Outback

red dirt drifts
along narrow tyre
tracks

heat shimmers
against bleached
sky

a homestead settles
into earth, its last
neighbour

a solitary chimney
– the car slows,
stops

ochre dust
filters through air
conditioning

coats everything:
clothes, shoes,
skin

the screen door sags
on its hinges, hello
echoes

through empty rooms

—

(c) Helen Lowe 2008

Published in Poetry NZ (September 2008)

Having been in Australia for the past week—albeit very much on the coast, here in Melbourne—I thought the Tuesday poem should address an Australian theme.

To see the featured poem on the Tuesday Poem Blog—and link to other Tuesday Poets posting around NZ and the world—either click here or on the Quill icon in the sidebar.

Reading, Worldcon 68

To be honest, being here has been a little stressful since waking up to news of the earthquake in my home town of Christchurch on Saturday morning, but I have tried to carry on and enjoy Worldcon as much as possible under the circumstances—and it has been a lot of fun. I have caught up with friends from last year’s New Zealand Natcon, and with buddies such as Tracey O’Hara from the Supernatural Underground, but also met a whole lot of new people: pretty much from all over, but mainly from Australia, the US and UK.

Sunday was my busiest day, with two panels—The Eternal Stories with Alison Croggan, Catherynne M Valente and Jenny Blackford, and Fantasy before Fantasy with Ben Chandler, Rani Graff and Carol Ryles. Both were fun topics, but I must confess to it being particularly exciting, not just to participate in, but to moderate a panel with a writer as famous as Cat Valente—who was also a 2010 nominee for the Hugo Award for Best Novel. My final panel, this morning, was Writing Strange Lands: Other Cultures in YA Speculative Fiction, with Karen Healey, Gillian Polack and Mary Victoria, and I have to say I think it was an excellent panel, with every panelist making a great contribution on a potentially challenging subject. The feedback I have received from those who attended the discussion was that they also thought the panel rocked, which was great to hear.

I think possibly my favourite event, personally, was the opportunity to read from Thornspell and The Heir of Night on Sunday afternoon. The reading time was longer than I had first thought, with half an hour being allocated to each reader, but this did give me time to read from both books, and also to give the audience a real flavour of Heir. And as one member of the audience told me that he had tears in his eyes at one stage, and another that I had made both the places and the people in the excerpts “come alive” for her, I thought I must have executed the reading with reasonable panache.

Book Signing Fun

My kaffeklatsch was also fun, with the opportunity not only to answer questions about different aspects of both Thornspell and The Heir of Night, but also to chat with my guests about what they enjoyed reading and why. At any rate, the hour sped by and left me inclining to the view that kaffeklatsches are actually a great way to interact with people who both enjoy my writing, but are also passionate about the kind of books I enjoy reading.

But the highlight of Worldcon for me was definitely the Hugo Awards ceremony and the pre-Hugos party, which I was invited to courtesy of Orbit, my UK/AU/NZ publisher. The ceremony was just fantastic, very well run and a tremendous thrill to ‘be there’ to see the awards announced and given out. The party was a blast because of the opportunity to meet and chat with nominees such as Phil and Kaja Foglio, the creators of my favourite graphic novel series, Girl Genius Online—who of course went on to win the Hugo in their category. I also got to meet and talk, for the first time in person, with quite a few people in the publishing world who have been very supportive of my writing career to date.

Anyway, I shall be blogging about the Hugo outcomes in more detail over the next few days, on the Out of this Eos blog, but in the meantime the priority is to get home to New Zealand and ‘deal to’ the aftermath of earthquake.

Recently, I mentioned that I had been approached by Finnish reviewer, pseudonym “Seregil of Rhiminee”, of RisingShadow, about the possibility of reviewing The Heir of Night and Thornspell. The review for Thornspell has just come through and I am thrilled to see that Seregil has rated it 5 stars:

“Thornspell is a charming, rich and well imagined retelling of the Sleeping Beauty story … I think that everybody who likes beautiful prose, romantic adventures and good stories, will love this book. There are several similar books, but Thornspell is clearly in a league of its own, because the quality of the writing is superb and the story is fascinating … This book is so good that once you start reading it, it’s almost impossible to put it down. Highly recommended!”

To read the full interview, click here.

Many of you will have heard that there has been a major, 7.1 earthquake in my home city of Christchurch, with a civil defence emergency declared and major infrastructural damage, but no loss of life—so friends and family all well, which is simply the best news.

In terms of my home, there has been some damage. The house is 90 years old and the brick chimney came down, doing some damage to the roof. But a friend and a neighbour, working with a local builder have secured it already. Otherwise the only damage internally appears to be from things fallen over and broken ornaments and some china—and again two friends went in today and tidied up the worst of that damage, which makes me feel both very humble and very grateful at the same time.

I am sure that it is still going to be a lot to go home to, but there is little more that can be done at this stage until I do get home Tuesday night.

Overall, it could have been so much worse and again I am just grateful that there has been no loss of life and family, friends and neighbours are all safe.

"The Heir of Night"---Australia/New Zealand cover

And it’s all happening! Yesterday, August 2, was registration and the grand opening of AussieCon 4, the 68th World Science Fiction & Fantasy Convention. After the opening it was straight into kaffeeklatsches, readings and panels, which flowed on into today, Friday 3—together with all the fun of meeting fellow writers such as Trudi Canavan, Juliet Marillier, Ian Irvine, Charles Stross, and Alison Croggan, and seeing others, such as China Mieville, John Scalzi, and George RR Martin, “across the crowded concourse”. I have also been meeting up with my publishers for The Heir of Night—that’s Eos (HarperCollins) in the States and Orbit in the UK and AU/NZ—which is fantastic after so long communicating via email. Not to mention the fun of catching up with fellow Supernatural Underground authors, Tracey O’Hara and Nicole Murphy, as well as  Mary Victoria, author of Tymon’s Flight, whom I interviewed recently on Women on Air, Plains 96.9 FM.

Did I mention being a complete fan girl at the Dealer’s Room table of Phil & Kaja Foglio, the creators of the stupendous Girl Genius Online, which is probably my favourite graphic novel series? Also getting to meet some wonderful Australian booksellers, such as Mark and Sofia from Galaxy in Sydney, and Louise from Dymocks.

I had a wonderful panel this afternoon with Alison Croggan, Laurie Mann, and Rose-Marie Lillian on Eowyn and Sam: Underappreciated Heroes in The Lord of the Rings. We had great audience participation, too. But perhaps the best moment of all so far has been seeing The Heir of Night, with the fabulous red and black AU/NZ cover, in print and on sale for the very first time in the Dealer’s Hall:  the culmination of a journey that began eleven years ago when I first put the handwritten beginnings of several manuscripts out on the kitchen table and told myself—ok, now pick one and finish it!

Worldcon is in full swing, so I’m reprising last week’s interview of 25 August, with double Hugo Award winner, Cheryl Morgan.

—

Cheryl Morgan is a science fiction critic and publisher. She is the owner of Wizard’s Tower Press and editor of Salon Futura. Previously she edited the Hugo Award winning magazine, Emerald City (Best Fanzine, 2004). She also won a Hugo for Best Fan Writer in 2009. Cheryl is a director of San Francisco Science Fiction Conventions Inc., and of the Association for the Recognition of Excellence in SF & F Translation.

—

I first met Cheryl Morgan at last year’s National Science Fiction Convention, ConScription, in Auckland, and I know her as the non-fiction editor of Clarkesworld Magazine, a regular attendee at science fiction conventions around the world, and the winner of last year’s Hugo Award for Best Fan Writer. (Just a hint—the Hugo Awards are like the Oscars of the world science fiction-fantasy community.) Cheryl is back in New Zealand for Au Contraire, this year’s National Science Fiction Convention over 27-29 August—and when I found out she had a new venture on the go as well, I thought it was time to request an interview.

1. Cheryl, you have impressive credentials in the world of science-fiction fandom. As mentioned in my introduction, you travel the world extensively attending scifi-fantasy conventions, are the non fiction editor for Clarkesworld magazine and have won a Hugo Award for “Best Fan Writer.” So when did you first get involved with SFF fandom?

I first attended a convention in 1984. Martin Hoare and Dave Langford encouraged me to attend an Eastercon in Brighton. Martin was my boss at work at the time, and he knew I read SF&F so he figured I would fit right in. He and Dave had been friends at university, so I got in already knowing fannish royalty, so to speak.

However, I didn’t get seriously involved until 1995. I had just started a job in Melbourne, but was in the UK to ferry some stuff out, and I saw that Worldcon was in Glasgow. I thought I might find some Australian fans there, and that might help me make friends in my new home. Of course the Melbourne fans were bidding for a Worldcon at the time, and I got sucked right in.

2. So what’s “true north” for you in the SFF world—is it the conventions, the writing and interviewing, or simply the people?

Can I say “all of it”? I suppose if I had to give up everything else I would still want to be able to read books, but really I wouldn’t want to do without any of it.

3. Being so deeply involved in the SFF world, do you ever get jaded, feel like there’s “nothing new” anymore?

There’s always something new. New writers come along, new fans turn up online or at conventions, the community is always changing. The one thing that doesn’t change is that every time something new comes along someone complains that it will Destroy Fandom because things are Not Like They Used To Be. I get very tired of that.

4. So have you seen many big changes in fandom since 1984, or is more a case of incremental evolution? And what have been some of the more significant changes from your point of view?

I think that there have been two major changes. The first is that the Internet has made it vastly easier for fans to communicate. It used to be that we had to send letters and fanzines to each other by snail mail, and could only see each other at conventions. These days we chat via Twitter on our phones and have video calls on Skype. The main result of this has been that as long as you can afford an Internet connection it doesn’t matter where you live, you can still be part of fandom. People like Lauren Beukes in South Africa, Glenda Larke in Malaysia, Jonathan Dotse in Ghana, Tero Ykspetäjä in Finland, Charles Tan in the Phillipines, or Fábio Fernandes in Brazil, and everyone in New Zealand, can be active members of the world-wide fan community.

The other change is that we really have won the Culture War. Back in 1984 it was still (just about) a Proud and Lonely Thing to be a Fan. But even then us noisy youngsters had grown up on Star Trek and Star Wars. These days the Moon landings are ancient history, most of the top-grossing movies are SF or fantasy, and politicians crack jokes about Kirk and Spock. There might be a few crusty old fools who think that SF is “bought by a special kind of person who has special weird things they go to and meet each other” (to quote one of last year’s Booker Prize judges), but actually almost everyone reads or watches it in some way or another.

5. And what are some of the highlights—the moment you’ll always remember?

I have been lucky enough to have won two Hugo Awards. It doesn’t get any better than that. But for personal reasons I will always have fond memories of the Glasgow Worldcon in 1995. I made lots of new friends there, but in particular I met an American fan called Kevin Standlee who has been a very important part of my life ever since.

6. You have recently embarked on a new project, an e-publishing venture called Wizard’s Tower Press and Kevin is one of your business partners in that, isn’t he? Can you explain what Wizard’s Tower Press is all about?

It is a long story, but for complicated reasons involving travel to the USA I found myself needing to have a real business that involved going to conventions. Publishing seemed to be the obvious route to take, but I had no money to invest so I had to find some way to do it that didn’t involve potentially bankrupting myself. As a result I am getting involved in ebooks. Kevin, as always, is my sounding board, moral support, and detail-oriented nag, but I have many other fine people working for me as well, including Anne Gray who did such a wonderful job of fixing my grammar for Emerald City.

Mostly what we will be doing at Wizard’s Tower is finding books that are long out of print that the big publishers are not interested in, and making them available again as ebooks. I’m not expecting to grow a huge company, or discover the next William Gibson, or anything like that, but I do hope I can help out the many mid-list authors whose careers are stagnating because the publishers and bookstores are increasingly focused on best sellers.

We will do some print books too – mainly specialist anthologies – but they will be few and far between because small press anthologies tend to lose money. My friend Colin Harvey is currently editing an anthology for us called Dark Spires. It will feature stories set in the Wessex region of England, written by authors who live in that region, and we’ll be launching at at the local convention, BristolCon, in November.

Then there will be the magazine …

7. OK, tell me about the magazine …

The magazine is called Salon Futura. Given Wizard’s Tower’s focus, it will be available as an ebook (DRM free; iBooks and Kindle to begin with), but like Clarkesworld it will also be available for free online. It is a literary review magazine, so it will talk a lot about science fiction and fantasy, but it won’t carry fiction.

We are open to submissions, but we won’t do huge numbers of reviews. In the same way that Clarkesworld focuses on a small number of high quality stories, we will focus on a small number of high quality articles about books. However, we will pay for those. I firmly believe that non-fiction writers deserve paying just the same as fiction writers do.

8. How does Salon Futura fit with the rest of the Wizard’s Tower Press project?

Salon Futura will give us an opportunity to remind people that Wizard’s Tower exists. When we bring out new books, we will mention them in the magazine. But along the way I hope to promote a lot of other good books as well. Indeed, once we get our online shop up and running we’ll be happy to sell anyone’s ebooks as long as they are of good quality.

9. And it’s launching at Aussiecon4, the World Science Fiction Convention in Melbourne from 2-6 September, is that right? So what are you planning—a big party or something different?

Sorry, no party I’m afraid. We can’t afford it, and from experience of 1999 I know that trying to run a party in a Melbourne hotel is massively expensive. But the first issue of the magazine should be online during the convention, and hopefully people will talk about it.

10. So the approach is low key—no event at all, but just relying on word of mouth?

You may find me shoving my iPad under people’s noses and saying, “look at this”. Also most of my news reporting will go out via the Salon Futura from then on, so if we can get an Internet connection from the Hugo ceremony the coverage will be Salon Futura branded. That might be something of a virtual party.

11. I’ll be attending the Hugo Awards ceremony in person—for the very first time—but otherwise I would definitely be up for the virtual party! But sticking with Wizard’s Tower Press & Salon Futura, do these new projects mean that you will be quitting your editorial role with Clarkesworld?

I’m definitely staying with Clarkesworld. As I said, Salon Futura is a literary review magazine. The sort of non-fiction I buy for Clarkesworld tends to be very different. Indeed, Clarkesworld has a firm policy of not publishing book reviews at all.

12. Can you tell me more about what being non fiction editor for Clarkesworld involves? For example, you’ve just said that you buy non fiction for the magazine?

That’s right. Clarkesworld is primarily a fiction magazine, but it carries some non-fiction as well. There is a regular series of interviews, conducted by Jeremy L.C. Jones, and then there is the column I manage, which covers a whole range of material. We have done science, history, art, music – basically anything that touches on the science fiction and fantasy field, but is not an interview (that’s Jeremy’s territory) and not a book review or con report (which we don’t publish).

I’m very pleased that Clarkesworld pays the same rates for non-fiction as it does for fiction. You can get 10c/word, up to $250, writing for us. I’m really surprised at how few submissions we get. (Hint, the submission guidelines can be found here.)

13. Another one of your “hats” is as a member of the Association for the Recognition of Excellence in SF & F Translation. I am very interested to know more about the Association’s work and your own part in it?

This all came out of my work with Science Fiction Awards Watch. As you know, we track awards from all around the world, including the Sir Julius Vogel Awards, and also many sets of awards from non-English-speaking countries. I very quickly noticed that in those countries where English was not the first language, be it France, Germany, Japan, Russia, China, or anywhere else, there was always an award category for translated fiction. And that category was almost always won by a work translated from English. But in the entire English-speaking world I could not find a science fiction group anywhere giving awards to translated fiction. This seemed wrong to me, so I decided to do something about it.

Thankfully other people also thought it was a good idea, and the Association is now an official non-profit organization (though we are still waiting on our tax exempt status from the IRS). Gary K. Wolfe of Roosevelt University in Chicago (probably better known to your readers as the lead reviewer for Locus) is our President, and we have two other academic experts: Rob Latham and Melissa Conway, from the University of Riverside in California. Kevin, as usual, is on hand to help with the legal stuff. Our first jury should be announced by the time this interview goes to press, and the first awards will be presented at the Eaton Conference next year.

I’m very pleased about this. There are huge amounts of science fiction and fantasy being published in languages other than English. Some of those writers are undoubtedly superb, but we English-speakers hardly ever get to hear of them. If our Association can do a little bit to change that we will have done a very good thing.

14. Coming back to your visit to NZ, you are here for Au Contraire over this coming weekend—are there any events that will be a particular focus for you in any of your many roles, including the new Wizard’s Tower venture?

Well I will certainly be reporting once more on the Sir Julius Vogel Awards – live if I can get an Internet connection. I have asked been asked to be on a few panels, but the programme hasn’t been finalized yet so I can’t commit to anything there. I may also be rather distracted as I’ll be putting the finishing touches to the first issue of Salon Futura, but I’ll do my best to be available at the convention. If nothing else I shall continue to blog about my travels and introduce the rest of the world to all of the good things that New Zealand has to offer.

I may also pop into Te Papa to get some squid stuff for my fellow cephalopod fans.

Cheryl—thank you very much for doing this interview. I am very impressed by your long contribution to fandom and your many achievements, not least winning not just one—as I first thought—but two Hugo Awards. I wish you all the very best for the new Wizard’s Tower and Salon Futura projects and a successful launch at Worldcon.

Today I’m blogging about being Helen-in-Black at Worldcon on the Supernatural Underground. 🙂 Rock on over and check it out!

And have been having a fun time exploring on foot, by tram, and by riverboat, ahead of Worldcon, which starts officially this afternoon.

Shrine of Remembrance

Yesterday, 1 September, was the first day of spring and the weather has been mixed, with balmy sunshine followed by cold winds and overcast skies, followed by rain, all in fairly quick succession. But it still feels warm enough to me, despite the rain, so I have not let it stand in the way of seeing the city—which in my book always requires some pavement pounding. So on the first day I took in several gardens and monuments, including the original Melbourne observatory buildings at the entrance to the Botanic Gardens and the Victorian Shrine of Remembrance (Melbourne is the capital of the Australian state of Victoria.)

I am interested in astronomy, but even so was fascinated to learn of the day-to-day importance of the observatory to the early colonists, both in terms of navigation, but also of predicting weather—because, of course, initially they had no local knowledge to draw on. The Shrine of Remembrance though, was really impressive, both physically and in terms of the exhibitions and interpretation commemorating the sacrifice of Victorian ANZACs in both World Wars 1 and 2. ANZAC is an acronym for the Australia New Zealand Army Corps, which first served together in World War 1, so it is a subject that also speaks to me quite deeply as a New Zealander.

ANZAC Commemoration

I was also impressed to find a separate memorial to the Siege of Malta, which commemorated both the heroism of the Maltese people and also the convoy, comprising British, Australian, New Zealand and American merchant ships, which effectively lifted the siege. But of the 13 merchant ships that set out from London, and despite a Royal Navy escort of nearly 50 vessels, only 5 made it to Malta on 15 August 1942. Even these 5 were badly damaged and the tanker Ohio so much so that if had to be towed into port. I knew the basic story of the siege, but not of the convoy, and I was moved to find both remembered on the far side of the world.

Melbourne Cityscape

On a lighter note, Melbourne is a beautiful and sophisticated city and I have been enjoying many aspects of that. I am fortunate to be staying in the Southbank area of the central city, which is built on the Yarra River, and so able to enjoy the river walks, the wonderful decorative bridges and public art that characterises this space. Venturing across the river into the commercial and retail hub, I am impressed not just by the glass towers (I come from a very small city, ok, and one that rarely exceeds medium rise by Melbourne standards; let’s not even mention the Empire State Building!) but also by the wonderful legacy of historic buildings that still remain. Even more fun are the narrow lanes that run between the main streets, with hundreds of little shops, some luxury, some hole-in-the-wall cobblers or barbers or eateries, but many of them featuring wonderful heritage features: wrought iron, stained glass and mosaic floors.

Not that it was all shopping by any means—I would not, after all, like you to think me lightminded or worse, frivolous—so I hasten to add that I also visited the Immigration Museum, which is currently featuring an exhibition on the “Afghan” (i.e. mainly Afghan, but also what we would now call Pakistani and North Indian) cameleers who played such an important part in exploration of the Australian interior, and also in maintaining supplies and communication to the remote Outback stations. A fascinating history—and also finally throwing light (for me as a New Zealander) on why the overland route from Adelaide to Alice Springs is known as The Ghan. The train that now follows that route—and is reputed to be one of the world’s great train journey—is also known as The Ghan.

And finally, since I am staying just round the corner from the National Gallery of Victoria, I also took the opportunity to partake in Art After Dark and see the exhibition 0f European Masters that is currently on display there.

I’ve been thinking/realizing/ knowing for some time that I need business cards, but attending the forthcoming Worldcon and Christchurch Writers’ Festival brought the need into sharp focus—so I went to visit my good friend Fitz, who also designed my website and—a treat in store for blog readers after Worldcon and the Writers’ Festival—drew up the map for The Heir of Night.

Suffice it to say, when it comes to design it’s hard to beat Fitz—so courtesy of his skill and flair I now have these fabulous business cards.

So waddya reckon? I think they’re pretty kickass. (Pretty, too, as well as kickass!)

The World As Meditation

J’ai passé trop de temps à travailler mon violon, à voyager. Mais l’exercice essentiel du compositeur — la médiatation — rien ne l’a jamais suspendu en moi … Je vis un rêve permanent, qui ne s’arrête ni nuit ni jour. — Georges Enesco

Is it Ulysses that approaches from the east,
The interminable adventurer? The trees are mended.
That winter is washed away. Someone is moving

On the horizon and lifting himself up above it.
A form of fire approaches the cretonnes of Penelope,
Whose mere savage presence awakens the world in which she dwells.

She has composed, so long, a self with which to welcome him,
Companion to his self for her, which she imagined,
Two in a deep-founded sheltering, friend and dear friend.

The trees had been mended, as an essential exercise
In an inhuman meditation, larger than her own.
No winds like dogs watched over her at night.

She wanted nothing he could not bring her by coming alone.
She wanted no fetchings. His arms would be her necklace
And her belt, the final fortune of their desire.

But was it Ulysses? Or was it only the warmth of the sun
On her pillow? The thought kept beating in her like her heart.
The two kept beating together. It was only day.

It was Ulysses and it was not. Yet they had met,
Friend and dear friend and a planet’s encouragement.
The barbarous strength within her would never fail.

She would talk a little to herself as she combed her hair,
Repeating his name with its patient syllables,
Never forgetting him that kept coming constantly so near.

Wallace Stevens, 1879-1955

—

I have always loved the Greek myths and legends, including the story of Penelope and Odysseus (here called Ulysses.) Their story has crept into my own writing through stories like Ithaca (JAAM 26) and the Ithaca Conversations poetry sequence, but Wallace Stevens’ The World As Meditation is, in my view, one of the outstanding and powerful expressions of the point of view of Penelope. Otherwise I will let the poem speak for itself, which I feel it does quite adequately without my intervention or interpretation.

—

Wallace Stevens (October 2, 1879 – August 2, 1955) was an American Modernist poet. He was born in Reading, Pennsylvania, educated at Harvard and then New York Law School, and spent most of his life working as a lawyer for the Hartford insurance company in Connecticut.