Helen Lowe's Blog, page 59

Writing In A Time of Corona Virus (Updated)

Putting up the shutters on public contact but still writing.

Update:

With Covid-19 cases increasing every day here in NZ, the government yesterday announced an immediate shift to Level 3, moving to Level 4 and full lockdown except for essential services at 11.59 pm, Wednesday 25 March, for four weeks.

Basically this means everyone who is not in an essential business or service should be isolating in their own home as soon as possible, but definitely from that point. The intention is to...

Writing In A Time of Corona Virus

Putting up the shutters on public contact but still writing.

I know many of you are already dealing with the Covid-19 corona virus in your own countries, and that in some of those countries it is overwhelming health services. Over the weekend New Zealand moved to Level 2 of a four level process, with some public health professionals arguing that we should already be at Level 4: Lockdown if we are to avoid being overwhelmed.

In short, we live in fairly frightening times, especiallyalthough by...

Sunrise In The Southern Hemisphere

Worldbuilding is central to the art and craft of writing Speculative* Fiction but it never pays to lose sight of the real world.

What I’m Reading: “Carved From Stone And Dream” (Los Nefilim #2) by Teresa Frohock

Last week, I let you know that I was currently reading Teresa Frohocks Carved From Stone And Dream (Los Nefilim #2) and now Ive finished reading so its time to share my thoughts!

As I also shared last week, Im both a friend-in-writing of Teresas and a fan of her writing, which Ive discussed previously in the following posts:

Miserere An Autumn Tale

The Los Nefilim Novella Trilogy

On the Supernatural Underground: Year Of Romance #8: Endless Love in Where Oblivion Lives

So onto the most...

About The Characters Meet The Minor Players in “The Wall Of Night” Series — Meet Isperia Katran

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.

~ from my Legend Award Finalist's Interview, 2013

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...

What I’m Reading: More “Books, Books, Books” Goodness

Away back on December 9 I did a Just Arrived: Books, Books, Books post and have since reported back on three of the four books featured:

Once Upon A River by Diane Setterfield

Deeplight by Frances Hardinge

Bridge of Clay by Markus Zusak

Which leaves Teresa Frohock’s recently released Carved From Stone and Dream and Behrooz Boochani’s No Friend But The Mountain still to go. Not too bad going, I feel, when sandwiching the reading in between my own writing.

As you know I’m a fan of Teresa’s...

A Traveller’s Guide To Haarth #3: Interplane & Cross-Void Travel Agency, Agent-At-Large

In A Traveller’s Guide To Haarth #2, a missing archive for the Twelve-Sided Room, plus associated alarums and warnings, led to a call for an agent-at-large to be dispatched. Today’s illustration may give the curious an inkling as to why…

Interplane & Cross-Void Travel Agency Agent-At-Large
Art Credit: PJ Fitzpatrick

On Supernatural Underground Now: “Spellbinding”— I Celebrate Ursula Le Guin’s Earthsea

This year on Supernatural Underground I’m celebrating the wondrous and wonderful worlds of Fantasy literature with a closer look at some of my personal favourites.

This month, I’m checking out the great Ursula Le Guin’s seminal Earthsea.

To find out more about why I heart her worldbuilding, click on:

Spellbinding — A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula Le Guin

The focus is on A Wizard of Earthsea because as the first book in the series it’s where all the founding worldbuilding takes place.

So far...

About The Characters Meet The Minor Players in “The Wall Of Night” Series — Meet Isolt

USA

TheAbout The Characterspost series focuses on the minor characters inThe Wall Of Nightseries, 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 fromThe Heir of Night, but now I’m continuing on with minor characters from bothThe Gathering Of The LostandDaughter of Blood — in alphabetical...

What I’m Reading: “Bridge Of Clay” by Markus Zusak

When Markus Zusak’s Bridge of Clay came out in 2018, the publisher (Picador) described it as “the most anticipated book of the decade.” While such superlatives may be dismissed as “puff” or “hype”, in this case it had been thirteen years since The Book Thief, which took the reading world by storm and became an international best seller.

Writing a book of such magnitude and impact is a hard act to follow, so it’s not surprising Markus Zusak took the time to ensure the next book was what he...