Continuing with Striking the Zither by Joan He, I think it’s best seen as a fantasy set around certain historical events as detailed in the Romance of Three Kingdoms. In fact, after section 1, the fantasy element is so much that it’s enough to tip the whole story into the fantasy genre. On the otherContinue reading “Oriental Fantasy 2025 (2) “
Author Archives: moonlakeku
Remarkable Women in ancient China (25)- Zhao Rao
Who is she? Notable Life Events Why is She Remarkable?She is not the only palace maid who has risen to a high position (nor the only nanny for the Emperor for that matter) but I did find it interesting how it was effectively palace servants, of which Zhao Rao is one, that the Dowager EmpressContinue reading “Remarkable Women in ancient China (25)- Zhao Rao”
Oriental fantasy 2025 (1)
I had turned up a book for Oriental fantasy this year- a reimagining of the Romance of Three Kingdoms in female form. The book is called Strike the Zither by Joan He. I had read loads of online novels written in Chinese set in this period, making this one of the most known historical periodsContinue reading “Oriental fantasy 2025 (1)”
The 4 Great Chinese Classics and historical fantasy
None of the 4 Great Chinese Classics are strictly historical fantasy but I think they all have elements of both genres, just in very skewed proportions relative to a historical fantasy written in English. Now let’s look at each of them in turn. The Journey to the West is a fantasy adventure inspired off theContinue reading “The 4 Great Chinese Classics and historical fantasy “
22 days train trip in Spain and Portugal- Spain part 2
The second leg of our Spanish trip was based in Madrid. I chose an aparhotel to offset the cost of our Barcelona accommodation but I still chose a central location. The first day was just Almudena Cathedral plus Royal Palace of Madrid since the train trip from Barcelona was almost 3 hours. We had lunchContinue reading “22 days train trip in Spain and Portugal- Spain part 2”
Scene by Scene breakdown
I learnt the original form of the scene by scene summary from the UBC novel writing courses on EdX and it has the following elements: As time goes by and I read more writer craft books I had come to think that for me at least, what the characters want is often not foremost onContinue reading “Scene by Scene breakdown”
Moonlake’s Book Discoveries: June 2025
Science Fiction Defy the stars by Claudia Gray This is part of my mini reading challenge for this year, book 1 of the Constellations trilogy. I’m not much of a science fiction reader but this is really more speculative futuristic solar system space opera featuring the blossoming of a romance that is just right forContinue reading “Moonlake’s Book Discoveries: June 2025”
Moonlake’s Writing Updates- June 2025
After a rest of about a week after my recent trip, I went back to my drafting but there was no juice to it. So sometimes towards the end of last week, I decided I would remake the WIP into a scene by scene summary on index cards. Why am I doing this and whatContinue reading “Moonlake’s Writing Updates- June 2025”
Remarkable Women in Ancient China (24)- Xun Guan
Who is She? Notable Life Events Why is She Remarkable: We don’t know anything more about Xun Guan but just that feat at the age of 13 is awesome, right? I don’t think anything more needs to be said Moonlake’s Thoughts on Her: I don’t have any more thoughts. This seems more a fictional orContinue reading “Remarkable Women in Ancient China (24)- Xun Guan”
22 days train trip in Spain and Portugal- Spain part 1
We landed in Barcelona around 8:30am after an overnight stay at Dubai for connecting flights. It was too tiring an experience to repeat- two very early morning flights over two days. As a result, the first day was basically nothing. We basically just took a few pics amongst the crowd at Casa Battlo (see pic above)Continue reading “22 days train trip in Spain and Portugal- Spain part 1”
Moonlake's Fiction Space 