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

Friends and family have sent me many, many pictures of Saturday's protests -- so far I have 15 cities represented -- and I can't want to share them. I'm just waiting a few more days to give people time to send me stuff. In the meantime, I encourage you to read Malinda Lo's post about the march on Washington.

In Atlanta, it was a day of thunderstorms. So here's a magical umbrella.

I will soon be posting many, many photos from marches around the world... but for now, just wanted to share the new lock screen on my phone. This picture was taken today in Atlanta, where there were so so so SO many people marching for social justice and women's rights.

Dear readers, don't forget what our country is capable of:


We will get there.

The following video of Obama's thank you to Biden is long, but if you'd like to watch their parting shot of decency and love, I recommend watching it.



I'm going to ALA Midwinter in Atlanta this weekend, where I will be marching. I've been knitting hats all week.

Be well, everyone.

For the last three weeks, I have mostly been listening. I've been listening to my friends talk to me and to each other. I've been listening to the reactions of smart writers and thinkers. I've been listening to podcasts and pundits. I've been listening to the sadness in my mother's voice and the faith in my father's voice. I've been listening to the comfort in Kevin's voice. I've been reading the texts and emails of my sisters, who are holding me up. At 2 AM the night of the election, the last thing I did before finally attempting sleep was to read a text from one of my heartbroken sisters. It said, "Love still trumps hate."

I've been listening to Georgette Heyer audiobooks and watching Jane the Virgin and Gilmore Girls, for comfort. I've been writing a new book, which is an amazing distraction and vast relief in the moments when a scene manages to suck me in. As is the case for many people, my mental health has taken a hit. So I&…

My twin nieces live in Jacksonville, FL, an area that generally votes red, but only by a couple percentage points.

After the election, one of my nieces noticed that the neighbors had taken down their Hillary sign, and she worried that the neighbors were sad. So she wrote them a letter.




My other niece also wrote a letter (and you can too).

In a week during which we lost both the election and Leonard Cohen, SNL's response was perfect. Press play. (And don't read the comments.)

"Are you fighting the Black Thing?” Meg asked.

“Oh, yes,” Aunt Beast replied. “In doing that, we can never relax."

—Madeleine L'Engle, A Wrinkle in Time

An article in the Huffington Post that helps: What Do We Tell the Children?

(Thanks to Jess and Catherine.)

This American Life asked Sara Bareilles to imagine what President Obama might be thinking about the current election and that horrible person, but can’t say publicly. Leslie Odom, Jr., performs the song. (There's a lot of hatred and bitterness in the youtube comments. Skip them.)

We went to the polls today for you.

This is political and election-related, so I debated whether I was breaking my "Safe Zone" promise by posting it here. It's a speech First Lady Michelle Obama gave yesterday in Manchester, New Hampshire, so of course it refers to that horrible man. But: it also brings rightness back; it's uplifting and hopeful; it made me feel seen, heard, cared about, and understood as a woman and as a decent human being during this horrific election season. And -- she never says his name, for which I am grateful.

Here's a link to video and transcript of Michelle Obama's speech yesterday in Manchester, NH.

(The speech is actually only 21 minutes long. The first ten minutes is the stuff that is SO GOOD TO HEAR, the next ten minutes is stuff about Hillary, and the last ten minutes is FLOTUS shaking hands while her Secret Service detail anxiously hovers.)

I haven't been blogging stuff about the election, because I have no interest in subjecting myself or you to any additional acknowledgment of the waste of humanity Republicans have chosen as their representative. He would fit perfectly into one of my books as one of my vile kings. And yet there he is, a chosen one. Because this is our country. I've built a little wall around my heart, to protect myself from the infection.

The trouble is that he gets in everywhere. That's one of his disgusting superpowers.

One of my sisters just forwarded a link to this article by Susan Dominus in the New York Times: Donald Trump: King of the Old Boys’ Club, and Perhaps Its Destroyer. It quietly pulls apart some of the little threads about who this person is. It got through my wall and made me cry. You should read it.

And now I'm done with this topic on my blog.

On the chance you have not yet seen Bernie and the bird. (If you can't see the vid, go to my Blog Actual.)



Sorry again for the lack of blogging. I am trying so hard to get my next book in shape so it can get out into the world!

JonArno Lawson doesn't see the world the way other people do, THANK GOODNESS. His most recent book release is Down in the Bottom of the Bottom of the Box, surreal poems decorated with the paper cuts of artist Alec Dempster.

The Human Being

Bombard its brain with cosmic rays.
redden its eyes with Mars --
set its tiny heart ablaze
upon a heap of stars.
Burning Hot Banana

I bought a burning hot banana from a bin in Indiana
with a burning hot and sticky splitting freckly yellow skin --
splotchy-rotten overripe -- thick enough to clog a pipe --
when I think of it today I sweat and sicken from within.
Some of these poems actually had me howling. There's one called "A Coarse and Common Carrot" and another called "The Alleycat Alley-Allocator Acting like an Alligator." Others just left me wondering, thinking, smiling, like the series about solar bears, lunar foxes and moonwolves. This book is gorgeously published by The Porcupine's Quill in Ontario and would mak…

Sometimes I wonder if Rush Limbaugh is a secret liberal whose strategy is to make the far right look JUST THAT BAD.

If only. But listening to all the conversation and outrage that's followed his most recent vile contribution to the national dialogue, I can't help but feel like he's accidentally done feminism a favor. There's a lot of stuff worth reading out there, but I'll only mention a few: Here's a Slate article by Emily Bazelon about the whole thing, plus some of the positive changes that are happening these days in rape legislation. Here's a Salon article by Maureen Andrade that injects some reality and common sense into the issue of human relationships and pregnancy prevention. Both Slate and Salon have other related articles I've enjoyed reading -- poke around. Here, Tamora Pierce calls for an end to "women slut-bashing other women. Using the words that have ripped women apart for centuries." And finally, if it's all too upsetting a…

This week, my happiness about Elizabeth Warren running for Senate in Massachusetts...


(transcript here)

...combined with this (funny? offensive? certainly clever, certainly reductive) t-shirt for sale at Threadless Tees...
















(click on it to enbiggen; you can buy it here)

...combined with my recent perusal of maps because I'm going on vacation next week to a part of the country I barely know at all...

(no picture for that one, sorry -- though maybe there will be once I get back!)

... all got me searching the internets for something I'd remembered seeing once before. I found it. It was created by Mark Newman in the Department of Physics and the Center for the Study of Complex Systems at the University of Michigan. Here it is:
















What is that purple monstrosity?

Well, many of you will recognize this:















It's the results of a USA presidential election (in this case, 2008). Blue is for Democrat, red is for Republican; each state is colored either red or blue to represent which party the majorit…

So, when I posted about Winter's Bone a few weeks back, I didn't realize that the main actress, Jennifer Lawrence (whom I greatly admired), is our future Katniss Evergreen. (Edit: EverDEEN. Can I blame that on my voice recognition software? It's clearly read Harry Potter and a lot of Charles Dickens, but The Hunger Games must still be in its TBR pile.) Here's a link to portraits of the cast of The Hunger Games, which will be released... I have no idea when. But I'm sure it's easy enough to find out. *coughs lazily* I hope for your sake that when you click on the link, you're not compelled to watch a preview of the new tv show The Playboy Club like I was. Gee, that show doesn't look like it's going to be demeaning to women or anything.

But at least I can scrub my brain clean with the news that Elizabeth Warren is going to challenge Scott Brown in the next Senate race in Massachusetts. Elizabeth Warren, you have my vote.

Next, I would like to officia…

In my signing line at Saint Mary's College, a few people expressed surprise that I'd come to South Bend to do an event. The explanation is simple: I have family there. And family tradition: a LOT of people in my paternal family are alums of Notre Dame or Saint Mary's, and a few of them work there. We've actually been planning this event for some time. It even turned into a mini-reunion, with my parents and a few other family members coming to join us :).

Join us to do what? Go to a Notre Dame football game, of course. I won't get into my feelings about college football, which are complicated, nor will I get into my feelings about Notre Dame and the Fighting Irish, which are beyond complicated -- instead, I'll merely report that surrounded by enthusiastic loved ones and by random strangers screaming "Go Irish!," I felt very... well, Irish. And I cheered loudly for Notre Dame, despite all my threats beforehand to cheer for the other team,…

... or something.

Vote! Vote! Vote!

So. I have things to blog about Chicago and South Bend, but I'm waiting for a photo, plus, I don't have the brain space at the moment. The reason I don't have the brain space is that, as always upon returning home after a trip, I am feeling a bit overwhelmed. My email is overflowing; my snail mail is overflowing; my un-unpacked suitcase is overflowing; my laundry hamper is overflowing; my to-do list is overflowing.... pretty much the only thing that's not overflowing is my refrigerator, which is completely empty. Sigh.... a gal could get stressed out. (And hungry.)

This is why instead of trying to blog about something that takes brains, I'm going to sit here on the couch in my flannel pjs, eat some chocolate, and tell you the library books I have out right now, because even though my library shelf is also overflowing, its overflowingness is of a kind that makes me happy.

All of these are either books that were recommended to me b…

A quick reminder that I'll be at the (free!) Boston Book Festival this Saturday, October 16, appearing on a panel with Francisco X. Stork (Marcelo in the Real World and The Last Summer of the Death Warriors); Kathryn Lasky (the Guardians of Ga'Hoole series -- have you seen the ads for the owl movie?), and Noni Carter (Good Fortune). The event is at 4pm at the Trinity Forum. Check out the schedule to see all the other stuff going on. Also, a note: I've been informed that President Obama will be at a rally a couple blocks away from the festival. This means you should leave some extra time for your transportation. :o)

Also: the time has changed for my event in South Bend, IL on Thursday, October 28. It now begins at 4:30pm. See my Appearance Schedule for more details.

ETA for Massachusetts Voters: I talked about Ballot Question 2 last week, and now I want to mention Ballot Question 3. This is the proposed cut of MA sales tax from its current rate of 6.25 percent to 3 percen…