Recently I posted a few photos of the wisteria in bloom in my garden, here and here, including quoting from Rupert Brooke’s poem “The Old Vicarage, Grantchester”, which I then had to post as a Tuesday Poem here.

And because I am enjoying the spring, the garden and the photos, I thought I’d post a few more for you “at random” so you can share in the “just this” moments.

Today’s photo probably speaks for itself, but I love the crimson colour of this rhododendron: enjoy!

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“The ability of writers to imagine what is not the self, to familiarize the strange, and mystify the familiar, is the test of their power.”

~ Toni Morrison

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In a way this quote is the antithesis of “write what you know”, but no less than what I would expect of a writer of Morrison’s power. For me , “write what you know” is a good starting point, but this quote of Toni Morrison’s—again for me, but I feel it exemplifies a goal which as writers we strive to attain evey time we pick up a pen, or sit down at the keyboard.

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If you want to know more about Toni Morrison, her Nobel Laureate’s (1993) biography is a good starting point, here.

Positive reader feedback is always “the best”—but when another author not only reads and likes your work but tells the world so, that’s always extra special.

Yesterday, I recapped Abhinav Jain’s “Names A New Perspective” guest author series, here—and one of the fellow authors whose post I really enjoyed was Courtney Schafer on Building Fantasy Worlds One Name At A Time.

In fact we enjoyed each others posts so much that we agreed to do an author book swap—and you will recall that I posted on Courtney’s books arriving just last week, here.

But Courtney (possibly because she is a mountain climber and figure skater! ;-)) has “leapt in” ahead of me and already finished both The Heir of Night and The Gathering of the Lost!

You can read what she has to say Here.

Although I guess you already know from my intro that she enjoyed the books, but nonetheless, here’s the summary version:

“So if you’ve any fondness for epic fantasy, I highly recommend you give the Wall of Night series a try.  I had a wonderful time reading both Heir and Gathering, and can’t wait for the next novel in the series…so write faster, Helen!”

(I’m doing my best, honest!–says Helen: but I do want Daughter of Blood to be ‘just as good if not better’ than Heir and Gathering…)

In the meantime, do check out Courtney’s post and have a look at her website, here.

On September 26 I heralded Abhinav Jain’s guest author series to be titled “Names A New Perspective”, here.

As noted then, the fuller brief for “Names A New Perspective” was:

“… how the names of characters and places and other things within their novels (and other works where appropriate) fit into their setting, their relevance and their power.”

The “new” perspective was because all the guest authors were new and/or newish authors like myself. I looked forward to reading their thoughts on names and naming in the context of their writing for that reason alone, as well as for the general interest of the topic. And on all counts, I have to say that I have not been disappointed. As a series, I think it has been excellent and I really thank Abhinav for putting it together.

An additional plus was that Abhinav posted links to his reviews of each guest author’s books, where applicable, and also added a commentary to the post where he had read a book or books.

So all up, if you have not been following the series, I thoroughly recommend it to you. Here is the complete ‘first season’ of authors, post titles, and opening lines, just to get you started—but you will have to link through to get the full goodness of each post. 😉

Names A New Perspective:

24th September – Myke Cole – The Significance Of Names

“Ancient and medieval cultures typically attach great significance to a name. In plenty of magic systems, knowing the name of a thing grants a person tremendous power over it…”

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27th September – Chris F. Holm – The Devil’s In The Details

“I have a confession to make: I’m lousy at coming up with character names.

I think it’s because I’m lousy with names in general. They just never seem to stick. …”

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1st October – Kim Curran – Names Are Fun

“As I mostly write near-future / alternative present sci-fi and urban fantasy, I don’t tend to go in for fantastical names. This is because I want the setting to feel as real as possible, so that the reader will stick with me when I start to take them on more unbelievable adventures. …”

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8th October – Teresa Frohock – A Game Of Names

“For the record, I don’t spend an inordinate amount of time on names in my novels. I do try to choose names that immediately conjure an image in my readers’ minds. I make it my policy to keep these names as simple as possible. …”

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11th October – Helen Lowe – The Power Of Names

“The power of names is an important them in Fantasy literature… Nonetheless, when I began writing my first novel, The Heir of Night (Heir), names were not part of my vision for the magic system of either the alien Derai Alliance or the world of Haarth.”

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15th October – Anne Lyle – Names As Characters

“When I was asked to contribute a guest post to this series, I was happy to oblige as I’ve always been fascinated by names. Then I realised that I didn’t have much to say about character names in my current series, because the majority of them are real historical figures and the rest are dictated by my desire to be accurate to Elizabethan practices. …”

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18th October – Courtney Schafer – Building Fantasy Worlds One Name At A Time

“It doesn’t take us long as children to figure out the importance of names. Soon after my son learned to talk, he went through a phase in which he desperately wanted to know the name of every random person he saw. … When I explained I didn’t know the strangers’ names, not without being introduced, he protested in dismay, “But Mommy, then how do you know who they are?” In that question, I heard the echo of every fantasy story in which true names hold power both magical and dangerous….”

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22nd October – Lou Morgan – The Naming Of Things

“Names are a big deal. Names have, to paraphrase, power. There’s a phrase in the Book of the Dead – one of the most important spells provided to help the dead navigate the Afterlife, as it happens – which translates to :”I know you and I know your name.”…”

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25th October – Jeff Salyards – A Name By Any Other Name

“I’m not a linguist. And even if I were, I’d still be far too lazy to invent languages for various peoples in my fantasy world. … While I absolutely respect the time and energy required of anyone following Tolkien’s lead on language and nomenclature, I’m far more instinctive in my approach. …”

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29th October – Gwenda Bond – Names, Names And Names

“Names, names, names! Okay, since I only have the one book out that’s the one I’m going to talk about. Names in Blackwood are obviously very important. One’s right there in the title—the surname of the heroine Miranda. (And, as some have already guessed, Miranda’s first name is a nod to The Tempest, which felt right given the story’s island setting.) …”

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1st November – Stina Leicht – What’s In A Name

“World-building is more than maps. World-building is also geology, ecology, finance, government, technology, culture and a million subtle things that most people take for granted. Good writers use every opportunity to illustrate their fictional world, including character names and urban fantasy writers aren’t exempt. …”

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8th November – Elspeth Cooper – A Rose By Any Other Name

“What’s in a name? that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet;

The Bard may have the right of it when it comes to the real world, but names of characters in fiction – especially speculative fiction – can be a whole ’nother kettle of finny things. …”

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12th November – David Annandale – The Depths of Names

“All fiction writers are involved in world-building, whether or not their work falls into the realm of the fantastic (by which I mean science fiction, fantasy, horror and all their subcategories and hybrids). As well, one might think of fiction as the truthful telling of lies. …”

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So there you have it, dear readers, a fabulous line up on “Names A New Perspective”—so do read on!

I have been very much enjoying the Canterbury Poets’ Collective’s spring season of poetry readings over the past six weeks. The Open Mic readings have been of consistently high quality and we’ve had a programme of great guests as well—but with Joanna Preston, Owen Marshall, and Tusiata Avia as tonight’s featured poets, I feel that the quality is set to continue.

Just to give you a “thumbnail” introduction to each poet:

Joanna Preston won both the inaugural Kathleen Grattan Award (New Zealand) 2008 and the Mary Gilmore Prize (Australia) in 2010, both highly prestigious awards, for her debut poetry collection, The Summer King (Otago University Press, 2009.) I have featured Joanna here on the blog several times already so do check out the links to get a taste of just what has made The Summer King so successful:

• Cowarral Sequence ii—The Orange Tree
• Cowarral Sequence iii—A Summer Storm
• I Wish You Angels

To find out more about Joanna and her poetry, check out her blog, A Dark Feathered Art—I think you’ll find it repays a visit.

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Owen Marshall

Owen Marshall is one of New Zealand’s pre-eminent writers—and although many may think of him first in the context of his short fiction, he has also published several collections of poetry, the most recent being sleepwalking in antartica (Canterbury University Press) in 2010.

Owen was also my creative writing mentor a few years back, through the NZ Society of Author’s/Creative New Zealand programme, and although we worked on short stories rather than either novels or poetry, I know his feedback assisted in the development of my writing. (I have said as much, too, in the Acknowledgments to The Heir of Night.)  I am very much looking forward to hearing him read tonight.

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Tusiata Avia

Tusiata Avia is renowned both in New Zealand and overseas as a performance poet. Of Samoan descent, Tusiata was born and raised in Christchurch, but has travelled and performed throughout the world.

In 2004 she published her first collection of poetry, Wild Dogs Under My Skirt (Wellington: VUP). Her second collection of poetry Bloodclot was published in February 2009.

Tusiata’s poetry in performance is always fabulous—so I think you may be starting to see why I am looking forward to tonight’s event!

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For those of you who will be in or near Christchurch tonight, the evening will run from 6.30 pm at the CPSA hall, Christchurch Polytechnic on Madras Street, commencing with a BYO Open Mic. Entry is just $5 so well worth a look in.

is anybody in there?

The sun hits the tips of waves in Lyall Bay, the big wing, your
sunglasses as you fly into Wellington again. The blow of water,
the salt salt water, would taste like lips after chips & chips.

In the last two years you’ve taken to tearing out pages of your
diary and sending them off in screwtop white wine bottles.
You drop them in rivers, the names of which you forget almost
immediately on hearing the splash.

Your mother says, ‘you should brush your hair.’ You say, ‘I’m
33.’ She runs into the house & returns, holding out a plastic
comb. She slams the car door and starts stabbing at the air,
trying to reach your hair.

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© Johanna Aitchison

from A Long Girl Ago, Victoria University Press, 2007

Reprinted here with permission

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About the Poem:

Recently, I posted about reading Johanna Aitchison’s collection A Long Girl Ago—and you can read how I was finding it, here.

Reading the collection followed on from Johanna’s enjoyable and distinctive guest appearance as part of the Canterbury Poets’ Collective’s spring season of poetry readings. One of the poems I mentioned in my initial post was in anybody in there.

Even though prose poetry is not always my thing, I really liked the way in anybody in there opens A Long Girl Ago in a way that characterizes the collection in terms of an essential New Zealand quality: “The sun hits the waves in Lyall Bay…as you fly into Wellington again.”

The sense of place is strong, but so too is the sense of both connection and disconnection co-existing uneasily with each other, that is prevalent throughout the book:

“In the last two years you’ve taken to tearing pages of your diary out…”

and comes in through relationships within families in particular:

“Your mother says, ‘you should brush your hair.’ You say, ‘I’m 33.'”

but also relationships between people generally, in almost every aspect of life. The poetry speaks to all of this: the sense of place and family and connection, the uneasiness and disconnection coexisting in immediate relationship to it that we all understand intimately—but also see with new eyes through the lens of Johanna’s poems.

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About the Poet:

Johanna tells me that the poet: … lives in Palmerston North. She has just turned 40 and, to that end, she is running a lot (about 50km per week) in the hope of doing a marathon. She works as a lecturer at IPC and a tutor at Massey University. She is driven by her love of coffee.

I also feel that it is relevant to mention that A Long Girl Ago was a finalist in the 2008 Montana New Zealand Book Awards, and that Johanna was recently the Massey University Writer in Residence.

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To read the featured poem on the Tuesday Poem Hub—and link to other Tuesday Poets posting around NZ and the world—either click here or on the Quill icon in the sidebar.

Happy Monday!

Yes, dear readers, paperwork of the most mundane and boring, but also pressing kind, alas—and since, despite my best efforts, I did not get it done on the weekend I needs must carry on today rather than doing my usual Monday morning post for you.

And then when the paperwork is done, I fear I really should update my blog… 🙁 (Whether I do or not remains another question, however!)

But in the meantime, if you haven’t already done so, why not check out some of the short fiction I have posted on my website—here are the links:

• Cold Cass (contemporary realism)
• The Brother King (historical)
• Red Earth (future dystopia)
• The Spit (slightly historical realism)

And as well as the Poetry category in the blog sidebar, there are more poems on my website, too–just look under Other Writing: Poetry.

Happy Monday–I shall see you on the other side of the paperwork! 🙂

Every now and then it’s good to try something new, especially in the creative field—so recently I signed up for a wreath making evening with local floral artist, Kim Chan.

I was a little diffident, because manual dexterity is not my strongest suite, but in the end I was quite pleased with my creation for the evening.

But what do you think—will my wreath pass muster?

Here it is in all its splendour. 🙂

“Write quickly and you will never write well. Write well, and you will soon write quickly.”

~ Marcus Fabius Quintilianus, 65 A.D.

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Needless to say, I take great comfort from this quote. 😀

Yesterday I said in my “Just Arrived” post on Courtney Schafer’s novels The Whitefire Crossing and The Tainted City,  that one of the great things about the internet is the way it enables me to connect with other writers internationally.

While that reamins true, I also think the internet and social media are as much a curse to writers as they are a boon. I saw this article by Carl Wilkinson in The Telegraph and the thrust of it really resonated, as I feel that creativity requires concentrated time and energy, and the internet and social media are all about distraction and fragmented energy.

Here’s a snippet to give you a feel for the full article, which I feel would repay a read:

“Shutting out a world of digital distraction

Nick Hornby, Dave Eggers and Zadie Smith are among a growing group of novelists who struggle with internet-addiction. Carl Wilkinson investigates the powerful effect of the web on the creative mind…

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I feel Franzen may well be right—but to read the rest of the article, click Here.