Teacher shares distinct hobbies

Jaske shows Green Valley High students her love for fencing, writing

Advertisement

It's pretty hard to say no to a person with a sword in her hands, even if it is Kat Jaske, a mild mannered French teacher at Green Valley High School. Jaske, a published author, strapped on her fencing shoes in order to encourage students to read during a Nevada Reading Week activity.

She presented information about two of her passions -- writing and fencing -- to a group of English and creative writing students. The presentation was part of Green Valley High School's reading incentive program. Administrators have an author come each year and this year the guest author did not have to come far. She just had to make her way from her classroom to the theater.

There she taught students about the different types of weapons used in the sport of fencing and talked about reading and writing.

Jaske has been participating in the sport of fencing for quite some time and writing novels for even longer than that.

"The first time I actually tried to sit down and write something long was when I was 9 years old," she said. "That long story actually became my first novel, which I finished in high school."

She started fencing as a college student at Wake Forest University in North Carolina. A friend invited her to try it and she has enjoyed it ever since. She said her interest in fencing started in childhood.

"It goes back probably to 'Star Wars,' watching the light sabers," Jaske said. "That's sword fighting right there and I always loved that."

It's not surprising then that her novels, "For Honor" and "Gambit; For Love of a Queen," are set in swashbuckling 17th century France. The initial set-up for the books, which are part of a series, is framed around a female character, Laurel, whose father is a famous spy. Laurel decides to help her father when it is discovered that her father's nemesis is plotting to kill the king. The second book takes place about a year after the resolution of the events in the first book. Laurel continues her interest in spy work and tries to help find the queen of France, who has been kidnapped. Both stories are woven together with traditional tales of the Three Musketeers.

Jaske said she has enjoyed writing the novels, which include quite a bit of French history, but are based on fictional characters.

"I always liked fiction best, whether it was historical fiction, swashbuckling or sci-fi," she said.

The third book in the series, now in the editing process, has quite a bit of science fiction in it. In that book, people from 17th century France will be brought into the year 2060 through various plot twists.

She said writing takes an active imagination, a lot of reading, and a lot of research. It also takes determination to complete a book.

"It's hard to finish them. A lot of people start them," Jaske said.

Now in her second year of teaching at Green Valley High School, Jaske said her students often give her plot twist ideas and character development ideas, with or without trying.

"Ideas come from everywhere and there are some interesting ideas that come out of young people's minds," Jaske said.

She hopes people enjoy the books and possibly learn something. All of the research is worth it if the readers can really get something out of it, Jaske said.

"It's not so important to me that they're best sellers, although that would be great, but that's not the primary goal," she said.

Fellow teachers think it is great that Jaske writes novels.

"The swashbuckling adventure is always enthralling," said Janet Van Wieringen, a colleague of Jaske's.

Jaske continues to keep up on her fencing and her writing.

Her novels, published by Pennsylvania-based Infinity Publishing, are available at Borders Books and online at www.forhonor.com.