Yes, it’s that happy time of month when I post on the Supernatural Underground — and on February 1st I posted #1 in my 2020 post series that aims to celebrate worldbuilding in Fantasy literature:

On the first of every month for the rest of the year I’ll be featuring one of my personal favourites among the wonderful and wondrous worlds of Fantasy.  As with last year’s Romance in Fantasy series, I’m endeavoring to feature older and newer works. So in that spirit, I’ve kicked things off with a classic:

Surprised by Delight – The Lion, The Witch & the Wardrobe by CS Lewis

Original, Pauline Baynes’ cover

Some readers may be thinking: “Lewis, isn’t he regarded as awfully old hat now?”

More reasons for starting with Lewis and The Lion, The Witch & the Wardrobe, including their being among my earliest introductions to Fantasy worldbuilding, are set out in the post. But I would also say that I believe that when it comes to the art and/or craft of worldbuilding, he knew what he was about.

To find out why I think that, click on through and have a read.

A, if not *the*, definitive image for Narnia & worldbuilding

Meanwhile, I’m heading back to my own worldbuilding with WALL #4. 🙂

Have an excellent week out there!

#YoW YearOfWorldbuilding; #WiF WorldbuildingInFantasy

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 simultaneously — in alphabetical order, of course!

Innor is one of the small number of minor characters that appears in all three books to date.

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Innor: an honor guard, serving the House of Night
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“But act we must,” Asantir said, as soon as Lira finished. … “Innor and Ter are to remain at the Temple gate, lest the Earl have my hide, but send Garan and the rest along with the priestess. … Go!”

~ from © The Heir Of Night: The Wall of Night Book One, Chapter 21 —Pieces on the Board
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“Nerys and her companions melted away, joining Ter and Lawr in the brush, while the rest of the Night guards looked to their weapons. Haimyr seemed absorbed by the need to pack his harp away. Garan could not see his expression, but the minstrel was a cool one: he would keep his head and his nerve. The rat-fox barked again, twice in quick succession, and was answered from further out on the plain. “Night riders,” Innor said softly. “They’ll not like that,” she added, without looking at the Stone priests.”

~  from © The Gathering Of The Lost, The Wall of Night Book Two: Chapter 28 — Border Crossing
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Kalan fell into a light uneasy sleep—and swift as a dam breaking, the white mists of the Gate of Dreams flooded into his mind. The hounds he had been hearing more frequently since leaving Emer were silent, but a woman spoke in Derai, her intonation exasperated. “I’ll be glad when we’re done with this nursemaiding detail.”

A man replied, sounding weary despite his good-humored tone. “We all will, Innor. But riding escort allows us to scout out this country like the captain wants, especially up around
Dread Pass, so . . .” Kalan never heard what the so was, because a gap opened in the mist and he found himself standing on a plain that reminded him of the Gray Lands…

~ from © Daughter Of Blood: The Wall of Night Book Three, Chapter 9, Sepulchre

I mentioned before Christmas that I had just read and enjoyed Once Upon A River. In fact what I actually said was that it was “terrific” but that you would have to “bide a wee to find out why I think so.”

Today is that happy day—and having had a month to pause and reflect, I still think Once Upon A River is terrific. A friend recommended the book to me (there goes that magical word-of-mouth phenomenon again!) but didn’t say a lot more, so I wasn’t quite sure “what sort” of book it was. By which I mean both “genre” (for want of better term) but also “what’s it all about?”

From one perspective, genre doesn’t matter a whit: what matters is that the book is a terrific read. Still, it can be helpful to give readers some insight into the kind of story it is, as well as what it’s all about (or at least as far as I’m prepared to go on that one.)

So I will say that I think Once Upon A River qualifies as historical fiction, being set in England just over a hundred or so years ago, but  also comprises magical realism. This combination gives the story a different slant than the kind of historical fiction that’s about people caught up in Big Events. (I found the combination quite magical, but I’ll let you make up your own minds…)

Although not about Big Historical Events at all, Once Upon A River is very much a book about people and the events that are momentous in, and shape, their lives. It’s a story about a river (the Thames) and an inn, a ghostly ferryman and several pigs. It’s also about individuals and families, friendship and community; and about people and animals and lives that are lost, and sometimes how they are found again.

Once Upon A River is also a tale about stories, and how they are told, and why they matter; about warmth and kindness, but also about humanity at its worst as well as its best. It’s a book full of wonderful characters and the unique in the midst of the everyday—and with just enough mystery thrown in to make it magical.

As aforementioned, I think it’s terrific—and I think that if you’ve enjoyed books like Kate Atkinson’s Life After Life, Joanne Harris’s Chocolat, or Jostein Gaarder’s Sophie’s World, you may also enjoy Once Upon A River.

I read my friend’s copy of Once Upon A River, which is the mass market paperback edition (528 pp), published by Black Swan/Doubleday (Transworld Publishers) in 2018. It’s so good, though, that I’m planning on buying a copy of my very own, because I know this is a book I’ll reread. 🙂

by PJ Fitzpatrick

On December 26 I posted the very last instalment of A Geography of Haarth — at least, that is, until WALL #4 (WT: The Chaos Gate) comes out. 🙂

Since Thursdays are my Haarth and WALL series day on the blog, I’ve been thinking what to alternate with About the Characters, which is still running. (Huzza!)

I wanted to continue the theme of worldbuilding, because I think it’s one of the most unique elements of fantasy in all its forms. But maybe even more so with “otherworld” fantasy, where every aspect of a world is up for grabs.

I had a few different ideas, but the one I’m going with for now builds on (or riffs off 😉 ) the notion of the “epic grand tour.” With A Geography of Haarth we charted “all the places” — at least that the WALL series characters have either visited or heard of! In this new series, I’ll be looking at their recommendations for where a traveler making the grand tour can rest their head — perhaps with a few reviews, stipulations and warnings, Lonely Planet and TripAdvisor style.

We (the authorial “we”, that is!) shall see — so check back in for the first instalment on Thursday 6 February, to find out what’s afoot. 🙂

I thought I’d share this photo as a wee snippet of my Southern hemisphere summer. 🙂

The shrub is a hebe, a cultivar of a New Zealand native. This particular kind, with its flowers shading from pink to white is called “Icing Sugar.”

The reason “this photo” though, is because it’s alive with bees: bumble bees, honey bees, and NZ native bees, too — and has been for weeks now. They’re a tad hard to pick out though (although there were masses of them at work) so I honed in on this bumblebee for a closer look.

For me, a garden that’s alive with bees is quintessentially summery — and also makes me feel that I’m doing something for the planet by having a garden that attracts them, since both honey bees and NZ native bees have been hit hard over the past few decades, in particular.

Watching the bees so busy at work also makes me think of Alison Moyet’s song, Honey for the Bees — an oldie now, but still a goodie.

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Hokay, team, we’re well into 2020 now and back to our normal routine — although maybe not quite when it comes to what time this is posting! However, I thought it was time to resume the About The Characters post series. 🙂

As all regular followers will know, About The Characters 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 simultaneously — in alphabetical order, of course!

(The quotes, together with the covers, indicate the books in which the character appears.)

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Ilkerineth: Prince of Lightning, a leader of the Darkswarm

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The other shrugged. “I never forget who my enemies are. Not that you’ll catch me disputing with Nindorith: I’m not a fool. Besides, it’s not my eyes that follow her every footstep, or darken every time they see her safe in Ilkerineth’s shadow.”

~  from © The Gathering Of The Lost, The Wall of Night Book Two: Chapter 9 — Portside
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Tongues of lightning flashed out of a bruised sky, the wildfire flickering along a broken colonnade before splitting apart around a man’s tall figure. Dead leaves drifted to either side as the rift in the air closed, but no ripple disturbed the length of the newcomer’s surcote, white over blue-black mail, or the fall of his long hair as he passed beneath a crumbingarch and into an open court, bounded by twelve paired pillars.

~ from © Daughter Of Blood: The Wall of Night Book Three, Prologue

“Word of mouth” is one of those topics that comes up reasonably often between writers, chiefly because it’s an alchemy we all hope will bless our books, i.e. that readers will be so entranced they not only tell everyone they know, but do so with the kind of great enthusiasm that naturally engenders a snowball effect. 😀

Some famous examples include Georgette Heyer’s These Old Shades, published in 1926 in the midst of the UK General Strike and as a result received no media coverage, but nonetheless became a bestseller.

Probably the most famous recent example is JK Rowling’s Harry Potter, with the series taking off between Philosopher’s Stone and Chamber Of Secrets.

The reason I started thinking about “word of mouth” over the break was because I saw it in action because of wine. A few years back, I read an article about Langmeil Winery in South Australia’s Barossa region, featured in Australia’s Country Style magazine.

I was interested, particularly in the history of the 1843 Freedom vineyard with its shiraz vines, believed to be among the world’s oldest, if not the oldest. (I have my fingers crossed the vines survive the current fires.) As a result, I sought out Langmeil wines and so far have really liked all those I’ve tried.

So much so that when tasked with supplying the red wines for our family get-together this past Christmas, I included two bottles of the Langmeil GSM — which proved immensely popular, with two family members (separate households) taking care to photograph the bottle.

At preceding events in 2019, my contribution of a Langmeil wine on each occasion, the Hanging Snakes Shiraz (great name, eh?!) and the Blacksmith’s Cabernet Sauvignon also generated considerable enthusiasm.

This, I thought, as the photos were taken at Christmas, is word-of-mouth in action! 🙂

And yes, it does work for books, too. Aside from the famous examples above, I believe I mentioned Once Upon A River, very briefly here, at the end of last year. (A fuller report is coming!)

A friend recommended the book to me, and since then I have recommended it to two other people, one of whom bought it, while the other got it from the library, proof that word-of-mouth is  a potent force for both books and wine. 😉

I’ve heard it mooted that word-of-mouth is in fact the only real means of ensuring a book is read. Georgette Heyer took a very similar lesson from the success of These Old Shades in 1926, thereafter shunning all publicity. Yep, apparently she never did interviews.

I’m not entirely convinced by the “all you need is word-of-mouth” argument, while acknowledging that it is very important: just maybe not all you need. After all, I discovered Langmeil wines because of the feature article in Country Style. Without it, I probably still wouldn’t have known they existed, Australia being a big country with many vineyards. Or been prompted to try the wines if and when I saw them in the marketplace.

Until last year (2019) that is, when a local wine store hosted a Langmeil tasting. A tasting, though, is like a book reading: it’s another promotional mechanism for the ‘product.’ (I struggle to think of books as “products”, but of course they are.)

The upshot of my musings therefore, is that every product, in order to be successful, needs some publicity and promotion in order to get the word-of-mouth snowball rolling — but once rolling, word-of-mouth is truly the bomb, whether for books or wine.

Note: I have no connection to Langmeil Winery,
beyond enthusiasm for their wines. ;-)

Lighthouse at Cape Palliser, Wairarapa

The Christmas-New Year holiday in New Zealand also coincides with the main summer holiday. Perhaps because of that, it’s also an important family gathering time, with lots of travelling part of the mix.

This year (which is also kinda last year now: heigh-ho!) both my Christmas and New Year family times were in the North Island, with the between days and new year focused on the Wellington area.

This year (2020), Worldcon is being held in Wellington, too, so for those who “are definitely” or “thinking about” attending, I thought you might like a few of the local shots.

The lighthouse at Cape Palliser is in the greater Wellington region (think ‘province’ or ‘state’) but not in the city area itself. Instead it’s an approximately 1.5 – 2 hour drive over the Rimataka hills (quite big and the road is very windy) in an area called the Wairarapa.

*Warning: You have to climb 261 steps to reach the lighthouse. 😉 Something to bear in mind re fitness levels.

The coast, as you can see, is beautiful in a wild sort of a way.

Cape Palliser

The drive is lovely and another option en route is to check out the Putangirua Pinnacles that marked the beginning of the Paths of the Dead in The Lord of the Rings films. We didn’t have time to walk in given the other things on our schedule, but they’re supposed to be spectacular.

Near Island Bay

The other coastal photo (above) is of the Wellington Harbour coastline in the Island Bay area, which is part of Wellington City and readily accessible by car and public transport. (By bicycle, too, although cycling in Wellington, which is characterised by very narrow roads, is not for the fainthearted.) The headland in the distance is not Cape Palliser, by the way, but Pencarrow Head, which also has a lighthouse to visit.

Island Bay

Island Bay also has an olde-Wellington shopping centre and I was delighted to be there when the pohutakawas, also known as the NZ “Christmas Tree” because of their red flowers,  were in full and glorious bloom.

Pohutakawa closeup

Island Bay is also the subject of one of NZ’s most famous paintings — Rita Angus’s Boats, Island Bay. The first print I ever bought, in fact! (Side by side with the real deal.)

The actual Island…

Food and wine featured throughout the holiday season, of course. 😉

And that’s it for “what I did on my holidays” — by and large, at any rate. 😀

Happy New Year, 2020!

Back to Haarth & The Wall Of Night #4

I am a little late with this blog today but for what I (and I suspect my readers, editors, and agents) will feel is the Very Best of reasons, which is that the past few days have been all about focusing on getting back into the writing routine with WALL #4 (WT: The Chaos Gate.)

A statement that should make the title of this post self explanatory. 🙂

I’d also like to start by wishing everyone reading this a Happy New Year.

Normally I wouldn’t feel at all ambivalent about doing this, because I feel that the new year is a great opportunity to pause and reflect, both on the highs and lows of the previous year and also on what we hope for, but also intend to strive for in the year ahead. All of which is still true of the new year we’ve just begun.

Nonetheless, it’s hard to go full throttle with the new year optimism — although the pause for reflection may be timely — when seeing Australia burn in bushfires that can only be described as apocalyptic. Besides the deaths and devastation reported nightly in the news, at least one person I know personally has had to leave her home in Canberra and take refuge in another city because of the smoke. Also, just in case we in NZ were tempted to stay “concerned but remote”, the yellow skies and smoke haze experienced here, over two thousand miles from the fires, underline just how extensive and devastating they are.

Bushfire haze in Auckland, NZ — 5 Jan 2020

So I imagine that those fighting fires in Australia, or who have lost loved ones, their homes or communities, or simply witnessing the unprecedented levels of habitat, wildlife, and domestic stock losses, find it hard to visualise a “happy” 2020, let alone cheerily wishing each other “Happy New Year.”

Similarly, ushering in 2020 with international events that lead “World War Three” to trend in social media also offers little cause for optimism, particularly against an international backdrop that is already somewhere on the spectrum from “fraught” to “parlous” in many regions. When one looks at the level of suffering and deprivation in so many areas, chirping out a “happy-happy” does not feel particularly appropriate.

‘As we are…’

Such reflections, particularly in the context of a “new year”, often lead me back to a quote from Augustine of Hippo that I believe is singularly apposite:

“Bad times, hard times, this is what people keep saying; but … we are the times: Such as we are, such are the times.”

The reason I consider it apposite is because although we, individually, may not be able to do anything directly about the big events, we can all start as we mean to go on—and carry on as best we can through the year—with those things that we can directly influence. As I suggested on the Supernatural Underground on January 1, this can include “…focusing on what we can do and then doing it as well, and with as much generosity, kindness, and love, as we can.”

20,000 in Christchurch: “There Is Only Us”

Examples could include choosing a project we can do to live in a more environmentally conscious way, contributing to a charity that “speaks” to us, either financially or through volunteering, and looking out for ways to keep helping our family, friends, neighbours, and communities. It could also include letting those who represent us know what we think is important and the values we want to see given effect in our society and reflected to the world.

In 2019, PM Jacinda Ardern led by example with NZ’s response to the March 15 terrorist attack

Most of all, I think it’s important to set aside “blame” (which is not the same thing as setting aside critique and its reasoned and constructive expression) and focus on “change”, in what we do personally and in wider society.

And that whatever we choose to do, we look for ways to do it that (again from my SU post) sustains our hope, our creativity, and our wellbeing, whatever our current circumstances.

In the immortal words from Hill Street Blues, “let’s be careful out there” in 2020—and again, strive for more kindness, more generosity, and more goodwill toward ourselves and others.

In NZ, the fern represents renewal: may we all find it in 2020

Fantasy worldbuilding, that is!

In December I wrapped up a Year of Romance #YoR in Fantasy Fiction: #RiFF

Yesterday, by way of welcoming in the new year I announced that 2020 would be my year of celebrating worldbuilding on the Supernatural Underground: throughout the year I’ll be focusing on a few of my favourites among the wonderful, and wondrous, worlds that form part of Fantasy literature.

In short it’s going to be a #YoW #YearOfWorldbuilding year. 😀

2020: Let’s Celebrate Worlds…

I’m looking forward to it and hope you’ll feel the same. 🙂

To find out more, take a virtual hop, skip, and jump over to the Supernatural Underground and check out the post:

Welcome To My Year Of Celebrating Worldbuilding

Also (last but by no means least):

Happy New Year!