Helen Lowe's Blog, page 315

Shameless Self-Promotion!

I saw a sign today: "Only 3 weeks left until Christmas!"

My first thought was: panic!

My second was: I wonder how many people out there are in exactly the same boat as me, i.e. no prep, no presents bought and wrapped, going down to the wire on Christmas as on everything else. Sigh.

And then I thought—hey, here's an opportunity for some shameless self-promotion (by and for me!) which may even help others who are in the same pre-Christmas boat. So here goes—cool publications either written by me exclusively, or which include my work, that you could consider giving as gifts for Christmas: (I did mention the whole "shameless" bit, right?)

USA Cover

AU/NZ Cover

The Heir of Night— for adults and or teens who like classic epic fantasy, adventurous tales, and character-driven storytelling where there's complexity to the plot. Available from all mainstream book retailers in the USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, and internationally via Amazon (et al).

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Thornspell—for tweens and young teens (and readers of all other ages) who like fantasy generally and fairytale retellings in particular, especially where they come with sword fights and hunts, mysterious magic and a dash of romance. Available from booksellers in the USA, Canada and New Zealand, although you may have to "order" in Australia; otherwise internationally via Amazon et al again.

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JAAM 28: Dance Dance Dance (ed. Clare Needham; Helen Rickerby)—The recently released 2010 edition of NZ literary journal JAAM (Just Another Art Movement) contains two of my poems, Giacometti and Oral History as a (very small!) part of  a wonderful selection of both poetry, short fiction, photo essays and non-fiction prose by contemporary NZ writers. JAAM is available from a range of book retailers throughout New Zealand or direct from the magazine: click here for details. Another great gift idea for the person in your life who loves NZ short fiction and poetry, or literature in general, would be to give a subscription.

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across the fingerboards: the 2010 NZ Poetry Society Anthology (ed. Barbara Strang)—the perfect gift for the poetry lover in your life. The NZ Poetry Society anthology contains both the winners and placegetters in this year's international poetry and haiku competitons (both adult and junior sections.) A further selection of both haiku and poems drawn from entries into the competition—including my haiku winter buddha—have been selected by editor Barbara Strang for the anthology.

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But Wait—There's More!

(Even more shameless? I hope, not quite …)  Seriously, if you do wish to give a copy of either The Heir of Night or Thornspell as a gift for Christmas and would like to include a personal dedication for the recipient, if you email me your postal details through my website, plus the details you want included in the dedication, I will send you a signed bookplate by the next day's post. These plates have been personally designed for me by Peter Fitzpatrick, the artist who designed The Heir of Night map so they are quite special.

But you will have to let me know whether you are giving the "blue" US edition or "red" AUS/NZ edition as the bookplates—like the books!—come in a different size.

Mer Made!

I am delighted to have been invited by Marissa Johnpillai to read as a guest poet at the event Mer Made, to be held at Christchurch's Beat Street Cafe, on the cnr of Barbadoes and Armagh Streets, on Thursday December 16 at 8 pm.

Here's the "gen"—but I think this may just be a "be there or be square" event!

`'~,.,~'`'~,.,~'`'~,.,~'`'~,.,~'

Mer Made

(because the earth is 80% water)

oceans, islands & merfolk

spin words & play music

`'~,.,~'`'~,.,~'`'~,.,~'`'~,.,~'

The Cracks in Everything lap songs by Nikki BERRY

onto the shores of poems by

Tusiata AVIA

Jania GALLETLY

Helen LOWE

Danielle O'HALLORAN

`'~,.,~'`'~,.,~'`'~,.,~'`'~,.,~'

which, of course, leads to a whirlpool of

Tamara SMITH & Sum SURAWEERA —

the Flutation and Percussion from Mundi,

ripplin ,over^under_through~ lyrics by Marissa JOHNPILLAI —

the Buoy from Elsewhere

Tuesday Poem: "Blue" by Barbara McCartney

Blue

on Capri the gondola

rides far above the sea

hangs in green between blue and blue

below at the azure grotto

the boatman grasps the chain

we ride the surge

into glowing pale blue

our small flotilla circles

crosses the pool

(to bathe in this!)

and in Mainz

there's an overflow of blue as

Chagal's windows

light St Stephen's

a triptych of swirling leaves

tumble of angels

Jacob Moses Elias

the holy family

the Christ

the ancient ark adrift on blue

and generations of high water marks

on the walls of villages

along the Rhein and Main

and the grey Danube

acqua alta – ma quanto alta?

(c) Barbara McCartney

Published in Flap: The Chook Book 2, (The Hen House) 2010

* "acqua alta - ma quanto alta?" translates as "high water - but how high?"
As seen  on a safety leaflet from Venice.

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About the Poem:

This is the fourth and final Tuesday Poem selection from the recently released Flap: The Chook Book 2 by Christchurch poets Victoria Broome, Catherine Fitchett, Barbara McCartney and Christina Stachurski. Blue is from Barbara's section of the anthology: the distance from here to there. I love the transition of "blues" through waterscapes in the poem, and also the way this work complements Catherine's Blue last week—with Barbara's poem making the return journey to Europe, again by water, while nonetheless remaining an odyssey recorded in shades of blue.

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About Barbara:

Barbara wrote poetry as a child and started again about ten years ago, and has since been published in Poetry NZ, North and South Magazine, The Press (Christchurch), and Takahe magazine.  Barbara is one of the Poetry Chooks who have just published their second anthology, Flap: the Chook Book 2.  She likes poems to have more than one level of meaning/interpretation, and is usually pretty severe in editing her own and others' work.  She think a poem needs to be polished (as a jewel is), so that its essence is untrammelled by extraneous matter. Barbara also like hiding secrets within the language.

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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.

Keeping Going

On the 1st of every month I do a regular post on the Supernatural Underground blog, which is run by speculative fiction authors published by HarperCollins USA . But the current  "Publishing Rollercoaster" post by my fellow "Supe" and NY Times best-selling author, Jeaniene Frost, makes for extremely interesting reading, particularly for anyone aspiring to get a book published.

Basically, Jeaniene lists all the agents and publishers (yup, there's a few of  'em) who rejected her first—and best selling—novel, Halfway To The Grave. She also shares some of her thoughts on the path to publication. Fascinating reading—and it brought me back to what, if you listen to the stories of any number of successful writers, seems to be one of the key ingredients for success: No matter what else you do, you have to "keep going."

Interestingly, this is also the conclusion of a zen aphorism that I first heard quoted by Sensei Amala Wrightson in Auckland: "The way is easy—keep going; the way is difficult—keep going. Keep going."

"Keeping going" is not just a really important part of getting published, it's a huge part of writing a book at all. Easy or difficult, going well or going badly, you just have to keep going, pretty much every day. I say "pretty much" because I also agree with "Bad Astronomer" Phil Plait that:

"Actually, one [writing rule of thumb] that's serious is that if it ain't working, it's OK to walk away for a while. As long as it's just for a little while."

Sometimes those little breaks, whether it's a half hour walk, an hour in the garden, or a day "chilling", are vital to keeping going because they get you and your story back on track. But the emphasis on the break only being for a "little while" is equally vital, otherwise you lose momentum.

So speaking of "keeping going", how am I getting along with WALL2?

Aside from a few of those "little breaks" I am still sitting down every day and writing, and so far have gotten my new word count up to 26,870 since 16 November. With 10 days still to go for this "month", that puts me ahead of the curve for surpassing last month's 30,000 word  total. More importantly, I can actually see the end in sight—although I've been working on a tricky wee bit of plot resolution over the past week which does create a slight feeling of "treading water" in terms of progress. (It's kind of like dog-paddling through a vast ocean—every time you crest a wave, you see that the goal is really there, quite close even, but then you go down into the next trough and it's a while before you bob up again … )

It's at times like these that it's even more critical to keep your eye firmly fixed on the "keeping going" aphorism. No, not the goal, because the only way you'll actually get there is by taking the next step, and then the next one after that—and if you stop to congratulate yourself on how close you've got, well, you risk stopping taking those necessary next steps!

So the "secret" if you're writing, or whatever other project you have on, really is to keep going—and then get up and doing the same thing all over again tomorrow!

To read Jeaniene's post, click here. And Phil Plait's is here.

On Beatties Bookblog: "The Heir of Night" Sells Netherlands Rights

As featured this morning on Beatties Bookblog, Writers' House, the literary agency that represents my work, has sold foreign rights for The Heir of Night and The Wall of Night series to Luitingh-Sijthoff in the Netherlands. You can see the full post here.

So—woot! Lucky readers in the Netherlands are going to be able to read the Heir of Night saga in Dutch!

More Good News!

The Heir of Night has had another great review, this time in Fantasy Book Review in the UK, although it's by a Melbourne-based reviewer: very international!

Here's the lead-in:

"How many times have you heard the phrase "never judge a book by its cover"? It's a fair question, but I think that sometimes, as readers, we need to go further and never judge a book by its premise. I'm beginning to find that just because a book has what appears to be a stereotypical premise does not necessarily mean that the book itself will be stereotypically dull …

But I must admit my favourite phrase comes right at the end:

… in a world where fantasy books are often decried as a dime a dozen, Helen Lowe's The Heir of Night is a bright jewel unlooked for, but greatly appreciated"

You can read the full review here.

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Reader Feedback:

As an author, it's a real buzz when you receive feedback from readers who've enjoyed your work—and both Susan and Rebecca have agreed to let me share what they said:

Susan (from Oklahoma):

"I stumbled onto "Heir of Night" and I can't tell you how much I am enjoying it!  Your characters are quite detailed; they feel like real people to me, not cardboard cutout characters.  I can't think of anything I don't like about this book, except the wait for the second book! J "

Rebecca (from NZ)

"I've finished reading Heir of Night and I loved it …  The world you've created captivated me but there was a seriousness about it all that made a big impression. The characters have to live up to so much."

Good News

Sometimes, to borrow from Kate Atkinson's novel of the same name, the only question seems to be: "When Will There Be Good News?"

But then one day, the good news comes.

And there's been a little rush of it lately amongst my friends.

Victoria Broome, whose poetry manuscript, The Big Red Engine, was shortlisted for the prestigious Kathleen Grattan Award, found out that she was one of the two runners up—and that Otago University Press are considering The Big Red Engine for publication.  And believe me, all my fingers are crossed for the happiest of outcomes!

I featured Victoria's poem The Foreign Office, from Flap: The Chook Book 2 as my Tuesday poem selection on November 9.

The Kathleen Grattan Award was won by Jennifer Compton for This City. One of Jennifer's poems, The First Drummer Boy of Xmas featured as the Tuesday Poem on Helen Heath's blog this week. And Tim Jones featured her poem, Inheritance, last week.

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Poet and editor Siobhan Harvey, has just learned that her poem Tooth, which was published in the American magazine, Asheville Poetry Review this year has been nominated for The Pushcart Prize. The award honours the best of poetry and fiction published in small presses in the US during the year. Great news—and again with the fingers crossed!

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A US friend, Beth Anne Miller's debut novel Into the Scottish Mists is being released by The Wild Rose Press on February 4 next year—not many sleeps now—and although you can find Beth at http://www.facebook.com/bethannemiller17 she has also been a guest on Laura Treacy Bentley's blog–with the Into the Scottish Mists cover featured. Beth Anne's also going to be my guest on the Supernatural Underground on 1 February, so look out for that post!

Songs from the Sea

Yesterday, New Zealand marked two minutes silence for the 29 men who died in the Pike River mine explosion, at the commencement of a memorial service on the West Coast.

Songs from the Sea was written in memory of Rod Thornton, who also lived on the West Coast and died, aged 27, in a fall while mountain climbing. Given yesterday's sense of loss and elegy, and the strength of the West Coast environment in the poem, it felt like the "right" post for today.

Songs from the Sea

Songs from the sea sighing

in beneath the spindrift to the land's

curve, lying long beneath green bush

where the nikau palms stand sentinel

all along that shining margin

between sea and land, where the wind

goes walking through the wild grasses

and sea birds glide, sailing the currents

of the air above shifting saltwater

tides, plaintive, melancholy, crying

to the wide and empty skies.

All their songs are sung for you,

sough of the wind and sigh of the sea

are your lullaby and your requiem

where you now lie, in the green earth

of this country you loved so well

that in your passion to embrace it

you leapt too high, like Icarus flying

into the heart of fire, into the sun –

and so fell, back into emptiness

beneath the sky, where quiet now

in earth you lie.

(c) Helen Lowe

Published in Yellow Moon 17 (Australia) 2005.

Thornspell

Recently I sent fellow author Mary Victoria a copy of my novel Thornspell (Knopf, 2008) and she was kind enough to write back (amongst other things): "Thank you for giving me the opportunity to share a corner of your lively, lucid and rambunctious imagination!"

Lively, lucid and rambunctious—I definitely like that! And although every book is a work of imagination, I do think that Thornspell fits Mary Victoria's  "bill" (or should that be "billing"?) The basic premise of the story is a retelling of Sleeping Beauty, but it's from the perspective of the prince: from his childhood growing up beside the vast tangled forest and hearing all sorts of stories; and then hearing the story—and finding out it is not ancient history, old and dead mouldering beneath tree roots, but very much a clear and present danger to him, in his everyday world. The tale that follows is the kind of adventurous fantasy that I loved as a kid, where sword fights and hunts are as much a part of the story as the magic that stalks through dreams and can reveal both beauty and terror …

A few people have asked me whether Thornspell is "like" The Heir of Night—and I think the answer, like those given by Tolkien's elves, is "both yes and no."  Yes, they're both Fantasy and both "crossover" reads, although Thornspell is aimed at the 11-14 year old readership, whereas Heir is more for adults. And yes, they're both stories where adventure is a large part of the action, but the magic has a strong element of mystery deriving from dreamscapes and parallel dimensions.

I think the biggest differences are that Thornspell, although a fairytale retelling, is very much of this world (albeit in that country 'far away'), with one central protagonist and a small group of key supporting characters. The Heir of Night, on the other hand, is set in an alternate world, with two central protgonists but five or six other important point of view characters as well.  Finally, Thornspell is a standalone novel, whereas The Heir of Night is the first part of a quartet.

But I like to think that they're both lively, lucid and rambunctious works of imagination.;-) (Thank you, Mary Victoria!)

What I'm Reading

Last week, in this article on Beatties Bookblog, the Bookman added a footnote on his reading habits and asked readers to contibute a comment on theirs. I was one of those who did so, confessing—amongst other reading habits—to keeping up with my necessary book consumption, as a writer, by reading (standing up) at the kitchen bench with my lu[image error]nch time cup of coffee. Why stand up—because if I sit down with a book I may end up parked for the rest of the afternoon while my own writing is neglected. But I do get through a lot of books in a year by chipping away with that lunch time reading.

So what am I chipping away at, at present?

This past week I've had two novels on the go. I'm re-reading Alison Wong's As the Earth Turns Silver (Penguin), which won this year's New Zealand Post Book Award for Fiction. I loved Wong's poetry collection The Cup (Steele Roberts) which came out in 2006 and she brings the same spare lyricism to the novel. As the Earth Turns Silver is interesting from an historical perspective as well, since it concerns Chinese immigration to New Zealand in the late 19th, early 20th century whch is rarely addressed in NZ fiction. (I have a feeling that it is under-represented in non fiction as well, but hesitate to state that as fact without further research.)

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The second book I have on the go is Birth of the Firebringer by Meredith Ann Pierce, a Junior Fantasy first published in 1985 and reprinted by Firebird in 2003 (so it shoud be in libraries). A friend loaned me this a while back and I have only just gotten round to reading it—and it is good. It's unusual in this era of urban fantasy to find a story with non-human (and non-supernatural) protagonists, but Pierce carries it off well in Firebringer. The story has complexity, too, and I think will be enjoyed by kids who've previously liked the Narnia books or Erin Hunter's Warriors series.

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So how about you? What are you reading right now? Alternatively, what do you have in your TBR pile?