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

I love what Jay Smooth has to say about language, communication, the "N-word," our society's rules about the use of that word, what a double standard is, and what a double standard isn't. Thanks to Jay Smooth for seeing the complications and expressing them well -- as he always does.

If you've got 12 minutes today, consider watching Jay Smooth's TEDx Talk, called "How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love Discussing Race," presented at Hampshire College (yay Hampshire! My sister, codename: Apocalyptica the Flimflammer, went there). Transcript and related links coming soon to Jay Smooth's website.

So, am I insane if after traveling from Vail to Denver to Seattle to Palo Alto to San Jose to Austin to Houston to Miami to Jacksonville all in one week and doing lots of events and not getting enough sleep, I'm ecstatic that today I'll be spending the day in a very small house with my sisters (secret codenames: Cordelia and Apocalyptica), my brother-in-law (scn: Joe), my newborn twin nieces (scn: Phoenix and Isis), my mother, my father, two cats, and one flying squirrel?

In other words, it is Monday; I am in Jacksonville; my parents are here from New Jersey; Apocalyptica is bringing her flying squirrel all the way from Massachusetts; and I remember my pride. And tonight everyone will (tentatively) be at my event! BEST DAY OF THE TOUR.

:o)

In other news: I love the way Jay Smooth thinks, and I love the way he talks. This time, his subject is Roman Polanski.

It's possible that I have not entirely recovered from BEA.

Maybe it'll help if I share some of the goodness with you:
I got to spend a quiet minute with Suzanne Collins. I treasure that minute. She is definitely a kindred spirit.I had a lovely time answering questions and signing books at Books of Wonder with Melissa Marr. I was running on empty by that point, but I still enjoyed it thoroughly. Melissa is a cool cookie. She gave me swag to throw at the lovely people in the audience, which was nice, because I hadn't brought anything of my own to throw at lovely people.A person in the Penguin booth handed me a Fire ARC for a photo op, then forgot to ask for it back. Naturally, I slipped it into my bag and sneaked away with it. (Authors don't get a lot of their own ARCs, so I've developed a klepto habit. Which is apparently not working, because here in my stash I seem to have a grand total of... *counts* ... ONE? Wait, I could have sworn I had at least two. Ha…

I can do it! I can lift it! Just give me a minute and I will crush you!


I am fierce! I will squash you with giggles!

1. At long last, here are the images I promised from the School Library Journal photo shoot, all photos by the wonderful Jensen Hande. Some of you may notice that I am not wearing the snood. If this upsets you, which would be perfectly understandable, blame my sister, secret code name Cordelia. She said the snood didn't match the sword. (In color? In shape? In atmosphere?) Also, she kept calling it a snoot.
2. My uber-cool friend Rebecca Rabinowitz guest posted at Shapely Prose the other day with recommendations for fat-positive children's books. Part One is about picture books and Part Two is about middle-grade and young adult books. Definitely worth checking out.

3. I saw FOUR baby blue herons on the pilings the other evening. When they flew away they were all flappy and floppy. It was stupendous.

4. Cordelia may have snood anger issues, but nonethele…