Helen Lowe's Blog, page 179
July 27, 2014
Supernaturally: Interviewing Elizabeth Knox and Laini Taylor For WORD Christchurch
Last Thursday I posted here about the very exciting WORD Christchurch Readers and Writers Festival programme for 27 – 31 August.
Laini Taylor
Elizabeth Knox
My personal part in the excitement is that on Sunday 31 August I shall be putting on my compere’s hat and chairing Elizabeth Knox (Mortal Fire) and Laini Taylor’s (Daughter Of Smoke and Bone) “Supernaturally” panel — facilitating discussion of their very successful novels but also their approach to writing and developing characters and world...
July 24, 2014
A Geography Of Haarth: Tenneward Lodge
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’re continuing our traverse of locales beginning with the letter “T.”
—
Tenneward Lodge: country house belonging to the lord of the Tenneward, in Em...
July 23, 2014
WORD Christchurch Writers & Readers’ Festival 27-31 August
The Christchurch Writers and Readers’ Festival has revamped itself as WORD Christchurch and the very exciting 5-day programme was launched at an event hosted by The Press on Thursday 10 July.
The programme has a number of major strands that should — imho — appeal to a wide cross section. These include:
Word and Music
Performance Poetry
Current international events
Food
Literary fiction stars — not least, Booker winner, Eleanor Catton, & fellow finalist, Noviolet Bulawayo
Fantasy & world-building, in...
July 22, 2014
Guest Post: Coral Atkinson Discusses The Beginnings Of Her New Novel, “Passing Through”
It is some years now since Coral Atkinson and I served together on the Canterbury Branch of the New Zealand Society of Authors, but we have remained in touch. Coral is an historical novelist who has published two previous adult works (The Love Apple and The Paua Tower) and a junior novel, Copper Top.
Her latest novel, the recently published Passing Through, traces the lives of four people as they come to terms with the wreckage left behind by the First World War — a story that tak...
July 21, 2014
The Tuesday Poem: Refeaturing Rhian Gallagher’s “Between”
Between
I
Close in and distant, you had me
kite on the cord of your touch,
whichever way you moved
I was swept, arrested,
twin to your anthem.
II
Between question
and response, between poise
and disarray
in slants of London light
in the autumn voice of Joni Mitchell
mid-passage, on our walks
across Brooklyn Bridge
between one country and another
two zones to every hour
body in to body, that fit,
between the letting go and hold,
your hand all night upon my hip.
(c) Rhian Gallagher
First published, Bravado 15
Reprod...
July 20, 2014
Coming Up This Week, 21-27 July
Coming up this week:
Tomorrow, for the Tuesday Poem, I’ll begin featuring poems by Rhian Gallagher, whose second collection, Shift (Auckland University Press) won the New Zealand Post Book Award for Poetry in 2012. I have three of Rhian’s poems to share with you over the next few weeks.
On Wednesday, the Christchurch-based historical novelist, Coral Atkinson, will be my guest here, posting on the beginnings ofher recently published novel, Passing Through.
On Thursday I’ll be talking about the WO...
July 17, 2014
A Geography Of Haarth: Tenneward
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’re continuing our traverse of locales beginning with the letter “T.”
—
Tenneward: one of the six wards of Emer
.
“The countryside they rode through w...
July 16, 2014
Hey, It’s Mini-Me, “I Mean” Snaga — My Legend Finalist’s Award Is Here!
Well, it’s been a wee while since November 4 (2013) when I posted on the outcome of the 2013:
You’ll recall that I was a finalist for The Gathering Of The Lost — but what you may not know is that all the finalists receive miniatures of the main Legend Award (which is a full-size replica of the battleaxe, Snaga, from David Gemmell’s Legend.)
At any rate, I’ve been really looking forward to receiving the miniature Snaga, so was delighted when it arrived earlier this week — and here, d...
July 15, 2014
Big Worlds On Small Screens Features Miyazaki — & Rebecca Fisher Discusses “Howl’s Moving Castle”
~ by Rebecca Fisher
Introduction:
A humorous British author and a saturnine Japanese director may seem like a bizarre combination, but they are the creative team that lies behind Howl’s Moving Castle. Diana Wynne Jones’s book was inspired by a host of fairy tales, her own immobility after an operation, and a young school boy’s suggestion that she write a story about a moving castle. Filled with inventive charm and subversive twists on familiar fairy tales, the book is surprisingly complex, with...
July 14, 2014
The Tuesday Poem: Refeaturing Catherine Fitchett’s “Learning Italian”
Learning Italian
Pizza, pasta, cappuccino
weren’t in the dictionary when Harry signed up
By the time he arrived in England,
the war was almost over, so Harry
never got to Italy. Besides, that was another war
and Harry was more of a meat and potatoes man, anyway.
Fifty years later there would be
espresso, prosciutto, ravioli
but the soldiers already returning
while Harry drilled in sling camp
took other souvenirs – not mala aria
- bad air – but shell shock, scars,
and flu, spreading faster than rifle fire....
