Helen Lowe's Blog, page 129

Introducing “58 Eridani” — A Game Log

As promised on Wednesday, Andrew Robins, who has has done some book reviews for me here in the past, is going to share his log for a recent, short run role-playing game here on the blog.

The actual log will start tomorrow, but for now, here’s Andrew to tell you what it’s all about.

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Introducing 58 Eridani

58 Eridani was run as a “free-form” role playing game.

Free form role playing games are played without a pre-defined set of rules. The players and the games master make up the rules as the...

Introducing “Eridani 58″ — A Game Log

As promised on Wednesday, Andrew Robins, who has has done some book reviews for me here in the past, is going to share his log for a recent, short run role-playing game here on the blog.

The actual log will start tomorrow, but for now, here’s Andrew to tell you what it’s all about.

—

Introducing Eridani 58

58 Eridani was run as a “free-form” role playing game.

Free form role playing games are played without a pre-defined set of rules. The players and the games master make up the rules as the...

Background Research: “Coming To The Aid Of The Enemy” #2

Recently, I began discussing some of my background research for Daughter of Blood and The Wall of Night series. I’ve always been a history fan anyway, reading non-fiction history as well as historical fiction, so this has really just been a continuation of what I already do anyway. You know, for fun…

However, as always when you start delving into anything in depth, you start unearthing some eye-opening, ie “new to you”, facts. A subset of these for me has been historical instances of what I c...

About The Characters: Meet The Minor Players in “The Wall Of Night” Series — Nerys

UK/AU/NZ

USA

With the Prologue to Daughter of Blood now unveiled on SF Signal, publication day is beginning to feel close — and that makes it even more fun to spend some time with characters from The Wall Of Night series, in the same way I featured worldbuilding in A Geography Of Haarth.

I’ve been focusing on minor players for now, because: “I think it’s the presence of the smaller characters that “makes” a story, creating texture around the main points of view.”

Today’s character is Nerys, w...

New Stuff Comin’ Up Ahead Of The Holidays

Yup, I’m pleased to tell you I’ve got some fun stuff coming up ahead of the holidays.

Three Avid Readers: Three Takes On The Best Of 2015

This is the time of year when we all leap into lists, but as I haven’t done so many reading reports I thought I’d ask three avid readers of my acquaintance to share their top 5 reads of 2015 with you — and tell you a little about “why” these are their top 5 as well.

Three mystery readers, I should add, until each post goes up — and I hope to have the first...

The Tuesday Poem: Giacometti

Giacometti

please do not dance
with the statues –

leaves swirl
into the atrium drift
between steel
glass stone

a man
cast in bronze stalks
through a flurry
of programmes
the woman elongated
towers overhead
stares back forward
along the century

watches men walk
on the moon.

Helen Lowe

Published in JAAM 28: Dance dance dance, 2010

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I first featured Giacometti here in 2013, as part of an ekphrastic series, i.e. poems that respond to a work of art. Here is the poet’s note I provided for the ser...

Why Reader Reviews “Do” Help Books

USA

UK/AU/NZ

Less than two months to go now until Publication Day for Daughter of Blood — w00t!

The approach of Publication Day also means it’s review time, but not just traditional reviews via book critics. As soon as the book is out there in the wild, reader reviews cut in as well, especially on sites like Good Reads and Amazon.

My friend and fellow author, Courtney Schafer, has just released the ebook edition of Labyrinth of Flame, the third and final novel in her Shattered Sigil series.

C...

A Book Quote For Sunday—From Ernest Hemingway’s Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech

“For a true writer each book should be a new beginning where he tries again for something that is beyond attainment. He should always try for something that has never been done or that others have tried and failed. Then sometimes, with great luck, he will succeed.”

~ Ernest Hemingway, 1954

This is only one paragraph from what is, in fact, quite a short speech. But in it, I feel Hemingway has “nailed” an important part of what being a writer is about—or what the whole business of writing “shou...

Read My Short Story “The Kiss” on the Supernatural Underground

In January and February I featured a short story, Bird of Passage, on the Supernatural Underground. At the same time I ran a Tuckerization contest alongside the story, Tuckerization being where a reader gives their name to a character in a work of fiction.

The winner was Beth /Pegasus 358 and The Kiss is the story I wrote for her—and it posted this week on the Supernatural Underground.

Here’s how it begins:

The Kiss

by Helen Lowe

Fairy lights rippled across the darkened harbor, illuminating t...

E-Book Deal: USA/Canada & For A Limited Time Only—The Heir Of Night / The Gathering Of The Lost

As part of the buildup to the release of Daughter Of Blood, HarperVoyager is offering a special The Heir Of Night / The Gathering Of The Lost ebook deal to USA/Canada readers.

Both e-books will be 0.99c through until 28 December—so if you’re enjoying the story but don’t yet have the books yourself, or you would love to introduce the series to a friend, this could be a great way of doing that. Especially with Christmas coming up.

Or as I said on Twitter when the deal was announced: “cheap as c...