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

Let's start with a new cover that I LOVE. Here's Graceling in Japanese, published by Hayakawa:


Can I have that outfit? At least the boots? Next, here's one of my favorite things.


Let me help you parse that picture: an orchid sits in a leather chair. (No, that's not where I normally keep it. The sunlight was streaming through the window where it normally sits, plus, it was being encroached upon by an aloe plant on one side and a zebra plant on the other, so I moved it to someplace dignified for the sake of the picture.) A stake protrudes from the soil and a small red monster sits atop the stake. A stem with a few buds is growing its way up the stake. BUT! BUT! Guess what? A few weeks ago, that stem didn't exist. It was an orchid with a pot, big green leaves, a stake, a monster, and NO STEM. Then I went to Australia and left my orchids in the sunny window of a hot apartment for two weeks. A friend watered them for me. When I got back, they ALL made it very …

Over-the-knee socks.
This comment from Cordelia after she saw the stuffed chicken Mom was roasting for Christmas: "Yeah, I hope that when I die, someone sticks an onion up my ass."
Three-year-old cousins-once-removed who want to sit in your lap.Soft, silky cats who let you rub their ginger-brown tummies.This sign, spotted at a coffee shop in New Jersey: "Fat snowmen last longer."My luggage tags, which say "I'm going around in circles" and "I'm a mess on the inside."The fact that my fellow writers and email buddies Donna Freitas and Marie Rutkoski are Publisher's Weekly's "Fall Flying Starts" along with me. Naps on airplanes.Time with family AND quiet time alone after time with family.Something I have been too shy to say before: Graceling is a Fantasy/SF bestseller in Australia. :o)

What are your favorite sounds?
Here are some of mine: Orchestras tuning up. Rain on the roof of a parked car. Bagpipes. Walking through autumn leaves. Thunderstorms.
I'm home again; I got home just in time for tropical storm Fay. I spent Thursday through Saturday listening to some pretty dramatic sounds, torrential rain and scary bursts of wind, as Fay crawled her way across northeast Florida. On Friday morning, Cordelia called me. "We just moved our cars to higher ground," she said. (Cordelia lives about six blocks from me and only one block from the St John's River, which was flooding.) "Want to come over for waffles?"
I looked out the window. Rain poured from the sky and half a palm tree was floating down the street. I said, "I'm not sure that's a good idea."
"Well, at the very least," she said, "you need to come see the river. It's almost up to our street and it has waves like the ocean. And soon it'll b…

First, the good news: I have a Romanian publisher. RAO is taking Graceling on, and I'm thrilled. I know nothing about the Romanian language, but doesn't it look beautiful? Now I want to learn more. If you know anything, feel free to educate me.
So, I've been thinking about favorites. People always like to ask for your favorites -- what's your favorite band, your favorite writer, etc., etc. -- but sometimes I feel like no one ever asks for the right favorites. I can't name a favorite band, so when people ask, I mumble incoherently and probably sound like a musical ignoramus. But, I can name my favorite anthropomorphized vegetable. How come no one ever asks me for my favorite anthropomorphized vegetable? Come on, people! Get with the program!
Anyway, I thought I'd list some of my favorite favorites, mostly ones that no one ever asks. (Because really, why would they?)
For example, when you get really wonderful, spectacular news, what's your favorite th…