aroslav: Blog

This is number 146 in the blog series, “My Writing Life.” I encourage you to join my Patreon community to support my writing.

This is actually just some things I learned about clothes from Chinese short dramas. I’m back on that subject because I’m about to start writing my second short drama and have been watching dozens of them to learn all about what makes them so addictive. Research, you know.

One of the prime ingredients in the Chinese short drama is the costuming.

Of course, the first thing that comes to mind when we mention costuming is the period costume drama. I have to say I’m stunned by the beauty and elegance portrayed in these dramas. Most have a degree of royalty involved and everyone in the royal court is elaborately dressed. Layers of robes and dresses in bright and festive colors. Hats that define a person’s occupation or status. And even underwear that can be shown at the appropriate time. One would think, in fact, that no one ever completely undressed, even to bathe.

The warriors are always in leather armor. The martial artists in robes or gis that represent their rank in the school. The old masters dressed in unsoiled white, no matter how many battles they are in. And even the beggar’s rags looking freshly laundered.

When we move into contemporary dramas, all janitors and cleaners dress alike. All maids dress alike. All prisoners are dressed alike—and just happen to dress in the same kind of striped pajamas as patients in a hospital. Always clean and neatly pressed, even after a brawl.

Gangs are of two varieties. First are those who run around in open short-sleeved shirts and dungarees. No pretense of being formal in any way. The second are those in black. Usually, these are posing as bodyguards for a woman in black shorts, black leather crop top and various weapons strapped to her legs. Her guards wear ill-fitting black suits, white shirts, black ties, and usually sunglasses, no matter the time of day or night. Seeing one of these guys in a short drama is equivalent to seeing a red shirt in a Star Trek episode. They aren’t going to end well. They aren’t necessarily all villains. Many are bodyguards for main characters on either side of the law.

That brings us to the hard-working protagonist who may be a hidden martial arts god, a secret billionaire, or a delivery guy with a magical system or x-ray vision. Might even have mystical healing powers according to traditional Chinese medicine. He will wear jeans or slacks, a clean white T-shirt, and a colored or patterned shirt worn as if it were an open jacket. He’ll go to all kinds of events and businesses dressed like this, no matter how fancily everyone else is dressed. Eventually, someone will convince him to get dressed up for an event—his unveiling as a person of incredible power—and he’ll wear an elegant dark suit that will show off exquisite tailoring and style. He’ll have a lapel pin of a style that is connected by gold chains to a breast pin, but actually has no significance.

The tailored suit is significant in indicating an important man. If an elder or patriarch, it will be a mandarin cut with fancy embroidery. An older adult will wear a good suit and coordinated shirt and tie. The younger men who are on the ‘good’ side will wear dark and elegant suits unlike anything commonly seen in men’s stores in America. They might have an interesting button closure, a vest, coordinated panels with different patterns or textures, but always dark and sophisticated.

When you see a flashy red suit, patterned suit, or bright color with piping, that is your principal villain. These are usually worn with a bright or patterned shirt, open at the collar, often with some serious jewelry. These are the guys about to be beaten up or dismantled by the hero.

I think the only time I’ve really focused on clothing in one of my novels is in the Living Next Door to Heaven series. The family gis came about with the establishment of the clan and houses in Book 4, Deadly Chemistry. The four main houses or casas each adopted a color and the girls sewed gis and belts in that color. The unhoused wore white. Brian’s casa wore red. Other houses wore blue, green, and yellow. More were added as the story progressed.

The outfits were significant in telling which house was which in the large gatherings, but also because nearly everyone practiced some form of martial arts. Most of the time, when they were working out, they went naked. But even though the colors were unrelated to any martial arts belt ranking, when they were seen all together—or even individually—they were an imposing sight.

This, coincidentally, is often how the Daoist who has just come to the city from his mountain retreat is dressed in the short drama.

The Living Next Door to Heaven 10-book series is available in eBooks at ZBookStore or in three long serials on SOL.

Lest you think I am ignoring the women in these short dramas, let me say you will seldom ever see more consistently elegant clothing on display in any kind of movie. It seems that American movies since at least the mid-1960s have relegated suits and well-tailored looks to the likes of James Bond. But the Chinese dramas really dress up their women.

There is a range of plebeian clothes for women which are used for labor and poverty. Then there is the schoolgirl—a very popular look, but seldom seen on a girl that is younger than in the final year of high school. These uniforms feature a white blouse, buttoned to the neck, a blue jacket with a pocket patch indicating the school, and a plaid skirt that is at least ten inches shorter than is actually allowed in Asian schools. Bobby socks and Mary Janes are the completion of the outfit. A popular alternative to the jacket and blouse is a navy-style blouse with a square back collar and tie.

I’ve already mentioned the female martial artist or gang leader as one dressed in black short-shorts, leather crop top, and various weapons strapped to her legs. She usually wears black ankle-length boots. Very intimidating. Then we move to the different levels of female character. A popular character is the ‘country bumpkin.’ She has been abandoned by her wealthy family and raised in the country where she was taught extreme martial arts and can lift a car with one hand. Her outfit us usually an embroidered vest and blousy top with a full skirt that is somewhat less than ankle-length. It looks like a nod to folk wear and is often an object of ridicule, even though it is lovely and charming.

The second major female is the vain society girl—sometimes a CEO—who wears expensive clothes, no matter if they are tasteless. It’s usually a form-fitting dress even shorter than the high school girl uniforms. All the upper class and corporate women wear hose and garters. Evening wear for the vain society girl is usually also form-fitting, though longer and slit up the side.

The office worker is often depicted in a short black skirt and white blouse. There are a few variations. They are only extras. The boss lady wears a tailored suit, once again with an ultra-short skirt. When she heads for the big gala that nearly every short drama has, she wears an elegant evening gown, often off the shoulder with beads artfully draped from her neck across her shoulders. If there is a type of elegant evening wear, you will find it in a Chinese short drama—even gowns with a train on characters who can kick an opponent in the chin.

As a result of watching these short dramas, I’ve become more conscious of how my own characters are clothed. I don’t dwell on it too much—I don’t think—but I’m always aware of what kind of image my character is portraying through the way he or she is dressed. The exercise in visualizing the characters is very valuable and makes each character more real to me.

STICKS AND STONES may break my bones, but words can never hurt me.

False.

In fact, words can be and are devastating. Want a different old adage?

The pen is mightier than the sword.

Plus one minus one equals zero. It’s like quoting the Bible. For every positive statement there is an equal and opposite negative statement. Still, we hide behind words as much to conceal our intents as to reveal them.

The worst part of that is usually the words are misused or at best misunderstood. For the most part, learning comes in layers. We are given simple rules as children with the expectation that as we mature and have more capacity for understanding, we will learn more complex linguistic uses that change the simple rules we’re given as children.

In English, nearly every child is taught the spelling rule, ‘i before e except after c.’ But by the time you’re in high school, you should have understood that the exception is when ‘eight foreign weightlifters deliver their counterfeit sleighs to Keith.’ By college, we learn there are more words in the dictionary that are an exception to the i before e rule than there are words that follow it.

Yet we continue to teach the rule to children as if it is the most basic commandment that will ever be pronounced and they should follow it forever. When someone makes a spelling error, we are all too happy to parade the rule out from second grade and chide them, even ridiculing their lack of education or poor spelling skills as a way to put that person down. I’ve seen it hundreds of times. People who got stuck in elementary school English and never advanced.

Let’s take another time-honored rule of the English language. ‘Never end a sentence with a preposition.’ Grade school writing instruction codified into a hard and fast rule that absolutely no one can keep from breaking. Perhaps you’ve heard of the conversation between the Southern Belle and the Yankee Princess:
“So, where y’all from?” asked the Belle
“Where I’m from, we don’t end a sentence with a preposition,” sniffed the Yank.
“So, where y’all from, bitch?” asked the Belle sweetly.

Well, it conformed to the ‘rule,’ right?

In reality, that was never a real rule of the English language. In the seventeenth century, ‘educated’ authors like John Dryden attempted to transfer Latin grammar rules to English. Latin does have a rule against prepositions at the end of a sentence. But in both spoken and written English, it is common to end sentences with a preposition.

A famous, possibly apocryphal, story of Churchill being upset by a young clerk’s editing of his speech declared, “That is something up with which I will not put.” Which fails on two counts. The falsity of the rule stated above, and the utter lack of understanding of complex forms of English. To “put up with” is not a preposition. It is a verbal phrase and is not considered a preposition at all!

But once again, we’ll trot the old rule out as a way to ridicule someone who may speak a different dialect or have a different level of education, even though they are using the language correctly.

The ‘rules’ when they exist are often meant to be broken for effect, especially in creative writing. When I released my Hero Lincoln Trilogy back in 2016, I received messages as soon as the third book appeared, explaining to me in elementary detail that the correct phrase was ‘going for the jugular’ which was a vein in the neck and I should correct the title immediately. I had to explain to each of the people who pointed this out that novelists often use what is called a ‘play on words.’ In this case, the target in the story was a circus performer and the villains were going for the juggler, a person who throws items into the air and catches them. Hence, Going for the Juggler.

And I confess that I nearly fell into the same trap when I read Lazlo Zalezac’s Thunderbolt and Lightening. But I restrained myself from the instant reflex to correct someone, and discovered late in the book that the title had a specific meaning to the main character and marked a change in his outlook on life.

Going for the Juggler is volume three in the Hero Lincoln Trilogy set in Lazlo Zalezac’s Damsel’s in Distress universe. It is available in eBooks at ZBookStore and in a single paperback at online retailers.

Most recently, I’ve been targeted for my use of they/them when referring to a non-binary person. I have been scolded repeatedly for using they/them as a singular and told the terms are exclusively plurals. I’m told in absolute terms that I can’t use a plural for a singular in the English language. If I must use a term other than he or she, the term should be ‘it.’

Of course, that is absurd. The pronoun ‘it’ is not used for a person of non-specific gender, but rather for an inanimate object. Furthermore, English speakers have historically used they/them/their as a singular when referring to a person of indeterminate gender. For centuries! Take, for example, the statement that might be heard over any school PA system. “Would the person who left their backpack in the hall come to the office to claim their property?”

But it is so much harder to accept that usage when we are looking at a person we have already determined doesn’t have a right to bear that usage. That’s what we are really saying when we try to cite this rule of the language. “You don’t have the right to exist as someone I can’t define.” We’ll go so far as to make it illegal for such people to exist in many states even though they have been known in hundreds of world cultures for millennia.

And need I remind you that we use a plural for a singular all the time? You. It makes no difference if I am speaking to an individual or a crowd. I say ‘you.’ And I always use the plural verb, ‘you are,’ even when I am speaking to an individual.

Get the fucking pole out of your ass and just refer to people the way they prefer! There is no ‘rule’ in English that forbids it.

I’ve scarcely scratched the surface of how we attack people using words and how that can be used to dehumanize people who don’t use words according to our rules.

I was instructed just the other day that my use of a phrase, ‘For a while,’ as a stand-alone sentence was incorrect and that I should make it a full sentence. People in conversation use phrases instead of complete sentences all the time. The cited instance was in dialogue. “I went to college. For a while.” It indicates a post-sentence qualifier in a conversation. Is it a full sentence? No. Does it matter? Only to a pedant who can’t stand to have people talk in a way that is outside their comfort zone.

Do not mistake me. My writing is far from perfect and I accept feedback and corrections gladly. I depend on my editors. I cite these instances as ways we disguise our true intent with the weaponizing of words. I object to corrections and rules only when they are used to assert dominance, denigrate others, and dehumanize people. At that point I am a crusader for the rights of all people everywhere.

This is number 144 in the blog series, “My Writing Life.” I encourage you to join my Patreon community to support my writing.

I’M DEVON LAYNE and I’m an addict. I admit it. I thought I could just try it a couple of times and see what the fuss was about. Then the opportunity came to just veg out and let my mind wander, so I tried it again. It wasn’t long before I was ‘using’ several times a day and I couldn’t stop!

I’m not talking about drugs or alcohol. This is far more insidious. It’s available twenty-four hours a day right in my own home. And it’s free! I’m talking about short dramas, the video reels that are in my Facebook feed, all over YouTube, on Instagram, and TikTok. And even though they are all essentially the same, there is something strangely captivating about them.

There was a time in my life—some fifty years ago—that I openly laughed at people who had to get home by 3:00 to watch As the World Turns or The Edge of Night or All My Children. Soap operas seemed to rule their lives. Miscellaneous fun fact, prior to As the World Turns in 1954, television serials were all just fifteen minutes long.

Now I understand.

Though today’s short dramas aren’t constrained by a broadcast television schedule, they are every bit as addicting.

So, what is this short drama I’m talking about?

Back in the olden days, if I could scrape together fifty cents to spend an afternoon at the movies, I didn’t get just a double feature of two-hour movies. They started with a cartoon, a newsreel, previews, and even an entertaining short subject—perhaps a Charlie Chaplin silent or another melodrama.

I don’t bring that up to emphasize the rising cost—$12-$18 for a crappy 80 minutes of computer-generated special effects—but rather to point out that the short drama has been around for a very long time. And we’ve all loved them! Think of The Simpsons when it started as a five-minute break on The Tracey Ullman Show thirty-nine years ago this month.

Today, we’ve progressed past television and even streaming podcasts to the mobile internet platform. Since they are made to be viewed on a smartphone, short dramas are recorded in a vertical format. They are episodic in nature with each episode lasting as little as a minute or as long as twenty minutes. And they are often elaborately produced with incredible settings and acting.

Some of the most beautiful performers in the world are known for their short dramas. I’m looking at you, Li Ke Yi. I know she looks twelve, but she’s twenty-four and has starred in nearly thirty short dramas in the past two years. She’ll probably still look twelve twenty years from now.

Short dramas tend to have simple plots and somewhat fewer characters than most big budget dramas. Armies of thousands are depicted by fewer than a dozen armored extras. Even though Chinese short dramas are the most popular (often AI dubbed or subtitled) there are versions in nearly all Asian countries—anime, K-drama, etc.—but it doesn’t end there. They have appeared in American reels, in western European dramas, in Hindi, and in nearly every culture that has a written or recorded entertainment industry.

That includes written serials on several platforms. My friend, MaryEllen Brady, releases some incredible serialized short dramas, even blending fantasy and the Wild West as in her series The Outsider. Addictive!

As I was writing this, I realized I’ve written short serials before. My most recent Halloween stories—The Key to Eve and Alienable Rights—are short serials. Chapters are somewhat shorter than my usual serialized novels, and the entire story is no more than twelve chapters. They both come in at far fewer than 50,000 words. And people liked both of them, even though most readers have a low tolerance for anything that involves politics, even satire.

It was only a matter of time before I tried my hand at deliberately writing a short drama, following the major structure and tropes of Chinese short drama, but set in the US with completely American characters.

Trial Balance is an introspective short drama that follows Cal, a beleaguered accountant whose life seems cursed by bad luck—and by the whims of an author who keeps killing him off and bringing him back. Cal’s journey is a rollercoaster of personal setbacks, from disastrous relationships and health crises to corporate sabotage and murder attempts. As he uncovers financial fraud at a major development firm, Cal’s awareness of his fictional existence adds a layer of humor and existential reflection. Surrounded by a cast of colorful characters—including his ex-wife, her scheming lover, and two strong-willed women who may be his salvation—Cal must navigate betrayal, danger, and the absurdity of his own narrative. Trial Balance delivers dark comedy and a fresh take on the drama genre.

My unedited first draft of this story is now posting three chapters per week as I write it, exclusively for my Sausage Grinder patrons. It will run through May. It’s a great time to be a Sausage Grinder tier patron. SOL readers will get it when it's been rewritten and edited.

The chapters are shorter than my typical works. Each could be read aloud in less than 20 minutes. Each has a complete scene and a bit of tease that will make you impatient to see the next chapter. The chapters have a lot of action, romance, and suspense. I’m working with a comprehensive outline that indicates there will be about twenty-five chapters all told.

Short dramas have a number of tropes that occur in piece after piece. There are some that I won’t touch in this story, and others that I fully embrace.

There will be no martial arts or supernatural abilities—like x-ray vision or prediction of the future or ability to heal. There will be no time travel of modern man into distant past where he uses contemporary science and technology to change the destiny of his character. There will be no ‘system’ that grants benefits based on a game-like program imbedded in his brain. No one will be drugged with an aphrodisiac. There will be no secret CEO pretending to be a beggar while building up their wife’s or husband’s business with his vast fortune. No one is going to get slapped.

There will be a scheming ex-wife who regrets her decision. There will be a rescue that creates bonds between the hero and the heroines. There will be a miraculous recovery from death. A hidden treasure will be revealed. One or more scheming partners or their children will try to take over the company. There will be circumstantial misunderstandings that gradually bring the main characters closer together. There will be a lot of blushing. There will be short term amnesia that changes the storyline when memory is recovered.

A less common theme that I’ll use is the main character’s awareness that he is in a short drama and a struggle for control between the author and the characters!

As the story begins, we look into the mind of the main character who narrates:

I get killed on page 18, but the author says not to worry because I’m alive again in the next chapter.

That’s not the only detail Cal reveals!

I expect serialization of the fully edited story on SOL sometime in July, probably while I’m on the road north, pulling my home behind me.

This is number 143 in the blog series, “My Writing Life.” I encourage you to join my Patreon community to support my writing.

I NEVER ANTICIPATED that I would ever write a book that could be classified as ‘Family Drama.’ Maybe some of my books could be, if you tried hard enough, but certainly none would be.

Then, while drafting a simple time travel story about a man sent back in time to plant a genetic code in descendants, I ended up uncovering an exceptional amount of family drama.

I guess, some of it is my own, though you wouldn’t recognize it.

And today, the drama gets shared on StoriesOnline with the launch of the serial The Inheritance Paradox!

I didn’t have a close relationship with my father, who died of cancer when I was 27, all the way back in 1976. In fact, we occasionally had a what I considered irreconcilable differences. Like the time he tried to teach me to drive a stick shift. When I got that old Ford Falcon station wagon home after an hour of him screaming in my ear, I took off running as hard as I could, never thinking of going back.

I did, of course. But I didn’t want to talk to him—not that I could have after running as hard as I could for two miles, all while screaming at the top of my lungs.

I was in my senior year of college and working as the designer and technical director on our production of King Lear when my father showed up on the stage. I dreaded it, because all through my life, he’d been a domineering person who took control of every project I’d ever worked on. He was strapping his tool belt on as he strode across the stage toward me.

“What do you need me to do?” was all he said. I gave him the project of cutting plywood and building a throne into what would become a rocky wall. I gave him a student assistant, and I was amazed to see how patient he was with the guy. It was the first time I ever felt my father respected me or what I was doing.

He passed away four years later after a long battle with cancer while I was in my first year of grad school.

Fathers and sons. It can be a difficult relationship.

When I have written about fathers in my novels, they are normally patterned after what I wished my father had been to me. My older sister, rest her soul, read my Nathan Everett novel The Volunteer right after it was released in 2013. Her immediate response was, “We must have had different fathers. The father in this book was nothing like mine.”

I had to tell her he was really nothing like mine, either. There was a lot of healing involved in writing about a father I admired, loved, and respected.

The Inheritance Paradox is a tale that blends time travel, historical intrigue, and heartfelt family drama. The story follows Nathaniel Holbrook, a technical writer, as he uncovers the enigmatic past of his father, Eugene, a former minister turned time traveler. Eugene’s journeys across centuries reveal profound connections, moral dilemmas, and a mission to save humanity. These actions ripple through time, leaving behind descendants who unknowingly hold the key to humanity’s survival.

As Nathaniel delves deeper into his father’s secrets, he discovers startling connections to his own life and family, challenging his understanding of identity, morality, and reality. Alongside his sister Megan, a geneticist on the brink of a groundbreaking discovery, Nathaniel pieces together the extraordinary legacy of their family.

Set against vivid historical backdrops like the founding of the Continental Marines and the Great Chicago Fire, the novel explores themes of redemption, love, guilt, and the enduring bonds of family. With a rich tapestry of characters and a narrative that seamlessly weaves past, present, and future, The Inheritance Paradox invites readers to reflect on how the choices of those who came before us shape our lives—and how we, in turn, shape the lives of those who come after.

A thought-provoking journey through time and generations, this novel will resonate deeply with readers, leaving them pondering the profound impact of legacy and love long after the final page.

I have in mind a post on ingrained prejudice and hatred and how it comes out in literature and language. It’s still a little raw, but I think I’ll be ready in a couple of weeks.

Yes, that is the end of Forever Yours, posted this morning. Thank you to everyone for your support and comments. The eBook is still available on ZBookStore and the Signature Edition paperback from my website.

What's next?

March 29, I will begin posting my new story, The Inheritance Paradox.

The Inheritance Paradox is a multi-layered novel that blends elements of science fiction, historical fiction, and family drama. The story revolves around Eugene Holbrook, who embarks on time-traveling adventures to implant a genetic marker that could save humanity from a future catastrophe. Narrated by his son Nathaniel, the novel explores Eugene’s mysterious past, his struggles with guilt, loss, and redemption, and the impact of his actions on his family. The narrative alternates between Eugene’s time-traveling escapades and his family’s present-day efforts to uncover the truth, creating a rich tapestry of interconnected timelines and relationships.

The Inheritance Paradox is an ambitious novel that challenges readers to reflect on their own family histories and the legacies they carry. It is a testament to the enduring power of love, the complexities of human relationships, and the interconnectedness of humanity. This novel is a must-read for fans of time travel stories, family dramas, and speculative fiction that pushes the boundaries of imagination and science.

The Inheritance Paradox will be available for pre-order at ZBookStore this weekend and will release on March 29, 2026. That is also the date it will begin serialization on StoriesOnline.