Originally published at Mary Victoria. Please leave any comments there.

I discovered the work of New Zealand author Helen Lowe some six years ago, and was immediately hooked by her first book, Thornspell. I later discovered and enjoyed her epic Wall of Night series, including The Heir of Night, The Gathering of the Lost and now Daughter of Blood. To celebrate the release of the latter, I invited Helen to pop by the blog and chat about all things Wall, Daughter and writing-related. Really, it was an excuse to pick Helen’s brains about the background processes that went into the creation of this novel, to hear her take on strength and strong characters, particularly strong female characters, and to hear a little about her research and world-building.

I hope you enjoy the conversation as much as I did.

MARY: Welcome to the blog, Helen. I am so pleased you were able to come by at what must be a busy time. First of all, I believe congratulations are in order for the publication of the third instalment of the Wall of Night series: Daughter of Blood. Writing a novel is often a long and lonely experience, so its publication is an occasion to celebrate both the book’s release and your own (temporary) liberation! I say temporary, because now everyone is waiting impatiently for Book Four.

I have been following the Wall books since the first instalment in your series, The Heir of Night, and discovered this newest addition with pleasure. In it we follow the continuing adventures of Malian and her group of friends, in the march towards what looks to be a seriously epic denouement between the various powers at work on Haarth. As the blurb points out: “[t]he Darkswarm is gaining strength, and time is running out—for Malian, for Kalan, and for all of Haarth…”

I must say, I really liked this third book. It gave me a more in-depth glimpse of the diverse cultures in your invented world, and was a chance to understand how the Derai tick, particularly when seen from the point of view of your Daughter of Blood. Without giving too much away, I enjoyed discovering your world through the eyes of someone who was in some ways quite “ordinary”, and lacked the grand powers associated with heroes in general. Was it your intention to approach the storytelling in that fashion, or did it happen as you went along?

HELEN: Thank you, Mary, both for the invitation to join you today but also for the congratulations on publication of Daughter of Blood. As you know well, being a writer yourself,  the process can be as exhausting, with release day celebrations, blog tours and other promotional activity, as it is — unquestionably — exhilarating, to finally see your “little story” sail off into the world. I call the process of writing the book “the loneliness of the long distance writer” because, for me anyway, completing a novel is an endurance event. But it’s also very rewarding when the story finally acquires something resembling the ‘shape’ you have always imagined. As for when it is finally an actual book in your hand, with a cover that has your name on it, well — ooh la la!

I am so glad, too, that you enjoyed the read, Mary, not least because I know you are a discerning reader but also because Daughter of Blood decided to fully live up to ‘novel writing as an endurance event.” Yet the story, or the Muse, or my authorial subsconscious (yer pays yer monies, or not, dear readers, and takes yer picks on that one