Helen Lowe's Blog, page 253
July 8, 2012
What I’m Reading: Books Recently Completed
One thing about being laid low for close on two weeks now with midwinter illness, is that I have managed to complete a couple of books I had on the go, plus reading one new—all of which I enjoyed. I’m still not quite well enough to write a detailed report, but I’ll give you my thumbnail feedback:
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The Quantum Thief by Hannu Rajaniemi (Gollancz)
I really enjoyed this book — it’s not only definitely space opera, but a richly baroque variant distinguished by the sheer imagination of the world buil...
July 7, 2012
A Sunday Quote From Roberto Calasso
“Stories never live alone; They are the branches of a family that we have to trace back, and forward.” — Roberto Calasso
You can find out more about Roberto Calasso here.
July 6, 2012
Women on Air Interview Today — Helen Heath & “Graft”
Helen Heath; credit Kate MacPherson
If you’re within the zone for Plains 96.9FM, listen out at 10.45 am for my interview with Helen Heath about her new collection, Graft (Victoria University Press.)
If you can’t listen live, then I’ll link here once the podcast is up, so fear not — you need not miss out! 
You can read my “What I’m Reading” post on Graft here.
And my Tuesday Poem feature of Helen’s poem Fairytale v: O Brother, published in Graft, is here.
July 5, 2012
Time To Give In & Admit It…
… I’ve been laid low with the midwinter ills for most of the past two weeks and keeping up with the blog posts and comments has been a considerable struggle—though I think most of them have at least managed to seem ‘lucid’ if this is not always how I felt while posting!
I am slowly starting to come right now though, but still feel I owe myself an easy day or two.
But I have to say that although it is always nice to see your own work get positive feedback ‘out thar’ it can be equally gratifying...
July 4, 2012
Just Arrived: Rachael King’s “Red Rocks”
Red Rocks is the new-out novel by NZ author, Rachael King, from Random House. It’s her first novel for young readers though—her two previous novels, The Sound of Butterflies and Magpie Hall were both adult fiction, both also published by Random House.
In terms of ‘age bracket’, at first glance I would put Red Rocks down as “junior” fiction, for readers within the 8-12 year range, rather than YA.
And here’s a synopsis drawn from the publisher’s website says:
“While holidaying at his father’s hous...
July 3, 2012
“‘Place As Person’: What Does It Mean When Telling Story?”
"Women in Black" aka "Double author trouble" -- Mary Victoria 'n' me at Natcon recently
Yesterday, my friend and fellow author, Mary Victoria, left New Zealand to return to the northern hemisphere—and in the short term, France—after twelve years of livng in New Zealand. She and her husband, Frank Victoria, came to New Zealand to work on The Lord of the Ring’s films with WETA and Frank has recently completed work on The Hobbit—which does rather round off their twelve years.
But I am terribly sad...
July 2, 2012
Tuesday Poem—”Fairytale V: O Brother” by Helen Heath
Fairytale v: O Brother
Okay, so I don’t remember / it like that. They said we / were going for a picnic and I didn’t even want to go / but they said we needed to get out / of the house and so we were / supposed to feed the fucking ducks / or something, me and my little sister. / So we’re chucking bread / at the ducks and the sparrows / are coming down too and grabbing / the bread my sister can’t / throw far enough and the ducks / are getting really pissed off and / then one of them grabs / a s...
July 1, 2012
The Speculative Element In Fantasy — & Keeping It Real
USA
I wrote this essay on the speculative element in fantasy, but also on the corresponding need to ‘keep it real’, in the context of The Heir of Night, some time ago — but it never quite managed to see the light of day. So with The Heir of Night having recently won the Gemmell Morningstar Award, it seemed as good a time as any to give it an airing. So, here you go:
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” “Where,” a friend complained recently, “is the speculative element in fantasy? It is all just magic and retro medieval societie...
June 30, 2012
I Join The Gemmell Awards’ Pantheon
The Gemmell Morningstar Award 2012
During the course of last week I officially joined the Gemmell Awards’ pantheon, contributing my personal “words” to the Winners’ Page.
You can view the page and read the words right Here.
And yes, it is quite a blast to be on the page, although as I say there, even being on the shortlist felt like enjoying Bernadette Hall’s “the crown of good company.”
June 29, 2012
What I’m Reading: “The Quantum Thief” by Hannu Rajaniemi
I can’t believe it was September 18 2011 when I did my “Just Arrived” post for The Quantum Thief by Finnish author, Hannu Rajaniemi–which means that the book has been sitting there on the TBR table for a whole 9 months, waiting for me to get started. Practically a scandal—but guess I must have been busy or something…
Anyway, I finally did get started on my plane flight back from Wellington on Tuesday—one of those up and back in a day trips—and managed to get 63 pages in before I had to disem...
