It’s official—and I have the poster to prove it! Die Erbin Der Nacht, the German edition of The Heir of Night, is to be published in August. (See the poster below.)

Pretty exciting, huh?!

And very nice, too, to have my first book published in Germany the year New Zealand is the international guest at the Frankfurt Book Fair—see more here.

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It’s Saturday—and the early mellowly warm, mild days of autumn, or perhaps Indian Summer, so what better way to celebrate than with sunflowers?

Enjoy!

Starting this Monday 19th, students from Katikati College (Bay of Plenty)  and Papanui College (Christchurch) will be supporting their local writers by reading, reviewing, and then passing on books, from person to person until they reach the other school by the end of Term Three.

Their aim is to get their book read and reviewed by the most New Zealanders. Find out more by clicking this link—but the featured books are:

• Aroha by Anaru Bickford
• Battle of the Birds by the wonderful Lee Murray (one of the organsiers of this event.)
• My Story: Below the Mountains by Jean Bennett
• Brave Bess & the ANZAC Horses by Susan Brocker
• The Bridge by Jane Higgins
• Buddy by VM Jones
• Come Yesterday by Sue Emms
• Dead Dan’s Dee by Phyllis Johnston
• The Ghost Tree & Other Eerie Tales by Anthony Holcroft
• The Loblolly Boy by James Norcliffe
• Out of Tune by Joanna Orwin
• Parrot Parfait by Sue Emms
• Sacrifice by Joanna Orwin
• The Peco Incident by Des Hunt
• Sheep on the Fourth Floor by Leonie Thorpe
• Chronicles of Tyria by Beulah Pragg
• Sitting on the Fence: The Diary of Martin Daly, Christchurch, 1981 by Bill Nagelkerke
• Thornspell by Helen Lowe
• When the Kehua Calls by Kingi McKinnon
• The Wolf in the Wardrobe by Susan Brocker
• X-Rated by Gun Caundle

As one of the books featured Thornspell  has its own feature page here and already has its first review.

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And for even more great NZ Book Month initiatives — look here. And if you’re on Twitter, check out the #nzbookmonth tag!

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UK/AUS/NZ cover

Are you getting excited yet? I have to tell you—I sure am! Especially with a launch and the other celebratory festivities planned, but more on that a little later …

Of course, the 11 days is only to the USA & Canada, Australia & New Zealand launch on 27 March—the UK launch will be in 22 days, on 5 April!

But meanwhile, on with the countdown—and today’s extract is from Part 4, Midsummer:

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from The Gathering of the Lost

(c)  Helen Lowe

Chapter 35, Caer Argent

“Malian had been shown to the rooms close on midnight and the first thing she did then was persuade the lead-paned casement to open, initially to let in cool air and secondly to swing herself out and climb to the tower roof.  Even when her eyes adjusted to the dark she had not seen much of the palace, just a surrounding patchwork of roofs and towers.

An early morning climb to the same vantage point revealed a great deal more. “‘The  island of Emer,’” Malian murmured, knowing that this foothold in the Argent had been the dukedom once, during the troubled centuries that followed the Cataclysm, when war had surged back and forward across what was now Emer. Control of the island with its command over the river and surrounding countryside had been one of the great prizes, but the Black Tower was an Old Empire structure and had never fallen, in part because of foundations dug too deep into rock to be undermined.

At least by Haarth technology, Malian reflected, although she had to admit that the tower was impressive, rising sheer from the northern end of the island. The great dome of Imuln graced the skyline to the south, with a small, enclosed wood on its river side. The rest of the ducal palace was a series of halls and wings sprawling out from the Black Tower: a warren, she thought dispassionately.

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I was going to talk about launch day and publication events around “The Gathering of the Lost” today—but then I realised that well before the 27th March, I have a Very Important Event this Sunday 18, right here in Christchurch!

It’s a New Zealand Book Month event put on by SpecFicNZ and involves 7 locally-based speculative fiction authors, including the internationally recognized Jennifer Fallon, our very own Jane Higgins, fresh from the Writers & Readers section of the NZ International Arts Festival, as well as Diane Berry (who’ll be reading from her new-out book, “Dragons Away”), Amanda Fitzwater, Liz Gatens, Paul Mannering (who is also MC-ing)—oh yeah, and me!

So if you live in the Christchurch area and want to hear some fine fiction, this could be the event for you.

.Venue: Air Force Museum in Harvard Avenue, Wigram

Time:  1-3 pm

Yes, admission really is free–and again with the yes: I hope to see some of you there.

Angelfish

We’re flying over Australia.
Below us is the desert. In the desert
there’s a wound which is water
which is a tear with white salt round

the edges which is a little liquid gateway
as hard as marble should we hurtle
into it. There’s a road, a reddish snake-line
that crosses the continent that’s shaped

like an angelfish. The words are trying
to imitate the world as it imitates
itself, sand wrinkles like frozen sastrugi,
cloud shadows like black poppies

on the red ground. The brain according
to the Novel prize-winning scientist,
Gerald Edelman, is not at all like
a computer. It’s more like a rainforest

‘teeming with growth. decay, competition,
diversity and selection.’ So this word
is a toucan, this poem, a yellow
casque hornbill hiding beneath a canopy

of leaves. My brother went missing once,
in the rainforest. He was a soldier,
part of the New Zealand Army Reserve
sent to fight the Communists in Malaya.

I’ve got the headphones on now.
I’m watching Clint Eastwood’s Letters
from Iwo Jima. He was my favourite cowboy
when I was thirteen about the same time

my brother’s name was in all the papers.
I think of my brother hacking his way
through the jungle with a machete,
making it back to safety, singing ‘Figaro

Figaro, Figaro’ in the shower. He never
got on with my father who wasn’t his father.
I think of my mother and my father,
the Catholic harp, the Protestant drum,

the sad, mad, bad of Irish history:
the flogging and the being flogged,
the burning and the being burnt,
the killing with pike and hoe, sword and gun,

the starving, the evictions, the bombing.
I want to protest.
I want to take communion with them.
‘Think,’ says Edelman, ‘about the idea

that each individual’s soul is truly embodied,
rather than a spirit; precious
because it is unique in its physicality,
and consciousness, unpredictable

in its creativity, and mortal.’
I close my eyes. I dream that the dead
are angelfish drifting through
a rainforest, its green forgiveness.

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© Bernadette Hall
published in The Lustre Jug (Victoria University Press) 2009

Angelfish is reproduced here with permission.

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About the Poem

Last week I quoted two stanzas from Angelfish in my post on “On Writing” here. And the reason I quoted it is because even though Angelfish came out in the collection The Lustre Jug, I still remember the poem and a whole series of the images contained within it—the angelfish, the black poppies, the rainforest, the ‘sad, mad, bad’—quite clearly. Bernadette has a real gift for that I think: the line or indeed the whole poem that ‘sticks’ with you as reader.  Although in fact I  heard Angelfish first, on the radio, and remember listening to Bernie read it and thinking: “Yes. Oh, yes!” And that being nearly three years ago now, it’s clearly high time I shared it with you all as a Tuesday Poem!

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About the Poet:

Bernadette Hall is recognised as one of New Zealand’s most distinctive poetic voices. She was the 1996 Burns Fellow at Otago University and an Artists in Antarctica Fellow in 2004. The author of nine poetry collections, her work has been published in a range of national and international anthologies. Hall was the 2006 Victoria University Writer in Residence and in 2007 held the Rathcoola Residency in Donoughmore, Ireland. Bernadette’s most recent collection, The Lustre Jug, (Victoria University Press), 2009, was a finalist for the 2010 NZ Post Book Award for Poetry. Most recently, Bernadette was guest lecturer at the International Institute for Modern Letters, Victoria University of Wellington, and editor for Best New Zealand Poems  in 2011.

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To read the featured poem on the Tuesday Poem Hub and other great poems from fellow Tuesday poets from around the world, click here or on the Quill icon in the sidebar.

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UK/AUS/NZ cover

Only two weeks to go now until the The Gathering of the Lost, The Wall of Night Book Two is  published and officially “out there” in the USA & Canada, Australia and New Zealand! (The UK release day is 5 April.)

I am going to have some more information about Publication Day and festivities around the launch for you on Wednesday (so ‘watch this space’!), but in the meantime I am posting a series of excerpts from the book, and today’s extract is from the opening of Part 3, The Border Mark.

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from The Gathering of the Lost

(c)  Helen Lowe

Chapter 28, Border Crossing

“Just what we need,” said Garan. “A coterie of Stone priests.” He had led his company out of the Barren Hills just on dusk, intending to camp overnight by the Border Mark, only to find another group of travelers already settled in by the standing stone. And not just any travelers, Garan thought with an inward groan. Stone priests were the nearest thing to a warrior class within the three priestly Houses, and as rigid as the House of Blood in their adherence to the divisions that had arisen out of the civil war.

He rubbed at his chin, aware of the quality of Nerys’s silence beside him and mutters amongst the other honor guards. The minstrel they were escorting said nothing, his expression untroubled. Nothing in his appearance reflected the grueling weeks they had spent on the road north, contending with the wildest of spring and early summer weather as they traversed the Barren Hills. As though road dust doesn’t even stick to him, Garan thought—and although Haimyr had put aside his usual golden garb for the wool and leather of the road, there was no denying that he did not look Derai. But then again, if the Stone priests wanted to pick a quarrel they would find a reason, whether it was because the newcomers were retainers of Night or because they rode with an outsider.

Garan shrugged, reaching his decision. “We ride in slowly and make our camp away from theirs. And we don’t fight them, no matter what provocation they offer.”

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This being the Derai Wall ‘n’ all, any guesses on how that might work out for him?

Perhaps this blog post should just be “celebrating friends” because friends, after all, are pretty important in this life. But in fact the title is correct: what I am specifically celebrating is friend’ recent successes, and more specifically again, those enjoyed by fellow writers.

Because recently several friends-in-writing have enjoyed some good ‘wins.’

Firstly, I’ve mentioned the Gemmell Awards a couple of times, here and here, mainly in terms of The Heir of Night’s nomination for both the Morningstar and Legend Awards. The Legend Award is for the Best Fantasy Novel (in the heroic/epic subgenre) published in English in 2011—and both my friends’ Mary Victoria and Kim Falconer have not one but two books longlisted for this award. Mary’s books are Samiha’s Song and Oracle’s Fire from her Chronicles of the Tree trilogy, while Kim’s novels are from her Quantum Encryption series: Journey by Night and Road to the Soul. But not one but two novels in the longlist for the Legend Award: I think that’s a fairly awesome achievement!

The NZ Post Children’s Book Awards‘ shortlist was also released recently and several friends featured:

James Norcliffe—who wrote a guest post here on “Why FSF Rocks” in 2010—has  The Loblolly Boy & The Sorcerer (Random House) shortlisted in the Junior Fiction category; while

Jane Higgins’ The Bridge (Text Publishing) and Joanna Orwin’s Sacrifice (HarperCollins) are both contenders for the Young Adult award.

Jane is also a guest at the Writers and Readers component of the NZ International Arts Festival this weekend, appearing in two events: Christchurch Quakes–Changing Everything and with Bernard Beckett in Terrific Characters: Dystopian Worlds. And I was rather chuffed when Jane asked if she could read my poem Storm Front (posted here) as part of the Christchurch Quakes event.

Now speaking of Awards–the nomination period for the Sir Julius Vogel Awards is still open until 31 March and all the books mentioned above—except for Kim’s Falconer’s two works, Kim being an Aussie ‘n’ all—are eligible for nomination. I really would urge you to read these books if you haven’t already and to consider nomination–not just for these books but for all those on the “eligible” list, here.

How many years has it been since “The Eye of the World”, the first novel in Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series came out? I think it was 1990—and now my New Zealand publisher, Hachette, are counting down to the release of the final instalment to the Wheel of Time series on 8 January 2013 with  a grand giveaway of 4 x Ultimate Wheel of Time Prize Packs to Robert Jordan readers.

The giveaway competition is current (it commences 28 February; I am just a little behind the 8 ball!) and runs until 30 April 2012—so there’s still plenty of time to be in to win.

If you’re keen, just rock on over to Hachette’s facebook page, The Realm, here, and check out the details.

You do have to be a fan to enter, but if you “like” the page the rest should be straightforward.

And good luck. 8 January 2013 is still a wee way away, so if you’re one of the lucky winners that will give you plenty of time to be fully up to speed for the final denouement.

I am  a little embarrassed at how long it has been since I’ve done a “What I’m Reading” post. If you’re wondering whether that means I haven’t been reading much then you’re quite right—I haven’t. In fact you might say my recreational reading has almost ground to a complete halt. Obviously I hope this trend will reverse again soon, because one of the reasons I’m a writer (I believe) is because I was an avid reader first—and there is never enough time to read all the wonderful books that are out there.

But when Steve Minchin of Steam Press sent me Swedish-New Zealand author Fredrik Brounéous’s The Prince of Soul And the Lighthouse I felt I wanted to make a special effort—because not only is it speculative fiction written in NZ, but it’s been published by an emerging New Zealand speculative fiction publisher. That’s a lot to want to support already, but as I said in my Just Arrived post on 24 February, The Prince of Soul And the Lighthouse has received some terrific cover quotes from authors such as Fleur Beale, Mandy Hagar and Tim Jones, as well as an enthusiastic early review from the Sunday Star Times—so of course I was keen to read it for myself.

In terms of “what it’s all about”, I set out the backcover text on February 24 as well, again here, but to summarise—our hero, George Larson, 18, of Dunedin (Macandrew Bay, in fact, if I read the story correctly) finds out that he has to ‘save the world’ (well, sort of) by switching off a very important lighthouse. In order to fulfil this mission he is propelled into a hair-raising road trip around most of Otago and Southland (there and back again in some cases) accompanied by Tenzin (a Tibetan monk), Kaisa (a beautiful Finnish exchange student), and his coffee-and-cigarette addicted revenant grandfather, all the while being pursued by parties with nefarious intentions in respect of the said lighthouse. Got all that? Yes? Then to quote Tenzin: “Awesome. High Five!” And moving right along—having read The Prince of Soul And the Lighthouse for myself, what do I think of it?

Well, in summary, I enjoyed the book a lot. It’s a fun, quirky and well-paced YA read that I believe will also be enjoyed by older readers.

Aspects of the story that I particularly enjoyed include: the way the Otago/Southland backdrop–and foreground too!— is integral to the storytelling, but not in a heavy-handed, “worthy” way. I also very much enjoyed the first person “voice” of George as the likeable, believable teen protagonist and his juxtaposition with his ‘guide’ (well, sort of) Tenzin, as well as the inclusion of  a light-hearted parallel road trip through Buddhism 101—not to mention the footnotes (I don’t normally like footnotes as a literary device but these definitely enhanced the story) and the whole array of humorous and zany encounters built into the plot. Possibly my favorite  of these was the “spook” unit using social media and the internet as a kind of giant prayer wheel to harness the creative reality power of a vast array of the world’s deities, past and present. Did I say this was a fun book? To expand on that remark then, I laughed out loud in several places and grinned in many others.

Did I have any quibbles? Those of you who know me will know that I always have quibbles, not least with my own work as I go along and always in retrospect! But I certainly don’t have any major quibbles with The Prince of Soul & The Lighthouse. In fact, if I have any at all it would be that perhaps George didn’t have quite enough agency in the final denouement. There is a reason for that though, one that makes sense in the context of the action, so I may be stretching my ‘perhaps’ a bit too far—and as I don’t feel it spoiled my overall enjoyment of the book, I think we may safely put it in the ‘very minor’ category of quibble!

To conclude, I really enjoyed this book. I definitely recommend it to anyone who likes a humorous, well-paced read with fun characters. And if asked to give a response in a nutshell I don’t think I could do better than quote Tenzin again: “Awesome. High Five!”

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And to see the billboard: go here. Pretty sure that sucker’s by da ‘Cake Tin’, in downtown ‘Wellywood’!