So-o, way-aways back on Monday, I posted an update on WALL #4 revision progress, namely that I had completed the revision of the first section in Part 2 (of the manuscript of two distinct parts. I reported on completing Part 1, here.)

But as Gail’s question on the update highlighted, it’s also helpful to know how many sections Part 2 contains — so thank you, Gail, for prompting me to say. 🙂

I know, it looks like a LOT of sections… (That’s Gathering, by the way.)

I did have to do a quick review and headcount, though, just to be completely sure of the precise number, but the answer—ta da!—is six.

That’s six in total, dear readers, including Section 1, which I’ve just reported “done.” So that’s one down, five to go.

And although you may recall that I revised the final section first (because it needed major changes that I wanted to capture while they were fresh in my mind), it must stay on the list. That’s because it will still need consequential changes, whether tweaks or more substantive, to fit with the rest of the revision.

Sometimes, wrangling the narrative via hand is still required.

As I also indicated on Monday, the sections are of varying lengths, similar to the other books — although that can and does change, sometimes quite significantly, through the revision process. Also, length alone may not determine how long revision will take: it’s always far more about what’s happening with the narrative and the characters.

So as with so much else in life, the way through is to keep turning up and moving the work forward, one word, sentence, paragraph, page, chapter and section at a time. So as per my June 9 post, my next update will be when Section 2 is done. It’s currently titled The Gap by the way, and it comprises a section of the narrative that has been integral to the WALL story since I first started telling it to myself—long before I ever put pen to paper.

It’s a marathon, but there’s alchemy still, in the mix

I wrote, on June 9, that: “Future updates will be on each section of Part 2 as I complete them. I’ll report on them here, under About My Books and About What I’m Doing, as that occurs.”

In keeping with that commitment, I confirm that Section 1 of Part 2 of the work-in-progress is now a wrap, so it’s onward to Section 2. In fact, I’ve already made a start. 😀

I’m pleased with how this last section went, but by way of sounding a caution, it’s also one of the shorter sections in the work-in-progress. So please do not stop invoking, and most particularly propitiating, the Muses! You may be sure that I am doing likewise!!

Otherwise, as I also said in my last update: Onward!

Avatar Kyoshi from “The Last Airbender”

I did hope for a ‘milestone’ post today, but am not quite there, so instead will share a “moment of eye-roll” from the revision front.

Doorstop, or revision manuscript?

Very often, revision involves big ticket decisions like “Does the narrative need this section at all, in order to ‘work’?” or “Is this part written in the right character’s point-of-view?” and “have I gotten all the action in the right, let alone the best (as per Coleridge’s observation on poetry) order.”

By ‘right’, of course, I mean an order that makes logical sense and will stand up to the test of the manuscript as a whole.

Knocking off those sections, one by one…

These big ticket items can be more hair-tearing exercises than eye-roll territory — with the latter, and a few grins, coming with the smaller stuff, like typos. Yesterday’s winner in the typo-and-reflexive-eyeroll-territory was “representating. Now what, I wondered, was I supping with my tea when I typed that?

Although it’s resolving the big ticket questions that matters in terms of getting the manuscript to D&A (recently discussed here), I do like to pick up such typos when I notice them, because despite the best efforts of myself and the team editorial, particularly copy- and proof- editors, they do have a habit of slipping through into the printed book.

Printed books – happy days!

Yes, indeed — it’s August and that means a post for Supernatural Underground. But not just any post, I’m up to #7 — seven dear readers! — in the Great Leaders of Speculative Fiction series.

Great leaders in my humble opinion anyway, although I do endeavour to back my picks up with a few “terribly important thoughts” ( 😀 ) on wherein their greatness, and leadership chops, lie.

This month’s pick is Signe de Barbentain from the awesome (again, imho!) A Song for Arbonne by Guy Gavriel Kay. Now, I have mentioned Signe here before, but more as a soundbyte, whereas my latest SU post is taking a deep dive.

So without further ado, I give you:

Signe de Barbentain: Another Great Leader of Fantasy & Science Fiction Literature

A few years ago I read and enjoyed The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams, so I’m pleased to have the opportunity to read her follow up novel, The Bookbinder of Jericho, which won the Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIA) General Fiction Book of the Year for 2024.

Here’s what the backcover has to say about what’s “inside the book”:

“The Bookbinder of Jericho is a story about knowledge – who makes it, who can access it, and what is lost when it is withheld.

In 1914, when the war draws the young men of Britain away to fight, it is the women who must keep the nation running. Two of those women are Peggy and Maude, twin sisters who work in the bindery at Oxford University Press in Jericho. Peggy is intelligent, ambitious and dreams of studying at Oxford University, but for most of her life she has been told her job is to bind the books, not read them. Maude, meanwhile, wants nothing more than what she has. She is extraordinary but vulnerable. Peggy needs to watch over her. When refugees arrive from the devastated cities of Belgium, it sends ripples through the community and through the sisters’ lives. Peggy begins to see the possibility of another future where she can use her intellect and not just her hands, but as war and illness reshape her world, it is love, and the responsibility that comes with it, that threaten to hold her back.”

As a lover of words, books, and historical fiction, this book does sound like core Helen reading, so having already enjoyed The Dictionary of Lost Words I am fairly confident of reading satisfaction ahead. 😀

In my most recent work-in-progress update, I advised that Part 1 of the manuscript revision process is now complete and that I’m now into Part 2. If you haven’t already read it, the link will take you there. 🙂

Yep, there was an update recently.

Subsequently, a few readers have come back to me regarding a publication date, so I’ve realized that it’s time for a reprise on the whys-and-wherefores of publication dates in traditional publishing. Chiefly that it’s the publisher, rather than the author, that sets the publication date.

The ‘catch’, of course, is that the publisher can’t set a publication date until the manuscript has been delivered and the editor has accepted it. (This is called “Delivery and Acceptance” or “D&A” in the traditional process.)

Revision time…

So until I have revised the whole manuscript and the publisher has accepted it, there won’t be a publication date for The Wall Of Night #4. In other words, the ball is definitely in my court!

Given this, you may be assured that I am striving for “full speed ahead” (“and damn the torpedoes”) on Part 2 of the manuscript, and will do my best to keep you apprised of progress as regularly as I can.

Knocking off those sections, one by one…

I am always very conscious of how long readers have been waiting for this book. I also very much appreciate—and certainly never take for granted—readers’ commitment to the series. So I can promise you that my corresponding commitment is always to complete the series and the story and get it to the publisher immediately the revision is complete.

You may also rest assured that I will let you know here immediately any and all of these milestones are checked off. At which point…

Flowers, wine, chocolate — all the celebrations will ensue

USA

The “Meet the Minor Players” post features the minor characters in The Wall Of Night series. One of the reasons for posting this series is because the major characters always get featured and discussed, but: —

“I think it’s the presence of the smaller characters that (also) “makes” a story, creating texture around the main points of view.”

~ Helen Lowe (from my Legend Award Finalist’s Interview)

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 alphabetical order, by name, of course!

~*~

UK/AU/NZ

Princess Coreil:  head of the Coreil, a major merchant clan of Ij, in the River lands

“It was quite a gathering,” agreed Tarathan. “I saw Count Ambard bail you up as soon as Princess Coreil had finished exchanging pleasantries.”

“He did. Where the Athiri lead, the Coreil, and now it seems the Ambardi as well, will follow … ” Jehane Mor shook her head. “Although neither the count nor the princess had anything particular to say.” 

~ from © The Gathering of the Lost, The Wall Of Night Book Two – Chapter 3, Revelry and Masks

Just for something different, here are a couple of “inside NZ” (aka Middle Earth, albeit some time ago now!) photos of Auckland in the “sunny north” — finally seeing the sunshine, which I gather has decidedly not been the case of late. 🙂

And to go with the photos, a poem I wrote around 2003, when I was struck by exactly the qualities the photos show.

Devonport, on Auckland’s North Shore, looking back toward the city centre.

Something About Auckland

Shelly Bay, Midwinter 2003

There definitely is something
about Auckland,
with the sea lapping in
along a hundred little bays
and blue
shining all the way out
into the Gulf, with its scattering
of islands,
turquoise misting into cobalt
and the sun sparkling
on every wave edge
curving in
to a pohutakawa-tangled
shore — boats bob, voices
calling one to the other
in that last, little rush
of landfall, unexpected echo
of summer.

(c) Helen Lowe

Milford beach, also on Auckland’s North Shore

South of My Days , by Judith Wright, is one of my favourite poems. I love the language of this poem, which was first published in 1946, and the vivid evocation of landscape and sense of place, which speaks strongly to an Australian ethos and also to aspects of its history.

I first shared it as part of the Tuesday Poem community, but like Monday’s post, I believe it merits the refeature. It’s timely, too, since it’s very much a winter poem and we’re in the midst of the Southern Hemisphere winter now.

South of My Days (An Excerpt)

South of my days’ circle, part of my blood’s country,
rises that tableland, high delicate outline
of bony slopes wincing under the winter,
low trees, blue-leaved and olive, outcropping granite-
clean, lean,  hungry country. The creek’s leaf-silenced,
willow choked, the slope a tangle of medlar and crabapple
branching over and under, blotched with a green lichen;
and the old cottage lurches in for shelter.

…

Oh, they slide and they vanish
as he shuffles the years like a pack of conjuror’s cards.
True or not, it’s all the same; and the frost on the roof
cracks like a whip, and the back-log break into ash.
Wake, old man. This is winter, and the yarns are over.
No-one is listening
South of my days’ circle
I know it dark against the stars, the high lean country
full of old stories that still go walking in my sleep.

~ by Judith Wright, 1915 – 2000

You can read the full poem on the All Poetry site, here, and the Wikipedia article on Judith Wright, here.

The last few weeks have seen a few ups and downs in the writing life, so I’m currently working hard on rebuilding revision momentum — and falling back on a “From The Backlist” post to aid that cause.

Although I do believe it’s a reasonably interesting post, as well as very relevant to the WALL series, so worth refeaturing in its own right. I do hope you agree! 😀

Portent & Fate: The Mythic Aspect of Dream in Contemporary Fantasy

Dream magic plays a relatively significant part in both Thornspell and The Wall Of Night series and one of its more important aspects is that of portent, with fulfillment locked into whether—or how—the foretold doom or destiny will play out.

This aspect of dream and fulfillment is an essential element of both the Greek and Norse myths, as well as folklore. We all recognize, after all, that if our hero or heroine is told something three times, especially by an oracle of some kind, then the foretelling is likely to prove true …

(This is not just in Fantasy, by the way. In the SFF television series, Babylon 5, I believe careful perusal will show that the captain, John Sheridan, is warned three times that, “If you go to Z’ha’dum, you will die.” Just sayin’)

Yet any exploration of dreams and their “fated” fulfillment in Fantasy also gives rise to the alternative consideration: the extent to which characters have free will. Can they, like Will Thatcher (the mourned Heath Ledger) in the film, A Knight’s Tale, change their stars?

The Greek and Norse myths would answer that question with a resounding “no”—in fact it is usually the protagonist’s endeavours to avoid his or her prophesied fate that brings about the doom.

In The Wall of Night series I keep the fate vs free will aspect open by having the prophetic dreams occur very much in the “jumbled workings” of the subconscious. There is truth in them, but they may only imperfectly reflect events that occur in the daylight world. Nothing is certain … and every action a protagonist takes acts on the dream, creating alternative possibilities of fulfillment.

In exploring the prophetic dream tradition, both through reading other writers and in my own work, I suspect that we are also talking about aspiration—the innate human desire to affect our fate and exert control over destiny. The myths, of course, would say that any such aspiration is doomed, its fulfillment stillborn before it has taken the first breath of life — but the great thing about contemporary fantasy is the ability to reshape mythic tradition,if we choose, and find ways to make the old stories new.