Helen Lowe's Blog, page 270
February 3, 2012
Frankfurt Book Fair 2012: An Aotearoa Affair—"Crossings"
New Zealand will be the featured country at this year's Frankfurt Book Fair and as part of the run up the "Aotearoa Affair—from Kiel to Kaitaia" blog is now up and running. Part of the "Affair" will be a monthly blog festival—with the first fest running this month of February around the theme of "Crossings."
As you may also know, The Heir of Night (The Wall of Night series, Book One) is being published in Germany this year by Blanvalet, as Die Erbin Der Nacht. So I can't help feeling part...
February 2, 2012
I Make SF-Signal's Top 25 Posts … :)
… for the month of January, and I clock in at No. 23, but hey—hey I say, "doin' alright" for a gal from the far side of the world!
Well, I'm stoked anyway! And you can check out the evidence, here. 
The post, if you haven't checked it out already, is "Making Epic Fantasy New—Do We Need To?" and it's right here.
Speaking of posts, you'll have noticed that I haven't done any 'big' posts in the last wee while—fear not, the well is not dry, but I've just been a little busy juggling writing the...
February 1, 2012
From the Residency …
Yesterday I said that I "might" have some photos of my writers-in-residence office to share with you—and here they are, just a couple because I am only just getting settled in.
But here's the door (with apologies for crookedness!)—& although I haven't got a name plate yet, just the generic writer-in-residence address, there's that cover flat of The Heir of Night to personalise things a bit, even though it's very early days. 
And here's a 'wide' shot of the office, with various desks, the...
January 31, 2012
Breathless: aka Playing Catch Up
Things have been feeling just a little hectic lately—I had a final proof to complete for my UK publishers (Orbit) for the forthcoming April release of The Gathering of the Lost (in the US and UK/Aus/NZ, but this was UK), I am way beyond on my reading, and I have also just commenced my Creative Writing residency at the University of Canterbury. As I found out to my surprise (I don't know much about these things, you see) this means that rather than being a "guest" I am actually officially ...
January 30, 2012
Tuesday Poem: "Dulce Et Decorum Est" by Wilfred Owen
Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind.
Gas! Gas! Quick, boys! – An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
But s...
January 29, 2012
Guest Interview With Nicole Murphy: On Writers' Habits & Processes Series
My friend and fellow author, Nicole Murphy, has been running a guest series on her blog, interviewing other writers about their habits and processes.
Today Nicole is asking me questions about my writing habits, here.
Tomorrow we'll be talking about how I actually 'do' the writing itself—so don't forget to check back in again here.
To check out the introduction to the series and also links to the interviews with other authors, click here.
January 28, 2012
Guest Post: Simon Litten & June Young Discuss Their Approach to Reading & Nominating for the Sir Julius Vogel Awards
The Sir Julius Vogel Awards—given by SFFANZ, the Science Fiction & Fantasy Association of New Zealand for achievement in Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror by New Zealanders—are currently open for nomination for works published or released in 2011.
On Thursday, I featured a little about the awards and "how to nominate" here on the blog, including providing links to lists of eligible works in several of the categories, here, and here. And I encouraged all of you to nominate.
But there are...
Guest Post: Simon Litton & June Young Discuss Their Approach to Reading & Nominating for the Sir Julius Vogel Awards
The Sir Julius Vogel Awards—given by SFFANZ, the Science Fiction & Fantasy Association of New Zealand for achievement in Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror by New Zealanders—are currently open for nomination for works published or released in 2011.
On Thursday, I featured a little about the awards and "how to nominate" here on the blog, including providing links to lists of eligible works in several of the categories, here, and here. And I encouraged all of you to nominate.
But there are...
January 27, 2012
More On "Place" In 'The Heir of Night'
Yesterday I cross-linked to my guest post on the Orbit blog "Myth, Legend and History: The Shaping of The Heir of Night" – but added an additional feature on the role of "place" in shaping the story, here. Because " … on Anything, Really" there is always more!
I also included quotes centred the region of the Haarth world known as Jaransor, as well as an excerpt that touched on the Wall of Night itself, the Border Mark and the Gate of Dreams—so today I thought perhaps we'd look at excerpts...
January 26, 2012
Guest Post on Orbit Today—But Wait, There's More: The Role of Place In Shaping 'The Heir of Night'
I have another guest post on my UK publisher, Orbit's blog today, all part of celebrating the mass market edition of The Heir of Night over there. Titled "Myth, Legend and History: The Shaping of The Heir of Night", it begins:
"When asked, I always describe The Heir of Night as "classic epic fantasy." In part this is because it is a hero tale with the fate of the world, and perhaps even of all worlds, at stake. It's a tale of adventure and magic and battles, of friendship and betrayal and...
