Waipara Valley

Yesterday was Earth Day—and the weather was wonderful: the very best sort of warm, mild autumn weather.

The vineyard

So when friend and consultant winemaker to Mountford Estate, CP Lin, said: “Come up to the vineyard and taste what we have in the vats from the current harvest”—well, how could a winelover like myself resist?

Barrels

Waipara lies about forty five minutes drive to the north of Christchurch and is one of the country’s signifcant wine growing regions.

Mountford Estate

Mountford Estate is a small winery with a big international reputation for its pinot noir in particular.

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Tasting Room

The day and the place were all spectacular.

The company was rather good as well.

"The tasting panel" with winemaker CP Lin

And I can tell you that at least one of those wines in the vats, “The Rise” pinot noir is already promising to be something really special. Although going by what I tasted yesterday, it won’t be the only one …

And finishing up with an al fresco lunch just down the road at Waipara Springs–what better way to spend Earth Day?

Waipara Springs

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The Gathering of the Lost has its third review, this time from international speculative fiction site, RisingShadow.

It’s an indepth review covering the basic plot (but without spoilers—thank you, RisingShadow!), worldbuilding, the characters, the magic and monsters, and the writing itself, with an overall summation of how the reviewer found the book. (In other words, very similar to the approach taken by Paul Weimer of SF Signal in reviewing The Heir of Night recently, here.)

Here is the opening sequence to the RisingShadow review:

“Before I write anything else, I’ll mention that the last decade has been good for fantasy literature, because lots of new authors have emerged and several excellent books have been written during the last couple of years. Helen Lowe is one of these good authors, because her books are highly enjoyable and entertaining reading experiences. Her fantasy series, The Wall of Night, is a powerful, complex and beautifully written tale about friendship, duty, loyalty and magic…”

To read the full review, click here.

My last stop on the Tour was a wonderful indepth interview with John R Fultz of SEVEN PRINCES fame here.

And today I am guest posting with another fellow Orbit author, Mur Lafferty, on her I Should Be Writing blog.

Now one of the questions John asked me was about my approach as a female writer of epic fantasy—and Paul Weimer also made the recent observation in his review of The Heir of Night for SF Signal that:

“Lowe brings a number of strengths to the table. The greatest of these is the female characters and, more broadly, the role of women in this world. It’s not just that we have a couple of strong female characters bobbing up, but rather what we see is the tip of a submerged iceberg of egalitarianism.”

Paul Weimer is not the first commentator to have noted the strength of the women characters in THE WALL OF NIGHT series—so it may perhaps come as no surprise to readers that my guest post with Mur Lafferty on I Should Be Writing is on:

Writing Strong Women in FSF & The Wall of Night Series

“When The Heir of Night, the first book in The Wall of Night quartet, came out in the UK last year, its SFX reviewer remarked: “there’s no discussion or worthy treatise on why women are not just equals but head the Earl’s Honor Guard – they just are.”

Exactly! I thought–because if the society really is equal then its members won’t debate or question that norm, they will accept it as status quo. In the context of the story, the discussion or worthy treatise then becomes clear for what it is, an intrusion of the authorial voice …”

To read more: click here or on the post title above.

My US publisher Harper Voyager also has a blog post featuring books shortlisted for the Gemmell Awards—-in this case:

• Prince of Thorns and The Heir of Night for the Morningstar (Best Fantasy Newcomer) Award, and

• Oracle’s Fire and Journey by Night for the Ravenheart Award for Best Cover Art.

You can check the post—and all the lovely covers in a row—out here

Original UK cover

New UK cover

On April 9 I was thrilled to share the news that The Heir of Night had been shortlisted for the Gemmell Morningstar Award.

There are five shortlisted books and voting for the winner has now commenced, closing on 31 May.

Today my UK publisher, Orbit, is celebrating The Heir of Night’s success in getting this far with a feature post—and it is very exciting for me, too, to see ‘my little story’ on the list. 🙂

To see the Orbit post, click here.

The current stop on the Blog Tour–which is nearing it’s end by the way, but there are still a  few more great stops to go—is with fellow Orbit and epic fantasy author, John R Fultz.

You may recall that I interviewed John here in February about his debut novel, Seven Princes—a big rambunctious book in every sense of the word. (I suspect that one thing John and I have in common, besides a general love of epic fantasy, is that we both love rambunctious stories! 😀 ) You can read my interview with John, here.

Now John has reciprocated with an invitation to stop in at Virtual Sanctuary on the great The Gathering of the Lost Blog Tour — and he has put together a great interview where we talk about what makes a big book, my writing style and writing strong women, amongst other topics!

One of these is music and I detect that John is very much a music lover—as evidenced by his interview title, “She Writes the Night” is “…an homage to the Danzig song “She Rides”, which features the refrain “She rides the night…” Cool, huh — Malian now has a theme song!

So without further ado—“She Writes the Night” my interview with the great John R Fultz, here.

And you can check out Danzig and ‘She Rides The Night’ on YouTube, here

Last week, my interview with Australian epic fantasy author, Ian Irvine, featured on the Orbit blog, here.

And today, Ian’s reciprocal  interview with me is now on Orbit too—and covers an array of topics, including:

— earthquakes;

— key elements of The Heir of Night and The Gathering of the Lost stories, including Malian and Kalan’s hopes and fears and the nature of their most powerful adversary; and

— the relationship between my poetry and prose writing.

I think Ian’s long experience as a fantasy novelist comes through in the questions so please do check this new interview out—and as always, don’t be shy: encourage us, leave a comment! 😉

To read the interview (and comment!) click here.

Exciting news—the Sir Julius Vogel Awards 2012 shortlist is now out and I am very pleased to see such a diverse list.

You can read the full list here

Congratulations to all the finalists: I am thrilled for you all! (And would acknowledge you all here, except that I would have to retype the whole list—apologies for my faint heartedness!)

But personal friends I would particularly like to congratulate include:

• Mary Victoria, whose novels Samiha’s Song and Oracle’s Fire have both made the ballot for Best Novel
• K. D. Berry for Dragons Away, also a finalist for Best Novel; as well as for the Best New Talent award
• Lee Murray, whose Battle Of The Birds is in the race for Best Youth Novel
• Alicia Ponder for Frankie And The Netball Clone, up for Best Short Story
• Cassie Hart & Anna Caro, editors of Tales for Canterbury, a finalist for Best Collected Work
• Frank Victoria, for the cover of Oracle’s Fire, for Best Professional Artwork
• June Young, Simon Litten, & Broderick Wells for Fan Writing
• Ripley Patton for Services to Science Fiction, Fandom and Horror

A wonderful achievement—and again, my heartiest congratulations to all the finalists on the official list, here.

Over on the Tuesday Poem hub our second birthday poem is nearing completion—and Hub curator, Mary McCallum, discusses the creative process on her blog, O Audacious Book, here.

I hope you will visit the Tuesday Poem blog and enjoy our community’s collective work: Birthday Poem (Working Title.)

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Meanwhile, as my Tuesday Poem feature I am linking to my recent radio interview with Christchurch poet, Jan Hutchison, where she reads three poems from her new collection, The Happiness of Rain (Steele Roberts, 2012.)

The poems featured are:

• The title poem, ‘The Happiness of Rain’

• ‘John Clare’s later life’

• ‘Colette travels through her room’

I hope you enjoy the interview and the poems.

To listen: click here

Then either click on the ‘Play’ button or download the MP3

I am thrilled to announce that Malian of Night has agreed to do her very first blog interview—with the very talented Kim Falconer on the Supernatural Underground.

Here’s how the interview begins:

“Kim: Hello Malian. *small bow* Thank you for coming to chat with us at the Supernatural Underground. First up, to clarify, you are Heir to the House of Night in the Derai Alliance. Can you tell us briefly what that means? Why an alliance and what is the Wall?

Malian: [inclines her head in the Heir of Night’s acknowledgment of an equal] Thank you, Kim. It is an honor to be a guest of the Supernatural Underground; I have heard so much that is good about it through my chronicler, Helen Lowe.

…”

To read the full interview, just click here

Plus—to celebrate this unique event, there’s double giveaway goodness:

1 x The Heir of Night and Kim’s Path of the Stray and

1 x  The Gathering of the Lost and Kim’s Road to the Soul

All you have to do to get your name in the draw is post a comment—or a question for Malian—on the interview, here.