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

First things first: on the right is the Graceling cover for the Portuguese language edition published by Alfaguara Infantil & Juvenil in Portugal (not to be confused with the Portuguese language edition that will be published by Rocco in Brazil). ---->

Okay, ready?

Book most recently read and enjoyed:
Kushiel's Dart, by Jacqueline Carey.

Book I'm currently reading (and enjoying):
The Magic Thief: Found, by Sarah Prineas.

Next book I'll read:
Well, these things are impossible to predict, but The Name of the Rose, by Umberto Eco, is calling to me.

Book most recently purchased:
Diana Comet and Other Improbable Stories, by Sandra McDonald.

Book not yet published that I've ordered from my local indie:
Mockingjay, by Suzanne Collins. (duh)

A random 7 of the 14 books I have checked out from the library:
Territory, by Emma Bull.
Should We Burn Babar?: Essays on Children's Literature and the Power of Stories, by Herbert Kohl.
Scars, by Cheryl Rainfield.
Nation (sound recording), by …

Since this is a post about beauty, I wanted to use my most beautiful book cover as an icon. Not an easy choice, but I found myself returning to an old classic.

So, I've got two things to show you today. The first is from NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day; it's the photo from April 26, which I've had bookmarked for a month and half now, waiting until I had time to blog it.



This is a dust pillar of the Carina Nebula. Here's an excerpt from the NASA page: " Inside the head of this interstellar monster is a star that is slowly destroying it. The monster, on the right, is actually an inanimate pillar of gas and dust that measures over a light year in length.... The pink dots around the image are newly formed stars that have already been freed from their birth monster."

Go to the page actual to read the rest; click the photo to see it bigger; or just look at it for a minute and, if you've read Fire, check out that monster on the right, an arrow in he…

Warning: trapezey photos ahead!

And an apology: this one got long!

But, first: Gollancz, my UK publisher, is releasing YA editions of my books under their new imprint, Gollancz YA. (Prior to this, my books were published in the U.K., Australia, and New Zealand for the adult market only.) And here's the Graceling cover ----> click to see it bigger --->

So. Back to business.

Here's the thing: sometimes I find it difficult to take breaks from my work. Writers, of course, are not just working when we're physically writing. We're working when we're wandering around the house trying to remember where we put our pen (answer: in our hair). We're working when we're reading. (Oooo! How did this writer just make me feel that way? Can I do that to my readers?) We're working when we're out for a walk. (Ooooo! How can I describe that sky?) We try to watch some TV, and then Sophie on Leverage describes a con that gives us an idea for the scene we're tryin…

Hi everyone! I'm tripping over un-unpacked luggage and drowning in unanswered mail, but it was a super trip. And now I'm happy to be back to -- and overwhelmed by -- my normal writing schedule.

First, click on the photo to the right to see the large print U.K. cover of Graceling, just out from Clipper Large Print. Like it? I do.

Second, click on "play" below to watch Diana Comet present a periodic table of 75 Years of Fabulous Writers -- women who wrote and write in the fantasy/SF genre. It's really cute. And informative. Sandra McDonald's latest blog post for Diana Comet Presents sent me to my library catalog to put Carol Emschwiller's Report to the Men's Club on hold.



Third... if you're a baseball fan, then you probably know about the bad call that robbed Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga of a perfect game on Wednesday night, with two outs in the ninth inning. (Here's the video.) My heart broke a little when I read about it; I expect th…

There are times when I wander around feeling like I have way too many things I want to blog... and then, the more I think about it, the more I realize I'm wrong about that, because all those shiny topics basically break down like this:
40% things that are too personal for blogging.40% things that would take up too much of my free time and sanity points (for example, a list of all the ways the Vatican blows my mind, seriously, WTF?).20% things that are boring as nails.As you can see, I've chosen the boring as nails category for this post.

(Incidentally, not all nails are boring. For example, mine. Also, come to think of it, Spike's.)



(You see what we've been reduced to here on the blog?)

Truth: I don't have anything to blog today, this week, or possibly this eon. Except for these two little things I want to share:

1. Above is the cover of the Complex Chinese character edition of Graceling, published in Taiwan by Gaea Books and scheduled for May. Click to see it bigg…

The Italian cover of Fire, published by De Agostini. Click to enbiggen. The text means something along the lines of, "Her mystique is a gift as sharp as a blade." :D ------------>

My subject heading is a David Gray song (click here to listen) that popped into my head the instant I walked into my hotel room in Lisbon and saw the view of the river. (Lisbon is situated on the Atlantic, and on the Tagus River, which flows into the Atlantic, as per this map.)

I wasn't prepared for the beauty of this city. I've heard San Francisco compared to Sydney, but why have I never heard it compared to Lisbon? I can see the Sydney/San Francisco connection, which has to do both with attractiveness and with the progressive culture, but LISBON is a city of extreme hills and close knit buildings and colorful rowhouses like San Francisco's (though the buildings are older and more European in feel, naturally), not to mention a gorgeous reddish-gold bridge that made me blink when …

Fire cover for the French YA edition, published by Hachette Jeunesse (click to enbiggen) ----------->

Hi everyone! It's my third country in a week and my third language adjustment. Luckily, I never managed to learn much Dutch, so my Dutch is not interfering with my mangled attempts at French the way my Italian is. Do you think the cabdriver minded when I left him with an enthusiastic, "Merci, signore!"?

I am in Paris. You know all those things everyone always says about Paris? Turns out they're true. One thing I know for sure about Paris is that after I leave, I intend to come back. (I felt the same way about Amsterdam, btw. Though these are two very different cities. For starters, Paris is huge. But Amsterdam is just beautiful! The architecture -- the tall, skinny houses along the canals -- so pretty. I took a canal cruise with my lovely editor during a free moment; it was perfect.)

I have no book events in Paris. I'm here because I needed a place t…

My character Fire's name seems to have created a challenge for almost all of my translations so far -- for a bunch of reasons, but most often because the direct translation of the word "fire" tends to be masculine.

The Italian word for "fire" is the masculine "fuoco." The Italians kept Fire's name as Fire -- but flipping through a copy, I noticed that Archer is named Arciere, the Italian word for "archer." I like it!

In French, the word "fire" would be pronounced like "fear," more or less, which isn't a very nice name, and the French word for "fire" is "feu," which isn't a nice name, either, and is masculine.... so the French renamed Fire, and the book itself, Rouge. Makes sense... but a few things are lost. Primarily, the explicit connection between the character Fire and all the references to actual fire -- flames -- in the book.

I just got my Dutch version of Fire. I don't have a c…

The Spanish cover of Fire, published by Roca (click to enbiggen) ----->

I always feel just a little bit sad right before a big work trip. I think it's because of Bitterblue, or whatever my WIP is at the time. I just want to write her, and it's hard to imagine being able to write her during so much excitement. During my domestic tour last fall, I managed to cliff-hanger myself right before I left, by which I mean that I was able to time it so that I left just as I was getting to a big, exciting, fun-to-write scene. That made it a lot easier to get writing done while on tour, despite all the distraction -- and to get back into writing full-time once I got home. But I'm not sure I'm going to be able to do that this time. I seem to be bogged down in a muddy section. We'll see what happens.

I also get nervous before a trip like this, and so I do a little meditation and imagine myself floating above the earth, and then out into outer space, outside the solar syst…

Hello! Your floopy author here, jumping in on a Tuesday eve with stuff and things.

Check it out -- the cover of Fire, Catalan edition, published by Grup62! Click to see it bigger. I secretly love it, even though it, um, has problematic associations in English :) ----------------->

So, as everyone knows, the best time to decide to write extra things is when you already have way too much to do. This is why I've written a guest post for the lovely Justine Larbalestier. It's one I promised some time ago, about trapezing, writing, and trust, and you can read it on Justine's blog here, complete with silly pictures.

Finally, over at Sarah Miller's blog, Sarah is trying not to let the pigeon procrastinate. (If you're a fan of Mo Willems's Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus, this video will be especially delightful, but it's damn cute even if you've never encountered the belligerent pigeon.) It's only a minute and 15 seconds long, and it will make…

Thursday randutiae!

First, the cover of Fire, French adult edition (published by Orbit France). -------->

Second, a new addition to the Gallery of My Favorite Objects. Here's a bunny I faced the other day:





















And here's his antelope (?) and canine (?) friends. I faced them, too.
















These fingers puppets were made by Donna Marbet, and I got them at the Cambridge Artists Cooperative in Harvard Square. The nails were painted by me. :o)

Moving on: for you poor, patient souls who are not Buffy fans and put up with me anyway, my title today is a line from a song in the Buffy musical episode. You can listen to it here. And here's my favorite song in the episode, just 'cuz, well, yeah, okay, I'm trying to convert you.

Next up, behind this link is an article by Paul Campos and Marilyn Wann about fat politics -- specifically about how, in their words, "it's simply wrong to judge people based on what they weigh." Read it, do! Hat-tip goes to Rebecca Rabinowitz, …

Slovak cover of Graceling ------------>

So, one of my favorite tasks this time of year is The Changing of the Daily Planner (henceforth, ∆DP). ∆DP involves putting last year's and this year's planners side by side; going through last year's; and writing into this year's, in ink of significant colors, the things that happen every year (birthdays, bill-paying days, tax-paying days, etc.). It also involves writing into this year's planner all the plans for 2010 that I've already made.

I LOVE THIS TASK. This is partly because my daily planner is the Women Artists Datebook, which contains quotes at the bottom of every page, artwork every few pages, and poems here and there. While moving from the old planner to the new one, I get to review last year's favorite quotes and poems and peek ahead to this year's.

Today I'm going to share some of the joy of ∆DP 2010. :o)

A few favorite quotes from the old year:
... the job of the artist is not to resolve or bea…

Hello, beautiful people! I'm back. How was your December? Mine was fabulous. I've been doing a lot of traveling... and I also received two intriguing packages:

(1) My Czech and Slovak Gracelings, published by Ediposs. The Czech cover is on the right. I would tell you what Výjimečná means, except that I don't know! The Slovak title is Výnimočná. If there are any Czech or Slovak speakers out there who'd like to educate me, please feel free to leave a comment! [ETA 6:42pm: both titles are the feminine form of "someone who is phenomenal or exceptional," more or less. Thank you to Marek from Slovakia for the translations!]

(2) A super surprise from my Book Blogger Holiday Swap Swapee, Heather from Tales of a Capricious Reader!

Heather was thoughtful and did her research. Courtesy of my somewhat awkward MacBook camera, here's my loot (starting at the top and going clockwise): pens; hot chocolate; a beautiful little hand-made journal with a Paris theme (per…

8. Warm hellos to everyone coming to my blog from NaNoWriMo. Welcome! The comments you've written here and there in various posts have brought tears to my eyes. Thank you! I really do know what it's like, and I really do hope you'll keep writing despite how hard it is, and despite all the voices that tell you not to. (To any of my regular readers who have no idea what I'm talking about, I wrote a pep talk for National Novel Writing Month, which you can read here.) To all those writing novels/short stories/fan fic/WHATEVER this November: good luck. Don't forget to be kind to yourself and KEEP THE FAITH.

7. For those of my blog readers who are Megan Whalen Turner fans -- and I know there are a lot of you -- check out her interview last week at Hip Writer Mama.

6. Next, remember the other day when I mentioned Tu Publishing, a small, independent multicultural SFF press that needs funding to get off the ground? Well, now there's a new, fun way to help: the Kicks…

It's been a while since I've shown you a brand new cover for Graceling. Behold!


This is the Finnish cover. What do you think? I love it to pieces, and nothing you say will stop me from loving it to pieces, so do your worst. In particular, I love finally seeing a short-haired Katsa, and -- the mountains and castles in the background -- *flops* -- ! Maria Lyytinen, who is the translator, tells me that the back cover shows a scene of mountains at sunset/sunrise. She also explained that the word "Syntymälahja" encapsulates the idea of a gift received at birth.

Reminder: I love Finland. Dear sister, secret codename: Apocalyptica the Flimflammer: I cannot wait to give you a copy of Syntymälahja!

In other news... who saw this week's So You Think You Can Dance? How about that Bollywood number? I almost cried at the end when Mollee gives Nathan back his sword. My favorite was the Stacey Tookey "fear" dance with Kathryn and Legacy. I also enjoyed the Wade R…

Today I'm starting with a thank you to my readers. THANK YOU for making Graceling a bestseller in Germany, and THANK YOU for putting the American paperback of Graceling on next week's (Sep 27) New York Timesbestseller list! I am overwhelmed. I am staring blankly like a slow loris. And giggling.

*flops*

So, how much time do you have?
If you have 12 minutes today, listen to the story "In Search Of," which was chosen as the very first podcast for the Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine and which was written by my buddy Will Ludwigsen. It's read by actor and playwright Daniel John Kelley, and it's super.If you have an hour today, listen to last week's This American Life, on the subject of frenemies. Here's the description from the website: "This week we bring you stories about friends. Or wait, enemies? How about both? Tales of estranged sisters, BFFs breaking up and making up and breaking up, and how reality stars walk the fine line between making …

Dutch adult market cover of Graceling ---> click to enlarge --->
Last week I visited the Boston area for a few days. There, I: spent some time with a friend and a small orange furry quadruped person;got to hang out with my sister, secret code name: Apocalyptica, for an evening;made beef stroganoff;baked cookies;wrote 10 pages of a frustrating scene and crossed out 9; andaccomplished a very important secret mission.Then I flew back home to Florida, where the air feels like bathwater. There, I: went for a sunset walk along the river. The sky was dusty blue, the water was the color of an eggplant, and a humongous, nearly full, pale pink moon rose right out of nowhere. I live in such a beautiful place!;curled up on the couch and watched an embarrassing number of Veronica Mars episodes in succession. (My thoughts on Season 2 [SPOILERS!]: It's not as good as Season 1. However, I remain v. fond of Logan and am convinced that if everyone he loved would stop beating him up, betra…

Dutch cover for the YA edition ----> click to enlarge ----->

So, I read Jane Eyre, first published in 1847, before I ever read Daphne DuMaurier's Rebecca (1938) or Mary Stewart's Nine Coaches Waiting (1958). Do you know those two books? Both of them are obviously influenced by Charlotte Brontë's novel; I'd go so far as to call the Stewart book an homage; and it's hard to read either without thinking of Jane. I loved and read and re-read all three of them; and eventually the day came when I couldn't read Jane Eyre without thinking of Rebecca and Nine Coaches Waiting. My appreciation of the novel that was written first began to be influenced by later novels Charlotte Brontë never could have read.
I love that time-travel aspect of intertextuality. Here's another example: Now, when I read Hamlet (c. 1603), I enjoy it even more than I used to, because I'm bringing Tom Stoppard's play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (1964-65) along with m…