W_L

The story is very nice and the characters feel organic in terms of their relationship development.

Great underrated comedy with a charming twist

Very good show! A charming romp with some idiosyncrasy and a famous central character

Wonderful story about moving beyond loss to both literally and metaphorically rebuild your life

@ValkyrieInventive ghost story with a nice message about moving past the pain of loss, while rebuilding a new life. I really like the advert that you had at the start of the story, it reminds me of a few I've read over the years with similar fixer uppers.

A very simple object lesson mystery involving an elderly couple and Aaron, a waiter. If you are looking for an old fashioned mystery story, then give this a try.

Really nice mystery that resolves with a happy ending, Howard and Betsy were a wonderful pair to follow through the setup of their anniversary dinner. I wonder if their son had serendipitously arranged this dinner with some premonition of his own death. Like the object lesson mystery

There's some really interesting cross-referencing between Christianity with Chinese/Japanese Buddhists, including Guanyin portrayal. https://www.metmuseum.org/perspectives/articles/2021/5/virgin-mary-guanyin https://qspirit.net/kuan-yin-queer-buddhist-christ/ As I said, this stuff is really fertile territory to create historical fantasy and fiction. Transgender and queer deities were far less taboo in the past before homophobic and transphobic ideas emerged in Medieval and early modern Christian Europe. ------------ As for Daji, the nine-tailed demon fox, he's complicated. A psychopath, he is definitely, but the question is better understood as to why he became the way he was. In the stories that I heard as a child and read, Nuwa sent Daji to destroy the corrupt Shang Dynasty. It doesn't offer much background as to why Daji accepted this mission or any background into the demon fox. However, we do get some possibilities based on Daji's enjoyment of persecuting and torturing others, need to dominate, and severe paranoia depicted in the stories about the famous fox demon. On a side note, Nuwa was also the creator of the heavenly stones that sealed a hole in the sky, some smaller stones left behind became the stone primates like Sun Wukong who had absorbed her essence in the process. To me, Nuwa probably created both Daji, demon fox and Wukong, our beloved Monkey king, as her children. Maybe she was a strict mother trying to force Daji to be something he did not want to be, maybe the intent was merely to kill the king Zhou of Shang dynasty rather than to seduce him. Whatever the case maybe, Nuwa never appeared later in the novel Fengshen Bang about the Godly civil war against the Shang Dynasty and Daji, nor Sun Wukong's novel Journey to the West, she never interacted with Sun Wukong as a child or adult in other canonical stories either (It's one of those what-if mysteries in mythology, why would a godly mother not want to be with her child). It's worth exploring that piece of their shared background. Asian fantasy is rich and fertile, but untapped as the subject is not widely known or explored in cultures outside east Asia, even in east Asia, it is usually only explored by retelling the same old stories.

Chapter 9 Friends, Romans, Countryman... 😛 Yes, I am introducing a Roman Christian missionary in my historical fantasy story involving Chinese gods, Buddhist deities, and a whole lot of references to Journey to the West. To be fair, I never quite understand why Chinese writers avoid talking about Christians as they came around this period as Missionaries in China, establishing the Church of the East. The same goes with historical fantasy western writers, who avoid talking about Chinese philosophical religions influencing Roman culture. I really hope I am not the first guy to just point out this fact. Also in this chapter, I am playing with dueling transgender issues between two canonical transgender entities: Guanyin as China's most revered Buddhist deity second only to the Buddha was biologically male, but transformed into a female. Daji in contrast as the nine-taled demon fox was biologically female but portray himself as a male to rule Shang kingdom. I want to offer readers some food for thought at how transgender presentation in ancient myth was prevalent.

Shunfeng’er and Qianliyan left the retinue, promising to meet back with Hua Cheng and Xie Lian in the capital, Jiankang after they make their reports of finding Xiwang among humans and waiting for an opportunity to eliminate it. It was an imperfect solution for an imperfect time, which everyone understood. Wukong mulled over the arbitrary nature of the gods and how unjust their actions were, not merely towards Xiwang, but to his brethren as well. Wukong was plagued with many thoughts as their ca

I need to get back to reading ... and writing

Thanks everyone, Do you like the idea and concepts I opened? Should I continue

A Flash of Brilliance Land Power created Nations Sea Power created Empires Air Power created Collective Blocs Space Power will create a Human Civilization -If I write a full series, I would use that as my tag line -------------- Have you ever had moments where you wish things were different? After reading about discrimination, hate, atrocities, and death, how can all that stuff change? What type of person could do that? What are their motivations and ideals? In my story, altruism leads to groundbreaking discovery at the frontiers of science. People know from my past stories that I have an interest in computer science and theoretical applications, quantum computing technology in particular is something that has piqued my interest in recent years. If the reports are to be believed, China and US have achieved limited successes at achieve "Quantum Supremacy" over traditional computer systems, essentially reaching calculations faster than possible. It's a holy grail for physicist to discover what is called "Dark Matter", or under some circles "Dark Energy", which is theoretically several things: 85% of the universe and generate gravity without being observable due to lack of radiation, including light. If someone can harness this energy that is all around, a lot of things that should be impossible would e possible. Gravity without matter, energy without radiation would represent a quantum leap like a windmill versus a modern atomic reactor. Also true, revenge leads to the practical applications of this new discovery in the area of warfare. Things such energy weapons, which no nation has figured a way to make work at a reasonable distance or rate of fire would stop being issues. Satellite defense network would make ballistic missiles as obsolete as a bow and arrow against a tank. However, one of the frightening things, from my imagination, is the use of it to generate electromagnetic fields and heat the gases in our atmosphere to create plasma. Plasma-based weapons have been experimented on by the US in 1980's Strategic Defense Initiative, SDI aka Star Wars program, under the code name "Marauder", though the research was classified after 1990s, I ponder what would happen if the last reports shortcomings of energy production could be corrected. Low earth orbit satellite would be able to in theory gather gases from the upper atmosphere, providing limitless ammunition and the power of these plasma charges would be immense, perhaps not atomic level, but still strong enough to level city blocks. Yet, the most frightening weapon of all comes from the dark matter/dark energy itself. If you could somehow intensify the inherent power of this material to generate gravity, you could replicate a fusion bomb's effect with multiple factors of intensity as no radiation is generated, instead it causes the surrounding heat and matter to collapse in, similar to the theoretical properties of how black holes are formed. Such weapons would be far worse than the atomic boogeyman, which albeit can destroy human societies as they exist now, it will still allow survivors in bunkers and underground areas. In my story, a dark matter bomb could literally destroy the earth, ending all life. The character, Ken Savage, demonstrated all the above advances in a practical and personal act, killing millions in the process. There's no apology for genocide on either side of a conflict, history is rife with examples where victim become victimizers, but I wanted to offer an imperfect human being with deep flaws. In the face of complete destruction or reformation, a new human civilization would have to grow from the ashes as ugly as his actions may be. ---------- It's an interesting concept, but I'll let readers decide if I should pursue it

(Lance Houston) I knew it was a mistake, they should never have shown Ken those intelligence reports about Ahmad. As a soldier, you know never to reveal your cards to anyone, even your friends. I’ve kept that mindset even as a civilian leader. Yet, I was overruled by David MacDonald, the President’s Chief of Staff, who only saw the money that a high-profile LGBT billionaire can donate to his party’s election campaign. As the current US Secretary of Defense and former military commander, I k

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/55545191-so-this-is-ever-after I thought I would shift gears and begin reviewing some medieval gay fantasy stories, starting with this new book by F.T Lukens. Published in March 2022, the book is centered on the tropes of the Arthurian-fantasy genre that many readers, and several GA writers, have probably played with at one point or another. F.T Lukens is playing with a lot of the tropes and satirizing them based on real-world issues that the heroes would

In a few days, I'll be starting "The First to Die at the End" by Adam Silvera, I reviewed They Both Die In The End last year for Halloween, so I will probably keep going. There's something about bittersweet love and loss, the hope and hopelessness that makes it all so worthwhile. Knowing the ending isn't as important as experiencing the journey, The greatest thing to fear for a reader is knowing there's a ticking clock and a limited amount of pages before the ending of a story.

Please Sir, I want some more...stories

RIP Coolio,

The Arthurian legend of Morgan le Fay is quite interesting, her reputation has been decimated in modern times by a continual string of negative interpretations, including in the BBC series Merlin, but her classic story was actually a lot more benevolent and tragic. I personally prefer the interpretation of Marion Eleanor Zimmer Bradley and her Mist of Avalon series, when it comes to this character. The author's private life and potential acts abetting her husband aside, she did a great job at creating Morgaine's character true to her literary roots.

He's a lone avenger, who has been maligned throughout his life, living far from the territory of the gods. Since he already has a death sentence, there's no reason to avoid human territory now. If you ever read Heaven Official's Blessing novels, He Xuan and Black Water arc is very interesting, concerning the nature of revenge and obsession with those who were wronged unjustly and how far they go to achieve it. Unlike western tales where moral high grounds exists, sometimes the absolute truth is there is no moral high ground, just relative balance. In a way, Xiwang represents a lot of different people and groups, who just automatically gain a stigma due to prejudice. He's so focused on revenge that he cannot recognize the dangers or support that he has around him. Hua Cheng might be direct and rude at times, but he's offering the kid some good advice about not boxing himself in.

Chapter 8 Oh heavenly politics Some interesting things to think about in this chapter, historically Chinese civilization did begin to hybridize Buddhism and Taoism around this point in history. The blending was partly due to the invasion of barbarian tribes from the steppes with a need to unify various systems together to act as a counterweight. They incorporated mixed belief systems similar to how Romans adopted Egyptian gods or Persian deities in the Middle East, while still worshipping native pantheon or the Olympian pantheon. A key thing to consider here is the inherent issue between Taoism and Buddhism, Taoism is a belief in restraint versus Buddhism is a belief in relieving suffering. The idea of vanquishing evil and demons was inherent in both faiths, but a caveat is Taoist would wait and evaluate the situation fully before action, while an unorganized Buddhist religion without a central authority at the time would push for immediate action. People assume Buddhism is a pacifistic religion, but it really depends on your interpretation of what "ending suffering" means, especially without rules on how far you can take the cause. In India during the height of Buddhism, leaders were slaughtering foes under the belief that they were ending suffering "for their people". What better way to end a cycle of war than to wipe out entire kingdoms that opposed you? (The Buddha would probably have been horrified at what his followers did in his name and beliefs). Under such ideas, genocide doesn't seem wrong or cruel. Taoism is a religion of compromised action, seeking to make decisive action impactful, but as a belief system, it has several issues that most scholars in Dynastic China have noted that lead to corruption. Finally, within this framework of beliefs and the bureaucracy that I am describing, there is the ever-present issue of Confucianism. I don't mention it by name, but it is present in all areas of life and manner of ideals. During this period, a breakdown of civil society led to the problems inherent in nations such as Jin Dynasty that appear in the Heavenly Court, reflecting current social mores, Confucian ethics have failed to live up to the promise. In order to maintain the status quo, leaders compromise their ethics further weakening systems and ideas in favor of greater conflict and self-destructive tendencies. Beyond the social/theological concepts I added to the story, the overall plot is getting more intricate. Xu Xiwang, despite being only a teenager, is now branded for death due to continuing injustice against his ancestors and perpetrated by a system that cannot accept their error. The alliance of the Taoist Heavenly Court and Fahai Buddhist may preserve the status quo, but it creates new victims. You can be assured Xiwang isn't the only one to face issues in this alliance. For Characters, I wanted to show off Hua Cheng's intelligent and witty side that he exhibits in the novels. It would be such a charming idea to think that he inspired Sun Wukong later to be the wise-cracking Monkey King in the centuries after this time. Wukong himself is learning and gathering knowledge through observation, just as any student of Taoism would, at according to the Tao Te Ching. An interesting thing to consider as a difference between Western magic and Eastern magic user training, the Taoist idea is that a student learns through observation rather than going to class at Hogwarts to do spells and charms While Wukong may not be taught in the traditional sense "magic" like western stories, he's learning "magic" through observing the practice of it. That's the first level of magical training, then the next is surpassing what you have seen to improve it. Eastern magic is based on self-learning and ingenuity with basic philosophical guidance. Don't be surprise to see Wukong experiment with magic soon.

A bit of both, I am continuing the story from TGCF/Heaven Official's Blessing and tying HuaLian (Xie Lian and Hua Cheng) story as prequel to Journey to the West, plus adding a little real Chinese history for the formation of Northern and Southern Dynasty era/Sixteen Kingdoms era. I'm one of the few Chinese gay authors on GA with that kind of background knowledge in classical mythology and modern Wuxia/Xianxia fantasy genres, but I am hoping I can inspire others to come and open up the world to some wonderful stories and concepts.

Chapter 8 Knowing neither of them could, or even would, raise a sword to Hua Cheng and Xie Lian, both odd-looking youths dropped their weapons obediently. Hua escorted them and Xie Lian, along with Wukong and the squirming white snake in his arms, away from the main retinue to be out of earshot of the mortals. Some may have heard Qianliyan’s bold announcement, but after the loss of their former capital, Chang’an, and so much in the north, madness was rampant among the refugees. Lady Liu add

Jensen and Nolan are a cute couple, they make such an interesting pair based on their backgrounds. It's an intriguing story that takes normal concepts in gay fiction, then reverses them in a meaningful way that shows off both characters. Jensen is a refreshing reversal of the stereotype, he might be young, but he's successful, mature, and secure. In contrast, Nolan is older, weary of relations due to his ex-husband infidelity, and insecure financially or career-wise. If this were a heterosexual romance, Nolan reminds me of an ex-housewife who is trying to get her life back, while her young wealthy and virile supportive male lover is trying to prove his devotion to her. While this concept has been done countless times in heterosexual romance fiction, it's refreshing to finally see a talented author like @Mrsgnomiebring the concept into gay fiction with fleshed-out characters and concepts.

Jensen and Nolan are a cute couple. Jensen might have a lot of means, but he's such an innocent guy. Some gay guys like older mature men, which is kind of nice to see in a narrative. The traditional roles of an older financially secure partner with a younger insecure partner are juxtaposed in a nice way