Helen Lowe's Blog, page 64
October 9, 2019
Spring Is A Comin’ In…
…and that means #DucklingAlert time on the nearby Avon River
There’s a certain ‘skitterbug’ action going down
It’s also that time of spring for an iris alert in the garden. These irises came from my Mum’s garden. I dug them out before she passed away (after a long illness) and transported them across islands and a stretch of ocean (I’m indulging in poetic license here, it was Cook Strait) before replanting in Christchurch. It’s taken a few years but they’re finally starting to ‘take hold.’
T...
October 6, 2019
What I’m Reading: “The Bastard Brigade” by Sam Kean
I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned before that I like reading history, both fiction and non-fiction works.
The Bastard Brigade by Sam Kean is non-fiction and covers: “The True Story of the Renegade Scientists and Spies Who Sabotaged The Nazi Atomic Bomb.”
It chiefly focuses on US personnel and endeavours in this area, juxtaposing the Manhattan Project with efforts to prevent the Nazis getting a nuclear weapon first. However, The Bastard Brigade does cover the spectrum of the scientific world, inc...
October 2, 2019
On Supernatural Underground Now: Year of Romance in Fantasy #8 — Teresa Frohock’s “Where Oblivion Lives” & Endless Love
Roll up, roll up, it’s post #8 in my #YOR #RIFF Year of Romance in Fantasy Fiction series on Supernatural Underground.
The book featured this month is Teresa Frohock’s Where Oblivion Lives, the first novel in her Los Nefilim series.
The romance featured is the love of nefilim Diago and Miquel, whose relationship has endured down the centuries and across incarnations, caught up in the eternal war between angels and demons.
To find out more, head on over to Supernatural Undergound and check out...
September 29, 2019
Just Arrived: “Where Oblivion Lives” by Teresa Frohock
Just the other day, I was very pleased to receive a book-shaped parcel from the far side of the world. And even more pleased, on opening it, to find a copy of Where Oblivion Lives by my friend and fellow author, Teresa Frohock.
Where Oblivion Lives is a Los Nefilim novel, the first in a new trilogy. The story follows on from an earlier series of three linked novellas, subsequently published in one volume as Los Nefilim.
Set in 1930s Spain, in the precursor to the devastating and brutal Civil...
September 25, 2019
About The Characters: Meet The Minor Players In “The Wall Of Night” series — Meet Ilaise
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.”
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 simul...
September 22, 2019
Finding Adventure In Fantasy
It feels a very long blog ago to August 2014, but awa’ back then I penned a short essay on Finding Adventure in Fantasy, that appeared as part of a feature on Awkward Paper Cut.
I stumbled over the draft on the weekend and thought, given the “long blog ago” element, it might be fun to share it again here today.
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Finding Adventure In Fantasy
~ by Helen Lowe
My writing style is primarily intuitive, with stories springing from an initial ‘flash’ of an idea, before evolving. So in terms of ‘find...
September 18, 2019
A Geography Of Haarth: Ward Hold
The Wall of Night Series map; artist Peter Fitzpatrick
The A Geography of Haarth post series is traversing the full range of locales and places from The Wall of Night world of Haarth. Each locale is accompanied by a quote from the relevant books where the place occurs.
From January 25, 2013 to November 25, 2014, the series explored locations encountered in The Heir Of Night and The Gathering Of The Lost. Now the series has resumed to ensure the geography of Daughter Of Blood (The Wall Of Nigh...
September 15, 2019
A Writing Quote From Jay Kristoff
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This quote is from Jay Kristoff’s novel, Godsgrave, if you want to go to the source. But it’s a great quote. 
September 11, 2019
“The Poem That is Like A City” by Fiona Farrell — Commemorating September 4, 2010 & the Earthquake Years
The poem that is like a city This poem is like a city. It is full of words.
Doing words. And Being words. And words
that compare one thing to another thing
and words that hold everything together.
This poem has a high rise at its centre with
a view across the plains to the hills.
It has a CBD and CEOs and a thousand
acronyms whirring like wheels. This
poem is going places. It also has small
prepositions where people pause, drink
coffee and read the paper. They go to
and from and sit before a...
September 8, 2019
A Farewell (Belated) To The Gemmell Awards, 2009 – 2018
Often, when I’m head down, tail up, and beavering away on the writing, it’s easy to miss out on happenings in the literary and speculative fiction worlds — in this case, that the David Gemmell Awards for Fantasy, usually known as the Gemmell Awards, ended in March this year.
According to the website (which is still largely extant) the reason for the closure was a shortfall in the large number of volunteers needed to run the awards. While understanding that literary endeavours are too often r...
