Moonlake’s Writing Updates- July 2024

I have now switched over to my female protagonist and I’m somewhere in Act 2 for her (her act 1 is pretty much done, unlike my male protagonist).  Now, how am I measuring up against set goals? The honest truth is I don’t know. I am now fully in the tunnel and have absolutely noContinue reading “Moonlake’s Writing Updates- July 2024”

Book of Thematic Resonance 2024

As the title tells it all, I’m going to crown The Lost Choice: a Legend of Personal Discovery by Andy Andrews with this. At the time of writing I still have not finished this novel yet. But the meaning of Lost Choice does resonate with me.  I don’t think this will be spoiler alert becauseContinue reading “Book of Thematic Resonance 2024”

Chinese Lore- a selection of mythical fauna (20)

Fen Physical Description: A magpie-like bird with a white body, red tail and six feet. Special Properties: The sound it makes is like its name. It is easily scared. Human Fish Physical Description: Looks like a catfish with four feet. Special Properties: The sound it makes is like babies crying. Consuming its meat protects againstContinue reading “Chinese Lore- a selection of mythical fauna (20)”

23 days Italy, Switzerland and France trip by train- Italy part 1

We landed in Rome without mishap albeit with minor delay and straight off I made a mistake: instead of waiting around at the airport for my booked hotel transfer I went to the taxi stand to see whether my driver would be there and got flagged by a black cab. Result: charged 180 Euro insteadContinue reading “23 days Italy, Switzerland and France trip by train- Italy part 1”

European travel from Australia: currency conversion and travel cards

There are many other resources on these topics and feel free to browse around for a wider range of opinions but what I did was to use S Money to do my currency conversion (I used Travelex for the New Zealand but S Money is offering me a much better conversion rate, S Money isContinue reading “European travel from Australia: currency conversion and travel cards”

Moonlake’s Approach to Writing Exercises

Those who followed my blog for a while should probably know that I’m a whimsical person when it comes to reading and writing. So that’s my approach to writing exercises if I have to sum it up with one word.  I bounce around with writing exercises in that if I grow tired of one, IContinue reading “Moonlake’s Approach to Writing Exercises”

Remarkable Women in Ancient China (21)- Yoshiko Kawashima

Who is she: Notable Life Events: 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.  EnglishContinue reading “Remarkable Women in Ancient China (21)- Yoshiko Kawashima”

Upcoming European trip in May- planning details and resources

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 myContinue reading “Upcoming European trip in May- planning details and resources”

The Reading Experience: has Writing Changed it?

For me, the short answer is no.  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, oneContinue reading “The Reading Experience: has Writing Changed it?”