Between the lines

  The recent Google search Guns or arrows? 🔫🏹 While I am editing and formatting my second novel in InDesign these days, I am reviewing all the historical facts I used in each setting, for example, the weaponry used in the 1600s in Scotland, whether there was a transportation means other than horses and carriages that time, and so on.  Apparently, guns, particularly pistols and muskets, had already been used in the 17th century in Scotland. There were images of royals using pistols, and the royal soldiers used muskets. I vaguely assumed that bows and arrows were still be commonly used in 1600s in Scotland and England, but I was wrong. So I changed every detail in each scene where weapons are mentioned, from arrows/bows to guns. I believe that one of the arduous tasks in writing a novel, especially a historical novel or an alternative history novel, is to make these sorts of changes if necessary. I always try to search for and choose historical elements as cautiously and thoro...

  I've been watching The Crown again. I've watched it over 7 or 8 times until now, and still counting. As I am busy working during the day and editing my second novel in the evening, I'm watching it while I am having lunch and dinner, for about several ten minutes.  I even memorised some of the dialogs in The Crown as I memorised the lines from Shakespeare plays when I studied them, which never lose the admiring aspects and are still the No.1 love of my life.  The Crown reminds me a great deal of the plays of Shakespeare. The characterization and messages of The Crown are quite similar to those of the works of Shakespeare.  The Crown, principally written by Peter Morgan, is one of the best drama television series I’ve ever watched. The reasons are: the mesmerisingly written dialogs, and the fantastic characterisation, where each and every character is distinct and the representation of relationships among them is an ideal example of character relationship, especially...