UK/AUS/NZ

Well, we began the journey together a month ago, with publication of the Blog Tour Schedule on 26 March.

Now today is the last stop on the official Tour—but I’m finishing in grand style with a guest post with fellow epic fantasy author, Kate Elliott, on her home site I Make Up Worlds. (What a great blog name!)

The post is titled “Building Fantastic Worlds: ‘It’s A Mystery'” and begins:

USA

“Over the past few weeks, at various stops on The Gathering of the Lost blog tour, I have discussed a number of facets of the story, including environment, war, romance, history, adventure and writing strong women characters. Yet all these aspects could equally well apply to any writing genre, from contemporary realism to crime to historical fiction. The element that really distinguishes FSF, especially when a story departs from this-world-as-we-know-it, is world building.

But how do compelling and intriguing worlds come about—the ones where arguably the world is as much a character as any of the personalities that appear within the story …”

To read the full post, click here.

But there is more—because this is the final stop on the Tour there is another joint giveaway to finish up in style. Full details are on Kate’s blog but basically there are two books sets available to be won:

• Set 1: A copy of  The Heir of Night and a copy (your choice) of either of Kate’s Spirit Gate (Crossroads 1) or Cold Magic (Spiritwalker 1); and

• Set 2: A copy of  The Gathering of the Lost and a copy (your choice) of either of Kate’s Shadow Gate (Crossroads 2) or Cold Fire (Spiritwalker 2)

And all you have to do to enter the draw is post a comment: easy peasy!

But regardless of whether you comment, I hope you enjoy the post. 🙂

Autumn

Aaaah, autumn,
the dying season of the year,
when shadows turn to grape,
chilled by the first, faint curl of mist
around the edges of the days,
foreshortened into clear, green twilights
as night shifts from summer’s deep velvet
to frosty black, the stars glow colder,
more distant, the leaves turn
gold, bronze, crimson, scarlet,
bravura counterpoint to cooling days –
then fall, in deep, rustling drifts
beneath austere branches, the earth
dark beneath their shadow, filled
with pale secrets, bulbs lying in
wait for spring’s warm ambush
to burst out upon the world again,
while far above their blind heads
smoke smudges the evening air,
breath hanging in the stillness
as feet stamp crisply, briskly,
knowing winter is almost here.

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(c) Helen Lowe

Commended, Yellow Moon Nature Poetry Competition (August 2005)
Published Yellow Moon 18 (Australia), Summer 2006

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Well, it’s autumn here—so what better than an autumn poem!

Of course, now that A Game of Thrones has taken over the world via the small screen, I realise I should have written “winter is coming” rather than “winter is almost here.” 😉

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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.

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.