Helen Lowe's Blog, page 142

What I’m Reading Right Now: “The Art Of War” By Sun-tzu

The Art of War is a classic read, of course, which is one of the reasons I’m surprised it’s taken me this long to get around to it.

I am reading the edition edited and translated by John Minford (Penguin, 2003), which comprises two parts: the original Sun-tzu text; followed by the same text with commentaries from throughout the several thousand year history of the text—fascinating in and of itself.

I think the original text is really insightful and many of its observations are still relevant...

It’s Really “Not” That Long Now — So How About A Character Refresher?

USA

UK

Revealing the US cover for Daughter Of Blood this week, and the UK cover just a few weeks ago made it all seem that little bit more real that the publication date in late January 2016 is now less than six months away.

In a glass half empty but also half full kind of way, that both feels like a wait still, but will also fleet by remarkably quickly.

So I thought it might be time to think about acharacter refresher for The Wall Of Night series, starting next Thursday and reintroducing the...

USA & UK: Here They are For You, Side By Side

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It’s all about the cover love awesome here.

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Top 10 Posts For July

UK cover reveal — caught your July interest!

Despite winter and school holidays here in the southern hemisphere, and the long summer break in more northern regions, July saw a renewed flurry of activity on the blog—which made me think it could be fun to look at the top 10 posts from July.

So without further ado, here’s what you were most interested in last month:

1. Writing Epic Heroines on July 23rd, just pipped

2. Daughter Of Blood, The Wall Of Night Book Three: UK Cover Revealed! on July 1...

The Tuesday Poem: Fey

Fey

your door
stands open still
at dusk, your light
a moth’s antenna
across
shadowed lawn

bare feet rustle
in last year’s
leaf drift, a wind
sways
through naked trees

you say
you will hang
a cricket cage
above your lintel,
burn apple wood
in the grate –
dance, the circle
of your skirt
reflecting
the moon’s dark face

I ride
a rocking horse
with patchwork eyes,
steal
through your door
to the cold-stone hearth –
dream
of dervish footsteps
hurdy-gurdy trees

(c) Helen Lowe

Highly Commended, Takahe...

Checkout The Backcover ‘Blurb’ for the US Cover of “Daughter Of Blood”!

On Saturday I gave the US cover for Daughter Of Blood, The Wall Of Night Book Three it’s first outing.

Yesterday, I shared a bit more of the new cover excitement by featuring the front and back cover quotes.

Today I thought I’d share the back cover “blurb” — which is similar to the UK back-cover text, shared here, but “not quite” the same:

Malian of Night and Kalan, her trusted ally,
are returning to the Wall of Night—but already it may
be too late. The Wall is dangerously weakened,
the Ni...

There Really is Something…Very Exciting About A New Cover!

And as well as the overall ‘effect’, including the drama of that line of fire through the shield, it’s also good to see that very nice quote from SF Site getting the front cover limelight.

It’s very difficult, after all, to be anything but enthusiastic about:

“Helen Lowe’s Wall of Night series has the potential to become a classic right up there with the likes of George RR Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire.” ~ SF Site

w00t, in fact!

The other quotes used for the US cover include:

On the back:...

Revealed At Last: The US Cover For Daughter Of Blood, The Wall Of Night Book Three!

It was meant to be revealed here in mid-July — but after all, what better way to see in August than with the very first “…on Anything, Really” outing for the US cover for Daughter Of Blood.

So here it is, in all it’s glory: enjoy!

This cover heralds the re-release of The Wall of Night series in the US, so there’ll be matching covers for The Heir of Night & The Gathering of the Lost as well — also coming very soon, I believe.

Clarification Re Availability of the US E-Book:

When the UK cover f...

Hsst — It’s All Happening Later Today

UK cover

As my regular readers will know, on the first of the month (US Eastern Standard Time) I post on the Supernatural Underground—and that will be later today, NZ time.

As you may also know, earlier in the month I heralded the reveal of both the US and UK covers for Daughter Of Blood, The Wall Of Night Book Three — but then only ended posting the UK cover both here and on the Supernatural Underground. (For “reasonsz” — which would never, of course, include copyedit-induced authorial confu...

“Fantasy Heroines That Rock My World” On SF Signal: # 6, Bitterblue

After a brief copyedit-induced hiatus, my guest series Fantasy Heroines That Rock My World has resumed on SF Signal.

USA

The sixth heroine on my personal podium is Bitterblue, from Kristin Cashore’s novel of the same name. To find out why, click on:

Helen Lowe On Fantasy Heroines that Rock Her World: Bitterblue (Graceling)

If you’re interested in reading more, I interviewed Kristin Cashore about Bitterblue when the novel first came out, here:

An Interview With Kristin Cashore—Author of “Bitte...