This Is My Secret: The Blog and Website of Writer Kristin Cashore

I bet I'm the only YA writer who gets asked frequently, "What's the story behind your snood fixation?"
Well, dear reader, I'll tell you, and by the time I'm done telling you, you're going to wish you never asked.
It all started last August. I was preparing for a School Library Journal photo shoot in which I was to wear medieval garb and wield a sword. I picked out the perfect snood for the occasion. I was so excited about the snood. It was the B.E.S.T. thing I'd ever purchased. But when I tried everything on for my sister, secret code name: Cordelia, SHE TOLD ME THE SNOOD LOOKED STUPID!
As you can imagine, I was devastated. Naturally, I took the story straight to my publicists, Sarah and Barb, because I knew they would understand and shower me with sympathy -- which they did, and more! They embraced the entire snood moment and came up with a new battle cry: SNOOD, BE DAMNED! (Highly satisfying when bellowed.) Over the weeks, the battle cry evo…

My FAQ pages are up. Click on the "Frequently Asked Questions" link on the left, which will bring you to my FAQ Index... or, if you're not actually on my blog at the moment, just go here.
If you've been reading my blog for a while, there won't be anything new, but the questions are more organized now. And if you're new to my blog and have sent me questions, you'll find a lot of answers there.
In honor of the occasion, I'll answer one new question:
On your "My Books" page, you say that Katsa, Po, & Co. will appear in Bitterblue. What do you mean by "& Co.?" *smile* Literally, it means, "and company," but I don't think that's what you're asking. What it really means is that I'm close-mouthed about works in progress -- I need to be, for my own writing process -- and I'm not willing to name the Graceling characters who appear in Bitterblue just yet, other than Katsa and Po. You're not the on…

Starting with newsy bits of newsy news: Graceling is on the 2009 Amelia Bloomer List (Recommended Feminist Literature for Birth through 18). What an awesome list to be on. Thank you!
It's also on the Locus Magazine 2008 Recommended Reading List, in the First Novels category.In case you're interested, the February issue of the magazine SFX contains a profile of me and a super-nice review. It's the issue with Wolverine on the cover. :o)I'll be a guest of honor, along with Tamora Pierce and Sherwood Smith, at Sirens, a conference about women in fantasy literature taking place in Vail, Colorado next October. I'll put up more info about this soon.Graceling is on the Long List for the brand new David Gemmell Legend Award for Fantasy. Your votes decide who makes the Short List, so, if you care to vote for, ahem, anyone in particular, please go here. :o)Congrats to all the Cybils winners! Moving on, I'm still working on my FAQ Project. Here are a few questions I g…

First, a friendly reminder to anyone reading my blog on LiveJournal or at Amazon or, really, anywhere other than at my actual blogger blog: I won't see your comments unless you come to my Blog Actual to leave them. Sorry for the confusion. Syndication complicates the world!

La la la. Next up, behold my cover for the German edition of Graceling!

♥. And I don't just love the image; I love the title. Die Beschenkte basically means "One Who Has Been Given a Gift," more or less, except all in one awesome word. Or so I'm told. What do you think?
Moving on, a great question (with no spoilers) came to my inbox the other day from an aspiring writer:

I love to write, I need to write... but at the same time, I am afraid of publishers and editors and agents. Not so much about rejection letters or working with them, but sending my work to them. I know it must sound weird, or maybe not. How did you cope with it when you sent Graceling away? Was it really hard to let you…

Behold the final cover for the French edition of Graceling!

Whaddya think? Quite a departure from the others, huh? I get a real kick out of it myself and would love to hear what you think :o)
Also, want to listen to me talk about my name? (I can just hear the screams of excitement out there.) You can do so here, and then, after that, you can go listen to other people talk about their names. Really! It's fun!
So, I'm in the midst of a Project: I'm trying to put together an official FAQ page. I'm organizing and consolidating the questions I've answered so far; looking over ones I want to answer soon; trying to decide how to present everything so it's user-friendly; etc. And, while bumbling through my list of questions-not-yet-answered, I found myself wanting to answer this one. (For the spoiler-cautious: no spoilers!)
I'm a bit of a packrat when it comes to books. You couldn't pry them from my cold, dead hands. Do you get rid of your books once you…

(From The Princess Bride ^_^)
Today I'm answering FAQs about marriage. (That dweam wifin a dweam.)

Spoiler status:ALL of these questions contain Graceling spoilers, which is why I'm separating this paragraph from the questions themselves with a delightful picture of my youngest fan, whose name is Callum. If you don't want to know what happens in Graceling, STOP READING!
CONSIDER YOURSELF WARNED!

IF YOU'RE STILL READING, YOU'D BETTER BE IN THE MOOD FOR GRACELING SPOILERS!!!!
(Okay, yes, I take spoilers more seriously than perhaps is necessary. ^_^)
1. Will Katsa and Po ever get married? I never, ever discuss future plot things, except with my editor, my agent, and my official First Readers. This is partly because (1) until a first draft is written, I need to be free to have it to myself, without the interference of anyone else -- without the pressure of other people's questions, worries, opinions, or expectations. It needs to be my book and only my book, my busine…

The gorgeous image on the right is a composite Hubble/IRTF image of storms on Jupiter. I got it here and you can read more about it here. Lest you be impressed with the ease with which I fling around high-tech telescope-y terms (like telescope-y), be assured that I have no idea what I'm talking about. But I like the pretty pictures.
A piece of news: Graceling is one of School Library Journal's Best Books of 2008. yAt!
And now, a few more FAQs.
Spoiler Status: The following FAQs are spoiler-free.
1. When you start a book, what is it like? Is the book just sitting in your head, mostly formed? Where does it come from? What a great question. For me, when I start a book, I've got parts of it formed in my head -- pivotal, dramatic tension between characters that hasn't necessarily formed itself into clear scenes with dialog and action yet, but that will form itself as I continue to mull it over. I guess what I have at the beginning is the feeling of my characters, and the…

Spoiler status: The following Frequently Asked Questions are generally spoiler-free. I do give away something about the way Gracelings look in question 3, so if you're positively psycho about spoilers, skip #3.

1. Can I chat/IM with you online?*smile* That is a very sweet question. Truth is, I don't chat online with anyone, not even my best friends. I seem to have an allergy to the entire concept. I don't do Facebook or MySpace or any of those things, either. I like to keep my life simple.
2. You keep talking about how hard it is to write Book 3 / Bitterblue. Can you tell us why it's so hard? *smile again* I guess I didn't realize what I was getting into. Which is just part of the human condition, right? You make a seemingly innocent decision; you don't realize what you're getting into; but now you're into it, and there's no turning back. You've just got to figure out the best way through. Didn't somebody once say, "The best way …

First, a thank you to every single person who's emailed me. I read every email and I love every email. I wish I could respond to every email!
This post will be my first attempt to answer a few of the questions I've received.

FAQ disclaimer: I enjoy receiving questions about subtext, so I'm not saying don't send me questions about subtext. But just know this: I won't answer them. :o) The book serves as its own explanation; you come up with your own interpretations. Make sense?
Spoiler status: The following FAQs are, by most standards, spoiler-free for people who have not yet read Graceling. However, if you are psychotic about spoilers (like me) and haven't read Graceling, only read questions 1, 2, and 6.

1. I've always thought of fantasies as world-building books where the authors create the characters after building the world. But that doesn't feel like the case in Graceling, because the characters seem so real. Which came first: the characters or …

Disclaimer: I don't answer questions about subtext. The book serves as its own explanation; you come up with your own interpretations. Make sense? Okay, here goes. :o)
You talk about Graceling, which is out now; Fire, coming out in the fall; and Bitterblue, which you're currently writing. How do they fit together? Are they prequels, sequels, etc.? They are loosely connected. Fire takes place about 35 years before Graceling in a nearby land. Bitterblue takes places six (correction: EIGHT) years after Graceling, in the seven kingdoms. I'm going to refer you to my My Books page, which answers the question more fully (and which does contain some minor spoilers, along the lines of what you'd find on a book jacket). (2/16/09)
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Why did you decide to write the books that way? When I began Graceling, I never had any intention of writing another book in that universe. But then, at some point, a character in Graceling mentions an imaginary land he's heard about i…

What is your stance on fanfiction/slash, particularly of your worlds/characters?
*smile* I rarely read and never write fanfic, and I would certainly never want to read fanfic about my characters or worlds (for legal reasons and because it could interfere with my process). But I quite like the concept, I'm glad people in the world are writing fanfic, and I don't care what fanfiction writers do with my characters and worlds, as long as I don't have to read it and as long as they're not making money off of it. Actually, I'll go a step further -- I think I'd find it flattering and fun to hear that my characters had entered the world of fanfic. (6/8/09)
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Can I chat/IM with you online?
*smile* That is a very sweet question. Truth is, I don't chat online with anyone, not even my best friends. I seem to have an allergy to the entire concept. I don't do Facebook or MySpace or Twitter or any of those things, either. I like to keep my life simple. (12/1/…