UK/AU/NZ

The About The Characters post series focuses on the minor characters in The Wall Of Night series, in large part because:

“I think it’s the presence of the smaller characters that “makes” a story, creating texture around the main points of view.”

~ from my Legend Award Finalist’s Interview, 2013

Initially, the series focused exclusively on characters from The Heir of Night, but now I’m continuing on with minor characters from both The Gathering Of The Lost and Daughter of Blood — in alphabetical order, by name, of course!

Currently, we’re traversing the realm of “L” – but this week I have to make a slight back cast, because I managed to skip a couple of Daughter of Blood characters: oh, no! An oversight for which I apologise, but which is easily rectified. So without further ado, or to-do, meet:

USA

Liankhara:  a Daughter of Blood, fourth child of the Earl of Blood; also known as “spider.”

Yet argument seemed too mild a term for the tempest that had broken the moment their father, Sardon, the Earl of Blood, announced that one of his daughters would marry the Earl of Night before the year was out. … The bride was not going to be Liankhara either, because the Earl’s second daughter had served as a Blood spymaster since she was younger than Myr was now. Neither the Earl nor his council would countenance her loss from Blood’s ranks, or the potential subversion of her loyalties, no matter how strategic the marriage offered.

~ from © Daughter Of Blood: The Wall of Night Book Three, Chapter 1 — Lady Mouse

To be consumed while writing…

I mentioned the authorial coffee break last Thursday so thought it might be fun to shine a light on authorial breaks — besides brewing up the coffee pot and reflecting on the power and dynamism of nature as per last Thursday, which is pretty much all the time in a coastal environment.

To be honest, though, I don’t have coffee breaks as such, because I like to consume the dark and bitter beverage while working, so the only break that occurs is in the making thereof. 😉

The first thing that happens on actual breaks – very often, anyway – is that a whole bunch of “and thens”, plus “and alsos”, along with “don’t forgets” from the preceding writing rear their heads, so I have to keep a pen and paper handy and jot them down, or rush back to the writing desk and type them in before I forget. (Which is also why Pen and Paper was the very first entry for Artefacts Of The Writing Life.)

Essential for jotting down ideas…

After that, though, when I’m actually breaking, it may not surprise you to learn that I frequently read books – very often standing at the bench, with the book propped on the windowsill, while I eat my lunch or dinner.

When I don’t want to risk getting immersed (always a hazard when reading a good book), I’ll substitute a magazine as reading. New Scientist has been known to take its turn propped on the lunchtime sill, but—being a foodie—food magazines are a time-honoured favourite, especially since they don’t require me to think too much.

Not a magazine, but a time-honoured favourite

Because as you may well suspect, the WALL series takes a lot of thinking, especially now I am in the endgame with all those reveals and resolves to not only write, but get right. 😉 So the breaks need to be real breaks.

Although sometimes a change of mindset can be the best break, which may be why I’ve become a fan of puzzles and quizzes. The code cracker is my current favourite, but I enjoy all the word puzzles and most of the numerical ones as well—to which end I’ve only just started with sudoku, but I’m getting my head around it.

The risk with puzzles is that they can be immersive, too, but I find them a lot easier to put down than a good book. 🙂

Getting out into the great outdoors is also a good way of blowing away writing cobwebs – although when the southerly buster is ripping up from the Antarctic there can be a bit too much blowing away.

The aftermath of a recent southerly storm

—

On another note, if you haven’t caught up with my Supernatural Underground post from 1 July, but are following the Magic in Fantasy series, the following link will take you there:

The Magic of Magic in Fantasy — & A Solstice Shift

Enjoy!

—

Previous Bulletins From Inside The Writing Life:

• A Little About The Writing Itself
• About Those Muses, Then…
• Naturally Self-Isolating
• Writing Novels, Posting Blogs
• Another Milestone Ticked Off
• A Game Of Two Halves
• Further Reflection on Writing Transitions
• Fun With Friends
• Those Moments Of “Grr-Argh”
• Sometimes It’s A Case Of “Oh Frabjous Day!
• “O Frabjous Day” Reprised
• Listening To The Silence
• Characters Behaving Badly
• Many Placemarkers

Supernatural Underground

My oh my, it’s July 1, so one thing that means is that I’ll be posting on the Supernatural Underground later today. On July 1, too, but US EST, which takes a little longer to roll on over on the calendar – yep, first in the world to see the new day, that’s us! 😀

If you’re following the Magic Systems In Fantasy series on the SU, just a hint that there’s a change in focus for the rest of the year – but all will be revealed “over there”, laterz. Watch that space!

Influences On Story

Otherwise, I’ve been gambaruing on with writing The Chaos Gate (The Wall Of Night #4) amid alternating floods, and high winds and seas. It all makes for an exciting – and occasionally scary – view out the writing window, I have to say, and engenders considerable reflection on the dynamism and power of nature when on the authorial coffee break.

After the storm

Will it creep into the work in progress? Well that, dear readers, is impossible to say at this juncture, chiefly because influences on story tend to heart Emily Dickinson and prefer to be told “slant.”

Did I say authorial coffee break?

However, given the current tempestuous environment, I thought I’d share an apposite quote from the WALL series to date. I enjoyed hunting it out, so I hope you enjoy reading it. 😉

USA

That WALL Series Quote

The whispering slipped away and Kalan turned back toward sleep—but the dream transformed into a heaving mass of water. Overhead, lightning tore the heavens apart, while thunder, wind, and ocean battered at each other. Have I crossed into one of Yelusin’s memories? he wondered, recalling the Sea mariners’ accounts of deep ocean storms. The vision rolled, hurling him onto the back of a mountainous wave. For a moment he rode above the abyss, lightning spearing around him, before the crest collapsed. An avalanche of water crashed into his side and he veered wildly off true. Voices screamed as a snapped mast thudded down and he was running blind, every fiber stretched to breaking point as he strained to climb the next towering wave.

Lightning exploded again and the black clouds boiled as a behemoth plunged through them, trailing streamers of fire. Kalan felt as though he might splinter apart at any moment but clung to the dream, striving to understand what the Gate—or the fragment of Yelusin contained within his mind—was showing him. “Too soon.” The whisper burned in his mind like one of the streamers of fire. “Too soon… But I burn. I cannot hold—”

“We’re tearing apart!” The man’s shout was raw with urgency, although Kalan could see nothing but black rushing water and the lurid glow overhead. “She’ll never hold unless—”

Unless what? Kalan wondered, as the clouds overhead snapped closed and the behemoth disappeared. The tempest continued to batter at him, but the wind’s fury was dying. The next time cloud and water swirled, the funnel around him was gray, not black. Finally, the storm dissipated altogether, transforming into clear dawn above a long gray firth.

~ from © Daughter of Blood, The Wall Of Night Book Three – Chapter 27, The Turnings Of Fate

UK/AU/NZ

—

And dinna forget to check in on the Supernatural Underground later today. In the spirit of Teresa Frohock’s Los Nefilim series, I’ll watch for you there. [Waves.] 😀

As long ago as last year and as far away as …well…just around the curve of space-time, I posted Having Fun With Epic Fantasy #13: We All Love To Love The Lovable Rogue. In the comments, Andrew mentioned a 1980s anthology, Amazons II, that contained a story titled The Robber Girl (by Phyllis Ann Karr), whose protagonist  fitted the “lovable rogue” bill.

Amazons II, edited by Jessica Amanda Salmonson, was published by DAW in 1982. It followed on from Amazons (1979), “an anthology of original stories by fine writers about women warriors  that was so good it won the World Fantasy Award as the best collection of the year.” 

Amazons II is also a collection of twelve original stories, all of which feature women heroines, and written by authors that include still-familiar names such as Tanith Lee, Gael Baudino, and George RR Martin, .

Although the heroines number warriors, including actual Amazons in Lillian Stewart Carl’s The Borders of Sabazel, the second collection also includes the robber girl, as well as a ropemaker, in Eleanor Arnason’s The Ivory Comb, a gypsy, Tindira, in Gordon Derevanchuk’s Zroya’s Trizub, a priestess, Yassim, in Jo Clayton’s Nightwork, and a witch, Alys, in George RR Martin’s In The Lost Lands.

Perhaps not surprisingly for a collection published in the early 1980s—following the 1970s groundswell of feminism and during the UN’s 1975-1985 Decade for Women—a central theme includes the assertion of women’s independence and strength within the context of patriarchal norms. The stories are by no means all of a kind, however, displaying a range of contexts from the prophecy and battle of The Borders of Sabazel, through the quest-journey of FM Busby’s For A Daughter, the rescue of Nightwork, mystery and sorcery of Tanith Lee’s Southern Lights, and humour of Gael Baudino’s The Lady of Forest End.

Diversity is sometimes discussed as if it were a purely contemporary concern in Fantasy literature, so I was interested that the stories encompassed not only women of diverse abilities, character, and situations, but also a reasonable degree of worldbuilding variation. Nightwork and The Ivory Comb are the two stories that have stayed with me in the latter respect, while The Robber Girl is possibly the most “fantastic” in a folklore/fairytale style of storytelling.

I also learned that the editor, Jessica Amanda Salmonson, apparently transitioned as a transgender woman in the mid 1970s (see Wikipedia.)

What I also noted, however, in terms of diversity and inclusion, was that the author list does not appear to include writers and voices from outside the UK and North America, or any non-white authors from within those countries. I believe this is less likely to be the case in 2021, nearly forty years later.

The cover art is also “classic” for the era, chiefly for the highly improbable levels of nudity, in combination with what little armor there is being both highly impractical and improbable, at best. All those vital organs left exposed; ah, well… Not to mention that it doesna reflect the quality of the fiction within, so the cover would probably have ensured I never read them, if not for last year’s comment. Now, having gotten past the cover, I am glad I did.

Many collections will have a story that sticks with you more than any other. For me, in Amazons II, that story is In The Lost Lands by George RR Martin. Readers of the A Song Of Ice and Fire (A Game Of Thrones) series, will not be surprised to learn that I found the characters compelling and the story powerful and brutal, brilliant and cruel. It’s a story that made quite an impact on first reading, and that I believe I’m unlikely to forget.

North

Last week I commenced revisiting the blog backlist with a post on “The Magic Of Winter Worlds”, first posted on 21 July 2012.

The 2012 post was sparked by the poem North, which was posted on 10 July, also in 2012. North is a midwinter poem, inspired by a journey I made to the far north of Sweden.

I am intending to refeature poems as part of the Backlist series, and since this is the week of winter solstice here in NZ (and in the southern hemisphere) I feel it’s exactly the right time to post it again. 🙂

~~~

North

homes
white timbered in the south
give way to brown-red
in mid and north –
avenues of birch trees
serried lakes

an elk
runs through deep winter
the night train flares
through cuttings –
inferno cast across jagged firs
frozen earth

rushes headlong
into spring – a pied crow
solitary
above a grey field
.

(c) Helen Lowe

Published in Bravado 14

—

North was first featured on the blog as part of my contribution to the Tuesday Poem community. Although the community put up its shutters some years ago now, the blog is still extant and features some wonderful poems, from ancient to modern — well worth a look for anyone who enjoys poetry:

The Tuesday Poem Blog

Winter’s world

Today is the winter solstice and shortest day here in NZ – so “Happy Solstice” to those that celebrate it as a festival.

The Maori New Year festival of Matariki will be marked a little later, on July 2 – traditionally the celebration commences when the Pleiades reappear in southern skies and is aligned to the new moon rather than the sun.

Kowhai: flowers in winter

On Thursday I refeatured a post on winter worlds from the blog backlist and mentioned Ursula Le Guin’s The Left Hand Of Darkness in that context. The world of Gethen, also known as Winter, is probably one of *the* defining winter worlds of speculative fiction.

Yet when it comes to solstice and new year festivals, Ms Le Guin’s Sunreturn, in her enduring children’s classic, A Wizard of Earthsea, is among my favourites. It’s a midwinter festival marked throughout the archipelagoes of Earthsea, with people drumming and dancing through the torch and bonfire lit darkness of the longest night, to invoke the return of the sun and life.

The essence of the festival is evoked in a handful of sentences but like so much of Ursula Le Guin’s writing, it captures the imagination and endures.

In Hogwarts, of course, they would have a glorious banquet. I suspect there may have been a few midwinter feasts here in NZ over the past weekend, with more coming up for Matariki – if only to fortify ourselves for the colder weather that tends to follow the solstice, i.e. as the days grow longer the nights get colder, for a time at least.

A feast of colour, if less “stupendous” than Hogwarts. 😉

The ideal season for storytelling, wouldn’t you say? 🙂

Under snow …

As promised on May 31, on the 11^th anniversary of the blog, I’m going to be revisiting posts from the backlist on a semiregular basis, because after eleven years there’s a fair amount of backlist to revisit. 😉

On 31 May, I was tossing up whether to revisit the backlist in a totally random way or go for themes. I still haven’t finally decided, but I suspect it’ll probably end up being a bit of both, i.e. I may settle on a theme for a while, then randomly leap to something else.

To kick things off, since winter solstice is almost upon us here in the Southern Hemisphere, I thought I’d revisit a winter-themed post from 2012: The Magic of Winter Worlds.

The post is by no means an exhaustive list of winter-themed works and was never intended to be, but if you like, you can join in the fun by adding “winter world” fantasies that have been published since 2012 — or from before it for that matter! Particularly if they’re a favourite!

Otherwise, enjoy!

—

The Magic Of Winter Worlds from 21 July 2012

Recently I posted my poem “North” here, and alluded to a journey into the far north of Sweden, to Arjeplog just south of the Arctic circle, which inspired it.

Again recently, I have begun reading Australian author Jo Spurrier’s debut Fantasy, Winter Be My Shield, first mentioned under “Just Arrived” here — and these two posts got me thinking about what a great tradition winter worlds are in Fantasy-SciFi.

Here are a few of my favourites:

The Narnia of CS Lewis’s The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe, of course. I have think that moment when, together with Lucy Pevensie, I stepped through the back of a wardrobe and into the snowy landscape of Lantern Waste was definitely one of the most magical of my reading childhood.

As an adult, Ursula Le Guin’s The Left Hand of Darkness provided a similar defining moment, with the physical world of Winter (Gethen) absolutely dominating the cultural, sexual, and political landscape of the story.

From there, I moved on to Michael Scott Rohan’s “Winter of the World” series (the first trilogy comprises The Anvil of Ice, The Forge of the World, The Hammer of the Sun), in which the encroaching ice (think ice age) is an aware power and the Norse myth influences on the storytelling — perhaps fittingly given the world — are strong. (Just in case you’re wondering, I think this is a good thing and the series a very interesting, if at times grim, one.)

And then there’s Mark Helprin’s Winter’s Tale — which is more like historical urban fantasy (meets the Gangs of New York) and is rich, mythic, magic realist imbued — and where winter undoubtedly ‘colours’  the entire story.

More recently I’ve read Kate Elliott’s Cold Magic (the first of a “Cold’ trilogy) which also picks up the idea of an ice age realm where the ice influences magic — but in a world where alternate history means the Carthaginians fought the Romans to a standstill, retaining their maritime empire, and North African (Mali) magicians have emigrated (ahead of a ghoul/zombie horde) to hook up with Celtic druids, I think you’ll already be getting that the story is going very different places to Michael Scott Rohan’s ice…

Nor should stories such as Peter Hoeg’s  Miss Smilla’s Feeling For Snow be overlooked, if only for the wonderful descriptions of winter and snow; this is a very atmospheric book. And how could I forget Joan Vingt’s “The Snow Queen”? Short answer, I can’t—again it’s a favourite novel and one where the prolonged winter world of Tiamat, but also the imminent transition to an equally prolonged summer is essential to the story being told. Picking up on extended winter/summer worlds again, “Winter is Coming” in George RR Martin’s “A Song of Ice and Fire” series, even if it is not quite here yet — but the giant wall of ice and the Night Watch definitely set the scene from book one, A Game of Thrones.

And now I am reading the new Jo Spurrier epic, Winter Be My Shield, where winter and snow also dominate the world building.

There are also distinctive winter elements to wider worlds, such as the Winter Country in my own “The Wall of Night” series, and the north of the Finnish witches and panzer bjorn in Philip Pullman’s The Golden Compass.

The more I think about it, it seems fairly clear that winter worlds hold an enduring fascination, so now I’m thinking about why that might be… In part, I suspect it is because winter landscapes and worlds are so dramatic, stark and elemental. Physically, they challenge us — and the white on white of snow worlds is also a very strong aesthetic.

Can you think of other reasons for their enduring popularity in Fantasy-SF or literature generally?

And what are your great winter worlds that I’ve missed mentioning?

—

The books mentioned in the 2012 comments were:

JV Jones’ SWORD OF SHADOWS Series

Brian Ruckley’s GODLESS WORLD series (Winterbirth, Bloodheir, Fall of Thanes )

John Farrow’s City of Ice (which is a thriller not fantasy but it’s set in Montreal during a bone-chilling winter).

Susan Cooper’s The Dark Is Rising

‘Winter’s Night’ by Boris Pasternak (a poem)

Matthew Kirby’s Icefall.

First off, I have to confess to some queue jumping. A few weeks back I posted on Reading Older Books, but Prodigal Summer was not one of the books mentioned. Although it’s a little more recent than some of the others discussed, being first published in 2000 – as opposed to Maquis in 1945, for example – the main reason was that I was just starting to read it.

Now here it is, jumping the Reading Older Books queue.

For the very good reason, dear readers, that I loved this book! I really enjoyed everything about it: the strong and compelling environmental themes; the equally strong sense of place (West Virginia / Appalachians, I believe), interwoven with family, community, and historical continuity – along with the contemporary challenges to that; the characters (dear readers, I adored the characters); the storylines; the strong beautiful prose – and just the sheer heart of the narrative.

In fact, it’s one of those books where I kept going back and rereading previous chapters, just to ensure I hadn’t missed any of the goodness.

Needless to say, I recommend it highly, although I’m quite sure any number of you may have beaten me to the draw and read it long ago.

Prodigal Summer is also my first Barbara Kingsolver novel (I “know”, how can that be – nonetheless, so it is!) but now I know what I’ve been missing out on, it’s great to know she has a fifteen book backlist. 🙂

I’ll very likely start with The Poisonwood Bible, given it’s probably the author’s most well-known work, but we’ll see… Watch this space!

Oh, what’s it all about you say? Well, I would call Prodigal Summer “contemporary realism” (twenty years not being so very long ago!) but basically there are three point-of-view protagonists, two women, one man, but with a number of other, important non- point-of-view characters. All three reside in a small rural community adjoining a national/forest park and wildlife reserve. The story is about the impacts of human settlement and development on nature, both historically and in the present time, but also about how nature works full stop.

Prodigal Summer also centres on what binds small rural communities – and the families that make them up – together, and the challenges of keeping both viable. Finally, it’s a story about three people and those closest to them, who they are, what draws them together, and what drives them apart – and it’s a story about life and death, love and purpose, family and friendship. I think that sums it up, pretty much. 😉

Overall, though, Prodigal Summer is just a really great read, imho.

I read a trade paperback edition, 444 pp, published by Faber & Faber in 2000, which I acquired secondhand.

USA

The About The Characters post series focuses on the minor characters in The Wall Of Night series, in large part because:

“I think it’s the presence of the smaller characters that “makes” a story, creating texture around the main points of view.”

~ from my Legend Award Finalist’s Interview, 2013

Initially, the series focused exclusively on characters from The Heir of Night, but now I’m continuing on with minor characters from both The Gathering Of The Lost and Daughter of Blood — in alphabetical order, by name, of course!

Currently, we’re traversing the plains of “L” – which are “great plains” indeed. 😉

—

UK/AU/NZ

Lien: an assassin of Ij, a city on the River
.

“What else is there, besides the owls?”

The listening silence returned. “Nothing,” the assassin said at last. “Just hay, and I’ve run a sword through that. I’ll go through this window and onto the roof, check that, too.”

“No need.” The Master was crisp. “Lien and Miro have just gone over the roof of the house and can see the stable from there. They say it’s clear, too, so we must spread the net wider. I want this quarry found.”

“The night is not yet over.” The Darkswarm warrior’s voice carried clearly to the three beneath the ivy. “We still have time.”

~ from © The Gathering of The Lost, The Wall Of Night Book Two – Chapter 5, The Guild House

Reading older books

I haven’t forgotten that I promised to report back to you on some of those new-to-me, but otherwise older books that I’ve read recently, or to repost material from the backlist – and those posts are in the pipeline. 🙂

Reaching the chaos gate…

For today, however, although I’m mindful that it’s only two weeks since I let you know that Malian had reached the chaos gate (which provides the working title for WALL #4), I thought you might like to know that this past week I’ve been working on what is probably “the” big series reveal.

Or as fans of the Piggitty-Wiggitty series of children’s books might put it, the “biggitty-biggest” of series reveals. Although to be fair, this is the part of the book and series that is all about reveals and completion, so the “biggitty-biggest” title may yet go to another sequence.

In the meantime, though, it’s always good to share that the story is rocking on – although it’s also a long weekend here, so I’ve downed tools for the greater majority of that time. Interestingly, though, downing the pen and keyboard has also provided the opportunity for reflection in terms of refining some of the narrative action and character interaction. All of which seizes the pause to bubble to the surface.

Not quite so much sunshine this long weekend…

Just to make the case for downtime, holidays, and long weekends. 🙂