A recipe for the festive season! (Cross-posted from my food blog, A la mode frangourou).

This is the beautiful recipe my husband David devised to recreate the ‘Gateau Russe’, or Russian Cake, my favourite cake ever, which as you’ll see was devised in Southwest France, adapting the recipes of Russian emigrés. Recently, a Russian friend told me that in fact this cake was very popular in Russia–but that the story went there that it was first devised in–Kiev! So it is called a Kievski there…or maybe not, these days 🙂

Anyway to get back to my Russe, it’s something that I not only loved in childhood but now too. But I always thought I had to wait to get back to South-west France to indulge in it again. I thought it would be one of those sorts of cakes that would be too difficult to pull off for a home cook and so each birthday in Australia, I’d put in a request for my second-favourite cake, the Gateau Moka. This is also a gorgeous cake–a Genoise sponge layered with coffee butter cream, and David, my husband, has made it superlatively well for many years. But a Gateau Moka is not easy to make too far ahead of time and transport and as my birthday was going to be in Sydney this year, I knew I’d have to think again. I remembered seeing the ‘Swallow’s Nest’ cake in the Russian cookbook we bought in Moscow and thought, how about that, and then started thinking, that sounds a bit like a ‘Russe’–and then David said, well, meringue’s much easier to make ahead of time, why don’t I have a go at a Russe? He made me describe it and started looking up recipes–and then made his own version which turned out spectacularly well and which proved a huge hit at the birthday party!
Here’s his recipe for a beautiful ‘Davidov’ which I think I’ll dub his version of the ‘Russe’! And it shows that a home cook can indeed pull off a Russe as well as any patissier–all my siblings, who’d tasted the ‘real’ Russes, agreed that it reproduced exactly the look and texture and flavours we all loved at Dodin’s! Continue reading →

Is there a difference between writing adult and young adult fiction? I answer that question in a guest post on Amanda Bridgeman’s blog.

Today’s fabulous guest post is from author Donna Maree Hanson, author of the Dragon Wine series. I’ve known Donna for quite a few years, and we’ve periodically caught up at speculative fiction events all over Australia–and as you’ll see, in my home town too!

Welcome to the blog, Donna!

Writers and readers

It is such a pleasure to be visiting Sophie’s blog. Hello everyone and hello Sophie!
Sophie is an author with an amazing publishing history and when we met years ago she was so accommodating and helpful to a new writer like me. I was very impressed by that. We even met for coffee in Armidale when I passed through on my way to Brisbane from Canberra once. How’s that for fab!

One of the great things about being a writer is meeting other writers and meeting readers as it builds a sense of community. They say writing is a lonely profession and when it comes down to putting words on page, it is. But connecting to other people is also important.
Writers for example know what it’s like–the struggles with writing, editing, polishing, submitting and rejections. Then when there are acceptances, it’s navigating the edits, the promotion, the signings. It’s all new and different and scary so having other writers be your mate and give you advice and support is very important. It’s also important to pay it forward. It’s important for writers to help those coming up behind them. It’s important for community.
I’ve been lucky with the speculative fiction community and even the broader genre community (romance, crime, horror, science fiction and fantasy) because it’s like being part of a tribe. I’m thinking Genrecon and other science fiction conventions where authors and readers mix.
Then there are the readers. A writer doesn’t exist without them. They are the important ones. We write to entertain, to enthral and to mesmerise. So we need willing participants. We need people who want to read. We need people who want to read our stuff. We need you!
Since Shatterwing and Skywatcher, part one and two of the Dragon Wine series, came out, I’ve had to great pleasure to have people Tweet, Facebook and email me to tell me how much the like the books. I’ve had texts telling me to give up my day job and write the next book. I’ve had people tell me at an author event how much they liked my work and other nice things. After years of not being published that’s like being given a chest of gold. It’s the most amazing feeling.
Nothing is more priceless than that to an author. It doesn’t matter how famous (I believe) authors don’t get tired of hearing that you liked their story, series etc. So if you like a book you’ve read don’t be afraid to tell the author or tweet or Facebook about it. I can assure you, it’s like grease to the wheel. Nothing makes me more productive and enthusiastic than praise.
There’s nothing wrong with critique either. Writers know that reading is subjective. Some people are going to love your work. Some are only going to like bits of it. Some will hate all of it. It’s nice if people were respectful with their views but you can’t have everything.
I believe Shatterwing is a kind of book that divides. Some love it and some are going to hate it. It’s dark, epic fantasy and it’s set on a nasty world. In places it’s not a comfortable read because it’s brutal in parts. But there is also a thread of light in there. I say to people when they buy Shatterwing-if you survive that you’ll love Skywatcher. Continue reading →

Time to pop the champagne again! This week will see the release of the gorgeous paperback edition of Trinity: The Koldun Code. (Full cover at right)You will be able to order it from Booktopia(Australia), Amazon(in all countries), Barnes and Noble, Books Depository, and many other online bookshops. As well, you can ask your local bookshop to order it through Lightning Source.

And to celebrate, for two weeks only there’s a Goodreads giveaway to win a copy of the book, with three copies to be won!

Fantastic to be on Louise Cusack’s blog!

Today I have a guest post on Lauren Dawes’ blog. It explores one of those strong inspirations for the Trinity series: Russian magic.

As well, to celebrate the upcoming release of the paperback of Trinity: The Koldun Code, there’s a fantastic giveaway going on Goodreads! Enter here.

In keeping with the Russian theme, over on my food blog you can find a post about making a great ‘zakuski’ spread for dinner–the Russian version of tapas! It’s a fantastic and appetising way to eat.

Today my blog features Louise Cusack, author of the Time Trilogy and many other books, with a fascinating post that delves into her interest in ‘strangers in a strange land’–and the amazing Leonardo da Vinci!

Charming, talented and unfortunately dead

For as long as I can remember, I’ve been fascinated obsessed with the life and work of Leonardo Da Vinci – an Italian who died 500 years ago. Not only was he the painter of iconic works like the Mona Lisa, he made landmark medical discoveries in skeletal structure and the functioning of heart valves. He came up with the idea of tanks, submarines and winged flight devices, and was renowned for cartography, hydrodynamics and botany. But wait, there’s more: he was handsome, charming, intelligent, musically talented, and a vegetarian who abhorred cruelty to animals.
I mean, really, has there ever been a more perfect man?
So many accomplishments, such an eye for details, which he recorded meticulously in his notebooks, many of which are still around today as codices – one owned by Bill Gates in fact.
Yes, there were quirks. Leonardo used mirror-writing to ensure others would have difficulty copying his work. He often didn’t finish his commissions, and apparently left more than half his paintings incomplete. He wasn’t great with money and took on a talentless but handsome young thief as an apprentice which didn’t help stifle rumours of homosexuality. So Leonardo’s life was often fraught with difficulties, which doesn’t seem fair to me. If he was alive today, I like to imagine some wealthy patron – a latter-day Medici – would be cosseting him with whatever he needed so he could simply create, unimpeded.
To say that Leonardo Da Vinci was a once-in-a-millennium-talent isn’t hyperbole, but I have to admit, it wasn’t the breadth of his creativity that impressed me the most. It was his unbelievable visual acuity. He could see the individual movement of bird’s wings in flight, and he recorded those movements in his notebooks. I didn’t really “get” how impressive that feat was until I saw those wing movements for myself on a slow-motion film. And in fact, it was only when slow motion film was invented a hundred years ago that scientists could confirm the accuracy of Leonardo’s sketches.
No wonder people speculate that he was either an alien or a time traveller!
I rather think he was a very rare human who looked at his world through completely fresh eyes. It was almost as if he was a Stranger in a Strange Land, inspecting people, plants, animals, landscapes, stars and light as if he knew nothing about those subjects and had to understand it all without relying on previous assumptions (many of which turned out to be wrong). I’m constantly inspired by his example, and in my own craft of writing I’ve tried to look at the world around me with fresh eyes, and to create that experience of wonder and excitement for readers by having a character travel from one world to another.
In my first fantasy trilogy, Shadow Through Time, characters travel back and forth from our world to the brown kingdom of Ennae, and you can’t imagine how weird our world looks to them! The series begins, however, with an Australian girl, Catherine, leaving our world and travelling through a watery portal to Ennae to find her missing twin brother. In that opening novel Destiny of the Light, Catherine (who turns out to be Princess Khatrene) will be helped through the dangerous terrain by Talis, her appointed Guardian, who will sacrifice everything to ensure her safety in a land where magic prevails and nothing is as it seems. At each turn are real and imagined enemies who will do everything in their power to prevent her from fulfilling a prophecy, including the ethereal and erotic shadow woman, the enigmatic tattooed man, even her beloved brother Mihale.
The opening novel Destiny of the Light is currently free as an ebook and I encourage you to give it a try. As one book blogger said: “If you love your fantasy to be slightly gritty but with plenty of swoony romance, Destiny of the Light is for you!”

 Louise Cusack lives in Australia, in a tiny fishing village on the southern tip of the Great Barrier Reef. She’s a long-time vegetarian and caffeine addict who mentors other writers when she isn’t writing herself. A Trekkie from way back, she loves all thing science fiction and fantasy, especially if it has a good love story. Her website is at http://www.louisecusack.com