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

Everybody, good news all around. And -- I need your help deciding what to toast with!

Graceling is the winner of the SIBA Book Award in the Young Adult category! (SIBA is the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance.) Oh my goodness, the indies have been so kind to me -- I can't even express my gratitude. Thanks so much to SIBA. And everybody, buy indie!
In other good news, I am heading to MA tomorrow, and my stuff arrives soon after. I am so ready to be surrounded by boxes that are to be unpacked, rather than boxes that are to be packed.
Hopefully calmness to come -- eventually, anyway -- now that the move is nearing its end. In the meantime -- I am the happy owner of some new wine glasses that I love madly... but I'm more of a beer drinker, and am only recently getting into wine. Can anyone out there recommend some nice wines for beginners? Red wines, please, because my new glasses are big fat balloon goblets, and I think those are for red wine? :D?
Happy week, everyo…

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…

Graceling is a finalist for the 2009 SIBA Book Awards in the YA category, along with Sarah Dessen's Lock & Key and Trenton Lee Stewart's The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey. It is so nice to be honored by people you admire (indie booksellers!). Thank you so much to the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance! Go indies!

Speaking of the South, I would like to state for the record that Florida is the only place I've ever lived where I've needed to use sunglasses, a sun visor, a raincoat, rain boots, sunscreen (for the small portion of leg not covered by coat and boots), and a golf umbrella simultaneously. The river is high and the gutters have given up. Is it ever going to stop raining here in north Florida?

In other news, I promised a short post today, but is it cheating if I link you to a long interview? Follow that link to read my Summer Blog Blast Tour interview at Hip Writer Mama and/or to enter a giveaway of ten copies of Graceling. …

Graceling has hit the children's bestseller list in Italy. Somewhere in a Sicilian graveyard, the spirits of my great-great grandparents are dancing. I think there might be a few people dancing in South Jersey, as well :o)
The Nebula Awards were announced this weekend, and the winner of the Andre Norton Award (for which Graceling was a finalist) is Ysabeau S. Wilce's Flora's Dare: How a Girl of Spirit Gambles All to Expand Her Vocabulary, etc., etc. Congrats to Wilce! I haven't read any Flora books yet, but they're at the top of my list. I know from talk among my friends that the SFWA made an excellent choice. :o) All the 2008 Nebula winners are here.
The Graveyard Book has been named the ABA's Best Indie Young Adult Buzz Book of the year. It's also the book I read over the weekend. It made me happy; it's beautifully written and beautifully simple, and creepy and sad. Congrats to Neil Gaiman. Graceling was named an honor book in the same category…

Thus spake National Book Award-winning Sherman Alexie.

Here are a couple of myths about YA lit: (1) YA is all like Harry Potter. (A myth popular among those who've read little YA other than Harry Potter. And don't get me wrong, I love Harry Potter! But he's SO not representative of all YA. No single series could be.) (2) YA is only read, loved, lauded and applauded by young adults.
BWA-HA-HAHAHAHAAAA! LIES! ALL LIES!!!!!
Ahem.
Are you a person who hasn't read much YA? If so, I am now going to recommend some beautiful and complex YA literature that will knock your socks off, even if you're so old that you grew up in the 1920s wearing spats, making your socks more difficult to access. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie (realism)
The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume One and Volume Two, by M.T. Anderson (realism)Postcards from No Man's Land, by Aidan Chambers (realism)The House on Mango Street, by…

A new link to the left: My appearance schedule. I'll update as I get more info.

A reminder that there's going to be a conference in Vail, Colorado in October called Sirens, all about women in fantasy -- Tamora Pierce, Sherwood Smith, and I are the guests of honor. The website is here and the LiveJournal is here. It's going to be FUN, not to mention gorgeous scenery!
Also, go here to learn more about the Simmons College Summer Institute 2009 in Boston in July, called Crimes and Misdemeanors. Some of the names on the program (that's a pdf file, btw): Gareth Hinds, Lenore Look, Marilyn Nelson, Martha Brooks, Kevin Henkes, Avi, Blue Balliett, JonArno Lawson, Natalie Babbit, Ellen Levine, Jack Gantos, and M.T. Anderson. (and me)
Next, a couple of answers to recent questions: Yes, there will be a Graceling audiobook. It's by Full Cast Audio and comes out in June. And yes, Graceling is available as an ebook. Buy the Kindle Harcourt (USA) edition at Amazon, or the ebo…

Spanish cover ---> click to enlarge --->

Hi everyone! What's going on with you these days? Ready to hear my 4 for the win?
1. TWO OF THE WORLD'S BEST PUBLISNOODS So, if you've been reading my blog for a while, you may recall my snood-ish battle cries, such as, OUT, DAMN SNOOD! and SNOOD, BE DAMNED!, invented by my Ladies of the Snood. Well, those ladies, Barbara Fisch and Sarah Shealy, former Associate Directors of Publicity at Harcourt Children's Books, have launched their own company, Blue Slip Media, specializing in publicity and marketing for children's books. Barb and Sarah are priceless. They're talented, experienced, great at what they do, so much fun, and they always made me feel completely taken care of. (They once gave me the best tip ever for conquering the fear of public speaking: Just picture everyone in their snoods! HA HA HA HEE hoo) ANYWAY. If you're in need of publicity work, hire them. (And don't worry, they won't com…

Hi all!
The news:
Graceling is a finalist for the Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy (the SFWA's award for YA given concurrently with the Nebulas). Its fellow finalists areLamplighter, by D.M. Cornish; Savvy,by Ingrid Law; The Adoration of Jenna Fox, by Mary E. Pearson; and, with the best title ever (in my opinion), Flora’s Dare: How a Girl of Spirit Gambles All to Expand Her Vocabulary, Confront a Bouncing Boy Terror, and Try to Save Califa from a Shaky Doom (Despite Being Confined to Her Room), by Ysabeau S. Wilce. In other words, I'm in fine company -- and why isn't my title 33 words long? :o)
Also, Graceling is a nominee for the 2009-2010 Georgia Peach Book Award. Check out the other nominees here, and forgive me for not listing them -- there are 20. The cool thing about this award is that teens in the state of Georgia vote for the winner. The other cool thing is that I'm in the company of Melissa Marr's Wicked Lovely, Suzanne C…

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…

This Monday post comes to you a bit later than usual -- firstly, because it's ALA award day, and I wanted to be able to link to the 2009 Caldecott, Printz, Newbery, et al winners; and secondly, because I wanted a little time to reflect.
Warm congratulations to all those who won awards and honors. Here's the list. I'm particularly thrilled that Melina Marchetta's Jellicoe Road won the Printz Award, which recognizes excellence in literature written for young adults. Jellicoe Road is a marvelous, complicated, sad, hopeful book. Well chosen, Printz committee! And The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart is a Printz Honor book -- yay! And I'd be raving about the other Printz books, as well, no doubt, except that I just haven't read them yet. :o)
Also, a very special congratulations to Elizabeth C. Bunce, author of A Curse Dark as Gold, the winner of the ALA's new Morris Award, which honors a book for teens written by a first-time auth…

Graceling is a finalist for the Cybils, the children's and YA bloggers' literary awards, in the Fantasy/SF category ^_^. Check out all the categories and all the finalists here. I haven't read most of the other finalists (yet!!), but those I have read happen to be among my favorite reads of the year, and I recommend them highly -- see below. Links are to their Amazon descriptions. Oh, and I don't include The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins below, because I've only just started reading it, but I will say that at 25 pages in, I have already laughed, cried, AND screamed out in surprise. So, um, it's safe to say that I have high expectations of enjoying that one :o)
The Cabinet of Wonders by Marie Rutkoski



The Magic Thief by Sarah Prineas



A Curse Dark as Gold by Elizabeth C. Bunce



The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart



Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta




Jellicoe Road reminds me of the disproportionate amount of Australian literature I've …

Thing number one: The ALA is introducing a new award this year, the William C. Morris Award, which honors a book for young adults written by a first-time author. Graceling is a finalist! Go here to see all the lovely books. Thank you, Morris committee! I'm so happy and grateful.
Thing number two: My friend Rebecca guest-posted at The Rotund the other day. It's a super post about the intersection between fatness, HAES, and disability, and you can read it here. For those unfamiliar with the term HAES, it means Health at Every Size, and is a movement -- a peace movement, as Linda Bacon says -- that has to do with honoring your body, listening to its wants and needs, dropping the focus on dieting and weight loss, and accepting that everyone has a unique healthy size. If HAES interests you, btw, in addition to visiting Linda Bacon's site you might want to check out her book, which I hear is wonderful. And for even more about HAES, check out Body Positive's HAES site.…

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…