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

Guys, look what you can get at Crate & Barrel for only $400.

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NEVER SKIMP ON YOUR WHITE RECTANGLE.

So, I recently realized that a problem in my house can be solved by getting a new bookcase. I'm very excited to have an excuse to get a new bookcase. It also gives me an opportunity to mention another local indie that I adore, and that you should check out if you live in the Cambridge area: The Door Store, at 940 Massachusetts Avenue, between Central and Harvard Squares. They're a small, family-run business, and can make certain types of wooden furniture to order. (They made my TV stand and the little table inside my front door to my specifications.) They also have a lot of beautiful handmade furniture lying around ready to be bought. The staff is made up of men and women who are carpenters and who know what they're talking about. Also, they won't charge you $400 for a mass-produced white rectangle.

Next, Tui has some lovely vids up on her blog. And I also lik…

Let's start with a new cover that I LOVE. Here's Graceling in Japanese, published by Hayakawa:


Can I have that outfit? At least the boots? Next, here's one of my favorite things.


Let me help you parse that picture: an orchid sits in a leather chair. (No, that's not where I normally keep it. The sunlight was streaming through the window where it normally sits, plus, it was being encroached upon by an aloe plant on one side and a zebra plant on the other, so I moved it to someplace dignified for the sake of the picture.) A stake protrudes from the soil and a small red monster sits atop the stake. A stem with a few buds is growing its way up the stake. BUT! BUT! Guess what? A few weeks ago, that stem didn't exist. It was an orchid with a pot, big green leaves, a stake, a monster, and NO STEM. Then I went to Australia and left my orchids in the sunny window of a hot apartment for two weeks. A friend watered them for me. When I got back, they ALL made it very …

Taiwanese cover for Fire, published by Gaea Books --->

So, one day in Hamburg, I saw a man who was carrying one of the most beautiful umbrellas I have ever seen. It had panels that were all these different kinds of deep purples and reds and I LOVE UMBRELLAS. I pursued him, natch. I'm not sure what I would have done had I managed to catch him. I guess kick him really hard, grab the umbrella, and run. Maybe poke him with it a few times to discourage vengeance. Tragically though (for me, anyway, maybe not him), he got away.

I notice when I'm in a place with beautiful umbrellas. Not every town takes pride in its umbrellas. Cambridge does. So does the little Bavarian town of Coburg. It was raining that day we were in Coburg, and my lovely traveling pal Ulrike and I were just fine with that, because we were, um, frankly, EXHAUSTED, and grateful for an excuse to sit in the window of a pancake house, eat Pfannkuchen, and watch the beautiful umbrellas go by.

Here I am, eating my (delic…

A lot of hard work by a lot of smart people whose job is to find ways to get you to pay attention to the book in question.

LA LA LA hmmmm I wonder what's in this box?













Pens? Pencils? A tiny bow and arrow? A flaming red wig?

Or how about...













Chocolates! Specifically, FLAMING chocolates. From left to right: chili-champagne praline; chili-raspberry praline; chili-truffle praline; bittersweet chili praline.












"Chili pralines: dangerously beautiful!" HA HA HA HA

This little box of promotional Fire-related candies is just one of the things my German publisher, Carlsen, did to help draw attention to Fire in Germany. I'm not sure who they were sent to, but I'm guessing bookstores and sales reps (?). And I got one, too! So far, I can't bring myself to eat them, mostly because they're so beautiful, but also because *ahem* they smell a little funny :o). Carlsen, you are too kind to me and my books.

Okay, that's it for now. I hope to have time to write a little more about…

I had this plan to write a big, huge post about my time in Germany, but every time I sit down to do so, it feels really time-consuming and hard. All of my hard-writing energy these days is reserved for Bitterblue. So here's what I'm thinking I might do instead: blog about little pieces of my journey here and there, when I have the time, and when it feels like a nice break from my work.

Today, I'm going to share one little part of my visit to Hamburg. Did you know that the port of Hamburg is one of the largest ports in the whole wide world? I went on a harbor tour and my little boat took us in and among the container docks, where we watched cranes loading big, huge containers on and off of big, huge container ships that had come all the way from Budapest, Monrovia, Cyprus, Bilbao. The containers were stamped with some brand names I recognized, and others I didn't. I got shivers watching all that work take place, guessing that some of the things I use are probably in thos…

When I'm really, really tired and trying to juggle too many balls (metaphorically), sometimes my short-term memory completely vanishes. For example, I'll be walking along the street, see the cash machine, and think to myself, "Maybe I should get some cash just in case I need it at the airport tomorrow. Should I? Shouldn't I? Yes, I should!", I'll think, proud of myself for making an important travel-related decision. Then I'll look around in confusion, wonder why I'm having a conversation with myself on the sidewalk, and walk home. Forgetting all about the cash. Or, something that just happened 15 minutes ago: I'll let myself into the lobby of my building, and then, as I'm walking the short distance to my door, put my keys away in my bag, proud of myself for this excellent example of multitasking. Finding myself at my door, I'll stare at the door in confusion, remember I need the key to get inside, then panic for a moment, because I can…

This morning, while running along the river, I saw that the recent rain had melted all the snow and ice that's been floating on the river for months -- except for these two round clumps of snow near the footbridge. Then their necks came out of the water and I realized they were swans. Welcome, swans! And just now, as I sit here dictating, the sun has broken through the clouds. I cannot believe it's March.

I am thrilled to report that I now have my German tour schedule to share. (ETA: the readings will be in both English and German, alternating. I will read the English. I will not read the German!)

Monday, March 14: Hamburg7:00 p.m.Reading at Allee-Theater, Max-Brauer-Allee 76, Hamburg
Tuesday, March 15: Erfurt8:00 p.m.Reading at bookstore Buchhandlung Peterknecht, Anger 28, 99084 Erfurt
Wednesday, March 16: Gustavsburg3:00 p.m.Reading at Buch- und Kulturzentrum Villa Herrmann, Mozartstraße 3, 65462 Gustavsburg
Wednesday, March 16: Rüsselsheim8:00 p.m.Reading at bookstore Bücherhau…

I cannot recommend last weekend's This American Life, called "DIY," strongly enough. Here's the description from the website: "After four lawyers fail to get an innocent man out of prison, his friend takes on the case himself. He becomes a do-it-yourself investigator. He learns to read court records, he tracks down hard-to-find witnesses, he gets the real murderer to come forward with his story. In the end, he's able to accomplish all sorts of things the police and the professionals can't." Sounds dry, right? IT SO ISN'T. It's an unbelievable story (and the closest I've ever seen TAL get to the warm fuzzies) and what blew me away were the people -- you will not believe these people. You can listen to it here.

If you've ever built IKEA furniture (or looked at the instructions), I bet these instructions for building Stonehenge will make you laugh. :o) Thanks, R.

After finishing Jhumpa Lahiri's Unaccustomed Earth, I wandered aro…

It has been brought to my attention that I'm working too much. Thank goodness for the people in my life who point out to me, now and then, that I have the tendency to work too much. This blog is not work. It's fun, it clears out my head. So... here comes some randutiae!

I loved the Peter Gabriel Cover Story on Coverville last week. Covers by and of Peter Gabriel. It's here if you want to listen.

The world map I've had on my wall for years has finally disintegrated, and here's the one I got to replace it. Ever notice how most maps of the world stretch the far northern and southern latitudes out, so that Greenland seems to be as big as Africa, even though actually, Africa is more than 14 times the size of Greenland? There are, of course, understandable reasons why maps do this, BUT the map I got deliberately emphasizes the relative size of the world's land masses instead. It also happens to be a nice, clear political map. I love it.

I have agreed to do an event at t…