An Author Joins Us: Susannah Appelbaum, Author of the Poisons of Caux Trilogy

Today we welcome Susannah Appelbaum, author of  The Hollow Bettle and The Tasters Guild, books 1 and 2 of the Poisons of Caux trilogy, as she takes us on a photo tour of her place of work.   Susannah comes from a family of doctors and philosophers who instilled in her an early fascination (and a great deal of caution) for bottles marked “poison.” The idea for the Poisons of Caux trilogy was born when she lived in an old woodcutter’s cottage in French apple country as a child: “Out of the door were ancient forests, wild boars, and new and inviting foods to taste.” Susannah lives in the Hudson Valley, New York, and Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, with her husband and their two small children.  

 

Here are a two industry raves, plus a few from our fellow reps…  
“[Readers] will not want to wait to see what happens to Ivy and Rowan in the second installment of this trilogy.” —VOYA 
 “Readers . . . will savor young Ivy’s expeditions and eagerly await more adventures in the land of Caux.” —Booklist  
Quick-paced, well-drawn characters, lots of suspense and plot twists. Ivy Manx is a wonderful protagonist. I liked the old-fashioned good versus bad feel in this magical adventure.  — Sarah W.
The story is really interesting, lots of cool detail about the apotheophy and still kid-accessible. — Kate 
Poisons of Caux — We have a great series starting here! While I admit that I have been ‘fantasied-out’ lately, I really enjoyed the world that was created and the characters that color it. This was a title that got my imagination going as I tried to envision this world! — Lauren 

To learn more about her, please visit: www.susannahappelbaum.com.  You can follow Susannah as she continues her blog tour:  

Monday, August 23^rd – http://fantasybookcritic.blogspot.com/ 
Tuesday, August 24^th – http://teenreads.com/ 
Thursday, August 26^th – http://cleverlyinked.com/ 
Friday, August 27^th – http://suvudu.com/ 

 

 Hi, welcome to where I work. My name is Susannah Appelbaum, and I am the author of The Poisons of Caux trilogy from Knopf. The first in the series is The Hollow Bettle, and the second, The Tasters Guild, was just released. The books are a dark adventure in botany—the story of poisons and tasters, and ultimately, the battle over ancient knowledge of nature. They feature a girl named Poison Ivy, and her taster-friend Rowan. 

 

I like to collect images of places or people that I’m writing about. Sometimes they’re from a magazine, or a book from the library. Sometimes friends send me post-cards from far-away places. Or sometimes I go to a museum and walk through their portrait collection. If I find a painting of a character I’m writing about, I’ll take a picture of it, or buy the post-card, if they have it. Then it comes home with me, and goes on this wall, or my desk. 

 

 

My desk, with a few of the post-cards I’m using from the book I’m currently writing—book III in the Poisons of Caux trilogy. 

  

 

My bookshelf. All my ideals and deficiencies on display. 

 

A few old bottles. I like to think of them as containing questionable things. 

  

My cat, Molasses. She’s 19 ½, which, I believe, is 136 ½ in cat years. She likes to be with me when I write, and will curl up beneath the lamp on my desk.