I am awful about posting new podcast episodes, I’ll try to make updates more often!
On episode 69 of the Artsy Raven podcast, we spoke to Daphne Gray-Grant, a book coach. She advised me that I should just write non-stop and edit later because this will make writing faster. I’ve been trying to do this, but haven’t managed to grasp this skill yet!
On the podcast, Daphne speaks about common writer problems, how to write faster and why changing font size is a good idea!
On Netflix I have a tendency to watch dark stories, but when an ad popped up for Love Game in Eastern Fantasy I just assumed it would be more of the same. I was pleasantly surprised, there is demon hunting in the show, but it’s a wacky comedy with some romance in it. The show’s intriguing plotline moves along and has many funny moments, making it one of the lighter things I’ve watched in 2024.
The main storyline is about Ling Miaomiao, a girl who is an obsessive reader of wuxia demon hunting novels and after she posts a bad review of the latest book from her favorite author, she is sucked into a videogame world based on the novel. To her horror, she discovers she isn’t the main character, but a secondary character who is a villain in the book with a terrible fate. The “system” gives her quests, similar to an RPG game and she must fulfill them or risk losing a chance to return to her real life. One quest is to make another secondary character fall in love with her which takes up a lot of episodes because the male lead/secondary character hates her guts. Prior to entering the game, Miaomiao is a bit of an otaku, so it’s funny to watch her try to charm a man and fail spectacularly most of the time!
The world building assumes the audience is familiar with wuxia (ancient Chinese martial arts genre), cultivation and demon hunting. Since Miaomiao is a “modern” person in a game based in ancient China, she asks a lot of questions which helps the viewers understand what is happening. The female lead in the show is played by Esther Yu (Yu Shuxin, 虞书欣), a former girl group member (The9) and she is fantastic with her comedic timing along with dramatic scenes. One great scene has her failing a mission and she is killed over and over again until she figures out the solution. It is really funny because she is the only person who remembers dying while the other characters just “reset” in the videogame.
The male lead is Ryan Ding (Ding Yuxi, 丁禹兮) and he is super impressive with his range in acting from nasty smothering stares directed at Miaomiao to becoming an innocent puppy in front of his older sister in a matter of seconds. He does most of the heavy lifting for fight scenes and he is swift and graceful. The Chinese gossip columns said the male lead was supposed to be Arthur Chen Feiyu ( 陈飞宇) but there was a scandal involving him and the President of his fan club so he was dropped from the role. Asian idols aim to have pristine reputations so they can gain sponsorship opportunities. Some companies and fans also demand celibacy of their idols. Despite the glory and glamour, the entertainment industry is a tough business.
Admittedly the name of the show made me scratch my head. It’s based on a book called The Guide to Capturing a Black Lotus by Bai Yu Zhai Diao Gong so who the heck came up with the title of Love Game in Eastern Fantasy? The original title is better in my opinion because mentioning a “love game” tends to turn off a lot of people who don’t usually watch romance, like myself. Themes involve friendship, not giving up (or you remain in the game forever), recognizing the greyness in people and demons along with the fact that falling in love can be a struggle!
Overall, I have been recommending this drama to friends and waiting for the official Netflix episode releases so I have something to look forward to every week. Each episode is about 37 minutes and Netflix drops happen every few days. The show has very high production quality with lots of scenic settings in forest, mountains and ancient Chinese towns along with beautiful FX during fight scenes. My only criticism is that despite the fact the characters are wanderers carrying tiny satchels, they have an impressive wardrobe of flowing robes and ribbons. I am glad that there are female characters in the show that can fight since Miaomiao, as a modern person is fairly useless at that. The show is a smart fantasy comedy mixed with impressive special effects when the characters are demon hunting. (Show rating 9.0/10)
Link to English/Chinese lyrics to MV for 凝眸 (Stare Intently), one of the main songs in Love Game in Eastern Fantasy is below:
The summer went by so fast! Now I’m suddenly scrambling to pull myself together for Can Con 2023, a writing and publishing convention held in Ottawa. Things were going well, I actually did a jog in the park yesterday, but then in the afternoon I lost my favorite pair of headphones in the supermarket and my day went haywire from then on (I found myself crawling on the supermarket floor in search of them in case they got kicked under the shelves, but they stayed lost).
Sometimes I feel like whenever I feel happy, that is when things go really wrong. Anyhow, I’m hoping things will go well at the conference now that my bad streak has happened…below is my schedule if you happen to be going to the conference, feel free to come chat with me!
The schedule looks action packed with lots of writing sessions, book launches and interesting topics about the future of publishing. It’s one of the few conferences left in Canada that features genre writing and it should be hopping!
Since starting social media accounts eons ago (remember My Space anyone? MIrc?) I have seen posts from people (who I don’t personally) bullying me. Have also received long emails about how I suck, etc. For a while I was angry, but anger is such a destructive force. I’ve learned to channel this energy into other things, such as writing and making books – basically creating stuff.
The other day I played Depeche Mode’s People are People in the car and this made me think about such past events of cyberbullying. In the end it’s not productive to hold onto the anger or to do revenge stuff. As much as I like watching The Glory or Revenge, let’s be honest, who has time to do this revenge stuff?
People are People selected lyrics:
I can’t understand What makes a man Hate another man Help me understand
People are people, so why should it be You and I should get along so awfully People are people, so why should it be You and I should get along so awfully
Although this song was released in 1984, the message still holds true! Have a listen next time you are upset to help let go of the negative emotions!
In May I will be hosting an event for Canadian Author Association’s Toronto branch to discuss how librarians, authors & poets/performance artists were affected by COVID. Academic librarians from The University of Toronto and Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson University) will discuss the disruptions they have faced and how libraries have responded to the pandemic. Author Dan K Woo and Poet/Performance Artist Johnny D Trinh will share how the pandemic has affected their writing life and what opportunities were missed or gained. These writers will also read from their works.
Asian Canadian Writers’ Workshop is the sponsor for this event and there will be a draw for a $50 Indigo gift card. Dark Helix Press will also be giving away an eBook sampler. Links to these are on the event page.
Recently I volunteered to be the judge of a literary contest and all the entries of physical books were sent to me in multiple boxes! A few days ago I was wondering what to read and well, now I have my answer. My child was very excited to help me organize the titles and declared that any titles with the words “emotional,” “fire” and had a nice graphic should win because they judge by the cover! But I will read through most of them since experience had taught me the cover isn’t everything!
Looking through the books I see seasoned award winning authors and also a variety of self-published authors competing against each other. This is going to be tough to judge but I will do my best and keep an open mind!
As a person who also enters contests, one has to have thick skin. Judging, similar to editing is very subjective and depends on the person’s experiences. There are also other judges so we will come together at the end to compare our shortlists. This is an interesting experience to go through and we’ll see what happens! Meanwhile I will be reading a lot over the next little while!
This is the first in person event I will be doing post pandemic! If you happen to be downtown Toronto on Thursday, April 20, I will be at The New Common (around Wellesley/Bloor) speaking to the Toronto Writers Community.
We are going to talk about “Which publishing path is right for you?” which will detail options about publishing in today’s mad world. We’ll cover traditional (literary agents, publishing companies, online), self-publishing and vanity presses. After the talk, lots of time to chat about your projects and what you want to pursue!
I’ll be participating in two events and giving out prizes:
Thursday, March 16, 6:00-8:00pm (EDT) Birthday Party Fun & Games!
Saturday, March 18, 12:30pm-1:00pm (EDT) Facebook Party!
For the first event on Thursday night, me and a few authors will be playing Bluff the Audience. We will be reading a passage from our book and making up passages for other people’s books. The audience has to guess who is the correct author!
For the second event on Saturday, I’ll be playing virtual Facebook games by asking people to write funny memes and guess songs from musicals.
Hopefully we’ll see you virtually for this online party!
Nastasha Alli was born and raised in the Philippines and came to Canada in 2007. For her writing at the intersection of food and diaspora communities, she won a Food Sustainability Media Award from the Thomson Reuters Foundation. Her work has been featured on CBC Radio and her recipe published in a “top cookbook of 2018” by the San Francisco Chronicle.
She answers the question “Why is research important in your “Exploring Filipino Kitchens” podcast?” on the Artsy Raven podcast, Episode 12. This clip is an excerpt from the episode.
Moni Brar’s works have appeared in PRISM international, Hart House Review, Existere, The Maynard, untethered, Hobart, and other publications. She is a member of the Alexandra Writers’ Centre Society, The League of Canadian Poets, and the editorial board of New Forum Magazine.
She reads “Fault Lines” and tells us what inspired it on the Artsy Raven podcast, Episode 11. This clip is an excerpt from the episode.
Musings of a Generic Asian 
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