Just a quick note to say that we had an absolutely fabulous realtime launch for The Gathering of the Lost last night—with big thanks to Philip King, Gillian Newman and the University Book Shop for hosting, my NZ publisher Hachette for their support, and to Dr Christina Stachurski, my lead editor Kate Nintzel,  and my partner Andrew for their good words on the occasion.

The gathering crowd

And a huge thank you to everyone who came along and helped make it a great party—you all rock!

'Talking to' the book ...

I will definitely write more later, by meanwhile, here are a few photos just to give you a  flavour ‘in the meantime.’   🙂

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yellow admiral –
……..in the stone garden
……..a leaf falls

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(c) Helen Lowe

Published in the taste of nashi, Windrift, 2008
Submitted by E Berry, NZ selector, for the Red Moon (US) international haiku anthology 2008

* Note: a “yellow admiral” is a rare NZ native butterfly

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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.

And it’s the Tuesday Poem’s second birthday today so we’re starting another ‘community’ poem, like the one we did last year: great fun!

Yes, the Blog Tour has taken on whistlestop dimensions today—largely because of time zone complexities—but here is another in-depth interview, this time with bookblog Civilian Reader.

And yes—there’s another chance to win a copy of The Gathering of the Lost, so rock on over and check it out—

Right Here.

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 😉

US cover

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.

USA Cover

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!

UK/AUS/NZ cover

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.