Helen Lowe's Blog, page 177

WORDChristchurch Excitement Builds: I Welcome Fellow Hachette Authors!

Only two sleeps now until the WORDChristchurch Writers and Readers Festival kicks off on Wednesday—and I for one am starting to feel the excitement! If you haven’t already checked out the programme then you definitely should, right here:

WORD Christchurch Programme: 27-31 August

Besides chairing the Supernaturally event on Sunday 31 withElizabeth Knox and Laini Taylor, I am also delighted to welcome three fellow Hachette authors to NZ and the festival.

One of these authors is, of course, Laini T...

A Geography Of Haarth: Tower Of The Rose

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.

This week we’ve reached our penultimate entry for “T.”

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Tower Of The Rose: the tallest tower in the guest wing of the Keep of Winds

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“The Rose was the tallest to...

Writing Process: When Life Intervenes…

A month (or so) back, on July 7, I promised to write a little more about writing process—and since then, nothing…

Because life intervened, as it has a habit of doing, and it’s taken this long to come back to the idea.

Previously, I’ve talked about the importance of solitude and uninterrupted time—including from social media—for really getting my head into the writing space. I also think it creates the (head)space for creativity to actually blossom. So “when life intervenes”, dragging in other p...

Recommended Reading: “An Officer And A Spy” by Robert Harris

On Monday, I was ‘currently reading’ Robert Harris’s An Officer and A Spy (Arrow Books, 2014) and indicated that:

“…I’m about a third of the way through and am finding it really engaging reading.”

Well now I’ve finished and am happy to say that’s it’s a top-notch read from “go” to “whoa.” To recap, the book is a fictionalised account of true events, the so-called Dreyfus Affair. The novel begins with the conviction of a French army officer, Alfred Dreyfus, for spying and follows the gradual rea...

The Tuesday Poem: Sonnet 18 by William Shakespeare

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?

Thou art more lovely and more temperate:

Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,

And summer’s lease hath all too short a date:

Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,

And often is his gold complexion dimm’d;

And every fair from fair sometime declines,

By chance, or nature’s changing course, untrimm’d;

But thy eternal summer shall not fade

Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st;

Nor shall Death brag thou wander’st in his shade,

When in eternal lines t...

What I’m Reading: It’s History, Fictional & Non Fictional aka Tales of Two Alfreds

Next to speculative fiction, the literary “genre” I like best is historical, although in my case I include both fiction and non fiction under that umbrella.

So at the moment I’m reading — and enjoying — Douglas Woodruff’s The Life and Times of Alfred the Great (Weidenfled & Nicolson, 1974) which is a non-fiction account of the life and times of the Anglo-Saxon monarch. This is very much a coffee table book, so the writing is accessible and accompanied by many beautiful plates of manuscripts, c...

A Geography Of Haarth: The Sleeve

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.

And yup, this week we’re still in places beginning with “T.”

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The Sleeve: an island in the northern part of the city of Ij, where the North Gate is located

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“T...

Wonderful Words From Jackie French, Here for the WORD Christchurch Writers & Readers’s Festival

Jackie French is one of the many wonderful writers scheduled to appear at the WORD Christchurch Writers & Readers’s Festival from 27-31 August.

Jackie French

Christchurch Libraries are currently featuring 3 questions — and their answers — from festival guests. This is part of what Ms French had to say in response to the question: “What do you think about libraries?”

“Have you ever wondered why we whisper in libraries? It’s because we know subconsciously that they lead to a million different univ...

Big Worlds On Small Screens: Rebecca Fisher Discusses “Arrow”

~ by Rebecca Fisher

Introduction:

If we’re being really honest here, the concept of Green Arrow doesn’t sound all that promising. Though first appearing in DC comics back in 1941, he certainly doesn’t have the same recognisability as Batman, Superman or Wonder Woman. And whereas those three have become so iconic that they’re no longer in the shadow of the material that originally inspired them (Zorro for Batman, Greek/Roman mythology for Wonder Woman, Moses for Superman), Green Arrow’s assortme...

The Tuesday Poem: A Selection Of World War One Poetry

With the recent commemoration of the centenary of World War 1 beginning, it seems fitting to look at some of the specifically World War 1 related poetry featured on the blog over recent years.

“Lijssenthoek” by Joanna Preston

Yesterday, I linked to Joanna Preston’s interview on Radio New Zealand’s “Sunday Morning” programme. One of the poems Joanna read at the conclusion of the interview was the haibun Lijssenthoek, which I featured as part of a war poetry series last year:

“the fields of fland...