Review: Hollow City: A Superhero Vigilante Thriller by Kai Wai Cheah

There is a reason this writer occasionally cites Mr. Cheah’s articles for her Vocational Vivications, readers. Aside from the enormously helpful insights he offers in his posts, he is a darn good writer. Hollow City, the first novel in Mr. Cheah’s branch of the Heroes Unleashed universe created by Silver Empire Publishing, is one of…

Reposted: The Secret to Writing Powerful Action Scenes

Check out this amazing post by author Kai Wai Cheah, readers!   The Secret to Writing Powerful Action Scenes Action scenes are the bread and butter of pulp stories. When the story threatens to get too boring, throw in a fight scene and you revitalize it with fresh energy, stakes and momentum. When the hero…

Reposted: On Business and Politics

Take a look at this fantastic piece by Mr. Benjamin Cheah, readers: Where Politics and Business Collide April 20, 2020 In cyberpunk fiction, megacorps rule the world. But in our world, why would they? Old-school cyberpunk fiction was framed as a critique of hypercapitalism. Megacorporations have the same political clout as governments, if not more…

Reposted: Keeping Fantasy Fantastic

Check out this excellent post by Cheah Kit Sun, readers: Fantasy Without Fantasy Modernity has ruined fantasy. At one end of the scale, there is the slice-of-life tale, with ordinary people doing ordinary things, just with some counterfactual elements. At the other end, there is a setting that appears totally foreign to our reality–and yet…

A Review of the Heroine Archetype

It is almost impossible these days to avoid discussing the presentation of heroines in modern fiction. Many common misunderstandings of this archetype populate present stories, giving aspiring writers headaches as they try to figure out what they should do with the female characters in their tales. Should their heroine be better than the man in…