Helen Lowe's Blog, page 271
January 25, 2012
Tis the Time: for Sir Julius Vogel Award Nominations!
The Sir Julius Vogel Awards are currently open for nominations until 31 March, 2012.
The Awards are made annually by the Science Fiction & Fantasy Association of New Zealand (SFFANZ) and recognize achievement in Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror by New Zealanders that have been published or released in the previous calendar year. Initial nominations are open to everyone but the final vote for shortlisted works is restricted to members of SFFANZ and those attending the National Science...
January 24, 2012
Just Arrived: "Seven Princes" by John R Fultz
I have been posting a fair amount on epic fantasy lately, both here and on SF Signal—and with a tagline of "an age of legends, an age of heroes, an age of war" the recently arrived Seven Princes, Books of the Shaper Volume 1, by John R Fultz promises to be epic fantasy in its most heroic form.
I should also add that I am hoping to feature an interview with John here as soon as I have the book read—so I had better pick up my current slow pace of reading and "get on with it!"
In the meantime...
January 23, 2012
Tuesday Poem: "AB Negative (The Surgeon's Poem)" by Brian Turner
Thalia Fields lies under a grey ceiling of clouds,
just under the turbulence, with anesthetics
dripping from an IV into her arm,
and the flight surgeon says The shrapnel
cauterized as it traveled through her
here, breaking this rib as it entered,
burning a hole through the left lung
to finish in her back, and all of this
she doesn't hear, except perhaps as music —
that faraway music of people's voices
when they speak gently and with care,
a comfort to her on a...
January 22, 2012
Tropes Not Cliches: More Thoughts On Making 'Epic Fantasy New' & The Importance of Character
On Saturday I cross-posted to a guest post on SF Signal, titled "Making Epic Fantasy New–Do We Need To?" (to find out my conclusion, you'll have to check out the post, here) in which, amongst other matters, I discussed tropes and my personal view that every class of ficton has its own set.
Yup, it's mass market edition time in the UK!
On Friday, my post, here, marked the UK mass market release of The Heir of Night (with that funky new cover everyone seems to be liking!) Although I was mainly...
January 21, 2012
What I'm Reading: "Sacrifice" by Joanna Orwin
My reading has been going very slowly lately, in part because it's been Christmas-New Year and with all the visitors and visiting I didn't end up getting in all the reading time I'd hoped—almost none in fact, alas! And since the holidays finished I've been concentrating on getting into writing my next book so for all these and other book related reasons, reading has been on the back burner.
So although I wrote about having just received Joanna Orwin's YA novel, Sacrifice, on December 23rd
January 20, 2012
Guest Post On SF Signal: "Making Epic Fantasy New—Do We Need To?"
Recently I mentioned that I was beavering away on a guest post around "Making Epic Fantasy New"—and now that post is "live" on SF Signal.
Here's the opening salvo:
"Making Epic Fantasy New—Do We Need To?"At the end of last year I sat down to write a post on "making epic fantasy new." I had been seeing opinions for some time that was critical of epic, from the aspersion that the genre itself is ho-hum, to allegations that it is variously monocultural, reactionary and misogynist. I was also...
January 19, 2012
"The Heir of Night"–Mass Market Edition Out In The UK Today
Yup, it's mass market edition time in the UK!
The mass market edition of The Heir of Night, The Wall of Night Book One, complete with the awesome new cover (featured left) is officially 'out' in the UK today–and with publication of The Gathering of the Lost, The Wall of Night Book Two, just three months away, this feels like an incredibly exciting 'place/space' for the series to be in.
There's a launch post up on the Orbit blog today, here, but I also want to celebrate on my own blog, so I...
January 18, 2012
Catherine Asaro on "The Gathering of the Lost: The Wall of Night Book Two"
US cover
On January 2 I was privileged to be able to share Juliet Marillier's thoughts on The Gathering of the Lost with you here.
Now chemical physicist, dancer, and Nebula-award winning speculative fiction author, Catherine Asaro, has also read the second instalment in The Wall of Night series—and here's what she has to say:
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"Helen Lowe writes wonderful stories, yes, but her work also speaks with lyricism to deeper questions of how we treat each other. With lovely prose that brings vivid...
January 17, 2012
No, I Didn't Forget …
Yup, it's mass market edition time in the UK!...
… to post today! I'm just a little later than usual, is all—for a number of reasons. Firstly, given the year's big book goal, discussed here, I've resolved to reprioritise my days away from emailing, blogging and tweeting, to actual WRITING: oh my!
So there may be days when the blog posts are not posted in the most timely of fashions. But, in fact, I am hoping that by keeping the posts shorter and more book progress focused I shall still be...
January 16, 2012
Tuesday Poem: "My Father, The Oceanographer" by Frankie McMillan
My father, the oceanographer
knew the language of whales
yet tripped over the sound
of his own name
They say the cure for death
is drowning and for a lisp
a bucket of salt water
*
In white gumboots he entered
the stomach of a whale
sat brooding under the great arched bones
of a church
invoking the mantra of LFA sonar
whale fall
and echolation
stripped to his underwear,
so great was the heat, and
blubber he said
now there was a word to make you weep
.
(c) Frankie McMillan
~ published in Turbine 2011
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