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

Hi everyone, if you want to watch my book event this evening at Casa del Libro Gran Via at 19.30 (7:30 PM), it will be streaming live. Everything will be spoken in both English and Spanish. Go to @rocajoven on Twitter for more information: https://twitter.com/RocaJoven. Or my own Twitter, @kristincashore. (Sorry, I can't really deal with links right now!) I expect I'll be talking about the writing process, maybe reading two or three pages from Bitterblue, and answering questions from the audience. FYI to my American readers: Madrid is six hours ahead of New York.

This fall (starting next week! ACK!! Where is Bunter to pack for me!), I'm doing public events in Stockholm, Kristianstad, Madrid, and Paris. (I'll also be in Amsterdam, but I don't believe I'll have any public events there -- I'll come back and let you know if I do.)

I'll also be in Arlington, VA for NAIBA, in Austin for the Texas Book Festival, and at NCTE-ALAN in Vegas, yes, NCTE-ALAN is in VEGAS this year.

Dates and details:

STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN
Thursday, 6 September, 17.00
I'll be signing at SF-Bokhandeln.
Address: Västerlånggatan 48.
http://www.sfbok.se

KRISTIANSTAD, SWEDEN
Saturday, 8 September, 11.00
I'll be a guest at the Bokfestival in Kristianstad and will be talking about fantasy-writing, answering questions from the audience, maybe doing a short reading from Bitterblue if there is time...
http://www.kristianstad.se/bokfestivalen

MADRID, SPAIN
Tuesday, 11 September, 19.30
Along with my editor at Roca, Patricia Escalona, I'll be meeting readers at …

A reminder that Melina Marchetta, Gayle Forman and I will be at Books of Wonder (18 W. 18th St. in Manhattan) on Tuesday -- tomorrow -- at 6 PM. There's a possibility we may be able to record the event, if we can get our technological act together... I'll let you know if that happens. Hope to see some of you there!

I'm thrilled to announce that Melina Marchetta, Gayle Forman and I will be doing an event together at Books of Wonder on Tuesday, July 17, 6 PM, 18 West 18th Street, NYC. We're hard at work, planning something good. Spread the word! Gayle and Melina, who, unlike me, use twitter in the friendly manner in which it's meant to be used, have been tweeting about it -- go check it out.


Also, a note to New York Times Book Review readers: I hope you enjoy my interview this weekend. I think it's going to be online as well (possibly an expanded version online?), and I'll try to come back and update this post with that link, but I'm on the road and on vacation, so no promises.

UPDATE: here is the link to the nytbr interview (I hope).

Also! Cyrus Spencer is a dancer who specializes in animation popping and robotics. Cole Haribe's dance specialty is martial arts fusion. Brandon Mitchell's dance specialty is stepping. Add stupendous choreographer Christopher Scott and …

Thursday, May 31, 7 pm (O HAI, that's today) Harvard Book Store 1256 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02138

AND NEXT WEEK:
Book Expo America Javits Center, 655 W 34th Street at 11th Ave New York, NY

Wednesday, June 6:
3:30 – 4:45pm          Author Tea, Room 1E12/13, Javits Center
6:00 – 7:45pm         BEA + New York Book Week Panel on Fantasy/SciFi The New York Public Library main branch 5th Avenue between 40th and 42nd Event will be located in the downstairs auditorium Moderator: Lev Grossman Panelists: Kristin Cashore, N.K. Jemisen, Catherynne M. Valente, Naomi Novik With improvisational music by Brian Slattery
Thursday, June 7:
10:30 – 11:30am     Signing in the Autographing Area – Table 4

Serbian cover of Graceling, published by Carobna knjiga. I didn't even know this book was out until Carobna knjiga's Fire landed in my mailbox. Click to enbiggen, this is a cool one! I love the blood in the font. ----->

For those who've been wondering, my ankle is feeling better every day. I'll just be careful to leave extra time for getting places on the tour, and I'll resist the urge to rush to catch planes. I intend to set new records for packing light. Inspired by Laurie Halse-Anderson, I'll take a picture of my tiny luggage and post it here if I get the chance. Of course, Laurie was packing for a five-week tour. Mine is only a week and a half (because I am a WIMP). So make sure you're duly impressed by Laurie's feats of packing!

For anyone who wants to know a little more about what my events will be like: I'll start by reading from Bitterblue for maybe 10-15 minutes; then I'll talk for a few more minutes about the process of writing the …

I signed lots of books for lots of people in a very short time on Thursday, and a number of souls, probably noticing the mania in my eyes, kindly expressed concern for my health. On the off chance that any of those same people later saw me being wheeled through the Houston airport, please allow me to reassure you that I did not fall into a faint from too much signing or anything like that. No, what I did was, I stepped creatively off of a curb. In the horrible moment after it happened, a moment during which I replayed the dreadful snapping noise over and over in my mind and discovered that I truly could not stand, I feared that I'd broken my ankle (which it turns out I hadn't), and all I could think was that my book tour started in 12 days. My book tour started in 12 days, and I had to go and miss the curb and do something SO FREAKING STUPID. It's not like I was rushing headlong down a hill while attached to a spastic dog. It's not like I was jumping off a boat onto a …

It has been brought to my attention that I'm working too much. Thank goodness for the people in my life who point out to me, now and then, that I have the tendency to work too much. This blog is not work. It's fun, it clears out my head. So... here comes some randutiae!

I loved the Peter Gabriel Cover Story on Coverville last week. Covers by and of Peter Gabriel. It's here if you want to listen.

The world map I've had on my wall for years has finally disintegrated, and here's the one I got to replace it. Ever notice how most maps of the world stretch the far northern and southern latitudes out, so that Greenland seems to be as big as Africa, even though actually, Africa is more than 14 times the size of Greenland? There are, of course, understandable reasons why maps do this, BUT the map I got deliberately emphasizes the relative size of the world's land masses instead. It also happens to be a nice, clear political map. I love it.

I have agreed to do an event at t…

This morning I board a plane for Orlando, and late this afternoon, I'll be at NCTE-ALAN, receiving the Amelia Elizabeth Walden Award for Fire. My parents will be there, and also secret codename: Cordelia! How nice that this event is taking place near a branch of my family!

The other day, in my post about my editor, I mentioned that good editing is invisible, like the world's best stage directions. Giving credit where credit is due: that was my friend Becca's analogy, not mine. And one of the reasons I liked it so much when she said it is that I've recently been encountering what just might be the world's best -- or, at least, the world's most entertaining -- stage directions. Where? In the plays of J.M. Barrie.

Imagine, as a set designer, being given this:
"There is a piece of carpet that has been beaten into nothingness, but is still a carpet, there is a hearth-rug of brilliant rags that is probably gratified when your toes catch in it and you are hurled…

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,…

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…

Aunt Alexandra was fanatical on the subject of my attire. I could not possibly hope to be a lady if I wore breeches; when I said I could do nothing in a dress, she said I wasn't supposed to be doing things that required pants. Aunt Alexandra's vision of my deportment involved playing with small stoves, tea sets, and wearing the Add-A-Pearl necklace she gave me when I was born; furthermore, I should be a ray of sunshine in my father's lonely life. I suggested that one could be a ray of sunshine in pants just as well, but Aunty said that one had to behave like a sunbeam, that I was born good but had grown progressively worse every year. She hurt my feelings and set my teeth permanently on edge, but when I asked Atticus about it, he said there were already enough sunbeams in the family and to go on about my business, he didn't mind me much the way I was.
If you're in Cambridge, Massachusetts tomorrow, August 5, and have a few minutes, stop by the (new!) main branch of …

While I was on my blog break, I gathered a little pile of videos/pictures I wanted to show all of you. They don't really go together, but they don't really go with anything else I have planned, either, so I thought I'd throw them at you all at once. Ready for some randomness?

Here, via my lovely pal and fellow writer Tui Sutherland, is How to Wrap a Cat.



(When I was little, one of our cats was just that mellow. She was the World's Best Cat.)

Next up: via my pal C, Target is selling the fabulous Yay scale, designed by Marilyn Wann, author of Fat!So?: Because You Don't Have to Apologize for Your Size. Weigh yourself on this:


Next up: my favorite Itzhak Perlman segment from Sesame Street (I did warn you these were a little random, right?):



Next: my favorite dance from the most recent season of So You Think You Can Dance: Kathryn and Legacy dancing, choreographed by Stacy Tookey. I couldn't find a good quality shorter version; if you just want to see the dance, it st…

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…

ALA was a transformative experience.
How can I even explain it?
I went to dinner with seventeen lovely people, professionals in the children's lit field, all of whom have read my book. As we ate, all around me, people were talking about the book. They were excited about the book. They loved the book. Is there any way to explain what this was like? How much do I love Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for throwing a dinner and inviting all the people who love my book and no one who hates it? I am so lucky to have had the experience of this dinner. I will never forget it. And I hope I'll get the chance to meet everyone again and talk more -- what an awesome, funny, interesting group of people (and no, I'm not just saying that because they like my dumb book)! Thank you, everyone who was there!
And then, next morning, the signing. Oh my goodness! I kept reminding myself of the examples of the Dalai Lama and my father (who reminds me a little of the Dalai Lama, except he doesn&#…