A renowned female spy of Manchurian descent, who spied for the Japanese during the Second Sino-Japanese war that is part of World War 2
Notable Life Events:
Born in 1907, 4 years before the Qing dynasty was overthrew, as Aisin Gioro Xianyu, a Manchurian princess born to a concubine mother
In 1915, she was given up for adoption at the age of 8 to her father’s friend, a Japanese espionage agent and mercenary adventurer, who took her to Japan and gave her the name she was better known as, Yoshiko Kawashima
When she was 15, her father died and her mother followed the Manchurian tradition of committing suicide as a concubine. At the age of 17, her adoptive father raped and later continued to abuse her
On 22 November 1925 (aged 18), she proclaimed of her decision to cease to exist as a woman forever and started dressing in men’s clothes as well as changing her hairstyle to a crew cut
When she was 20, she was arranged by her brother and adoptive father to marry a Mongolian prince (the Manchurian dynasty was really founded on a Manchurian-Mongolian alliance) but she divorced three years later. Afterwards, she seemed to have led a decadent life where she had lovers of both genders
Her espionage career seemed to start with meeting the intelligence officer Ryukichi Tanaka in Shanghai and subsequently moving in with him
Due to a cordial relationship with Puyi, the last Emperor of the Qing dynasty, who saw her as a member of the Imperial family (she was his distant cousin), she was able to persuade him to re-ascend the throne as the figurehead ruler of Manchukuo, a puppet state created by the Japanese for Manchuria based in the city of Harbin bordering Russia
She was arrested in Beijing in 1945, charged with treason in 1947 and executed in 1948
Moonlake’s thoughts on her:
I think this is a woman that is worthy of being cast as a female lead for sure (there was definitely a HK movie about her where she was played by Anita Mui): she has outward charm and she knows what she is doing.
This is not a travel blog per se but because I always obsessively plan my trips down to literally minutiae, I might as well collate the various bits of knowledge I’ve gathered for newbies like me.
Firstly, for itineraries, I’ve found the following sites very useful as templates and I can adapt them for my own personal needs:
Among them, earthtrekkers is usually where I start off since it has a broad coverage for 10 day trips around the world. Then I would do separate Google searches for “x days in [City name]” and the other two often come up.
If you are traveling or plan to travel around European cities via the train, https://www.seat61.com/ is the go-to comprehensive guide on train travel around the world. For my upcoming trip across three European countries- Italy, Switzerland and France, I ended up buying my train tickets three different ways for each country despite there being two aggregate ticket resellers and here’s why:
I was originally planning to buy Italian and French tickets all together through one resellers-RailEurope which only charges a flat fee of $8 Euro for a single cart of purchase which trumps Trainline which charges 3% of each single ticket bought through them. However, the Italian train companies only allow you to hold tickets for 10-15 minutes and when you also have to pick seats and choose between alternative times, I just found it an entirely hopeless endeavour to be able to buy 20 tickets all in one go through RailEurope.
So change of plans: through research I found out that there are only two train operators in Italy: the state-owned Trenitalia which operates every single train line in Italy and the private company Italo that only runs lines between major cities. What I did was basically just open up the two train websites on different tabs and run a search on the day I want to travel. Personally, I think the Italo website is easier to use for English speakers (no surprise, apparently it’s operated by a US conglomerate) but the Trenitalia can be switched to English on the top right-side as well. The only caveat is that you have to know the station names in Italian but that’s easy because a part of my trip planning always leads to search for “from location x to location y” which takes me to Rome2Rio.com which will show you different methods of traveling between the two locations, the time it takes, how long and schedules etc. And there I can easily find out about station names in Italian or whatever local languages. This way, I was able to book my Italian tickets one by one without the short time limit hanging over my head. Also, instead of the black-box interaction on RailEurope where I always feel inclined to book the cheapest tickets available I can easily compare across different ticket categories in terms of conditions (whether you can change the time and day of the train you take, whether tickets are refundable etc.)
I tried to replicate the same on the French side where there is only a single operator but then the SNCF site keeps freezing whenever I try to buy with my visa debit card. I tried to get in touch with them and the only means seemed to be through Facebook Messenger without any response. Then the GM of my gaming group told me of his experience in another European country which made me remember that I read somewhere that the French rail company’s website acted funny with foreign credit card purchases so back to RailEurope I went with all my French train tickets. This time around it works fine because the French side does allow you to hold a ticket for much longer. The shortest was 15 minutes for a trip between Paris and Versailles according to my recollections but most of the other tickets can be held for about 1 hour and above and there’s no need to select seats.
On the Swiss side, all I did was buy a half fare card for a month (we are only staying in Switzerland for 9 days but it’s still a cheaper option compared to the 10 day Swiss pass, especially since we are not visiting any museums) and the Daily Saver Pass for one day where I knew I would be traveling intensively along the Interlaken-Lauterbrunnen-Murren-Stechelberg route. I’m not purchasing any other tickets online because it always takes a 3% foreign transaction fee on their website even though I’ve got a visa debit card that doesn’t charge the fee on my end. Plus, there is absolutely no need to reserve seats and there is no cost advantage to buying individual point to point tickets in advance.
As per usual, I use booking.com for hotels because their website is easy to use for a search. But remember to set currency to property currency so that they don’t take a cut out of you for currency conversion. I’m not taking so many day tours this time around as for my New Zealand trip (only one in Venice) and I’m sticking to Viator.com. And just one advice of caution on European day trips: always search out whether you can DIY the same itinerary as a Viator day trip on your own. Back when I first started my European trip planning, I was going to sign up to 5 or 6 day tours but in the end only the Venice one was left because the other ones were either too expensive or could be completely or partially replicated with train travel between cities. I kept with the Venice one just for the gondola ride because research says that otherwise you have to negotiate rates with the gondolier yourself and I find that a major hassle.
The long answer is well, writing could have changed it in a theoretical sense. Because, like a mechanic, a totally valid way for learning is to take a piece of writing apart and try to reverse engineer something of your own. In that sense, as a writer, one way to approach reading is to take what you read apart and analyse it so that you can internalise whatever craft element you are interested in.
For me personally, I just enjoy reading too much to ever adopt that mindset in everything I read. So my approach to book analysis is basically the following: I would handpick certain books to analyse. But the first time I ever read it is still as a pure reader so that I can wring whatever enjoyment I can get out of it first. And then I would go back and read the book the second time around and start my analytical phase there. And I might do iterations, if I want to, for different aspects.
Has writing changed the reading experience for you, my fellow writers? I would be keen to learn of other different answers to my own if you are willing to share in comments.
I feel like I have said this N times already but sub-genre is a concept that comes slowly to me. Hence, I never quite grasped the concept of cozy mystery until recently and my first time experience didn’t amount to anything even close to liking. I felt the pacing was too slow and there was no element in particular that I liked.
It’s a bit hard to talk about a definitive work that changed this but perhaps it started with the Miss Marple series by Agatha Christie. All right, so back in her days there was no such thing as a cozy mystery and I’m pretty sure it won’t be classified under cozy mystery now (I just checked Amazon to make sure and yep, I’m not wrong).
For contemporaries, I don’t remember particular author names but I did read a couple just last year or early this year. I can’t say what finally made me click with them other than they are good light reading. I mean, it used to be that all mysteries were ultimately light reading for me. But in recent years, I feel like that is less the case given my penchant for staying away from the epic fantasy subgenre (I’ve already blogged about it earlier in Competition between Reading and Writing Fantasy) and there is an overall shift towards making series more standalone nowadays that makes the distinction between serious and light reading material almost redundant. Of course, there is always a mental shift that now allows me to sample book 1 of a series and then discontinue with it at whim.
And that’s it as far as cozy mystery and me is concerned. I haven’t actually put it on my favourite or comfy list or whatever but I’m not averse to picking up books from this sub-genre as I encounter them. As it will be always be with me, it’s entirely up to the backcover blurb or summary on my library’s catalogue.
Those who have been following my blog would probably know that I firmly belong to the planner school in terms of a writer. This is to say that I outline each scene rather than write them on-the-go. But how does my process look like after that, you might wonder. This is what this post is all about.
First up, I have to say that my process is not standard across all scenes. I would dearly like to find a template that I can apply to every scene just because I find comfort in routines. But sadly in practice I can never do that. The easiest scenes are pretty much as I’ve outlined. I can easily convert my traditional outlines into a scene with minimal effort. The task itself is like snapping my fingers, just like that. Through personal experience, I feel like I am already past such scenes. My personal grasp on the WIP seems to be strongest in Act 1 and then it progressively slips.
The next level is where I use what I call pre-writing extensively. There will be large sections where I’m asking myself a bunch of questions about the scene and answering them all in one go. Across consecutive days, I might even go over the same scene several times all in this ‘behind the scenes’. There was this scene where I spent about two weeks on it and I had written 3000+ in total but when I took out all the pre-writing it was a scene of about 500 words.
For the most difficult scenes, mostly I’m playing doctor to see what’s holding me up. Ever since the last couple of decimal drafts, I’ve started to work with a set dot point on all the scenes that I feel I can’t quite get into. In the first go, they only include 2 dot points:
What’s the main events in this scene? Since I’m a event-centric person I usually have little difficulty with this and so I naturally use this as my starting point.
What do I need to do to advance this scene: This is just a place for me to brainstorm what do I think the issues
After this, I usually leave this scene for the next round of iteration (to be honest, I stopped even incrementing along my decimal drafts. I’m still on draft 0.83 and I think I was on it last year. What I’m basically doing is going through my rough draft time and again picking out which scenes I still need to work on and then I will give each scene a week or two at most or sometimes just days and then move on at whim.
Then in the second iteration over the same scene, I might extend the dot point list on the scene with extra dot points including:
What is its narrative purpose?
What are the main character goals?
What is at stake for the character?
What are the Conflict/Impediment to Goal?
What is the Outcome?
What is the Reaction?
What is the Dilemma?
What is the Decision?
What are the opening and closing emotions in this scene
For those not familiar with it, this is from the GCORDD framework from K.M. Weiland’s Outlining your Novel: Map your Way to Success supplemented with other stuff. This framework basically breaks down each scene into Goal, Conflict, Outcome, Reaction, Dilemma and Decision (not each scene has to have all elements but it’s just the most comprehensive framework of breaking down a scene into elements).
At one point, I also had a different set of template from Robert McKee’s Story: Substance, Structure, Style and the Principles of Screenwriting where he conceptualies each scene as an interplay between the character and external parties (another person or the environment) in the sense of the external thing thwarting the character’s expectation and the character’s subsequent reaction to such thwarting and it was this framework that finally clicked with me and made me ‘get’ the concept of beats. So for a while I was summarising a scene as a series of dot points like the following:
Character x expects….
But this happens….
So character x does…
Character x expects…
As you can see, I can keep cycling between the three elements until the end of the scene.
Now, the problem with this framework is that my mind has to be at a pretty micro level with the character and I am not always able to get in there. So lately, I’ve been using the GCORDD framework.
And that’s my share on writing scenes today. Feel free to ping me via comments if anything about my methods interests you.
So some time this year, my passion for jigsaw puzzles has been revived. These are the three redone puzzles that I had completed:
I have a fourth one laid out on the coffee table that I have been neglecting for a week now. And this is the last one I will do before I leave for Europe in May (I didn’t take it very well but there is really nothing to see since I haven’t even got the borders done yet):
It’s a complete mystery to me why this is filed under fantasy on my local library catalogue and this is the ebook catalogue nonetheless. The book cover also doesn’t speak fantasy either. Technically this is not a mystery like I usually read but a thriller about a job by a mercenary group and yes, the title speaks it all but the book itself has nothing to do with the Hollywood movie except it features blood diamonds.
For the book itself, I find it okay as in a solid read but I can’t say much more about it.
Cry Me a River by Nancy Holder
I somehow thought this would be more supernatural mystery but not really. It just reads as a straight mystery with religious vibes. It’s okay though, just not sure that it’s really my cup of tea. It does have the central case that keeps me reading till the end but I feel like the other stuff in there is a bit too cluttered for my taste.
The Body in the Bookcase by Katherine Hall Page
It’s okay for a cozy mystery- pace is pretty snappy and there are a couple places of good high tension in this book.
A Deadly Chapter by Essie Lang
The fact that the protagonist is co-owner of a book store at a castle appeals to me. The writing is solid but not quite memorable.
Down to the Sea by Sue Lawrence
It is a parallel storyline mystery and I did think the earlier storyline was more engaging but the two storylines converge nicely and we had a quite nice bit of high tension right towards the end that counters the relatively cozy pace all throughout the novel. I feel like the cozy mystery sub-genre is perhaps growing on me- I know I used to like more plot-driven or past-faced mysteries.
Last Look by Mariah Stewart
The premise is rather intriguing: an old murder case has been blown open when the body of a girl who was supposed to have died in the 1980s turned up as a murdered prostitute. The main character is the daughter of the FBI agent who investigated the original case. So far, in the string of mysteries I’ve read this year, I feel like this is the first one where I feel like following the protagonist.
Tide of Death by Pauline Rowson
This is the story of a murder case but also a police officer who was framed and has a personal vendetta on the ringleader of an exclusive sexual club. I find the book quite engaging throughout. This is another potential series that I might want to follow.
Fantasy
The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden
This is the first Russian fantasy I have read and it does bring a touch of freshness to this well-loved genre of mine. I find the plot engaging and the protagonist is driven enough for one to be engaged with her story (personally I can’t say I really like her but I don’t dislike her either). Overall, a well written novel.
Currently on the borderline on whether I read the next book of the series.
Northern Lights by Phillip Pullman
I had just started this today so nothing much to tell yet.
Historical Fiction
The Sword Song by Bernard Cornwell
So I went back to this series featuring Uhtred rather than continuing with the Russian fantasy series. There was some brief disorientation with characters but I conquered it rather easily. I still like this fourth book of the series and see myself continuing it until I think the seventh book (I did snoop into the blurb of most of the series, I think this was the second natural stopping point).
The Burning Land by Bernard Cornwell
What I like about this series is that the core struggle for Uhred has stayed the same but new twists keep being introduced such that you never get tired of reading the same thing over and over again. I’ve enjoyed the fifth book of this series and will continue with the next book.
Death of Kings by Bernard Cornwell
This book seems a bit of a turning point for Uhtred even though the core struggle reminds the same. As I’ve said before, I intend to go on to the next book and there I will assess whether I want to continue reading the later books. This book itself is solid work by the author, a continuation of this series.
The Pagan Lord byBernard Cornwell
This is the novel where Uhtred has come the closest to his personal goal. I thought this is a natural stopping point for this round but it seems I am wrong. Overall, I do like this continuation. Onto the next book.
Not sure if I had mentioned it before but I will be gone to Europe on my annual overseas trip with Mum in early May and back in June. We are visiting Italy, Switzerland and France all in one-go to save on airplane fares since we are never taking budget flights.
Below is the skeleton of our trip itinerary:
Day 0: Flight from Melbourne
Day 1: Vatican City and small portion of Rome and trying to compensate for sleep deprivation/jet lag
Day 2: Rome
Day 3: Florence
Day 4: Pisa & Siena day trip from Florence
Day 5: Day trip to Cinque Terre from Florence (didn’t realise the travel time involved and I would advise against it because it’s basically 5 hours return trip by train, then again I don’t think many of you would take the “fixed hotel for at least 2 days and take day trips” strategy when traveling that Mum and I use)
Day 6: Venice and half-day trip out to Burano
Day 7: Day tour for walk around Venice, Basilica San Marco, Doges Palace & Gondola ride
Day 8: Zurich (long train ride so only half a day available to tour Zurich)
Day 9: day trip to Lucerne from Zurich
Day 10: Thun
Day 11: day trip to Spiez from Thun
Day 12: Interlaken and Brienz
Day 13: day trip to Lauterbrunnen and Murren from Interlaken
Day 14: day trip to Wengen from Interlaken
Day 15: Lausanne
Day 16: day trip to Gruyeres from Lausanne
Day 17: Annecy
Day 18: day trip to Menthon-Saint-Bernard and Tallories from Annecy
Day 19: Lyon
Day 20: day trip to Vienne from Lyon
Day 21: Paris partial walk-around and day trip to Versailles
Day 22: day trip to Giverchy (Monet mansion and gardens) and Vernon from Paris
Day 23: day trip to Amboise and Chateau Chenoceaux from Paris
Day 24: Paris walk-around and night flight back to Melbourne
Now, as for this blog, it likely won’t be affected. I will have all the post scheduled before I go and you won’t notice my absence at all. I also have a short trip to Asia (HK and Shanghai) planned in October and I’m not sure whether I will call for my birthday leave from blogging yet.
Also, stay tuned to my posts in June about my actual experiences for the European trip outlined here.
Moonlake's Fiction Space 