“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!

So here we are, having run our race of 2019, on the penultimate day of the year—the perfect time to review the most read posts on Anything, Really during the course of the past twelve months.

Usually I review the top ten posts in chronological order through the year, but because of the nature of the post that garnered the most distinct reads, this year I’m going to list in order of hits — and hope that next year will be one where I can revert to the old order!

A link to the post is embedded in the title.

And here they are:

Floral tributes near Linwood mosque

1. A Dark Day — March 18

I posted this three days after the Christchurch terror attack of March 15. The post contains both a summary of events at the time and my personal response to them. I’m glad if blog followers and visitors found something in it worth reading. Nine months on, it’s as important as ever that we don’t forget to remember those who were murdered and those who still suffer, both survivors and victims’ families and friends.

2. On Worldbuilding — February 18

This post was sparked by a question I received on Good Reads, about the “how to” and mechanics of fantasy worldbuilding. I sought to oblige with some tips and principles, and the post appears to have struck a chord. 🙂
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3. My Worldbuilding: A Few Thoughts on Guiding Influences — February 25

A week after the “On Worldbuilding” post, I followed up with a close look at what I consider the strongest elements and influences in my own worldbuilding.

4. It’s Not The End Yet — But I Can See It From Here: A WALL #4 Update — November 4

Yes, you’ve guessed it from the title — the writing progress update proving perennially popular! 😉

And yes, I can still “the end” off there in the distance, although there are a goodly few leagues to cover still, before we get there. Or to quote Tom O’ Bedlam:

“Ten leagues beyond the wild world’s end.
Methinks it is no journey.”

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5. The Month Of Daughter Of Blood — Something Readers Might Not Know —November 25

As part of supporting the US edition being on Kindle Monthly Deal, I made November the month of Daughter of Blood (The Wall Of Night Book Three.) In this post, I shared a behind the scenes fact about the book, which engendered some lighthearted discussion.

6. Daughter Of Blood Q&A Thursday #1 — November 7

The Q&A Thursdays were another vital part of the Month of Daughter of Blood, with some great questions rolling in. I had quite a lot of fun with the answers as well. 😉

7. A Present Of The Word “Present”, Including A Sneak Snippet From WALL #4 — April 29

I’d seen a few author friends getting into Book Quote Wednesday so thought I would give it a whirl. The word for April 29 was “present”and the post features includes quotes from all my published novels. And yes, a sneaky wee snippet from WALL #4 crept in, too…

8. What I’m Reading: The Gossamer Mage by Julie Czerneda — July 29

I was lucky enough to get an advance copy of Julie Czerneda’s latest fantasy, The Gossamer Mage, and shared my thoughts here as part of the publication razzmatazz. Hint: both reading thumbs were up.

9. “number eight wire” — The Fourth New Zealand Haiku Anthology — April 1

I was delighted to have a haiku eligible for inclusion in number eight wire, the fourth NZ haiku anthology. I wasn’t able to attend the launch in Tauranga, but did a blog shout-out instead.

10. Watchtower by Elizabeth A Lynn — aka The Unreliability of Book Lists — October 21

In compiling an impromptu Fantasy reading list, I was chagrined to realise I had omitted to mention the seminal and still groundbreaking (imho) Watchtower by Elizabath A Lynn. In order to remedy the oversight, I gave it a post to itself. Clearly it garnered interest, which the book entirely deserves.

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There they are — and here we are, together on the cusp of 2020. Thank you for continuing to read, follow, and interact in 2019.

I wish you all a very Happy New Year celebration and all good things for the year ahead.

The Wall of Night Series map; artist Peter Fitzpatrick

It seems fitting that the very last entry for the current  A Geography Of Haarth post series, which has posted every second Thursday for most of the past two years, should fall on the very last Thursday of 2019.

During that time, the series has traversed the full range of locales and places from The Wall of Night world of Haarth as featured in Daughter of Blood (The Wall Of Night, Book Three). Previously, from January 25, 2013 to November 25, 2014, the series explored locations encountered in The Heir Of Nightand The Gathering Of The Lost.

Each locale has been accompanied by a quote from the relevant books where the place occurs, and the second series comprised updates of previous entries as well as new listings.

But now here we are, at the very last entry…

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Winter Country:  vast steppes in the north of Haarth, inhabited by the Winter People

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“He still shivered, remembering how the wind had raged, hurling snow and ice across the land and driving his party before it, further and further from the Wall until they came to the boundaries of the Winter Country. Many perished before they got there and the Earl knew that all would have died if the Winter people had not taken them in.”

~ from © The Heir Of Night, The Wall of Night Book One: Chapter 15 — The Darkness of the Derai

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“The dream was thinning, Malian thought, the Keep of Winds and the Derai world withdrawing into the whiteness. She could hear the bluster of the wind over the Winter Country and smell the smoky interior of a Winter lodge. Yet still she lingered, unwilling to cross back.”

~  from © The Gathering Of The Lost, The Wall of Night Book Two: Prologue

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A line seared across Malian’s inner sight and she smelled snow, mingled with the scent of birchwood fires as the fiery line became the hawk’s flight, solitary above a winter plain. Her seeking quickened, and although her eyes remained closed she pushed her power hard. Now, the curl of song was also a spring, bubbling up beneath another plain of wind and dust. Her seeking became the windhover, gliding this way and that on the currents of the air and all the time looking, searching—until Malian saw it, a Winter Country cairn in the midst of the Gray Lands, with the Song of Haarth rising beneath it.

~ from © Daughter Of Blood, The Wall of Night Book Three: Chapter 38 — Dawn Wind

Many years ago, when I lived in Sweden for a time, the festival known as Lucia (aka Saint Lucia’s Day) was  a pretty big deal in the immediate run-up to Christmas.

Lucia falls on December 13 and light is a big part of the celebrations, with young girls being chosen by their church or community to wear the traditional crown of candles.

My calendar tells me that today is Hannukkah this year (although it is not celebrated on a fixed date like Lucia or Christmas.) And Hannukkah, like Lucia, is associated with candles and light, although the reason for the festival is different.

Christmas, too, is strongly associated with candles, possibly because in the Northern Hemisphere it falls in the darkest month of winter, but also because the festivities have their roots in the old celebrations of winter solstice, which marked the seasonal turning-point, back toward the light of spring and summer.

In fact, when you look at Wikipedia’s list of festivals and holidays in December, there are more of ’em than you can shake a stick at.

So whether you’re celebrating Hannukkah today, or recently celebrated Lucia or Bodhi Day, or will be celebrating Christmas on either the eve of the 24th or the day of the 25th, or any of the other December festivals around the world, my very best wishes to all of you.

I’ll be enjoying the long summer evenings here before lighting any candles, but I still hope to light a few—and on the 25th I’ll be celebrating with NZ family.

And do be careful out there, especially if you’re travelling along with what may seem like the rest of the world!

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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!

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

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Ileyra:  a herald of the Guild house in Ishnapur

Jehane Mor … looked around as the hall door opened and two heralds in the flowing grays of the Ishnapuri branch of the Guild walked in. They looked alike enough to be brother and sister, and their accents, when they spoke their good mornings, bore the lilt of the far-off southern empire.

Jehane Mor and Tarathan rose and bowed as one, speaking their names and Guild house in the formal style, and the Ishnapuri heralds replied in kind. “I am Ileyra,” the young woman said, “and this is Salan, my brother in both blood and the Guild.”

“ ‘It is a very long way from Ij to Ishnapur,’ ” Salan quoted gravely, then added, with the ghost of a smile, “but we came by sea, which made the journey swifter. And safer, since I understand the overland route still runs through very wild country.”

~  from © The Gathering Of The Lost, The Wall of Night Book Two: Chapter 2 — A Libation for Seruth

And It’s That Time…

…that crazy time, I might add, when the phone never stops ringing or texting with end-of-year “things to do”, and there are decorations to be hung, cards to be written, and presents posted and wrapped. Yes, you are indeed quite right, I’ve left everything much too late!!!

Then again, we all know how that happens: when Life is Life-ing, and books are a-writing, and the end-of-year sneaks up and sandbags you while you’re busy looking the other way. 😉

However, there are upsides, like Christmas (here) also being when cherries come into all the shops — because it’s summer here, however much that may seem “just wrong” to all m’ Northern Hemisphere peeps. 🙂 And I remind myself, as the phone rings again, that life is all about people, and this is a time of year that has come to be all about connecting and/or re-connecting with family and friends.

I know, I know: as well as being about spending far more money than most of us can afford, along with overeating and overdrinking, aka the season of excess. 😕 Although that is, of course, a choice and the celebration need not be excessive.

However, once we get through that hurly-burly rush to the 24th, or whatever day your office closes down, and whatever celebrations we all do — or choose not to do — with family and friends, there is usually at least a few days of wonderful quiet time: eating leftovers, putting our feet up, and with a little luck (particularly for all us hopeful authors out there) settling down with a good book. 😀

(Absolutely no self-interest here, sirrah: nay, none whatsoever!)

So-o: Time To Think About Books To Give & Read!

Seriously, though, if you love books and literature and want to support their continuance, then in buying books for yourself and giving books as gifts to others, you will be playing a vital part in ensuring this happens.

I can assure you, too, that buying and giving books unquestionably helps their authors to continue, which is another reason — along with the first, and also Simply Loving Books — why I buy books myself!

So in case you, like me, are still rushing to get all your gift buying done, or you want to think how to spend your prezzie cards or vouchers, I thought I’d recap the list of books I read and really enjoyed this year (which are not all necessarily written in this year, though most are close to it.)

Since some of the authors are friends of mine, which is how I got advance copies of their books, I’ll mark their works with an asterisk.* But I’m also linking to my posts on each book, so you can get an idea of why it spun my wheels. (The links are embedded in the reference following each quote.)

And Here They Are: M’ “Reads Of 2019” (in order read):

The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter

“The Bloody Chamber is a retelling of traditional folk and fairytales with a particular focus on more contemporary settings—although some I would also describe as ‘timeless’ or ‘time-slippish’—as well as famously empowering the heroines and generally giving the stories a more female-centric slant.” — H Lowe, 10 June 1019

More worthy than readable? you may ask. Let me assure you that these tales are worthy of your attention.

My Mother and The Hungarians by Frankie McMillan*

I loved this collection of linked flash fiction by Frankie McMillan, which was longlisted for NZ’s Ockham Prize for Literature and garnered Frankie invitations to literary events about the globe.

“Frankie McMillan has a ‘voice’ that I’ve always found particularly distinctive. In the spirit of Emily Dickinson, she has a slantwise take on the world and people in it, a take that picks out the curious and downright strange, oddities and absurdities—to the extent that I always think of her work as subversive: not so much in a political sense but in terms of received wisdoms and traditional ways of looking at the world.” — H Lowe, 8 July 2019

And if your can’t find My Mother and The Hungarians, Frankie’s The Father Of Octopus Wrestling (yes, it is as intriguing as the title!) was published just a little earlier this year.

Milkman by Anna Burns

Milkman won the Booker Prize in 2018, which may be all that needs to be said, but I managed a few more words. 😉

“If pressed, though, I would say that this book is about a society under pressure (The Troubles in Northern Ireland) and how that pressure pervades and distorts every aspect of individual, family, and community life…[and also about]…personal survival and maintaining the bonds of personal relationship and community in the face of the extreme conditions. … I think Milkman is a terrific, though challenging, read and I really recommend it.” — H Lowe, 15 July 2019

The Gossamer Mage by Julie Czerneda*

The Gossamer Mage marks a new Fantasy series for Julie. Here’s what I thought:

“The world, the magic, the mystery, not to mention a cast of very real characters  — distinctive and original, THE GOSSAMER MAGE wove a spell that kept me reading well past ‘lights-out.’ “ — H Lowe, 29 July 2019

Book Of Colours by Robyn Cadwallader

“Dear readers, this is a beautiful book and I really enjoyed reading it…Most of all I like the way the art of illumination is almost a character in itself, and how the intersection between the art and the individuals informs the book.” — H Lowe,  12 August 2019

Where Oblivion Lives (Los Nefilim Series) by Teresa Frohock*

I discussed this book on the Supernatural Underground blog:

“If challenged to come up with a single adjective to describe Diago and Miquel, the word would be “fidelity.” They are faithful to each other, to Rafael, and to their values, even where those values cut across some of Los Nefilim’s traditional loyalties and behaviors.

The Bastard Brigade by Sam Kean

The Bastard Brigade is non-fiction and covers: “The True Story of the Renegade Scientists and Spies Who Sabotaged The Nazi Atomic Bomb.”

[This is a] …“very readable and accessible book, generally historically accurate but with the focus on storytelling and personalities, rather than heavy duty science—although there’s enough science there to ensure the reader understands the scientific achievements (and failures) and also the stakes.”  — H Lowe, 7 October 2019

I’m going to mention two more books, because I’ve just finished reading them and they’re both terrific, but you’ll have to bide a wee to find out why I think so:

Deeplight by Frances Hardinge

Once Upon A River by Diane Setterfield

Happy reading, dear readers—may these stories or others carry you on their tide: through the festive season and into the new year.