Yesterday, I talked about living in New Zealand—and here’s a few pics of one particular spot where I’ve been spending a bit of time lately.

I don’t think it made it into any of the Lord of the Rings or Hobbit films, but who cares—it’s still pretty durned special in my book.
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Low Tide at Tahunanui

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Sand. mountains, sky…

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Toward Nelson Haven

.Beats the Grey Havens, I reckon… 😉

A visitor asked me this the other day — and I thought  it was a pretty difficult question, since it’s always hard to “look in” objectively when you’re already “inside Middle Earth.”

So there’s that for starters—living in the country that Sir Peter Jackson has transformed into JRR Tolkien’s Middle Earth. And there is still a lot of open space, compared to other countries I’ve visited—areas where you can drive for miles and not see another person, or a house. I really like that.

But because NZ is long and narrow, even really remote places are never that far away. For example, the location of Edoras, in The Lord of the Rings‘ films, wouldn’t be more than a couple of hours drive from Christchurch, where I live.

I had a lot of fun writing my contribution to the latest SF Signal Mind Meld, addressing the very important question of  “Who Has Your Back When Monsters Attack?”

Because I am posting the regular “Fantasy Heroines That Rock My World” guest series on SF Signal right now, I “felt consistency required that I put together an All-Heroines Dream Team.”  So I did just that—and am sure there’s no need to assure you that my team kicks butt and takes names in the best heroines style.

Agatha Heterodyne — Girl Genius (© Studio Foglio)

You can check out who (altho’ the pic is a giveaway for one member of the team…), and how, as well as all the other Mind Meld contributions, by clicking on:

Who Has Your Back When Monsters Attack?

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But it doesn’t end there. I had so much fun putting together my All-Heroines team for SF Signal that I thought I should go the extra mile and field an All-Heroes team here today. So here goes:

The very first name that sprang to mind for my All-Heroes team was instantaneous: it had to be Druss, the legendary axeman from David Gemmell’s Legend. Druss might be getting a bit long in the tooth, but he’s still a powerful fighter—and one who has fought almost every enemy going and prevailed. He also has considerable field experience, but more than this, he has Snaga, the axe of legend. Definitely a case of monsters beware!

Druss is tough, but as with my All-Heroines team he’ll need a company to back him up. And given no one knows quite what monsters will manifest, or in what order, if not all at once, I think the team needs a battle mage—and I can’t think of anyone better than Ben Adaephon Delat, better known as Quick Ben, mage for the 9th Squad Bridgeburners in the Malazan Book of the Fallen (Steven Erikson.) Powerful, clever, and devious, Quick Ben is definitely the mage for  a tight corner, or when facing overwhelming odds. After all, this is the mage who took down an entire phalanx of K’chain Nha’ruk in The Bonehunters (Malazan 6.)

Those monsters might include dragons, though, so even with Druss’s axe and Quick Ben’s magic, the team could still use a proven dragonslayer. In which case, they had better have John Aversin, the dragonsbane from Barbara Hambly’s book of the same name. John may be a knight, but he also has considerable intellectual curiosity and is a man who thinks outside the square, qualities that are important as courage and ability with weapons—both of which John has, too—when facing opponents with unknown capabilities and powers.  Like several members of the All-Heroines team, John Aversin also has a strong moral compass, which can be as vital as magic and weaponry when facing overwhelming supernatural odds.

David Tennant; 10th Dr Who

The possibility of aliens in the mix means the team needs additional diversity in its skill set—in fact, I’m pretty sure it needs the Doctor! Dr Who, that is, complete with time-travelling Tardis and sonic screwdriver.  He may be a little whacky, but like John Aversin he can be relied upon to think outside the square  and save the day when the aliens-and-monsters chips are down. He’s more than a dab hand at dealing with evile angels as well…Plus the Tardis would be invaluable for when the team needs to beat a hasty retreat—ahead of regrouping, of course!

As with the All-Heroines Dream Team, I am going to include one of my own characters—not least because, like both Druss and the character in the SF Signal Mind Meld, he sprang instantly to mind. The fifth and final member of the All-Heroes Shining Company is Raven, the hedge knight from The Gathering Of The Lost. Harder-edged than John Aversin, he’s as adept with weapons as both the Dragonsbane and Druss, while bringing considerable tactical leadership to the team. And like his opposite number in the All-Heroines team he appears to be immune to magic—very useful when facing an assortment of monsters and supernatural nasties.

Personally, though, looking at our All-Heroes lineup of Druss the Legend; mage-extraordinaire, Quick Ben of the Bridgeburners; John Aversin the Dragonsbane; Dr Who; and Raven—I dunno for sure, but somehow I doubt those monster hordes are goin’ to dare show up at all, let alone stick around. 😉

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But don’t forget, to check out the awesome that is the All-Heroines Dream Team and the rest of the Mind Meld fun, click on:

Who Has Your Back When Monsters Attack?

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The recent unveiling of the US  and UK covers for Daughter Of Blood  — and now the new look US covers for the whole WALL of Night series — has inspired me to spend some blog time with the characters from the first two books in the series, in the same way I spent time on the worldbuilding in A Geography Of Haarth.

I also decided to focus on minor players to begin with, because: “I think it’s the presence of the smaller characters that “makes” a story, creating texture around the main points of view.”

Today, I’m introducing siblings, Ilor and Serin.

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Ilor and Serin:     a sister and brother, both initiates serving in the Temple of Night

“The youth at his shoulder contented himself with a swift upward glance out of eyes that were so darkly blue that they looked almost as black as his hair.

“Serin,” he murmured, quickly lowering his eyes again, while the young woman beside him, who was similar enough in face and coloring to be his twin, spoke at the same time.

“I’m Ilor,” she said.”

~ from © The Heir Of Night: The Wall of Night Book One, Chapter 10 — In the Old Keep

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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 what do you think? Do you have a view on the use of dreams and portents in contemporary Fantasy, or a favourite book or series that deploys them to good effect?

Ulysses

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Having a new book scheduled to come out “soon”(-ish!) gets you thinking about the books that have come before them, especially in a series—and Daughter Of Blood is very much part of the continuing The Wall Of Night story.

Partly, this is what made me embark on the recently commenced “About the Characters” posts—altho’ “meet the characters” might be another way of thinking about!—which  has been focusing on minor characters, mainly in The Heir of Night (The Wall Of Night, Book One.)

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All that has got me thinking about the whole process of developing characters, not only in a book, but also in the book that you know is the first step in the long and winding journey of “series.”

And (in my humble opinion, anyway!) The Heir of Night (Heir) and The Wall of Night (WALL) series is all about the characters: who they are, what code of values they subscribe to—and how they behave in relation to those values when the chips are down. So I guess that’s why Heir is quite an adventurous story (OK, it’s also because I like treks into dangerous territory, sword fights and hunts and battles with demons, to be strictly honest!) as well as being character driven. Because it’s only when the going gets tough that the person you believe you are gets tested.

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The two central characters  in WALL are Malian, the eponymous Heir of Night, and Kalan, who is both her sidekick and a major character in his own right. In Heir they are both young (not unlike the five Stark children in George RR Martin’s A Game of Thrones), but dark events are thrust upon them. How they deal with that is very much part of the story, so that Malian at the beginning of The Gathering of the Lost (Gathering — The Wall Of Night, Book Two), despite her youth, already has a harder edge than the girl in the opening scenes of the book.

One of the more  difficult characters in the early story, at least in terms of values and being tested, is Malian’s father, the Earl of Night. Some time after the book first came out in 2010, a reader said: “Oh you can just feel the weight resting on him.” This did please me, because it is very much how I hoped that the Earl would come across: not as a straightforward personality, but as a man caught between opposing forces and conflicting values, not least his personal inclination and circumstances that are driving him in a different direction—which means that he is tested, sometimes even severely tested, as a character. Needless to say, he is not necessarily a likable man—but I hope that readers find him an interesting one

Big ideas, big story, characters under pressure—or a tale of adventure, battles and flights from danger? I love stories that weave the two elements together, so it’s probably not surprising that I’ve striven to achieve the same result in The Wall of Night series.

Coming soon now…

… January 2016

A writer can’t expect to be embraced by the people, you just keep doing your work—because you have to, it’s your calling.

~ Patti Smith

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True dat…

Of course, Patti Smith is most famous as a musician—you can find out more on her official site, here:

Patti Smith

My guest series Fantasy Heroines That Rock My World is still going full steam ahead on SF Signal — and this time the featured heroine is Eowyn from JRR Tolkien’s The Lord Of the Rings.

Eowyn

Because, as I say in the post, “I really don’t think it’s possible to have a Fantasy Heroines’ series and not feature Eowyn.”

To find out why I think so, though, you’ll have to check out the article:

Helen Lowe On The Fantasy Heroines That Rock Her World: Eowyn of Rohan

My other SF Signal feature this week was when the “Making Covers New” post, releasing the new US covers for The Wall of Night series, made the Top 25 posts for September (huzza!):

Top 25 SF Signal Posts for September 2015

Enjoy!

The proof being done, I’m taking time to do some reading — and this week have been devouring Kate Elliott’s Crossroads trilogy, which begins with Spirit Gate and is followed by Shadow Gate and Traitors’ Gate.

I have heard Kate Elliott described as a master of world building, and the “Gate” novels certainly impress in that respect. The societies of The Hundred and its adjoining realms are diverse and textured, as are the landscapes and cultural mythologies, so that the world really springs to life.

But its not just world building: there is a cast of interesting and compelling characters and an engaging epic fantasy yarn being told. Suffice it to say that I am enjoying the series a LOT and—having just finished Shadow Gate—I am keen to make a start on Traitors’ Gate over the weekend.

How about you–what’s on your TBR table for the weekend?