A Year In Retrospect: A Few Significant Moments From 2013

UK edition

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Last year I looked forward in my Jauuary 1 post and talked about hope and aspiration in relation to 2013. This year I thought I'd look back and share some of the significant moments from my wriitng year.

First up, the UK mass market edition of The Gathering Of The Lost (The Wall Of Night series, Book Two) came out on February 21, and I celebrated with  a guest post on the series' UK publisher, Orbit's blog:

"Use of Weapons: The Armoury of Epic Fantasy"

UK edition

Very shortly afterward, in March, I also had the very good news that The Heir of Night (The Wall Of Night, Book One) was being reprinted in the UK: the very best news for any book since it means that readers must be finding something to like. :)

US edition

The 'highlight of the year' though, was when The Gathering Of The Lost was shortlisted for the David Gemmell Legend Award for Best Fantasy Novel on August 11 – and later I got to do an 'official' finalist's interview, which you can read on the Legend Awards' site:

Legend Award Interview – Helen Lowe

Shifting to my poet's hat, I was thrilled to have two poems featured by fellow poets this year -- UK poet and biographer, Kathleen Jones, featured "All Over" to commemorate the 2011 Christchurch earthquake, while London-based poet, Elizabeth Welsh, featured "North" on her Small Marks blog in October. To read the poems, just click on the titles below:

All Over

North

And with my interviewer's hat on, I was thrilled earlier this year when my 2012 interview with Kristin Cashore, for her novel Bitterblue, was translated into Chinese and used to support the release of Bitterblue into the Chinese market. You can "read all about it" here – or just go straight to the interview, here: An Interview With  Kristin Cashore

On a sadder note, in April of this year I also got to post an obituary for my friend-in-poetry, Sarah Broom, who died far too young. But more positively, on 17 December I was also able to feature her poem "One story and the other", from her posthumous collection, Gleam, on the Tuesday Poem Hub. It's a beautiful poem and I would love it if you felt able to go there and read it: 

One story and the other

So there it is, just a little from my year in books and the writing life. What were your major moments of 2013? Conversely, what are you looking forward to in 2014?