Category Archives: Inspiration

Tales of Inspiration (3)

Today I’m going to talk about the inspiration underlying my current WIP.  I’ve alluded to this before: for many years, I was an active member at a website where you can submit what I call articles in prose on world meta: all the different aspects that make up a world. It was there that IContinue reading “Tales of Inspiration (3)”

Chinese Superstition- Physical Oddities and Polycoria

Following on the last post about Chinese number superstition, I decided to do another on a related topic. So ancient Chinese had various fortune telling methods, one of which was looking at people’s facial features. For example, long ears or a long gap between the nose and the upper lip were considered a sign ofContinue reading “Chinese Superstition- Physical Oddities and Polycoria”

Beliefs about Numbers in Ancient China

I decided to write a post about a Chinese fun fact today and having no ideas, I Goggled it. What caught my eyes was number superstition. So today I am going to trace back the beliefs about numbers (or rather single digits since I want to limit the scope of this post) in ancient China:Continue reading “Beliefs about Numbers in Ancient China”

Remarkable Women in Ancient China (5)- Fu Hao

Who is she: A woman whose surname or first name was Hao (Fu is some kind of prestigious title) who was one of the sixty-odd wives to Wu Ding, the Emperor of the Shang Dynasty (1600-1046 BC) The first known female military commander in Chinese history, also a politician and overseer of rites/fortune telling ceremoniesContinue reading “Remarkable Women in Ancient China (5)- Fu Hao”

Chinese Punctuation

In general, I think of myself as pretty familiar with Chinese culture. But it was not until I read a Chinese online novel in the last few years that I learnt the following (you never know what you would learn randomly with novels!): in ancient days, there was no such thing as punctuation in Chinese!Continue reading “Chinese Punctuation”

Remarkable Women in Ancient China (4)- Huang Yue Ying

Who is she: Daughter (only child) of Huang Chen Yin, an influential scholar in Jingzhou which was a big region encapsulating what are now the Hubei and Hunan provinces as well as surrounding areas (it was a rich and flourishing region where scholars thrive which was quite rare in ancient China). The Huang family wasContinue reading “Remarkable Women in Ancient China (4)- Huang Yue Ying”

Chinese Lore- A selection of Mythical Flora (2)

I usually run my Remarkable Women in ancient China (RWAC) series this month but I didn’t want a break in between the Mythical Flora series so I decided to move back the RWAC post to next month. Face Tree Physical Description: A tree with branches that sprout peach-like fruits with human faces  Lore: Another lifeformContinue reading “Chinese Lore- A selection of Mythical Flora (2)”

Tales of Inspiration (2)

Today I’m going to talk about the inspiration behind my novella A Thread of A Chance and how the external impetus+internal processing framework discussed in the first post of this series works in giving birth to this particular story.  The external impetus actually comes in two parts: the first is the anthology series I wasContinue reading “Tales of Inspiration (2)”

Chinese Lore- A selection of Mythical Flora (1)

Shadow Wood Physical Description: A tree distinguishable because in the day-time, each of its leaves has one hundred of the Chinese character that means “shadow” on it while at night its flowers will shine like stars. This tree will only bear fruit every 10 000 years. Its fruits are as large as a melon, withContinue reading “Chinese Lore- A selection of Mythical Flora (1)”