James -

One question - When I buy your books (and I'm getting more and more interested in having a collection of them) what's the most beneficial way to you? Is there some "more direct" way that gets a bigger percentage of the price to you? Or is it just as OK to go through Amazon or another distributor?

Meanwhile, I'm enjoying the blogs on your site and read them and the links assiduously.

For my own case, I'm reminded of Robert Louis Stevenson's passage from

"Kidnapped" -

"In any by-time Alan must teach me to use my sword, for my ignorance had much distressed him; and I think besides, as I had sometimes the upper-hand of him in the fishing, he was not sorry to turn to an exercise where he had so much the upper-hand of me. He made it somewhat more of a pain than need have been, for he stormed at me all through the lessons in a very violent manner of scolding, and would push me so close that I made sure he must run me through the body. I was often tempted to turn tail, but held my ground for all that, and got some profit of my lessons; if it was but to stand on guard with an assured countenance, which is often all that is required. So, though I could never in the least please my master, I was not altogether displeased with myself."

I have sometimes gotten myself out of trouble by "standing on guard with an assured countenance" - at 6'2" 260 pounds, people often think I'm more than I am, although I've gotten my tail whipped twice in my life by small, motivated men by forgetting the "stay out of a fight if you can" rule. Too old to forget that any more!

But I'm starting at "ground zero", essentially, when it comes to defending myself. I'm doing my best to learn the basics of defending myself with whatever I have or can carry in the circumstances.

Thanks again for your ongoing advice, experience, and motivation!

La Mano, [My Latina slave girl told me that this was the correct form, rather than El Mano—so I apologize senor.]

If you wish copies of the print books than purchasing them through amazon gets me roughly a quarter of the cover price, but does not cost me anything. If only buying a book or two you might as well buy through amazon. However, if you want to buy a mess of them, then send me a donation for half the cover price on each. I can purchase these books at roughly 30% of the retail, but have to pay to ship it to you. So once you hit three books, you might want to paypal through our site and then have me ship them to you.

If you are buying e-books, it costs me nothing to ship, so, of course, if you paid me directly I'd make double, as the kindle books are usually more profitable, netting me 50% of the lesser cover price, especially if you are overseas. So, if you want a bunch of PDFs just send the kindle cover price into our donation bin and email what titles you want and they will be their as soon as I log into my email.

As for beginning your training from scratch, try this with your ex-marine son.

Have him approach you with an outstretched hand and practice checking his hand by doing a cupped-hand tactile slap of his forearm with your hand closest to the outside of his reaching hand and pivoting away off the foot under the hand you used for checking. The object is to end up outside of his lead hand, not between both of his hands. Then have him come towards you with a dipped shoulder, like he is going to put it in your chest. He can roll his shoulders from side to side. Use that cupped hand to check his shoulder and push yourself away, always to the outside behind his shoulder, trying to glide on the balls of your feet.

Advances this drill with your son, in slow motion, trying to grab you, and you checking and pushing off while accessing your gun [which will be empty during the drill, of course.]

Your size is an asset, unless you are dealing with a short creep like me. Your greatest danger is getting sucker punched in the chin while in a verbal confrontation, usually by a smaller man. The most important thing I've written on that is in Thriving in Bad Places, which is all about pre-fight avoidance and early-stage contact management. The prequel and sequel to that book are When You're Food and Waking Up in Indian Country

Good luck, La Mano.