Helen Lowe's Blog, page 149
June 1, 2015
The Tuesday Poem: Refeaturing Nancy Mattson — “Letter from Somewhere, 1932″
In the unmapped centre of the uncut forest
before we came somewhere from Uhtua
happy workers hustled up the first buildings
……………in the fourth year of a five-year plan
……………time moves so fast whatever our purposes
restaurant sauna laundry-hut bakery shop
warehouse stables office red corner to hang
faces of leaders posters photographs banners
charts to drill this alphabet into our wooden heads
prepare us to work for the common good
……………as our leaders so often remin...
May 31, 2015
New On The Supernatural Underground Now: Love, Actually (Part 2)
On the 1st of every month (US Eastern Standard Time), I post on the Supernatural Underground, which means my June post has just gone live.
As I say in the post:
“Last month I kicked off a new Supernatural Underground post series, looking at different aspects of romantic love, including examples from my own fiction where appropriate.
I started with that universal crowd pleaser, “star-crossed love” and “might have been’s.” This month, I’m checking out “childhood sweethearts” and “the gal, or g...
A Very Merry Month Of NZ Speculative Fiction in NZ Book Month May
NZ Book Month was postponed indefinitely this year. So the wonderful Rachael King, author and Literary Director of the WORDChristchurch (Books & Writers’) Festival, kicked off the #NZBookMonthMay tag on Twitter, determined to celebrate NZ literature, readers and writers, regardless.
I “got in behind”, to use Kiwi parlance, by tweeting a speculative fiction publication—some current, some classic—by a NZ author every day throughout the month. I was also pretty sure I could get through the month...
May 30, 2015
And So It Began…
Yup, five years ago today, on May 31 1020, I posted my very first post here “…on Anything, Really.”
Since then I have published a grand total of 1881 posts and I think I have largely kept to the undertaking I made that day to post:
“…about both novels and poetry, what’s coming up and what’s happening—and I hope there’ll be a few online interviews showing up here! … I’m looking forward to having conversations around what I’m reading now, the books I’ve loved reading in the past as well as crea...
Celebrating NZ Speculative Fiction For #NZBookMonthMay: Wrapping Up Week 4 & The Month!
As you know, I’ve been on a ‘mission’ to celebrate a NZ Speculative Fiction book every day on Twitter for #NZBookMonthMay without repeating an author, even though some have considerably more than one book to their name.
I am very pleased to say that I am wrapping up Week 4 and the month (tomorrow) without failing in that aim. 
Here’s the roundup for this final week:
Monday 25:
Rachel Craw, Spark (YA; Science Fiction)
.
Tuesday 26:
Anna Mackenzie, Cattra’s Legacy (YA; Fantasy)
.
Wednesday 27:
May 28, 2015
Gorgeous Words: Guy Gavriel Kay & “Tigana”
Last week, my Fantasy Heroines That Rock My World series on SF Signal featured Dianora from Guy Gavriel Kay’s Tigana.
Slightly over a year ago now, I let you all in on a secret: I Simply Adore Reading! Not only because “I love stories and storytelling”, but also because I love “revelling in the gorgeousness of some writers’ way with words.”
In order to prepare the Dianora post, I reread Tigana for the first time in some years — and revelled all over again in the gorgeousness of Guy Gavriel Ka...
“Unpredictable to Myself”: Out Of The Recent Auckland Writers’ Festival…
Of course, I didn’t actually go to the Auckland Writers’ Festival, but my local Christchurch City Libraries sent a team who obligingly put together a list of quotes.
This is my absolute favourite from their list — and no surprises at all (for me, anyway) that it’s from Haruki Murakami. Everytime he is interviewed about his work, I find a new quote to ‘heart.’
Here’s the most recent:
“My stories are always unpredictable to myself.”~ Haruki MurakamiOh yes, I thought — although I would probably...
May 26, 2015
An Interview With Anna Smaill, Author Of “The Chimes”
Today, I’m delighted to welcome Anna Smaill, whose debut novel The Chimes has been published internationally (2015) to critical praise. As I noted on Monday, it has one of the more fascinating—and I believe, original—world-building premises that I have encountered in recent years. So I am very pleased to be able to discuss the book in more depth with Anna now.
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Interview: Helen: Welcome to “…on Anything, Really”, Anna. I’m really keen to focus our time together specifically on...
May 25, 2015
The Tuesday Poem: Refeaturing Nancy Mattson — “Maze”
What I miss is gravel
crunching under foot or wheel,
wide sky above
the road straight into horizon.
I want to walk the crease
of a prairie book, lines of wheat
as even type, all one size
the word gold over and over.
London’s a fused maze
of alphabets: wherever you walk,
each road, wherever it turns,
is utterly paved or cobbled crookedly.
A crazed typesetter has been at work
every night for centuries, his head
swirling with shadows thrown
on crumbling walls by candle-flame.
He has set eve...
May 24, 2015
Forthcoming This Week: An Interview With Anna Smaill, Author Of “The Chimes”
Anna Smaill’s The Chimes has one of the more fascinating—and I believe, original—world-building premises that I have encountered in recent years. It has also been released to considerable critical praise.
As you may know, I am participating in Rachael King’s #NZBookMonthMay initiative, with my own particular focus being on homegrown speculative fiction.
I can think of no better way to celebrate the month and NZ’s speculative literature than to bring you this interview, which will post on Wedn...
