Helen Lowe's Blog, page 305

Not About Earthquakes Or Their Aftermaths

I don't know about you, but I definitely feel ready for a change of pace, at least for one day …

So on that note, what's some of the good writing stuff that's going down?

Firstly, I revised 27 pages of The Gathering of the Lost (The Wall of Night, Book Two) today—which may not sound like much, but it's a considerable advance on the 8 or so pages I managed on Monday, day-the-first of "getting back into it." So now my goal for tomorrow is to equal or better that target … (watch this space.)

—

Secondly, I am very pleased to have had two poems, Starman and Penelope Dreaming, from my Ithaca Conversations sequence, accepted by editor Mark Pirie for Broadsheet 7. I understand Broadsheet 7 will be coming out sometime in May. Mark is also the Managing Editor of Headworx Publishers and co-edited Voyagers Science Fiction Poetry from New Zealand (Interactive Press 2009) with Tim Jones.

Bookman Beattie ran a nice feature on Broadsheet on his Beatties Bookblog on Monday 21—you can check it out here.

Interlitq 14

You may recall that I also had another poem from the Ithaca Conversations sequence, titled One Day, published in Interlitq 14 recently, together with Australia Post.

—

OK, what's next? That's fairly easy because finally it's NZ Book Month (they skipped last year to shift the annual date from September/October to March.) As part of the nationwide celebrations I'll be in Otago/Southland from March 21-26, as a guest of the Dan Davin Literary Foundation, giving a series of workshops for high school kids as well as a public lecture in Invercargill. I'm really looking forward to it and have already done a bit of work on the workshop content—all those good ideas percolating away …

—

Last but not least, I've received—and accepted!—an invitation to attend Context, this year's NZ National Science Fiction Fantasy Convention, to be held in Auckland over Queen's Birthday. I was very disappointed not to be able to attend Au Contraire last year due to a longstanding family event, so I am definitely pleased to be going to Context, especially with Catherine Asaro as the International Guest of Honour. Now I just have to put my thinking cap on and come up with some panel/discussion options.

Nice, too, just to have some positives to talk about after all the earthquake reports.:)

Earthquake Report Day 15 (March 8)

March 8 was  International Women's Day, but noting that was about the limits of what I felt able to do to celebrate it this year. Normally Suffrage Day, September 19, is the day the Women on Air programme, Plains 96.9 FM,  organises an event—so fingers crossed the city and the programme will be in a state to do something by that time this year. At present the Plains 96.9 FM building is still inside the central city cordon (ie the off-limits zone) so who knows when we will be back on air—or what condition the building is in. (The station manager's latest advisory was still an "unable to even access the site to ascertain the level of damage." That cordon the Civil Defence folk have in place is definitely serious business and to be fair, probably still needs to be at this stage.)

Yesterday, March 8, I mostly just felt tired and it was a real struggle to get anything done, even though I've been doing so much up until now. I suspect this may be the aftermath of the initial, post February 22 adrenaline rush kicking in. Adrenaline is good stuff and helps you get through a lot  that needs to get done—but sooner or later you have to signal 'time out' or pay the price. So I think I will be trying to take things a little more slowly over the next few days, despite all those things on the "still really need to make happen" list.

Getting back into the writing as of Monday definitely felt good, although just a little like dealing to the weight of Sisyphus's boulder. That was not just because of the immense, post February 22 tiredness, but also because I had to shift my head back into a completely different space from earthquake recovery. Like the rest of the city, everything in my study pretty much got thrown everywhere by the earthquake and although I had found the annotated manuscript and my editor's notes as a priority on the 22nd, securing it in my 'evacuation kit' (in the event evacuation was  required, which fortunately it wasn't), the pages weren't necessarily in pristine order. So getting everything back to the point it was at as of 12.51 pm on February 22nd was the essential first step. The second was dealing with the weirdness of going back to doing what I had been doing then, as  though none of the previous two weeks had happened—which engendered it's own strange sense of dislocation.

Although as I said in Monday's post, very much a step that needed to be taken. And despite the tiredness, one that has felt good as I slowly get back into the rhythm of the story that is The Gathering of the Lost, The Wall of Night Book Two.

Just as I scheduled this to post, a really good, solid, 4.3 aftershock came through, with a prolonged rumble and shake up of that same study—just to remind me that it's not over yet, not by a long chalk.

Tuesday Poem: "To a Poor Old Woman" by William Carlos Williams

To a Poor Old Woman

munching a plum on

the street a paper bag

of them in her hand

They taste good to her

They taste good

to her. They taste

good to her

You can see it by

the way she gives herself

to the one half

sucked out in her hand

Comforted

a solace of ripe plums

seeming to fill the air

They taste good to her

by William Carlos Williams

—

On November 2, 2010 I posted Spring and All, which is also a poem by William Carlos Williams. I said at the time that Williams is one of my favourite poets, but even so I would not normally have posted another poem of his so soon. There is a particular reason for choosing this poem, however.

In the immediate few days after the earthquake, when we had no power or other services, and were subsisting on food from a can that could be cooked over a spirit burner, a neighbour brought me fresh plums from her tree. They were great plums, but the delight of eating something fresh, with that borderline between sweet and tart that the best plums manage to achieve, reminded me strongly of this poem: they tasted good to me, in fact.

Hence my choice of To a Poor Old Woman for this week's Tuesday Poem. (Although I'm not having having a bar of either the poor or the old, no matter the circumstances.)

—

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

In Which I Decide … To Return to My Work

Tomorrow, Tuesday 8 March, it will be two weeks since the February 22 earthquake wreaked such havoc on Christchurch. And there's still a truckload to be done, both in the city and right here on the home acre. Yesterday, after spending most of the day working through lists (believe me, these are endless—as fast as you cross one task off, another 10 spring up in its place, not unlike the heads of Hydra) and also packing away books and ornaments (so that I could consequently store away large, likely-to-fall-over items of furniture, ie shelving units) I was exhausted. Ex-haus-ted, dear readers.

Part of that exhaustion, I suspect, was emotional: I felt like a refugee in my own home. It also underlined what I have known in my head from the 22nd—that this really isn't going to be over for a long time. But I also thought:  I still have  a manuscript to edit and two more books to write. That's my job and despite all this other stuff that's crying out to be done, I need to get back to it. Life amongst the ruins perhaps, but we all need to carry on.

I'll undoubtedly still spend a great deal of time with my arm up to my shoulder in water, clearing silt from stormwater traps, plus scraping the last layers of liquefaction sludge off hard surfaces, as well as chasing EQC and insurance companies, builders and drainlayers (me and the rest of the city.) I'll definitely keep bringing you reports from the 'burbs for a while yet, too. But I want to start moving on—and actively returning to work, which in my case is writing, seems like the best place to start.

So that's what I'm doing today. I'm sitting down at my desk, in amongst all those boxes of packed away stuff, and I'm working on the ms for The Gathering of the Lost, The Wall of Night Book Two.

How about you? What are you doing, where you are?

Earthquake Report, Day 13 (March 6)

Why This Report Is Late:

Yesterday I promised this earthquake report either late yesterday or 'early' today and at early afternoon it definitely ain't early in the day… So what happened?

Firstly, the weather forecast yesterday promised rain, so as soon as I posted the book draw and launch-a-thon results I headed out, despite wind and dust, to try and clear what silt I could from the on-street drains—another 4-hour digging stint. This time I was on my own as well, which always makes the job feel a bit tougher, and needless to say I was exhausted at the end of it—but got the opportunity to head across town to a  friend's place and do laundry, and so 'seized the day.' But by the time all that was done, there was no time—or, if I am honest, energy—for blog posts.

I am glad that I did the work though, because I pulled out a lot more silt as well as clearing several small "dams" caused by blown newspaper and other rubbish, and when I checked the morning (because it has been raining) the water on the street at least was flowing. This is the situation we are in now: without rain, we get the constant blowing dust and the sort of storms we got last Wednesday (when, as my brother said: 'I saw the pictures on line and Christchurch looked like the Sahara'); with rain the dust is damped down, but with the stormwater pipes silted up presents a very real risk of surface flooding—and because of the liquefaction, subsidence as well.  Fortunately the rain has been light and intermittent, so we'll probably be ok.

The other reason why this post is late is because we had another swarm of aftershocks yesterday and two of them were 4 pointers, 4.1 and 4.8 respectively, and on top of the baseline of existing damage, of course have done more. Power went off briefly after the 4.8 and a few more things got shaken down so there has been a little bit of tidy up to be done this morning. That is a thing I know I definitely did not appreciate prior to September 4—and now February 22 has just underlined the point—which is that an event of this kind is not just the one quake and then it's over. There are swarms of aftershocks, some of them quite large in their own right: close to 5000 between September 4 and February 22, and another 410 approximately since then. And each aftershock of any magnitude worsens the existing damage. You get more cracks in walls, or existing cracks widen and/or lengthen, and houses that are already off their foundations get shaken a little further "off-centre.

Our Situation:

In terms of our personal situation, we are still without sewer and may yet be for some time, but we have power and tap water that is usable so long as we boil it. An update on our house as of Friday—we were visited by a council building assessment team—is that I was right to think the damage moderate, but also that there is some risk associated with our remaining chimney stack, as well as compromised bracing in one room. So both those areas will need to be addressed as soon as possible, which still leaves us somewhere far down a very long list, I imagine … But so far, it's still weathertight and livable so we still consider (know!) ourselves to be well off compared to many.

The Trip Across Town:

The laundry run last night was the first time I have left the immediate area since February. I haven't had a car and it's been pretty tough getting around on foot, because of all the dust and congestion on the roads that have been open, as well as having to dodge emergency repair works everywhere—either that or get in the way of the teams doing stuff that matters, which is not "the go" in my book. Even if I had the car, the Civil Defence authorities have been asking people to stick to essential trips, so I wouldn't have been going far anyway. But this is the first time I've gotten much visibility of the larger picture, with the roads buckled and mounded in many places and a large number of collapsed buildings. I knew all this anyway, from the news reports, but last night's drive certainly brought home that the city I knew before February 22nd  is going to be in large part gone forever. It's not just the big landmark buildings, it's all the little street corners and pockets of character, too.

The Lyttelton Timeball Station

One major landmark building that is definitely going is the Lyttelton Timeball Station. It is a Category 1 Registered Historic Place and internationally significant because of its rarity, but has been so badly damaged by the February 22nd earthquake that it has to be demolished. The official notice on the NZ Historic Places Trust site is here.

I actually saw in the New Year for 1 January 2000, the first day of the new millenium, at the Lyttelton Timeball Station and composed this little poem on the occasion. I've never put it 'out there' before, because  the "break break break" beginning is too strong an echo of Tennyson's poem of the same name—but at the time it was a tribute to one of the great poets of the previous millenium and "worked" in the context of a verse that I made up "on the spot" for the group of friends that I was with. I also note that the bird call and the welcome to the world of light is an element in many traditional Maori waiata.

Despite these limitations, I am still going to leave you with this poem for today, both because of its strong association with, and as my personal commemoration of, this wonderful building—but also because it speaks of hope for the future, which is something I feel we all need to look toward now in Christchurch, even as we mourn all that has been lost.

Millenium

1 January 2000

Break

Break

Break

New dawn

New day

New millennium

The weight of a thousand years

Dissolves, lifts, rolls away,

like a mist on the face

of the sea, when the sun

comes up, rejoicing.

The bird calls,

out of darkness – welcome:

welcome to the world of light.

It is the world new made,

a world made for living in,

and the bird calls

with the voice of morning:

Ka marama – it is the Dawn.

Ka awatea – it is Day.

by Helen Lowe

"The Heir of Night" UK Launch Giveaway—& Launch-a-thon Result

The Giveaway:

The "The Heir of Night" UK  launch giveaway, has now been drawn and the winners are:

Miriam
Kathie Tanner
EmmaD

Miriam, Kathie and EmmaD will each receive a signed "Helen Lowe' book set comprising:

the UK first edition of The Heir of Night (in large format trade paperback); and
Thornspell (Knopf, USA), which won the Sir Julius Vogel Award for Best Novel: Young Adult in 2009

Congratulations to you all. If you email me through my website, contact[at]helenlowe[dot]info with your postal address, I'll get the books in the mail to you as soon as possible.

—

The Launch-a-thon:

And another huge thank you to everyone who commented on the launch day post. I really, really appreciate the moral support during this time, which is very tough just getting through at a day-to-day level. Yet there are so many people out there who are much, much worse off than me—the need out there is just huge, even if we are all "getting on with it", Kiwi fashion.

I have counted the comments and by my reckoning:

44 comments by people other than myself were recorded on the three posts dated March 3.
I made 11 responses, which I am also including in the total count, which adds up to a 'grand' total of 55 comments for the launch-a-thon.

And 44 by the way, is the most comments, I have ever received on a single post, so we do have a new record there.:)

In terms of my donation to the the NZ Red Cross 2011 Earthquake Appeal, I was going to donate $1 per comment up to $500. Yet even though, as I noted in one of my comments, I am expecting to have to dig deep because of the earthquake on a number off fronts and $500 was always going to have been a stretch, $55 does not seem quite enough given the huge level of need that is out there. So I have decided to up the level of my contribution per comment to $5, which will make the total of my donation to the Red Cross $275.

I will be making that donation electronically tomorrow, 6 March, and would again like to thank all of those who commented, very much, for your moral support for Christchurch.

—

The Next Earthquake Report:

And for those who are following the earthquake reports, I will be doing another one either later today or early tomorrow, NZ time.

"The Heir of Night" UK Launch Book Giveaway Now Closed

Thank you all so much for your generous and supportive comments and —"getting in behind" as we like to say here!—Christchurch and the launch-a-thon.

I'll close the book draw giveaway as scheduled since it is now 8 pm, but if any new readers want to still post comments for the launch-a-thon, I'll keep counting those until I post the book draw result here tomorrow, Saturday 5 March (that'll be NZ time.)

And to leave you for today, a quote that somehow seemed very "onto it":

"Bad times, good times, that is what people keep saying, but we are the times; such as we are, such are the times." — St Augustine

"The Heir of Night": Now Published in the UK—Plus Earthquake 'Launch-a-thon'

It definitely feels a little strange to have a book launch in the immediate aftermath of the February 22nd earthquake that has caused so much devastation here in Christchurch—but I do want to at least mark the occasion of The Heir of Night's release into the UK, and do so in a way that contributes to the earthquake recovery effort.

Scroll down to find out more–and enjoy the "unabridged version" of the wonderful release day graphic from Peter Fitzpatrick, who is also  responsible for the very special map for The Wall of Night series.

So what's happening today, March 3:

1. Firstly, I have a release day post on the Orbit blog: you can check it out here (if you haven't already.:) )

2. To mark the UK release, I'll be giving away 3 x signed book sets of:

the UK first edition of The Heir of Night (in large format trade paperback, no less!); and
Thornspell (Knopf, USA), which won the Sir Julius Vogel Award for Best Novel: Young Adult in 2009

To enter the draw, make a comment on this post before 8 pm, Friday 4 March, New Zealand time; or 7 am Friday 4 March, UK (London) time. The 3 winners will be drawn by random selection on Random.Org and the result notified here, on "… Anything, Really", on Saturday 5 March (NZ time.)

3. Last, But Very Far From Least—the 'Launch-a-thon': I would have preferred otherwise, but this UK launch has fallen in the aftermath of what may prove to be NZ's worst natural disaster to date. To show support for my city and community, I'll donate a dollar, up to a maximum of NZ$500, for every person who comments on the official launch post (or in fact any of my posts today, March 3) before 8 pm on Friday 4 March, NZ time (7 am, Friday 4 March, London UK time.) The money will go to the NZ Red Cross 2011 Earthquake Appeal.

Needless to say, I hope that a lot of you will comment!   I'm looking forward to reading what you have to say.

UK Launch Day 'Advisory'

Yesterday, I advised that today, March 3, was launch day for The Heir of Night in the United Kingdom. A big day for the Heir, if necessarily somewhat muted because of the earthquake situation here.

But because the UK is 13 hours behind New Zealand and I would like to synchronize with the actual launch day there, I won't be posting the official "Helen Lowe on Anything, Really launch day post" until 8 pm, NZ time. (This will be 7 am UK time, when I also have a guest post going live on the Orbit blog.)

And remember, as well as giving away away three signed booksets of the UK first edition of The Heir of Night and Thornspell–-to be drawn from those who comment on the official launch post, here on "… Anything, Really", that is going up at 8 pm*—I'll also be donating a dollar for every person who comments on the official launch post (or in fact any of my February 3 posts)  to the NZ Red Cross 2011 Earthquake Appeal, up to a maximum of $500.

So tell everyone you know to come and comment to support my "The Heir of Night UK launch and earthquake appeal" launch-a-thon.

—

* Note: The official launch day post will stay in place until 8 pm, Friday 4, New Zealand time (7 am, Friday 4, UK time) so you'll have plenty of time to get your comment in.

Reprise on my Earthquake Report for Day 8

Dust over Christchurch: in this case, minutes after the February 22nd quake

… in which we experienced dust.

Even before today, dust has been a feature of this week as the liquefaction sludge dries out. But one unique aspect of Canterbury—besides earthquakes, as it now turns out—is the hot, dry, strong, nor'west wind that blows in across the plains. Today it blew up a storm, with wind gusts reported as being up to 90 km per hour, in a city that is absolutely full of the very fine liquefaction dust. So it was hot, because nor'westers are always hot, but even with windows closed and curtains drawn to keep it out, the fine dust filtered into every part of the house. As one friend emailed: "I am sure you are as covered in dust inside today as are we, it is vile stuff."

On a more upbeat note, reports are positive on the clean-up, with the "student army" that has been helping people dig out all week being joined by farmer volunteers (the "farm-y army") and the actual army—in this case squads of reservists ( we call them 'territorials' here) going into the worst affected suburbs to help with the clean up. Very good news for the residents in those areas.

Staying with the practical aspects of the situation in the suburbs, i.e. outside the (deservedly) high profile central area, one of the major concerns has to be the ongoing lack of sewage (due to damage done to the infrastructure.) A friend who lives in the badly hit suburb of Avonside says that it now 'stinks of sewage.' Definitely not good—and a situation with potential for considerable public health problems, including the possibility of epidemics, if it carries on. Something that I am sure the authorities are more than aware of, however, without me adding my two bits worth.

That "interestingly re-contoured" driveway!

At a personal level, although my property is now at tidy-up stage with regards liquefaction, the next need is to try and organise repairs—starting with assessing the actual structural condition of the house, as opposed to my 'best guess', as well as the restoration of damaged sewage and stormwater lines, and the 'interestingly re-contoured' driveway. There's also still a  lot of need for support in the community, not just for practical help such as (yet more!) digging, but also the moral support of helping people simply decide "where to start", and sometimes "just being there", especially for those who are on their own.

Plus trying to still stay in touch with what was your "normal life"—on which note, I'll be posting a separate UK Launch 'Advisory' shortly!