Hello February 1 — and the first instalment of the Year of the Villain in Fantasy fiction on Supernatural Underground.

Sauron

I’m starting off with a deep dive into the seminal pantheon of villains, and evil, in The Lord of the Rings.

The Year of the Villain #1: The Lord of the Rings Pantheon

Including a close look at the way each villain not only works in the story but also makes the story work.

Gollum

Interested? Then do pop on over and take a look. 😀

During 2023, interviewer, podcaster, and audiobook creator Stephanie Frewen interviewed me for Season 2 of her popular podcast series, The Author’s Tale.

The Author’s Tale comprises “casual conversations …between Stephanie… and prominent and influential New Zealand authors”, centered on inspiration, influences, and other aspects of their writing life.

The conversation was indepth, so will appear as three interviews—and the first two parts are currently live:

The focus of Part 1 is on influences, my early writing journey, and my poetry:

The Author’s Tale: Helen Lowe In Conversation with Stephanie Frewen —  Part 1

Poetry live 🙂

The core of the second is Thornspell and the initial journey to publication for my novels, including finding an agent and the role she then played:

The Author’s Tale: Helen Lowe In Conversation with Stephanie Frewen — Part 2

As Stephanie explains in her introduction, we met on a very wild Christchurch day. My recollection, though, is that although the great outdoors was stormy, the conversation indoors was warm and convivial, so I hope that comes through. 😀

And, of course, I’ll post the link to third interview, which centres on The Wall Of Night series, once it’s live.

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To check out the other interviews in the podcast series, click here:

The Author’s Tale Series

To find out more about Stephanie and Edition audiobooks, click here:

Edition Audiobooks

Plus There’s More: An Edition Audiobooks Information Session!

For those who’re interested in creating and publishing audio and e-books, Stephanie Frewen and Edition will be hosting an information session at Turanga, the main Christchurch public library building, on Sunday 18 February at 2 pm.

For more information, check here.

“A writer is a person who cares what words mean, what they say, how they say it. Writers know words are their way towards truth and freedom, and so they use them with care, with thought, with fear, with delight.”

Ursula K Le Guin, 1929 – 2018

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Yes, to all of that, at least from my small corner of the writing ‘verse.

On January 8 I reflected on last year’s “book booty” (otherwise known as “What The Holidays Brought Me”) and I already have a small haul for 2024. As with last year, I’m going to see if I can fit them under my old-new-borrowed-blue headings. Here goes!

Something Old(er):

Night Train to Lisbon by Pascal Mercier (2004)

Having heard this book mentioned favourably several times, I have finally “bitten the bullet” and gotten it onto m’2024 booty table. My only debate is whether to read the book or watch the movie first. 😀

To Say Nothing Of the Dog by Connie Willis (1997)

I know, I know, it’s classic speculative fiction (note the Masterworks tag on the cover) and I’m a speculative fiction author so I should have read it already–but I haven’t! Doomsday Book, yes; Blackout and All Clear, check: but not, alas, To Say Nothing Of the Dog. An error I hope to remedy well before the close of 2024.

Something New:

System Collapse by Martha Wells (2023)

Yes, it’s novel #2 and publication #7 in the Murderbot series, and as you probably know I’m a Murderbot fan. Canna wait! (And won’t have to once I collect it from the bookshop: it was preordered for me by a brother and sister-in-law, some time ago now, as a birthday gift.)

The Notebook: A History of Thinking on Paper by Roland Allen (2023)

I am definitely someone who “thinks on paper”, so how could I pass this book by? Rhetorical question: of course I couldn’t. It was a birthday gift for a family member , but they’ve galloped through it, with a good report, so I was quick to be next in line — which puts it in the “Borrowed” category as well as “Something New.”

Something Borrowed

The Wren, The Wren by Annie Enright (2023)

I borrowed this book from another sister-in-law (are you noticing the family connection here? 😉 ) after she finished it over the break. It will be my first Annie Enright novel so I’m looking forward to checking it out. It’s also new, you’ll note, having been published in 2023.

Something Blue

Station Eternity by Mur Lafferty (2022)

Well the cover is blue, anyway: very blue. 🙂 Totally in a good way, since I love blue and love the cover. Given the Station Eternity series’ title is “The Midsolar Murders”, I am suspecting this may be a cosy-murder-meets-space-opera mashup. Accordingly, I am expecting fun, so will let you know how that turns out. 😀

Otherwise, there’s the cover of Night Train To Lisbon, which is also blue (the edition featured, at any rate.) I do feel, however, that it’s better placed where it is, in the Older reads category.

I hope many, if not all, of you have some new titles on the go as well. In which case, let the reading begin!

It’s been quite a while since I’ve posted one of these—since way back on September 28, I believe.

On the other hand, I always intended it to post intermittently, although we are, in fact, nearing the end. Just a few left to go now, in this reprise of the Daughter of Blood (and by extension The Wall Of Night) Q&A series that featured in 2019.

Today’s question came from Forrest and is about research that informed the book.

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Forrest: You’ve said that you did a lot of research into battles and sieges. Was there anything else in the book that you researched as much?

Helen: Yes: medicine! You’ll recall Myr has an interest in healing and there are injuries associated with the Honor Contest in the first part of the book and then again with the siege in the second half. So I did a lot of reading about warfare injuries and how they were treated in the ancient and medieval worlds, then looked at the (increasingly rapid) evolution of treatments over more recent centuries. I also checked in with two doctors over the finer details. I wanted that aspect of the book to be authentic, but the final bridge between our modern understanding and the world of the book had to be “healing magic.” Although the magic healers, like Kion of Sea and Vael of Stars, and Myr herself (albeit without the magic), still had to have training: they couldn’t just magically wave their hands about and “hey presto”—because that’s part of the authenticity, too.

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Previous Thursday Q&A Refeatures:

2022:
March 31 — #1 Phoebe’s Question on Book Planning

April 21 — #2 Sam’s Question on Deleted Scenes

April 28 — #3 Sandy’s Question on Characters That Take Charge

May 19 — #4 Lindsay’s Question on Research

June 23 — #5 Chris’s Question on Tirael & “What Would Have Happened If…”

June 30 — #6 Rosie’s Question on the Web of Mayanne

September 8 — #7 Jason’s Question on Weapons & Names

October 6 — #8 Robin’s Question on Tuckerization Characters

November 24 — #9 Josh’s Question on Whether I Have A Favourite Moment in Daughter of Blood

December 15 — #10 Shannon’s Question re Sections or Characters that were Hard to Write

2023
March 30 — #11 Jenny’s Question re Inspiration and Keeping Going

May 18 — #12 Tom’s Question re Food and Feasts

June 15 — #13 Ashley’s Question on Writing Through the Christchurch Earthquakes

August 10 — #14 Bethany’s Question On A Villain

September 28 — #15 Andrew’s Question on Black Blades

On Monday, I honed in on books read during 2023, and at least one of those (Demon Copperhead) squeaked in under the 2023 wire by dint of the recent holiday break.

Over that same break I also read:

1. The Two-Tailed Snake by Nod Ghosh

Historical Fiction / Magical Realism Elements

As recently as November 20 I did a Just Arrived post for Nod’s book, which is set in India at the end of WW2  and through the Independence and Partition era of 1947.

The Two-Tailed Snake also has what I’m calling magical realism elements, in part because folklore is woven into the fabric of the story but also because the storytelling has a flavour reminiscent of traditional fables—again at the folklore end of the spectrum, I hasten to add, rather than moral aphorism.

The story is also a coming-of-age narrative for the protagonist, Joya. Through her eyes, we experience a sequence of events involving family, friends, and community—against the backdrop of momentous historical upheavals—many of which Joya finds mysterious and baffling.  Yet although the sequence may appear to contain disparate parts it links, not unlike the snake of the title, into a cohesive whole. One, at 217 pages, that makes for excellent holiday reading.

2. Star Of The North by D.B. John

Thriller

If you like your holiday reading action packed, then consider Star of the North by D.B. John.

Published in 2018 and clocking in at 440 pages, it’s a thrilling read from go-to-whoa. The setting and narrative primarily centre on the tension-filled relations between North and South Korea, but also the US.

The thing I really enjoyed about this book, though, was the cast of fascinating and well-drawn characters, and the extent to which the story draws on actual historical events.

In short (because these are short reports) it’s the best thriller I’ve read in quite a few years, by a long chalk.

3. The Bronze Lie by Myke Cole

Non Fiction / Classical History / Military

Myke Cole is better known to me as a Fantasy and Science Fiction author. I knew he had a military background, however, so I wasn’t entirely surprised to find he’s writing nonfiction as well.

In this case, The Bronze Lie (published 2021) examines the legend of Spartan military supremacy and also the (ahem) spartan nature of their militarized society, with its alleged adherence to archaic virtues, chiefly military honour, religious integrity, and eschewing wealth.

I’ve always been interested in the classical (ca. 4th and 5th centuries BCE) archaic (ca. 800 – 500 BCE) and Mycenean (pre-1100 BCE ca.) Greek eras so already understood enough about Sparta to know that the film 300 is far more fantasy than history.

It’s also been my experience, whenever I delve into a historical period in detail (to whatever extent detail is available), that history is never monolithic, however we may perceive it in retrospect. So I was unsurprised by the subtitle, Shattering the Myth of Spartan Warrior Supremacy and motivated to find out more.

The author’s approach is to work methodically through the (many, near constant) wars Sparta fought through the late Archaic and Classical periods, examining both the Spartan military record, and to a lesser extent the corresponding social structure that supported it. So while the Persian, Peloponnesian, and Theban conflicts were familiar territory, the detail threw new light in many cases.

The level of detail should be of interest to historical and military-history readers, but while I didn’t find it heavy going it’s also not 489 pages of light reading. So you may prefer to keep it for after the holiday rather than packing it as pool or beachside reading. 😀

Wow, I can’t believe it’s been seven weeks since I last pasted on About the Characters  — my only excuse is getting sandbagged by the end-of-year and taking my eye off the “…on Anything, Really” ball. Mea culpa!

As you (almost certainly) know, the About The Characters 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 alphabetical order, by name, of course!

Starting where things left off before the unintended hiatus, we’re still in “N” and today’s character is not a living being, but a sentient artefact.

Dear readers, I give you: —
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Nhenir:  aka the Moon-bright Helm, one of the three legendary arms of Yorindesarinen, the Derai’s greatest hero

“It is not the eyes.” The voice of Nhenir, the legendary helm that had once belonged to Yorindesarinen, the greatest of all Derai heroes, was a mixture of light and dark, speaking into Malian’s mind. “Your inner awareness must be open: you must learn to eat the dark lest it eat you.”

~ from © The Gathering of the Lost, The Wall Of Night Book Two – Prologue
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The armring was silver fire, and she knew that Nhenir, the moon-bright helm, would be as she had first seen it: black adamantine steel decorated with pearl and silver, with the phoenix wings swept up to either side and wrapped about the casque. Malian lowered the visor that was shaped into the dawn eyes of Terennin over her own, so no glamour or working born of power would cloud her vision, and closed both hands around the sword’s hilt, raising it high.

~ from © Daughter of Blood, The Wall Of Night Book Three – Epilogue

Happy New Year again everybody! (Just in case I didna say it with sufficient verve last week.)

My chief reflection, regarding the post title above, is whether I read and reported on the books featured on January 9 last year. An important consideration before embarking on anything similar for this year.

The answer—hip-hip-huzza!—is that I have read all bar one, but not reported on them all, chiefly for reasons of time, writing, and general life busy-ness. I’ll recap them now, with either a link to my post/book report, or an indication of ‘how I found them’ and whether or not a longer report is forthcoming.

To recap, the books I had lined up this time last year were:

1. Curse of Shadows by AK Wilder

Fantasy / Epic Fantasy / YA

A mighty second installment to Kim’s AMASSIA series: that’s the very short version. To read my full paean, click here.

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2. Dogside Story by Patricia Grace

Contemporary Realism / NZ Lit

I’m a great fan of Patricia Grace’s writing and Dogside Story was no exception. I reported on my read, fittingly I believe, on February 6, Waitangi Day. If you missed it then, or want to refresh, the post is here.
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3. Not One But Two Richard Osman’s: The Man Who Died Twice and The Bullet That Missed

Contemporary / Crime

I raced through these over the summer holiday last year and thoroughly recommend for light, humorous, whodunnit type reading, as reported in the January 9 post.

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Also on the January 9 list were:

4. King of Scars by Leigh Bardugo

King of Scars is part of a newer series set in the Shadow and Bone and Crows worlds, and another tale I raced through early in the year, only without reporting at all: mea culpa! However, I was pushing for the linear end of WALL #4 at the time, which must serve as my excuse.

As with Patricia Grace, I tend to heart Leigh Bardugo’s writing, so although Six of Crows will probably always be m’favourite, King of Scars is an enjoyable read.

And there—now I’ve not only read but reported back. Two-for-one, heh… 😀

5. Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver

You may recall that at the end of 2021, Barbara Kingsolver’s Prodigal Summer was one of my three top reads of the year. I’ve since read The Poisonwood Bible ( “I know”, so late to the party!) so I didn’t hesitate to read for fear of (comparative) disappointment, but because I wanted to have the time to do it justice.

The upshot being that I finally read Demon Copperhead over the recent holiday break. Since it’s recent I am going to bring you a fuller post but the short version is that I loved it, loved it, LOVED it — which I hope will tide you over. 😀

6. Novelist As A Vocation by Haruki Murakami

When I posted last year I had already dipped into this collection of essays on Haruki Murakami’s experience of and philosophy on writing, and indicated that I intended to continue to do so through the year.

The reason I haven’t is not a reflection on the book, since (as I’m sure regulars here know) I love Murakami’s writing, but entirely to do with where I’m currently at in my own writing life.

In short, I’m fully immersed, and I want to save the essays until the revision is done and I have the time to dig deep into Novelist As A Vocation and really reflect on Haruki Murakami’s insights and observations. From what I’ve read so far, they both deserve that time and are likely to repay it.

7. Other Books

The other books that garnered reports last year, which I hadn’t acquired—whether by fair means or foul 😉 — on January 9 were:

• Nona the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir (Book 3 in the Locked Tomb series — Science Fantasy / Space Opera)
• The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng (Historical Fiction)
• The Axeman’s Carnival by Catherine Chidgey (Contemporary Realism)

Here we are in 2024! Over on Supernatural Underground I’ve welcomed in the new year, with its myriad possibilities, and announced this year’s post theme.

The sun rises on a new year

Exciting, huh?! But to find out what, exactly, you’ll have to rock on over and read the post. Too mean, I know! 😀 But here’s the link to help you out:

Happy New Year: Ushering In 2024

I know some of you will be back at work, and others still on holiday, but wherever you are and whatever doing, I hope you’re well and looking forward to the year ahead.

Wishing us all fair winds & following seas

I look into my crystal ball and see plenty of revisioning ahead, but I’m also rarin’ to get back into it after the festive season.

Right here on …Anything Really, that is. 😀

The reason I’m posting it on New Year’s Eve is not only because it seems—you know—fitting, but because tomorrow is my Supernatural Underground post day, so I’ll be kicking off the New Year there.

This, then, must count as my farewell to the old. As always, I shall largely post the 10 in chronological order, but also group by theme where appropriate.

So without further ado, here are the 10 posts that all of you were most into, in 2023:

Voyaging on…

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Theme One: The Wall Of Night #4 Updates

As with last year, once I began my review, it swiftly became apparent that the one subject you are vitally interested in is progress updates for The Wall of Night #4, with three “most-read: spots going to:

• April 27 — Real News: A Wall #4 Update
• August 14 — It’s Revision Update Time
• December 21 — Looking Ahead: AKA What May Help Get An Earlier Publication Date for WALL #4

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Theme Two: Posts Closely Related To The Wall Of Night Series

I believe grouping the two posts from the reprised Q&A Thursdays series (featuring reader questions on Daughter of Blood), with a post on Styling Characters in The Heir of Night, and the first report back on Group Haarth’s Wall of Night series read-along, is appropriate. 😀

• March 30 — Q&A Thursdays Reprised #11: Jenny’s Question on Inspiration and Keeping Going
• June 15 — Q&A Thursdays Reprised #13: Ashley’s Question on the Christchurch Earthquakes & Their Influence
• June 16 — Styling Characters in The Heir of Night
• December 11 — The Great “Wall Of Night” Series Read-Along: Part 1 Complete

The Wall of Night series (US covers)

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Theme Three: “What I’m Reading”

Two What I’m Reading posts found particular favour this year:

• July 31 — “Curse of Shadows” by AK Wilder
• November 6 — “The Axeman’s Carnival” by Catherine Chidgey

While these are book reviews by any other name, because I only post on books I’ve enjoyed I don’t consider myself a reviewer.

Nor is this a review site: it’s an author blog with occasional forays into books-wot-I’ve-read. 😀

Last But Never Least

October 23 — It’s Labour Day…

In which I shared photos and a few insights into a short Northland holiday following a two-month writing retreat in Auckland, itself discussed in more detail here (included because it was just pipped at place #11.)

Cooper’s Beach, Te Tai Tokerau (Northland)

Conclusion

And that’s it for 2023. Never doubt that I wish each and every one of you the very best for 2024, which comes with my hope that the year will deliver on that wish many times over.

Happy New Year for 2024