I did my first podcast interview via Skype last week, with Sean Wright of Australia’s Galactic Chat.

You can check it out here.

I understand it is reasonably lengthy, aka “in depth”, so you might want to download the mp3 😉

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UK/AUS/NZ cover

Where would we be without a little romance to make the world go around?

It’s no different in the Wall of Night series world of Haarth — and where better to talk romance than on the Supernatural Underground. So I’m there right now with a post on romance in The Gathering of the Lost:

“Because Malian and Kalan, the two central characters from the first book, The Heir of Night, aren’t kids anymore. They are five years older and so of course romance is going to be there in the story, especially as they are hanging out with other young people — and at least part of their adventures take place in the land of Emer, which even has a tradition of “springtime love” …”

To check out the rest and enter the giveaway, click here.

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It’s been quite a week, with the launch of The Gathering of the Lost, The Wall of Night Book Two for the USA/Canada, Australia and New Zealand on Tuesday, as well as commencing the Blog Tour, with stops this week at:

* SF Signal — launching the tour in North America with a post “Celebrating Epic Fantasy & Publication of The Gathering of the Lost.”

* Orbit — where I kicked off the Australian tour with a discussion of The Power of Environment in my writing

* John Scalzi’s Whatever — with a guest post on the Big Idea that manifested in The Gathering of the Lost

* Trent Jamieson’s Trentonomicon — with a guest post on “Romance vs Reality: War & Conflict in Epic Fantasy and ‘The Gathering of the Lost.’”

Plus a radio interview on PlainsFM Morning, podcast here, and a blog feature on Harper Voyager Books.

(I’ve also been doing some other ex-Blog Tour interviews “behind the scenes” but I’ll being details of those and where to read/look/listen as they are published.)

UK/AUS/NZ cover

Meanwhile, coming up this week, 2 – 8 April, I have the following on the schedule:

• the realtime launch for The Gathering of the Lost at the University Book Shop, University of Canterbury (if you’re local and want to attend, email gillian[at]ubscan[dot]co[dot]nz) — I am certainly looking forward to “pressing pause” and taking the opportunity to celebrate with readers and friends, particularly after the long slog, discussed on Orbit, to get to this point …
• the UK release of GATHERING on 5 April—& I thought we might have another wee celebration here on the blog to toast “the best of British!” 😉

And of course the Blog Tour is continuing with the following stops coming up—and you’ll see there’s one more added from the first annoucement on March 26:

• 1 April: Supernatural Underground (US/international) – where I shall be talking about romance in The Gathering of the Lost  (by the way, that is 1 April US time)

• 2 April: Civilian Reader (US) – an interview with with Stefan Fergus

• 3 April: Beatties Bookblog (NZ) – where I preview the forthcoming UBS launch that evening

• 5 April: Gillian Polack (AU) Guest post on the influence of history on The Wall of Night series and The Gathering of the Lost

• 7 April: Chronicles of the Tree (NZ) – An interview with Mary Victoria (and I am about to start responding to her thoughtful questions this very day!)

So as you can probably guess from all this I am very busy—but it is great to be getting out and around the traps and I look forward to seeing many of you along the way, either in person at the realtime launch on Tuesday, or on the Blog Tour! 🙂

The Heir of Night UK--nominated for the Gemmell Awards

Which means, in fact, that it is the last chance to vote and nominate respectively–but you can dance too if you want too. 😉 I’ll certainly be doing a happy dance if I make it to the next round of either category in the Gemmell Awards!

About the Gemmell Awards

If you don’t know about the Gemmell Awards yet, here’s the deal. The awards were established to honour heroic fantasy author David Gemmell and celebrate excellence in the heroic/epic fantasy genre. This year, The Heir of Night has been nominated in two categories, the Legend Award for Best Fantasy Novel 2011,  and the Morningstar Award for Best Fantasy Debut 2011.

Getting through to the next shortlist round is reader voted—so given some of those big names on the Legend long list, obviously I need all the support I can muster! So if you enjoyed “The Heir of Night“ and feel you can in good conscience do so, then please take this last chance to vote for it by clicking now on the following links:

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The Morningstar Award:  to shortlist The Heir of Night for Best Fantasy Debut—vote here

The Legend Award: to shortlist The Heir of Night for Best Fantasy Novel—vote here

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About The Sir Julius Vogel Awards

Nominations for the Sir Julius Vogel Awards also close today. The Awards are made annually by the Science Fiction & Fantasy Association of New Zealand (SFFANZ), for works published or released in the previous calendar year, and recognize achievement in Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror by New Zealanders. Anyone may nominate and there is a list of eligible works on the SFFANZ site here—and another on the SpecFicNZ site, here.

So if you loved a scifi, fantasy or horror story, novel or film published or released by a New Zealander last year then do not hesitate—nominate! Now, at once today: it’s your last chance!

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I did say there was more Blog Tour goodness to come, didn’t I—and in fact the  Australian leg of the Blog Tour is in full swing today as well.

Right now I’m visiting fellow author Trent Jamieson on Trentonomicon — with a guest post on “Romance vs Reality: War & Conflict in Epic Fantasy and ‘The Gathering of the Lost.’”

Click here to find out more—and while you’re there, say hi to Trent: do leave a comment! 🙂

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And I’m also visiting John Scalzi’s “Whatever” blog in the US to discuss the “Big Idea” that characterizes The Gathering of the Lost.

You can read all about it right here.

 But wait—there’s more! My US publisher, Harper Voyager have a great The Gathering of the Lost splash on  their blog today, too—you can check it out here!

Although the USA, Australia and New Zealand release dayis now behind us, there’s still UK release day coming up on the 5th April, just under a week away.

And meanwhile, the Blog Tour is in full swing with a The Gathering of the Lost giveaway (international) current on SF Signal, here — and today I’m onto the next USA leg of the tour (although I suspect it’s fairly international too) with a Big Idea post on John Scalzi’s Whatever.

The Big Idea is an opportunity SF author John Scalzi offers fellow authors to explain the ideas and inspiration behind their latest works, in their own words–and today I’m talking about the Big Idea that imbues The Gathering of the Lost.

You can read all about it right here.

(And remember, it’s OK to comment! )

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And stay posted here “…on Anything, Really” —there’s plenty more Blog Tour to come.

I have tweeted about this already, but I feel it’s only right to mention it here as well: The Gathering of the Lost has it’s first review—from Katherine Petersen on SF Site and it’s good.

Check out the goodness here.

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AU/NZ Cover

A big thank you to all of you for sharing in the fun for the US, Australia and New Zealand release of The Gathering of the Lost — and here is the result for the book prize and cover flat/bookplate giveaways, which were drawn by Random Number Integer.

(Note: Your entries for the ‘Name/Character’ draw remain valid as this will resume on April 5 for the UK release day–and in fact you may enter your name a second time then if you wish. The result of that draw will be announced right here on April 7.)

And Here — Drum Roll! — Are the Giveaway Winners:

* Grand Fantasy Book Prize No 1:  Mary Victoria

(1 x signed copy of The Gathering of the Lost; plus 1 x The Dragon’s Path by Daniel Abraham; 1 x The Inheritance Trilogy by NK Jemisin, comprising The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms; The Broken Kingdoms; and The Kingdom of Gods; 1 x The Alloy of Law by Brandon Sanderson)

* Grand Fantasy Book Prize Number 2: Leland Eaves

(1 x signed copy of The Gathering of the Lost; plus 1 x City of Dragons by Robin Hobb, and 1 x Graveminder by Melissa Marr)

* 10 x 1 each signed ‘Helen Lowe’  book plate and cover flat sets, to:

• Annamaree
• Paul Lavroff
• Joel Le Blanc
• EmmaD
• Charlotte
• Lisa Kun
• Wendy Chik
• Chris K
• Jacqui
• Fiona Mackie

Winners—if you email me on contact[at]helenlowe[dot]info with your contact details, I’ll arrange to get your prizes out to you asap!

And thank you again to everyone for participating! Don’t forget to check in again on April 5 and 7 and also keep your eye on the Blog Tour for more giveaways! (In fact, there’s one live on SF Signal right now!)

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That’s the amazing thing about timezones—it’s still the 27th in most (or all?) of the northern hemisphere! But “downunder” in New Zealand and Australia we rolled over into the 28th a few hours back now.

So because of the time zones I am keeping the launch day post and giveaways very much open until the close of play today (that’s midnight) NZ time. But in the meantime, here’s the links to the interviews and Blog Tour gigs that’s happened over the past 24 hours to kick off the launch of The Gathering of the Lost in style :

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• First up, my radio interview with PlainsFM Morning (So cool that you can listen on podcast: either push the ‘play‘ icon to listen or download the mp3)
  

• I launched the North American leg of my Blog Tour has posted as well—over on SF Signal by “Celebrating Epic Fantasy & Publication of The Gathering of the Lost.” And, if you miss out on a giveaway here, I’m giving away two copies of The Gathering of the Lost there as well—but you will have to comment there to be in to win.
• And marked the Australian launch with Orbit “Celebrating “‘The Gathering of the Lost’ and the Power of Environment.”

AU/NZ Cover

Click on the links to check the goodness out — and I’d love it if you commented on the blog tour gigs. 😉

But given it is still the 27th and release day—yippee!— in the northern hemisphere, the “Welcome to the Gathering of the Lost post immediately below is still fully open to commenting and entering the release day contests!

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We’ve survived earthquakes and liquefaction, we’ve counted down with excerpts from the book and finally the first 100 pages, we’ve talked celebrations and blog tours—and now finally, it’s The Day.

Today I’m welcoming The Gathering of the Lost, the second novel in The Wall of Night series, fully into the public arena right here in New Zealand, over the Tasman in Australia (it’s official my books are now Tasmanauts! — waves out to Joanna Preston) and in the USA and Canada. (And in just 9 days time, on April 5, it’ll be out in the UK as well.) And although there’s plenty happening here, later on in first Australian, and then USA, time I’ll be linking through to guest posts on Orbit and SF Signal respectively. So ‘watch this space’ for those links.

You can also check out each edition of the book in more detail by going to the links in the far right sidebar. But now onto what’s happening right here! (As previewed for you on Sunday.)

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First off, this is a Celebration, so I’m doing GIVEAWAYS—and yes, they are fully international. (Kinda like me and The Gathering of the Lost, come to think of it—international! 😉 )

All you have to do to enter the Giveaways Draw is post a comment on this post, or any other posts I may make dated 27 March. But to allow international readers a chance to read and comment, the giveaway draw will close off at midnight Wednesday 28 March, NZ time.

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But Now For Those Giveaways!

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Grand Fantasy Book Prize No 1: a book pack comprising —

• 1 x signed copy of The Gathering of the Lost (of course 🙂 )
• 1 x The Dragon’s Path by Daniel Abraham
• 1 x The Inheritance Trilogy by NK Jemisin, comprising The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms; The Broken Kingdoms; and The Kingdom of Gods
• 1 x The Alloy of Law by Brandon Sanderson

Grand Fantasy Book Prize No 2: a book pack comprising —

• 1 x signed copy of The Gathering of the Lost (again, of course 😉 )
• 1 x City of Dragons by Robin Hobb
• 1 x Graveminder by Melissa Marr

Signed Book Plates & Cover Flats:

• 10 x sets of the US The Gathering of the Lost cover flats and 10 x signed ‘Helen Lowe’ bookplates designed by Peter Fitzpatrick, creator of The Heir of Night map

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But As Promised, There is More—

Your Chance To Enter The “Give Your Name To A Character in Daughter of Blood, The Wall of Night, Book Three” Draw:

Everyone who comments on both/either Tuesday 27 (USA/Canada and Australia/New Zealand) and/or April 5 (UK) release days, will go in the draw to give their name to a character in Daughter of Blood, The Wall of Night Book Three.

Provisos include:

• Only 1 comment per every distinct blog post I publish here on Tuesday 27 and/or April 5 will count as an eligible entry (so you automatically get 1 chance to enter on both March 27 and April 5 respectively, but you will get a further chance every time I add an additional post on each of those days);
• The successful name must be the real name of the commenter, not a pseudonym;
• The person whose name is drawn will also be recognised in the Acknowledgments to Daughter of Blood and receive a signed, complimentary copy of that book;
• I reserve the right to adapt the winning name to best fit a fantasy character, e.g. “John the Miller” as opposed to “John Miller”
• I cannot predetermine how the “Your Name” character will appear in the story and whether he/she will play a positive or negative role

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How This Will All Run (A few slight changes here from Sunday’s post, mainly because of time zone considerations):

• All draws will be made by Random Number Integer and the “Name/Character” draw will be made by an independent third party to ensure full transparency(!)
• The opportunity to comment on today’s posts and enter the Giveaway draw will close off at midnight Wednesday 28, NZ time, with the results published as Thursday 29’s blog post.
• The opportunity to enter in the “Name/Character” draw by commenting on either today’s March 27 post(s,) or the April 5 post(s) for the UK launch will close off at midnight April 6, NZ time and be posted as Saturday 7 April’s blog post.
• Also—don’t forget to check back to see if you’ve won 😉

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Breaking News:

5.00 pm: My first guest post on the Australian leg of my Blog Tour has just posted on Orbit: “Celebrating “‘The Gathering of the Lost’ and the Power of Environment.” Click on the link to check it out—and I’d love it if you supported the Blog Tour with a comment. 🙂

8.00 pm: And now my first guest post on the North American leg of my Blog Tour has posted as well—over on SF Signal I’m “Celebrating Epic Fantasy & Publication of The Gathering of the Lost.” And, if you miss out on a giveaway here, I’m giving away two copies of The Gathering of the Lost there as well—but you will have to comment there to be in to win.

Now, let’s party on!