Helen Lowe's Blog, page 172
October 18, 2014
Comment Of The Week: From Belinda Crawford
~ Belinda Crawford
—
Heh! Belinda was referring to the A Geography Of Haarth post series—a clear case of “steal at will!” 
Again, this comment came via Twitter.
October 17, 2014
A Writing Quote For Saturday, From Madeleine L’Engle
“A book, too, can be a star, a living fire to lighten the darkness, leading out into the expanding universe.”
~ Madeleine L’Engle
—
Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle In Time was one of my favourite books as a young reader. I feel this quote captures the flavour of her writing.
October 16, 2014
A Geography Of Haarth: Westgate
The Wall of Night Series map; design by Peter Fitzpatrick
The A Geography of Haarth post series is exploring the full range of locales and places from The Wall of Night world of Haarth. Each entry is accompanied by a quote from the books in which the place appears, currently either The Heir Of Night or The Gathering Of The Lost, or both.
The series is currently traversing “W”, the final letter in this series—although fortunately there are many places in the Haarth world beginning with “W”.
—
We...
October 15, 2014
Story & Why I Write Fantasy
Yesterday I spoke to the University of Canterbury’s creative writing class about “story” and writing process—which was a lot of fun and I hope at least something in what I had to say was encouraging.
In the susbequent discussion, one of the students asked me why I chose to write Fantasy and although I tried to say something eloquent and inspiring, the gist was, “because I love it.”
But in 2012, I addressed this very question on SF Signal, in what I feel was a reasonably eloquent and slightly fu...
October 14, 2014
What Makes A Chapter “Gnarly”
Over the last few days I’ve been tweeting about working on a “gnarly” chapter—in the slang derived sense of “difficult.” (Although it may also relate to the more formal “gnarled”, meaning “bumpy” or “twisted”, e.g. often a tree.)
So this particular chapter has difficult aspects, which makes for a bumpy ride for the writer.
Some of those aspects include:
Pacing:
This is a transitional chapter, so although things need to happen, their chief purpose is to move the story, and the reader, forward in...
October 13, 2014
The Tuesday Poem: Refeaturing Michael Harlow & “The Longest Day Of The Year”
THE LONGEST DAY OF THE YEAR
One word one word and then another,
one word and another, waiting for the
light to come stealing in, you ask what
is it that love dares the self to do?
All he wanted was to put his shoes out
in the moonlight. To hear music be the
saint of laughter again. And all that
time rehearsing his lines in the dark;
the love-mess of it all – when so much
forgetting is always about remembering;
on the long walk backwards to meet
himself coming the other way, but didn’t
It’s just that I’m m...
October 12, 2014
Why I Don’t Entirely Agree With Nick Hornby
Nick Hornby’s new novel
Like most—all?—writers, I’m also a reader; in my case, an avid one.
So I read The Telegraph’s recent article on author Nick Hornby’s views on reading with considerable interest. In particular, Nick Hornby was reported as arguing that:
“readers should put down difficult books immediately if they are not enjoying them.”
His reasoning, apparently, is that: “Battling through them, he said, would only condition people to believe reading is a chore, leaving a ‘sense of duty’ a...
October 11, 2014
One Of The Fun Aspects Of The Writing Life
UK/AU/NZ mass market paperback
Don’t get me wrong, there are many fun aspects to the writing life.
But one of the most fun, to my way of thinking, is when you’ve grafted away on a manuscript for what feels like for-ev-er, and although it’s finished publication day is still somewhere off in the vast-y distance—but then you get your first sneak preview of the cover concept for the book.
What was once only a story in your mind has already become a manuscript, but when you get that first exciting...
October 10, 2014
A Writer Is Like…
I think a writer is often like a jigsaw puzzle afficionado, with a whole array of diverse pieces that have to be fitted together to make the final picture—but it really helps if first, first, one can define the frame.
.
October 9, 2014
A Geography Of Haarth: Western Mountains
The Wall of Night Series map; design by Peter Fitzpatrick
The A Geography of Haarth post series is exploring the full range of locales and places from The Wall of Night world of Haarth. Each entry is accompanied by a quote from the books in which the place appears, currently either The Heir Of Night or The Gathering Of The Lost, or both.
The series is currently traversing “W”—which will be its final instalment.
—
Western Mountains: the range that forms the western border of Emer
.
“The company hal...
