Moonlake's Fiction Space

I see the way…

The jump off lines is from Collecting Light by Deb Cooper and this is from a day when I’m not feeling the prompt:

I see the way my fingers dip into the trough of hand cream and withdraw while leaving the shape intact. I see the way, or rather feel the way, this pen I’m holding to write slide up and down my hand because it is slippery with cream.

I see the way my hair falls across my face like a curtain that obscures vision because I had gone for the ionic straightening treatment. I see the way jigsaw puzzles click into place as I line up the right pieces next to each other.

I see the way bad actresses tense up their muscles as they smile or act angry. I see the way right ahead of me, the pavement right in front.

I see the way the timer ticks down in seconds but the blue line that goes around the circle with the countdown in the middle hardly moves at all. I see the way white cursor on my PC screen stays motionless because the mouse is still, nestled below me. I see the way the blue line is now visibly shorter as time ticks off. I see the way a porcelain work can change colour under different lighting or I imagine it does. I see the way.

Running a FB group for aspiring novelists

I am running out of writer craft insights to share and so I’m branching out to this other enterprise that I have been running for my fellow students from the UBC novel writing courses. I created this back in 2018, off this random idea I have of providing a platform for us all to gather after the courses are done to see each other through the novel writing exercise but also for collective learning etc.

One problem I continually have been running into is the issue of engagement. Basically we only had one administrator and no one had expressed an interest to join me when I asked around (small membership was an issue and probably continues to be an issue. To date, there are a total of 62 members, the most recent joined 8 months ago- the course instructors kept about my group and directed new students to this group of mine so I get occasional new member requests). One solution would be more activity from me which I think did work on a short term basis when I had daily craft questions or themed months that focused on a particular craft element with weekly tasks. However, usually there would be only one person who would engage with me on a given thread. Also, it does take energy out of me when I was the only content provider.

Recently, I had played with the idea of bringing the themed months back but tried to elicit more content providers to reduce the workload on me. However, I’m very doubtful of this working.

On the other hand, there have been subsidiary groups run off this particular FB group of mine in the form of writing sprints. I was even asked to join as a member but it’s not really my thing so I ended up declining the offer.

In summary, is it easy to run and manage such a FB group as I had created? Yes and no. It is not hard if I want to maintain the status quo of minimal level of engagement and just a platform for general encouragement for each other. But it does get hard if I want to take it beyond that. Which I haven’t.

22 days train trip in Spain and Portugal- Spain part 3

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 most of the original itinerary. We had brunch at Alameda de Hercules and found our way to Palacio de las Duenas Seville and that’s all we covered for the Santa Cruz neighbourhood. Then, somehow we stumbled our way to Setas de Seville (see pic above, it was actually taken on the third day though) which I didn’t even put on the agenda because I wasn’t sure that it was close to anything.

I had booked dinner at a place close to Maria Luisa Park but due to the drastically changed itinerary, we had dinner again at Alameda de Hercules because that was the closest location where restaurants clustered that was in proximity to our hotel. We basically just had dinner at the first restaurant we came to since it was on the list of recommended restaurants from our hotel. We ordered the egg with asparagus and seafood paella (for lack of anything else that appeals) and neither was good. The asparagus tasted like what Cantonese call sword beans (not fresh beans either but leftover beans) to me and Mum commented that “it must have been leftover from several days ago and reheated”; the colour definitely says it’s leftover- that tinge of dark green with a sense that it’s wilted. The seafood paella didn’t really use fresh ingredients either even though it has sufficient seafood in it- mussels, calamari rings and other stuff. But none of the seafood tasted particularly good, the calamari rings basically tasted like frozen stuff.

Day 2 was spent at Cordoba and we were pretty much lost already once out of the Cordoba train station while trying to get to the Mezquita (I tried to look for an information booth at the train station but couldn’t find it) so we ended up getting a taxi there. After the obligatory photoshoot of the outside and the courtyard, we got another taxi to the Alcazar Viejo area for the Patio Festival because according to online information, it was the most beautiful area. The rest of the day was pretty much spent queuing outside each house on the San Basilio street. To be honest, the queuing up was a bit tedious and each of the patios were really tiny. But the photos did come out great overall. Then again, we actually stumbled across one business that was part of the Patio Festival near the Mezquita and perhaps because it didn’t have the crowds, I actually felt it was a better experience than the San Basilio patios which just had the advantage of having many of them clustered close together so you could visit them all in one go by going down one street. The Festival was done at around 2pm and we didn’t actually get to go into the last house we queued up for which was finally not on San Basilio. We languished at the Cordoba train station for a few hours because I had prebooked a return trip. For dinner, we went to Alameda de Hercules again and had seafood pizza. Actually, I did not book dinner for that day because I was unsure whether we would go to Eslava Calle or have seafood pizza. We went to Eslava Calle first because it was closer but apparently we had to sit at the bar if we did not have a reservation and so we chose pizza at the end. It was okay but not great.

According to my initial itinerary, we were supposed to visit the Triana and Macarena neighbourhoods but since we still have a bunch of Seville landmarks to go, we completely scratched that. The morning was spent trying to find our way to Setas de Seville to retake photos for me because my face was completely dark in the set of photos taken on day 1 at Seville. We had lunch at the nearby plaza where we ordered black paella (again for lack of anything else that appeals and I was curious whether it would have a different base than tomato sauce, and the answer is nope). Slightly better than the dinner version to be honest but Mum’s already sick and tired of paella by this third encounter and told me explicitly “no more paella”.

We spent the afternoon of the third day visiting Torre del Oro and then Plaza de Espana and called it a day. To be honest, Torre del Oro wasn’t that interesting and the riverside was quite boring if not for the fact that the local flora of purple flowers attracted Mum. Plaza de Espana was way more picturesque with the marble columns. Maria Luisa Park was just right next door but we couldn’t be bothered visiting it after Retiro Park since it’s nowhere as famous and we figured one park is enough for one trip. Actually, before Plaza de Espana, I think I was trying to find the Royal Alcarzar unsuccessfully but we came across an unknown palace, snapped some photos of it and just decided to go to the Plaza de Espana instead because it was way closer. I booked dinner at a place that offered roasted suckling pig and both me and Mum were looking forward to it due to Segovia. But the restaurant didn’t live up to its beautiful interior design at all. The roasted suckling pig was really oily such that there was a very thin crispy skin covering a whole layer of fat AND the meat was very tough and completely tasteless. We did order an appetiser of crispy artichokes that was okay but not great.

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 other hand, I feel the novel did not make clear what was the actual gender norm for the story until the Author’s notes right before Acknowledgements- I basically got confused over whether it was matriarchal versus patriarchal society and it turns out that it was neither- people stood on their merits irrespective of gender.

I don’t want to nitpick but there are also typos impeding my understanding at more than one place. Overall, it’s still solid work but I’m not sure I’m on board with the story enough to follow it to its conclusion.

This book is probably a good model for me to follow if I ever consider historical fantasy like that other project I put on the back burner because it was turning too straight historical on me even though I made up a fictional protagonist who inserted herself into history.

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 Huan meant that the Dowager Empress Dou Miao became regent over her son, the Emperor Ling, and she gave Zhao Rao an official position at Court which allowed her to handle Court paperwork. In fact, it was said that Zhao Rao was one of the people always besides the Dowager Empress (the others being eunuchs) who all sucked up to her
In August of AD168, the plot of Dou Wu, the father of Dowager Empress Dou Miao, to kill eunuchs was unearthed. Zhao Rao, alongside many enunchs held the Dowager Empress hostage and forced her to give up the Imperial Seal and Royal Writ which allowed the Emperor Ling to rule in his own right, an event that has become known as the Jian Ning Coup
In AD 169, Zhao Rao received a title from Emperor Ling. It was said that her wealth rivals that of the Imperial Treasury and that her tomb even surpassed that of Emperor tombs in splendour. In addition, both her sons and her brother were made government officials.

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 Empress trusted in and gave a lot of powers to that eventually turned the tide between the struggle between her and her son.

Moonlake’s Thoughts on her:

I’m not sure how instrumental she was in the coup, of whether she had high political acumen and switched sides astutely or whether she was forced to do it by the other enunchs. But she certainly gained a good outcome from this single action of hers.

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 periods to me personally. But this will be the first novel set in that period that I read in English.

I have just gotten my hands on it and have not made much inroad into it. But so far this does feel to me like this is inspired by Romance of the Three Kingdoms in basic characterisation for the good guys. But the turn of events have already been significantly changed in an important way two chapters in albeit potentially still heading in the same broad direction. Subsequently, the dynamics between the protagonist and her arch nemesis is drastically different from the original Chinese classic and how an average Chinese familiar with the period or the original work would think about it. I think I really welcome and value this approach chosen by the author since one of my major difficulties with Grace of a King, even though I don’t refute that it’s well written, was that there was not enough differentiation from real history as I knew it for me to not get bored with the story.

One small nitpick is that the gender nouns and pronouns seem a little confused to me (I’m about to start chapter 7 as of the time of writing which is just one day before the actual post because I’m updating this post to reflect the most up-to-date progress on it) but perhaps there are more nuances to the world that will resolve itself to me so I’m reserving judgement on this point until I finish the book.

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 the historical event that a monk in the Tang dynasty had travelled to India to bring back Hinduism/Buddhaism texts written in Sanskrit. In fact, I should say that it is a fantasy retelling of this particular historical journey (I’m not sure that the monk had an entourage but I presumed that he did, he was definitely leaning towards being a scholar so he must have needed protection along the way).

The Dream of the Red Chamber is a literary fiction based in an ancient Chinese setting (but not a specific historical period). It details the fall of the aristocratic Jia family and the main plotline revolved around a young male from this family and the tragic fate of the 12 beauties who were related to him. It has got multiple elements: family drama, romance, political intrigue and a touch of the supernatural in that it alludes to the origins of the majority of the main casts being mortal incarnations of immortals.

The Romance of the Three Kingdoms is a historical fiction recounting the main events occurring in the Period of the Three Kingdoms in ancient China which starts from the decline of the Han dynasty. It touches on warfare, personal bravery, loyalty between sworn brothers and romance. Most of the fiction element in this work was in characterisation as opposed to plot. As far as fantasy element goes, there was one major plot point concerning the summoning of an Eastern wind via magic but I always took the interpretation that this person doing the summoning was basically just adept at making weather forecasts.

Water Margins is another historical fiction detailing the rise and fall of a total of 108 outlaws in the Song Dynasty. It is an embellishment of the recorded uprising of about 30 outlaws led by Song Jiang (who appeared in the novel as himself) recorded in real history. Similar to the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, it had little to do with fantasy except for the start which left the hint that the 108 outlaws had some mystical origin as 108 stars of destiny that represented 108 repented demonic lords that were banished by a supreme God in Chinese folk religion and subsequently escaped imprisonment. The theme of immortals escaping to exert major influence in the mortal realms was a somewhat prevalent theme in Chinese folklore and potentially caused by Emperors and Feudal Lords liking to circulate stories of how they are different from birth, hinting that they are chosen by Heaven.

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 lunch at Plaza Mayor and the plan was to have dinner here for a couple times but Mum didn’t like the setup much- basically a plaza with outdoor sitting that she considers very stall-like and we weren’t that impressed after ‘shopping around’ looking at menus. For dinner, I booked a place that only had the 8:30pm slot open a month prior and I was only on the waiting list for it initially (but it was confirmed the day after). I only booked it because I was interested in learning how Europeans cooked tripe so we had cow tripes which was okay (basically the same as how Chinese cook them except cut up finer and with the addition of chistora). So we ordered that, asparagus with mayonnaise (I wanted to order wild asparagus but it wasn’t available on the day), the cow tripe and cod fish (I wanted to order the scorpionfish pie but again it wasn’t available on the day, the menu had changed). The asparagus was horrendous due to the fact that I don’t eat vinegar but this asparagus is actually soaked in vinegar and is completely soggy, nothing like the normal green asparagus I usually eat. Mum said it tastes fine alongside mayonnaise and with bread. The codfish wasn’t to our taste either- we preferred softer fishmeat than codfish but I know it was a local fish and the waiter recommended it when I told him I was thinking about a 3rd dish, some form of fish dish, but did not quite know what to order. I also didn’t like it because the sauce was tomato based.

The second day was mostly spent at Parque del Retiro (Retiro Park) but in the morning we went past Palacio de Cibeles and Puerta de Alcala because they were on the way. We don’t tend to visit the inside of buildings because we are not interested in history and audio guide tours so it was just some photo snapping of the palace and the gate. We did have a second go at photo snapping the gate in the afternoon after we are done at the park. Mum was initially grumbling a lot about how the park was a lot of walking and not much to see/snap for photos and at multiple times we wanted to quit the park except that we found new markers to a different section. So basically we managed to cover a lot of ground at the park including the artificial lake (which is just at the entrance and basically that’s the unskippable part of the park), the Alfonso X11 monument and Velazquez Palace (Palacio de Cristal right next to it was closed for renovations so we gave it a miss). I originally also put the Rose Garden on the agenda but Mum decided we are really done so we went back towards our aparhotel. I didn’t book for the night but still ended up having it at the place that I saw online at Plaza Mayor. I think I ordered an octopus dish but overall it wasn’t a memorable dinner.

The last day at Madrid was spent on a day trip to Segovia and I think we had covered the city really thoroughly (*Segovia Aqueduct, Plaza Azoguejo, Segovia Cathedral and a few other churches, Jewish quarter, Segovia Alcazar) except for climbing up stairs to see the old city wall. We also climbed a set of very short stairs to a “mirador”, the only one we visited for the entire trip since we are both not enthused about stair climbing in general and Mum’s basically all into photos where you can insert a person into it. For lunch, we also foie gras on bread and the roasted suckling pig which the waitress said was the restaurant special (I did read that suckling pig was a speciality at Segovia). The suckling pig, in particular, was delicious- skin cooked as crispy as how it would be when prepared in Hong Kong and the whole section of the meat (it was a standard serving, not a whole suckling pig as would be if you order them in Hong Kong) was somehow flattened so that the whole dish tasted less oily and more crisp. I would say it’s a must-try at Segovia. I pre-booked the bus tickets from Madrid and back but actually it was probably better to not book the return time since we are done with Segovia at around 3pm but I booked the 5:15pm slot back and bus tickets don’t really sell out that crazily (but I still think it’s good that I booked the bus ticket to Segovia). But anyway, the bus slot I booked was still early enough since we spent a major block of time getting ourselves lost finding the restaurant I booked for dinner (actually, the 3 days we were in Madrid, we got lost every single when we went out to dinner both in trying to find a specific restaurant or finding our way back to the aparhotel. The only landmark we knew was the Puerta de Sol which was a big plaza with that signature statue of the Lion with a Ball that’s a symbol of Madrid). But back to dinner, we had oysters, house salad (tuna, mango, egg and mixed veggies) and grilled razor clams. I didn’t actually know what razor clams were but figured out we couldn’t always be having clams and I actually knew it when I saw it- I just didn’t know the English name for it basically. So in general, we found Spanish oysters substantially salty compared to AU or NZ varieties but just found them tasty. The razor clams were excellent, just as good as being stirred fried (the problem with grilled stuff is often that they are overcooked and become very tough to chew).

*The photo for this post is the pic I took of the Segovia Aqueduct

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 really up to date on character feelings or you can just do the opening and closing emotion in the form of A goes from feeling A to feeling B)
The direction of emotion movement (does this scene go from positive to negative or vice versa or positive to more positive etc.)

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 on my mind and I have to do really hard work to dig it out. So I’ve switched to replacing character wants with stakes for the scene- what the character stands to gain or lose, which is a concept I can relate to far better.

So in my recent attempt to downsize my WIP back into index cards again, I have changed the breakdown to having the following elements:

One line summary of events
Stakes for the protagonist
Emotion transition for the protagonist, just the opening and closing emotions. I had previously tried to track the moment to moment or at least broad feeling transitions. But to be honest, even with the help of a feelings wheel which gives a set of predetermined words to summarise a broad range of feelings, I’m using apprehensive as a feeling most of the time whenever I’m really stuck. So I think just tracking the opening and closing emotions for me personally is probably the best I can do.
Movement the scene goes in terms of emotions

Now there are other ways you can break down a scene, this is just one method. Drop me a comment if you want to discuss alternative methods or just want to hear about alternative frameworks I have come across.

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 for me. I mean, I am just very against soppy or melodramatic romance and there is none of that here so I am 100% on board. Some dry, perhaps dark, humour here. I was pleasantly surprised by this book and went on to book 2.

Defy the worlds by Claudia Gray

This book has really ramped up the stakes for the protagonists from the start right up to the very end. I think that is enough said.

Defy the fates by Claudia Gray

The author has really worked on stakes since the grand finale ups it again for Neomi and Abel. I do find the conclusion satisfying in a hopeful type of way. I don’t think there will be another series featuring these two and I might not be that tempted to read it but it’s a good point to leave things at.

Children’s fiction

The Same Stuff as Stars by Katherine Paterson

The second book for my mini reading challenge that didn’t turn up in my initial search. I was actually waiting for Gideon the Ninth and am currently 10th on the reservation list. So this was the tie-over book.

This book is for you if you like heartwarming stories featuring family and/or stars. So far, I’m pretty happy with what has turned up for my mini reading challenge this year.

Mystery

Girl, Forsaken by Blake Pierce

I feel like I am actually getting 2 for 1 with this novel in that it alternates between two female cops which I wasn’t expecting from the blurb (well, one is the actual protagonist of the series and the other is her partner). It’s an engaging read overall and I might be tempted to read more of the author and this particular protagonist.

The Empress Murders by Toby Schmitz (audiobook narrated by Jennifer Vuletic)

I wanted a light reading to tie me over after my EU trip so I got back to audiobooks but so far I’m zoning out on this.

23 Minutes by Vivian Vande Velde

I think this is actually classified under urban fantasy since the protagonist has a special power but I see it more as a thriller (and the majority of thriller I read is mystery so hence I put this book under mystery).

It has short chapters and a fast pace, a good twist.

Fantasy

The Wilderwoman: A Novel by Ruth Emmie Lang

I think this is the supernatural sub-genre of fantasy and I would probably later reclassify it as mystery. It’s about two sisters trying to find their missing mother from the blurb. So far it reads okay but I won’t have more to report until I get to the end. So stay tuned for the September post.