Pohutakawa flowering: yes, it really is midsummer here…

Here in NZ, Christmas Eve always feels like the real marking point of the beginning of the end of the old year, because it’s not only the beginning of the Christmas-New Year break, but also the summer holidays.

Plus, because of that, everyone tries to cram everything possible, workwise, into those last few weeks before Christmas, as well as having all the “end-of-year” workplace get-togethers. In a word, it’s crazy, and we all collectively arrive at December 24 feeling utterly exhausted.

That’s in situation-normal times. Yet I think we can all agree that this year-of-covid has been far from usual. Certainly, over the past few weeks, I’ve been reflecting on how the year has simultaneously felt extraordinarily long, at the same time as rushing by.

Here in NZ we’ve been extraordinarily fortunate at the leadership response to Covid taken by the government, particularly in identifying pubic health and economic wellbeing as twinned, rather than mutually exclusive, goals. In simple, everyday terms, though, that means we’re looking at a holiday period where we can travel and gather with friends and family with a reasonable degree of confidence—while still being careful, needless to say. At a time of year that has come to be all about such gatherings here in NZ, that is no small thing.

At the beach: New Year in summer

I am very much aware that this is not the case in many parts of the world, and that many of you may not be able to be with family and friends this year, despite similar traditions being the norm. Some of you may also have lost family, friends, and colleagues to the pandemic, or to other causes but with the loss exacerbated by Covid related restrictions on travel and gatherings.

Wherever you are, and whatever you are doing, I hope you are and will continue to be as happy, safe, and well as it is possible to be. If you are travelling and celebrating, travel and celebrate safely, giving thought and effect to the safety and wellbeing of others. If you are not able to travel or be together with others in realtime, I hope you may still find ways to share and connect that are meaningful and fulfilling. And may we all find some joy, however small the moment.

“I’ll be back” here, in the usual way, before the holiday season and 2020 both draw to their close—but in the meantime, and again, let’s all take care, for ourselves and others.

KimFalconer

Over on the Supernatural Underground currently, fellow author and friend Kim Falconer has another post-of-excellence on Books, Tea, and Magic. Kim’s post looks at the wider literary connection between books and tea, as well as the direct connection to the tale told within her about-to-be-released new novel, Crown of Bones — which will be out on 5 January (2021: oh my!) Only 15 sleeps to go!

Books, Tea, And Magic — with Kim Falconer, writing as AK Wilder

Kim very kindly invited me to contribute to the post with a reference to tea in The Wall Of Night series, but unfortunately I didn’t receive the message until too late, being far awa’ in the vasty wilds of writing retreat and so off t’interwebs.

Nonetheless, I thought, “Why not feature Kim’s post here today and feature a WALL series reference by way of added interest?” So far, the chief reference to tea comes in WALL #3, Daughter Of Blood.

Mistress Ise, who is the former governess to Myr, one of the main characters, hails not from Myr’s House, which is Blood, but from the House of the Rose. Drinking tea, or tisane as Ise and Myr refer to it—since the teas they take are chiefly herbal—is definitely part of the Rose culture, although not so much in the House of Blood. OK, not at all, in the House of Blood… 😉

UK/AU/NZ

USA

The following passage introduces the reader to both tisane and the Rose custom:

“The night lamp in Ise’s sitting room was turned down, and Myr tripped against a low table in the dimness. Her heart pounded as she crouched down, steadying the antique silver tray on its stand. Each leg was carved into the shape of a dragon, with the tray held between their open jaws. When Myr was very small she had liked to rub the snarling heads and trace the moon-and-star patterns incised into the tray. Ise had brought the table with her from the House of the Rose and always used it for their court’s rituals of calligraphy and taking tisane. Now Myr left her note there…”

~ from © Daughter of Blood, The Wall of Night Book Three: Chapter 23 — The Midnight Keep

Now you may be thinking, Helen wrote: “So far, the chief reference to tea comes in WALL #3.” I wonder if that means that tea appears in some way in WALL #4?

The answer is yes, as the work-in-progress currently stands, it does. It doesn’t concern the House of the Rose either, but although I can’t tell you more than that right now, it may be the basis for a sneak preview at some stage in the future…

In the meantime, Kim’s book is coming out very soon, plus there’s that genuine in-this-world Ochee tea. To find out more about Crown of Bones, you can go here:

AK Wilder: Crown Of Bones

Or if you’re crying out for more details on the swag offer ( 😉 ), just go here:

Crown Of Bones Pre-Order Swag Offer

“Ten leagues beyond the wide world’s end”;
art by Peter Fitzpatrick

On December 3 I completed a year of Worldbuilding in Fantasy posts on the Supernatural Underground (SU), with a final post that Celebrated Our Supernatural Underground Worlds — which, if you haven’t read it already, is pretty awesome, imho. Entirely, reflective of my four fellow SU authors who joined me to share their art and insights, and make the final post rock.

With it being the time of year for wraps-ups, here is the entire series from go to whoa, all together in one place for those who love worldbuilding, whether to revisit or to check out for the first time:

2020: The Year of Worldbuilding in Fantasy

January: Welcome To My Year of Wonderful Worldbuilding
February: The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe (Chronicles of Narnia) by CS Lewis
March: A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula Le Guin
April: Sparrow Hill Road by Seanan McGuire
May: Palimpsest by Catherynne M Valente
June: Ship of Magic & the Liveship Traders series by Robin Hobb
July: Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
August: Tymon’s Flight (Chronicles of the Tree) by Mary Victoria
September: Dreamhunter, Dreamquake, Mortal Fire, by Elizabeth Knox
October: The Many Worlds Of Kate Elliott
November: A Wealth of Fabulous Worlds
December: Celebrating Our Supernatural Underground Worlds

Faithful ‘droid companions…

This year I’ve been revisiting this post series, honing in on “the sidekick” and “the lovable rogue”, the two archetypes not being entirely divorced from each other. The third prong to this grouping is, I believe, the “faithful animal companion” — or ‘droid, of course: why hello, Artoo-Detoo (R2-D2) and See-Threepio (C3PO).

So I was gearing myself up to write the post when I realized, “Oh, right, I’ve done it already—over on Supernatural Underground on September 1, 2018.”

Balisan the Red

The post, as alluded to above, is titled:

Fantastic Creatures & Animal Companions — Don’t Ya Love ‘Em!” 

It begins as follows:

“Recently I posted here on Here Be Dragons. And also on Re-Discovering Harry Potter and The Sorcerer’s Stone. Meanwhile, over on my own blog, I’ve been Having Fun With Epic Fantasy Tropes. Between these three distinct trains of blogging thought, I got to thinking about the importance of companion creatures in myth and folklore, an importance which has flowed through into Fantasy fiction.

Returning to dragons, for example, Kim Falconer recently mentioned Menolly, from Anne MacCaffrey’s, Dragonsong, in her post on Music As Character.  In addition to Menolly’s music, however, I was always entranced by her companion fire-lizards — essentially miniature dragons. How cool is that? And, of course, the adult dragons, such as Ramoth and Mnementh, with their telepathic bond to their human riders, are both fantastic creatures and the ultimate in cool companions. …”

I could probably expand on the SU post, with further reference to ‘droids and also to animated films absolutely owning the “faithful animal (or ‘fantastic creature’) companion” in a raft of films, such as Frozen (Sven, the Reindeer) and the How To Train Your Dragon series. And then there’s the whole Harry Potter ‘verse, with owls like Hedwig, and all the fantastic beasts so beloved of Hagrid and Newt Scamander…

By and large, though, the bases are pretty much covered, so for today, I’m going to call it done — and refer you to the Supernatural Underground for the full post:

Having Fun With Epic Fantasy # 14: Fantastic Creatures and Animal Companions

Just to end, though, one of my favourite faithful companions is the flying unicorn, Imraith-Nimphais, from Guy Gavriel Kay’s Fionavar Trilogy (The Summer Tree; The Wandering Future; The Longest Road.)  I wrote a bit about her in Six Non Human Heroes of SFF, Part 2 — and about Iorek Byrnison from The Golden Compass / Northern Lights in Six Non Human Heroes of SFF. And I’ve always had considerable fondness for the seven fantastic creatures that are companion to the wizard, Sybel, in Patricia McKillip’s The Forgotten Beasts of Eld…

Fantail; credit, B Miller

They have their forbears in myth, fairytale, and folklore, of course: from Puss-In-Boots to Pegasus, Argos to Cavall—and from Odin’s ravens, Huginn and Muninn, to the small birds, including piwakawaka, the fantail, that accompany the demigod Maui on his adventures.

Previous Entries In The ‘Having Fun With Epic Fantasy Tropes” Series:

Introduction: Having Fun With Epic Fantasy—Meet the Tropes

Instalment 1: Having Fun With Epic Fantasy Tropes: A Farm Boy/Gal Goes On A Journey…

Instalment  2: A Prince/Princess Finds A Destiny

Instalment 3: Dreams and Portents, Prophecy and Destiny

Instalment 4: “Apocalypse Now”

Instalment 5: Meet The Big Bad

Instalment 6: The Sweep Of Time & Its Twin, War Without End

Instalment 7: Fortunately There was A Portal

Instalment 8: We’re All Going On A MacGuffin Hunt

Instalment 9: Artefacts of Power—And Doom—And Where To Find Them

Instalment 10: The Alchemy Of Numbers

Instalment 11: The Mentor

Instalment 12: Tried, Trusty, & True — The Sidekick

Instalment 13: We All Love To Love — The Lovable Rogue!

—

On SF Signal: The “Having Fun With Epic Fantasy” Series

1. “Making the Grand Tour” (aka the Road Journey);

2. .”The “Band of Brothers”; and the

3. . “Soul-Sucking Sword.”

---

© Helen Lowe

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, of course!

Recently we’ve been traversing the letter “L” and The Gathering of the Lost — but although still in “L”, today the focus is back on Daughter Of Blood.

—

UK/AU/NZ

Laer:  A Sea House weatherworker on the ship, Che’Ryl-g-Raham

Sea House marines, Kalan supposed—but it was the figure to the first woman’s left who held his attention. The man was tall, with the same twisted cables of hair as his companion, although his were mostly gray, framing a deeply weathered face. The breeze rippled the folds of his sea-green robe, the deep border a wave design in indigo and black. Power stirred, too, telling Kalan that he was in the presence of a Sea House weatherworker.

~ from © Daughter of Blood, The Wall of Night Book Three: Chapter 6 — The Pastry Thief

On July 1, I featured Tamsyn Muir’s Gideon the Ninth as part of my Worldbuilding in Fantasy series on the Supernatural Underground blog. Although my focus was on the world, I did conclude that: “the juxtaposition of sorcery and space, adventure and action, politics and mystery, makes for exciting Fantasy…”

Others must have agreed, because immediately prior to my post, Gideon the Ninth received the Locus Award 2020 for First Novel. An outstanding achievement, just by the way.

As the first in a trilogy (The Locked Tomb), naturally I have been looking forward to the next “exciting Fantasy” instalment — so was delighted when a beautiful hardback edition of Book Two, Harrow The Ninth, arrived on my TBR table.

It is a very beautiful book, including the artistry and detail of the cover illustration, and style and texture of the fonts. In fact “gorgeous cover” is almost becoming a theme, since another of this year’s Just Arrived’s, Underland by Robert MacFarlane, was similarly distinguished. And as those who’ve followed me for a while now (waves!) will know, I do have a bit of a thing for beautiful and evocative book jackets.

If you want to check a few of those covers out, take a peek at:

SFF Cover Art Love: Some Favourites

SFF Cover Art Love; More Favourites

Getting back to Harrow The Ninth, as you’ve probably guessed I’m quite keen to read it. In terms of hints offered by the back and inside covers as to the contents within, there’s not a lot on offer. The reader is offered three sentences, two of which deal with the prior book, Gideon the Ninth, and only one with Harrow:

“In victory, her world has turned to ash.”

So, I guess I’ll find out in the best way, by diving in and finding out for myself.

A quick scan of reviews suggest they’re generally positive, although there’s a suggestion this book doesn’t necessarily tread an expected path from where Gideon left off. From my point-of-view, this makes the book far more interesting than otherwise, whetting my appetite to “read on.”

Something I intend to do, over the Christmas-New Year break, if not before.

On Monday, I reflected on having posted for over a decade now on both my own blog and the Supernatural Underground (SU) – pretty dope, huh?!

This year on the Supernatural Underground I have focused on Worldbuilding in Fantasy as my theme. A major reason for that is because it’s a part of the genre that I really love—and I love the genre fullstop!—but also because I believe worldbuilding lies at the heart of what makes the genre distinctive from other styles of literature.

As I also mentioned on Monday, a number of my fellow SU authors have been members of the community with me for most of those ten years – and although every year is a time for celebrating community, 2020 feels ‘more so’ than ever in that respect.

So to both reflect our shared blogging milestone and to celebrate community, four of our SU authors have joined me in the final Worldbuilding in Fantasy series post to celebrate our Supernatural Underground worlds.

In the post each author hones in on an aspect or aspects of the worlds and worldbuilding in their own writing, offering insight into their process or reflecting on what motivates or shapes aspects of their worlds.

I believe Worldbuilding in Fantasy #11 is a really great read and feel privileged to have had the opportunity to put the post together – which is why I’m pleased to invite you to join us on the Supernatural Underground and celebrate the magic and marvels of our Supernatural Underground worldbuilding:

Worldbuilding in Fantasy #11 – Celebrating Our Supernatural Underground Worlds

Amanda Arista

KimFalconer

Merrie Destefano

T. Frohock

The original SU logo

I am currently preparing the final post for my Year of Worldbuilding in Fantasy series over on the Supernatural Underground (SU) – and realized mid prep that I have been posting here on my own blog, and on the SU for a decade now. O-o

My first post here “…on Anything, Really” was on May 31 2010, and titled – very originally! 😉 – “And So It Begins.”

Those who are versed in such arcane matters may catch an echo of Babylon 5 in that title, which would only be fitting since I am a fan of the series — which has probably / definitely(?) acquired Cult Classic status by now.

I commenced posting with the SU a little later, on 1 July 2010 and I believe have posted on the first of every month on all but one occasion for the subsequent ten years. Which really is not nothing!

My fellow Supernatural Undergrounder, Merrie Destefano, has been part of the community since July 2010 as well, and Kim Falconer and Amanda Arista since 2011. So we know how to hang in and hang together. 🙂

As for why I enjoy blogging, I posted a few of the reasons on June 18, although one I didn’t mention is that it allows for interaction with readers and also fellow writers in a “coffee house” sense – although I believe it’s a well-known fact, if not necessarily one universally acknowledged – that the majority of blog followers “lurk”, which in interweb parlance means to visit and read, but not comment or interact.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that, at all, at all: in fact, I “lurk” a fair bit myself. 🙂 I think it’s the potential for interaction that matters, which just a website doesn’t allow. Conversely, a medium like Twitter is all comment, but with so many of us commenting, observing, and opining all at once, it can sometimes feel a bit overwhelming.

It doesn’t “always” come back to coffee, but… 😉

That’s why I think personal blogs are like a coffee house: you (‘one’) can just sit and listen and sip your coffee, or when so inclined, join in the wider conversation, although – coffee houses being small spaces – it’s always going to be at the more personal end of the engagement scale.

The most important thing, to my mind, whether posting, or lurking (although I prefer to think of it as ‘lingering’), or commenting, is to enjoy oneself and have fun. More importantly still, or perhaps best of all, is to keep enjoying each other’s company.

On which note, I think you may enjoy the SU post tomorrow on 1 December (US EST) – so do watch the space to see what transpires… 🙂

The Jabberwock, as illustrated by John Tenniel in 1871

Over the last few weeks I’ve posted twice under the title “O Frabjous Day”, here and then again last week, here.

In the first post, I also referred to the “…vorpal keyboard going snicker-snack so the author could go galumphing back to the main manuscript without further delay.”

To which Kristen, in the second post, queried whether my vorpal keyboard ever does go snicker-snack — and I replied with reference to “slithy toves” and “uffish thought” and the “manxome foe.”

At which point one of my much younger blog readers queried, somewhat plaintively (in real time and place, rather than the ether): “Why are you talking all that gibberish?”

“Not gibberish,” I replied firmly: “nonsense. Jabberwocky is a nonsense poem, and I’m just having some fun with that.”

Possibly even the nonsense poem, in fact — although there are many other worthy contenders, such as Hey Diddle Diddle, used by Tolkien for the inn at Bree, in The Fellowship of the Ring.

Lewis Carroll’s Jabberwocky, from the novel Through The Looking Glass (1871), is definitely a favourite of mine, though. So much so that I featured it as a Tuesday Poem, away back in 2010, together with a few reasons why I heart it:

Tuesday Poem: Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll

So if, like my young friend, you hadn’t yet encountered its magic—though I imagine most of you have!—or simply to reread, click on the link to enjoy. 🙂

The path to the bay

Very recently, I spent a few days in Auckland, during which time I revisited a spot that was in m’hood, a long gal ago.

The spot is called Wattle Bay or Taunahi, on the northern shore of the Manukau Harbour: one of the two that lie to north and south of the isthmus. Manukau is the harbour to the south and Wattle Bay is just a short walk down a relatively  steep hillside — and you’re away from the hurly-burly of New Zealand’s biggest city. I had a short break in an otherwise busy schedule and used it to revisit the bay.

First view of the bay…

When I first knew it there were holiday baches along the water margin, but apparently they were removed some years ago, so it’s just water and bush (forest/shrubland) today, along with whoever else is out and about on the Waikowhai Walkway.

Bush & water margin tranquillity

I had it pretty much to myself though — and thought you might enjoy the photos, even if they didn’t feature in the LoTR films.

The next bay along…

‘Tis part of “Middle Earth” all the same, though. 🙂