Helen Lowe's Blog, page 230
February 19, 2013
Celebrating “The Gathering of the Lost”: A Story About Friendship
UK/AUS/NZ
The mass market edition of The Gathering Of The Lost will be released in the UK tomorrow, Thursday 21 February (UK time.) To celebrate, I will be doing a couple of guest posts on the Orbit blog (the site of my UK publisher), and I shall be cross posting to those as they appear.
In the meantime, as discussed last week, I shall also be re-posting some of the guest posts I did for the US and UK trade release last year, as a way of celebrating The Gathering Of The Lost right here on “…Any...
February 18, 2013
Tuesday Poem: “A Good Kiwi Girl” by Alexandra Fraser
A good Kiwi girl wears black
travels light
can rip her gear off quick
if she’s interested .keen for action
She’ll arrive in a foreign town
friendless homeless
find a flat a job mates
faster than a postcard home
will nanny for the rich
work behind a bar
waitress pick fruit
cheap flight weekends
Paris Prague Rome
has slept in airports
her back-pack a pillow
hitchhikes through Greece
A good Kiwi girl
in four-inch heels
if she’s pissed
will arm-wrestle you in a pub
If she’s really pissed
she’ll let yo...
February 17, 2013
Book Review: “The Fractal Prince” by Hannu Rajaniemi—Reviewed by Andrew Robins
I read Hannu Rajaniemi’s The Quantum Thief late last year, and loved it. At the time I was not aware that the book was the first part of trilogy. There was clearly scope for a sequel, but I felt the book worked well as a standalone novel. It wasn’t until I got to the last few pages that it was clear to me that there was a plan for more to come.
That first part of the “more to come” turned up on Christmas day in the form of The Fractal Prince – a gift I was very happy to receive. The book picks...
February 16, 2013
A Quote for Sunday: from Writer, J.M. Coetzee
“Fame is for the future to decide. All that the present can offer is celebrity.”
~ J.M. Coetzee
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I think this just about says it all really… And remarkably succinctly, too. 
February 15, 2013
What’s Coming Up?
UK/AU/NZ Cover
Well, besides the mass market release of The Gathering of the Lost in the UK on Thursday 21, that is—as first canvassed on Monday.
But seriously, expect a few more of those feature re-posts from the Great Gathering Blog Tour 2012 over the next week or so, to celebrate the mass market launch… (The first, The Power of Environment, posted Thursday.)
But also coming up, we have a review of The Fractal Prince—by Finnish author, Hannu Rajaniemi—due for Monday. I loved his debut novel,...
February 14, 2013
A Geography of Haarth: Aeris
The Wall of Night Series map; design by Peter Fitzpatrick
Still with the letter “A”, Aeris is the second entry in my A Geography of Haarth series, featuring locales and places from The Wall of Night.
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“Aeris: a city kingdom in the lands beyond the River, in the Southern Realms of Haarth.”
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” “The Lost are another reason behind my journey here,” she told Kalan. “At the end of last summer, the Band received a report of strange doings in Aeris. Lightning and thunder out of a clear sky one day; on t...
February 13, 2013
Celebrating “The Gathering of the Lost” And The Power of Environment
UK/AU/NZ Cover
On Monday I posted about the forthcoming mass market release of The Gathering Of The Lost in the UK—fun stuff indeed!
And thought, why not re-post some of the guest posts I did for the US and UK trade release last year as a way of celebrating that — after all they are all good posts and very apt. So I thought—particularly with the next instalment of A Geography of Haarth coming up tomorrow—that I’d start with this guest post that I did for Orbit Australia: enjoy!
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“Celebrating The...
February 12, 2013
An Interview with Elspeth Cooper: Giveaway Result for “Songs of the Earth” & “Trinity Rising”
As promised, here is the giveaway result for the UK trade paperback edition set of Elspeth Cooper’s Songs of the Earth and Trinity Rising, Books 1 and 2 of The Wild Hunt series.
The draw for the books has been made from amongst those who left comments on my interview with Elspeth Cooper last week.
Both Elspeth and I were very pleased to see the level of interest in both the interview and the books. 
But for now, down to business—the giveaway draw!
[Cue: Drum Roll!]
The winner of “The Wild Hunt” b...
February 11, 2013
Tuesday Poem: “At the Workingmen’s Club Picnic” by Gail Collier
At the Workingmen’s Club Picnic
In a forest of legs,
I watch bulging sacks jump haphazardly
And eggs pirouette on spoons
Before I turn to look for you –
………….All the way around
And back again:
Looking down, shoes I do not recognise
Looking up, page after page of faces.
The world has slowed,
It is filled with other children’s fathers.
My mouth is sticky,
In my chest there is some other kind of race.
Ferris wheel buckets tumble
In a kaleidoscope of red, yellow and blue,
Children’s voices float
Back and forward...
February 10, 2013
What’s Coming Up: “The Gathering of the Lost” Mass Market Release in the UK,That’s What!
UK/AU/NZ Cover
The mass market edition of The Gathering Of The Lost will be released in the UK on Thursday 21 February—handsprings and cartwheels!
Look out for my guest post on Gathering’s UK publisher , Orbit’s blog on the big day: the subject matter is still strictly hush, hush but an advance rumour is that weaponry may feature…
So check in on Orbit–and here—on the 21st for the celebratory posting.
