Helen Lowe's Blog, page 104

“The Wall Of Night” Character Series: Paul Weimer Features Myr — aka Lady Mouse

Introduction:

A few weeks back, I ran a mystery giveaway — with part of the mystery prize being the opportunity for everyone who entered to:

“…contribute a guest post telling blog readers who your favorite character in the WALL series is, and why, and also what you hope for that character in the fourth and final book?”

Three commenters took up the guest post offer and today I bring you the first of our character features — in which Paul Weimer features Myr, aka Lady Myrathis of House Blood, a...

What I’m Reading: “Parable Of The Sower” by Octavia Butler

I really liked this book.

I’m not sure I can say that I really loved this book, because it’s post-apocalyptic near-future science fiction and Octavia Butler’s story is stark, harsh, brutal…

In fact, this sort of dystopian/post-apocalyptic storytelling is not really my thing, so it is quite a tribute for me to say that I really liked it.

Here’s what I liked: this is a story about real people in a world radically altered, and not for the better, by climate change. The characters, like the rest...

Roll Up, Roll Up, This Friday…

Not one but two exciting events will be happening simultaneously this Friday.

Character Mystery…

Firstly, I will be posting the delayed (from last week) second instalment in the The Wall of Night Character Series — a much-anticipated feature post from Paul Weimer. Which character will he choose, that is the mystery to be unravelled, together with what insights he will have to offer…

The first post, by the way, is here: Kristen Blount Features Raven

Fun times ahead — not least because Friday i...

“My Mother And The Hungarians” by Frankie McMillan — A Tuesday Feature

The house on Holloway Street.

My mother kept boarders like other people kept chooks or stray dogs. She liked the refugees best with their suitcases, their canvas shoes tied up with string, their boyish faces and willingness to share a bed so that if one woke in the night crying, no shoot, no shoot, the other could turn and blanket their sorrows with their old European ways. My mother said our house was a little window into the twentieth century and that the cold war would soon be over. She li...

Use of Names: Character & Identity — When Names Have Deeper Meanings

The Wall of Night, Book 1

On August 10, In Thornspell, for example, it is no acc...

An Apology To “…on Anything Really” Readers

As you may be aware from Wednesday’s post, yesterday’s post was supposed to be another The Wall of Night series’ character feature, this time from Paul Weimer.

As you may also have been aware, there has been no post — unfortunately, this is because I have been ill (alas!) and so not capable of doing Paul’s post justice.

So for that reason, I am going to delay Paul’s post a week, until next Friday, since I think it deserves more than just being pushed out there late. This means that June’s pos...

What’s Coming Up: WORDChristchurch & More

International Man of Mystery…

Firstly, thank you to The Wall of Night reader, Kristen Blount, for a wonderful guest post on the series’ character, Raven, whom she dubbed an “international man of mystery.”

The next in this mini series will be coming up on Friday 19, this time courtesy of Paul Weimer, who has visited with me here before and whom you may also know from SF Signal and The Skiffy and Fanty show.

WORDChristchurch — Next Week!

WORD Christchurch

Also coming up — and only next week now...

Use Of Names: Worldbuilding, Part 2

Last week as an important aspect of worldbuilding in The Wall of Night series.

This week, I am again exploring the contribution of names to worldbuilding, this time in the context of Thornspell.

Thornspell is a retelling of Sleeping Beauty from the perspective of the prince and the story began for me in one of those classic creative ‘flashpoint’ moments that simultaneously revealed the story arc and the essential character of the world. I was at a performance of th...

“The Wall of Night” Character Series: Kristen Blount Features Raven

Introduction:

A few weeks back, just for fun, I ran a mystery giveaway — with part of the mystery prize being the opportunity for everyone who entered to:

“…contribute a guest post telling blog readers who your favorite character in the WALL series is, and why, and also what you hope for that character in the fourth and final book?”

Three commenters took up the guest post offer and today I bring you the first of our character features — in which Kristen Blount has chosen to feature the charac...

Use Of Names, Part 1: Worldbuilding

The power of names is an important them in Fantasy literature, one I first became aware when reading Tolkien’s The Hobbit and Ursula Le Guin’s A Wizard of Earthsea. Similar themes crept into later favourites, such as Patricia McKillip’s The Riddlemaster of Hed trilogy and standalones such as The Forgotten Beast of Eld.

When beginning to write The Heir of Night, the opening novel in my own The Wall Of Night series, I felt—and still feel—that names were an important way to give coherency to c...