On Friday I was happy to share the good news that the Christchurch Writers’ Festival programme was out and that I would be appearing in the “Why YA” panel with John Boyne and Jane Higgins, compered by James Norcliffe.

The event is scheduled for 9.30 am on Sunday 2 September and here’s what we’re going to be talking about:

“YA – ‘Young Adult’ – is a comparatively recent literary genre. Once readers
moved straight from children’s to adult novels but now there is a rich
variety of fiction for teenagers. Is there a genuine and valid divide
between juvenile and adult writing or is YA nothing more than a marketing
phenomenon? Are there different types of YA fiction? What trends can be
discerned in writing for this pivotal, impressionable and techno-savvy age
group?”

I don’t think we’ll have any shortage of scope for discussion there!

In fact, I think it’s going to be a great panel and would love it if you could make it along — and say hello afterward as well!

According to the programme the entry is $16/$14 (I’m assuming waged/unwaged.)  Tickets are available via Dash Tickets  here.

Yesterday I had an unexpected visitor—and then an equally unexpected lunch at winery Pegasus Bay, where the following appeared on the table with my dessert…

I suspect someone had been whispering ahead of time to the good folk in the kitchen, but still—exactly 1 month on from The Heir of Night’s Morningstar win—very nice! And definitely put a smile “on the face of the tiger.” 😉

I love it when I open my post office box and find lovely cardboard packages, and inside them — books! This week I’ve received:

Shadowfell — the new YA Novel by Juliet Marillier

Unlike  Juliet Marillier’s two previous YA novels, Wildwood Dancing and Cybele’s Secret, which were set in an historical Roumania and Turkey respectively, Shadowfell is set in a Celtic-infused world reminiscent of—but not the same as—her adult “Sevenwaters” novels.

Here’s what the backcover says:

“The people of Alban are afraid.

The tyrannical king and his masked Enforcers are scouring the land, burning villages and enslaving the canny.

Fifteen-year-old Neryn has fled her home in the wake of its destruction, and is alone and penniless, hiding her extraordinary magical power. She can rely on no one — not even the elusive Good Folk who challenge and bewilder her.

When an enigmatic stranger saves her life, Neryn and the young man called Flint begin an uneasy journey together. She wants to trust Flint but how can she tell who is true in a land of evil?

But Neryn has heard whisper of a mysterious place: a place where rebels are massing to free the land and end the king’s reign.

A place called Shadowfell.”

It definitely sounds interesting—I am very much looking forward to reading it and discussing with Juliet Marillier in a forthcoming interview.

Yes, the Christchurch Writers’ Festival programme is out today—and I’m in it! Together with a lot of other writers, of course! 😉

My event is a panel on YA Writing with Irish writer John Boyne (The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas) and fellow local author, Jane Higgins (The Bridge) and compered by James Norcliffe.  Needless to say, I’m looking forward to it!

To find out what else is going down, click here to download the programme, or just browse the website here.

The festival is being held over 30 August – 2 September.

For today’s post, a little more feedback that’s come though for The Gathering of the Lost:

“Awesome world building, beautifully lyrical prose and just the right type of epic fantasy. I am loving this series from Helen Lowe and really looking forward to what happens next. My only complaint is that it projected as a four book series – already I want more!” — Mark, on Good Reads

And here’s a quote from a review on Wargamingnz:

“This is a world filled with action, magic, intrigue and betrayal. It is a story of a complex world, a story that demands attention yet is easy to read, a story that is fantastical yet ‘plausible’.”

USA

Plus this from Falcata Times in the UK:

“Add to this solid writing, a fluid descriptive style which is almost cinematic and all in it’s a title that really announces the author to the fantasy world as more than a one shot wonder. Finally throw into this a cracking plot outline and enough twists to keep the reader confused and it’ll make you demand the third part after the last page is turned.”

Sounds like I’d better keep beavering away on Daughter of Blood, The Wall of Night Book Three then, doesn’t it?

Just arrived...

I am very excited about this because my author copies of L’Héritière De La Nuit, Le Mur De La Nuit 1 “just arrived” yesterday.

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L’Héritière De La Nuit of course is the French translation of The Heir of Night and the books that have arrived are the French edition that was published on 1 March—but actually having the books does make it all seem that much more real.

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L'Héritière... -- how cool is that?

I even have a few French friends to give away a couple of the copies to. 😉

North

homes
white timbered in the south
give way to brown-red
in mid and north –
avenues of birch trees
serried lakes

an elk
runs through deep winter
the night train flares
through cuttings –
inferno cast across jagged firs
frozen earth

rushes headlong
into spring – a pied crow
solitary
above a grey field

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(c) Helen Lowe

Published in Bravado 14

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This poem came up in an email conversation with a friend in Finland over the weekend, so it seemed a good time to reprise it here on the blog. Although I should add — conscientiously — that it was written about a journey to Arjeplog in the north of Sweden (not Finland), which lies just south of the Arctic circle, and my subsequent return to Stockholm in the south.

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To read the featured poem on the Tuesday Poem Hub and other great poems from fellow Tuesday poets from around the world, click here or on the Quill icon in the sidebar.

One thing about being laid low for close on two weeks now with midwinter illness, is that I have managed to complete a couple of books I had on the go, plus reading one new—all of which I enjoyed. I’m still not quite well enough to write a detailed report, but I’ll give you my thumbnail feedback:

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The Quantum Thief by Hannu Rajaniemi (Gollancz)

I really enjoyed this book — it’s not only definitely space opera, but a richly baroque variant distinguished by the sheer imagination of the world building. A little light on the character development perhaps, but certainly not sufficiently so as to dis-satisfy… And because I felt The Quantum Thief fell close to the “science as magic” end of the space opera spectrum it may not be the right book for readers who like hard science fiction.

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Started Early, Took My Dog by Kate Atkinson (Doubleday)

This is the fourth in Kate Atkinson’s “Jackson Brodie” series and I found the story development more even than with its predecessor When Will There Be Good News. It’s also classic Kate Atkinson, mixing several interlinked plots with a background of current and historic events, with a keen eye to the foibles and fallibility of our human condition. I’m always hard pushed to decide whether Atkinson’s Brodie novels are detective novels or social commenatry, but in either case, Started Early, Took My Dog definitely got a tick in the “enjoyed” box.

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 The Crowfield Curse by Pat Walsh (Chicken House)

The Crowfield Curse is junior fiction, published by small, specialist UK publisher Chicken House. It came highly recommended by a friend and when I picked it up I was not disappointed — I loved the story’s mix of fantasy and medieval  historical realism: the tale is set largely in a monastery (and its environs) and you can tell the author knows the period. The central character of Will is engaging and the plot well paced, with just the right balance of mystery, fear, and life affirming elements. I enjoyed it a lot.

“Stories never live alone; They are the branches of a family that we have to trace back, and forward.” — Roberto Calasso

You can find out more about Roberto Calasso here.

Helen Heath; credit Kate MacPherson

If you’re within the zone for Plains 96.9FM, listen out at 10.45 am for my interview with Helen Heath about her new collection, Graft (Victoria University Press.)

If you can’t listen live, then I’ll link here once the podcast is up, so fear not — you need not miss out! 😉

You can read my “What I’m Reading” post on Graft here.

And my Tuesday Poem feature of Helen’s poem Fairytale v: O Brother, published in Graft, is here.