Helen Lowe's Blog, page 237

My Favourite Epic Fantasy Series

Tis the season—well, for lists it seems, since everywhere I look a new one pops up. So I thought, why step to the beat of a different drum when you can get with the programme?

I can’t do any sort of reader’s or writer’s Top 10 of 2012 though, because I don’t feel I’ve stayed sufficiently up to date with new books out (although I do try my best, honest!)

However (or should I type “howeverz”: ponders…) a few people have said to me:

“I don’t normally read fantasy but I enjoyed your books (HL: tha...

What’s A-Happening…

Well, for a start, I’m writing, which is why I’m behind on a few other things. But priorities, dear readers, priorities…

And it’s getting very close to “That Day”—which shall not be named for fear of bringing the full awfulness of my unpreparedness raining down. (Yup, am feeling more than a little like Chicken Licken right now!) How about you? All organized—or contemplating a That Day “could-do-better” & “must-try-harder” like me? My excuse is that i) writing the next book; and ii) went on hol...

Tuesday Poem: “Banana & The Battered Woman Group” by Johanna Aitchison

Banana & The Battered Woman Group

After the other battered women go

get chicken for their rolls, after

the coleslaw & instant coffees

& fruit bursts, after the video,

(in which the man says to his wife,

“Come here,” he drags her down

& tells her she looks hot & gropes

her boobs in front of their son,

she swats him off like a fly,

“Not in front of Jarred!” she says;

& he suddenly decides her sexy outfit

is not so cool if it’s going

to be taken out on the street

where other men will stare at it,

so he says to...

What I’m Reading: “The Whitefire Crossing” & “The Tainted City” by Courtney Schafer

I was going to begin by saying: “A couple of weeks back”—but when I checked it was just over a month! So ok, just over a month ago I did a “Just Arrived” post for Courtney Schafer’s The Whitefire Crossing & The Tainted City (Nightshade Books, 2011 & 2012 respectively), the first two novels in The Shattered Sigil series.

As you will be aware if you read that post, Courtney and I have been corresponding recently and finding out that we have a lot in common—for example, we both love the magic and...

Festive Season Deals on The Supernatural Underground

Yup, it’s that time of year again: one I’m hopelessly behind the 8-ball on but not to worry—Jocelynn Drake is on top of things with a post on the Supernatural Underground featuring all the festive season deals for members (& friends’) books.

There’s definitely something there for everyone—Urban Fantasy, Epic & YA, Steampunk, Historical and Paranormal Romance, & Erotica.

USA

And yes, The Gathering of the Lost—Kindle edition & US market only though—will be on special for .99c up until December 22n...

A Quote for Saturday…from Katherine Mansfield via Elizabeth Knox

I really liked this one from Katherine Mansfield that Elizabeth Knox mentioned in our interview on SF-Signal the other week:

“I shall tell everything, even how the laundry basket squeaked.”

To me this speaks of the way really good writing makes a world real—it’s not about piling on descriptive detail, but making the details that are included really count, even if it’s something so small and seemingly ordinary as the squeak of a laundry basket. And ‘making it real’ is what storytelling is all ab...

“The Next Big Thing” Rocks On

You’ll recall that last week Elspeth Cooper tagged me and I jumped into print with a “The Next Big Thing” post, here.

As part of the process I also asked five fellow writers if they would like to post after me–and they very kindly agreed.

To check out what they have to say—and of course the posts are all interesting and different!—just click on the author’s name below:

Julie Czerneda — author of SF such as the Trade Pact series, and the forthcoming Fantasy novel, Turn of Light

Kim Falconer — auth...

Just Arrived: “Songs of the Earth” and “Trinity Rising” by Elspeth Cooper

When The Heir of Night made the shortlist for the Gemmell Morningstar Award earlier this year, I said that one of the very best things about that was sharing what poet Bernadette Hall calls “the crown of good company.”

One of the fellow authors who was part of that very good company was UK novelist, Elspeth Cooper, with her novel Songs of the Earth.

More recently, we both participated in Abhinav Jain’s guest author series,and Elspeth’s post was

What I’m Reading: “Dragons Away!” by K.D. Berry

Technically speaking this is “what I finished reading just before I went on holiday” but didn’t have time to report back on in terms of my “terribly important thoughts.”

Nonetheless I have had Dragons Away! (Bluewood Publishing 2011), by K.D. Berry, on my “To Be Read” pile for some time. K.D. Berry is in fact a writing duo, Kevin and Diane Berry, and having enjoyed the excerpts I heard both Kevin and Diane read from the book, I was keen to give it a try.

Dragons Away! is humorous fantasy, whi...

Tuesday Poem: “New Zealand Dredge”

New Zealand Dredge

The river bends in shingle, lupin straggling

around the remains of a New Zealand dredge* ,

a remnant of former glory told in blackened spars

and rusting buckets, abandoned in a deep hole

in the backwater, now to be dug out again,

so many years later, and displayed beside

the same river where once it clattered,

clanking its way into technical history.

Worn out now, it sits forlorn, signposting

a passage in history, a story fast forgotten –

drowned in deep water, covered with weeds.

© He...