Helen Lowe's Blog, page 319

"Our Staff Recommends"—Hurrah!

AU/NZ Cover

Tarran, at Angus & Robertson Edwardstown, in Adelaide, Australia, has done a review of The Heir of Night and you can read it here, but yes—she is recommending it! Hurrah!

Double hurrah (and thank you, I have to say!)—Tarran has also emailed that I will be "Author of the Month" for Angus & Robertson Edwardstown's November newsletter, which is seriously cool.

So now I had better go and finish my guest post for Tarran & the store blog before—yup, you've guessed it—getting into The Gathering of the Lost (The Wall of Night Series: Book Two) for the day.

Tuesday Poem: "Spring and All" by William Carlos Williams

Spring and All

By the road to the contagious hospital

under the surge of the blue

mottled clouds driven from the

northeast – a cold wind. Beyond, the

waste of broad, muddy fields

brown with dried weeds, standing and fallen

patches of standing water

the scattering of tall trees

All along the road the reddish

purplish, forked, upstanding, twiggy

stuff of bushes and small trees

with dead, brown leaves under them

leafless vines –

Lifeless in appearance, sluggish

dazed spring approaches –

They enter the new world naked,

cold, uncertain of all

save that they enter. All about them

the cold, familiar wind –

Now the grass, tomorrow

the stiff curl of wildcarrot leaf

One by one objects are defined –

It quickens: clarity, outline of leaf

But now the stark dignity of

entrance – Still, the profound change

has come upon them: rooted, they

grip down and begin to awaken

William Carlos Williams, 1883 – 1963

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William Carlos Williams is one of my favourite poets and also one of the defining voices of 20th century American poetry.  In this poem, the title poem of his 1923 collection Spring and All, I particularly like the way he defies contemporary poetic dictum by the powerful use of multiple adjectives to create a 'more is [much] more' effect in the following stanza:

"All along the road the reddish

purplish, forked, upstanding, twiggy

stuff of bushes and small trees

with dead, brown leaves under them

leafless vines – "

Overall though, I just love the acute observation inherent in the poem and its powerful sense of energy, however "sluggish" and "dazed" the spring that approaches—but oh, that imagery! And the wonder of:

" … Still, the profound change

has come upon them: rooted, they

grip down and begin to awaken"

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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.

What I've Been Doing …

On Saturday I did a wrap up post on the F-SF Guest Author Series and I've kept you updated on interviews and reviews, as well as attending Armageddon but you may have been wondering what else I've been up to while all this was going on. The answer is easy—which is that finishing The Wall of Night Series Book Two (working title: The Gathering of the Lost, or just Gathering for short) is pretty much the only game in town right now.

In my It's Friday update on 15 October I said that: "My goal for the month … [is] … to see if I can't knock off 60,000 words, which should just about see the book done.  I'll keep you posted on how I'm going …"

How am I going? Well so far I've done 15,000 new words, plus a fair amount of revision, but given time and target I think it would be fair to say that I am not getting the words out as fast as I had hoped. But then I have also found in the past that just cranking out words for their own sake doesn't necessarily advance the story—and what I can say is that the 15,000 new words I've written since the 15th  definitely do advance the story.

So what drives me when I'm writing a book? Mostly, that I want the story to have integrity, which for me is mainly about continuity and consistency of both plot and characters—and you will recall that on October 22, I blogged on the importance for me of remaining true to character in my writing. I also think a lot about trying to write in an interesting way, not just repeating the words and phrases, or using the same adjectives or ideas to describe certain characters or environments.

And what encourages me to keep going and cranking those words out? Mainly, I've been carrying this story around with me for a long time—parts of it, as I've said in some of the online interviews I've done, from a very early age—so I really want to tell it: that always brings me back to the writing desk.

But a really big encouragement lately has been getting so much positive feedback for The Heir of Night, with people out there saying they have really loved it and "can't wait" for Book Two. Having waited myself in the past, I don't want my readers to have to do that, so am very keen to get Gathering done and out there to you.

A little bit about what Gathering is about? Well, it definitely continues the story of Malian and Kalan as begun in The Heir of Night, but the heralds, Tarathan of Ar and Jehane Mor, also get some serious point-of-view time. And I have just finished a sequence with Asantir and Haimyr which I really enjoyed writing—put simply, the story rocked along. There are also some new characters introduced in Gathering, in part because the unfolding story requires their presence and in part because the action has shifted away from the the Wall of Night to other regions of Haarth. One of these new locales is Ij, the home of Haimyr the Golden and one of the great cities of the River (which is a loose confederation of independent city states.) Another new locale is the duchy of Emer, the home of the heavily armoured Emerian knights …

But which point-of-view characters you will meet in each place, and what befalls them there, is something you will have to "wait and see …"

As for getting through the writing and reaching that final line and last word—as I said on October 15, please feel free to offer incentives (virtual chocolate cake et al)  —although in fact the biggest aid to writing is always uninterrupted time. So a week with a mostly clear diary, as I have ahead, is writer's bliss.

Samhein—All Hallows Eve—Halloween

Halloween is one of those festivals that it always feels odd celebrating in New Zealand, given its very close association with the northern hemisphere's seasonal cycles. Even the nature of contemporary celebration—dressing up in scary costumes, jack o' lanterns, trick-or-treating—are all activities that make more sense in the gathering dark of autumn evenings, rather than the long, light, early evening of late spring/early summer in the southern hemisphere.

The modern, secular festival of Halloween derives originally from the Celtic festival of Samhain, which was associated with harvest end and the passing of the year from summer into the dark and cold of winter. From what I have read, it also had elements of a "day of the dead," when what more eastern traditions would describe as "the hungry ghosts" had to be placated with offerings of food. Once Christianity became the dominant religion, the 31 October/1 November date for Samhain became the religious festival of All Hallows' Eve, or All Saints' Day, which formally commemorates all the Christain saints. The day after All Saints is All Souls, which remembers those who have died in the faith, but without achieving sainthood. (There are definite overlaps to the earlier Celtic  tradition here. Even the bonfires of Guy Fawkes, a few days later, echo the bonfire tradition of Samhain …)

But whether a harvest festival or a feast of the dead, it is hard to get into the spirit of Halloween on a clear spring evening with lilac, wisteria and the first poppies all blooming, and fresh green growth everywhere. Perhaps not surprisingly, therefore, I have always turned to story to get the Halloween experience, and because I don't really care for horror movies, that pretty much means books. (OK, there's Buffy, as well …)

One of my all-time favorite Halloween stories is the Scottish tale of Tam Lin, and my favourite retelling is found in Rosemary Sutcliff's The Armourer's House (Oxford Children's Library, 1951), in the Chapter titled "A Tale for Hallowe'en." Here's a small sample to give you a feel for why, even though it's very much a kids' retelling, I think it's well worth a read.

by PJ Fitzpatrick

" … Oh, but it was wild and lonely up there, with the larks singing in the wide skies, and the whaups crying, and the land dropping away from her feet to the blue hills of the Border Country. And all at once Janot was afraid, and just for a moment she thought that she would take the gold pin from her gown and leave it for a gift to the Fairy Kind, and go home quickly, as she had come. But she was not one to turn away from a thing because she was afraid; so she bent forward across the well-curb, and broke off a long wild-rose spray that arched above it. There were two pink blossoms upon the spray, and as she broke it off, the petals fell from one of them, as is the way of wild roses when their branch is shaken. She leaned forward to watch the five petals floating in the dark water, and there was her own face looking up at her from the depths—aye, and another face looking over her shoulder! A thin face it was, and dark enough to startle any maid.

For the time that it might take your heart to beat twice, Janot never moved. Then she turned slowly from the well-curb, still holding the rose-switch in her hand. Close beside her on the green-sward stood a brave young gallant, clad all in green, from his close-fitting hose to his feathered bonnet. And oh, but he was bonny, despite his black hair and his wan, dark face; there was a cleft to his chin and a quirk to his eyebrow, and the eyes of him were bright and grey …

… I am called Tam Lin," said the young man, and, as he spoke, he doffed his bonnet to her so low that it swept the fern …"

So that's a very small sample of one of my favourite Halloween stories. What is yours? And why? I'd love for you to tell me.

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The etching in Jaransor, from The Heir of Night, from a series of images done by PJ Fitzpatrick
who drew the Heir map, but the "feel" also suits the description of Carterhaugh, a "wild and
lonely" place.

FSF Guest Author Series: Wrap Up & Competition Result

Series Wrap-Up

Firstly, I apologise for taking so long to get to this. The F-SF Guest Author Series wrapped up on Wednesday with James Norcliffe's post—and it is now Saturday (already–how did that happen?) Well a few things did happen, including visits from family and friends from out of town, and another friend returning from the best part of two months overseas—the stuff of life, to which even blog posts must occasionally take second place.

The bonus is, having had that little bit of extra time has really given me the chance to reflect on the series—mainly on how much I enjoyed it. The theme was "Why Fantasy-Science Fiction Rocks My World", and one of the aspects that amazed me was how each new guest could take that theme and give it a fresh twist. Authors spoke of "what if" and "why not" and "wonder"; of hope and hope of change, the human need for belief and acts of invocation; of whether we are, in fact not living in a science fiction novel (and if so, by whom?)—and how, however often the laws of physics may be abandoned in both fantasy and science fiction, the Mighty and Immutable Laws of Fiction must always prevail.

In short, a great deal of territory was traversed, with wit, insight and panache. So I hope you will join with me now in thanking all the authors who contirbuted to the series:

Alan Baxter (AU: Dark Fantasy)

Nicole Murphy (AU: Paranormal Urban Fantasy)

Mary Victoria (NZ: Epic Fantasy)

Kim Falconer (AU: Epic Fantasy)

Tracey O'Hara (AU: Paranormal Urban Fantasy)

Marianne de Pierres (AU: Science Fiction)

Michael Pryor (AU: Fantasy YA)

Tim Jones (NZ: Science Fiction, Fantasy)

Juliet Marillier (AU: Historical Fantasy)

Anne Hamilton (AU: Junior Fantasy)

Julie Czerneda (CAN: Science Fiction, Fantasy)

Gillian Polack (AU: Fantasy)

James Norcliffe (NZ: Junior/YA Fantasy)

If you would like to re-read the full series (plus a few spin-off posts), or if there is an author you missed and would like to read now, you will find the collected posts under Categories: F-SF Author Guest Series in the far right hand sidebar.

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Competition Result

AU/NZ Cover

The other reason for delaying this post is that I have been waiting for the "Sorting Hat" to do its independent thing with the competition that has been  running from the AU/NZ launch.  You may recall that, as part of the launch of The Heir of Night into AU/NZ, together with the giveaway prizes, I also ran a competition concurrent with the F-SF Guest Author series, as follows:

"Everyone who posted either on October 7 of AU/NZ Launch Day or on any of the posts by F-SF writers in the Guest Author Series, would enter the draw to have their name included as a character name in The Wall of Night Series, Book Two. The qualifying provisos for the competition were:

Each time an individual commented on a post by an F-SF guest author their name gained an additional entry into the draw (but only 1 new entry per F-SF author post would be allowed);
The name included in the book was to be the commenter's real name;
I also reserved the right to adapt the winner's name to best fit a fantasy character, e.g. "John the Miller" as opposed to "John Miller"—but the winner's full name and success in the competition would be set out in the "Acknowledgments" section of the book."

OK, that's the background. On to the result! All 99 eligible names were entered into a database, independently verified and then run through a random number generator, and … (trumpet flourish):

The Winner is:  "janlb" — Jan Butterworth!
Congratulations, Jan.

And yes, I have already thought of a way to weave "your" character into the continuing story!

Bonus Giveaway

You'll recall that I also offered to give away a copy of Thornspell to anyone who could work out the "numerical literary style" used in Anne Hamilton's guest post. An answer was put forward, but Anne has advised that it was not—alas!—correct. (You can check Anne's guest post, here to see what she had to say under the Comments.) But I also said that if the verdict was a "thumbs down" for "777″, then I would ask the Sorting Hat to "choose again" amongst all those who commented on October 7 and during the course of the series, and give the Thornspell copy away as a secondary prize. This, too, has now occurred and …

the winner is: Brendon

—who posted as part of the AU/NZ launch celebration on October 7. Congratulations, Brendon, If you email me via my website (see Contact above), I'll arrange to post the book it to you.

Out of this Eos: "The Heir of Night" & Characters Under Pressure

USA Cover

I have a guest post on my US publisher's Out of this Eos blog today, on "The Heir of Night and Characters Under Pressure."  Here's an intro:

Last week, I had a guest post on John Scalzi's Whatever blog, talking about the "Big Idea" behind The Heir of Night, which centers around how good and evil are often portrayed in fantasy, particularly epic fantasy. Writing that post got me thinking about how, as an author, a big idea gets to "work its way out" through your story. In The Heir of Night (Heir) it's definitely all about the characters, who they are, what code of values they subscribe to—and how they behave in relation to those values when the chips are down. So I guess that's why Heir is quite an adventurous story (OK, it's also because I like treks into dangerous territory, sword fights and hunts and battles with demons, to be strictly honest!) as well as being character driven:  because it's only when the going gets tough that the person you believe you are gets tested …

You can read the rest here.

Specusphere Review … & Halloween

Nicola, my publicist with Orbit in Australia, has sent through this review for The Heir of Night that is new on Specusphere. Take a look, here.

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And this Sunday, 31 October, is Halloween. I'll be talking about one of my favourite Halloween stories on the day–but I'd love you to hear about yours as well, so do drop by and "share."

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The  FSF series wrap up and competition winner announcement is still "on its way", but the "Sorting Hat" assures me that it will be done by "very soon." By the way, there were 99 eligible entries, which says a lot about your participation: I raise my (metaphorical) glass to all of you!

Over the Edge: Book Interview, Plus …

USA Cover

Over the Edge Interview

I have a new interview featured at Over the Edge, with a The Heir of Night giveaway opportunity as well, which will run until 31 October, so time yet to enter the draw. Also, I'll be dropping by from time to time, so if you have questions about Heir or WALL2 (The Gathering of the Lost) it's a good opportunity to ask them.

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The Heir of Night F-SF Guest Author Series—& Competition(s)

The F-SF Guest Author series is now all done, which is sad because there have been some great posts—but the positive is that I'll be back on deck with the blogging and hope to have some interesting topics for you … Of course, first up I'll be calling on the Sorting Hat to determine which lucky commenter during the course of the series will get to give their name to a character in WALL2.  So watch this space, but I am optimistic that the Sorting Hat will have done its thing and we will have—ta-da-dum!—a winning name for you by Saturday at the latest.  (But it may even be as early as tomorrow, so stay tuned … )

The Sorting Hat

You'll recall that I also offered to give away a copy of Thornspell to anyone who could work out the "numerical literary style" used in Anne Hamilton's guest post. We have a suggested answer, which is currently awaiting Anne's verdict, but if she comes back with the "thumbs down" then I shall simply ask the Sorting Hat to "choose again" amongst all those who commented during the course of the series  and give the Thornspell copy away as a secondary prize.

And you can still read all the F-SF Guest Author posts here, if you've missed any or just want to re-read one you particularly enjoyed.

Aimee Salter: Writing A Winning Query

Writers' House, New York

While the FSF Guest Author series has been running here on " … Anything, Really" fellow SpecFicNZ member, Aimee Salter, has been featuring her Writing A Winning Query series on putting together successful pitch letters, either to literary agents or publishers. I initially said 'yes' to contributing my pitch letter to Writers' House Literary Agency—only to discover that it has disappeared through a wormhole in space-time! So instead, I set out what I consider to be the fundamental rules-of-thumb for going about getting an agent/publisher—with a few tips from Robin, my agent, thrown in.  Anyway, if you're interested in pitching, or just want better insight into the world of "being-a-writer", you can check it out here.

"The Heir of Night" Guest Author Series: James Norcliffe

I personally know James Norcliffe best as a fellow poet, but he has a strong presence in Kids/YA speculative fiction and I loved his latest novel The Loblolly Boy—currenty available as The Boy Who Could Fly in the USA. I suspect you will also very much enjoy Jim's take on the series theme of "Why Fantasy Science Fiction Rocks My World", which is—sadly—the concluding post in the series.

F-SF Guest Author Post: James Norcliffe—"Why I get a buzz from fantasy"

I've always enjoyed Ambrose Bierce's delicious collection of cynical confectionaries The Devil's Dictionary. One choice morsel is his definition of prayer which goes something like this: that the laws of the universe be suspended on behalf of a single petitioner, confessedly unworthy. While, in the real world, this is probably intended as a salutary warning to the hopeless  against praying for the impossible, it also hints at the nature of fantasy. What I love about fantasy is its ability to grant that prayer in the world of the imagination. In fantasy, the unworthy petitioner (reader or writer) can suspend the laws of the universe: people can fly with wings, a cape or a suitably adjusted Feltex carpet; a bottle can be rubbed to generate a wish-granting geni; non-human creatures can not only talk, they can riddle and dissemble; a beautiful woman sans maidenform  bra can terminate in a fish-tail yet speak passable English.

Any what-if possibility is possible, and once postulated can be explored, embroidered, can be pursued via its own crazy logic to its astonishing conclusions.

Paul Klee once said of drawing that it was "taking a line for a walk". What I love about fantasy is that it allows the writer to take a possibility – or perhaps more accurately, an impossibility – for a walk. What often happens then is that the walk is transformed into an exhilarating ride.

This may suggest anarchy. If the "laws of the universe" have been suspended then the result must surely be a chaotic, untrammelled free-for-all. Literary mayhem.

Not so.

Even if the laws of the physics are abandoned, there are still the laws of fiction. And these are stern injunctions. Characters, whether human or fantastical must behave "in character" – there must be motivation, causes have effects and effects have causes. There must be the satisfying pattern of plot. Something must happen next and we must want to know what it will be, and when it does happen it must conform to the logic that has been created. Strange logic perhaps, but logic nevertheless.

What could be less real than the ringwraiths – the black riders  – who pursued Frodo Baggins as he set off to return the ring, the ringwraiths who terrified me when I first read The Lord of the Rings, who terrified my kids when I read it to them, and who still terrify me today. Not only unreal, but incorporeal to boot. And yet what at the same time could be more real, in the sense really, palpably, terrifyingly real? So real, you needed to check the doors and windows before you turned the light off (if you dared turn the light off) before you went to bed.

What I love about fantasy, as a reader, but especially as a writer, is that it allows me to play, to create, to take that exhilarating ride to places beyond the real, beyond the ordinary, to the limits of the imagination. It allows me not to break the rules, but to imagine new rules, new paradigms. I've often maintained that there is an association between poetry and fantasy . Both exploit the imagination, both  negotiate the tension between freedom and form, and both juxtapose original and surprising elements. A good poem is usually a discovery both for reader and writer. So, I believe, is a good fantasy.

About James Norcliffe:

James Norcliffe is the author of several fantasy novels for young people, of which The Assassin of Gleam (Hazard Press, 2006) won the Sir Julius Vogel Award for Best Novel in 2007. The Loblolly Boy (Longacre, 2009), his most recent work, won the NZ Post Children Book Award 2010 for Junior Fiction and was shortlisted for several other awards. James is also a poet, editor and educator whose writing has been featured in journals and anthologies, with several collections of poetry to his name, the most recent being Villon in Millerton (AUP, 2007.) He has also been the recipient of several awards and fellowships, the most recent being the 2006 Fellowship as a participant in the University of Iowa's International Writing Programme. James lives at Church Bay, Lyttelton Harbour with his wife Joan Melvyn and an ungrateful cat called Pinky Bones.

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To see—and read—the other authors who have posted in the Guest Series, click here.

Tuesday Poem: "Van Gogh in Aotearoa" by Siobhan Harvey

Van Gogh in Aotearoa

The spirit is alive

in Starry Night reproductions

which hang, like crucifixes,

in varsity bed-sits,

petit bourgeois do-ups

and nouveau riche villas

across Aotearoa.

In such replicas, he's reborn,

picks up his paintbrushes

and begins to set the All Blacks:

McCaw, Howlett, So'oialo,

upon the terra firma of his canvas

as if they're men at work, harvesting.

Then, he finds his Arles in Akaroa,

where Port Louis-Philippe's spectre

besets him with visions,

small prophecies, of fresh work:

Landscape under a Summer Sky,

The Rue Jolie Bridge at Akaroa,

Three White Cottages in Rue Balguerie.

Soon, forgetting sunflowers,

he forms a fresh muse

from the soleil-radiance

of kaka-beak and kowhai.

Finally, like Rangi and Papa,

he brings land and sky together

in a blue-black darkness

above the Desert Road

where stars are birthed so crisply

they stand in place of him

and speak of things long dead.

(c) Siobhan Harvey

Reproduced here with the permission of the poet.

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About the Poem:

Van Gogh in Aotearoa was first published in Landfall 215, (Otago University Press) 2008, and reproduced in Crest to Crest: Impressions of Canterbury Prose & Poetry, ed. Karen Zelas (Wily Publications) 2009.

In terms of why I have chosen it as my Tuesday Poem—quite simply, I have loved Van Gogh in Aotearoa ever since Siobhan Harvey read it for a Women on Air: Plains 96.9 FM interview: I think because of how strongly it evokes a spirit of place, juxtaposing the reality of New Zealand culture and landscape against the enduring wonder of Van Gogh's art in a sleight-of-word of poetic magic-realism.

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About the Poet:

Siobhan Harvey is the editor of Our Own Kind: 100 New Zealand Poems about Animals (Godwit, 2009) and Words Chosen Carefully: New Zealand Writers in Discussion (Cape Catley, 2010). She's Poetry Editor of Takahe magazine and Consulting Editor of International Literary Quarterly. Her first New Zealand poetry collection, Lost Relatives will be launched in Christchurch next March as part of 2011 Book Month.

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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.