Helen Lowe's Blog, page 122

A Writing Quote for Sunday From Lillian Hellman, 1905 – 1984

“If I had to give young writers advice, I’d say, don’t listen to writers talking about writing. “

~ Lillian Hellman, 1905 – 1984

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I smiled when I read this, because I think “mostly” it hits the nail on the head.

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Apparently, It’s A Numbers’ Game: aka If You Like A Book, It Really Helps To Review It

USA

A week ago, I proposed a 4-step plan for anyone who likes a book to support it in the world — if she/he chooses to, of course!

So far, so good. But I also featured a very interesting quote from friend and fellow author Courtney Schafer, talking about the importance of honest reviews:

“If you wish to leave an honest review on Amazon, that would be wonderful. If you’re wondering why reviews there are such a big deal to authors, it’s because new reviews push the book up in the ranking and re...

A Change In Tomorrow’s Programme — Plus What Else Is Up

Just a quick headsup for 58 Eridani followers that we may have a hiatus on tomorrow’s episode, since our game log author, Andrew, has been away — but fear not, you shall have something else to enjoy in its stead. And Andrew will be back next Saturday with another exciting episode for you, I feel quite sure of that.

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Meanwhile, here’s a bit of a round up from around t’interwebs, to wrap up the week:

USA

1. On Monday, I had a guest post featured on Write and Take Flight blog:

“Not so very long...

Daughter Of Blood: Deleted Scene 2 — Malian & Raven Depart Aralorn

UK/AU/NZ

Last week I shared the first of my deleted scenes, which rejoined Malian and Raven in Stoneford, directly after the culmination of events in The Gathering Of The Lost.

As noted then, in the end I decided the story didn’t need to immediately follow on from The Gathering Of The Lost events, and that the overall story worked better picking up the Malian and Raven thread “post Aralorn” — hence this material all becoming a “deleted Act.”

You may recognise parts of the scene that got recyc...

Some Early Reader Feedback on “Daughter Of Blood”

USA

I am deliberately not reading reviews of Daughter of Blood — I have decided to wait until the dust settles on initial publication before getting perspective on the ‘big picture’ of reviewer response.

However, some readers have got in touch directly, so I thought I’d share a few examples of what they’re saying:

“Just finished #DaughterOfBlood. Love it, love it, love it!” — via Twitter

“A quick note to say it’s been quite a while since I have enjoyed reading a series as this. I look forward...

Pine-Trees And The Sky: Evening by Rupert Brooke

I’d watched the sorrow of the evening sky,
And smelt the sea, and earth, and the warm clover,
And heard the waves, and the seagull’s mocking cry.

And in them all was only the old cry,
That song they always sing — “The best is over!
You may remember now, and think, and sigh,
O silly lover!”
And I was tired and sick that all was over,
And because I,
For all my thinking, never could recover
One moment of the good hours that were over.
And I was sorry and sick, and wished to die.

Then from the sa...

“Names Matter”: Yes, They Do

UK/AU/NZ

My fellow SFF author, Canadian Julie Czerneda, is proofing right now and yesterday I saw her tweet: “Names matter!”

Yes, I thought, they do…

Asantir, one of the leading secondary characters in The Wall of Night series, is a great example of why.

Although she’s now the Commander of Night, readers may recall when Asantir was the Honour Captain in The Heir of Night. Originally, the Honour Captain wasn’t intended to be a major character. Yet in trying to give Derai names a commonality fo...

Speaking for the Trees: Update 1

Cordyline australis – a NZ cabbage tree

Last Sunday I posted about “speaking for the trees” and the Give A Little that I’m currently supporting:

Saving Christchurch Heritage and Notable Trees

This morning, another Christchurch person, forester Mark Belton, appeared on National (public) radio where he spoke eloquently to the situation that Christchurch is currently facing with the potential delisting of 80% of its Heritage and Notable trees. To listen, click on:

Mark Belton — Saving Christchur...

58 Eridani: Episode 9

~ by Andrew Robins

Transcript of voice log from bridge logger of Free Trader “Mistral”, 53.36 standard solar days into mission 14:

Voice of Ameilia Delaware: “First visuals on the Lepanto confirm the data from the active LIDAT scan. The crew section and living quarters of the ship appear to have been extensively modified sometime within the last 412 years…”

Voice of Glandin Frutnok van Glomzimmer: “I fail to see the relevance of this comment. We have no reason to expect that the LIDAR data wa...

Daughter Of Blood: Deleted Scene 1 — Malian & Raven In Aralorn

UK/AU/NZ

Recently, I promised you deleted scenes and this is the first one — which was also my first cut at catching up with Malian and Raven after events at the end of The Gathering Of The Lost (The Wall Of Night Book Two.)

Some of you also asked me to explain why the featured scenes were deleted. As I replied at the time (it may have been on Twitter though, not the blog), usually the reason was some variant of the material not driving the story forward sufficiently, even if the content may...