The Heir of Night is being published in The Netherlands by Luitingh Fantasy as Kind van de Nacht—and will be on sale today as an e-book, with the hard copy due in shops on Wednesday 20. This is a red letter day for me as it is the first time I have had any of my works, whether novel, poetry or short fiction, published in translation.

So what should I do to commemorate this auspicious occasion?  Comment with your ideas—or just comment, this is a celebration so ‘da rules’ are flexible 😉 —and I will do a giveaway of 3 x sets of a signed Kind van de Nacht poster (A4 size), a The Heir of Night bookmark from Context, and a signed bookplate designed by PJ Fitzpatrick, to be drawn from amongst the commenters. The draw will close at midnight on Wednesday 20 July, NZ time.

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Draw Results for Kind van de Nacht celebration:

Wednesday the 20th having come and gone, I have now put the names of  Kind van de Nacht commenters into the Sorting Hat, which has duly sorted the following names for the signed cover poster (A4 size), with the ConText/The Heir of Night bookmark, and a signed bookplate designed by PJ Fitzpatrick:

• Morag
• DeniseZ
• SteveB

If you email me your postal address through my webmail, contact[at]helenlowe[dot]info, I’ll put the loot in the post. And thank you all for joining in the celebration!

(Morag—I already have yours so will go “straight to send” in your case.:) )

On June 23, I published the first “peek inside” Tales for Canterbury, an anthology of short fiction put together by Cassie Hart and Anna Caro and divided into three sections: Survival — Hope — Future. The anthology includes a range of short stories donated by both national and international authors as a fundraiser for the Red Cross Christchurch Earthquake Appeal.

The “peek inside” involves featuring the first paragraph ‘or so’ (if the paras are very short, but within the bounds of fair use) of some of the stories over the next while.  I do hope it will encourage readers to not just take my word for Tales for Canterbury’s quality but also to give it a try for themselves.

I began with my own short contribution, The Fountain, which appears in the Hope section of the anthology and followed it on July 7 with Tim Jones’ “Sign of the Tui.” Today I am continuing with another short story from the Hope section, Janis Freegard’s magic-realism short story, The Magician.

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The Magician

Janis Freegard

His loft is fluttering with doves; the garden shed is overrun with white rabbits (never lift them by their delicate ears); he has an upstairs dresser overflowing with a rainbow of silk scarves. But the magician is sighing.

He stands at his attic window looking out over the seascape he loves, the fishing boats, the little offshore island. I need to get away, he thinks. I need to get the magic back.

Carefully he folds his six best suits into a brown leather trunk: the electric blue suit, the burnt umber suit, the black suit with gold thread, the silver glitter suit, the suit made of Astroturf, the suit decorated with images of fruit. He telephones his strange, solitary neighbour to ask her to feed and pat the animals (hears her husky whisper, “Yes.”). Looking distracted, he revs up the sparkling white Beemer in his garage and drives
the length of the dusty lane to the village railway station.

He has been a magician for thirty-six years, since that Christmas when his grandmother bought him a Junior Magic Set and he set about entertaining his admiring family with a disappearing Ace of Spades and a wand that bent double.

Now he needs a new trick.

…

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To read more, of both The Magician and the very many other great stories comprising Tales for Canterbury, and support the Christchurch earthquake recovery effort, consider purchasing your own electronic or hard copy edition of Tales for Canterbury, here.

To learn more about Janis Freegard and her writing, you can check out her blog, here.

To read Tim Jones’ interview with Anna Caro, one of the co-editors of Tales for Canterbury, click here.

May the Reporting Begin …

Today I am beginning my reporting back on the novel finalists for the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 2011 with NK Jemisin’s The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms (Orbit.)

Just as a reminder, the complete list of finalists, by book title, comprises:

Blackout/All Clear by Connie Willis (Ballantine Spectra)
Cryoburn by Lois McMaster Bujold (Baen)
The Dervish House by Ian McDonald (Gollancz; Pyr)
Feed by Mira Grant (Orbit)
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin (Orbit)

My Criteria, As A Reader, for Evaluating the Hugo Award Nominees for Best Novel

An aspect that I consider very important with evaluating the Hugo finalists, as a reader and voter, is that the award is being made for excellence in speculative fiction. So while I need to consider whether the stories are compelling, well written and engaging as stories, I also need to give thought to strength/use of genre in the work.

In terms of what makes a story compelling, well written and engaging, my subjective preferences include that I really like emotional depth; I also really like interesting ideas. But I’m not so much into clever ideas for their own sake: without characters and a storyline that both engage me, cleverness alone won’t cut it. Something that really matters, though, is continuity/consistency of both characters and plot. Even if I really like the characters or find the idea of the story fascinating, if there are plot holes I can drive a bus through, then I’m not going to rate that story. One possible exception just might be if there is a lot of humor to gloss over those holes. And I always award extra points for stories that raise a smile—and bonus points again for a read that makes me laugh out loud (“coughs”: intentionally, that is.)

So those are the broad criteria and I’ll certainly specify if something else comes up as I go along.

The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, Book One of The Inheritance Trilogy

To start, a brief synopsis from the back cover (ie I’m trying not to do spoilers here):

“Yeine Darr is an outcast … summoned to the majestic city of Sky – a palace … where the lives of gods and mortals intertwine. There, to her shock, Yeine is named one of the potential heirs to the king. But the throne of the Hundred Thousand Kingdoms is not easily won and Yeine is thrust into a vicious power struggle …”

I think the other important plot element it helps to know is that the backstory on which The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms is founded is that of war between gods, which has ended with the defeated gods being made slaves to the human priests of the victorious deity. It is for control of this power that Yeine finds herself competing.

It’s an interesting premise to start with and I have to say right up front that I liked this book—rather a lot, in fact. It “checked” all my boxes of interesting plotline and emotional depth of story combined with engaging characters. The central character of Yeine is very well drawn, as are other core characters such as the bound gods Nahadoth and Sieh—but this is not one of those novels where a few compelling central characters are accompanied by a host of “paper cut-out” lesser characters. In fact, there are no “lesser” characters in this book, although some are clearly of secondary or even tertiary importance to the unfolding story—but all are interesting and well drawn for the period that they are on the page.

Here’s the thing I really liked about The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms though: plot-wise, the author managed to surprise me. I apologise if this sounds a little conceited, but it really doesn’t happen often. Even George RR Martin has only managed to do it once, so far, in the A Song of Ice and Fire Series and he can be fairly ‘tricksy’ (as Gollum would have it. 😉 ) In The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms I definitely knew that something ‘tricksy’ was up—it was getting toward the final denouement after all—and there were any number of characters to be suspicious of, but I still didn’t foresee the final plot-within-plot revelation. As a reader, I found that very satisfying. Although I am not a reader who needs surprises in my stories—good characters and a good story well told are generally enough for me—I still enjoy a good twist in a tale, especially when I haven’t picked it in advance.

In terms of use of genre, I think the fundamental idea of the book, ie war in heaven and how this has subsequently played out on the mortal plane; as well as the way the magic of the bound gods and the world works, eg the floating city, all held together well. And as aforesaid, I found the basic premise interesting. I have heard that criticism has been levelled against The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by some genre readers because of the romantic elements in the story, but in my view the book is still unequivocally Fantasy and not Romance. The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms is also far from being alone in being Fantasy with clear romantic elements. All Anne McCaffrey’s books are distinguished by this characteristic and romance is also a very strong element in much of the writing of leading names such as Guy Gavriel Kay, Robin McKinley, and Patricia McKillip. In terms of genre, therefore, I see The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms as definitely part of a well-established and honourable SFF tradition.

What didn’t I like about this book, then? The answer is: no major quibbles at all. I did have a small smile at the very—um—cosmic, major sex scene—but I could blame that reaction on Hemingway*: he still has a lot to answer for in terms of sex scenes where the earth—or cosmos—moves for the protagonists. And it is a very small quibble.

So there you have it: my report back on The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms. I think it is a very enjoyable read and well-crafted SFF novel and a strong contender for the Hugo Award for Best Novel.

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All going well, I should be back with Reading Report 2, on another of the finalists for best Novel, next Wednesday.

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* For Whom The Bell Tolls

It’s Friday—and what I’ve been doing this week is not very much at all. This is not because I am on holiday after completing The Gathering of the Lost, but because—as is so often the way after one has been really busy for a long time—as soon as I stopped I promptly succumbed to the nearest wandering ailment and so have been comfined to my authorial couch all this week, muffled in wraps and comforters, and imbibing various herbal and lemon-infused beverages, as well as knocking back aspirin at the minimum prescribed intervals.

The cat, needless to say, thinks it’s just great—he gets to hang out in the room where the heater stays on all day. And when you’re a cat in your 19th year, I suspect this counts as fairly close to bliss!:)

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Miss Agatha Heterodyne, Girl Genius

I haven’t quite summoned the energy yet for those Hugo Awards reading reports—although I promise you that they are coming!—but rather I’ve been sneakily doing some fun reading of something I really enjoy: graphic novels. In this case, catching up with the latest instalments of Girl Genius Online, which I’d gotten a bit behind on while finishing Gathering, and starting the latest in the Angel series: Illyria, Haunted.

For those of you who don’t know, the Buffy and Angel graphic novel series have continued on from where the tv series left off. In the case of the Buffy series (officially ‘Season Eight’) I haven’t been able to really get into it—although I do keep trying because it’s, you know, Buffy!—but I have really enjoyed most of the Angel instalments. I just think the stories are more coherent and more fun, and what they’re doing with the characters a whole heap more interesting—which is pretty much exactly the opposite of what I felt about the tv series.

And Illyria is one of my favourite characters so I’m really enjoying my first Illyria-centred adventure. And yes, I was one of those fans who really hoped there’d be a Spike/Illyria spin-off tv series … (Sigh.) But in fact this graphic novel series is pretty durned good anyway, so there is still Whedon-verse happiness to be had. 😉

So how about you? What would you read, if you were confined to your couch for a week? And if it was a graphic novel, which one would you go for?

It’s crazy giveaway fun this week with Sharon Stogner on review blog ismellsheep running their monthly swagday giveaway from July 10 through 14.

Before I go on to what Sharon has to say about the swagday, I want to tell you just a little bit about Sharon, whom I initially met as a stalwart reader and follower of the Supernatural Underground (where, you may recall, I blog on the 1st day of every month.) Sharon was also amongst the first readers to win an ARE (advance reader edition) of The Heir of Night—and to tell me and the world how much she loved it. So, of course, when Sharon joined the ismellsheep team and approached me about contributing a copy of Heir for the swagday, I was delighted to oblige.

And without further ado, here’s Sharon to tell you about ismellsheep and the swagday:

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From Sharon on ismellsheep & Swagday:

I Smell Sheep [Entertaining ewe, one monster at a time] is a review blog that covers all things Paranormal: Urban Fantasy, Mystery, Romance, Fantasy and Sci-Fi. We review movies, books and comics as well as doing author, actor and director interviews. We hope to make you laugh or at least roll your eyes 😉

Swagday is held on the 10th of every month. It is a way to introduce readers to new authors/genres. There are 5-8 featured authors each month who have offered up some special swag and/or book(s). There is also a large swagbag that contains swag from over 30 different authors! All you have to do is play a game (ex. match the author to the series-hints are given) and leave your answers in the comment section.

First Place winner gets:
1. to pick 3 of the authors that are new to you — you will get those books
2. Swagbag
3. a book and writing supplies will be sent to a soldier overseas in your name.

A second place winner will get a small prize donated by my Blogger Shout Out for that month.

http://ismellsheep.blogspot.com/2011/07/swagday-is-baaaaaaack.html

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So get going folks—participate in the swagday fun.

Just confirming that the competition for a copy of Rogue Gadda closed at 5.00 pm today and Nicole will be letting you all know who the lucky winner is very soon. Thank you to everyone who commented and stay posted for the result. 🙂

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Last Saturday I guest posted as part of  fellow Supernatural Underground author Nicole Murphy’s guest series on Dreams and Fulfilment—a fabulous series by the way, which I do recommend that you check out, here with today’s guest author, the amazing Kerrelyn Sparks.

The Dreams and Fulfilment Guest Series celebrates completion of Nicole’s “Dreams of Asarlai” trilogy with the release of the third and final novel, Rogue Gadda. Today I am delighted to have Nicole here as my guest to talk about the challenge of completing a series—and beginning something new.

And Nicole also has a copy of Rogue Gadda to give away to one lucky commenter—so read on and do take the challenge.:)

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Guest Post: The Challenge by Nicole Murphy

And so, my third book in my trilogy is published.

A momentous occasion, not least of which for my sense of myself as author. After all, I’ve published three books now. Three books that have been well received by readers. I know I can write a good story, keep them hooked for page after page.

I’ve made it. I’m awesome.

At this point, it seems to me that I’ve got two choices. One is to believe that what I’ve just said is the end. The other is to believe that it’s just the beginning.

If it’s the end, then I’ll just keep churning out the same books. I write well enough now to get away with the voice I have. Different characters, alter the plots a little… Yeah, that will work.

But if I believe it’s the beginning, then I can’t stop with what I’ve already accomplished. Yes, it’s good. Yes, I’m good.

But I can be BETTER.

When I started writing, I had the dream of having a book, with my name on it. Having people love what I’d written. Well, I’ve done that. Three times.

So now, I have a new dream – to become a better writer. To ensure that each book I write is better than the one before.

I’m doing that by challenging myself. Making myself deal with characters, or plots, or ideas that are different from what I’ve done before.

For example, in Dream of Asarlai I’ve got one main antagonist, with a very clear goal. We even see her point of view from time to time, so the reader absolutely knows what Asarlai is up to.

But in the new trilogy, my antagonist is a group of people. Their goals are clear, but their actions are less so. And we don’t ever directly see their point of view, so I have to work hard to ensure the reader understands it, even if the point of view characters don’t.

See? Challenge.

Some of the challenges I’m setting myself may not seem that far removed from what I’ve done. Another example – I’ve just finished writing my first contemporary romance. My trilogy is full of romance, so it might seem that it’s not that hard to write another genre of romance.

But it is. It’s a much slower paced book, and doesn’t have all the fun stuff like monsters, magic, explosions and so on. It’s a simpler style, and it’s also much more focussed on the internals of the characters. In every scene, I found myself wondering if I’m attacking it the right way, making the right choices, not going deep enough or too deep. Thinking a great deal about what makes story and character work.

More of a challenge than I ever anticipated.

And then there’s the joy that is short stories. The great thing about shorts is that you can experiment wildly and because they don’t take a lot of time to write, it’s not too much of a problem if they fail spectacularly. And of course, succeed or fail, you learn from them.

I’m glad that people have loved the Dream of Asarlai books. I’m proud of them. But I hope that in future years, people will be saying “Yeah, they were good, but these new ones are GREAT!”.

Giveaway question – enter the draw to win a copy of Rogue Gadda by telling me what challenges you think you should set yourself.

Plus:

Rogue Gadda Cookie:

As she got on the bus, Asarlai felt her soul shrink. Star, but she hated to commute with humans. She hated the stupidity in their gaze, that they looked at her and didn’t realise what she could do to them. She hated the smug comfort they had in a world that wasn’t what they thought it was. She hated the sheer, overwhelming numbers of them – they threatened to overtake everything.

That she had to do this was an abomination to her, and just made it all the more clear that she must succeed in her task, to save other gadda from this trauma.

…

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Nicole Murphy; photo by Cat Sparks

About Nicole Murphy:

Nicole Murphy has been a primary school teacher, bookstore owner, journalist and checkout chick. She grew up reading Tolkien, Lewis and Le Guin; spent her twenties discovering Quick, Lindsay and Deveraux, and lives her love of science fiction and fantasy through her involvement with the Conflux science fiction conventions. Her urban fantasy trilogy Dream of Asarlai is published in Australia/NZ by HarperVoyager. She lives with her husband in Queanbeyan, NSW. Visit her website http://nicolermurphy.com

To read another guest post by Nicole on “Loving Humanity – Why Speculative Fiction Rocks!”, click here.

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And don’t forget: Go in the draw to win a copy of Rogue Gadda by commenting here to tell Nicole what challenges you think you should set yourself. The competition will close at 5 pm on Friday 15 July, NZ time.

Indifferent Planet

Taking out the rubbish
in the dark pre-dawn,
the stars still crisp
in the frost-black
overhead, the plastic wheels
on the bins jolting
over the gullies and ridges
of the old creek bed
that was once our driveway
before — before February 22nd
when the earth god stretched
again in his sleep, or was it Loki,
writhing to avoid the serpents’ venom,
the earth also condemned
to writhe with him, while we,
like ninepins, were knocked about —
most to pick ourselves up again,
dust off, dig out,
but one hundred and eighty one
not so fortunate, fallen witness
to the random acts of violence
of an indifferent planet.
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© Helen Lowe, 2011
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This poem is dedicated to the memory of the 181 people who died in Christchurch’s February 22nd earthquake.

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For more great Tuesday poems and to read the guest poet featured on the Tuesday Poem Hub, either click here or on the Quill icon in the sidebar.

Another happy post office box day today—I opened it up and found:

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Graveminder by Melissa Marr

According to the back cover it is ” … a story of the living, the dead, and the curse that binds them.”

And the action takes place in Claysville, a town that “lures you back.”

It all sounds a little spooky and I can’t wait to find out more–and may I also say, I “just love” the cover!

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Phoenix Rising: A Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences Novel by Pip Ballantine & Tee Morris.

The cover has already told me this is steampunk with a capital “S”, but what does the back say:

“Evil is most assuredly afoot—and Britain’s fate rests in the hands of an alluring renegade … and a librarian.”

No question: in both cases I must assuredly read on—and shall do so!

And who knows, all going well—maybe some blog interviews will follow. I do hope so!

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In the meantime, following on from last Wednesday’s post, I am charging ahead with the Hugo Awards reading and hope to bring you my initial findings on NK Jemisin’s The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms and Mira Grant’s Feed, both contenders for the Hugo Award for Best Novel. If not Wedneday (because tomorrow is Tuesday poem day) then definitely Thursday.

On Friday 8 I posted the first instalment of my line up for Six Great Heroes of Epic Fantasy: Astrin Ymris (Patricia McKillip’s The Riddlemaster of Hed trilogy), Coltaine (Steven Erikson’s Deadhouse Gates), and Druss the Legend (David Gemmell’s Legend.)

I also suggested that there might be a seventh or bonus hero and so it has proven to be because, to continue in alphabetical order, I just could not leave out—

E which is for Elric of Melnibone, renegade emperor, outcast, warrior-sorcerer, god-slayer and defender of free will, from Michael Moorcock’s Elric series, which starts with Elric of Melnibone.

Now I know that some of you may argue that Elric isn’t even a hero—he is in fact the quintessential antihero. And I could just say that I don’t care and am including him anyway, simply because Elric seized my imagination so powerfully as a very young SFF reader. I will, however, make my case for Elric being a hero—besides simply being the possessor of a deadly, soul-sucking sword called Stormbringer (if you love “elves” with soulsucking swords—forget Cherryh’s Morgaine or Erikson’s Anamander Rake: think, Elric.)

Elric is certainly a chaotic force and possesses a certain moral ambiguity, or perhaps it would be more correct to say that he is a practitioner of realpolitik, but he is also a champion of free will, particularly against the gods of chaos that are seeking to take over the human realm.  So certainly, in the sense of “hero-protagonist” Elric is one of the outstanding heroes of epic fantasy and I believe has to be on my list.

In terms of what makes him most interesting … I think for me it is his championing of free will, when fate, portent, and doom are such strong threads in much fantasy (deriving I believe, from its roots in mythology and folklore.) Elric definitely challenges and overturns that model.

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F is for Faramir, second son of the Steward of Gondor and head of the rangers of Ithilien in JRR Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings.

Those of you who have only seen the film version of The Lord of the Rings may well cry: “but surely you should choose Aragorn or Legolas, or even (Sean Bean as) Boromir, not Faramir.” I think those who have read the novel, however, will be less surprised by my choice.

Faramir first appears in The Two Towers, as captain of Gondor’s rangers in Ithilien, a territory on the border of Mordor. From the first time I read it, I felt that he was one of the strongest and most real characters in the book—something that really didn’t come across in the films and was one of my most keenly felt disappointments in relation to the big screen treatment of the story.

The Faramir of the book is much more human and less ‘high and remote’ than Aragorn, but like both Aragorn and Galadriel, he also refuses the temptation of the one ring of Sauron—something his older brother, Boromir, was unable to do. So Faramir shows himself to have both insight—he is smart enough to know that taking the ring will ultimately do him and Gondor no good—as well as the strength of will and moral integrity necessary to refuse the ring.

I also like Faramir because although he is, of necessity, a soldier in the cause of Gondor, he values the benefits of peace and civilization, such as learning and healing, above the arts of war. He also holds to his duty despite the mistrust of his father (the films got that right), but not stupidly, ie not the forlorn, suicidal charge to certain death of the films, but rather in holding together a fighting retreat from Osgiliath ‘against the odds.’

In the book, Faramir is a quiet character, but a very strong one, not because of his deeds of arms but because of his moral character.  And because he is a more everyday character than the more remote figure of Aragorn, he is also a character that we can relate to.

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J is for John Aversin, knight, amateur scholar, and relucant dragonslayer in Barbara Hambly’s Dragonsbane.

I mentioned both Astrin Ymris and Faramir as soldiers out of necessity rather than inclination, but I think John Aversin in Dragonsbane is probably the epic hero where  “sense of duty” is most powerfully drawn. John is the only knight in a remote region that has been abandoned by the larger kingdom that once ruled it (think territories such as Britain following the withdrawal of the Roman Empire, although the world is more medieval/early renaissance) to general lawlessness, incursions by raiders and, in one notable case, a dragon. John doesn’t fight the dragon because he wants to (he definitely doesn’t), or for glory, but because as the only knight, he feels he has to: it is preying on both the people of the region and the animals they depend on for survival and there is no one else to do the job. He doesn’t kill the dragon nobly either, by charging to meet it with a sword, but by catching it asleep, shooting it with poisoned harpoons, and chopping off its wings first with an axe. John Aversin lives in a brutal world and survival is a brutal business.

Here’s the thing though, he is not a brute. John at face value is a fairly everyday sort of guy, who like Astrin and Faramir does his fighting out of necessity, not pleasure, and is far more interested in amateur science than fighting dragons (which has a bad habit of getting you messily killed.)  One of the things I really like about John Aversin as a character is that he has an inquiring mind. Another is that he is perceptive about people and has compassion for the situation of those less fortunate than himself, but not in a “preachy” way: he just gets in there and does what needs to be done. (He’s not necessarily a man of few words though; when he’s talking about one of his pet theories he is enthusiastically loquacious.)

So when John is asked to fight another dragon (the real story, by the way; the rest is backstory, not spoilers), this time for the current king of the realm that has abandoned the north, he agrees very reluctantly—in exchange for the promise that the kingdom will again return its armies and its protection to the north. So John Aversin also has that truly heroic quality of being willing to put himself at risk for the greater good. No question, he belongs on this list.

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Peter Dinklage as Tyrion Lannister in the HBO series, "A Games of Thrones"

T is for Tyrion Lannister, dwarf, all round smart guy, and leader of men in George RR Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series, beginning with A Game of Thrones.

Several people noted that I didn’t include any of George RR Martin’s heroines amongst my Six Great Heroines of SFF, although several of them were on the longlist, which concluded my post here. There were definitely several contenders for the “Six Great Heroes” list, however, not least Ned Stark and Jon Snow. But actually, Tyrion Lannister was a fairly easy choice.

No question, Tyrion has a pretty rough row to hoe in the world of Westeros. It isn’t easy being a dwarf in a world where knightly prowess is the “coinage that counts.” He is also despised and disregarded by his father, the powerful Tywin Lannister. Yet from the beginning, I found Tyrion one of the most intriguing characters in the series. First off, he is smart and able; he is also astute, which is not quite the same thing as being clever, ie he has perception and insight into peoples natures and motivations.

Tyrion is personally brave as well, something that is usually overlooked by those around him because of his stature, and leads a successful military defence of the capital city in the second-in-series, A Clash of Kings.  And although as capable of savagery as any character in Martin’s brutal world of Westeros, Tyrion is less inclined to it than most and is, I would say, more naturally disposed to kindness and generosity than the majority of the other characters.

When I reflect on the A Song of Ice and Fire series Tyrion Lannister is always one of the standout characters and given the stature of the series to date, that has to make him one of the great heroes of epic fantasy.

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So there it is, not six but seven great heroes of epic fantasy!  I think this post is already long enough so I won’t add a longlist of “could-also-easily-have-been-on-the-list” characters, as I did with the heroines. But you could help with that—we’ve already had Lord Mhoram from the first Thomas Covenant series put forward on Friday. What names would you add to the list?

Fellow Harper Voyager author, Nicole Murphy is currently hosting a guest blog series on “Dreams and Fulfilment” to celebrate the launch of Rogue Gadda, the third novel in her The Dream of Asarlai series.

This week has already seen great posts by Kevin J Anderson, Alan Baxter, Mary Victoria, Joanne Anderton and Tansy Rayner Roberts—you can check them all out on Nicole’s blog.

Today it’s my turn with Portent and Fate—The Mythic Aspect of Dream and Fulfilment in Fantasy so do rock on over and check it out—I’d be very interested to hear your thoughts on portent and fate, and the realisation of dream and destiny in contemporary Fantasy.

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Six Great Heroes of Epic Fantasy, Part 2: Now Tomorrow

Because my guest post is up today on Nicole’s blog I’ll be posting “Six Great Heroes of Epic Fantasy, Part 2” tomorrow, and not today as originally indicated. My apologies for any inconvenience—but if you haven’t read it already, you can read Part 1 here.