Helen Lowe's Blog, page 195

A Geography Of Haarth: New Keep

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.

The series has now passed the alphabetical halfway point, as it’s onwards into “N.”

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New Keep: the ‘newer’, inhabited stronghold of the House of Night’s bastion, the Keep of Winds

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“Malian laughed aloud, but s...

“Here’s SpecFicNZ Wellington”: The Wrap Up

At the end of last year I hosted a guest posts series titled “Here’s SpecFicNZ Wellington”, in which fellow SpecFicNZ members based in Wellington introduced themselves using a series of common headings:

Here’s Who: a short, first person introduction to the member

Here’s Why: the member writes or works in speculative fiction

Here’s What: an example of the member’s work

Here’s Where: you can find out more about the writer and their work—and I really hope you will!

By way of a reminder for those of y...

Big Worlds On Small Screens: Rebecca Fisher Discusses “Robin Of Sherwood”

by Rebecca Fisher

Introduction:

Ah, the Eighties. Big hair. Synthesized music. Dodgy special-effects. These were key components of the decade, and all of them can be found in the cult classic Robin of Sherwood, considered by a lot of aficionados as the best version of the Robin Hood legend that film or television has to offer.

Created by Richard Carpenter and running for three seasons between 1984 and 1986, the show’s goal was to reinvigorate the legend for a modern audience, with lengthy action...

A Poetry Quote For Tuesday, From Billy Collins

“Those who want to write good poems should be reading good poetry, not how-to books. Indeed, every fine poem is a how-to manual.”

~ Billy Collins, in As the poet said… (1997)

Reading Recommendations

Over the Christmas – New Year break I realised that I’ve done quite a few of what equate to “recommended reading” posts since I began blogging in May 2010, two of which were amongst 2013′s most-read posts:

My Favourite Fantasy Standalone Novels

Five Books That Changed Me (Warning: Not An Exclusive List!)

For those of you who love lists and recommendation, there’s also:

My Favourite Epic Fantasy Series, Part 1

My Favourite Epic Fantasy Series, Part 2

If you look in What I’m Reading (under Categories...

Comment Of The Week: From Ruth Maca

“The intense longing I feel for this book overwhelms me every so often. This is one of those moments.

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Ruth’s comment appeared on Wednesday’s post, which was a synopsis for Daughter Of Blood, The Wall Of Night Book Three.

The synopsis is here: Sneak Preview: A Synopsis For “Daughter Of Blood, The Wall Of Night Book Three”

I also posted a Daughter of Blood update on Monday:

The Tao Of Writing: “The Book That Can be Spoken Of Is Not The Book” — AKA A “Daughter Of Blood” Update

Also AKA: It’s been a...

Inside Middle Earth: From “The Shire” — The Party Tree

More Hobbiton fun to share…

A Geography Of Haarth: Minstrels’ Island

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.

Right now, we’re in “M.”

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Minstrels’ Island: one of the central islands forming the city if Ij; home to the College of Minstrels

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“…it was mid-afternoon before they turned toward Minstrel’s Island and the Inn of the Golden Lute.

The inn was located close to the great, golden dome of the College and was a substanti...

A Few Terribly (Un)Important Thoughts On Writing…

… my experience of it anyway!

The more I write, novels in particular, the more I feel that books are like rivers: they know their course — and similarly may change it if and as conditions require. The role of the writer, then, is to chart the river’s course, from the headwaters to the sea, an experience that can very often resemble expeditions to discover the source of such mighty rivers as the Nile and Amazon. Yet when you get there, well—that’s certainly a moment.

Sneak Preview: A Synopsis For “Daughter Of Blood, The Wall Of Night Book Three”

Last week, I posted on Daughter Of Blood, The Wall Of Night Book Three making genre site Fantasy Faction ‘s Top 30 Anticipated Fantasy Books For 2014 — which was very cool.

But also very cool (I thought!) was the sneak preview on the synopsis for DAUGHTER:

“A Failing Wall, a Broken Shield… Malian and Kalan are pursuing separate paths back to the Derai Alliance – but already it may be too late. The Swarm is rising and the Wall of Night, dangerously weakened in the Betrayal War, is on the verge o...