Helen Lowe's Blog, page 233
January 21, 2013
Writing the Novel: An Extended Nautical Metaphor
Te Moananui-a-Kiwa, the Pacific Ocean
It may only be the third week in January, but already I’m feeling well into the swing of the year. This includes beavering away on Daughter of Blood, The Wall of Night Book Three and I can safely say that I am very deep into the story now—and not unlike Colombus crossing the Atlantic, although I have not yet made landfall (i.e. the end!), or even sighted land, I have begun to see the signs that land is indeed there, lying just beyond the line of the horizo...
January 20, 2013
Holidays & the Joy of the Comfort Read
Although I will read new books on my holidays—and my post on What I Read Over The Holidays is testament—for me holidays are also about the comfort read: those books that are like old friends. I can just pick them up, put my feet up and enjoy. I know I am going to be entertained—I have, after all, known and loved these particular friends for many years—and there is something deeply relaxing about spending time in company with a story like that. Sure, a new release or new-to-me book may be just...
January 19, 2013
Two More Holiday Books: Both for the “Foodie”
On Wednesday I posted on “What I Read Over the Holidays” but I also received two great gift books over the holidays as well, clearly selected for “Foodie Me.” 
The first one was under the tree on Christmas morning and is Dearie: The Remarkable Life of Julia Child by Bob Spitz (Knopf, 2012.) It’s an impressive looking book and I loved the film Julie: Julia so am going to be very interested to see if my interest in food and in Julia Child will see me through the 529 pages, given biography is ge...
January 18, 2013
List Mania: “The Heir of Night” & “The Gathering of the Lost” Both Get Mentions
The new year period is always the time for List Mania and I’m pleased to say that although I and my books are still “very new” in the great world of reading and literature, The Heir of Night (The Wall of Night Book One) and The Gathering of the Lost (The Wall of Night Book Two) both got mentions.
First out of the blocks was The Heir of Night, which got a very nice mention on Abhinav Jain’s blog in his Best of the Best Part 2 for 2012. Abhinav also reviewed Heir for The Founding Fields blog ear...
January 17, 2013
Tis the Season for Award Nominations: New Zealand’s Sir Julius Vogel Awards
On Tuesday, I posted on the Hugo Awards, sparked by RedditFantasy’s list of eligible books, here. And yes, The Gathering of the Lost is eligible, so very exciting to see it on the Reddit list!
But the Hugos are not the only awards open for nomination right now. On November the 5th last year I posted (no, not on gunpowder, treason & plot, though I probably “should” have done!) “About the Sir Julius Vogel Awards” — New Zealand’s science fiction and fantasy awards, which are given annually by SFF...
January 16, 2013
An Author Book Exchange: Teresa Frohock Is Reading “The Heir of Night”
USA
Something I’ve been doing lately is author book exchanges. I began last year with Courtney Schafer, then Elspeth Cooper and I exchanged, and the most recent swap is with Teresa Frohock.
My “Just Arrived” post for Teresa’s debut novel, “Miserere, An Autumn Tale” was on the blog last Friday, here — and now Teresa has reciprocated, but what’s more she’s already begun reading The Heir of Night!
You can read her initial thoughts on
The Heir of Night
and the exchange here.She’s also got a question...
January 15, 2013
What I Read Over the Holidays
I guess you could call this a “what I did over the holidays” but in purely bookish terms!
Anyway, here’s what I took away with me and/or found under the tree on Christmas morning:
Songs of the Earth and Trinity Rising by Elspeth Cooper
You may recall Elspeth’s books arrived just before Christmas, when I did a Just Arrived post. There was no way I was going away without them amongst my holiday reading given this is Epic Fantasy in the classic style (you’ll recall I like that. ) It’s also initi...
January 14, 2013
Tis the Season for Award Nominations: The Hugo Awards
USA
Yes, tis the season for Award nominations and I was very pleased—ok, ok: thrilled and delighted — last week to see The Gathering of the Lost on Reddit Fantasy’s list of eligible works for the 2013 Hugo Awards. So exciting, dear readers, even to make it to an “eligible works” list, given that the Hugos have long been one of my benchmarks for international SFF works of merit.
And there it is, The Gathering of the Lost (right there in 0′s and 1′s
) in Reddit Fantasy’s The Big List–Potential...
January 13, 2013
The Most-Read posts of “…on Anything, Really” in 2012: My Favourite Epic Fantasy Series
I promised you the 10 most-read posts of 2012 on “…Anything, Really”—albeit in ‘no particular order’ except, of course, that which seems good to me—and here we are at the very end of that list, with “My Favourite Epic Fantasy Series”, which I posted in two parts at the end of last year. And very nice it is to know that a subject so dear to my heart is also of interest to “…on Anything, Really” followers.
Just for fun, I’ve combined the two posts into one. Enjoy!
—
“My Favourite Epi...
January 12, 2013
A Writing Quote for Sunday, from Toni Morrison
“If there’s a book that you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it.”
~ Toni Morrison
—
If you want to know more about Toni Morrison, her Nobel Laureate’s (1993) biography is a good starting point, here.
