Helen Lowe's Blog, page 261

Last Stop On The Blog Tour—A Guest Post & Joint Giveaway With Kate Elliott

UK/AUS/NZ

Well, we began the journey together a month ago, with publication of the Blog Tour Schedule on 26 March.

Now today is the last stop on the official Tour—but I’m finishing in grand style with a guest post with fellow epic fantasy author, Kate Elliott, on her home site I Make Up Worlds. (What a great blog name!)

The post is titled “Building Fantastic Worlds: ‘It’s A Mystery’” and begins:

USA

“Over the past few weeks, at various stops on The Gathering of the Lost blog tour, I have discussed...

Tuesday Poem: “Autumn”

Autumn

Aaaah, autumn,

the dying season of the year,

when shadows turn to grape,

chilled by the first, faint curl of mist

around the edges of the days,

foreshortened into clear, green twilights

as night shifts from summer’s deep velvet

to frosty black, the stars glow colder,

more distant, the leaves turn

gold, bronze, crimson, scarlet,

bravura counterpoint to cooling days –

then fall, in deep, rustling drifts

beneath austere branches, the earth

dark beneath their shadow, filled

with pale secrets, bulbs lying...

Earth Day Visit To Wine Country

Waipara Valley

Yesterday was Earth Day—and the weather was wonderful: the very best sort of warm, mild autumn weather.

The vineyard

So when friend and consultant winemaker to Mountford Estate, CP Lin, said: “Come up to the vineyard and taste what we have in the vats from the current harvest”—well, how could a winelover like myself resist?

Barrels

Waipara lies about forty five minutes drive to the north of Christchurch and is one of the country’s signifcant wine growing regions.

Mountford Estate

Moun...

RisingShadow Reviews “The Gathering of the Lost”

The Gathering of the Lost has its third review, this time from international speculative fiction site, RisingShadow.

It’s an indepth review covering the basic plot (but without spoilers—thank you, RisingShadow!), worldbuilding, the characters, the magic and monsters, and the writing itself, with an overall summation of how the reviewer found the book. (In other words, very similar to the approach taken by Paul Weimer of SF Signal in reviewing The Heir of Night recently, here.)

Here is the openi...

The Blog Tour Keeps Rolling—I Stop In With The Mighty Mur Lafferty!

My last stop on the Tour was a wonderful indepth interview with John R Fultz of SEVEN PRINCES fame here.

And today I am guest posting with another fellow Orbit author, Mur Lafferty, on her I Should Be Writing blog.

Now one of the questions John asked me was about my approach as a female writer of epic fantasy—and Paul Weimer also made the recent observation in his review of The Heir of Night for SF Signal that:

“Lowe brings a number of strengths to the table. The greatest of these is the female...

And the Gemmell Awards Feature on Harper Voyager USA, Too

My US publisher Harper Voyager also has a blog post featuring books shortlisted for the Gemmell Awards—-in this case:

Prince of Thorns and The Heir of Night for the Morningstar (Best Fantasy Newcomer) Award , and


Oracle’s Fire and Journey by Nigh t for the Ravenheart Award for Best Cover Art .

You can check the post—and all the lovely covers in a row—out here

Orbit Celebrates “The Heir of Night’s” Gemmell Morningstar Shortlisting

Original UK cover

New UK cover

On April 9 I was thrilled to share the news that The Heir of Night had been shortlisted for the Gemmell Morningstar Award.

There are five shortlisted books and voting for the winner has now commenced, closing on 31 May.

Today my UK publisher, Orbit, is celebrating The Heir of Night’s success in getting this far with a feature post—and it is very exciting for me, too, to see ‘my little story’ on the list.

To see the Orbit post, click here.

She Writes The Night! — A Great Indepth Interview with John R Fultz

The current stop on the Blog Tour–which is nearing it’s end by the way, but there are still a few more great stops to go—is with fellow Orbit and epic fantasy author, John R Fultz.

You may recall that I interviewed John here in February about his debut novel, Seven Princes—a big rambunctious book in every sense of the word. (I suspect that one thing John and I have in common, besides a general love of epic fantasy, is that we both love rambunctious stories! ) You can read my interview with Jo...

Fellow Epic Author, Ian Irvine, Interviews Me On Orbit

Last week, my interview with Australian epic fantasy author, Ian Irvine, featured on the Orbit blog, here.

And today, Ian’s reciprocal interview with me is now on Orbit too—and covers an array of topics, including:

– earthquakes;

– key elements of The Heir of Night and The Gathering of the Lost stories, including Malian and Kalan’s hopes and fears and the nature of their most powerful adversary; and

– the relationship between my poetry and prose writing.

I think Ian’s long experience as a fantasy...

"The Gathering of the Lost" Blog Tour: I Drop In On "The Shared Desk"

USA

UK/AUS/NZ

The latest stop on The Gathering of the Lost Blog Tour is with Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences afficionadoes and fellow Voyager US authors Pip Ballantine and Tee Morris at "The Shared Desk"—with a guest post on my love of adventure in storytelling and the overlaps I see between epic fantasy and steampunk:

"I was delighted when Pip and Tee asked me to stop by here at The Shared Desk:  not least because when I read the rambunctious, rollicking opening to their Phoenix Rising , the...