Other Stories: Moonlight

I like looking for patterns in things around me. Maybe that’s why I was drawn to “Fringe,” which is one of my favorite TV shows ever.

This week, it seems, is all about the word “moonlight.”

☽ The song I listened to the most this week so far is “Moonlight Punch Romance” by Nell.

 I really love the title and the song itself, so I told my friend Lea:

@rainecaphriel: Moonlight Punch Romance is the name of my fictional band. ^_^—
Meann (@almeldiel) January 16, 2013

 
☽ The day before that, we talked about a new Korean variety show called “Moonlight Prince,” which totally has nothing to do with moonlight or royalty. It actually has to do with books, and the concept is something similar to an idea for guest posts that I wanted to implement here but just never had the time to properly do. Maybe I should try to start on this soon; it could be fun!

☽ Lea thought the title of the show is pretty, though, and might be a good one to use for a story or as a username. And so:

@rainecaphriel: Okay, next time na mag-game ako, Moonlight Princess na ang username ko. XD—
Meann (@almeldiel) January 15, 2013

 
“Next time I play a game, I’m going to use Moonlight Princess as a username.” It might be good to save this up for an epic fantasy edition of “Angry Birds.” LOL

Later, this prompted me to remember that I have a history with even more moonlight-related things.

☽ The local “Twilight” fandom knows me by my username: Clair de Lune (French, moonlight).

☽ One of my most memorable scenes from one of my favorite Korean dramas last year, “The Moon That Embraces The Sun”, is when the heroine, Heo Yeon-woo, sent the Crown Prince a classical poem as a response to his letter.

A monk living in the mountains
desired the moonlight
he saw it floating in his bottle of water and filled it
but at the temple he realized
that if you lean the bottle and pour it out
the moon disappears

[Translation Source: Dramabeans]

It’s such a vivid image that I can almost draw if I had the talent to do so. And it’s also significant in the story because it alludes to both characters’ developing feelings for each other and the painful lesson that they had to learn then: you can’t always have something just because you want it.

☽ One of my favorite movies of all time is “Sabrina,” the one which stars Julia Ormond and Harrison Ford. No matter how many times I watch this movie, I just never get tired of it. And my favorite song from the film is “Moonlight” by Sting:

 So there! I just hope this doesn’t mean that if I get zapped by some magical light ray that transforms people into supernatural creatures, I will turn into a werewolf. I’d rather turn into this instead:

Snapshots: Bookmark Love #1

A good friend who became the catalyst for my geek-out over Korean dramas and 1 Night 2 Days—we call her Mommy Monster LOL—recently went to Seoul. (I’ve actually been watching the Korean dramas that are broadcast on local TV for years now, but one fateful day when we had a chat about dramas over coffee and she recommended I watch “The Moon That Embraces The Sun 해를 품은 달” started all this craziness. )

So anyway, she gave me this when she came back from Seoul:

It’s a lady in a hanbok playing a traditional flute called a dae-geum (대금).

엄마 Mabs, Daene (your K names escape me right now), 감사합니다! ❤,연혜

This year, friends who’ve gone on trips abroad have taken to giving me bookmarks from the places they visited. Gotta admit it’s a great gift to give to someone who loves books!

So yeah, maybe I’ll start a bookmark collection now. I’ll post more snapshots of (international) bookmarks soon.

Miscellany: While I was hiding out in Joseon-era Korea…

I’m back from Holy Week Semi-Hibernation!

Aside from participation in the usual religious ceremonies, my holiday also included a Korean drama marathon (The charming Sungkyunkwan Scandal and The-Show-That-Made-Me-Cry-For-1.5-Hours-Straight The Moon That Embraces The Sun ) and, unfortunately, much procrastinating on writing assignments.

While I was on that self-imposed internet blackout, these happened:

➳ Writer-producer-director Chris Weitz, otherwise known to me as the director who made a problematic Twilight book at least watchable (i.e. New Moon ), will soon add “author” to his résumé. Little, Brown and Company won the rights to publish Weitz’s The Young World, the first in an “epic, post-apocalyptic trilogy” set in a New York where only teenagers remained alive. [Source: click!]

It sounds a little too manufactured for my taste, to be honest. I can see where he wants to go with these teenagers who are left alone without adults and the comforts of life. I just hope it’s written well and that Weitz can bring something new to the post-apocalyptic YA sub-genre.

➳ As Lauren Oliver revealed when she visited last month, she’s writing her first adult novel. The Harper Collins website just revealed that the book will be titled Rooms, but offers no other details about the plot. (Duh.)

➳ One of my favorite authors, Brandon Sanderson, will release four shorts this year. I don’t know how he does it considering he’s working on other novels and is probably at the editing stage on A Memory of Light (Pub. Date: 13 January 2013). I think he’s a secret Mistborn and he must have found a previously unknown metal that can be burned to enhance writing efficiency. If so, I hope you can hear me, Brandon: will you be my Kelsier?

Heuristic Algorithm and Reasoning Response Engine (with Ethan Skarstedt) will appear in the John Joseph Adams-edited military science fiction anthology, Armored. Mecha fans will probably love this! If you click on the title link, you’ll find a short excerpt on his blog.

Legion , meanwhile, is a modern sci-fi-ish mystery/thriller that will be released as a novella and e-book.

Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell   is included in an anthology called Dangerous Women, edited by George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois.

The one that I’m most excited about is The Emperor’s Soul, which is set in the Branderson Cosmere (the core mythology will tie-in with the worlds of almost all of his adult fantasy novels). I love the premise of the story, and this promises to be another showcase of Brandon’s always-fresh-and-never-boring magic systems.

Shai is a Forger, a foreigner who can flawlessly copy and re-create any item by rewriting its history with skillful magic. Though condemned to death after trying to steal the emperor’s scepter, she is given one opportunity to save herself. Despite the fact that her skill as a Forger is considered an abomination by her captors, Shai will attempt to create a new soul for the emperor, who is almost dead from the attack of assassins.

Delving deeply into his life, she discovers Emperor Ashravan’s truest nature—and the opportunity to exploit it. Her only possible ally is one who is truly loyal to the emperor, but councilor Gaotona must overcome his prejudices to understand that her forgery is as much artistry as it is deception.

Skillfully deducing the machinations of her captors, Shai needs a perfect plan to escape. The fate of the kingdom lies in one impossible task. Is it possible to create a forgery of a soul so convincing that it is better than the soul itself?

➳ In other Branderson news, Writing Excuses is up for a Hugo this year and the Mistborn movie is moving forward!

They now have a working script for Mistborn that Brandon likes, and it’s being shopped around to studios along with this “mood trailer.”

 
Note: That wasn’t an official trailer; it’s cut from scenes from different movies that were put together to show studios what kind of film Mistborn is supposed to look and feel like.

I wish I had several million dollars to put into financing this film! (Actually, I wish I had several million dollars, PERIOD. )

➳ Mina V. Esguerra’s new book, That Kind of Guy–I mentioned this in my profile story about her–will be released this month! She’s hosting a giveaway on her site. Check it out: click!

➳ Lastly, if you are wondering why I never posted about The Hunger Games after seeing the movie, well…let’s just say I had so many things to say that I didn’t know where to start. I had a LONG conversation with my friend Frankie via the comments section of her blog post (click!), but I lapsed into procrastinating and lost a lot of the words that I wanted to write into the ether.

I eventually managed to put together a coherent review, which was published yesterday on GMA News Online: (click!) I’m sure it’s evident in the tone of the article that I had more to say about the movie, but I had a maximum word count to abide by and had to choose only the points that are most important to me.

I hope I can still make myself write a proper blog post about the movie, but re-capturing my train of thought despite extensive notes is going to be an uphill battle. After a marathon of 2 Korean historical dramas, I feel like my mind is stuck in another time and place where magical english subtitles appear when people speak.

I really should take Jae-Shin‘s advice, eh? Don’t procrastinate often; it will become a habit. Lesson learned! (I hope.)