Today is the third post in The Heir of Night F-SF Guest Author Series and I am delighted to introduce Mary Victoria, a fellow, NZ-based, epic fantasy author (although I also thought I detected elements of steampunk in her recently released novel, Tymon’s Flight.) I was privileged to be able to interview Mary on Women on Air, Plains 96.9 FM when Tymon’s Flight first came out (and include a link to the interview below her bio) and also had the very great pleasure of appearing on the “Writing Strange Lands” panel with Mary at Worldcon. So without further ado, I give you Mary Victoria, on our series theme of: “Why Fantasy-Science Fiction rocks my world.”

F-SF Guest Series Post: Mary Victoria

Stories are full of magic. Don’t let anyone convince you otherwise. A story can masquerade as reality. It can do a splendid job at impersonating the ordinary, the grindingly mundane. But that is simply the spell it weaves. We are all willing dupes, seeing in black letters on a white page a troupe of living, breathing characters and scenes of joy or infamy. There is no tale that is not an act of invocation. ‘I am Truth, I am Reality,’ says the illusion: believe at your peril. You are entering a web of consensual deceit, catching a ball the author throws at you, participating in a game of shared imagination.

As you can probably tell, I’m of the tedious ‘every author writes Fantasy’ persuasion. Don’t worry, I won’t go all deconstructionist in this blog post. I’ll simply say that genre distinctions do not speak to me. At best they are a pitching and marketing device, a way of providing readers with the stories they like, or at least pretending to provide the story they like before moving on to interesting alternatives. So, why do I write in that storytelling shorthand that makes a reader think, ‘Ah, Fantasy’? Why in particular that code which throws up the warning sign, ‘Epic Fantasy: dragons be here’?

The short, and partially correct answer in my case was that I had a story which cried out to be written as speculative fiction. A coming of age tale set in a giant tree the size of a mountain range had to be either Fantasy or Science Fiction. I suppose it could have taken place in the ‘real world’, as the ravings of a lunatic. But that would have necessitated a clumsy narrative framing device; I was more interested in what happened inside the picture. So I chose Fantasy, or rather Science Fiction disguised as Fantasy, or rather Science Fantasy –

Whoops. Have I given away too much? You’re not supposed to know that yet, not in the first book. But there it is, in a nutshell. The beauty of Fantasy is its flexibility. It is a genre that can morph into anything, that can be anything, from Truth to Dream to Philosophy to Poetry. For a slippery fish such as myself, the possibilities are intoxicating. Fantasy is the ultimate nod to creativity. Anything goes so long as one is able to pull it off. So long as the spell is cast adroitly enough.

I doubt if I will always write Epic Fantasy. I doubt that I am even now, strictly speaking and with an eye to very narrow definitions, writing Epic Fantasy. But I will always be to some degree a writer of speculative fiction, because I love the freedom that form gives. From the subtlest forays of ‘magical realism’ and alternate history to all-out space opera and epic, dragon-ridden sagas, it’s all for me. I love that breadth of choice. And should I break down one day and write a tale of everyday life and love set in a corner of the so-called real world, rest assured that I would still be cheating. Quietly.

There would be a creeping sense of possibility, a whiff of magic in the pages, that gave the game away.

About Mary Victoria:

Mary Victoria was born in 1973 in Turners Falls, Massachusetts. Despite this she managed to live most of her life in other places, including Cyprus, Canada, Sierra Leone, France and the UK. She studied art and film and worked as an animator for 10 years before turning to full time writing. She now lives in Wellington with her husband and daughter. Her first book, Tymon’s Flight, was released by HarperVoyager in August 2010. The sequel, Samiha’s Song, is due out in February 2011. Visit her on Live Journal: http://maryvictoria.livejournal.com/

To listen to Helen Lowe’s radio interview with Mary Victoria, click here (then either press the “play” icon to listen or download the mp3.)

AU/NZ Cover

In “breaking news”, I am to be in Auckland at Armageddon over Labour Weekend—on Saturday 23, in fact. I will be joining the Whitcoulls team (Stand 45) at 11.30 am to talk about the genesis of The Heir  of Night and why I love—and most particularly write!—epic fantasy. So if you live in Auckland or are visting over the Labour weekend break, I would love to see you there.

The Details Again:

ASB Showgrounds: Saturday 23 October
Whitcoulls, Stand 45
11.30 am

Be there, or be square! 😉

"The Heir Of Night" map: artist, Peter Fitzpatrick

The Heir of Night map is currently featured on the  Out of this Eos blog, with a joint post by artist Peter Fitzpatrick and myself, discussing the genesis of the map. You can check it out here.

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And there’s two new online interviews available: one with Rebecca Fisher of FantasyLit.com; and the other on the Galaxy Bookshop (Sydney) blog.

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Plus three new online reviews for The Heir of Night:

SFFANZ

Fiction Kingdom

SFRevu

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And last, but by no means least, in Wichita, Kansas, The Heir of Night is on the “Staff Recommends” stand of the Barnes and Noble bookstore at Bradley Fair, recommended by the wonderful Georgette. Thank you, Georgette—both for the recommendation and for sending through the photo!

Today The Heir of Night F-SF Guest Author Series continues with Nicole Murphy, a Paranormal Urban Fantasy writer from Australia, who is also a fellow blogger on the USA-based Supernatural Underground. I met Nicole in person at the World Science Fiction & Fantasy Convention in Melbourne and am delighted to welcome her to Helen Lowe on Anything, Really today, blogging on the series theme of “why F-SF rocks my world.”

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F-SF Guest Series Post: Nicole Murphy on “Loving Humanity – Why Speculative Fiction Rocks!”

The very first story I wrote wasn’t actually a fantasy, although it was fantastical.

It was called Thunder King and it was about a boy and his horse, Thunder King, who won five Melbourne Cups, three Caulfield Cups and in between times had adventures in the Aussie bush, such as killing rampaging lionesses and then adopting the orphaned cubs.

I was eleven.

The next story was a fantasy, although not in the genre sense of the word. It was about me and my friends and we’d grown up and become air hostesses and flew around the world having super fabulous adventures.

Even at the age of eleven, it was quite clear that I’d never be tall enough to be an air hostess.

However, at the same time that I was writing these very first stories, I was also reading the book that was going to change my life – The Lord of the Rings.

Suddenly, my head was full of elves and dwarves and orcs and uruk-hai and every walk was a journey to find my hobbit friends and every car journey a trek towards the fiery pit of Mount Doom.

From that moment, I’ve written fantasy or science fiction in some way. There’s been the occasional foray into the real world (my fanfic with Duran Duran was the saucy hit of my fellow year ten students) but always my mind has been drawn to the unreal, the fantastical, the imaginary.

I can’t imagine why a writer wouldn’t want to write science fiction or fantasy. What’s so special about our world? Humans are humans, the laws of physics are immutable and once you’ve seen the countryside, there it is.

Why not let your imagination completely fly? Why not have magic and dragons and monsters and aliens and spaceships?

Of course, I know it’s not that easy. No matter the world you set your story in, there are certain things that can’t be done, certain boundaries that must be respected. You might be writing about fantastical creatures, but you’re writing for humans.

This for me is where speculative fiction becomes really interesting. How do you make something different, yet give it the resonance that readers can connect to? That gets you (the writer) into thinking about people – who are we, what do we want, what do we need? What are the similarities of the human experience which mean you can take your reader to Tatooine, or Middle Earth, or in my case the town of Sclossin, or in Helen’s case into a keep in the shadow of a mountain wall, and they will believe it and believe in the characters and read the story?

That’s the real beauty of speculative fiction and why I’ll never tire of writing it – because in order to do it well, you’ve got to be fully connected to our world. You’ve got to find people and their traumas and triumphs endlessly fascinating. You’ve got to be able to feel part of the human race, and yet be able to step away from it and see it objectively.

People might THINK that capital L literature is where you will find books that deal with the human condition and offer insight into this madness that we call living. But we who read, write and love speculative fiction know that it’s our often mis-represented and resented genre that truly gives us the opportunity to consider the good, and the bad, of the world around us.

And that’s why I think fantasy, science fiction and horror rock!

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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. Book one Secret Ones is out now. She lives with her husband in Queanbeyan, NSW. Visit her website http://nicolermurphy.com

Scrutineers have duly scrutinised, the “sorting hat” has sorted (in fact, an online random number generator was used) and the result of the giveaway draw is as follows:

1st Draw: The Gift Set of 5 books published by Orbit comprising:

The Heir of Night — Helen Lowe
Death Most Definite – Trent Jamieson
Feed – Mira Grant
Soulless – Gail Carriger
Surface Detail – Iain M. Banks

has been won by Joffre Horlor

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2nd Draw: The 3 x Gift Sets Comprising The Heir of Night & Thornspell (by Helen Lowe) have been won by:

Debbie Cowens
Jason J
Tina

3rd Draw: The 2 x “They Came From Orbit” Worldcon posters have been won by:

Rebecca Bosevski
Simon Litten

4th Draw: The 10 x Heir of Night (A3) cover posters have been won by (in alphabetical order by first name):

Cassie
GiadaM
Katrina Whittaker
Kevin Mclean
Obsidian Tears
Paul Callaghan
Rob Baigent
Sam Hall
Sullivan McPig
Wen Baragrey

5th Draw: The 10 x signed ‘Helen Lowe’ bookplates designed by Peter Fitzpatrick, creator of The Heir of Night map have been won by (in alphabetical order by first name):

Charlotte K
Damien
Donna S
Helen
Janlb
Kathy Edwards
Katrina
Matt Cowens
Mette Stephanie Jensen
Rebecca

Congratulations to all the winners—and thank you so much to all of you for visting, commenting and helping make The Heir of Night’s AU/NZ launch day a  success!

Please get in touch through contact@helenlowe.info to provide your postal address so I can get your prize to you.

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And Remember:

The “Enter the Draw to Give Your Name To A Character in The Wall of Night, Book Two” Competition! will continue throughout the F-SF Guest Author series.

Everyone who posted either yesterday for The Heir of Night launch, or on any of the posts by guest F-SF writers, running until 24 October, can enter the draw to have their name included as a character name in The Wall of Night Series, Book Two

Provisos:

• Each time you comment on a post by an F-SF guest author (in the series starting tomorrow) your name will get an additional entry into the draw (only 1 new entry per F-SF author post, however);
• The name included in the book is to be your real name;
• I reserve the right to adapt your name to best fit a fantasy character, e.g. “John the Miller” as opposed to “John Miller”, but your full name and the winning of this competition will be included in the “Acknowledgments” section of the book.
• If you don’t want your name included in the draw, just write “n.i.d.” (not in draw) after your comment.

So do keep visitng to support the guest authors and keep your name in the running to be included in The Wall of Night: Book Two.

“The Heir of Night” F-SF Guest Author Series:

On Thursday 6, I announced that, as part of celebrating the launch of The Heir of Night into Australia and New Zealand, a number of my fellow AU/NZ F-SF authors—and one from Canada 🙂 —would be joining me on the blog for a  F-SF Guest Author Series.

The first of my fellow authors, whom I would like to welcome to Helen Lowe on Anything Really, today, is Australian Dark Fantasy author, Alan Baxter.

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F-SF Guest Series Post: Alan Baxter

Helen was very kind to invite me for a guest post on her blog today about why fantasy and science fiction rocks my world as a writer. That’s easy – absolutely limitless scope for storytelling.
I grew up a voracious reader. From the age of three I would sit on my father’s knee and read the paper with him. I didn’t understand the news, but I loved the concept of the written word, and I could read. I soon graduated to books and discovered the magic of stories.

When I was very young I loved books like Runaway Ralph, Charlotte’s Web, Stig Of The Dump. They were all, to some extent, fantasy stories. The constraints of non-genre fiction bored me.

Even back then I loved writing. At seven years old I wrote a story about a guy that goes back in time and has crazy run ins with dinosaurs. My teacher refused to believe I’d written this several page epic and rang my parents. When they told her that it was all my own work I had to read it out to the class. I had discovered two joys – writing fiction and other people enjoying what I’d written. I still remember standing in class, watching the other kids listen as I read. It was an epiphany moment for me.

At around ten or eleven years old I discovered real fantasy. A family member bought me a copy of The Hobbit for my birthday and I was transported beyond anything I’d experienced before. I immediately followed that up with The Lord Of The Rings and everything by Ursula Le Guin and then began consuming fantasy fiction as fast as I was able. I then discovered science fiction and, by about 15 or so, horror introduced me to the darkness available between the pages of a book.

Throughout this time I’d been writing stories, none of which were very good, and started my first (thankfully abandoned) novel at sixteen. It took me a long time to decide to take writing seriously, but by my late twenties I’d decided that I was a writer. It drove me, I couldn’t imagine not telling stories. And I couldn’t imagine not writing in the speculative genre.

Fantasy, science fiction and horror appeal to me for the complete freedom they give a writer to explore exactly what needs exploring. At the heart of things, any good story is really an exploration of the characters and the ways they grow and develop when presented with the path of life before them. As the characters grow, the world around them is changed. With SF&F that path of life is utterly unlimited. Any situation you can think of can be explored.

My writing always tends to be dark. There are probably many reasons for that – my personal history, my love of horror, the nature of life itself being often rather darker than we’d like – so I don’t avoid it. I enjoy exploring the darker side of human nature, and how good people stand up against that. SF&F is an excellent medium for that too.

I’m fascinated by ancient history and mythology. I love to play around with various religious mythologies in my fiction and explore the human need for belief. My novels, RealmShift and MageSign, are based around those very issues, with lots of magic and demons, mayhem and excitement thrown in. I think they’re best described as dark fantasy thrillers. That genre definition is probably where I’m most comfortable writing. Those two novels are contemporary urban dark fantasies and I’m working on a third novel now, separate to that duology but in the same version of our world I created with those two. My short fiction covers more of the traditional fantasy and science fiction ground and I’d like to write novel length works within those sub-genres one day too.

There are so many stories to be told. I can’t imagine ever getting bored with the massive scope that SF&F allows for creating those stories that I’m compelled to tell. Everything else, by comparison, seems boring.

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Alan Baxter

About Alan Baxter:

Alan is an author living on the south coast of NSW, Australia. He writes dark fantasy, sci fi and horror, rides a motorcycle and loves his dog. He also teaches Kung Fu. Read extracts from his novels, a novella and short stories at his website – www.alanbaxteronline.com – and feel free to tell him what you think. About anything.

You came from all over AU/NZ—with a few from as far afield as the US, Italy and Denmark, just for good measure—over 475 of you in fact, which is “some party” where I come from! All that virtual chocolate cake that Mary Victoria brought with her last night is definitely gone. 🙂

And you posted with enthusiasm as well, all to help me celebrate the launch of The Heir of Night into AU/NZ—put simply, you rock and I think we can agree that Heir is now well launched.

But it’s not all over yet.

Firstly, I now have to draw the winners of the giveaways and that will happen later today—given this is a big draw I thought it was important to have scrutineers on hand, both to ensure that every eligible name really does go into the “Sorting Hat” and that there is no foul interference (by Slytherin, of course) as the names are drawn out. So do check back because that list will go up today.

Secondly, the FSF Author Guest Series is about to commence with a guest post by Alan Baxter, an Australian writer whom I met at Worldcon—we shared a reading, in fact. I think you will very much enjoy his guest post today and I hope you will show your support by commenting here and/or by clicking through to vist his website and find out more about Alan and his writing.

WOOT–it’s finally arrived! Today is Australia/New Zealand launch day for The Heir of Night (The Wall of Night Series Book One)—& there’s giveways: positively loads of loot in fact! Keep scrolling down to find out more!

Everyone who posts to celebrate the AU/NZ launch of The Heir of Night today will go in the draw to win (ta da! ta-da-dum!-BIG drum roll!!):

[Note: 1 entry counted per person; no more than 1 giveaway per person]

1. 1 x fantastic gift set of 5 books published by Orbit:

The Heir of Night (of course! 😉 )—plus
Death Most Definite – Trent Jamieson
Feed – Mira Grant
Soulless – Gail Carriger
Surface Detail – Iain M. Banks

2. 3 x Helen Lowe gift sets of:

The Heir of Night
Thornspell

3. Posters & Signed Bookplates

• 2 x “They Came From Orbit” Worldcon posters, plus 10 x The Heir of Night (A3) cover posters, plus
• 10 x signed ‘Helen Lowe’ bookplates designed by Peter Fitzpatrick, creator of The Heir of Night map

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plus, Plus, PLUS:

The “Enter the Draw to Give Your Name To A Character in The Wall of Night, Book Two” Competition!

Everyone who posts either today or on any of the posts by guest F-SF writers, running until 24 October, can enter the draw to have their name included as a character name in The Wall of Night Series, Book Two

Provisos:

• Each time you comment on a post by an F-SF guest author (in the series starting tomorrow) your name will get an additional entry into the draw (only 1 new entry per F-SF author post, however);
• The name included in the book is to be your real name;
• I reserve the right to adapt your name to best fit a fantasy character, e.g. “John the Miller” as opposed to “John Miller”, but your full name and the winning of this competition will be included in the “Acknowledgments” section of the book.

[Note: If you don't want your name included in the draw, just write "n.i.d." (not in draw) after your comment.]

AU/NZ Cover

Have fun—I look forward to reading your comments and to the “grand giveaway” at the end of today. (And don’t forget to check back to see if you’re a winner!)

Now let’s paint today RED for The Heir of Night AU/NZ!

As part of celebrating the Australia/New Zealand launch of The Heir of Night tomorrow, Thursday 7, I am also launching a a series of guest posts by fellow F-SF authors, either from Australia/New Zealand or with a connection to Australia/New Zealand, on the topic of: “why F-SF rocks my world”.

These authors write in a variety of F-SF genres. I have provided a very broad brush indication of genre beside their name on the (current) blog schedule below—as well as each guest’s “country of origin”. To find out more information about these authors and their work, click on the writer’s name; this should take you to their website or blog.

I note that the schedule may be subject to change, since the series extends over several weeks, but I’ll be keeping to it if humanly possible—and will let you know here, on the blog, as soon as I know of any change.

But now—drum roll, off—here it is, The F-SF Guest Post Schedule (Unveiled!):

Friday 8: Alan Baxter (AU: Dark Fantasy)

Saturday 9: Nicole Murphy (AU: Paranormal Urban Fantasy)

Monday 11: Mary Victoria (NZ: Epic Fantasy)

Wednesday 13: Kim Falconer (AU: Epic Fantasy)

Thursday 14: Tracey O’Hara (AU: Paranormal Urban Fantasy)

Friday 15: Marianne de Pierres (AU: Science Fiction)

Saturday 16: Michael Pryor (AU: Fantasy YA)

Sunday 17: Tim Jones (NZ: Science Fiction, Fantasy)

Monday 18: Juliet Marillier (AU: Historical Fantasy)

Wednesday 20: Anne Hamilton (AU: Junior Fantasy)

Thursday 21: Julie Czerneda (CAN: Science Fiction, Fantasy. Although Canadian, Julie has lots of F-SF links to NZ, including being Guest of Honour at the National SFFANZ Convention last year.)

Saturday 23: Gillian Polack (AU: Fantasy)

Sunday 24: James Norcliffe (NZ: Junior/YA Fantasy)

I hope you will support the F-SF series and these authors, who have very generously given their time and support to me and the launch of The Heir of Night.

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And don’t forget that tomorrow is AU/NZ LAUNCH DAY–with GIVEAWAYS PLUS–right here on Helen Lowe on Anything Really! 🙂

AU/NZ Cover

USA cover!

Fiction Kingdom book blog has posted a review for “The Heir of Night” and you can read it here. There’s also an interview, here.

I’ll be posting the schedule of F-SF guest bloggers a little later today.