Helen Lowe's Blog, page 273

What I'm Reading: "The Lieutenant" by Kate Grenville (Text Publishing)—Now Finished

On December 18 I mentioned that I had begun reading "The Lieutenant", and what I had to say then included the following:

"The Lieutenant is historical fiction and based on the true story of William Dawes, a soldier, astronomer, mathematician and linguist who was part of the First Fleet expedition to settle Australia, and founded the first astronomical observatory as part of the Sydney settlement. And according to the Author's Note at the rear of the book: 'The record he left of the language...

Just Arrived: "Here, Bullet" & "Phantom Noise" by Brian Turner from Bloodaxe Books

As I tweeted on Thursday, I received a parcel from Bloodaxe Books (UK) that I suspected contained poetry—and on opening it I was proven right.

The books are Here Bullet and Phantom Noise, both by US poet, Brian Turner. I first heard of Brian when I was driving to one of the Autumn Poetry Readings of the Canterbury Poets' Collective in 2009 and tuned into a public radio documentary on contemporary war poetry. Brian Turner was one of the featured poets and I heard his poem AB Negative (The...

Ringing In The New: I'm Now On Twitter!

Yup, I've done it—I'm now on Twitter! And yes again, it's a bit of a big step given that my writing commitments are heavy and anything that has the potential to eat into writing time is quite scary.

But then again, when you live at the bottom of the world, not quite as far away from anywhere else as it's possible to get but close to it, the internet and social media like Twitter are an important way to interact with both readers and other writers. In a way, going on Twitter is probably the...

The Best of Anything Really 2011: An Interview With Brandon Sanderson

Interviews with authors have definitely been one of the highlights of my blogging year, which is why I have featured two in my 'The Best of' post series already—and my interview with Brandon Sanderson was no exception to the trend, which is why I am bringing it to you again today.

So in the spirit of the new year: enjoy!

"Introduction:

Brandon Sanderson has been one of the exciting new names in Fantasy fiction over the past eight years—commencing with the successful publication of Elantris in...

"The Gathering of the Lost": New Year's Day Cover Flat Giveaway Result

My apologies for the delay in posting this result—I know that it was meant to be yesterday!

But as I explained in the comments I decided to take a short break away from the recent renewal of Christchurch earthquake activity, which also ended being an internet holiday amidst the remote backcountry of a wonderfully hot dry Central Otago. (For those of you who don't know it already, but have seen The Lord of the Rings films, just think the Westfold of Rohan in the early scenes of The Two Towers

The Best of '… on Anything Really' 2011: The Tuesday Poem—"Indifferent Planet"

Indifferent Planet

Taking out the rubbish
in the dark pre-dawn,
the stars still crisp
in the frost-black
overhead, the plastic wheels
on the bins jolting
over the gullies and ridges
of the old creek bed
that was once our driveway
before — before February 22nd
when the earth god stretched
again in his sleep, or was it Loki,
writhing to avoid the serpents' venom,
the earth also condemned
to writhe with him, while we,
like ninepins, were knocked about —
most to pick ourselves up again,
dust off, dig out,
but one h...

But Wait, There Is More: A Quote From Juliet Marillier for 'The Gathering of the Lost'

Yesterday I was delighted to welcome in the new year by revealing the US cover of The Gathering of the Lost, The Wall of Night Book Two, for the first time.

But there is more. Well-known Fantasy author, Juliet Marillier, has read a manuscript edition of The Gathering of the Lost—and has been kind enough to say the following:

"Helen Lowe's writing moves from strength to strength. Powerful story lines, memorable characters and a vividly imagined world." ~ Juliet Marillier

This is praise indeed...

Happy New Year: Welcome to The Year of 'The Gathering of the Lost'

Exactly a year ago today I posted:

"New Year's Day 2011–and I have finished the manuscript for the second novel in The Wall of Night series —working title The Gathering of the Lost."

I am sure you're already aware that there's a long lead time between initially completing the manuscript and a book being published—and I've kept you 'posted' on some of those steps this year.

Now with publication dates of 27 March (USA) and 7 April (UK/AUS/NZ) respectively, 2012 is definitely shaping up to be 'The Y...

The Best of '… on Anything Really' 2011: My Personal Highlights

New Year's Eve seems a great time to reflect on my personal highlights from 2011—at least the ones that got mentioned on the blog, which I am pretty sure most of them did.

And no, not one of them will have anything to do with an earthquake. Although these, with their associated ills, have undoubtedly been the dominant feature of 2011 there is absolutely no sense in which I would describe any of them as a "highlight." And that is absolutely all I am going to say on the subject, because this...

The Best of '… on Anything Really' 2011: "An Interview with Daniel Abraham, Author of 'The Dragon's Path'" "

"Introduction:

Last year I was alerted to US author Daniel Abraham and The Long Price Quartet by the review site Risingshadow.net. I found the series intriguing, but also realized that I was late to the party: the series had been completed in 2009, but never distributed in New Zealand. So I was delighted to learn that Daniel Abraham had a new Fantasy series, The Dagger and The Coin, being published this year and that it would be released here. The first novel in the new series, The Dragon's...