COMING SOON 2026 - The Second Smile

My next book title reveal!  Drum roll please!

The Second Smile: Book of Golden Dragon

Song to listen to and be inspired by while writing this book: Broken Heart Poetry, by Jody Chiang 江蕙「斷腸詩」.

Set about 200 years before Heartless. This was the love story of the last Princess of Bhaliq Empire, referenced by Count Covasna in 'Til Death Do Us Part.

I'm not universe-building. I'm simply too lazy to come up with brand new empire names, location names, all kinds of other names. Basically I'm using Krenn Empire as a stand-in for China's Tang Dynasty but lasted a lot longer, like Rome. I could pick and choose different centuries to write a story.

Book Title: The First Smile will Topple a City. The Second Smile will Topple a Nation.
書名：一笑傾城，再笑傾國
Tagline: Even the Brave will fall for the Fair.
內容：英雄難過美人關

"Even the Brave will fall for the Fair" is way too long. So I changed the book title to "The First Smile will Topple a City. The Second Smile will Topple a Nation". But! This name is even longer!! Thank Heavens this name could be shortened as "The Second Smile".

「英雄難過美人關」好難翻譯，找到最好的是"Even the Brave will fall for the Fair".可是這名字太長，所以就改為"The First Smile will Topple a City. The Second Smile will Topple a Nation"。可是這名字更長！好在這名字可以縮短為The Second Smile.

Here's my horrible translation of my favorite lines in this song.

昨夜殘風傷心雨 / Last night it was raining heartbreak.
今日愁眉割心槽 / Today the sorrow cut into my heart.
踏上迢迢感情路 / I started this long road of loving you.
何必越頭問歸途 / There was no need to ask for a return path.

三分醉 / Three parts drunk.
七分痴 / Seven parts insane.
十分相思啊夢中見 / Ten parts of Missing You sigh Ssee You in the Dreams.

The Blob (1958)

This was not horror. This was sci-fi. It was refreshing to see everyone made rational decision about things they could not explain.

At 86 minutes, I still kind of got bored in the middle when they were trying to figure out The Blob. This showed I could not watch old-timey movies.

The Blob is due for a reboot or a sequel. The ending basically told us to do it. They couldn’t kill The Blob so they dropped it off at the Arctic. Now ice is melting, what happens to The Blob?

Hollywood, call me!

Public Enemies (2009)

Meh.  There were too many people, too many names. I couldn’t keep up so I didn’t care much about any of them.

On the other hand, I loved how they dressed in that era. I also thought a car that I could stand on the side was cool.

Smooth Criminal (2010)

I've heard this song over and over, mixed in with various anime.  I just never heard the original version.  Finally I saw the Vevo official video of Smooth Criminal, and I was completely blown away.

No wonder Michael Jackson was the best and revered.  The music was awesome; the dance was awesome; the choreography was awesome.  I had no other word to describe it.