The last leg of the Spanish journey is based in Seville. My original itinerary would cover the Santa Cruz neighbourhood in the morning and the signature landmarks such as the Royal Alcazar, Cathedral de Sevilla and Plaza de Espana etc in the afternoon on the first day. But as is our norm, we skipped mostContinue reading “22 days train trip in Spain and Portugal- Spain part 3”
Author Archives: moonlakeku
Oriental Fantasy 2025 (2)
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) “
Remarkable Women in ancient China (25)- Zhao Rao
Who is she? The nanny of Emperor Ling of Eastern Han dynasty, the last second Emperor of the dynasty Notable Life Events The only known fact about her origin is that she was a palace maid but eventually selected to be nanny to Emperor Ling In January of AD 168, the death of Emperor HuanContinue 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: One line summary of events What do each character want in the scene? The emotion transitions for the characters involved (you can do the full transitions if you are reallyContinue 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? A girl who lifted a siege at the age of 13 Notable Life Events The fifth generation grand-daughter of Xun Yu, a major advisor to the warlord Cao Cao who won the titanic struggle of the famous Three Kingdom period at the end of the Han dynasty, Xun Guan was born inContinue reading “Remarkable Women in Ancient China (24)- Xun Guan”
