find this surprisingly fun. But surviving a hidden conspiracy and the dangers of this alien place might be more difficult than I could ever imagine…
Book Three of The Dreamwalkers
