Tag: Thoughts

Searching for locations: The Golden Mask Dynasty Show, Beijing, China

The Golden Mask Dynasty Show was located at the OCT Theatre in Beijing’s Happy Valley. 

The theatre was quite full and the seats we had were directly behind the VIP area; as our guide told us, we had the best seats in the house. 

The play has 20 different dance scenes that depict war, royal banquets, and romance.  There are eight chapters and over 200 actors, and throughout the performance we were entertained by dancers, acrobats, costumes, lighting, and acoustics.

The story:

It is of romantic legend and historical memories, the Golden Mask Queen leads her army in defeating the invading Blue Mask King’s army, and afterwards the lands return to a leisurely pastoral life until the Queen forges a ‘mysterious tree’.  When the tree has grown, the Queen has a grand celebration, and releases the captured Blue soldiers, much to the admiration of the Blue Mask King.
This is followed by monstrous floods, and to save her people, and on the advice from the ‘mysterious tree’, the Queen sacrifices herself to save her people.  The Queen then turns into a golden sunbird flying in the sky blessing the people and that of the dynasty.

Billed as the best live show in China, described as a large scale dramatic musical, “The Golden Mask Dynasty” it lived up to its reputation and was thoroughly enjoyed by all.

It was not just singing dancing and acrobatics, it had a story and it was told so that language and cultural issues aside, it worked.  There was a narration of the story running beside the stage, but it was hard to divide attention between what was happening, and what was being related.

Then came the peacock dance, with live peacocks

And this was followed by a waterfall, well, I don’t think anyone in that audience could believe what they were seeing.

I know I was both astonished and in awe of the performance.

What a way to finish off our first day in Beijing.

Oh, sorry, that high was dented slightly when we had to go back to our room.

NANOWRIMO – April 2025 – Day 0

…

The Fourth Son

…

This store started out as When The Planets Align.

I had this cute idea forming in Mt head as a short story for the A to Z blog, about a man of Royal blood living anonymously in America, away from the mechanations of a Royal life.

After all, he was the fourth son, and reading and hearing so much about Prince Harry being a ‘spare’, I wondered what it would be like if you were the third spare.

So far down the inheritance ladder that you were basically worthless for anything but donning a suit and smiling.  There was only one king, the eldest son.  Any chance of everyone dying so he could take the throne was unbelievable.

It could never, ever happen.

Could it?

And yes, you can guess where this is going.

Never say never ..

Searching for locations: The Jade Factory, Beijing, China

The first stop is at a Jade Museum to learn the history of jade. In Chinese, jade is pronounced as “Yu” and it has a history in China of at least four thousand years.  On the way there, we are given a story about one of the guide’s relatives who had a jade bracelet, and how it has saved her from countless catastrophes.It is, quite literally ‘the’ good luck charm.  Chinese gamblers are known to have small pieces of jade in their hands when visiting the casinos, for good luck.  I’m not sure anything could provide a gambler with any sort of luck given how the odds are always slanted towards the house.

At any rate, this is neither the time of the place to debunk a ‘well-known fact’.

 On arrival, our guide hands us over to a local guide, a real staff member, and she begins with a discussion on jade while we watch a single worker working on an intricate piece, what looks to be a globe within a globe, sorry, there are two workers, and the second is working on a dragon.

At the end of the passage that passes by the workers, and before you enter the main showroom, you are dazzled by the ship and is nothing short of magnificent.

Then it’s into a small room just off the main showroom where we are taken through the colors, and the carving process in the various stages, without really being told how the magic happens.

Then it’s out into the main showroom where the sales are made, and before dispersing to look at the jade collection, she briefly tells us how to tell real and fake jade, and she does the usual trick of getting one of the tour group to model a piece.

Looks good, let’s move on.  To bigger and better examples.

What interested me, other than the small zodiac signs and other smallish pieces on the ‘promotion’ table, was the jade bangle our tour guide told us about on the bus.  If anyone needs one, it is my other half, with all the medical issues and her sometimes clumsiness, two particular maladies this object is supposed to prevent.
Jade to the Chinese is Diamonds to westerners, and the jade bangle is often handed down to the females of the family from generation to generation, often as an engagement present, to be worn on the left hand, the one closest to the heart.

There are literally thousands of them, but, they have to be specially fitted to your wrist because if it’s too large, you might lose it if it slips off and I didn’t think it could be too small.  
Nor is it cheap, and needing a larger size, it is reasonably expensive.  But it is jadeite, the more expensive of the types of jade, and it can only appreciate in value, not that we are interested in the monetary value, it’s more the good luck aspect.

We could use some of that.

But, just to touch on something that can be the bugbear of traveling overseas, is the subject of happy houses, a better name for toilets, and has become a recurrent theme on this tour.  It’s better than blurting out the word toilet and it seems there can be some not so happy houses given that the toilets in China are usually squat rather than sit, even for women.
And apparently, everyone has an unhappy house story, particularly the women, and generally in having to squat over a pit.  Why is this a discussion point, it seems the jade factory had what we have come to call happy, happy houses which have more proper toilets, and a stop here before going on the great wall was recommended, as the ‘happy house’ at the wall is deemed to be not such a happy house.

Not even this dragon was within my price range.  Thank heaven they had smaller more affordable models.  The object of having a dragon, large or small, is that it should be placed inside the main door to the house so that money can come in.

It also seems that stuffing the dragon’s mouth with money is also good luck.  We passed on doing that.

After spending a small fortune, there was a bonus, free Chinese tea.  Apparently, we will be coming back, after the Great Wall visit, to have lunch upstairs.

           

Writing a book in 365 days – My story 9

More about my story

…

There’s always something about that knock on the door in a hotel when you’re not expecting anyone.

This is more so when you are staying in the hotel for reasons other than what you intimated to the desk clerk.

The art of not being noticed is to be anonymous, the sort of person that does not stand out, that no one gives a second look.  That’s a bit hard if you are an Englishman in a foreign country.  Language, skin colour, dietary requirements, allergies, heat or cold, and travelling alone are all features which will catch someone’s attention.

Yes, like the arrivals hall at an international airport, as in a hotel lobby, there are spies watching the spies.

That’s why a universal occupation like journalist flies well in these situations.  And given there is an international conference, he can hide in plain sight.

Except, the police chief likes to know who he’s dealing with and meets up for a little discussion about protocol.  After all, he wouldn’t the first or last journalist to find himself in breach of the customs of the country.

Mind what you write.

And yes, there is a chief of the secret police, a man who scares everyone from the president down, the man who makes people disappear, and we’re going with the dark sunglasses, immaculate uniform, I think I’m a god, tropes.

Writing a book in 365 days – 73

Day 73

Editing – getting the reader invested

…

There are two, possibly more, but two fundamental questions you have to ask yourself when you are reading through your work, and perhaps for the first time after finishing writing that first draft.

What am I saying?

What happens next for the characters?

Here’s the thing…

What your saying is what the reader wants to know, what sets the tone, what sets up the story. I like to throw readers in the deep right from the start, to give the reader a sense of who they’re going on the journey with.

In my opinion, a book is a journey and the more compelling you can make it, the more invested the reader will be.

Your ultimate aim: that the reader cannot put the book down. They just have to read a bit more to see what happens.

It is always going to be what happens next, whether our protagonist is hanging out of a helicopter trying to avoid being killed, or chasing a lead (or person), chasing a suspect or a person of interest, or just a red herring or entanglement.

And there is always that trope, the cliff hanger at the end of every chapter.

Searching for locations: The Jade Factory, Beijing, China

The first stop is at a Jade Museum to learn the history of jade. In Chinese, jade is pronounced as “Yu” and it has a history in China of at least four thousand years.  On the way there, we are given a story about one of the guide’s relatives who had a jade bracelet, and how it has saved her from countless catastrophes.It is, quite literally ‘the’ good luck charm.  Chinese gamblers are known to have small pieces of jade in their hands when visiting the casinos, for good luck.  I’m not sure anything could provide a gambler with any sort of luck given how the odds are always slanted towards the house.

At any rate, this is neither the time of the place to debunk a ‘well-known fact’.

 On arrival, our guide hands us over to a local guide, a real staff member, and she begins with a discussion on jade while we watch a single worker working on an intricate piece, what looks to be a globe within a globe, sorry, there are two workers, and the second is working on a dragon.

At the end of the passage that passes by the workers, and before you enter the main showroom, you are dazzled by the ship and is nothing short of magnificent.

Then it’s into a small room just off the main showroom where we are taken through the colors, and the carving process in the various stages, without really being told how the magic happens.

Then it’s out into the main showroom where the sales are made, and before dispersing to look at the jade collection, she briefly tells us how to tell real and fake jade, and she does the usual trick of getting one of the tour group to model a piece.

Looks good, let’s move on.  To bigger and better examples.

What interested me, other than the small zodiac signs and other smallish pieces on the ‘promotion’ table, was the jade bangle our tour guide told us about on the bus.  If anyone needs one, it is my other half, with all the medical issues and her sometimes clumsiness, two particular maladies this object is supposed to prevent.
Jade to the Chinese is Diamonds to westerners, and the jade bangle is often handed down to the females of the family from generation to generation, often as an engagement present, to be worn on the left hand, the one closest to the heart.

There are literally thousands of them, but, they have to be specially fitted to your wrist because if it’s too large, you might lose it if it slips off and I didn’t think it could be too small.  
Nor is it cheap, and needing a larger size, it is reasonably expensive.  But it is jadeite, the more expensive of the types of jade, and it can only appreciate in value, not that we are interested in the monetary value, it’s more the good luck aspect.

We could use some of that.

But, just to touch on something that can be the bugbear of traveling overseas, is the subject of happy houses, a better name for toilets, and has become a recurrent theme on this tour.  It’s better than blurting out the word toilet and it seems there can be some not so happy houses given that the toilets in China are usually squat rather than sit, even for women.
And apparently, everyone has an unhappy house story, particularly the women, and generally in having to squat over a pit.  Why is this a discussion point, it seems the jade factory had what we have come to call happy, happy houses which have more proper toilets, and a stop here before going on the great wall was recommended, as the ‘happy house’ at the wall is deemed to be not such a happy house.

Not even this dragon was within my price range.  Thank heaven they had smaller more affordable models.  The object of having a dragon, large or small, is that it should be placed inside the main door to the house so that money can come in.

It also seems that stuffing the dragon’s mouth with money is also good luck.  We passed on doing that.

After spending a small fortune, there was a bonus, free Chinese tea.  Apparently, we will be coming back, after the Great Wall visit, to have lunch upstairs.

           

Writing a book in 365 days – 73

Day 73

Editing – getting the reader invested

…

There are two, possibly more, but two fundamental questions you have to ask yourself when you are reading through your work, and perhaps for the first time after finishing writing that first draft.

What am I saying?

What happens next for the characters?

Here’s the thing…

What your saying is what the reader wants to know, what sets the tone, what sets up the story. I like to throw readers in the deep right from the start, to give the reader a sense of who they’re going on the journey with.

In my opinion, a book is a journey and the more compelling you can make it, the more invested the reader will be.

Your ultimate aim: that the reader cannot put the book down. They just have to read a bit more to see what happens.

It is always going to be what happens next, whether our protagonist is hanging out of a helicopter trying to avoid being killed, or chasing a lead (or person), chasing a suspect or a person of interest, or just a red herring or entanglement.

And there is always that trope, the cliff hanger at the end of every chapter.

Writing a book in 365 days – 72

Day 72

Originality

…

So, can you write a completely original fiction story? Some would say they could, but every time you pick up a book, can you say that you have not seen parts of it before, in one form or another?

It is said that there are only seven basic plots that are used over and over again.

Others will say there are three, six, or thirty-six. No one can seem to agree on a number, but they all believe there is just a small number of master plots from which every story is written.

  1. Overcoming the Monster
  2. Rags to Riches
  3. The Quest
  4. Voyage and Return
  5. Rebirth
  6. Comedy
  7. Tragedy

This is from The Seven Basic Plots: Why We Tell Stories by Christopher Booker.

There are endless variations, some end happy, others sad, and what is left in tragedy.

I like to have happy endings and am not a fan of sad endings, there’s enough of those on TV, and I think the last thing we want before we go to bed is to see a show that reflects daily life. I like to see the good guys win every now and then just to restore my faith in human nature.

Writing a book in 365 days – 72

Day 72

Originality

…

So, can you write a completely original fiction story? Some would say they could, but every time you pick up a book, can you say that you have not seen parts of it before, in one form or another?

It is said that there are only seven basic plots that are used over and over again.

Others will say there are three, six, or thirty-six. No one can seem to agree on a number, but they all believe there is just a small number of master plots from which every story is written.

  1. Overcoming the Monster
  2. Rags to Riches
  3. The Quest
  4. Voyage and Return
  5. Rebirth
  6. Comedy
  7. Tragedy

This is from The Seven Basic Plots: Why We Tell Stories by Christopher Booker.

There are endless variations, some end happy, others sad, and what is left in tragedy.

I like to have happy endings and am not a fan of sad endings, there’s enough of those on TV, and I think the last thing we want before we go to bed is to see a show that reflects daily life. I like to see the good guys win every now and then just to restore my faith in human nature.

Writing a book in 365 days – 71

Day 71

Editing, and the effect on length

…

Sometimes editing has a different effect on how long the book will be.

Sending it to an editor with the instruction to lose 20,000 words of a novel that is 110,000 words long will get just that. That’s the editor’s job.

Sending a book to another editor and telling them to make sure the story is written properly, that there’s continuity, and the character’s timelines and backstories are fitting, may add another 20,000 words.

As a case in point, one of my stories started out at 365 pages. It was read by three different beta readers who all said the same thing. There were parts of the novel ‘missing’.

I read it, then reread it, and could see what they meant. I sat down and rewrote it, filling in the gaps, and when I was finished, it was 535 pages, and a completely different, but much better, story.

Sometimes it’s not a matter of cutting things out, not unless they don’t add to the story, but more that the story cannot have gaps, plot holes, and stuff happening without content or relevance.

To me, a story takes as many pages as it does to get it from the start to the end and make sense to the reader. The editor with then make suggestions on whether more is needed or less. We all tend to waffle at times, so be prepared for cuts, but these might not be as bad as it seems.