The study of emotions

Recently, I’ve been bingeing on Korean dramas. My favorite was “Romance is a Bonus Book” on Netflix which I watched, rewatched, savored, and waited with great anticipation for the next episode to come out.

The series of 16 episodes is now complete and I have to say, it was eye-opening because this series spoke to me in many levels. A remake of “Younger” an American TV drama, it was about a woman who had a 9 year career break to care for her kid and husband and after her divorce, returning to the workforce to learn the harsh reality that it was impossible to get a job. She finally found one by tearing up her college degree and past work experience to work as a high school diploma contract employee at a Book Publishing House.

As you can tell…Netflix hit its mark. What I loved about it was also the series focused on BOOKS, with many generous quotes and poetry. They used book metaphors and delved into how books and stories relate to life. Also, it showed the day-to-day in a book publishing house which was exciting and fun to watch. Moreover, being a Korean drama, there was lots of heartfelt moments and crying.

I started off this year by leaping off a cliff and trying to fly. It has been a crazy 3 months and I’m beginning to find my way down safely. I won’t say that I’ve landed because the road to getting my manuscript published is still faraway. However, I’m beginning to see something. Like Neil Gaiman said in his Master Class series, we need to experience life to write. RESEARCH, not just data, but also about the human character and emotion is important.

The Korean drama, though not real life, and other K-dramas I have binged watched recently, have shed some light into my heart. The crying from watching these dramas was cathartic. It allowed me to pour out my hidden feelings and stress. It gave me a new purpose for my revision for HOLLOW.

HOLLOW will come when it is ready. It will come to show what I want to share. The feelings I’ve felt. The raw emotion which binds people together and whom everyone at some point in their life would feel.

The pieces are coming…until then, I’ll fall gracefully. May the winds buffet my wings and one day…one day I promise, I will soar.

Music muse

Finding the right music to write with is the key to unlocking the words in my head. Without it, writing can take a long time. I’ve tracked my speed at 300 words an hour without and with music, at more than 1000.

While waiting to hear from agents about HOLLOW, I’ve been working on two stories. For the next few weeks, I’ve decided to focus on PLANET MATTER - a YA series of 4 books which I’m working on with Gabriel, my son. It’s a story that we talked about and retold many times over the last few years. It is something that brings both Gabriel’s passion of Space and Chemistry with my love for Fantasy.

The story is about 4 brave children who live in cities run by 3 STATES - Gas, Liquid and Solid states and their quest to save PLANET MATTER from those who seek to destroy it. (Won’t say more. Don’t want to spoil the surprise. >_<)

It’s fun to learn from a 10-year-old on how he sees the story plays out. My hope is this series of books will inspire our kids and teach them to be kind, curious, accepting of differences and unafraid to fight those who are set in their ways and unwilling to love everyone as equals.

So, to help with writing, I need the right muse. For PLANET MATTER, I’ve decided to use movie soundtracks from TRANSFORMERS, AVENGERS and other superhero themes. All which are Gabe approved.

Stay tune for our first draft - PLANET MATTER: LIQUID STATE !

Creating more Pi

When Gabriel, my son, learnt about the Pi language, he became really excited. My 10 year old loves creating ancient languages. He made his own hieroglyphs for his alternate mythological universe when he was 6 yrs old. So, as you can imagine, the boy got really excited when I told him that I had a language in mind for Tempus. Below are some of his creations of Pi:

Pi the language of Tempus

The language of Pi came to me as I was writing HOLLOW. I’d always envision the language to be pictorial like Asian characters. Tempus, the first Pi word I created came from the image of the 33 flipped in mirror image of each other. The language of Pi is made of circles, dots and lines.

TEMPUS

Drawing from a dream - HOLLOW

HOLLOW, the story that I wrote came from a vivid dream I had last year. I can still see it when I close my eyes. The empty room with the mirror on the wall. A stool with a camera on it and the face in the mirror looking back at me that is not mine.

And yet…I knew it is, as well as the many other faces I took in my dream. It is funny how all my stories start from my dreams.

With my HOLLOW manuscript completed, I’ve been spending my time preparing to query the agents I’m interested in and also drawing. Yes…I’ve been drawing with Gabriel, my son. We came up with some symbols for the Pi language on Tempus which I have to say are pretty cool. I’d also spent a good 3 hours drawing the image of the WALL of 33, which took forever, and my fingers were cramping when I was done.

For that brief 3 hours, I felt what it was like to be Alice. Each square which I drew represented each photograph she took after she woke up. Each one painstakingly drawn, retraced by my hand and mapped out to the 33 women and girls on a list I had, made me feel sad and frustrated (especially after the 2nd hour of continuous drawing). Alice must have felt like her changes would never end. She must have felt impotent, helpless and depressed.

So, if I could speak to Alice, I would say to her, “I think I understand your pain. Even if it was for a moment in time.” As the author, I’d tell her, “Don’t worry. You are worthy, Alice. You will prevail.”