Helen Lowe's Blog, page 190

Inside Middle Earth: From The Road Trip

credit: B Miller

I’ve been posting a few “Inside Middle Earth” photos, including shots from a friend’s road trip around Aotearoa-New Zealand last year. I’m currently featuring ones that have made their way onto a personalised calendar (of which I get one!)

This photo is of a pool in the geothermal area at Wai-O-Tapu, between Rotorua and Taupo in the central North Island, and is one of the photos featured for March 2014.

A Geography Of Haarth: Red and White Suite

The Wall of Night Series map; design by Peter Fitzpatrick

The A Geography of Haarth post series is traversing the full range of locales and places from The Wall of Night world of Haarth. Each locale is accompanied by a quote from either The Heir Of Night, The Gathering Of The Lost, or both.

This week, the series commences places that begin with “R.”

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Red and White Suite: a suite of rooms in the Earl’s quarter of the New Keep of Winds

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‘Malian sighed deeply and let the tabletop grow still under he...

More On Mary Stewart’s “Madam, Will You Talk”: What I’m Not So Keen On

Yesterday I talked about what I loved best about Mary Stewart’s Madam, Will You Talk: namely a brave and resourceful heroine, Charity Selborne, with a clear moral compass, who is still has a great deal to offer readers fifty nine years after first publication in 1955.

There is one aspect of the book though, that I am not so keen on, which is that Stewart does stick with the persistent ‘romantic’ trope that it is credible for a woman to fall in love with a man who has terrified and threatened h...

More On Mary Stewart’s “Madam, Will You Talk”: What I Love Most About It

… besides the gorgeous writing, but I talked about that on March 5.

I may also have mentioned that Madam, Will You Talk was Mary Stewart’s first novel published, way back in 1955. So — dated, right?

In fact, not so much, if at all.

And there is one way in which I believe this novel stands up really well, almost sixty years later, and which is probably what I love most about this book. Stewart’s heroine, Charity, is both ‘everywoman’ and could be ‘any woman’, but she is also does lots of brave an...

Tuesday Poem: “beachcombing”

beachcombing

along the boulder bank

sandshoe, bottles, watering can

© Helen Lowe

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Toward the end of last year I spent upward of 5 weeks in a remote coastal location, working on my current book.

I also wrote a number of haiku during that time, which I am currently featuring as Tuesday Poems. As these are works in progress, your feedback/critique is welcome.

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To read the featured poem on the Tuesday Poem Hub and other great poems from fellow Tuesday poets from around the world, click here or on the Q...

Just Arrived: “The Gospel Of Loki” by Joanne Harris

Well, I haven’t done one of these for a while, since 29 August 2013 to be exact, but am very pleased to add Joanne Harris’s The Gospel Of Loki to the TBR table.

I know Harris as a magic realist writer, commencing with Chocolate and Blackberry Wine but didn’t make the transition to her kids’ Fantasy novels (Runemarks) so am looking forward to doing so with her first Fantasy work for adults.

As the title clearly hints, it’s a retelling of the Norse myth cycle from the point of view of that old tr...

A Little More Fun, Speaking Nu Zild

In my first post on this topic on February 1, I let you in on the secret that “New Zealanders — or “Kiwis” as we often refer to ourselves — are popularly held to have reduced the English language’s vowel 5 sounds to approximately 2.5.”

Here’s another of the more famous pronunciations you need to know in order to speak Nu Zild all correct like:

C is for “Chups”: a popular way of consuming potatoes, most commonly encountered with takeaway meals

Actually, I’m starting to detecting a trend, the sl...

A Poetry Quote for Saturday, From Russel Baker

“I gave up poetry myself thirty years ago, when most of it began to read like coded messages passing between lonely aliens on a hostile world.”

~ Russel Baker

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Although a poet myself, this quote always makes me laugh, not least because I do know what he means. Some modern poetry is very inaccessible…

A Geography Of Haarth: Perfumed City

The Wall of Night Series map; design by Peter Fitzpatrick

The A Geography of Haarth post series is traversing the full range of locales and places from The Wall of Night world of Haarth. Each locale is accompanied by a quote from either The Heir Of Night, The Gathering Of The Lost, or both.

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Perfumed City: the capital of Ishnapur, the empire that forms the southernmost of Haarth’s known realms

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‘ “…even our own people, those who have been to Caer Argent, say that Normarch is nothing by compariso...

Here’s Another Terribly (Un)Important Thought On Writing ;-)

Recently I’ve been sharing a few thoughts (all ‘terribly important’, of course ) on writing, strictly from my personal experience thereof! (AKA, feel free to treat with the proverbial grain of salt.)

Today’s ‘thought’ — or reflection — is on the importance of solitude to the writing process. My experience has been that in order to bring the colour and depth of the story in your mind — which one hopes comprises the richness of the world, the nuances of the characters, and diversity and complex...