Helen Lowe's Blog, page 221

A Book Quote for Sunday: from Ursula Le Guin

“Fiction writers, at least in their braver moments, do desire the truth: to know it, speak it, serve it. But they go about it in a peculiar and devious way, which consists in inventing persons, places, and events which never did and never will exist or occur, and telling about these fictions in detail and at length and with a great deal of emotion, and then when they are done writing down this pack of lies, they say, There! That’s the truth!”

~ Ursula Le Guin

from the Introduction to The Left H...

Inside Middle Earth: Fantail / Piwakawaka

This little fellow is the “Middle Earth”, aka New Zealand, version of the “fantail”, also known as piwakawaka (also tiwakawaka, amongst other variations) in Maori.

Fantail; credit, B Miller

The fantail was one of the mythological companions of the Maori demi-god, Maui; is often encountered in the bush, but also in domestic gardens, especially before rain; and is believed by some to be a harbinger of death if it flies into the house (this may or may not be connected to its role in the Maui cycle...

A Geography Of Haarth: Butterworth

The Wall of Night Series map; design by Peter Fitzpatrick

The A Geography of Haarth series is traversing the full range of locales and places from The Wall of Night world of Haarth.

In the case of Butterworth, although it is a place in The Gathering Of The Lost, it derives its name from a character, Jan Butterworth—who was so named because she won the “Tuckerization” contest I ran as part of celebrating publication of The Heir Of Night.

I hope you enjoy this glimpse into both the world building,...

Women Write Science Fiction: Yes, We Do!

Last week, I posted a few links to interesting articles around the traps. One was Cheryl Morgan’s Woman’s Hour on SF – A Train Wreck

The reason why the Woman’s Hour was a train wreck, according to Cheryl, was because apparently the pundits tried to tell us that women don’t write Science Fiction. My first response was: where do these people come from–Cloud Cuckoo Land? Cheryl’s response is more in-depth and reasoned, but I have been thinking about it since then and just for the record, thought...

“Here’s SpecFicNZ–Christchurch”: Featuring Cat Langford

Introduction:

I am currently running a blog “mini-series” titled “Here’s SpecFicNZ-Christchurch” in which my fellow SpecFicNZ-Christchurch authors introduce themselves using a series of common headings:

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

Here’s Why: the writer writes speculative fiction

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

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

Today I am very pleased to introduce Cat Langfor...

Tuesday Poem: “Portrait of Betty Curnow” by Nick Williamson

Portrait of Betty Curnow

Betty Curnow hangs

in the gallery

looking a bit stiff.

She’s been in the picture

since nineteen fifty four

when Henderson laid her out

on canvas.

The light fell at such precise

angles in those days

but really she hasn’t changed:

her hair still so severe

pulled back in a bun

her arm forever

lying across that table

with a half-finished fag

between her fingers.

Climb down, Betty,

I want to say. Get out

of that dowdy red frock

untie your hair. Breathe

the warm night air.

© Nick Williamson

—

This...

Celebrating Mother’s Day on BookSworn: Three Great “Moms” of SFF

On March 20 I welcomed you all to the world of the BookSworn, 16 of the newer international Fantasy-SF authors.

One of the things I said we’d do on the BookSworn site is discuss writing in the fantasy genre—and I currently have a Mother’s Day post up celebrating three characters whom I consider to be among the great “moms” of SciFi-Fantasy.

And yes, writing the post did make me realise just how few there are who feature as major characters. And yes again, even in books written by women. :-/

At a...

A Book Quote for Sunday, from Mark Twain

“You need not expect to get your book right the first time. Go to work and revamp or rewrite it.”

~ Mark Twain, 1835 – 1910

Inside Middle Earth: The King Country

As I posted recently, a great many people around the world have gotten to know New Zealand as “Middle Earth” in The Lord of the Rings films.

And since I am a Fantasy author living right here in Middle Earth, over the next wee while I thought I’d share a few images of “my” Middle Earth right here on the blog. First up was Tamaki Makarau, aka Auckland & environs.

Today’s images are from the King Country, to the south of Auckland and west of “The Shire.” It’s also an area where I did a fair amou...

A Geography of Haarth: Bridge of Boats

The Wall of Night Series map; design by Peter Fitzpatrick

The A Geography of Haarth series is traversing the full range of locales and places from The Wall of Night world of Haarth.

I hope you enjoy this glimpse into the world building.

—

Bridge of Boats: a pontoon bridge in Ij, joining the Minstrels’ Island to Landward

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“They made their way through the throng of musicians, students, and festival visitors, eventually descending a zigzag path to the Bridge of Boats. The bridge was formed by pontoon...