Helen Lowe's Blog, page 329

The Press Christchurch Writers' Festival

Christchurch Writers' Festival Programme

I have just realised that in a month from now the Christchurch Writers' Festival will all be over! The festival is a much anticipated biennial event where people come from far and wide to meet and listen to an array of international and New Zealand writers.

This year's programme is focused around non-fiction, with writers such as Jake Adelstein of Tokyo Vice fame and Clive Hamilton with his latest work Requiem for a Species being just two of the writers ...

What I'm Reading

At the moment I am reading I am also quickly re-reading Mary Victoria's Tymon's Flight—ahead of our radio interview for next Saturday—which you may recall I first enjoyed a while back. Tymon's Flight is new out from HarperCollins Voyager, so new in fact that ...

UnCONventional

Australia author, Marianne de Pierres, is running a series of introductory blog posts from Orbit authors attending Worldcon and mine is up today—do check it out here!

Sir Julius Vogel Awards

The Sir Julius Vogel Awards are awarded annually by the Science Fiction & Fantasy Association of New Zealand (SFFANZ) and members of the National Science Fiction Convention—which this year is Au Contraire, to be held in Wellington over the weekend of 27-29 August (i.e. not many sleeps now.)

Sir Julius Vogel Award Trophy

The Sir Julius Vogel Awards are given "to recognise excellence in science fiction and fantasy by New Zealanders and New Zealand residents" and include both professional and fan ...

New Radio Interviews

I now have two more radio interviews on podcast.

The first is poet Bernadette Hall, talking about poetry her collection The Lustre Jug, which is a finalist for this year's NZ Post National Poetry Award.

The second is Christchurch-based speculative fiction author, Ripley Patton, discussing her writing and the founding of SpecFiCNZ, the first professional organisation for NZ writers of science fiction, fantasy and horror.

Click on the interviewee's name—and then either press the "play" icon to...

Reading for the Hugo Awards: the Final Instalment

The final instalment of my 3-part blog series on reading for the Hugo Awards is now up on the Out of this Eos blog. Feel free to read and comment, as well as to pass the word along.

I would love to hear from you, especially if you have been reading some of the finalists yourself and would like to share your view on what you loved–or didn't–and why, as well as who should get the 'gongs' on 5 September–especially in the fiction categories.

Tuesday Poem: "Jabberwocky" by Lewis Carroll

Jabberwocky

'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves

Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;

All mimsy were the borogoves,

And the mome raths outgrabe.

"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!

The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!

Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun

The frumious Bandersnatch!"

He took his vorpal sword in hand:

Long time the manxome foe he sought—

So rested he by the Tumtum tree,

And stood awhile in thought.

And as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through t...

UNconventional—Fun Stuff!

As you know, I am off to Worldcon in Melbourne early next month and my Australia/New Zealand publisher for The Heir of Night (and Wall of Night series), Orbit, have just released this poster celebrating their attending authors.  Cool, huh?!

I love the look and—ok, I'm human—the company my name is keeping!

Catch-Up Sunday

Today is really wet—that grey old rain keeps coming down and lying in deep puddles throughout the garden which makes it a decidedly indoors sort of Sunday. There's a lot of stuff to catch up on, too, besides reading those books mentioned yesterday; pretty much everything that I don't want to put off until tomorrow otherwise it will cut into writing time.   And given that the last fews weeks have been crazily busy with other stuff intruding on that precious time, that's something I really