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

I cannot seem to wipe the smile off my face.
It has been such a stressful few months. It has been a stressful eight years. And the stress is bound to continue, of course, no matter how wonderful our president-elect is. This is the world.
But for today, at least, in honor of a magnificent victory, I give you a post restricted to low-key, no-stress, comforting things.
This post is The Bird Report.

A wonderful thing has just happened here in north Florida: The pelicans who winter on the St. John's River have returned. I saw three pelicans yesterday! Florida is a paradise for bird lovers and pelicans are the birds I love most; no matter what posture Sir Pelican chooses to adopt, he looks like a marvelous genetic mistake -- so wonderfully pointy and lumpy and unbalanced. Welcome back, Sir Pelican!
The winter cormorants and gulls are also back, and the herons are still hanging around; there's one old grizzly HUGE blue heron who hangs out on the pilings at night, croaking stories …

I want to write a post about why I love Finland; I want to write a post about the other day, when I was trying on boots at the store, and my sister, secret code name: Cordelia, told me I looked like a prostitute; I want to write a post answering some of the really super questions I've been getting from Graceling readers in my email. And I will write all of those posts, eventually. But for now, I'm in a time crunch with Fire revisions and other life stuff, and the only post I seem to have time to write is one about the posts I wish I were writing instead.
Some good news: I have a Danish publisher for Graceling, Tellerup. Yay, Denmark! Who wants to bet that "Po" means something vulgar in Danish?
I still see little blue herons almost every day. Sometimes they're hanging out with little white herons. Yesterday, they were hanging out with a BIG blue heron. The herons are keeping me from going off my rocker.

So, what's on your mind these days? And what keeps y…

I can do it! I can lift it! Just give me a minute and I will crush you!


I am fierce! I will squash you with giggles!

1. At long last, here are the images I promised from the School Library Journal photo shoot, all photos by the wonderful Jensen Hande. Some of you may notice that I am not wearing the snood. If this upsets you, which would be perfectly understandable, blame my sister, secret code name Cordelia. She said the snood didn't match the sword. (In color? In shape? In atmosphere?) Also, she kept calling it a snoot.
2. My uber-cool friend Rebecca Rabinowitz guest posted at Shapely Prose the other day with recommendations for fat-positive children's books. Part One is about picture books and Part Two is about middle-grade and young adult books. Definitely worth checking out.

3. I saw FOUR baby blue herons on the pilings the other evening. When they flew away they were all flappy and floppy. It was stupendous.

4. Cordelia may have snood anger issues, but nonethele…

Well, folks, reports have been coming in from friends with sharp eyes: Graceling has been spotted in bookstores in Union Square (NYC); Harvard Square (Cambridge, MA); Decatur, GA; Atlantic Beach, FL; Jacksonville, FL; and St. Cloud, MN. And it's in stock at amazon.com and bn.com, though not yet at powells.com. I guess it's official -- Graceling exists. Please support independent bookstores! And if you have any interest in buying a signed copy, please contact my local bookstore, the Bookmark, by calling (904) 241-9026 or emailing bkmark at bellsouth dot net. Then they'll call me and say, Kristin, get your ass out here and sign this, and I'll be tickled pink, because the Bookmark is only a block from the sea, and I always like a good excuse to go to the sea.
In other news, sometime in the next week I need to record an interview for an audio podcast, and one of the questions is about what I'm reading. I want to answer the question honestly, but I find myself in a…