Helen Lowe's Blog, page 247
September 5, 2012
True Confessions Of A Writer…
There–bet that title got you all interested!
And no, it’s nothing to do with posting anonymous comments deriding other writers and their work. (No matter the megrims of the writing life, it’s also way too short.)
Or anything at all to do with 50 Shades of Anything Vaguely Erotica… Read Thornspell have you, or The Heir of Night? ‘Nuff said then and moving right along!
"Why YA"; via ChCh City Libraries
No, what this is about is a confession elicited from me in conversation immediately after my “Why...
September 4, 2012
Congratulations, SF Signal!
John DeNardo with SF Signal's Hugo Award; photo via Tor.com
For those who may not already know, last weekend was Chicon 7, the 70th World Science Fiction Fantasy Convention, a major feature of which was the Hugo Award Ceremony.
And this year, SF Signal won the Hugo Award for Best Fanzine.
Needless to say I am absolutely delighted—and also very proud to be an occasional SF Signal contributor.
Given the consistency and quality of SF Signal’s content, I feel this award is very well deserved, and wou...
September 3, 2012
Tuesday Poem: “Abandoned Geography” by Sugu Pillay
ABANDONED GEOGRAPHY
she’s been in this silence for a long time
too many journeys to nowhere
her body her only home
the absence continues
lingers in every doorway
every footpath
the nor’wester whizzes through
all the gaps left unwritten on the body
of the aching land
released from the contested space
of re-arrivals she stands
both asleep and awake
no longer dreaming
only a trace of a woman
in abandoned geography
.
© Sugu, Pillay
Published in Flaubert’s Drum (Interactive Press) 2012
Reproduced here with permissio...
September 2, 2012
It’s Official…
I’m a writer! Or so the tag says. 
I very much enjoyed my day at the Christchurch Writers Festival yesterday, starting the day in my “Why YA” panel with John Boyne and Jane Higgins, doing the Margaret Mahy Memorial Reading of “The Man Whose Mother was A Pirate” later in the day and attending the grand finale session with 5 grand New Zealand poets: Riemke Ensing, Bernadette Hall, Cilla McQueen, Harry Ricketts, and Ian Wedde. A long but great day for a writer—or so the tag says. 
To find out mo...
September 1, 2012
I Interview Juliet Marillier on the Supernatural Underground—Plus “Shadowfell” / “The Heir of Night” Giveaway
The 1st of the month is my regular guest post day on the Supernatural Underground—and for September 2012 I am delighted to be interviewing Juliet Marillier specifically on her new YA novel, Shadowfell, which is released in North America this month.
In particular, Juliet and I discuss the more romantic aspects of Shadowfell and the new focus on romantic elements in both Fantasy generally and YA Fantasy in particular—or is it so new?
To celebrate the release of Shadowfell, the recent success of T...
August 31, 2012
The First Day if Spring & What’s Coming Up…
Daffodil array
Today is 1 September–& that means it is the first day of spring here in New Zealand, and I must admit it’s feeling like it with daffodils, forsythia and wattle all busitn’ out all over and adding their different shadings of yellow to my garden, together with hellebores still doing their winter rose thing and magnolia stellata adding a more refined touch of pearl-shell and blush to the general exuberance.
Forsythia
So here’s a few photos to ‘go with’ the post & share the colour.
—...
August 30, 2012
Festival Poetry Launches & Interactive Publications’ Tour
The Christchurch Writers’ Festival began yesterday but unfortunately I was not able to get along—& sadly, one event I missed that I really wanted to attend was the launch of the two latest poetry collections from Australia’s Interactive Press: Karen Zelas’s Night’s Glass Table & Sugu Pillay’s Flaubert’s Drum.
Night’s Glass Table was the winner ofInteractive Publications 2012 IP Picks Best First Book competition; Flaubert’s Drum was Highly Commended in the same competition.
The exciting news tho...
August 29, 2012
Why YA? My Christchurch Writers’ Festival 2012 Event
.L-R: John Boyne, Jane Higgins, Helen Lowe
Why YA?
YA – young adult – is a comparatively recent literary genre.
Once readers moved straight from children’s to adult novels but now there is a rich variety of fiction for teenagers. Is there a genuine and valid divide between juvenile and adult writing or is YA nothing more than a marketing phenomenon? Are there different types of YA fiction? What trends can be discerned in writing for this pivotal, impressionable and techno-savvy age group? Th...
August 28, 2012
“Fun With Friends” on SF SIgnal — An Interview with Tim Jones
Today SF Signal have posted the third interview in my “Fun With Friends” series in which I interview fellow SFF authors from Australia and New Zealand, with 5 questions focusing on “who they are” and “what they do” in writing terms.
This interview is with friend and fellow NZ speculative fiction author, Tim Jones, right Here.
Please do click through to take a look—and consider leaving a comment to support Tim and the series.
August 27, 2012
Tuesday Poem: “Christchurch Gothic” by David Eggleton
Christchurch Gothic
Summer’s Avon spelt the names of atua in green,
and through trees sun shafts dug at dappled lawns,
as if to unearth a circuit-board of worm-holes,
the universe beneath the labyrinth,
the silent presence of mountain shingle
across the curve of the island’s waist.
Teen racers hummed like bees in a hive,
and late autumn was the harlequin
hurrying past them down Bealey Ave,
towards the rusted, busted, midnight hour,
its sword-and-sorcery pageant of flashing sabres,
its chorus lines of bla...
