‘There is nothing–absolutely nothing–half so much worth doing as…’ putting one’s feet up with a book… 😉

The first of every month being my regular blog gig on the Supernatural Underground, this year I decided to get all chillax:

“I love the whole idea of the new year, with its official marking off of the old and welcoming in fresh starts.

Most of all, though, I love the opportunity to chillax after all the pressure of Christmas—you know, decorations, food, presents, full on family-and-friends time—followed by New Year’s Eve retrospectives and serious party time. Which is all fabulous and fun, but not precisely relaxing, especially when it all comes at the one time!

So New Year’s Day is for finally kicking back, putting my feet up, and mixing up such delights as lying on the couch reading a book or watching a great TV show or movie.”

To find out more about my chillax plans  “to read” and “to watch”, check out the full post here:

Time To Chillax: Happy New Year

And the very happiest of 2019s to you, one and all. To the fullest extent of my modest powers, I wish you peace, success, and prosperity.

May your new year be full of amazing vistas & every mountain climbable.

It’s New Year’s Eve, the day when we not only wave the old year farewell but reflect on all that happened within it. From a blog point of view, there can be no better day to look at the ten posts that really grabbed your attention—as “…On Anything Really” friends and readers, regular followers and visitors—during the course of 2018.

As with past years, I shall order the most-read ten posts chronologically from the year’s beginning to its end. So without further ado, listward ho!

via Wikipedia: Statue representing Janus Bifrons in the Vatican Museums

1. January 1 — Looking Back, Looking Forward; Farewell 2017, Welcome 2018

In which I reflected on the nature and origins of the new year celebration, as well as my overall experience of 2017 and my hopes for the year ahead — all of which clearly “spoke” to quite a few of you, as well, which is nice.

2. January 29 — Ursula K Le Guin, 1929 – 2018

“Ursula K. Le Guin passed away last week at the age of 88, after a long and prestigious life in letters…” These words mark my personal tribute to this great author, in my view one of the most accomplished writers and significant voices of her time. I am not surprised, therefore, that this post was among the most-read of the year.

Why this cover, you may ask, which is among the oldest for this novel? For me, it has always best captured one of Ms Le Guin’s most significant works.

3. March 5 — Fab Spaceships Of SFF

I had a great deal of fun writing this post, so am glad you seem to have enjoyed reading it just as much. The post was sparked by UK author, Gareth Powell’s “Top 10” — a timely reminder to me of how much I love spaceships in literature and film/television. [Coughs] That would be a LOT!

“The Heir Of Night” map: artist, Peter Fitzpatrick

4. April 28 — The Wall Of Night Series Map

I’m always pleased when a post on an aspect of my own writing takes your fancy, in this case The Wall Of Night series’ map. Although I put together the original, the professional rendition of my hand-drawn ideas was the work of artist PJ Fitzpatrick.

As the next three entries show, it’s pretty clear what sparked your interest in the mid-part of the year. This post series, which is currently ongoing, turned into a bit of a monster, but it seems to be a monster that you liked, so it’s all good. 😉

A “farmgal” goes on a journey…

5. May 7 — Having Fun With Epic Fantasy Tropes #1: A Farm Boy/Gal Goes On a Journey

This may just be the most deeply embedded of all the epic fantasy tropes, which have their roots deep in myth, folklore, and fairytales, so it seemed the right one to kick off the series. It’s probably a reflection of the series’ overall popularity, with several more of the posts crowding on the heels of the top ten, that this first post is also one of the three that made it onto the most-read list.

6. May 28 — Having Fun With Epic Fantasy Tropes #4: Apocalypse Now

Who doesn’t love a good apocalypse? From Ragnarok to Station Eleven, apparently “…on Anything, Really” readers do, because this is one of your “big three” instalments of the post series. 🙂 Yours truly had a lot of fun writing it, too, though maybe not quite as much as…

The Return of the King: entrance to the Paths of the Dead

7. July 9 — Having Fun With Epic Fantasy Tropes #7: Fortunately, There Was A Portal

From fairy hills to the wardrobe and Platform 9 ³/₄, and the Gates of the Dead to the Gate of Ivrel, portals are one of the great staples of both Science Fiction and Fantasy — which may also explain why y’all were very much on board for this post. 😉 And yes, they do feature in my own writing, because you can never have too much of a good thing, right? Right! 😀

Writing on…

8. August 27 — About That Book Then: Time For A WALL#4 Update

I believe the title of this post says it all, but I was and am grateful for your interest in the post and the support shown via the comments. Thank you.

And there it is: Edoras, aka Mt Sunday

9. November 19 — Inside Middle Earth: Driving To Edoras

Again, you appear to enjoyed my account of driving to the site of Edoras, in the hinterland of the Hakatere Lakes and on the road to Erewhon and the Southern Alps, as much as I enjoyed the actual adventure—which was fabulous. Just sayin’

A matter of perspective: a totara tree and me.

10. December 3 — Meetings With Remarkable Trees: Peel Forest

I suspect my “true colours” as a tree person are pretty well nailed to the blog mast by now, but just in case anyone missed the memo, I shared my meeting with the marvelous giants of the remnant Peel Forest earlier this month. Long may they continue to stand tall.

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And there we have it, the ten most-read posts of 2018. Thank you all for dropping by and reading what I have to post; thank you, too, for reading and supporting my books. I hope you continue to call in, and maybe even leave a comment or two in 2019. I also hope that it may be the year when I bring you the Very Good News that I have typed “the end” on WALL#4. In fact, I’ll raise my glass to that, as well as to all of you. 🙂

Happy New Year!

we children

we children
when the days stretched
over the horizon, sprang
from our sleeping bags, threw
on our summer uniform, left
mum and dad dreaming, ran
barefoot through the bush, the river,
to the beach

we children
popped washed up blue
bottles, chased cantankerous
crabs, rescued stubborn sea
creatures from rock pools, buried
each other below sand castles, built
forts manned by katipos, cooked ourselves
in the sun

we children
got seaweed in our hair, sand
in our bum cracks, stranded
by the tide, wrestled the ball
from everyone’s Dad, rang
rings around them, stained our clothes
green, looked forward to doing it
all again tomorrow

now brother
you live over the horizon
and I no longer swim
in the sea
.

© Janine Sowerby

First published in The Press

Reproduced here with permission.

Note:  Katipo(s) are a native NZ spider, often found in driftwood on beaches;
they are also NZ's only naturally occurring poisonous spider (we've gained a
few imports of recent years.)

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This is one of my favourite NZ summer holiday poems, which captures both the quintessential Christmas-New Year holiday but also a wonderful nostalgia for the holidays of childhood past, seen through the bitter sweetness of adult recollection. Janine Sowerby is a friend and fellow poet and writer, working across a range of media.

“There were lights everywhere, marigold windows in the shadowy walls of houses, and golden lanterns hung before the doors, and every light reflected in the river so that it made two. For in those days people still called Christmas Eve the Feast of Lights and set candles in every window and lanterns before their doors…”
~ Rosemary Sutcliff, The Armourer’s House

So here we are on Christmas Eve — Rosemary Sutcliff’s “Feast of Lights” from her novel The Armourer’s House, which is set in Tudor England.

Royal Fireworks Suite — a Christmas & New Year favourite

I have been thinking about this particular quote ever since I featured it last Monday, chiefly because I think the “light” aspect of Christmas—and festivals with similar timing, such as Hanukkah, Lucia’s festival in Sweden, and even Hogmanay (New Year) in Scotland—is probably more powerful in the Northern Hemisphere, than here in the south.

The deep midwinter, albeit NZ style 😉

That’s because in the north, Christmas and other light festivals fall on or close to the winter solstice, at the darkest time of the year, when the early drawing in of night, together with the midwinter cold, encourage candlelight and firelight and the atmosphere of romance and mystery that goes with that. Their promise is the return of the light, a promise that is captured in Ursula le Guin’s Earthsea, with the festival of Sunreturn.

Or as my friend and fellow author, Mary Victoria, put it on Twitter:

“Winter Solstice…It’s one of my favourite festivals… because I find it useful to remember that even in our darkest moments, the light is on its way back.”

Light and colour all around us

Which I get, because the Maori festival of Matariki—fast becoming a NZ festival—has a similar focus. Christmas, though, falls at what is the summer solstice for us: the longest days and—if we’re lucky—sunshine and “life’s a beach” moments.

Light in the sky

Yet all the same, there’s still something magical about a Christmas festival where light is everywhere in the natural world, lingering through the long evenings until one can light a candle in a meaningful way. And even then the night sky is deep blue velvet, the stars warm and bright, rather than a frosty black sky with icicle stars… (As I recall midwinter from my Swedish days.)

Glass, flowers, colours, all create an atmosphere of light

So in terms of the Rosemary Sutcliff quote, Christmas Eve here in the south can still be a Feast—or festival—of Lights, only in this case the light is from the natural world all around us, rather then the glimmer of firelight and candle flame.

Either way, I hope everyone who is celebrating has a very Merry Christmas Eve and Day.

And to everyone else, just have the best of days, whether beneath northern or southern skies. 🙂

The hut on the edge of forever

In 2013, when I was completing Daughter of Blood, a friend gave me the use of her fishing hut, a very generous gift since it gave me writing time away from the everyday interruptions of “life, the universe, and everything”.  (Including the interwebs, which provide the Great Distraction of our age, from email and search engines to every version of social media imaginable — spot the Luddite! 😉 )

The edge of forever

A hut conjures up images of something very basic, but in this case the terms is synonymous with a “crib” in the very south of NZ, or a “bach” in most other parts of the country. When I lived in Sweden it would have been a “sommar stugan” or “summer cottage”, while my Japanese sister-in-law tells me that the correct term there is “bessou.” So rest assured that the accommodation is not too basic.

Wild south, with wild life

This particular hut is located at the mouth of one of Canterbury’s distinctive braided rivers in an environment that is very wild south, similar to last week’s post of the same name. Since 2013 I have returned there as often as “life, the universe, and everything” and other pertinent aspects of time-space allow because it is a great environment for writing.

That’s a seal, on the beach

All of which made me think of the phrase “to the wilderness I wander”, which comes from the traditional ballad, Tom O’ Bedlam’s Song. The poem is a little like Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah, in that it has almost as many verses as there are people to add them on, but I featured a fair representation of the total as part of The Tuesday Poem a few years back.

The two stanzas that seemed particularly apposite to an author who goes to an out-of-the-way spot to write Fantasy novels are those that also feature the phrase, “to the wilderness I wander”:

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

“With a host of furious fancies

Whereof I am commander,

With a burning spear and a horse of air,

To the wilderness I wander.

By a knight of ghostes and shadowes

I summon’d am to tourney

Ten leagues beyond the wild world’s end,

Methinks it is no journey.”

The final two lines, “Ten leagues beyond the wild world’s end, Methinks it is no journey” sum up the whole process of immersing myself in the world of the WALL story.

Sometimes, when the story is fighting back, it also feels as if, “I summoned am to tourney.” 😉

…in fact, it’s upon us even as I type, in a manner reminiscent of a bullet-train bearing down at high speed upon the unwary—which would be me when it comes to the Christmas season and being prepared this year.

AKA, yours truly is not prepared at all, at all! Too busy writing (and that’s the good news. 😉 )

Anyway, to get in the mood, and the seasonal mode, here are a few literary excerpts that feature Christmas.

The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe by CS Lewis

Yep I know, probably the most famous Fantasy Christmas everz…But that’s why it’s first up. 😉

“It was a sledge, and it was reindeer with bells on their harness. But they were far bigger than the Witch’s reindeer, and they were not white, but brown. And on the sledge sat a person whom everyone knew the moment they set eyes on him. He was a huge man in a bright red robe (bright as holly berries) with a hood that had fur inside it and a great white beard that fell like a foamy waterfall over his chest. Everyone knew him…he was so big and so glad and so real, that they all became quite still…”

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

Also pretty famous in the literary Christmas stakes. 🙂

” “Christmas won’t be Christmas without any presents,” grumbled Jo, lying on the rug.

“It’s so dreadful to be poor,” sighed Meg, looking down at her old dress.” “

The Armorer’s House by Rosemary Sutcliff

“The sky was full of stars, sparkling and frost-bright, except where the moon rode high above the crowding roofs of the Southwark shore; and the city seemed a city in a fairytale, every ledge and cranny deep in sparkling frosted snow, and every carved saint and angel and demon on the tower of every church ermine-hooded and ermine-cloaked. There were lights everywhere, marigold windows in the shadowy walls of houses, and golden lanterns hung before the doors, and every light reflected in the river so that it made two. For in those days people still called Christmas Eve the Feast of Lights and set candles in every window and lanterns before their doors…

Drover’s Road by Joyce West

“All Christmas days at Drover’s Road seem to get mixed up in a sort of special excitement: the early mornings and stockings hanging at the foot of the bed … the long day getting hotter, and lamb for dinner, with mint sauce and peas and new potatoes … lying out under the cherry tree on the lawn with our new presents, and having afternoon tea there with iced biscuits and Christmas cake. Then dusk coming at the end of the long lovely day…”

The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper

(Just in my humble opinion) the second most famous Fantasy Christmas everz, and deservedly so… 🙂

“There was something about Christmas Eve, they both felt, that demanded company; one needed somebody to whisper to, during the warm beautiful dream-taut moments between hanging the empty stocking at the end of the bed, and dropping into the cosy oblivion that would flower into the marvel of Christmas morning.”

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

Probably the most famous Christmas in literature, by a country mile.

“What’s to-day, my fine fellow?” said Scrooge.
“To-day!” replied the boy. “Why, Christmas Day.”
“It’s Christmas Day!” said Scrooge to himself. “I haven’t missed it.”

And I think that’ll do, for going on with. 😉

I love living in the South Island of NZ with its “wild south” vibe, shared most recently in my post on Inside Middle Earth: Driving To Edoras (yep, it’s also The Lord of the Rings country! 😉 )

Sometimes, though, the intersection of ocean and river, wind and tide, waves and land, can be wild indeed, as in this photo where it’s all blended close to one.

As the second photo gives you some idea, usually there is a distinct river, ocean shoreline, and two shingle banks to be seen, not just the one above — and even that fast disappearing:

The discoloration of the sea is the aftermath of the storm and flooding, and indicative of the level of shingle and runoff in the river’s journey from the mountains to the sea — which is pretty much how the Canterbury Plains formed, I believe.

As is my wont on the first of every month, I posted on the Supernatural Underground on December 1 – a post titled The Colour Blue & All of You, in which I reflected on the recent festival of Thanksgiving and the Skiffy and Fanty blog’s forthcoming Month of Joy.

The theme of “The Colour Blue” harks back to the Month of Joy post I contributed to Skiffy and Fanty’s celebration earlier this year, which I quote in part in my SU post.

The colour blue writ large…

The “all of you” part – well you might have to head on over to the SU and read what I have to say there. 😉

The Color Blue & All Of You!

However, I can tell you the origins of the phrase.  My understanding is that it goes back to British politics in the eighteenth century, at a time when the Whigs were one of the major political parties and blue was their party colour.

As the story goes, a Mrs Crewe was a famous political hostess at the time. During such an event, the following toast was made (reputedly by the Prince of Wales): “True blue and Mrs Crewe!” To which Mrs Crewe promptly replied: “True blue and all of you!”

So there you are, not just a blog post title and theme, but a title and theme with provenance. 🙂

The Wall of Night Series map; design by Peter Fitzpatrick

A Geography of Haarth is a post series traversing the full range of gazetted locales and places from The Wall Of Night world of Haarth.

From January 25, 2013 to November 25, 2014, the series explored locations encountered in The Heir Of Night and The Gathering Of The Lost.

Now it’s back to traverse the geography of Daughter Of Blood (The Wall Of Night Book Three.)  The new series comprises updates of previous entries as well as new listings.

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USA

UK/AU/NZ

Sailcloth Street: a thoroughfare in the town of Grayharbor

The three hooded figures came up Grayharbor’s Sailcloth Street just as the rain swept in off the sea for the second time that day. The deluge brought a swirl of leaves and rubbish down the deep gutters on either side of the cobbled thoroughfare, and all three leapt for the portico of Seruth’s temple where Faro had taken shelter.

~ from © Daughter Of Blood: The Wall of Night Book Three, Chapter 2 — The Serpent Street

The fact I’m a bit of a tree person has probably slipped out over the past few years… Perhaps not quite in the same league as Dame Judi Dench’s A Passion for Trees but I’ll still go out of my way to meet remarkable trees. (Btw, I’ve borrowed this phrase from Thomas Pakenham’s book of the same name.)

Recently, I went down to Peel Forest, just to the south of Canterbury’s Rangitata river to check out some of the remnant forest giants, specifically totara, kahikatea, and matai—and they were well well and truly worth the trip, imho. Their scientific names are Podocarpus totara (totara), Dacrycarpus dacrydioides (kahikatea or “white pine”) and Prumnopitys taxifolia (matai, or “black pine.”)

Totara, seen from the forest fringe

According to the Department of Conservation information on the Peel Forest Scenic Reserve, all three trees are of the “family Podocarpaceae, a very ancient family going back in time more than 100 million years.”

Light and shadow across a kahikatea’s trunk

Totara are also the theme of several Maori whakatauki or proverbs. One of the most well known is:
Kua hinga te tōtara i Te Waonui a Tāne — a tōtara has fallen in the great forest of Tāne
This saying is used to mark the passing of a great leader or chief.

Bark detail

Such individuals, when living,  may also be referred to as: tōtara haemata – a strong-growing tōtara.

“I saw you standing like a totara tree…”

I hope you get some sense of meeting them, too, through the photos.

Kahikatea

And for the record, these trees are likely to be many hundreds, if not thousands of years old. Awesome, huh?!

Gnarly…

The not-so-happy news is that human beings put paid to these trees in vast numbers, during the European settlement of New Zealand. The Peel Forest trees are only still with us (largely) because of the foresight of a “…visiting British MP, Arthur Mills…[who in 1881]…was so horrified by the forest devastation he bought 16 hectares of un-cut forest. On his death this became the embryo of the present Peel Forest Park.”

Yep, that’s a root (totara again)

The totara is also under threat from the depradations of the ringtail possum, an Australia import that has had a devastating effect on New Zealand’s endemic vegetation.

A matter of perspective: a totara tree and me.

It’s not exactly a proud record for NZ, but I am grateful that there are still some of these marvelous trees in places like Peel Forest.