Helen Lowe's Blog, page 25

Q&A Thursdays #13: Ashley’s Question

Over the past year, I’ve been reprising a Daughter of Blood (and by extension The Wall Of Night) Q&A series that featured in 2019.

Today’s question came from Ashley, who asked about how, or whether, the Christchurch earthquakes influenced the writing of the books. A very pertinent question, I think.

USA

Ashley: You were writing Daughter of Blood during the Christchurch earthquakes. Did they influence the story in any way?

I began writing Daughter during the period of the earthquakes themselves, ...

About This “Seasonality” Thing, Then…

Those who are more frequent visitors here may have gleaned that I’m a bit of a foodie. As such, “seasonality” is something I hear discussed a lot on foodie shows, with commensurate mentions in cookbooks and food ‘zines.

Midsummer fare

By “seasonality”, I mean the concept of eating food according to the season and acquiring it as close to the source as possible, for those that can’t grow or raise it themselves.

It’s quince time now…

Seasonality also plays a starring role in books such as Joanne H...

Fun With Friends: Photo #9 From Marion Drolsbach’s NZ Visit

Alternate title, “On the Beach” or “Translator and Author Hang Out.”

Marion Drolsbach, as those who’ve been following will know, is a book translator (English to Dutch) and we first met when she was translating The Heir of Night.

Like Photo #8, the locale is the wild beach environment of Birdlings’ Flat and this shot was taken by Marion’s husband, Malcolm.

I kind of like the black and white. Hope you do, too!

Translator (l) and author (r); Photo credit — Malcolm Timperley

On SuperntrlUnderg for June — Celebrating the Bromance

“Hold on a minute, mate”, you may be thinking — isn’t your Supernatural Underground theme for 2023 the “Band of Brothers”?

If you are thinking that, then you’re quite right: it is! But as I assert in Supernatural Underground’s 1 June post, “…my premise, of course, is that the bromance is both integral to, and a natural extension of, the “band of brothers” in Fantasy.”

The rest, dear readers, is history. The bromance is, indeed, the subject of this month’s post. From Tolkien’s The Lord of the Ri...

Waiting for Supernatural Underground

Yes, it is 1 June (I know, already!), so yes, I will have the next post in the “Band of Brothers” series appearing on Supernatural Underground later today. (The SU runs on US Eastern Standard Time, currently about 16 hours behind NZ time.)

While you’re waiting, here are two great Supernatural Underground posts to check out:

“Listen With Your Heart” and Other Great Mentor Lines” — penned by Amanda Arista

“Environment — More Than Meets The Eye” by Kim Falconer

Back soon!

ICYMI: The Most Recent WALL #4 Updates

Having received a query on Good Reads, I thought I’d highlight that there have been a couple of The Wall Of Night #4 progress updates so far this year. The first was a“still writing, not finished yet” update on January 30, but the more significant two were:

Real News — 27 April: in which I advised that the go-to-whoa narrative arc for the story (and the series — woohoo!) was complete

Revision Ho — 1 May: in which the revision process officially began!

At one level, each represents just one mor...

About The Characters: Meet The Minor Players In “The Wall Of Night” Series — Meet Naia

USA

The About The Characters post series focuses on the minor characters in The Wall Of Night series, in large part because:

“I think it’s the presence of the smaller characters that “makes” a story, creating texture around the main points of view.”

~ from my Legend Award Finalist’s Interview, 2013

Initially, the series focused exclusively on characters from The Heir of Night, but now I’m continuing on with minor characters from both The Gathering Of The Lost and Daughter of Blood — in alphabeti...

Mothers As Main Characters in Fantasy & SciFi: Aimee Eden in “Sweet Tooth”

Aimee Eden

Last week, I celebrated Mother’s Day with a refeatured post on Mothers As Main Characters in Fantasy & SciFi.

I also mentioned that I could think of very few characters in SFF where “being a mother is central, not peripheral, to her [the character’s] part in the story.”

In the meantime, I’ve caught up with Sweet Tooth Season 2 on Netflix, and it struck me that Aimee Eden has to qualify as one of the great mothers of SFF.

A quick review of t’interwebs suggests she may not be a characte...

Q&A Thursdays #12: Tom’s Question

Over the past year, I’ve been reprising a Daughter of Blood (and by extension The Wall Of Night) Q&A series that featured in 2019.

In doing so, I’ve been struck all over again by the degree to which the readers’ questions rock – and today we’re rocking on with Tom’s Question.

UK/AU/NZ

Tom: Your blog and Twitter peg you as a foodie, but it doesn’t come through in Daughter Of Blood and your other books. Not like the feasts in “Harry Potter”. Why is that?

I am a foodie, so you’ve definitely pegged ...

Mothers As Main Characters in Fantasy & SciFi (Reprised)

Yesterday, May 14, being Mother’s Day here in NZ, I thought I’d repost a 2016 post featuring “Mothers as Main Characters” in fantasy and science fiction literature.

The post was sparked by a preceding post on Jessica, the mother of Paul Atreides in the science fiction classic, Dune, but also a main character in her own right:

About Jessica in “Dune” – and Why She’s Still Kickass After 50 Years

Francesca Annis as Jessica in the first Dune film

As mentioned in that post, I still consider Jessica t...