Helen Lowe's Blog, page 113

The Dilemma of Research

UK/AU/NZ

In this week’s conversation about Daughter of Blood with friend and fellow writer, Mary Victoria, she raised the question of background research. In reply, I talked about how my research focus for this third book in The Wall of Night series focused on “sieges and related matters such as disease and medicine.”

All completely true and to find out more you should definitely check out the Q&A, here:

A Conversation with Mary Victoria

However, Mary’s question also got me thinking about the...

A Conversation with Mary Victoria

Mary Victoria

Only last week I maintained and averred that “in the writing ‘verse, interviews always come thick and fast around book publication day and then gradually taper off.”

UK/AU/NZ

Just to prove me wrong, this week I got together with my friend and fellow author, Mary Victoria, for an indepth conversation on matters that included Daughter of Blood, developing the character of Myr (the Daughter of Blood herself), and researching the book.

As always when conversing with Mary, the discus...

Captain America: Civil War

“Team Cap”

Yep, I’ve seen it.

And yes, I liked it. Quite a lot, actually.

And yes again, that is an accolade since by and large I’m reasonably lukewarm about superhero movies. (I know, how can that be?)

So why the like? First of all #TeamCap. Just sayin’

I also liked the convincing way the film wove together so many different characters, far more convincingly than Avengers: Age of Ultron, imho. Plus a big thumbs-up for Black Panther as a new character who was far more than one-dimensional; t...

“The Wall Of Night” Series has a FB Group — Check Out the Goodness!

Rosie Cooper

A little while back, reader Rosie Cooper tweeted to tell me how much she had enjoyed Daughter of Blood (noice!) — but also how much she wanted to discuss the book with other The Wall Of Night series readers.

I was still pondering this, when the very next thing I knew, Rose was emailing to tell me she had set up a Facebook group for the series, titled Haarth, and that she wondered if I would mind spreading the good word.

Naturally I don’t mind at all.

If you are a person who like...

Big Worlds On Small Screens & “Fantasy Films From the Eighties That Weren’t That Bad” — Rebecca Fisher Discusses “Excalibur”

~ by Rebecca Fisher

I’m sure that John Boorman’s ambitious attempt to adapt all the Arthurian legends into a single cinematic spectacle did not deliberately include capturing the aesthetic of the Eighties in all its glory – but it totally did.

As such, Excalibur is set in the Eighties version of the Dark Ages, complete with perms for the women, mullets for the men, and lots of massive jewellery and florescent eyeshadow. Because of the sheer volume of material it has to cover (and it covers n...

Tuesday Poetry: Sonnet 73 by William Shakespeare

That time of year thou mayst in me behold
When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang
Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,
Bare ruined choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.
In me thou see’st the twilight of such day
As after sunset fadeth in the west;
Which by and by black night doth take away,
Death’s second self, that seals up all in rest.
In me thou see’st the glowing of such fire,
That on the ashes of his youth doth lie,
As the deathbed whereon it must expire,
Co...

A Farewell To SF Signal

Last Thursday US time, Friday here in NZ, I and many others bade a sorrowful farewell to SF Signal:

All Good Things

From my perspective, SF Signal has been a Very Good Thing indeed from the first time I detected the signal. As I explained in my personal valedictory post, that was in 2010 when SF Signal linked to my blog celebration for the publication of The Heir of Night.

Encouraged by the friendly response that followed first contact, I maintained communication and within a year or so had...

It’s Interview Time — with “Civilian Reader”

In the writing ‘verse, interviews always come thick and fast around book publication day and then gradually taper off.

USA

UK/AU/NZ

Daughter of Blood seems to have generated a longer tail in that respect, however, and today I’m chuffed to be able to link to an interview with one of my older friends in the world of books, blogging, and speculative fiction, the equally estimable and inestimable Stefan Fergus of Civilian Reader.

Among many other matters, he asks both:

CR: What can fans expect fr...

Inside Middle Earth: Abel Tasman National Park

A great many people around the world chiefly know New Zealand as “Middle Earth” in The Lord of the Rings films.

As a Fantasy author living right here in Middle Earth, I feel it’s my bounden duty to share the occasional image or images of “my” Middle Earth on the blog — and as I recently went on holiday to the wonderful Abel Tasman National Park, in the upper north-west section of the South Island, I thought it was time to share some “inside Middle Earth” photos again.

Technically, I believe i...

Look Out, My Mind’s Been Melded—This Time By “Favourite Weapons”

SF Signal Mind melds are always a lot of fun, but as I love Fantasy and SciFi weapons, I was even more pleased than usual to be part of this one.

Because I very recently featured Five Legendary Swords on Fantasy Faction, I decided to check out some less usual suspects for this Mind Meld — so I hope you’ll rock on over to SF Signal and read all about it:

Our Favorite Weapons in Science Fiction and Fantasy

Not to mention all the other great entries by other authors (my contribution’s about half...