Welcome to Horse, Geek & Sword Literary Consultants

We Can Help

We have the in-house expertise you need to provide technical authenticity in your novel in the areas of equestrian pursuits, veterinary medicine, computer technologies, and historical swordplay.

Lizzi and Matthew’s editing service offers help for authors without firsthand knowledge of horses, veterinary medicine, tech and computing sciences, and medieval and renaissance swordplay…but who wish to write about these areas, nonetheless.

Some readers don’t mind…but others really care if the author gets it wrong.

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Matthew of Horse, Geek, & Sword

Matthew was a pioneering geek before anyone knew what geeks were…or realised they were about to rule the world.

Since he became interested in computers on a Sinclair ZX80…and in hitting people with historical weapons in the Sealed Knot and the SCA in the late 1970’s, he’s never looked back.

While his computers and other tech have got bigger and better, and likewise, his sword and armour collection, he’s only gone forward.

Computer companies have head-hunted him multiple times, allowing him to work at the top of his field in computer networking and security.

His most memorable NZ client was Weta Digital, with whom Matt worked throughout the Lord of the Rings Trilogy and into the beginning of the Hobbit Trilogy, supplying and developing the computer network over which the award-winning special effects were produced.

Matthew’s lifetime hobbies of wargaming and roleplaying (For an idea of how long he’s been doing it, Dungeons and Dragons was in its original first edition…) developed into live-action when he was introduced to historical re-enactment in the UK.

Soon after his arrival in New Zealand, Matt discovered Historical European Marshal Arts. Life’s never been the same. For the last twenty years, he’s been studying and teaching European swordmanship internationally.

Matthew teaches from the original (Okay, copies, come on…) surviving Medieval and Renaissance books and manuscripts, the same ones used to teach swordsmanship to noblemen’s sons, and an awful lot of nuns, at the time.

Lizzi of Horse, Geek, & Sword

Lizzi was raised with horses and assorted farm animals from the age of five, when her city-bred family moved to the country from the suburbs in San Mateo County, California. There she learned from some of the best how to care for and show horses and beef cows as well as sew, cook, and everything else 4-H and her family had to offer. She showed Hunt Seat, Western and 4-H. It was truly a blessing her family didn’t know enough about horses to understand what trouble one girl, much less Lizzi and her best friend together, could find on horses out in the middle of nowhere. The stories are only coming out now…but I digress. She attended veterinary school while working in the Large Animal ICU for several years, and graduated in the Equine Track.

Lizzi always dreamed of living in the greener isles of the UK, but a few years after her graduation, the opportunity arose to visit New Zealand, a close second to the UK at the time, and she jumped at it.

In New Zealand, Lizzi has farmed, been a mother and practiced veterinary medicine—general equine practice, dairy cow, and small block holdings mixed practice. Her practice is now primarily equine veterinary dentistry—with some zebras and rhinos at the zoo up at the Big Smoke of Auckland.

Lizzi’s love for things medieval began at four years old with the Sunday Funnies, in the guise of Prince Valiant. She read everything she could get her hands on after that, and…then, when her children were mostly-grown up, she found NAAMA, (the National Association of Ancient and Medieval Arts), and SCA, (The Society for Creative Anachronism). She tried heavy metal fighting, but liked rapier more…and archery, both on and off her big warmblood horse, and is toying with skill-at-arms. She sews her own period costuming and loves cooking the old recipes.

And…that’s where Lizzi met Matthew. He was her medieval fencing master. His history with reenactment goes way back…way, way back.

And up to recent times

After an (another?) injury, Lizzi started writing fiction. She’d written nonfiction, primarily for veterinary journals and horse magazines and newspapers, but this was FUN!

Matthew, always an avid reader of everything from computer manuals to the minute detail of battles, and the occasional romance, was bitten by the writing bug.

As Lizzi and partner Matthew made acquaintances and friends in the writing fraternity, they realised there was a need for consultants to whom writers could turn for content edits around the things nearest and dearest to our hearts…and Horse, Sword, & Geek was born.

We’ve got it covered: Town & Country, Tech & Vet, Horse, Geek, & Sword.

We’re here to help,

Matt & Liz