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 In June last year, talented Brisbane author
Louise Cusack dazzled us with her first fantasy novel, Destiny
of the Light, Book I of the “Shadow Through Time”
trilogy.
Now, the magic, romance, adventure and intrigue
continues with Daughter of the Dark…
Louise,
your enthusiastic readers have waited nearly a year to read Book
II of your Shadow through Time trilogy. Was it harder or easier
to write the second book?
A
lot easier, in fact. I already knew the characters and was
emotionally invested in their stories, so it was just a matter
of taking up the plot where I'd left off in book one, which
meant no time was wasted on character development or
world-building. Although, having said that, the Airworld of
Atheyre and the Fireworld of Haddash, which were only touched on
in book one, are settings in Daughter of The Dark so
consequently they needed to be fleshed out and made 'real'.
Have
you always wanted to write fantasy and how hard was it to get
published?
I've
always been a sci-fi fan with a penchant for love stories, so I
haven't always wanted to write fantasy. However, now that I've
done it I think I'm hooked! I've long been a lover of fairy
tales and children's stories, and fantasy lends itself so
beautifully to those themes. Destiny of The Light is
really Alice in Wonderland for grownups. Daughter of The Dark
follows in a similar vein, although this time it's a male
character thrust into the 'stranger in a strange land' scenario
- a champion from Ennae stranded on our earth. His awkwardness
made for some funny and touching situations.
As
to how hard it was to get published in the first place, I have a
wonderful agent, Selwa Anthony who arranged the sale of the
trilogy - my first book sale. I had been with Selwa for five
years at the time and had completed quite a few projects,
although none of the books had sold. Still, that early work
proved that I could write and finish a novel (very important
when you're selling a trilogy and have only written book one),
and it also helped hone my skills as a writer. I'd always known
I would write my little princess story one day, but I didn't
dive into that first up. I wanted to be skilled before I
attempted it. When the time was right, I did. And it sold
straight away.
Many
would-be writers think the greatest challenge in getting
published is finishing the manuscript, but what do you do once
you hand the book over to your publisher?
My
experience is that you heave a small sigh of relief, maybe take
a week off, then get on with book two and write like crazy
because within a couple of months you'll get book one back from
the structural editor. Destiny of The Light came back
with post it notes all over the manuscript and a detailed
nine-page report on what needed to be fixed. I put in three
months of very long hours (I must be learning - the second book
was much quicker) then dived back into book two and only stopped
when the line edit for Destiny arrived a couple of months
further on. I went over all the marks the editor had made on the
manuscript (changes on every page) to decide whether I
agreed with them or not. Mostly I did. Sometimes I could see
what the editor wanted but her changes didn't sound right to me.
I work by 'ear' and how the flow of the sentences sound, rather
than by strict grammatical rules, so sometimes I'd change her
editing to rectify the problem but in my own words. Once the
line edit was completed I posted it away and got stuck back into
book two. Closer to the publication date I saw artwork for the
Destiny cover and then the page proofs came for me to check (at
the same time a copy editor was checking them as well). I made
last minute corrections and pointed out any typos - not much
room for change at that point - then sent it back.
The
next thing I got was my advance copy and let me tell you, you
are definitely allowed to take the whole weekend off and curl up
in bed reading that, reminding yourself of what a great
story you've written and how everyone is going to adore it.
After all the hard work, you will definitely have earned it!
Is
the Shadow through Time trilogy “the book” you have
always wanted to write?
Absolutely.
I've had this story running through my mind since I was quite
small, probably 7 or 8. Alice in Wonderland was my
favourite book as a child, so I would lose myself in this
fantasy where I was a little princess who had been exiled on
earth (doesn't every little girl think she's a princess). In
this fantasy I would return to my real homeworld to search for
my missing brother - an angelic twin who was loving and kind and
who never teased me, unlike my real brother at the time. As I
grew older the story became richer, the details more solid. As a
teenager I had crushes, and so the Champion with his unrequited
love for the princess entered the plot. I matured and the
characters themselves became more complex and realistic. By the
time I was ready to write it they were real to me. They still
are.
When
you started writing Destiny, did you have all three books
set out in your mind, or has the story evolved with each
page?
When
I started writing Destiny I didn't even realise that
Khatrene would have a child, let alone that it would be a
special child whose destiny it was to join the Four Worlds. That
came later. All I knew at the start of writing Destiny
was that Khatrene would find her twin, she would be deceived and
betrayed but would eventually find love.
My
characters are real to me and although I have a strong idea of
what they need to do (their motivations), I don't really have
any idea of what they will actually do, or what problems they'll
come up against. I only seem to discover that as I go along.
Often I'll be typing something and thinking "Jeez, who
would have thought that would happen!" In some
respects it's scary to work without a detailed plot, like a
trapeze without a net, but I have a low threshold of boredom. I
like to discover things at the same time as the character. It
does mean a little more rewriting at the end, but it's never
dull.
As
to plotting the whole series, by the time I was at the end of
Destiny, I had a rough idea of the main thread - Glimmer's
destiny to join the Four Worlds, but I still have no idea how
that will be resolved and I'm 30,000 words from the end of the
final book, Glimmer in the Maelstrom. My writing friends
think I'm crazy, but I just know it will all work itself out. It
always does. You just need faith in yourself and the process.
Does
it make it difficult when one book is published and you can’t
change “the past”?
Oh
yeah. In fact, I'd love to write the whole trilogy in draft next
time. But from a professional point of view, I'd like to keep
putting out a book a year, so that's a bit of wishful thinking.
This series has been quite complicated with 15 or so main
characters and four linked worlds that move at different times.
It would be great if I could say, "Next series I'll just
make the story simpler" but because I don't 'make' the
story, it makes itself, that's never going to work. My
characters must love that old Chinese curse, to 'live in
interesting times!'
Your
second book is entitled Daughter of the Dark but there
are two daughters of the Dark. Who is the heroine in this book
and what is her role?
There
are parallel stories in book two - what's happening here on
Magoria (earth) with Pagan and Glimmer, then what's happening to
Lae in Ennae. The link is their love for each other and their
desire to be reunited. I don't want to give away the ending, but
I will say that it's not a repeat of book one. Not that I set
out to make it different - although that's a good idea, to make
sure readers don't get too comfortable with your style or you'll
be stuck in a narrow slot - but it just worked out that way. As
I might have said before, the characters will do what they want
to do, not what I hope or want them to do.
Regarding
the title, there's a very good reason why book two is not called
DaughterS of The Dark, but to find that out you'll just
have to read book three.
When
I read Destiny, I fell in love with its heroine Khatrene
because of her vulnerabilities and her brave resignation to
being thrust into a world so different to Magoria, our Earth
world where she was sent for protection. But Khatrene is often
kept on a pedestal, protected by her Guardian. Is Lae a stronger
character and will this show out in the second book?
You're
right, Khatrene was protected because she was The Light who must
not die, but she rebelled against the 'cotton wool' treatment.
Luckily for her in Destiny she was only unprotected for a
short period of time and she managed to weather that.
Unfortunately Lae, for the majority of book two, has no champion
at all and she suffers! You really get to learn what she's made
of and how resilient she is in the face of some pretty terrible
circumstances. I don't think that mentally she's any stronger
than Khatrene, it's just that she gets more opportunities to
rely on her own resources.
I
have to admit: my favourite part of Destiny was, Talis,
Khatrene’s Guardian. I mean, wasn’t he “to die for”?!
Pagan, your leading man in Daughter of The Dark, is a
character that we have already came to know and love in Destiny
but can he match Talis for courage, honour and strength?
And
then some! I think there's something really exciting about a
rogue turned hero. Pagan's Guardian training provided him with
the power to heal and protect, and even before he was given the
responsibility of guarding Khatrene's child he showed he would
risk his life to defend what he believed in. He was just an
idiot with women, totally arrogant and basically had no ideas
past sex. Now he's in love so he's a born-again romantic,
but there's still this lovely unpredictable edge about him. You
know, those sort of men who seem outwardly conventional but
you're never quite sure if they'll do what they're told.
At
the end of Destiny, Talis and Khatrene escape to the
Airworld, Atheyre. Do they return as characters in Daughter
of the Dark and what role do they play in the coming of The
Catalyst?
Talis
and Khatrene aren't actively involved in Glimmer's life but
their subplot is more subtle and insidious (remember Khatrene's
brother Mihale is still with them) and they have an active role
at the end of the novel.
Who
is your favourite character in your trilogy?
That's
hard. I think I have a favourite in each book. For Destiny
of The Light it would have to be Pagan. Because he was
such a pratt, he was fun to write.
In
Daughter of the Dark, I really loved writing Sarah
McGuire. She's the funeral home owner who finds Pagan and
Glimmer when they first arrive on Magoria (our earth). Sarah is
such a delightful contradiction of bolshie independence and very
endearing vulnerability - just the sort of woman you'd want for
a friend and the perfect foil for Pagan's insecurity and
arrogance.
In
book three, Glimmer in the Maelstrom, I adore Petra, whom
you won't meet until that book comes out. Again she's a Magorian
(earth) character who simply walked into a scene one day, quite
unexpectedly, yet was perfect in every detail and so very real
it was actually frightening, as if I'd caught someone astral
travelling and dragged them into my story.
How
do you make your characters so deep, so real? Do you model them
on real-life people or do they spring from your imagination? How
much of “you” is in each of your characters?
I
think I've just hit on it in the previous question. I don't
'make them up', they come to me fully formed. They just turn up
in my mind and it's not until they start moving and talking in
the scene that I discover things about them.
In
a crucial scene from Destiny of The Light where Khatrene
is about to realise she loves Talis, Pagan tells her how Talis's
mother died, and even as I typed in the details I was gobsmacked.
It explained so much about Talis's character and why he was so
protective of Khatrene. I'd had no idea. That's how it happens
for me. The characters just do their thing and I write it down.
I do make decisions about which scene to write next and whose
story I'm following in it, also whose viewpoint I'm writing the
scene in, but after that they just drag me along.
Many
of us have read Destiny, some of us many times, but can
new readers enjoy Daughter of the Dark without finding it
confusing, as with some other second books in trilogies?
I
hate a lot of 'set up' at the start of books (that low threshold
of boredom again) and wads of explanation as you go, so I was
determined not to do that. However, I did need to feed some
details in during the course of the novel so that those who were
new to the series, or had read Destiny 12 months ago and
needed a reminder, wouldn't be lost. Even then, my editor felt I
needed an initial piece to set the scene. A prologue. Luckily
for me, Breehan is the Storyteller of the Plainsman, and as I
had to introduce his little band of runaways early in the novel,
it was an easy matter to have him tell his young charges a story
from their near-past. That served the dual purpose of setting up
the start of book two and introducing a new character for book
three. The Plainsmen children are so mischievous it was
delightful to write, and hopefully will be delightful to read.
What
makes the Shadow through Time series so special?
When
I read a book, what makes it special for me is when the
characters have a life outside the story - beyond what I've read
on the page. If I can imagine them talking and eating and
sleeping, making love and fighting battles, whatever, then they
have become real to me. That's what I look for in a book. Frank
Herbert's Dune series did that for me when I was a
teenager, and I've been wanting to do that for other people ever
since.
Not
long after Destiny came out I got an email from a reader
who said 'your characters are so real I feel like I could look
over my shoulder and see them.' I just cried. I've had lots of
similar letters since then and every one is immensely
satisfying. To bring a fictional character to life has to be a
writer's greatest gift.
What
do you plan to do when you finish your trilogy? Can we expect
another fantasy feast in a couple of years’ time?
I'm
already working on themes and ideas for my next fantasy trilogy
and will say at this point that I want to base it on a fairy
tale, but again with a grown-up twist. I like the idea of the
cross-culture experience, where people from our world go to
another or visa versa. So perhaps there might be an element of
that in the story if I don't feel I've explored it to death
already!
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Shadow
Through Time 2: Daughter of The Dark