Helen Lowe's Blog, page 44

Lockdown Reprised — Plus Some Pandemic-Themed Reads

Covid lockdown or the writing life — the shutters look much the same.

Well, here we are again: back in level 4 lockdown approximately 15 months after we exited it in 2020, with the Covid-19 Delta strain—not unlike a malevolent genie—out of its bottle and ‘out there’ in our NZ community. :-/

In some ways, given Delta’s degree of infectiousness (I think that’s a word) and the travel bubble with Australia, its arrival in the NZ community was probably only a matter of when, not if.

Having watched th...

Favourite Quotes from FB Group Haarth

Some months back now (“I know”, where does the year get to?!) I reminded readers here that there’s a dedicated group of The Wall Of Night series readers “out there.”

The Group title is Haarth and it’s a private FB group where readers can meet and discuss the books in a fun and friendly forum.

Over the next few months I’m going to be featuring a new post series in which Group members share a favourite quote from the books, including the reasons why it “speaks” to them, and also why they enjoy b...

Just Arrived: Trail Of Lightning (Rebecca Roanhorse); Foxhunt (Rem Wigmore); Fugitive Telemetry (Martha Wells)

Although I am still on my ‘reading older books’ mission, and still have two posts on the original grouping of five works left to do, sometimes ‘the new, the new’ (or newish, certainly) arrive thick and fast.

So I thought it was time to share what had made it on to “the New” TBR table recently.

Trail of Lightning

First up is Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse. First published in 2018 (hence newish, rather than recently published new), Trail of Lightning won a Locus Award for Best First Nove...

A Writing Quote From Isaac Bashevis Singer

“The wastepaper basket is the writer’s best friend.”

~ Isaac Bashevis Singer, 1902 – 1991

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Isaac Bashevis Singer was a Polish born, American author of novels, short stories, and essays. He received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1978.

I do know what he means about the wastepaper basket. One must be willing to write and throw away until one downloads, or distills, the ‘true and right’ story, in which the right words are all in their right order…

No Post Today Because…

Writing Happening: Shutters Closed

…I’ve got the writing shutters up and am beavering to get Malian clear of that endgame setup and into the denouement.

Things *are* getting there, but it’s been a rocky road although I think the overall result will repay having to repair the axle and change a few wheels en route.

Watch this space for a shoutout when we get across that setup/denouement proper line!

And “just in case” you havena already discovered it on the blog, & by way of a “no post mitigation”...

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

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...

On Supernatural Underground Now: More Magic In Fantasy — Lighting The Spark

Yep, it’s definitely that time: 1 August rocked around yesterday and that means I posted Instalment 8 — yes, eight! in the Magic In Fantasy series on Supernatural Underground.

Once again, I’m honing in on books that have really lit a spark with me because of their magic — very often for other reasons, too, but it’s the magic that’s the raison d’etre for this series.

Following last month’s approach, I’m looking at three authors, and also aiming to feature a range of Fantasy subgenres and time pe...

From The Backlist: “Writers Are Thieves” — AKA Influences on Story

Recently, I refeatured a 2011 interview with Daniel Abraham, author of The Dagger and Coin fantasy series, and co-author of the science fiction series (both book and television), The Expanse.

In the original interview, Daniel Abraham remarked that “writers are thieves” and I posted a response the very next day. For symmetry, I thought you might be interested in rereading the response and its springboard into influences on my own writing again — so here it is!

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“Writers Are Thieves”—aka Influenc...

What I’m Reading: “Maquis” by George Millar

Two weeks ago, I posted on some of the reasons I enjoy reading older and downright old books. The reason I don’t often pass by firsthand, nonfiction accounts of war and wartime experience, bears on Reason 3 of that post (historical perspective) — but may also count as its own reason. In short, because I’m currently writing heroic fantasy, with war at the heart of its subject matter, I am always interested to read the real, lived experience of soldiers, operatives and spies, and civilians.

If I ...

“The Wall Of Night” Book #4 (The Chaos Gate) Update: July

News from the Wall…     Credit: PJ Fitzpatrick

I’m really pleased to let you know that as of as of last Friday I reached what is effectively the cusp between the endgame setup and the denouement of the WALL series!

I am pretty sure that I’m currently still writing the last of the endgame set up, rather than the beginning of the final denouement – but being on the cusp means that the two are rather blurring into each other at this point. 😉

As part of that process, I’m also having to rejig some ea...