Helen Lowe's Blog, page 136

Well, this is nice: “Making Covers New” Hits SF Signal’s Top 25 Posts for September

USA

On September 15 (US Central Time), Hugo Award-winning SFF site, SF Signal, hosted the exclusive release of the new-look US covers for The Wall of Night series. Now it turns out that it was one of the Top 25 posts for the month—which is Awesome!

Just in case you missed it the first time, this post-of-awesome can still be read here:

[EXCLUSIVE] Making Covers New: Creating An Epic Look For Helen Lowe’s THE WALL OF NIGHT Series

As those who have already seen it may recall, the feature was a...

The Tuesday Poem: “from the hill”

from the hill

boats turn
at their moorings,
facing into the wind:

I can see every
shift in the weather
from up here,
she says, standing
at my shoulder —
the boats better
than any
weathervane…

we take our tea
out, onto a deck
made of timber
from old hulks
dredged out
of harbour mud,
she speaks
of the home to
which she does
not return, of the
much younger man
who will not let
her go — nor she him —
turns again to watch
the boats, talks
of a change
in the wind.
.

(c) Helen Lowe

first published i...

After The Proof Is Done: Playing Catch Up

First-Pass-Proof manuscript

One thing about spending a few weeks locked into a major part of the book-writing cycle, like doing the final proof of the manuscript, is that a lot of other stuff falls by the wayside in the meantime.

Although—brief digression ensues—I realised as soon as I said “final proof” that actually it’s called the “first-pass-proof.” That’s because although it’s the final time the author gets to see the manuscript before it’s a book, it’s only the first proofing round for...

Woo-hoo! It’s Spring!

Well, it is for all of use who reside beneath the Southern Cross—I know it’s autumn with the dark night drawing in on the far side of the world, which is probably a better seasonal experience for getting into the spirit of Halloween. (Yes, it really is just a few weeks away now.)

Anyway, to celebrate Spring and get into the seasonal spirit, I thought I’d share a few spring-related excerpts from my books—which means Thornspell and The Gathering Of The Lost, because am pretty sure spring doesn’...

A Quote for Saturday

“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”

~ Traditional; Africa

Africa is a very big place, of course—but although it would be nice to get a little more specificity re the quote source, I think Traditional may be onto something here…

What do you think?

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Supernatural Underground: Alternate Worlds vs Our World in Fantasy

My first of the month post is up on the Supernatural Underground — and i am weighing ‘sense of place” in fantasy fiction in the context of our world versus completely alternate worlds.

If this sounds like you, then you can read via:

USA

Sense of Place: Alternate Worlds Versus Our World …

But wait, there’s more — more great Supernatural Underground posts that is. So you might also like to check out:
.

Teresa Frohock on Something Creepy

(but you’ll have to read to find out what!)
.

Stina Leich...

About The Characters: Meet The Minor Players in “The Heir Of Night” — Garan

USA

UK/AU/NZ

The recent unveiling of the US and UK covers for Daughter Of Blood — and now the new look US covers for the whole WALL of Night series — has inspired me to spend some on-blog time with the characters from the first two books in the series, in the same way I spent time on the worldbuilding in A Geography Of Haarth.

I also decided to focus on minor players to begin with, because: “I think it’s the presence of the smaller characters that “makes” a story, creating texture around the...

Well, I think tis done…

The “first pass proof” of Daughter of Blood, that is…

After a fortnight of non-stop, 12-14 hour days, getting the job done, I suspect the author may be done as well…

So now all that’s left to do is to write a covering letter and get the entire 737-odd pages ready to go in the courier tomorrow.

And then it really will be a “wrap”—a well-wrapped parcel, in fact!

Au’voir til then…

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The Tuesday Poem: “Whoso List to Hunt, I Know Where is an Hind” by Sir Thomas Wyatt

. Whoso list to hunt, I know where is an hind, But as for me, hélas, I may no more. The vain travail hath wearied me so sore, I am of them that farthest cometh behind. Yet may I by no means my wearied mind Draw from the deer, but as she fleeth afore Fainting I follow. I leave off therefore, Sithens in a net I seek to hold the wind. Who list her hunt, I put him out of doubt, As well as I may spend his time in vain. And graven with diamonds in letters plain There is written, her fair neck round...

Still Proofing … Yup, Proofing On — But, Excerpt!

You may have noticed that I left those 3 lovely (new!) US book covers for the Wall of Night series up for you to enjoy all day today—even tho’ they did post yesterday.

That’s because I am “busy as”, dear readers, with the Great Daughter Of Blood Proof.

And must now go and Proof On!

USA: Jan 2016

UK/AU/NZ: ’16

In the meantime, if you missed Friday’s post, it contained an excerpt from Daughter of Blood. So if you havena read it already, hie thee and read now:

Friday’s Daughter of Blood Excerpt...