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

This year, for Halloween, I was a library.

Last year, while searching for appropriate teapot/flower fabric for my Mad Hatter costume, I stumbled across the book fabric shown in the skirt above. That's when I realized I wanted to be a library this year... I've been planning this costume for over a year :o).  
I made most of this costume myself, including the skirt, top, and hat. The "QUIET PLEASE" sign on the top is cut out of felt. I glued it on while wearing the top and looking in the mirror (bugging Kevin every three minutes to ask if any of my letters were backwards), because that was the only way to know how it would look while I was wearing it.

Same with the book spines that make up the torso. I found old, falling apart books no one wanted, removed the spines, and attached them to a bustier, with staples, thread, and fabric glue, while wearing the bustier... because the bustier was stretchy, and this was the only way to know exactly where and how things needed …

I seem unable to stop listening to Led Zeppelin's "The Battle of Evermore." I think the mandolin has ensorcelled me. Send help.

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The Cambridge Public Library recently changed their lending policies. Instead of a three-week lending period with the possibility of three renewals (12 weeks total), now they've got a four-week lending period with the possibility of two renewals (also 12 weeks total). It's a disaster. I never know when anything is due, I never turn anything in on time, and I never read anything. It turns out that apparently I need more, and more frequent, reminders that my time is nearly up in order to read. Today I'm returning nine library books. I've only read two, all of them are late, and I owe almost $10. So much for my spotless library record. Thank goodness codename: Cordelia doesn't read my blog; otherwise, I'd never hear the end of it.

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You may have heard by now about the proposed merger of Random House and Penguin.…

Great for lots of moody pictures out the windows (and a grumpy marble guy)...

A couple books I recently loved:

Mystery of the Tempest: A Fisher Key Adventure, by Sam Cameron, which is kind of a brilliant, modern-day Hardy Boys-esque adventure in which the young detectives are identical twins, one straight, one gay. It's awesome to read adventurous hijinks in a familiar form (of the Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew ilk), but with diversity, on several axes. Book two, The Secret of Othello, comes out in November.

And: What I Didn't See, stories by Karen Joy Fowler, is spectacular. Some realism, some fantasy, some Shakespearean and fairy tale themes, some historical fiction, especially about the Booth family (of first theatrical, then assassination-of-Abraham-Lincoln fame). My favorite stories in the collection: "Booth's Ghost" and "Halfway People." I understand that the paperback is coming out this summer.

For those interested, the New York Times has changed its mind and decided my books are a series after all, so if you're looking for my …

The month has only just begun, but already, December is reliably crazy. I'll do my utmost to keep blogging, right up until the point where it starts feeling like another task on my list.

Today I don't have time for anything of my own, but this post by Robert Krulwich on the NPR blog is too delightful not to share: "The Library Phantom Returns!"

Somebody has been dropping glorious little paper sculptures into libraries and museums all over Edinburgh, Scotland, and we've just heard (thank you, alert reader Paul Smith) that there are now three more.
Readers, please go take a look at these delightful, imaginative sculptures, created by an anonymous library phantom! They're too beautiful to miss.

In case you've not heard about the libraries devastated by Hurricane Irene, here's a post from Kate Messner with info about how to help. (Update: this blog post has more, and possibly more complete, information!)

Also, do you have a teeny tiny library in your town? (Thanks, R, for the link.)

In other news, I recommend the Bollywood movie Band Baaja Baaraat, and think it's a good movie for anyone who's never seen a Bollywood movie, wants to try, but doesn't know what to watch first (along with Main Hoon Na and Dil Bole Hadippa, to name two others). What I particularly like about this one is that not only do I like the female lead (Shruti, played by Anushka Sharma), but I like what the movie does with her. Often I admire the woman's character but have some lingering annoyance about the role she's required to play... but this one balanced out for me. It was a fun watch! Now, will someone explain to me why newcomer Ranveer Singh was credited first w…

I'm still having a funny stretch of dreams. The other night, after yet another trapeze class, I dreamed about a guy who was taking trapeze lessons. His name was Ted Zeppelin. The soundtrack of the dream was Pink Floyd, though, so there might be some band confusion in my brain somewhere.A quote from Mark Twain (thanks, Jen ^_^): "The difference between the right word and the nearly right word is the same as that between lightning and the lightning bug."If you love libraries, you will love the speech Philip Pullman gave recently. It might even make you cry. (Thanks, Rebecca.)If you are a smooth criminal, watch out for these guys. (Opens to a music video. There are cellos.) (Also, I hope they keep extra bows on hand. !!)
If you like cellos and Metallica and wonder where my sister, secret codename: Apocalyptica, got her codename from, watch out for these guys. (Another music video.) (Also, I'm guessing that even people who *don't* like Metallica [like my Dad] would li…

... 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…

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 …

I like this post called Stop Telling People to Love Their Bodies, and some of the comments, too. H/t, R.

Also, I'm totally enjoying the Buffy Fashion Roulette over at The Bitter Buffalo.

On August 5, there'll be an all-day reading of To Kill a Mockingbird at the main branch of the Cambridge Public Library, from 9am to 9pm, to celebrate the book's 50th birthday. I'll be one of the many readers. I'll post more info about this once I know more -- but isn't this cool?!

Feel like going to Vail in October to talk about women in fantasy novels? This year's Sirens conference is from October 7 - 10 and registration is open. The guests of honor are Holly Black, Marie Brennan, and Terri Windling, and the presenters include Sarah Rees Brennan, Ellen Kushner, Malinda Lo, Cindy Pon, Delia Sherman, Sherwood Smith, and Janni Lee Simner. I was at Sirens last year -- it's a good conference. Have fun, everyone!

So. Remember last week, when I said I hoped to post some writing …

Announcement: I ♥ librarians. Why? Because librarians love information, know how to find it, know how to use it, and know how to help other people find and use it; and because librarians love, care for, and offer us BOOKS. And school librarians, in particular, share their awesomeness with young people without condescension. Thanks so much to the New Jersey Association of School Librarians for inviting me to their fall conference this past weekend. You guys are inspiring.

Housekeeping: I got a great suggestion the other day from an audiobooker who wished she could see the maps of the kingdoms while listening. Please see my new link to the left, Maps of My Book World, which shows both the maps so far, both drawn by Jeffery C. Mathison. Click on the maps to make them bigger.

In other news, in case anyone's wondering, Spike is still beating Beethoven in the highly scientific Spike Versus Beethoven: You Decide! poll -- but Beethoven is holding his own! I'm proud. I thought o…

... for suddenly I can see the magic of BOOKS."
(from the musical She Loves Me)
My childhood library in northeast Pennsylvania has a copy of my book, thanks to my mother. So do/will a couple of other libraries important to us, thanks to Mom and Aunt Rose. This makes me oh-so-fuzzy-and-happy.

Then, last week, a friend in Massachusetts reported that she'd checked her own library catalog on a whim to see if they had Graceling yet. They did. Next, an email came from another friend with this subject line: F CAS. She had just cataloged my book. Heeee!
It took a little time for the light to shine through the mud, but eventually I had a stroke of not-being-as-stupid-as-I-usually-am and realized that if it was showing up at other libraries, my own library might have it. I checked -- several copies, and most of them were out. yAt! But even better, the copy at my local branch was NOT out!
This is the point in the story where I hightailed it outside and ran down the street like I was…