Helen Lowe's Blog, page 133
November 3, 2015
Big Worlds On Small Screens: Rebecca Fisher Returns — & Discusses “Marchlands”
As we’ve just celebrated Halloween, it’s only fitting that my return to “Big Worlds on Small Screens” focus on a good old-fashioned ghost story. Marchlands aired back in 2011, a three-part miniseries that spans the lives of three different families living in the same house across five decades.
In 1960, Ruth Bowen is a grief-stricken mother mourning the death of her daughter, Alice. Though the police have deemed her drowning an accident, there are several strange inconsistencies in the story...
November 2, 2015
The Tuesday Poem: Penelope Dreaming
Penelope Dreaming
He made this bed you know,
crafted first from the aged olive,
then joined to its hoary brother –
its leaves still sing
of winds no longer blowing;
I feel it stir, murmur
in that phantom breeze
when I lie here, as if in your arms
my husband, my beloved, my lover,
waiting for the first light
to ambush me, waiting …
I hear your voice sigh
out of the deep ocean, and sink
with it, down to where you hide,
an apparition spun out of leaves,
silvered bark and light, gnarled
and twist...
November 1, 2015
What’s Happening This Week: the Supernatural Underground — & MOAR!
Happy Monday, dear “… on Anything, Really” readers — if the juxtaposition of “happy” with “Monday” is not an oxymoron… But even if it is, there’s plenty happening this week.
Supernatural Underground: Starting with my 1 November post on the Supernatural Underground, which features the full UK cover — the front, spine, and rear cover views, plus updated backcover text. And I’ve included an excerpt, too.
With publication day only three months away now, on 26 January 2016, you may expect more exc...
October 31, 2015
The Overlap Between Writing & Gardening
Forget-me-nots in my garden
Those of you who have followed “…on Anything, Really” for a while may have picked up that I am into my garden.
It’s definitely a “real” garden, too, which means that it’s not easy care, particularly in spring when all winter’s “stealth” weeds suddenly burgeon “full throttle.”.
So a few years back, when I was storm-tossed on the vasty deeps of writing Daughter of Blood, the garden and those unstealthy weeds did rather get away from me—but I remember a friend assurin...
October 30, 2015
Gorgeous Words: Barbara Hambly & “The Ladies Of Mandrigyn”
On Thursday (Wednesday, US time), my Fantasy Heroines That Rock My World series on SF Signal featured Sheera Galernas and The Ladies of Mandrigyn, from the book of the same name.
But this is more than just “a strong and exciting Fantasy story” with a cast of interesting characters (a significant number of whom happen to be feisty, determined heroines)—although those are vital qualities in any top read.
The Ladies of Mandrigyn comprises another essential ingredient as well: it has its fair sha...
October 29, 2015
“Fantasy Heroines That Rock My World” #10 On SF Signal — Sisterhood Is Powerful, Part 1
My guest series Fantasy Heroines That Rock My World is still going full throttle on SF Signal — but this time the feature focuses on not just one heroine, but a “band of sisters”: Sheera Galernas and The Ladies Of Mandrigyn.
As I observe in the post, Barbara Hambly’s novel contains so many outstanding heroines that this has to be a two-part feature.
In introducing Part 1, I also observed that:
“I have always felt the quintessential band of Fantasy sisters is Sheera Galernas and her fifty comr...
October 28, 2015
About The Characters: Meet The Minor Players in “The Wall Of Night” Series — Jiron
USA
UK/AU/NZ
It’s now only three months to the publication of Daughter of Blood — huzza!
But that fact, together with the recent cover reveals here, there, and everywhere (!), inspired me to spend some blog time with The Wall Of Night series’ characters, in the same way I spent time on the worldbuilding in A Geography Of Haarth.
I also decided to start by focusing on minor players to begin with, because: “I think it’s the presence of the smaller characters that “makes” a story, creating textu...
October 27, 2015
Just Arrived: “Last Song Before Night” by Ilana C Myer
I met fellow author, Ilana C Myer, through Twitter and a shared enjoyment of the fiction of Guy Gavriel Kay, so of course I’ve been very interested to check out her debut novel, Last Song Before Night.
It came out a few weeks ago in the US, but I was delighted to receive an Advance Reading Copy, also known as an Uncorrected Proof, just last week.
For now, here’s what the back cover (abridged) has to tell me about the story:
“Her name was Kimbralin Amaristoth: sister to a cruel brother, daught...
October 26, 2015
The Tuesday Poem: Homing
Homing
.
He hears it, in every slap
of wave against wood,
as the ship cleaves water
like a seabird, hears the word
that he has hungered for
through the lost years,
whispered to him now
by the sea as it bears him up,
speeds him on like a lover
to the consummation
of his long-held dream
of home: home, lilts the sea,
soft as a lullaby, and home,
sings the wind, slipping
through rigging, soothing
him to rest, not to wake
even as a clear dawn
pares away night, reveals
rocky shores and a green crag...
October 25, 2015
The Author Gets Her Buzz On
UK/AU/NZ
USA
It seems amazing to think that it was way back in July when I posted “And So It Begins — Again”, marking the official beginning of the current work in progress: The Chaos Gate, The Wall Of Night Book Four.
Since then there have been a few intervening events, such as releasing the new US covers for the series and proofing Daughter Of Blood—and it’s amazing how time slips by when there’s plenty happening.
New, USA
New, USA
Nonetheless, work on The Chaos Gate has been chugging away...
