Helen Lowe's Blog, page 294

Tuesday Poem: "Leaving"

Leaving

Waiting for the sun to come

creeping slyly up

over the roof of the rusted shed,

melting the frost and glancing

off the old leather suitcase

set down beside the gate.

Don't look back

at the familiar sweep of hills,

the homestead crouched

in macrocarpa shadow:

feel the day's first warmth

on your neck, soft as the cat

purring around your ankles –

but don't look down,

keep both eyes fixed

on that long twist of road

and wait – for the sun,

for the bus,

for the future coming

with a hiss of air brakes

and a spray of gravel.

.

(c) Helen Lowe

Published in before the sirocco, NZ Poetry Society anthology, 2008 (ed. Joanna Preston)

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"A commonly quoted estimate of out-migration from Christchurch after the February 2011 earthquake is 70,000 people" (Sapere Research Group, April 2011.) One of the results of last weeks 6.3 earthquake in Christchurch, which was the third major earthquake in 9 months and part of a 'package" that has delivered over 7500 since September 4, 2010, is that a great mamy more people are thinking about their future here and leaving either temporarily or permanently. The Sapere Research Group report goes on, having looked at other disasters of comparable magnitude, to estimate that a more likely estimate of permanent out-migration over a 24 month period is likely to be 2.4%, ca. 10,000.

Whether 70,000 or 10,000 in the longer term, I wanted to post this poem today as a  reflection on the emotional cost of a circumstances-driven "leaving home", both in the sense of "place" as well as family and friends. The poem was written long before September 2010 and is a reflection on the experience of young rural New Zealanders in having to leave home to find work / a career, ie nothing to do with earthquakes or either natural or human-generated disaster.

I also recognise that many of those choosing to leave Christchurch as a  result of the earthquakes will do so because they have lost people, homes, businesses and jobs, or simply because they are worn down by the constant shaking, the deprivation and the wider loss of amenity, community and connection to a physical sense of "place."**

This poem makes no pretence of encompassing that level of severance but I do still hope that it has some relevance to the emotional dimension of "leaving. "

.

** Note: In terms of that "wider loss of amenity, community and connection to a physical sense of 'place' ", two buildings that received considerable further damage as a result of last Monday's earthquakes were the Anglican Christ Church Cathedral in Cathedral Square and the Roman Catholic Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament in Barbadoes Street—both landmark buildings in Christchurch's physical cityscape. No official announcement has yet been made, although the "softening up" process has begun through the media, but I understand that both buildings are now to be demolished, either in whole or significant part. I think it is losses such as this that underline that the Christchurch cityscape as we knew and loved it is gone. What will rise from the ruins, phoenix-like or otherwise, remains to be seen.

The Gemmell Awards Announced

Last week I posted about the Gemmell Awards here, with a follow-up here. As you may recall the Gemmells are a reader voted award and the results of the final vote were announced at the award ceremony in London on Friday evening, as follows:

The Legend Award for Best Fantasy Novel of the Year:

Brandon Sanderson, The Way of Kings (Gollancz, UK; Tor US)

The Morningstar Award for Best Fantasy Newcomer/Debut:

Darius Hinks, Warrior Priest (Black Library)

The Ravenheart Award for Best Fantasy Book Jacket/Artist:

Olof Erla Einarsdottir for the cover of Power and Majesty by Tansy Rayner Roberts (Harper Voyager, Australia)

Congratulations to all the winners—and also to all those shortlisted as this is no mean feat for an international award. (I've featured the cover of  Power and Majesty as the "downunder" representative in the winners' parade—although the artist, Olof Erla Einarsdottir, is Icelandic of course!)

On Wednesday or Thursday I hope to post about the Mythopoeic Awards, another category of international awards that has recently had a finalists' shortlist out.

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Completed Today

OK, now for the current update on the Gathering revision:

15 further pages of manuscript rewritten;
Total Pages Until Completion: 104 plus Glossary.

Ladies & Gentlemen: I Give You—the Post Office; aka "Just Arrived: More Hugo Awards Reading"

The earth may shake and buildings fall, but the post office, bless it, continues to deliver mail. You may recall that I plan to read, post on and vote for the Hugo Awards fiction finalists once I meet my Gathering deadline of 1 July. (Hugo Awards voting closes on 31 July so there should be a window, all going well.)

To that end, I have been acquiring hard copies of all the finalists in the  novel category because I don't like reading works that large on screen. And now I have Ian McDonald's The Dervish House to add to the Hugo Awards TBR pile.

So may I propose, ladies and gentlemen, a toast: to the Post Office—steadfastly carrying on in a quaky, shaky world.

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Completed Today:

And yes, I do know that I owe you a "completed today" as well. You may recall that yesterday I posted that: "Tomorrow I will begin by reading through and polishing the chapter completed today."

Sadly, gentle readers, events have made me into a liar. I did not begin by reading through and polishing. I woke up with two or three continuity threads niggling in my head and saying: these are important themes—you need to check now that you have all their houses in order before proceeding on to the endgame of the story (which, by the way, is effectively the part I'm now in.)  So—gasp, shock—I began with the continuity checking and once you begin a process like that you find a lot of additional little spin-offs that need to be checked and where necessary tidied up as well. Only then did I review and polish the chapter I completed yesterday, half of which was new text (for which review/polish is always an essential step.)

And there you have it, dear readers: my working day!

A little harder to quantify statistically, but here goes:

12 pages of previously rewritten manuscript reviewed and polished;
4 additional chapters reviewed in whole or in part for continuity, with some new material added and further revisions made;
Total Pages Until Completion: 119 plus Glossary.

Small Earthquake Update, Plus "Completed Today"

Just a snippet from the 'burbs (east side!) on the 'quake front for yesterday: only 7 earthquakes at the time I drafted this post but 3 of them were "plus 4.0 M", i.e. decidedly noticeable (they were also shallow which helps on the noticeability front)—and of course with the official prediction of a 30% chance of another major shake in the next month (likelihood reduces to 'just 25%' if we get through that) everything noticeable sends the heart rate jumping. On the brighter side, trucks and diggers came to our street and took all the liquefacted material along the kerb away—all small steps but it still feels like progress (all over again.) But given that prediction, I can't help thinking: "until next time!" Then hoping like anything that the 70% will prevail this time around.

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OK, on to "completed today" (although really, it's for yesterday) with the Great Revision. And the working day was very productive (despite stopping, hands poised over keyboard for those 4.0s) because I effectively rewrote a complete chapter to fit in with other changes I've made. So here are the stats:

1704 completely new words written / 5.5 pages of new material inserted
10 further pages of manuscript rewritten.
Total Pages Until Completion: 119 plus Glossary.

Tomorrow I will begin by reading through and polishing the chapter completed today.

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And the bonus highlight for the day—I got to see the new US cover for The Gathering of the Lost and although it is still under wraps and cannot be revealed on the blog, let me tell you that it is amazingly wonderful and I am so excited and looking forward to seeing it out there—and correspondingly motivated to reduce that page count further again!

It's Friday: More Revision Progess

It's Friday and what a week it's been!  I hate the thought that there may be more earthquake drama to come, but since I have absolutely no control over the earth moving at all, let alone the way in which it moves, I have decided to focus on things over which I have more influence.

Like writing my books, for example.

In fact I'm thinking I'll give you update reports as I strive to stave off aftershocks and liquefaction, power cuts and the need to either boil or add bleach to everything (ie a teaspoon or two of household bleach makes the laundry 'go down' a whole lot better—well, more hygienically, at any rate) to make that 1 July deadline.

So why does 1 July matter so much? Well, it will make my publishers happy and that makes me reasonably happy, too.:) Mostly though, it means I will get the next book to you in March next year—and it does really matter to me to get the books to you as soon as I humanly can, given The Wall of Night series is an ongoing story. To me that's a kind of unwritten contract between writer and reader, a sort of noblesse oblige I guess: you've invested time and energy in reading me and I want to honour that commitment and deliver on the story.

I also very much care that the story you get should be 'right': ie if you're going to invest time and energy again, then I want to do my level best to ensure that the story is as good if not better than the preceding book.

And I want to honour the story as well, by not stinting on the quality of the telling.

So somewhere in all that, I walk the authorial tightrope, because if you bend too far one way or t'other you will surely fall …

And if I do make 1 July maybe we'll have another blog party, to coincide with the Grand Giveaway (details here.)

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Anyway, here it is, Completed Today—the first of the Great Revision Updates:

6 previously rewritten pages reviewed and revised;
4 pages of new material inserted;
15 further pages of manuscript rewritten;
Total Pages Until Completion: 129 plus Glossary.

Pick 'n' Mix

Just one of those quick posts today with a few 'all sorts' in the mix from which you may pick and choose.

Gathering Status Report:

Firstly, as those who have been following my What I've Been Doing Posts know, I am working toward a completion date for the GR (Great Revision) of The Gathering of the Lost (The Wall of Night Book Two) for 1 July. On Monday, with post-earthquake clean up starting all over again, I thought this goal had been blown completely out of the water. But two wonderful people yesterday and four today basically said: "We'll do the digging Helen, you stick with the book."

I don't know if you can imagine how wonderful that was! I still felt horribly guilty, of course, and just having digging out happening, as well as  the guys who turned up to water blast the sewer, was disruptive to the writing process—but the really important thing was that both today and yesterday the book progressed. Not as far or as much as I'd planned prior to Monday's earthquakes, but the fact is, the book is closer to completion today than it would otherwise have been.

Meeting 1 July is still going to be incredibly tight because it was tight anyway and I've effectively lost around 2 days, but there's still hope—and that's entirely due to Andrew, Joff, Dave, Caroline, Susie and Peter. Thank you, guys: you rock. And yes, you will all be in the acknowledgments for the book. No question.

Earthquake Mini Report:

In addition to the above, the earthquake report from the 'burbs for today comprises a brief note that aftershocks continue, with around 34 recorded yesterday, the largest being a 5.0 magnitude aftershock, at a depth of 6 kilometres, around 6.30 in the morning.

Otherwise status is  much the same as yesterday other than the "happy news " from the experts that there is a 30% chance we will get another 6.0-7.0 magnitude earthquake within the next month. Not the best news. The experts also confirmed my suspicion that the 12 to 18 month 'clock' for earthquake acitivty to wind down restarts after each major earthquake event—so that's definitely 12-18 months from now, not September 4 last year.

Anyway, you can read all about it here.

Follow Up From Monday's Post on the Gemmell Awards:

The most exciting thing about the follow up to the Gemmell Awards post I did on Monday is that the awards will be announced tomorrow, Friday 17 UK time in London. So only 1 more sleep to find out how my friend Mary Victoria's novel Tymon's Flight has fared in the Morningstar category for Best Fantasy Newcomer/Debut, and her husband Frank Victoria in the Ravenheart category for Best Fantasy Book Jacket/Artist.

But I also mentioned that I had observed something about the total line-up of finalists once I set them all out in 1 place on the blog here, something that made me think that Mary Victoria had done not just very well, but extra well to make it onto the list. I invited you all to guess what my observation was, but no one took me up on that. So here's a further clue: the observation lead me to believe that both Mary Victoria and NK Jemisin had done extra well to get on the list.

Go back and take a look at the total list across all categories, here, if you need to refresh your memory. So you do you see it yet?

Okay, here's what I realized when I looked down that list: 100% of the authors in the Legend category; 60% of the authors in the Morningstar category; and 80% of the artists are men. Only 20% of those shortlisted across all categories are women. In terms of the authors, I am curious to know whether this reflects the actual numbers of women writing epic/high/heroic fantasy; or is simply a one-off for this year from which no particular inferences should be drawn; or whether it is a reflection of an alleged phenomenon I first reported under my Why Write Epic Fantasy post, here, i.e. that:

" epic fantasy as a genre is misogynist … [in terms of] … the attention paid to female authors of the genre, i.e. your chances of being a successful epic fantasy author are considerably reduced if you're a gal"

So given that the Gemmells are reader's choice awards, does the final lineup reflect prejudice amongst readers against epic/high/heroic fantasy openly penned by women?  Or simply mean that the guys are better at mobilising their voting fanbase? Or that they write better books? Or maybe they just wrote better books this year?

All interesting reflections—so do any of you have any thoughts to offer?

Earthquake Report: Christchurch June 14

On Monday, I posted to let you know that we had had two further major earthquakes here in Christchurch (what I thought then was a 5.5 and 6.0) but had basically come through safely physcially but with further damage to both house and land, particularly the latter in terms of liquefaction.

As of yesterday, June 14 NZ time, the 5.5 had been upgraded to a 5.6 and the 6.0 to a 6.3, exactly the same level of magnitude as the major February 22nd quake. This does not surprise me, I have to say, as it was a pretty scary few seconds while the world rocked and rolled in a fashion very reminiscent of February 22. The main difference from a subjective point of view was the duration: I am reasonably sure that yesterday's 6.3 earthquake was shorter. But I use the word "subjective" advisedly since I haven't been able to find evidence to confirm my perception of duration yet.

The other new piece of information from yesterday was that these earthquakes were generated from a new fault, distinct from both the September 4 and February 22nd events, so that really does make it seem as though Christchurch is fracturing apart. The other question it begs is how long, really, we can expect this to go on. The experts talk about a 1 year to 18 month period of aftershocks, but it is less clear whether this is 1 year to 18 months (approximately!) from the original September 4 quake or 12-18 months from each individual earthquake off a distinct fault. Hard to know, but I fear the latter—and while it's nice to be special, one can definitely have too much of a good thing!

Far too much of a … "thing"—because to be honest, I think we can leave the "good" out of it altogether. Talking briefly with neighbours yesterday as the process of digging out liquefaction began again, everyone expressed the same sense of weariness, but also the very real fear that the same process may just happen all over again in a few weeks or months time. And each time homes and land get just a little more damaged, a little closer to the point where you wonder whether they will stand up to the next major quake–and yesterday, there was a moment when I honestly thought that the house might shake apart around me.

Of course, once it's all over you chide yourself for having a too-vivid writerly imagination, but in the moment—well, you certainly wonder …

So what does it mean to be a citizen of the eastern suburbs right now?

In many ways, it feels back—or very close to back—to square one as of February 22nd, ie:

There's a lot of digging out to do;
Most people have power but there's still some that don't;
Most people have water as well, but not everyone does—and we're back to boiling water again in order to be safe for drinking;
Many people, perhaps even most, don't have working sewer again and this may not change for some time

I think the biggest loss though, one that began with September 4 and has extended with every additional major event, is the loss of community. In our area, all the high school have been closed since February 22nd with pupils being bused to the west side of the city ot premise-share with the schools there. It has been suggested that one of these may never reopen because the damage to buildings and land has been so extensive. One major mall has been closed since February 22nd and a large number of churches, clubs and community facilities are unusable. We have lost a raft of smaller retailers, particularly restaurants, cafes, wine bars and the other venues that give a community its "flavour." So all those networks that make up a community: schools, places to meet and socialise, are all gone.

Even simple things like going for a walk along the river are difficult: at a practical level, because the road is so broken up and the area physically difficult to negotiate; at an emotional level because all the waterways in this part of Christchurch are pretty much open sewers right now. And everyone you know is living with loss and uncertainty: homes, jobs and businesses have been lost by some; others are living in houses that are badly damaged and not knowing whether the insurance decision will be 'repair' or 'rebuild' or 'write off completely'.

So that's it, life from the suburbs in a city that's just been hit by its third major earthquake event in 9 months, but in that total period has experienced a total of 7371 recorded earthquakes.

In the end there's very little choice, you just have to be zen about it: "the way is easy, keep going; the way is hard, keep going: keep going."

But at the moment, the way is definitely very hard.

Tuesday Poem: "A Canterbury Tale"

shock waves thunder

across the plains,

spewing up water

and silt,

homes shift

and bend like trees

before a norwest gale:

the faultline

cracks open

a little wider

(c) Helen Lowe, 2011

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I am always wary of poetry generated too close to a traumatic event, knowing the risk that it will be more diary entry than art. But when a poem comes to you in the moment, in much the same was as a haiku, then all I think you can do is gassho to the muse and write it down—and leave decisions on merit to the reader.

I wrote this poem yesterday, after the 5.5 earthquake and before the 6.0.

Feedback is welcome.

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To read the featured poem on the Tuesday Poem Blog hub—and to link to other Tuesday Poets posting around the world—either click here or on the Quill icon in the sidebar.

Christchurch Friends of the Library Event, Tuesday 14 June: Cancelled Due to Earthquake

Given today's 5.5 and 6.0 earthquakes the Friends of the Library event scheduled for 12.30 pm tomorrow at Christchurch's South Library has been cancelled.

Although disappointing, I completely understand that the library needs to be inspected before it can reopen—and I suspect that many potential attendees will have other things on their mind, dealing with the aftermath of the earthquakes!

Earthquake Report: Christchurch Gets Hammered Again

Just  a quick note because I know that many of you will have heard that Chriscthurch got hammered again by a 5.5 and 6.0 magnitude earthqaukes this afternoon. Power has just come back on and I thought I would let you know that everyone here is ok, as are all the friends and family I have managed to get in contact with. If I haven't yet responded to your texts and/or emails I will do very soon and …

… yes, both earthquakes were quite violent and to be honest, more than a little  scary. We also have more liquefaction, to a reasonably significant level, although not anywhere near what we had last time. And not to the extent that the good citizens of Avondale experienced, where the roads turned into rivers.

At the moment though, I think I just need some time out to "process."  But all going well I'll be back with my Tuesday Poem tomorrow.