Helen Lowe's Blog, page 115

Wow, Look What’s Arrived — Not 1 but 2 Books From Julie Czerneda!

Julie Czerneda

I first met Julie Czerneda in 2009, at my very first everz Natcon in Auckland, where Julie was the Guest of Honour.

Julie & me, Sir Julius Vogel Awards’ 2009

While there, she also presented my first ever book award: the Sir Julius Vogel Award for Best Novel–Young Adult, for Thornspell.

Julie is a well known and very well respect SCi Fi writer, but more recently she has branched out into Fantasy.

So I am absolutely delighted to have the first two novels in her Night’s Edge (Marr...

A Dragon Quote From Thornspell

I’ve been talking dragons lately, so here is a dragon quote from Thornspell:

“Rue … was nowhere to be seen as he turned and stepped toward the fire. He snatched another glance back, in case he had missed her, and stopped short as a huge red and golden dragon soared out of the twisting streams of energy and reality. Sigismund stared, sure he must be delirious—or really dreaming now—and then the dragon and everything else disappeared as fire roared around him.”

~ Chapter 9, Substance and Shadow...

Heralding “The Blood In The Beginning” — & Meet Ava Sykes

In 2010 I first met Kim Falconer at the World Science Fiction & Fantasy Convention in Melbourne and we’ve been Supernatural Underground friends-in-writing for quite some years now.

So I want to tell you all about Kim’s latest post on the Supernatural Undergound, where she’s previewing the cover and synopsis for her forthcoming new book, The Blood In The Beginning (Harlequin) — and introducing a new heroine, Ava Sykes who sounds quite wonderful.

“Knock down, kickass nightclub bouncer Ava Sykes...

Tuesday Poetry: A Haiku

May Day –
the last hydrangea bends
under snow

(c) Helen Lowe

Published in the taste of nashi, the Third NZ Haiku Anthology, Windrift, 2008
Submitted by E Berry, NZ selector, for the Red Moon (US) international haiku anthology 2008

—

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From Dragonslaying to Dragonriders — Who Rang In The Change?

Dragonslaying featured here last week, starting on Wednesday when Rebecca featured the ’80s film Dragonslayer in her Big Worlds On Small Screens column — and apparently, the film wasn’t that bad.

Her look at the film inspired me to look at some of the great dragonslayers of legend and fantasy fiction — and then on Friday I added another worthy contender, the hero Yorindesarinen, from my own The Wall of Night series.

At which point Rebecca kicked the can along a bit further by wondering when...

A Book Quote for Sunday, from Neil Armstrong, 1930 – 2012

“Through books you will meet poets and novelists whose creations will fire your imagination. You will meet the great thinkers who will share with you their philosophies, their concepts of the world, of humanity and of creation. You will learn about events that have shaped our history, of deeds both noble and ignoble. All of this knowledge is yours for the taking… Your library is a storehouse for mind and spirit. Use it well.”

~ Neil Armstrong, ca. 1971

This note from Neil Armstrong was in res...

It’s Women In SciFi & Fantasy Month at Fantasy Book Cafe — & I’m Talking Leaders

UK/AU/NZ

Every April since 2012, Fantasy Cafe has featured Women in SF&F: science fiction and fantasy, that is.

Within that broad umbrella, the topic is completely open: contributors can discuss their own writing, others’ writing, the state of the genre, being a woman SF&F writer — or any other permutation on the topic.

I have chosen to discuss women characters in SF&F who are leaders, both drawing on the work of other writers but also looking at the evolution of Malian as a leader in The Wal...

One More Dragonslayer…

This is all Rebecca’s fault, you realise — she reviewed the ’80s movie offering “Dragonslayer” for Big Worlds On Small Screens on Wednesday. Which got me thinking about dragonslayers from both legend and a raft of well-loved fantastic stories.

So yesterday I decided to inaugurate a League of Fantastic — & Extraordinary! — Dragonslayers. I have realised, though, that I left out one dragonslayer, or at least Worm-slayer who most definitely should be in my league.

UK/AU/NZ

USA

That’s Yorindesari...

A League of Fantastic Dragonslayers

Yesterday, Rebecca reviewed the 1980s film Dragonslayer (which it seems wasn’t that bad ) — and that got me thinking about the great dragonslayers of epic and fantasy that I’d enrol in a personal “League of Extraordinary Dragonslayers.”

First off the blocks would have to Beowulf, the hero of Saxon epic who took on a dragon in his twilight years, and died doing so even though he did for the dragon as well. My earliest encounter with Beowulf was through Rosemary Sutcliff’s retelling, titled Be...

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

~ by Rebecca Fisher

As it happens, Dragonslayer is the only movie that I hadn’t seen prior to starting this column, basing my decision to include it entirely on positive hearsay. So – was I right to trust the opinions of others before watching the movie myself?

Kind of. It’s not that I didn’t enjoy Dragonslayer, it’s that a lot of the plot twists that would have undoubtedly been fresh and unexpected at the time of its release now feel like fairly well-trod material.

The “grimdark” atmosphere...