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

That's a mouthful.

February 14 is Pan-Universal Be Who You Are Day! (For those of you who are new to the blog, eight years ago I decided to reclaim Valentine's Day and turn it into something else.)

I don't have a lot of time this afternoon, but in the spirit of this alternative holiday (ack, the word "alternative" no longer means what it used to mean),  here are fifteen funny cards for people who see Valentine's Day differently from how we're told to see it.

And here is an article, with lots of pictures, about an artist named Ambivalently Yours who considers ambivalence to be a form of feminist resistance. After I read this article, I wandered over to Ambivalently Yours's website and spent some time scrolling through her various drawings. It made me feel... seen, as a sensitive, emotional, complicated, and strong-as-nails person. Maybe it'll make you feel that way too.

I hope you have a lovely day, being whoever you are. :o)

Happy Pan-Universal Be Who You Are Day, everyone! (For those of you who are new to the blog, a few years back I decided to reclaim Valentine's Day and turn it into something else.) Here's sunrise this morning, in the order in which the various colors happened. Kevin, this is a good day to thank you again for Fancy Camera. :o)

If you've been around my blog for a while, then you know what I think of the societal assumption that a life isn't full without romance. You also know that while I sympathize with romantic (and every other kind of) cowardice, I really wish that after tea and cake and ices, J. Alfred would force the moment to its crisis. Finally, you know how much I dislike Valentine's Day. LISTEN, I have many opinions and they are all CORRECT.

Sigh. Valentine's Day makes me belligerent.

Pan-Universal Be Who You Are Day, on the other hand, makes me happy and proud. Click on that link if you have no idea what I'm talking about and are curious about why I have renamed Valentine's Day. I'm not being obscure on purpose, I'm being obscure because I am being hit over the head repeatedly by a manuscript right now and linkiness is possible whereas coherent explanations are not. Apologies; this is not going to be my best Pan-Universal Be Who You Are Day post ever. Here's a pic…

Click my Indonesian cover to enbiggen. Hello to my new Indonesian readers! *waves* ------->

So, three years ago, I decided to declare February 14 Interplanetary Be Who You Are Day. If you don't have the energy to click on that link, don't worry, I'll explain. But first, I would like to announce that in the spirit of inclusiveness, I am changing the name to Pan-Universal Be Who You Are Day. Now, not only extraterrestrial and extragalactic people but also alternate versions of ourselves can join our celebration! (Listen. You go ahead and start a holiday and see how hard it is to draw lines.)

So, there are a lot of things I don't like about Valentine's Day. For example, the working conditions of the people who grow our flowers. The muddy, murky issue of conflict diamonds. The child labor crisis in the chocolate industry. (I'm not actually trying to be depressing here! Just honest. The reality is depressing. I'm also not suggesting I'm any more innocent …

I'm giving myself 15 minutes to write this blog post. If I'm not done in 15 minutes, then it's not posting. Because, you know, I'm on a blog break here.

Here's the thing about being on a blog break: what am I to do when people around me keep doing super-cool things that I want to blog about? Now, you may or may not have heard about the brouhaha over at Bitch Magazine when the magazine did what was, um, kind of a shoddy job of assembling a list of "100 Young Adult Books for the Feminist Reader." Here's the good news: Amy Stern has decided to use Bitch's list as a starting point and has created a new forum for talking about intersectionality in YA novels. It's called The YA Subscription and here's what it's all about. I think this'll be a very cool place for discussion; check it out! Amy has already posted her thoughts on A Wrinkle in Time as a feminist text.

(Yikes, 8 minutes left!)

I've found the news from Egypt to be so stirring …

Hello everyone. This is your friendly author Kristin here. I wanted to let you all know that I have lost my mind. Here is an emoticon of me standing next to my disembodied head. I am thinking of using it as a soccer ball.

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Here is an emoticon of me bravely using my laser vision to vanquish a flying apple while balanced on a yoga ball. When you've lost your mind, you think it's normal to do things like this.

o~-~-~-~-~-~-~ß|O


Here is an emoticon of me on the flying trapeze. This is actually a sane thing I like to do from time to time, though my mother might argue otherwise.

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Ah, those were carefree days. Not like now. Here is an emoticon of me dead from too much work, in profile.

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Wait, she stirs!

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Again, she stirs!

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Is there hope?

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No.

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There is no hope.

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Diagnosis: DEAD.

O_____,


So, this is what we've been reduced to on the blog. Here's the deal: I am not actually dead. However, I don't have a lot of time or energy right …

[Warning: There is a Buffy Season 7 spoiler at #23. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!]

So. There are so many things to dislike about Valentine's Day -- which is why last year, I renamed February 14 "Interplanetary Be Who You Are Day." The link will take you to a quick explanation, though I think you'll get the idea if you read on. It's mainly about how Valentine's Day likes to exclude people who don't deserve to be excluded.

Who are you, and what is your place in the world right now? I'm going to bet that whatever your answer, there's no shame in it, and Interplanetary Be Who You Are Day is the day to celebrate that fact. Last year, I made a list of identities in which there is NO SHAME, on February 14 or ever. Here are a few additions to the list:

1. A person who's never been in love, wants to be, but doesn't know if she ever will be.
2. A person who's fallen for the Wrong Person.
3. A widowed person who's falling in love again, and a widowed…

So, there are a lot of things I don't like about Valentine's Day. For example, where our roses and diamonds come from. But less urgent, and closer to home, here's something else I don't like about Valentine's Day: it tries to divide people up into two neat categories. (1) People who are madly in love and happy. (2) People who are single, sad, and pathetic.
C'mon! That's so reductive! There are a bajillion kinds of people; there are a bajillion ways to live; there isn't one good, happy way to be and one bad, sad way to be -- COME ON!
This is why I'm renaming February 14th Interplanetary Be Who You Are Day. Here are some identities in which there is NO SHAME on that day (or on any other day!): A person who is thinking about getting a divorce but isn't sure.
A person who has decided to have a cat and begonias instead of a husband and kids even though it will disappoint her mother.
A person who has decided to move to Massachusetts and marry his bo…