Helen Lowe's Blog, page 327

Worldcon: Two Days In

"The Heir of Night"---Australia/New Zealand cover

And it's all happening! Yesterday, August 2, was registration and the grand opening of AussieCon 4, the 68th World Science Fiction & Fantasy Convention. After the opening it was straight into kaffeeklatsches, readings and panels, which flowed on into today, Friday 3—together with all the fun of meeting fellow writers such as Trudi Canavan, Juliet Marillier, Ian Irvine, Charles Stross, and Alison Croggan, and seeing others, such as China...

An Interview with Cheryl Morgan: Reprised for Worldcon

Worldcon is in full swing, so I'm reprising last week's interview of 25 August, with double Hugo Award winner, Cheryl Morgan.

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Cheryl Morgan is a science fiction critic and publisher. She is the owner of Wizard's Tower Press and editor of Salon Futura. Previously she edited the Hugo Award winning magazine, Emerald City (Best Fanzine, 2004). She also won a Hugo for Best Fan Writer in 2009. Cheryl is a director of San Francisco Science Fiction Conventions Inc., and of the Association for the...

Helen-in-Black on the Supernatural Underground

Today I'm blogging about being Helen-in-Black at Worldcon on the Supernatural Underground. Rock on over and check it out!

I'm in Melbourne!

And have been having a fun time exploring on foot, by tram, and by riverboat, ahead of Worldcon, which starts officially this afternoon.

Shrine of Remembrance

Yesterday, 1 September, was the first day of spring and the weather has been mixed, with balmy sunshine followed by cold winds and overcast skies, followed by rain, all in fairly quick succession. But it still feels warm enough to me, despite the rain, so I have not let it stand in the way of seeing the city—which in my book always...

I've Got Business Cards!

I've been thinking/realizing/ knowing for some time that I need business cards, but attending the forthcoming Worldcon and Christchurch Writers' Festival brought the need into sharp focus—so I went to visit my good friend Fitz, who also designed my website and—a treat in store for blog readers after Worldcon and the Writers' Festival—drew up the map for The Heir of Night.

Suffice it to say, when it comes to design it's hard to beat Fitz—so courtesy of his skill and flair I now have these...

Tuesday Poem: "The World As Meditation" by Wallace Stevens

The World As Meditation

J'ai passé trop de temps à travailler mon violon, à voyager. Mais l'exercice essentiel du compositeur — la médiatation — rien ne l'a jamais suspendu en moi … Je vis un rêve permanent, qui ne s'arrêteni nuit ni jour. — Georges Enesco

Is it Ulysses that approaches from the east,

The interminable adventurer? The trees are mended.

That winter is washed away. Someone is moving

On the horizon and lifting himself up above it.
A form of fire approaches the cretonnes of Penelope,

What I'm Reading

Last week I had the chance to read YA author Karen Healey's Guardian of the Dead ahead of both Worldcon and The Press Christchurch Writers' Festival where Karen and I are going to be in a number of events together. And I have to say that I found Guardian a fun read—an intriguing mix of urban fantasy in not just a New Zealand, but a Christchurch setting, woven together with Maori legends of the patupaiarehe (fairies) and taniwha, as well as the myth of Hine-nui-te-Po, the Goddess of Death.

But ...

Wine Wow

Last week I blogged about my friend CP Lin, the winemaker at Mountford Estate, our shared love of food and wine, and just how good I think the Mountford Estate wines are.

I never thought I was alone in that opinion, but I have just seen a recent article by Matthew Jukes, in Money Week 30 July 2010, in which he has the following to say about CP Lin's wines and Mountford Estate:

"This incredible estate is set to rock the palates of the wine cognoscenti … see for yourself just how beautiful and...

And Here's The NZ Post Book Award Result!

NZ Post Book of the Year:

Encircled Lands: Te Urewera 1820-1921 (Bridget Williams Books) Judith Binney

Fiction:

As The Earth Turns Silver (Penguin) Alison Wong

Poetry:

Just This (Victoria University Press) Brian Turner

General Non Fiction:

Encircled Lands: Te Urewera 1820-1921 (Bridget Williams Books) Judith Binney

Illustrated Non Fiction:

Go Fish: Recipes and Stories from the New Zealand Coast (Random House), Al Brown

People's Choice Award:

G o Fish: Recipes and Stories from the New Zealand Coast...

Today's The Day—the NZ Post Book Awards Will Be Decided!

Today is August 27—and that means that tonight the NZ Post Book Awards will be decided at a glittering (well, that's the word the promo material uses anyway) gala event in Auckland. And to personalise it all, two of my friends, Bernadette Hall and Michael Harlow, are in the running for the NZ Post Book Award for Poetry.

Just to be even handed, I featured first Bernie and then Michael as my Tuesday Poets over the past two weeks. All three finalists, including former Te Mata Estate Poet...