Helen Lowe's Blog, page 32

About The Characters: Meet The Minor Players In “The Wall Of Night” Series — Meet Meya

USA

The About The Characters post series focuses on the minor characters in The Wall Of Night series, in large part because:

“I think it’s the presence of the smaller characters that “makes” a story, creating texture around the main points of view.”

~ from my Legend Award Finalist’s Interview, 2013

Initially, the series focused exclusively on characters from The Heir of Night, but now I’m continuing on with minor characters from both The Gathering Of The Lost and Daughter of Blood — in alphabeti...

What I’m Reading: “The House in the Cerulean Sea” by TJ Klune

Well, it’s been a while – 7 July, to be precise! –  since I posted that The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune had just arrived, thanks to the good offices of the publisher (TOR’s) regional rep.

I also shared that I was already reading and enjoying, so it’s definitely a case of “shame on me” for taking so long to post my “terribly important thoughts.” O:o!

First up, I enjoyed the story, which follows a “midlife sea change” storyline for the protagonist Linus Baker. Linus has lived a life of ...

Q&A Thursdays Reprised #7: Robin’s Question

This year, I’ve been reprising a Daughter of Blood  (and by extension The Wall Of Night ) Q&A series that first featured in 2019. I think the questions merit another look so I hope you’re enjoying the refeature, too. 🙂

Today’s question is from Robin, on the writing of Tuckerization characters.

UK/AU/NZ

Robin: You’ve had readers give their names to a character in both Daughter of Blood and The Gathering of the Lost. (I think it’s called Tuckerization?) Are those characters hard to write into the ...

On Supernatural Underground Now, “What Makes a Fantasy Hero?” #8: Clever — or Clueless?

I know, how can it be that time again — but it is! So on Saturday October 1, I posted Instalment  No. 8 in the “What Makes A Hero?” in Fantasy series, honing in on whether a hero needs to be clever, or can get away with being clueless…

And I am, as you can see, managing to keep that “C” theme going as well.

“When it comes to the importance of cleverness in a hero’s make-up, The Iliad provides two … models – the first is the wily Odysseus, who is called upon whenever military initiatives are at...

Monday’s Hilary Mantel Quote — & A Question Answered :-)

On Monday, I featured the following quote from Hilary Mantel, as part of remembering the author Maggie O’Farrell has described as the “queen of literature”:

“Many kinds of writing can be done in the unabashed light of day and by a precise intellectual process, but I think fiction that has layers and depths — the kind you can read twice* — has to come from an inner location that is in some way fogged, a place that is a continuing mystery to the author. When you begin  a project you don’t want to ...

Remembrance — & A Quote To Mark The Passing of Hilary Mantel, 1952-2022

Today is  a public holiday in New Zealand, to mark the passing of Queen of Elizabeth II and her seventy years as Aotearoa-New Zealand’s head of state.

Flowers for remembrance, Christchurch

Perhaps all eras are times of change, but it certainly feels like we are living through one where the degree of change is major, perhaps even unprecedented. So the end of the Queen’s 70-year reign does feel, more than usually, like the end of an era — not least because for so many of us, it spans a considerabl...

Revisiting “Finland” by Victoria Broome (From The Backlist)

Last week, I featured “On Writing”, from a post written in 2012.

The immediately preceding post was Victoria Broome’s poem, Finland, which I featured as a Tuesday Poem on 6 March 2012.

On re-reading, I thought all over again what a wonderful poem it is, so am sharing it with you again today.

Finland

She returned to Finland with her children
wrapped tight against the ice of the night.
So blue their throats ached.
It was a return to the old times, familiar pain,
the first crack of a river in thaw,...

A Nine-Book Giveaway on Supernatural Underground!

I shelved other post plans for today because there’s a fabulous nine-book Fantasy giveaway going down on Supernatural Underground.

(Nope, none of my books — just getting that straightened out and squared away. )

Nine Fantasy authors, including my friend and fellow SU author, AK Wilder, are giving away nine (9!) eBooks and a Kindle Fire to celebrate the launch of #TheLiarsCrown by New York Times bestselling author Abigail Owen.

It is restricted to US only—but I know that’s quite a lot of you! ...

About The Characters: Meet The Minor Players In “The Wall Of Night” Series — Meet Marten

UK/AU/NZ

The About The Characters post series focuses on the minor characters in The Wall Of Night series, in large part because:

“I think it’s the presence of the smaller characters that “makes” a story, creating texture around the main points of view.”

~ from my Legend Award Finalist’s Interview, 2013

Initially, the series focused exclusively on characters from The Heir of Night, but now I’m continuing on with minor characters from both The Gathering Of The Lost and Daughter of Blood — in alph...

“On Writing”: An ‘Oldie’ Now, But Still Good

When penning my WALL #4 update recently, I thought I’d endeavour to not just report progress but offer an insight into the writing life and my writing process—with some additional leaven, by way of humour, from the pen of the great Dorothy Parker.

In this instance, because the last three to four months have been challenging (which is as often as not the way), the focus was on some of the ups and downs, hence choosing the famous Dorothy Parker telegram by way of a companion quote.

Yep, some days...