Helen Lowe's Blog, page 241

Reprise of My Interviews with Fellow Authors, Plus “Just This”

Just a reminder from yesterday that I currently have two interviews with fellow authors up and running, one on SF Signal, the other on the Supernatural Underground.

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SF Signal & “Fun with Friends”: Adam Christopher

“Fun with Friends” is a monthly interview series with fellow SFF authors from Australia and New Zealand, focused around 5 questions on “who they are” and “what they do” in writing terms.

This month’s interview is with Adam Christopher, an ex-pat Kiwi currently resident in the UK who h...

A Friday Giveaway—A Trio of YA Fantasy Reads: We Have A Result

Firstly, thank you for all your fabulous support for the giveaway both through the comments and those who tweeted and retweeted.

I must admit, I agree that it’s a really good selection of stories and authors so it’s nice to see your enthusiasm as well.

But now to the important part (drum roll!)

The lucky winner is: GiadaM

Congratulations Giada!

And thank you again to all of you for participating.

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The draw was made via Random.org.

Giada, if you get in touch with me via my website to confirm your...

Not One But Two Author Interviews Today!

Yup, ’tis true, I have been a busy gal on the interview front just recently, squeezing in the necessary book reading and the interviewing around writing my own book. Yet despite the busy-ness it is rewarding, not just keeping up with other authors work but also getting to ask them a few more indepth questions about themselves and their writing.

So what do I have for you today… First up is:

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“Fun With Friends” on SF Signal — An Interview with Adam Christopher on SF Signal

You may recall that this...

1021 Posts Today!

I probably wouldn’t have realized that I’d passed the 1000 mark for posts “…on Anything, Really” except that the Civilian Reader just celebrated passing his 1000th and that made me do a bit of frantic finger counting… (Frantic because I don’t have anywhere near that many fingers, of course!)

"And so it begins" (Kosh, Babylon-5)

So just to do a bit of a reprise, Post the First was on 31 May 2010 and of course it said something like “hello world”: a traditional if uninspiring start!

What I wrot...

Reflection on Character: Malian of Night

USA

Recently I was asked, ‘what makes Malian, your main character in The Heir of Night, unique in epic fantasy? And what makes a hero, anyway?’ (No, this didn’t arise out of the “Heroes” Mind Meld on Sf Signal—but it could have done!)

UK/AU/NZ mass market paperback

My initial response was ‘aargh, the pressure’—not just of an example, but of encapsulating what is often the slow delicate process of character evolution. And Malian’s character did evolve over many years, from long before I first put...

Tuesday Poem: “The zookeeper sings the blues” by Jeni Curtis

The zookeeper sings the blues

I’m here to keep the animals, wolf, bear or kangaroo,

I’m the keeper of the animals, wolf, bear or kangaroo,

We aim for preservation, that’s the purpose of a zoo.

They live in their enclosures behind tall strong iron bars,

Dwell in their enclosures, behind tall safe iron bars,

So people can enjoy them, their claws, their jaws, their scars.

You can hear the snarling tiger, and feel the lions roar,

The snarling fierce tiger, the resounding lion’s roar,

The squawking of the...

Reprised for Monday: A Friday Giveaway—A Trio of YA Fantasy Reads

As explained on Friday, thanks to my nefarious bookish connections I have three YA novels to give away.

The three novels are (in alphabetical order by author):

Rae Carson’s Fire and Thorns (Gollancz)

Just in case you haven’t heard of it, here’s a the intro snippet from the back cover:

“Princess Elisa is a disappointment to her people. Although she bears the Godstone in her navel, a sign that she has been chosen for an act of heroism, they view her as lazy, useless and fat…”

It was also longliste...

On Writing: Mostly Via Quotes

An exchange took place on Twitter recently, between myself and a few other “tweeps” (Twitter ‘peeps’, for those who don’t know )

It went like this:

Opening quote: “There isn’t any secret. You sit down and you start and that’s it.” ~ Elmore Leonard

My reply: “Also, you then keep going, i.e. “The way is easy: keep going. The way is hard: keep going. Keep going.‘” ~ first heard from zen teacher Sensei Amala Wrightson (but it may have been a quote.)

Answering quote: “There’s a word for a writer who...

Just Arrived: The Landmark “Xenophon’s Hellenika”

I really love history, both historical non fiction as well as the fiction, but there is nothing more satisfying than reading primary sources, i.e. the material that was written by the people of the actual time. (I mean, how cool is that?)

Of course, for that to happen, first you have to have a literary society—both to write the words then, and read them again now. I’m fairly sure that most of 5th Century BC Greek society (yes, even the male part) was non literate, but fortunately the elite wer...

A Friday Giveaway: A Trio of YA Reads

Thanks to my nefarious bookish connections I have three YA novels to give away—so since I haven’t done a giveaway for a while, that’s exactly what I’m going to do.

The three novels are (in alphabetical order by author):

Rae Carson’s Fire and Thorns (Gollancz)

Just in case you haven’t heard of it, here’s a the intro snippet from the back cover:

“Princess Elisa is a disappointment to her people. Although she bears the Godstone in her navel, a sign that she has been chosen for an act of heroism, the...