Helen Lowe's Blog, page 45
July 18, 2021
This Post Is Just To Say — Dear Readers, I Am Thinking Of You All
Ever since the Covid-19 pandemic began my thoughts have often turned to WALL series readers, wherever you may be in the world—a concern that has increased, pretty much matching the extent to which the Delta variant has taken, and/or is taking, hold
A 2020 lockdown walk — & no one else there…
In some cases, I know a little of your personal circumstances because you’ve shared something of them with me via social. In others, I know where you live (in a ‘country’ sense, that is—because no, I don’t s...
July 14, 2021
From The Blog Backlist: An Interview With Daniel Abraham, Author Of “The Dragon’s Path”
In my 1 July, Magic Systems In Fantasy post on the Supernatural Underground, I discussed three works of Fantasy fiction, across the sweep of the genre, that impressed me in terms of their magic system. One of those works was A Shadow In Summer and the Long Price Quartet by Daniel Abraham.
Daniel Abraham is possibly better known now as one half of James S.A. Corey (the other half of the duo is Ty Franck), writer of The Expanse science fiction series that generated The Expanse TV series.
Nonethel...
July 11, 2021
Reasons For Reading Older & Old Books
Currently I’m doing a post series where I report back on books on the “older to old” spectrum that I’ve read recently. Note: There are no really old (pre 19th century) or really, really old (think Xenophon’s Anabasis) books in the mix, so essentially they’re all “modern” works.
Yes, by implication I am calling 19th century works, e.g. Austen, Dickens, Eliot et al) “modern”, my argument being that they fit the criterion in terms of the “novel” format and their “sensibility”, which is still very a...
July 7, 2021
About The Characters: Meet The Minor Players In “The Wall Of Night” Series — Meet Liankhara
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...
July 4, 2021
Inside the Writing Life: The Authorial Break
To be consumed while writing…
I mentioned the authorial coffee break last Thursday so thought it might be fun to shine a light on authorial breaks — besides brewing up the coffee pot and reflecting on the power and dynamism of nature as per last Thursday, which is pretty much all the time in a coastal environment.
To be honest, though, I don’t have coffee breaks as such, because I like to consume the dark and bitter beverage while working, so the only break that occurs is in the making thereof. ...
June 30, 2021
July 1, Supernatural Underground, Influences On Story – & a WALL Series Quote :)
Supernatural UndergroundMy oh my, it’s July 1, so one thing that means is that I’ll be posting on the Supernatural Underground later today. On July 1, too, but US EST, which takes a little longer to roll on over on the calendar – yep, first in the world to see the new day, that’s us! 
If you’re following the Magic Systems In Fantasy series on the SU, just a hint that there’s a change in focus for the rest of the year – but all will be revealed “over there”, laterz. Watch that space!
Influences ...June 27, 2021
What I’m Reading: “Amazons II” Anthology
As long ago as last year and as far away as …well…just around the curve of space-time, I posted Having Fun With Epic Fantasy #13: We All Love To Love The Lovable Rogue. In the comments, Andrew mentioned a 1980s anthology, Amazons II, that contained a story titled The Robber Girl (by Phyllis Ann Karr), whose protagonist fitted the “lovable rogue” bill.
Amazons II, edited by Jessica Amanda Salmonson, was published by DAW in 1982. It followed on from Amazons (1979), “an anthology of original stori...
June 23, 2021
From The Blog Backlist: “North”
North
Last week I commenced revisiting the blog backlist with a post on “The Magic Of Winter Worlds”, first posted on 21 July 2012.
The 2012 post was sparked by the poem North, which was posted on 10 July, also in 2012. North is a midwinter poem, inspired by a journey I made to the far north of Sweden.
I am intending to refeature poems as part of the Backlist series, and since this is the week of winter solstice here in NZ (and in the southern hemisphere) I feel it’s exactly the right time to po...
June 20, 2021
Winter Solstice
Winter’s world
Today is the winter solstice and shortest day here in NZ – so “Happy Solstice” to those that celebrate it as a festival.
The Maori New Year festival of Matariki will be marked a little later, on July 2 – traditionally the celebration commences when the Pleiades reappear in southern skies and is aligned to the new moon rather than the sun.
Kowhai: flowers in winter
On Thursday I refeatured a post on winter worlds from the blog backlist and mentioned Ursula Le Guin’s The Left Hand O...
June 16, 2021
From The Blog Backlist: “The Magic Of Winter Worlds”
Under snow …
As promised on May 31, on the 11th anniversary of the blog, I’m going to be revisiting posts from the backlist on a semiregular basis, because after eleven years there’s a fair amount of backlist to revisit. 
On 31 May, I was tossing up whether to revisit the backlist in a totally random way or go for themes. I still haven’t finally decided, but I suspect it’ll probably end up being a bit of both, i.e. I may settle on a theme for a while, then randomly leap to something else.
To kic...
