Helen Lowe's Blog, page 173
October 8, 2014
Provocations, Speculations, & Reflections On The Future Of Reading & Writing: Determining The Portents; Deciphering The Entrails…
One can barely go on the internet or pick up a print journal these days without reading a new gloom-and-doom prognosis about books and writers, and by implication the process of reading and writing.
Over the weekend I read another variant on the “writing and reading as we know it is dead” theme, from Guardian columnist, Will Self. Titled “The Fate Of Our Literary Culture Is Sealed“, the article (although he terms it a “provocation”) culminated in this quote:
‘I began this provocation by describ...
October 7, 2014
Big Worlds On Small Screens: Rebecca Fisher Discusses “Dr Who”
~ by Rebecca Fisher
Introduction:
I had put off talking about Doctor Who simply because the franchise is so enormous that I was rather intimidated by it. I feel the same way about Star Trek, and it took a while to come up with observations about the show that didn’t feel as though they’d been said a thousand times before. But with the show now into its eighth season, the time is right to explore what makes Doctor Who so special.
Doctor Who first premiered on 23rd November 1963, originally concei...
October 6, 2014
The Tuesday Poem: Refeaturing Michael Harlow & “I Am A Tyger”
‘I am a Tyger’
Despite 10 years
of ‘talking cure’, twice
weekly, such intimate
conversation between strangers,
he remains quite convinced
that he is still, you know,
a tyger
As a child no taller
than a table leg, he always
suspected he was a cat
It was the last of the litter,
Chatterwot, the family favourite,
who taught him, age 11,
to speak ‘cat’
And he did. Not dog
or stag or unicorn, he knows
himself to be a tyger, ‘burning
bright’, in a body made strange
And of course he believes
he was adopted – his true pa...
October 5, 2014
Making Space For Readers & The Alchemy Of Possibility: Haruki Murakami Meets AS Byatt
I love those moments when two great writing quotes—from different authors—interact, sometimes with a little extra energy thrown in via a reader’s commentary.
As some of you may know, one of my very favourite quotes is drawn from AS Byatt’s Booker Award-winning novel, Possession:
‘Think of this – that the writer wrote alone, and the reader read alone, and they were alone with each other.’
Recently, I featured a fabulous Guardian interview with Haruki Murakami, in which he said (amongst many other...
October 4, 2014
Comment Of The Week: From Karyn Taylor-Moore
~ Karyn Taylor-Moore
—
This comment was made via Twitter—& very nice that Thornspell is still gettin’ da love.
October 3, 2014
“The Secret I Didn’t Share”: Featured On The Supernatural Underground
My 1 October post on the Supernatural Underground features a secret I omitted to include in last month’s post on Supernaturally Tips For Aspiring Writers.
To check out what the secret is, click on:
The Secret I Didn’t Share…
Have fun!
October 2, 2014
A Geography Of Haarth: Wards

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.
We are currently concluding the final stage of A Geography Of Haarth by traversing the great plains of “W.”
—
Wards: the six administrative territories surroun...
October 1, 2014
Historical Fiction vs Historical Fantasy, Using “Hild” As Context
Last week I posted on how much I was enjoying reading Nicola Griffiths’ Hild.
I also remarked on a “moment of puzzlement”, ie that Hild was shortlisted for the “…Nebula Award this year, which is given by the Science Fiction Writers of America for works of science fiction or fantasy. But as above, I am currently a good three quarters of the way through this novel and so far can detect no sign of it being anything but historical fiction.”
Seregil of Risingshadow.net commented that: “the Science F...
September 30, 2014
Reader “Or” Writer…
A funny thing happened on the internet recently: someone asked me whether I was “a reader or a writer?”
My immediate response was: “Both!” (Of course.)
Next, I tried to get my head around whether it was even possible to be a writer without also being a reader. I feel quite sure that my love of writing arose out of my love of reading and fascination for story. The impetus to write also made its presence felt very early: I loved reading other people’s stories and wanted to emulate their magic and...
September 29, 2014
The Tuesday Poem: Refeaturing Bernadette Hall and “Angelfish”
We’re flying over Australia.
Below us is the desert. In the desert
there’s a wound which is water
which is a tear with white salt round
the edges which is a little liquid gateway
as hard as marble should we hurtle
into it. There’s a road, a reddish snake-line
that crosses the continent that’s shaped
like an angelfish. The words are trying
to imitate the world as it imitates
itself, sand wrinkles like frozen sastrugi,
cloud shadows like black poppies
on the red ground. The brain according
to the N...