Helen Lowe's Blog, page 194
February 9, 2014
Hachette NZ Revamps “The Realm” — With A Grand Giveaway
Hachette NZ has revamped its SFF Facebook site “The Realm” with a mighty giveaway of their SFF authors just to kick things along.
To enter the giveaway, click HERE.
Here’s a pic of the list of titles that’s up for grabs — and yes, The Heir Of Night is in there! 
Grand Giveaway: Get 'The Awesome'
Just to add to the fun, I’ve featured several of the authors here on “…Anything, Really.” Just click on the names below to rediscover the goodness: (Note: for my own feature, I’ve provided the link to my...
February 8, 2014
Comment Of The Week: From Thomas Stentz
Didn’t sleep until 1.45 am 
”—
Thomas is a reader from Scandinavia and the quote comprises two comments via Twitter.
February 7, 2014
Inside Middle Earth: From “The Shire” — The Green Dragon
I just love this: I think it may have been my favourite part of Hobbiton.
February 6, 2014
A Geography Of Haarth: Normarch
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 we head further into “N” with Normarch, a locale of some prominence in The Gathering Of The Lost.
—
Normarch: the stronghold of the castellan of Emer’s Northern March
.
“Looking the other way, Carick c...
February 5, 2014
Waitangi Day: Celebrating Us — In Literature
Today is Waitangi Day, New Zealand’s national holiday, when we commemorate signing of the Treaty of Waitangi between the Maori Chiefs of New Zealand and the British Crown.
Throughout my adult life, Waitangi Day has become the focus of protest about the wrongs from the many instances,throughout the past 174 years, in which the Treaty has not been honoured, to the detriment of the Maori people. As I acknowledged in my 2012 post, Waitangi Day: “He Iwi Kotahi Tatou”, these are very real issues and...
February 4, 2014
Is Malian Of Night A Streetwise Heroine?
UK trade paperback
On Monday, I linked through to my February 1 feature post on the Supernatural Underground, Streetwise Heroines.
In the post, I talked about a few criteria that I feel determine a streetwise heroine, including that she:
is either from the wrong side of the tracks or able to operate on that turf
fulfills the 3 “S’s”: strong, savvy, and sassy
is a little bit badass, as well — but with a heart that’s in the right place; and
a fourth “S” — sexy — was rated as ‘desirable (possibly) but...
February 3, 2014
Haiku: “Welcome Swallows”
Welcome swallows
swoop and dart — here
then not here
© Helen Lowe
—
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 shall be featuring here over the next few weeks. As these are works in progress, your feedback/critique is welcome.
—
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 Quill ic...
February 2, 2014
“Streetwise Heroines”: Right Now on The Supernatural Underground
Mercy Thompson
February 1 has rolled around so that means I have a new post featured on the Supernatural Underground.
This month I’m talking “Streetwise Heroines”:
“I don’t think we could have paranormal urban fantasy without the streetwise heroine – but of course that begs the question as to what makes a heroine ‘streetwise’?”
To find out my conclusions as well as a few favourite streetwise gals, check out the post:
Streetwise Heroines
Do tell me if I’ve missed any essential ingredients for street...
February 1, 2014
Comment Of The Week: From Nancy Cudis
—
Nancy Cudis is a reader in the Philippines and her comment came through via Twitter.
January 31, 2014
A Little Fun: Speaking “New Zild”
We don’t commonly hear our own accents, but I’m told 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.
Be that as it may, I thought you might like to learn how to “pronunciate New Zild” all correct-like…
Starting at the very best place, i.e. the beginning, with “A”:
“A is for Uh” – a sound commonly used when pausing in mid-speech…
This, of course, would mean that “Asantir”, in the Wall Of N...
