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

I have another post of Arctic pics lined up, but I wanted to change to the subject for a moment to something closer to home. Here's something we received from some of my dear people at Penguin after we got married.




 Umbrellas, magical worlds, and joint adventures! My editor, Kathy Dawson, found the card, and my artist and mapmaker for Bitterblue and Jane, Unlimited, Ian Schoenherr, revised it :o). Jane, Unlimited readers will hopefully understand why.

My mouth fell open when I saw it, and I promptly burst into tears. Thank you to those involved -- you know who you are :o).

More soon!

I've just gotten home and am going through my mail. It's a day for unpacking, organizing, trying to remember and reinstate my routines, and figuring out which way is up. I like days like this. They're cozy and slow, and I don't put a lot of pressure on myself. Especially since I handed in a draft right before I left, I have the added pleasure of deciding what I'm writing next. This thing that I probably should work on, or that thing that's knocking on my door, begging to be worked on? And, now that Arctic Trip Prep is no longer my biggest extracurricular activity, I finally get to dive into some other projects that have been on hold. You know your life has opened up a little when you're actually looking forward to tasks like choosing new health insurance now that you're married, and figuring out whether you need to keep paying for long-term disability insurance. Sigh.

This morning, I find myself spending some time with my favorite piece of mail -- the S…

Seems like there are a lot of book birthdays recently. Today, Jane, Unlimited comes out in paperback. Not only is she at Amazon and Barnes & Noble, but at Powells, she is a Pick of the Month! She's probably also at your favorite indie bookstore :o).

Also, I want to share something I've been doing lately, in case it's something you might like to do too. Do you know about Postcards to Voters? Now and then, when I have a few minutes, I've been writing postcards to Democrats who live in districts with important upcoming elections. It's an impressively organized system — very easy to get as many addresses as you have time for instantly — and it makes me feel less powerless and more hopeful. If you're a person who wants more registered Democrats to show up at the polls, consider checking it out! (Edited to add: the voting date for Danny O'Connor is actually August 7, not August 2, so if you're joining in, do NOT copy my postcard! Agh!)

I walked home through a lovely, gentle rain, then propped my umbrella up in front of the couch to dry. Seeing a package waiting, I opened it eagerly, suspecting it was the paperback of Jane, Unlimited. Then I noticed something matchy!


Some things, at least, are aligned in this universe.

The other day, I wrote a blog post with the heading, "These times make me inarticulate."

I wonder if any of you noticed my misspelling? I changed it as soon as I noticed it, but for a little while, it said, "These times make me inarcticulate"…

I'm afraid I have the Arctic on the brain :o). That's because in October, I'm going to be doing an artist residency for a couple weeks on a tall ship in the Arctic Circle, opening my writing heart and mind to that vulnerable ecosystem. I bet it will affect everything I write thereafter.

The remarkable organization making this possible is called The Arctic Circle. The photos you'll see if you go to that link are not out of this world, they're right at the top of this world, but you may think otherwise when you see them. In the words of the organization, "International artists, scientists, educators and innovators will live and work aboard a Barquentine Tall Ship while sailing the waters of the inter…

In some other universe somewhere, some other version of me blogs all the time. She blogs about the writing she's doing every day, how hopeless it feels, where her motivation comes from, what's hardest today, how she keeps her spirits up when the end feels so far away, what it's like for those who support her emotionally and/or live with her :o). She blogs about the small adventures she's having all the time, and what they mean to her. She blogs pictures of the crocuses poking through the endless snow. She blogs more about what it was like to write Jane, Unlimited, and how it feels that next fall is the tenth anniversary of Graceling. (Next fall is the tenth anniversary of Graceling, everyone! ^_^) She probably doesn't blog much about current politics, because even Imaginary Kristin has her emotional limits.... But. She blogs a Whole Lot More.

I have some adventures coming up in 2018 that I will definitely be blogging about. 100%. But not today. Today, once again, I&…

There are so many things I've been wanting to blog, including the lovely news that Jane, Unlimited made the list of YALSA's 2018 Best Fiction for Young Adults. But I'm trying to finish a book -- getting so close to finishing a book -- and that takes precedence. So. In lieu of real, in-depth, interesting blogging... here's a photo of us today at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, MA. Their current exhibition XYZT is around through most of April and is one of the most fun things I've ever done in a museum. And this room containing this light is just so beautiful.

More when I can! Godspeed to all writers.

Before I start, a couple of important things:

There's a documentary airing on Monday on PBS called Unrest, about MECFS (Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome). I hope you'll watch it and pass the word on. Official blurb: "Jennifer Brea is working on her PhD at Harvard and about to marry the love of her life when she’s struck down by a mysterious fever that leaves her bedridden. When doctors tell her 'it’s all in her head,' she turns her camera on herself to document her devastating symptoms. Searching for answers, Jennifer discovers a hidden world of millions confined to their homes and bedrooms by ME, commonly known as chronic fatigue syndrome. Together, Jen and her new husband, Omar, must find a way to build a life and fight for a cure."

MECFS is a devastating illness that has not received the attention it needs from the medical community, for all sorts of f***ed-up reasons. Many of the people with this disease can't be their own activists…

Now that I'm home from my tour, the mad rush is behind me, which means that now and then, I have little pockets of time for blogging. When I can, I'd like to fill some of those pockets with blog posts about what it was like to write Jane, Unlimited. This is a weird little book and writing it presented some unique challenges.

Before my first installation, though, I'd like to share some really nice news. I'll share it in the form of a humongous THANK YOU to Kathy Dawson and my team at Penguin; my agent Faye Bender; and all of the many readers who came together to put Jane on the New York Times Best Seller List and the Indie Bestseller List (for the second week!). Thank you, thank you, thank you, everyone, for this gift. I think that if Jane found out about this, she would be astonished and overwhelmed. Hm. Although probably the realization that she's a character in a book would trump the realization that the book is a best seller. HA! I wonder what umbrella she woul…

One of the secret delights of being the author of three standalone fantasy novels that differ in their protagonist, their emotional tenor, and their pacing is that a lot of readers will tell me which one they prefer. And (astonishingly), readers' preferences seem to be pretty evenly divided among the three books. It makes me SO happy that each of my books is finding its right readers. But it also teaches me something about how writing relates to reading – something about how little control I have over my readers' experience of reading. Every time a book is read by someone new, it becomes a different and unique book. One of the awesome things about being an author is watching my books become things I never expected or intended! That's the power of a book. Books are more powerful than writers or readers. Maybe books are as powerful as writers and readers combined?

I bring this up because Jane, Unlimited is a book that contains five different stories in five different genres…

I know I have a book coming out on September 19 (which you can pre-order at Powell's,  Amazon, B&N, or your local independent bookstore, *cough*), and that's supposed to be the only thing I'm thinking about.

But the truth is that I'm mostly thinking about another book: the one I've written 330 pages of so far and am about to start rewriting (again) from the beginning (again) because I keep learning new, important plot things that change everything that went before.








Godspeed to all writers.

Head's up that I'm doing another giveaway of Jane, Unlimited over on Twitter.

And, if you're undecided about whether you want to read Jane, consider the advice of the Barnes & Noble Teen Blog, where Melissa Albert wrote a review that melted my heart. Melissa Albert's upcoming debut novel, The Hazel Wood, is fabulous, BTW. :o)

I haven't been great about sharing nice news about Jane, Unlimited in the world, because life has been busy, and also because... well... I would generally rather talk about anything other than my own books! Ha! Also because I keep forgetting which things are public and which haven't been officially announced yet, so then I end up not saying anything at all. So. I'm disorganized. BUT, I know I'm allowed to say that Jane has been chosen by public librarians as a September 2017 LibraryRead, along with nine other beautiful books – check out that list. Also, I can report that so far Jane will be translated into Swedish, Russian, and Polish, and also Spanish and Portuguese for the Latin American market. I don't have any timing on that yet, but I will report things as I learn them!

In the meantime… It's birthday week! You know, when I was a kid, forty sounded so freaking old. But now that I'm in my forties, I feel so young – and so connected to myself at so many …

All of my events will involve an "in conversation" with a local author or book person, a Q&A, and a signing – and possibly also a brief reading, though we haven't worked out the details yet. I'll be blogging again with more details as we sort it out! I hope I'll get to see a lot of you out there. Here's a bit more info, with more to come soon:

Tuesday, September 19th at 7 PM -- with Tui Sutherland!
Harvard Book Store
1256 Mass Ave
Cambridge, MA 02138

Wednesday, September 20th  at 6 PM
Oblong Books & Music
6422 Montgomery Street
Rhinebeck, NY 12572

Friday, September 22nd  at 6:30 PM
Parnassus Books
3900 Hillsboro Pike, Ste 14
Nashville, TN 37215

Saturday, September 23rd at 4 PM 
Barnes & Noble
12193 Fair Lakes Promenade Drive
Fairfax, VA 22033

Sunday, September 24th at 2 PM
Quail Ridge Books & Music 
4209-100 Lassiter Mill Road
Raleigh, NC 27609 

Monday, September 25th at 6 PM  -- with Stephanie Perkins!
Malaprop’s Bookstore
55 Haywood S…

For those of you not following me on twitter – head over there to enter a Jane, Unlimited ARC giveaway! https://twitter.com/kristincashore/status/889493426076516353

With apologies for my recent failure to update my appearance schedule (and everything else too) -- if you're in New York and if you're at Book Expo, I'll be signing ARCs of Jane, Unlimited tomorrow from 2 to 3 at the Penguin booth. Come and get them! :)

Today we moved me into my new office (yay!) and it feels so good. The coming week has a trip and my house move, so it'll be a few days before I'm in the office regularly, but I can tell I'm going to love it. I'll post pictures once it's in order. Send good thoughts to my enormous corn plant, which definitely experienced some trauma during the move today... I think the plant might hate Kevin now, actually, though he was only doing what had to be done (and what I couldn't do, because I can't lift the damn thing!). It didn't fit in the van and had to be propped weirdly sideways and wrapped up in garbage bags and hauled back and forth; it crashed to the ground more than once; we also repotted it today. But you're home now, plant! Live!

So, that's my new cover above. Here's the link again for anyone who'd like to read an excerpt. Pub date is September 19 :o).

And in the meantime, some really, really lovely news about the Graceling Realm book…

I am happy and proud to direct you over toEntertainment Weekly, where my new cover is on display, along with an excerpt from the new book :o). Jane, Unlimited comes out September 19. Thank you so much to everyone at Penguin, especially Kathy, Claire, Elyse, and the entire design team, for this lovely cover reveal. My character Jane is an umbrella-maker... see if you can sense the umbrella-ness of the cover :o). Enjoy!

I have permission to share that my cover reveal for Jane, Unlimited will take place on Friday at EW.com. I'll link to it once it's up. An excerpt will also be available, so you can get a taste of this book that's very different from anything else I've published so far :o).

And that's all the news for the moment. More soon!

I have a new book coming out in Fall 2017, and I'm finally allowed to talk about it. :o)

It's called Jane, Unlimited. I won't say a lot for now—more will be forthcoming—but for today... Jane has led a small and mostly ordinary life, raised by her aunt Magnolia—an adjunct professor at a small college and a world-traveling deep sea photographer. But when Aunt Magnolia dies unexpectedly on one of her expeditions, Jane finds herself adrift, and when an invitation comes from an old acquaintance to accompany her to a gala at her family's island mansion called Tu Reviens, Jane leaps at the chance. There, her story takes a turn, or rather, five turns. What Jane doesn't know is that Tu Reviens will offer her choices that can ultimately determine the course of her untethered life. But at Tu Reviens, every choice comes with a reward, or a price.

This book has been years in the making, and has gone through more revisions than any of my previous books, probably because its str…