Helen Lowe's Blog, page 328

An Interview with Mary Victoria, Author of "Tymon's Flight"

My most recent SF-F interview on Women on Air, Plains 96.9FM was with Mary Victoria, whose debut novel, Tymon's Flight, was released by HarperCollins Voyager on 14 August—so yes, it should now be in every good bookstore near you!

To listen to the interview and hear Mary Victoria discuss some of the more intriguing ideas in Tymon's Flight, particularly the "world tree"—and yes, she does read from the book as well; just a snippet but you get the flavour—click here. (Then just click on the...

An Interview With Cheryl Morgan

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 Recognition of Excellence in SF & F Translation.

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I first met Cheryl Morgan at last year's National Science Fiction Convention...

Tuesday Poem: "I am a Tyger" by Michael Harlow

'I am a Tyger'

Despite 10 years

of 'talking cure', twice

weekly, such intimate

conversation between strangers,

he remains quite convinced

that he is still, you know,

a tyger

As a child no taller

than a table leg, he always

suspected he was a cat

It was the last of the litter,

Chatterwot, the family favourite,

who taught him, age 11,

to speak 'cat'

And he did. Not dog
or stag or unicorn, he knows
himself to be a tyger, 'burning
bright', in a body made strange
And of course he believes
he was adopted –...

Worldcon Ho!

On August 4, I blogged about booking my airfares to attend Worldcon, the World Science Fiction & Fantasy Convention being held in Melbourne from 2-6 September.

As of Friday, the official programme was confirmed and these are the events I'll be part of:

Fri 3, 1500 : Eowyn and Sam—Underappreciated Heroes in The Lord of the Rings: Everybody talks about Gollum, Gandalf, Frodo and Aragorn – but what about the other characters of The Lord of the Rings? An examination of the underappreciated...

Of CP Lin, Food & Wine Matches

As well as being into books, poetry and story, one of my enduring interests is cooking—all cooking really, but most particularly baking—and also food and wine matches.

There is a wonderful area just north of Christchurch, called Waipara, which has many fine vineyards and one of my favourites is Mountford, a small, boutique winery with—in my humble opinion—outstanding wines. Although in my case there is also a personal connection to Mountford, which is that the winemaker, CP Lin, is an old...

What I'm Reading

You may recall that last week I was doing a quick re-read of Tymon's Flight ahead of my interview with Mary Victoria this morning, on Women on Air, Plains 96.9FM. So tune in at 11.20 approximately to listen.

This week I have Emily Maguire's Smoke in the Room on my desk. Emily is an Australian writer who is going to be appearing at the Christchurch Writers' Festival early next month and speaking about both her fiction and non fiction writing.  Smoke in the Room is contemporary fiction and...

More "Heir of Night" Feedback

"The Heir of Night"

Exactly a month ago, on July 19, I posted about my first reader response on The Heir of Night ARE from Joanna Preston.

The AREs have been put out by Eos, my US publisher (ie the book with the blue, Greg Bridges, cover) and Kate, my editor there, has been providing a few for giveaways to North American readers when I blog on the Supernatural Underground once a month.

And I have just received the following feedback from Sharon, one of the ARE winners (which she has given me...

Ripley Patton Interview Features on Out of this Eos

Great news—my recent interview with Ripley Patton, which is now available on podcast is featured today on the Out of this Eos website of my US publisher, HarperCollins USA.

Ripley is a Christchurch-based speculative fiction author, and we  discuss her writing and also the founding of SpecFiCNZ, the first professional organisation for NZ writers of science fiction, fantasy and horror.

So go there—check it out!

Here It Is: The Australia-New Zealand Cover!

On 1 August I talked about the process of developing the Australia-New Zealand cover for The Heir of Night, which is due out in both Australia-New Zealand and in the USA in October. (Only 6 weeks to go: a-maz-ing!) And Orbit, my UK and ANZ publisher, officially launched the Australia-New Zealand cover on their website today.

When I first saw the US cover for Heir earlier this year, I loved the way it caught the brooding, powerful, mythic elements of the story—and I still do! But when I first...

Tuesday Poem: "The Fox" by Bernadette Hall

The Fox

The fox is a single red stroke that cuts across
the clearing. The colour seems to hang like smoke,
you can almost see where she has come from.
Her musk (though you can smell nothing)
is specific like a thumbprint on the air.
It isn't raining but there's a kind of wet
on your face, a stickiness of insect juices dropped.
The fox is rusty-dull, discreet, not radiant or hot
or pulsing. Not agitated. Not randy.
She is completely dream and intelligence
sliding through the wet grass, the stinging...