Midwinter

Already noon
and the bright midwinter sun
only now taking
the iron-hard edge
off the frost…

… so many tasks wait,
stealth weeds creeping
between bricks and shrubs,
the guttering that becomes
a waterfall in heavy rain
overflowing with leaves
as I watch the steam
curl from my coffee cup;
the sun peers in the bay
window, waits for the cat
to stir from my lap,
for my hand to turn
the last page in my book.
.
© Helen Lowe, 2011
.

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I seem to be in the mode for what I would call “occasional” poems—and definitely with a “domestic” theme, ie these are not poems about venturing out into the world; quite clearly the opposite, in fact, with Midwinter.

Once again, enjoy. And as always, feedback is welcome.

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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.

Reflections:

I know I talked a little bit last week about not just meeting my deadline but actually getting to it a day ahead, but I really do want to reflect on it all a bit more now, if you will ‘bear with me.’:)

In the first instance, coming in on schedule was just great because having had earlier goals “quaked” as a result of February 22nd, it just felt really good to have achieved something. Not least because the first half of this year has otherwise felt very much, whole-of-life wise, like continually sliding back to square one in a particularly virulent game of snakes and ladders. So a goal achieved is just a really nice feeling.

I also really wanted to “make” 1 July as that means that The Gathering of the Lost will be published in March 2012 in the US. This is important to me for several reasons. The first is that I feel that 18 months is toward the farthest end of what it is reasonable to ask readers to wait for a next-in-series—part of that unwritten contract that I feel exists between authors and readers, when doing a series like The Wall of Night. The second—and to me, at least, this is almost as important as the first—is that in many ways Gathering is a springtime book. It is set in a different part of the Haarth world to the Wall of Night, where the cultures are more colourful and diverse—and there are not only festivals, chivalry and tourneys, but also songs of springtime love … So I think the “energy” for the book will be “right”, coming in with the spring and the sunshine.

When I blogged on the Supernatural Underground on Friday 1, here, I also talked about the importance to me of “writing the story I wanted to write.”  At one level you may say: “Duh, obvious. Why else would you write?” Why, indeed?! But I feel that there are two levels of writing—just getting the fundamental story out there, then the second level that is all about depth, detail and nuance. So rather than having a sketch in greytone, admittedly one with all the basic characters and action present, you bring in both the flesh tones and the jewel bright accent colours, as well as the fine strokes that delineate muscle and denote character, expression and action. In short, you have a painting, not just a sketch.

The work that I have been doing on Gathering over these past few months has been all about making sure that every part of the book is a painting and not a sketch. For me, that is part of the faith that I have to keep as an author, not just with readers in terms of offering quality, but also with the story itself—to do my best to do justice to all that it can be. I feel that in this case I really have given it my all, a feeling that definitely adds to the sense of completion: I truy have done all that I can do—and the rest, from this point, in terms of the book and the world, really is completely outside my control.

The ‘Oscar Acceptance Speech’, aka Many Thank Yous:

In my Supernatural Underground post, I also mentioned some of the wonderful people without whom I would almost certainly not have made 1 July. What I talked about under “More Earthquakes” was the second 6.3 earthquake (technically, apparently, an ‘aftershock’ of the February 22nd 6.3 ‘quake—rolls eyes) that resulted in further liquefaction and need for digging out of a sea of sludge/mud around our property—and the wonderful friends who pitched in and helped do this so I could keep working on the book. You can read the long version on the Supernatural Underground post, but basically I named and thanked them there and intend to do it again right now:

Andrew, Joffre; Dave; Caroline; Susi; Peter; Fitz; Ram; Shane; and Chris: without your help post June 13, I would not have met my 1 July deadline for the book so my very sincere thank to you all. You definitely rock—not least because I know we’re all so tired of doing this, over and over again.

Another person who also gets a long overdue acknowledgment and huge thanks for ‘services to the cause of meeting book deadline’ is Mary Victoria. For 3 weeks in late April/May, Mary and her husband Frank gave me the use of their beautiful home in Wellington for a dedicated writing retreat away from more or less continual aftershocks, mud, dust, portaloos, streets like old river beds with potholes large enough to swallow cars etc—ie a peaceful haven which, without the struggle of day-to-day just managing, really enabled me to get traction on the book.

So Mary, Frank: again with the big thank you. You have definitely been part of the solution.

Another huge vote of thanks goes to my editor, Kate, at HarperVoyager, for her patience, understanding and encouragement under very trying circumstances, as well as to the UK team at Orbit who have also been consistent in their concern and support. And the same to my agent, Robin, and her assistant, Beth, who have always been there as required to keep the path as smooth as possible (despite those riverbed roads!)  and solution focused.

And last, but never least, to my partner Andrew for his unfailing encouragement and support, as always. Good times, bad times—what more can you say?

Other than “I’ll be back”, in this case on Wednesday—because tomorrow is Tuesday Poem day, & yes, I do have another new one for you!—with what’s coming up for “life after deadline.”  (If you read yesterday’s post you’ll already know I’ve been luxuriating in a spot of reading over the weekend.) And for Thursday,  I don’t know for sure, but I’ve been thinking it really is time I started talking about those Six Great Heroes of SFF, to go with the heroines posts in May (here and here) …

One of the great things about having met a book deadline is that one can then (for at least a few hours) put one’s feet up and relax with a good book—a story, what’s more, written by someone other than oneself!

In my 1 May post on the Supernatural Underground I talked about ‘comfort reads’: returning to those books that are like old friends. Returning to an author you have liked before, although with a new book, can be a similar process—you hope for that “old friend” feeling of a writing style that you love; the familiar magic of a tale well told. Guy Gavriel Kay has been one of those authors for me for some time now—I love the poetry and High Romantic style of his Fionavar trilogy (The Summer Tree; The Wandering Fire; The Longest Road) and his first standalone, Tigana, is probably one of my favourite books. I also very much enjoyed A Song for Arbonne and The Lions of Al-Rassan. Some of his more recent works have disappointed me a little, however, so it was with some trepidation that I treated myself to a very nice trade paperback edition of his latest novel, Under Heaven.

Firstly, I loved the cover, and although one may not judge a book by its cover, one that ‘speaks’ to you and draws you in is always a great help! And I liked the blurb a lot:

“Honour is Beyond Measure

But It’s Price May Be An Empire …

For two years Shen Tai has mourned his celebrated father and lived like a hermit beyond the borders of the Kitan Empire. There, by a mountain lake, the bones of the soldiers killed in great battles between the Kitai and the Tagurans lie unburied and their wailing ghosts strike terror into the living.

… (Now) … Tai will be given two hundred and fifty Sardian horses by the Tagurans, legendary steeds from the far west, as a reward for his courage and piety … to give a man even one of the famed Sardians is to honour him greatly; to give him so many 1s a reward which would overwhelm an emperor, and could be Tai’s death warrant.”

I am about halfway through currently and I am very happy to say that I am really enjoying the read—this is definitely Guy Gavriel Kay at his best: rich storytelling, subtleties of plot and great characterization. And for those of you who like a little bit of romance with your epic adventuring and game of kingdoms, there is at least one very nice one here to be enjoyed.

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Helen Rickerby is a fellow Tuesday Poem Blog poet and My Iron Spine (Headworx) is her second collection of poetry. As those of you who follow my Tuesday Poem postings are probably aware by now, I am a huge admirer of Helen’s work and so had been meaning to buy My Iron Spine for ages. Recently I did just that and am finally starting to read it—and so far, I have to say, I love every poem I’ve read (I am about a 1/3 of the way through.)  Why? Well as a poet myself, I believe that Helen’s structure is very strong and her poems have emotional resonance as well as a great deal of wry humour. Definitely “I like” territory for the Lowe gal.

The “Happy Birthday to ‘ … on Anything, Really’, grand book giveaway competition has now been drawn.

For absolute fairness, all names were entered into the database in the order comments were made, from May 31 until June 30.

Each of the three draws was then made separately with the following result:

• The Grand Epic Fantasy Giveaway Set Winner is: DonnaS

• The Grand YA Fantasy Giveaway Set Winner is: Wen Baragrey

• The Grand NZ Poetry Giveaway Set Winner is: Morag

Congratulations to all the winners and to everyone who participated and helped make my “Birthday of the Blog” celebration special—as well as getting me through the last month to book delivery deadline. You definitely all helped keep me going, especially with the “toots/honks/beeps” on June 22! 🙂

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Winners: If you contact me through my website with a postal address I will get your books in the mail.

If the prizes have not been claimed within 1 week, ie by July 8, I will redraw any or all categories on July 9.

I have my regular Supernatural Underground blog post up today titled:

1 Year On: Plus An Award for The Heir of Night, More Earthquakes & Delivering The Gathering of the Lost

Yes, I’ve been blogging on the Supernatural Underground on the first day of every month for a year now . Hard to believe where all that time’s flown away to!

Today’s post is a wrap-up of the past month—just getting through it mainly! Do head on over and check it out.:)

And as always, feel free to leave a comment if the spirit so moves you! 😉

The “Happy Birthday to ‘ … on Anything, Really’, grand book giveaway competition has now closed. (The official cut-off was midnight Thursday 30 so no comments dated after that will be included—apologies if this catches anyone out! 🙁 )

Just a reminder of what the giveaways being announced on Saturday 2nd comprise:

• The Grand Epic Fantasy Giveaway Set, comprising:
  • a signed UK, trade format first edition of The Heir of Night;
    
  • a hardback, anniversary edition of Sara Douglas’s Battle Axe
  • Trudi Canavan’s The Ambassador’s Mission
  • Ursula Le Guin’s Lavinia
  • Neil Gaiman’s American Gods
    

• The Grand YA Fantasy Giveaway Set Comprising:
  • a signed hardback copy of Thornspell
  • Cassandra Clare’s complete Mortal Instruments trilogy: City of Bones, City of Ashes and City of Glass
  • Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson & The Lightning Thief
  • Scott Westerfeld’s Leviathan

• The Grand NZ Poetry Giveaway Comprising:
  • AUP New Poets: Harry Jones, Erin Scudder & Chris Tse
  • Ingrid Horrocks’ Mapping the Distance
  • Anna Livesey’s the moonmen
  • Kerry Popplewell’s Leaving the Tableland

Completed Today:

Well, I’ve done it.

Today I revised and rewrote those last 25 pages and got to the final line of the GR (Great Revision) of The Gathering of the Lost. Tomorrow I’ll review the final two chapters that comprise Part 5 again and polish them up, but effectively the job is done and—allowing tomorrow for tidy up—with a day to spare on the 1 July deadline. Woot!

So, just to do today’s stats package properly :

• 25 pages revised and rewritten
• 2 final chapters completed
• Part 5 completed
• Total Pages Until Completion: 0 plus Glossary.

(Pssst: But really, I’ve been doing the glossary as I go along so there’s only a little bit of tidy up there to do, too.)

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Videos of the ConText “Preview” Reading from The Gathering of the Lost

To celebrate completion of The Gathering of the Lost by the 1 July deadline, I feel it is only fitting to bring you the ConText “preview” reading from The Gathering of the Lost today rather than Friday. The reading—even more fittingly 😉 —is taken from the prologue of the book.

Enjoy!

The Gathering of the Lost (The Wall of Night Book Two) is to be published in March 2012 in the US, UK, Australia & New Zealand.

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Final Competition Reminder:

Today is the final week of the month-long “Birthday of the Blog”  competition for 3 sets of grand book giveways: Epic Fantasy, YA Fantasy, & NZ Poetry.

You can read the full details here. The competition closes tonight  at midnight, NZ time. The results will be announced here on the blog on Saturday 2 (before midnight, again—NZ time.)

Completed Today:

OK, we haven’t had a completed today since Sunday so here goes:

• Part 4 is now completed—yahoo! This means that I am now in the “endgame”, which is Part 5! (There is no Part 6 and will be no Part 6.)
• Today I have revised and rewritten a further 28 pages.
• Total Pages Until Completion: 25 plus Glossary.

So yes, there will still be reviewing and polishing of today’s work—but we’re close to the 1 July deadline, baby, we’re close! So all digits crossed!!

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Videos of the ConText Readings from The Heir of Night; & Samihas’s Song, by Mary Victoria

On Monday, when I featured the Context reading from Mary Victoria’s Tymon’s Flight and my own Thornspell, I promised to bring you the subsequent clips for Samiha’s Song and The Heir of Night to you today. (The Gathering of the Lost preview reading will still be Friday.)

So again, enjoy—and without further ado:

Clip 1, Samiha’s Song (5.21)

Clip 2, The Heir of Night (4.23)

The Heir of Night recently won the Sir Julius Vogel Award 2011 for Best Novel (jointly with Lyn McConchie’s The Questing Road) and a Catanetwork Reviewers’ Choice Award in 2010

Allow me to say …

Allow me to say
that in the midst
of earthshaking, plus
associated mud
and dust both inside
and out, as well
as queueing
for the portaloo —
I would like the lid
to stay on my electric
kettle so that boiling
water to safe drinking
level becomes less
of an exercise
in burned fingertips
and frustration …

This kettle, I feel,
is no good: one day
when the world
becomes safer,
I shall buy myself
a better kettle.

For now though,
I am grateful:
the god of small things
is reminding me
that I am alive.
.
© Helen Lowe, 2011
.
Note: I wish to acknowledge the allusion to Anna Livesey’s poem, “Next Time” (the moonmen, Victoria University Press, 2010) in stanza 2.

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On June 14, I talked about my wariness of the “diary entry” poem in the context of the Canterbury earthquake—and in fact any of the major “situations” we all face at some time or other in our lives, whether natural or human-made disasters, or the loss of those we are close, too. Those remarks still hold …

… Yet sometimes there is a place for the diary-entry poem and this is unashamedly one of those days and those poems—although I hope you will agree that the leaven of humour lifts “Allow me to say …” above the straightout ‘diary entry.’ I have, however, listed it under “Earthquake Reports” as well as “Poetry”, because in its own way, I feel that it is a report from the “suburban rear lines.” 😉

Enjoy! And yes, feedback welcome.

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To read today’s featured poem on the Tuesday Poem Blog hub—and to link to other Tuesday Poets posting around the world—either click here or on the Quill icon in the sidebar.

Apologies, because I know this has taken a wee while, but as promised here are the initial video clips from my reading session at ConText, where I read from the first two books in Mary Victoria’s Chronicles of the Tree series, Tymon’s Flight & Samiha’s Song, as well as my own books: Thornspell and The Heir of Night. And yes, there was even a sneak preview from The Gathering of the Lost. 😉

Today I am featuring the reading from Mary Victoria’s Tymon’s Flight and my own Thornspell.

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I will bring the subsequent clips to you on Wednesday, for Samiha’s Song and The Heir of Night, and the Gathering preview reading will be Friday.

Enjoy!

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Clip 1, Tymon’s Flight: (5:23)

Tymon’s Flight recently won the Sir Julius Vogel Award for Best Artwork, for the cover design by Frank Victoria.

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Clip 2, Thornspell: (2.33)

Thornspell won the Sir Julius Vogel Award for Best Novel, Young Adult in 2009 and was a Storylines Notable Book in the same year.