Helen Lowe's Blog, page 119

Meet Some More of Christchurch’s Heritage & Notable Trees

It’s been a while since I posted about Christchurch’s Heritage & Notable trees but the fundraising is still ongoing — and the need for funds still acute — so I thought you might like to meet a few more of the trees in question.

Blog follower, meet tree. Tree, meet blog follower…

Meet the Arts Centre Copper Beech:

According to the NZ Notable Trees’ Trust, the Arts centre copper beech is “perhaps one of the most outstanding exotic trees in Christchurch” — but initially it (and the other Arts C...

58 Eridani: Episode 13

~ by Andrew Robins

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Back in the day Lepanto was built, standoff weapons made a lot more sense than they do now. Ships were slow moving, and did not have huge delta vee reserves so it was much easier to hit them from a distance

What that means is that we have roughly 400 nukes on board. Mostly megaton range. Some big ones though. Which turns out to be quite useful, because we have some Vaders inbound – 22 pulse rockets at last count. Big ones,...

“A Book Is A Dream…”

“A book is a dream you hold in your hand.” ~ Neil Gaiman

Wonderful quote, neh?

And on that got me thinking about another wonderful quote , which followers here will know is one of my favourites:

“Think of this – that the writer wrote alone, and the reader read alone, and they were alone with each other.” ~ A.S. Byatt

So if Neil Gaiman is right and a book is a dream, and AS Byatt is also correct, then a book is a shared dream between writer and reader — but which each may nonetheless experienc...

Fashions In Names—Yes, Even in Fantasy Fiction

Have you ever noticed that there can be fashions in names for Fantasy characters, just as there are in real life?

Take “Ash” as in Aislinn/Aisling/Ashleen for example. It’s a real name, but in the mid-Noughts it ‘suddenly’ made a strong showing in Fantasy novels, particularly those with a YA flavour.

For example, Katie MacAllister’s Guardian series, published between 2004 – 2007, features protagonist Aisling Grey. In 2007, Ash — short for Aislinn — was the lead character in Melissa Marr’s Wic...

Another Deleted Scene From “Daughter Of Blood” — Kalan & Port Farewell

“The Heir Of Night” map: artist, Peter Fitzpatrick

The last deleted scene that I posted focused on Kalan, in a period before the action in Daughter of Blood begins. In it, Kalan and the heralds, Jehane Mor and Tarathan of Ar, were approaching Port Farewell, the capital of Aralorn, a country in Haarth’s Southern Realms.

This excerpt follows on immediately from the previous “deleted scene” and has some nice backstory for the heralds—but not The Wall of Night series essential material, I hasten...

Homegrown: 5 Fun Ways NZ Features In “The Wall of Night” Series

“People frequently comment on the fact that The Wall of Night books are epic fantasy and set in an alternative world, as well as being published overseas to boot, so in that sense are not really New Zealand stories. To which I reply (in classic Kiwi style): “Now hold on a minute, mate. These are books written in New Zealand, by a New Zealand born and bred author – you can’t get much more “homegrown” than that!”

I would also argue that there is plenty of New Zealand in my writing …”

~~~

Yester...

Tuesday & Poetry: Lines from “Leaving the Red Zone”

Last week, I reported on the extraordinarily successful launch of Leaving the Red Zone, the poetry anthology (edited by James Norcliffe and Joanna Preston, and published by Clerestory Press) that commemorates the fifth anniversary of the February 22, 2011, earthquake that devastated my home city of Christchurch.

The week since then has been frenetically busy so I haven’t had time to seek permission or obtain the text of full poems—or even, in fact, to take a proper look at the book. Even dipp...

The Page 69 Test: Does “Daughter Of Blood” Pass?

USA

“Open the book to page [69] and read, and the quality of the whole will be revealed to you.” – Ford Madox Ford, 1873 – 1939

OK, Ford Madox Ford said page 99 — but courtesy of Marshal Zeringue at Campaign for the American Reader, Daughter of Blood has been put through The Page 69 Test.

So, did it pass, that’s the question—is the quality of the whole revealed via page 69?

To find out, click on:

Daughter Of Blood takes The Page 69 Test

UK/AU/NZ

“When considering the Page 69 test, I was insta...

58 Eridani: Episode 12

~ by Andrew Robins

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So here’s how it works.

Turns out that our friend Bringer is a RI as well.

What’s left of the people who built Bringer is what we now call the Vaders, and Bringer cannot act directly against them.

The Vaders were originally just an ordinary biological race. Over time they upgraded and improved themselves to the point where they became true cybernetic beings, with an incredibly robust biology.

They built Bringer to be...

Saturday Fun

The latest episode of 58 Eridani will post tomorrow, so I apologise to any disappointed followers of the game log—but in the meantime, here’s some Saturday fun for ya.

Firstly, although between trees and book launches I have not had much opportunity to pursue my quest for the perfect orange cake recipe, but I still had some fun last night throwing together an autumn galette for the Friday crowd. The recipe nods to Nigella for the use of polenta in the pie crust (gives it nice crunch) but oth...