Shaz Davis is an award-winning writer and holds a black belt or more in a traditional samurai sword art and t’ai chi ch’uan. With almost two decades of training and 15 years’ experience teaching t’ai chi Shaz has combined her love of words and training to produce a book of short stories on lessons in the dojo, complimented with her favourite form of poetry, haiku - due to be released on 20 August 2017. She can be found writing and teaching t’ai chi in the picturesque township of Oxford, at the foothills that mark the end of the Canterbury plains on New Zealand’s South Island. Shaz has also written several t’ai chi e-books that teach the detailed moves of the traditional Yang long form. Although magazine writing and production have been a core focus of Shaz’s twenty-something-year career as a writer, including teaching magazine writing for various writing colleges, she shifted her focus on online work in 2007 and won awards for her online writing in 2008 and 2009. After completing an undergrad course on short story writing at the University of Canterbury a couple of years ago, she is enjoying exploring this creative outlet. When not writing or training, Shaz and her partner Bob (Sensei in Polished Steel) can be found undergoing intensive fetch and throw training under the keen eye of their active border collie, Shanti.