Helen Lowe's Blog, page 51
December 23, 2020
It’s Christmas Eve…
Pohutakawa flowering: yes, it really is midsummer here…
Here in NZ, Christmas Eve always feels like the real marking point of the beginning of the end of the old year, because it’s not only the beginning of the Christmas-New Year break, but also the summer holidays.
Plus, because of that, everyone tries to cram everything possible, workwise, into those last few weeks before Christmas, as well as having all the “end-of-year” workplace get-togethers. In a word, it’s crazy, and we all collectively ...
December 20, 2020
Taking Tea With Kim Falconer — & A Few WALL Series Characters :-)
KimFalconer
Over on the Supernatural Underground currently, fellow author and friend Kim Falconer has another post-of-excellence on Books, Tea, and Magic. Kim’s post looks at the wider literary connection between books and tea, as well as the direct connection to the tale told within her about-to-be-released new novel, Crown of Bones — which will be out on 5 January (2021: oh my!) Only 15 sleeps to go!
Books, Tea, And Magic — with Kim Falconer, writing as AK Wilder
Kim very kindly invited me ...
December 16, 2020
Wrapping Up A Year of Worldbuilding in Fantasy on The Supernatural Underground
“Ten leagues beyond the wide world’s end”;
art by Peter Fitzpatrick
On December 3 I completed a year of Worldbuilding in Fantasy posts on the Supernatural Underground (SU), with a final post that Celebrated Our Supernatural Underground Worlds — which, if you haven’t read it already, is pretty awesome, imho. Entirely, reflective of my four fellow SU authors who joined me to share their art and insights, and make the final post rock.
With it being the time of year for wraps-ups, here is the entire ...
December 13, 2020
Having Fun With Epic Fantasy #14: Fantastic Creatures & Animal Companions — But Wait…
Faithful droid companions
This year Ive been revisiting this post series, honing in on the sidekick and the lovable rogue, the two archetypes not being entirely divorced from each other. The third prong to this grouping is, I believe, the faithful animal companion or droid, of course: why hello, Artoo-Detoo (R2-D2) and See-Threepio (C3PO).
So I was gearing myself up to write the post when I realized, Oh, right, Ive done it alreadyover on Supernatural Underground on September 1, 2018.
Balisan...
December 9, 2020
About The Characters: Meet The Minor Players in “The Wall Of Night” Series — Meet Laer
USA
The About The Characters post series focuses on the minor characters in The Wall Of Night series, in large part because:
I think its the presence of the smaller characters that makes a story, creating texture around the main points of view.
Initially, the series focused exclusively on characters from The Heir of Night, but now Im continuing on with minor characters from both The Gathering Of The Lost and Daughter of Blood in alphabetical...
December 6, 2020
Just Arrived: “Harrow The Ninth” by Tamsyn Muir
On July 1, I featured Tamsyn Muirs Gideon the Ninth as part of my Worldbuilding in Fantasy series on the Supernatural Underground blog. Although my focus was on the world, I did conclude that: the juxtaposition of sorcery and space, adventure and action, politics and mystery, makes for exciting Fantasy
Others must have agreed, because immediately prior to my post, Gideon the Ninth received the Locus Award 2020 for First Novel. An outstanding achievement, just by the way.
As the first in a...
December 2, 2020
On Supernatural Underground Now: Worldbuilding in Fantasy #11 – Celebrating Our Supernatural Underground Worlds
On Monday, I reflected on having posted for over a decade now on both my own blog and the Supernatural Underground (SU) – pretty dope, huh?!
This year on the Supernatural Underground I have focused on Worldbuilding in Fantasy as my theme. A major reason for that is because it’s a part of the genre that I really love—and I love the genre fullstop!—but also because I believe worldbuilding lies at the heart of what makes the genre distinctive from other styles of literature.
As I also mentioned on ...
November 29, 2020
Wow — 10 Years of Blogging!
The original SU logo
I am currently preparing the final post for my Year of Worldbuilding in Fantasy series over on the Supernatural Underground (SU) – and realized mid prep that I have been posting here on my own blog, and on the SU for a decade now. O-o
My first post here “…on Anything, Really” was on May 31 2010, and titled – very originally! 
November 25, 2020
Having Fun With “Jabberwocky”
The Jabberwock, as illustrated by John Tenniel in 1871
Over the last few weeks I’ve posted twice under the title “O Frabjous Day”, here and then again last week, here.
In the first post, I also referred to the “…vorpal keyboard going snicker-snack so the author could go galumphing back to the main manuscript without further delay.”
To which Kristen, in the second post, queried whether my vorpal keyboard ever does go snicker-snack — and I replied with reference to “slithy toves” and “uffish thoug...
November 22, 2020
Inside Middle Earth: Wattle Bay
The path to the bay
Very recently, I spent a few days in Auckland, during which time I revisited a spot that was in m’hood, a long gal ago.
The spot is called Wattle Bay or Taunahi, on the northern shore of the Manukau Harbour: one of the two that lie to north and south of the isthmus. Manukau is the harbour to the south and Wattle Bay is just a short walk down a relatively steep hillside — and you’re away from the hurly-burly of New Zealand’s biggest city. I had a short break in an otherwise b...
