Oh, I love a bit of cake.

Caaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaake! High in calories? Low in calories? Cake. Oh, I love a bit of cake! (Little Britain reference. I'm not crazy).

This week the team at Auckland Libraries have received some delicious looking cookbooks featuring a few of my favourite things (namely cake). I thought you guys might be interested as cake is delicious and tastes like happiness.

One of my personal favourite cookbook writers Delia Smith has bought out this lovely new book called Delia's Cakes. It looks very British and amazing. I can't wait to make the cherry cake and then eat the whole thing, probably by myself.

From timeless classics like coffee and walnut sponge and old-fashioned cherry cake, to exciting new recipes such as iced hidden strawberry cup cakes and chunky marmalade muffins, Delia brings her touch of baking magic to your kitchen.

The Caker 
I really like the look of this one because Jordan Rondel has really tried to write a cookbook that isn't like very other one on the shelf; it sounds like her company has tried to do that too! Full of beautiful, colourful pictures and beautiful, colourful cakes this book is even a treat to look at. Plus she's a Kiwi so we've got to show her some love! Check out her website here.

Absolutely not your ordinary baking book: 50 outstanding and delicious recipes for cakes, cookies and cupcakes to bake at home, presented by the talented Jordan Rondel aka The Caker. The cakes are specialty treats not usually seen in cake shops. Some are gluten free, dairy free or vegan and Jordan uses as many organic ingredients as possible. The flavours are surprising combinations that will thrill your taste buds. From fig and raspberry cake, brown butter spice cake and earl grey tea cookies, to flourless black forest cupcakes, chai latte cake with condensed milk icing and black pepper, and peanut butter and jelly cake. Includes 15 gorgeous icings and toppings, and top baking tips from The Caker herself.

Last but not least is girl who I had never heard of until today but the cake on the cover of her book Stacie Bakes caught my attention. Apparently Stacie Stewart was on Masterfchef and now she's a judge on a show that involves Simon Cowell. Okay, so I don't know much about her but her book looks scrumptious!

Since reaching the finals in Masterchef in 2010, Stacie Stewart has launched her Beehive Bakery to critical acclaim. Her bakes and cakes have proved enormously popular at festivals and events around the country- and now she has been named judge in the sweet baking category on Simon Cowell's new show, Food.glorious.Food, to be aired in 9 hour-long parts on prime time ITV1. This book includes all of Stacie's most well-loved recipes, from Beehive bars to Cheesecake brownies. She gives a modern twist on traditional bakes, so there's a lemon meringue pie cake, a coconut baked Alaska and a ginger parkin. There are gluten-free recipes too, including Old school bakewell tart and an orange and almond cake. You will find tarts, cakes, biscuits, bars, puddings, breads, sweets and savoury pies. There's something to suit every occasion, with chapters ranging from Hello summer and Mother's Day & vintage tea to The homemade valentine and New year, new you and new baking rules. 

New book release now available!

Time for a shameless advertisement from your sponsors.

There is a HOT new fantasy romance available now called Cursed, by Emma Benedict. Who happens to be me, writing under yet another pseudonym. Appealing to fans of Stardust and The Princess Bride, it's a medieval romantic comedy with fairy tale stuff thrown in. Click here for the blurb, and to request it. Although if you want to download it or purchase the paperback, I'd be even more grateful!

I got sick of waiting for publication to happen through normal channels, and frankly I'm too tired. Between full-time work at busy Auckland Libraries, studying for my library qualifications and writing a new novel, I'm just too exhausted to go chasing and marketing and pushing myself out there. My previous publishers say Cursed isn't "Kiwi enough". Tell that to Margaret Mahy. Others aren't quite sure whether it's teen or it's adult, or which genre to stuff it in.

So I cheated. I self-published on Amazon.

I am hanging my head.

Does self-publishing count as real publishing? Somehow I don't think so. If a book pops up in cyberspace, where there's no one around to read it, does it really exist? After all, to publish is to make public. Not very public if it's festering in a dark corner of the internet, is it, along with the airport pick-up schedule from the Tampa Proctology Conference 2006?

It's terribly snobbish of me, I know, but it's kind of true. When you print your own work, it's only your judgement that it's any good. And usually, I'm sorry, it isn't. Although a lot of what comes out of professional publishing houses is a load of arsebiscuits, at least they know how to punctuate. Also, nothing compares with the lottery feeling of someone thinking you're worth it. Someone making you feel Chosen.

I've been feeling pretty depressed about the whole gig lately, anyway. It'd be easier if I could just resign myself to a life of 9-5, but unfortunately the writing disease is incurable. My blood is one part ink. Someday, someday my print deal must come.

Meanwhile, for the love of God, someone buy my book.

The Hills Are Alive With The Sound...

A shortish post from me this week.

The body as they say is willing but the brain has decided  to go on complete strike and be bloody difficult. Writer's block sucks.

Big time.

Still it could be worse.  This post could have started with "See Jane run.  See Dick run." which is just about the standard that my brain is capable of at the moment.

I'm going to blame it all on the BBC and Big Finish.

Now I never thought of myself as an audio book fan.  I had, of course, tried some many years ago but somehow I found them just a bit... flat.

Then I got onto Big Finish.  First with their array of Stargate audio books and then with their 8th Doctor Who adventures starring Paul McGann as the Doctor. Wanting to expand my horizons from just listening to science fiction I then discovered the BBC or more accurately BBC4.

It was like finding the holy grail.  Or least what I imagine it would be like.

The variety that the BBC produces is enormous.  From comedies to crime dramas to Shakespeare and Sci-Fi.  I have become hooked.

And like all addictions I just have to share.  So here's just a small taste of what I have been listening to and more.

Murder in the title [compact disc] : a Charles Paris mystery / Simon Brett.

I *adore* Bill Nighy.  So when I found that he featured in a series of radio dramas featuring an alcoholic, womanising actor who seems to constantly stumble across dead bodies where ever he goes I just had to give them a try.

And I'm so glad I did.  The Charles Paris mysteries featuring him are just marvellous with Nighy being... well Nighy..

Cabin pressure. Complete series 2 [compact disc] / written by John Finnemore.

A BBC4 find.  The appeal of this was that it featured Benedict Cumberbatch.  Or the Cumberbeast as he is known as to his many fans.  It also sounded really funny.

And it is. Gloriously so.

 In fact I guarantee this will have you laughing out aloud.

The adventure collection. Volume 2 [compact disc]

As a Doctor Who fan I just had to try these series of adventures read by David Tennant.

Though they don't have a full-cast like the ones above, Tennant's voice worked really well for me.

Then again I'm probably biased.


Torchwood [electronic resource] : the lost files.

The last story in this audio book made me cry.

Really.

I bawled my eyes out.

If that's not a recommendation I don't know what is.

Desert Island Discs [compact disc]

I haven't listened to this - yet.

But it's on my list.

The idea of famous people being interviewed about what book, music etc they would take to a desert island sounds fascinating, so how could I not give it a go.

The big sleep [compact disc] / Raymond Chandler.

I love the movie The Big Sleep with Humphrey Bogart so finding out that there was a audio-dramas - done by the BBC no less, I just had to add it my list of To Be Listened To.

It also features Toby Stephens (member of the RSC,  son of Dame Maggie Smith and the villain in the James Bond movie Die Another Day).

I can so imagine him as P.I. Philip Marlowe.

How I went from Rebel Wilson to North Korea in a few clicks of my mouse

I was browsing Youtube the other day when I cam across a video by Hank Green from Vlogbrothers about North Korea. Aside from the fact that the Vlogbrothers are my absolute favorite YouTubers I decided to watch the video because I don't know a huge amount about North Korea when I really should. It's a really great video so I encourage you to check it out:

In response to this video John Green (the other half of Vlogbrothers and the author I talk about all the time) made this video about the book Escape from Camp 14 : one man's remarkable odyssey from North Korea to freedom in the west which is about the only known prisoner to escape from a North Korean concentration camp called Camp 14. John does a much better job of explaining the book than I ever could so I've posted the video below. 

This is what I love about the internet. I go on YouTube so watch Rebel Wilson opening the MTV Movie Awards and end up learning about North Korean concentration camps. Thank you internet, you make me smarter. Obviously the videos/book that I stumbled across are much more important than the cast of Pitch Perfect gyrating. So I've requested this book in hope of educating myself about the world we live in. I encourage you to do the same. Check out the publisher's description of Escape from Camp 14 below:

"North Korea is isolated and hungry, bankrupt and belligerent. It is also armed with nuclear weapons. Between 150,000 and 200,000 people are being held in its political prison camps, which have existed twice as long as Stalin's Soviet gulags and twelve times as long as the Nazi concentration camps. Very few born and raised in these camps have escaped. But Shin Donghyuk did. In Escape from Camp 14, acclaimed journalist Blaine Harden tells the story of Shin Dong-hyuk and through the lens of Shin's life unlocks the secrets of the world's most repressive totalitarian state. Shin knew nothing of civilized existence - he saw his mother as a competitor for food, guards raised him to be a snitch, and he witnessed the execution of his own family. Through Harden's harrowing narrative of Shin's life and remarkable escape, he offers an unequaled inside account of one of the world's darkest nations and a riveting tale of endurance, courage, and survival." 

Why Auckland Libraries is mostly off Twitter today

"What you hear
What you see
Ain't always what's it's s'posed, to be..."
- Misty Frequencies by Che Fu


The day is a little bit crazy, and certainly nothing is as it's supposed to be right now.

In light of the explosions that took place during the Boston Marathon, our Auckland Libraries tweetstream will keep the channel clear for today. We will, of course, respond to queries and feedback as needed.

I feel that it is not the time to be all about us. It is not the time to tell people what events they should come and see, what books to read, what blog posts we've written lately, or which community libraries to visit. Even less is it the appropriate time to be my usual fangirl squeeing self about all things geeky. At a time when people are needing updates, and to contact family and friends, and to make sense of the day's events, I feel like anything we have to say today on Twitter would only get in the way of that.

Take care of each other, people.

Boston, you are in my thoughts.
 - tosca