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

For if you want something dramatic, played by a chamber orchestra, and almost a little jazzy... The Wexford Carol as performed by City of London Sinfonia and sung by the King's Singers.



For if you want to pretend you're drinking mead with the lord of the manor... The King as performed by Loreena McKennitt and friends.



And for if you want to pretend it's the 80s... Pat-a-Pan as performed by David Archuleta.

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.)

I also found a new home. I'm moving! (To the next town over.) Cambridge, I love you and I'll miss you. But you're too expensive, and also, you're LOUD.

May all the goodness continue... though I wouldn't complain of a slower pace.

And that's the news from here.

Reminder that Marie Rutkoski (as of today, a NYT best-selling author! Yay! Congrats Marie!) and I are doing an event at Harvard Book Store, Friday April 8 at 7pm. Join us if you can!

And here's a treat for you: a cover of my favorite song from the musical Hamilton, called "Wait For It." In the musical, this song is performed by Aaron Burr (played by Leslie Odom, Jr. on Broadway). This outstanding cover is performed by the Musicality Vocal Ensemble at Curie High School on Chicago's southwest side. Thanks, Phil :o)

Next Friday, April 8, come to the Harvard Book Store at 7PM to see Marie Rutkoski and me, in honor of the release (yesterday) of the third book in her Winner's trilogy, The Winner's Kiss! I expect we'll both be reading, then chatting with each other, then chatting with you. It'll be fun, and Marie's new book is WONDERFUL -- come and see us!


In other news, here are a couple sweet songs I've been enjoying lately. As always, if you can't see the videos, go to my Blog Actual.

Fiona Apple, "Hot Knife"

Regina Spektor, "Eet"

Kishi Bashi at SXSW in 2014.



Also, yesterday it snowed all day, but this happened on my writing desk:

A Friday night song for you: Kishi Bashi, a violin, and a loop pedal in the park!



The song is "Manchester" and it's from his album 151A. Thanks to my brother outlaw Darren. :o)

Also -- on Sunday, April 12, from 2 to 3 PM, I'll be at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh talking about my work. Then I'll be signing for about an hour after that. The event is free and open to the public. I will provide more information soon about this, but in the meantime, I just wanted to get it on people's radar!

It started snowing Saturday morning, then snowed steadily until very early this morning (Tuesday). Add an additional two feet or so to the pictures I posted last week and you'll get the idea. At some point, I started taking little videos of the scene on my street and sending them to my nieces in Florida. Their mother, codename: Cordelia, texted me today that the moment one of them got a look at it, she started laughing and laughing. It's snowing so much in eastern Massachusetts that five-year-olds in Florida are having hysterics.

Snow is expected on Thursday. I've been making bread and dreaming of warmer climes.

It is, of course, all relative. A friend who used to live in central Maine just told me that by the end of the winter, there would be so much accumulated snow that it was like walking around on the moon. Another friend told me that it's so unseasonably warm in Minnesota that yesterday, she read outside. In case you don't have a good sense of the constitutio…

Occasionally, when I'm not feeling picky about what I want to listen to, I'll open up my songlist, choose a place to start, and listen alphabetically. It can create some interesting sorting results, especially when you get to a word that frequently starts song titles (like "Close/r," "Don't," "Long," "Love," and "You," for example...). Just now, I've somehow ended up in the middle of all the "All" songs. The links below take you to the songs on youtube (though I haven't watched all the videos). Happy Thanksgiving and enjoy the music :o). (And by the way, this is an open invitation for any friends who read my blog to tell me about any "All" songs they're appalled not to find in my library.)

All About That Bass -- Meghan Trainor
All Along the Watchtower (by Bob Dylan, but this is the Bear McCreary Battlestar Galactica version)
All Four Seasons -- Sting
All I Need -- Radiohead
All I Really Want -- A…

I love Elizabeth Minkel's article in the New Statesman, "Read whatever the hell you want: why we need a new way of talking about young adult literature." It soothes my heartsore parts that are so tired of the condescension. Thank you, Elizabeth Minkel. Also, thanks for making me laugh when you said, "(I saw the piece somewhat misleadingly shared with the burning question, “What would Henry James think of YA?” and for the love of God, if there is a single person whose opinion on YA I care less about…)" HA HA HA HEE hoo, seriously, yes.

Also, I could listen to Ryan Keberle on trombone, Michael Rodriguez on trumpet, Jorge Roeder on bass, Eric Doob on drums and Camila Meza's vocals performing Sufjan Stevens' "Sister" over and over and over again. Check out these gorgeous lyrics and press play. "Sister" takes up the first 5:25 or so of the video. (You can download the mp3 for free here; click on "download audio".) (And if you c…

This SYTYCD Top 14 dance, choreographed by Travis Wall and performed by Jessica Richens and Casey Askew, is so lovely and sweet, but every time I watch it, I'm utterly puzzled by the last few seconds. I feel like something must've gone wrong there. Surely it's not supposed to look so much like he's suddenly trying to look up her dress? As always, sorry about the screaming. There was one season (5?) where the producers made the wonderful decision either to make the crowd shut up or to screen out the screams for the television viewing audience, and it was SO nice, but apparently someone has since decided that screeches add to our experience. Blech.



(BTW, if you want more Travis Wall, here's his routine choreographed for the top 7 guys.)

It can be a bit painful to watch a SYTYCD dance if you're familiar with the music, attached to it, and find it uncomfortable to hear it chopped up and reassembled. The song in this number, "Like Real People Do" by Hozie…

A friend who read my blog post yesterday sent me this lovely video of Peter Mulvey performing "Vlad the Astrophysicist". Melancholy, sweet, centering, and exactly what I needed. Thank you, Rosa.

As I'd hoped, a number of friends emailed me with suggestions of superhero role models for girls. So many, in fact, that I'm going to have to set aside some time to organize it all before I post it – but it will be forthcoming. Unfortunately, most of the suggestions were for teen readers and older, which leaves the youngest girls waiting, but it was encouraging. Many, many thanks to those of you who reached out :o)I'm listening to Peter Gabriel's more recent album Up – one of his darker albums. I love these lyrics, from "Darkness," which is a song that reminds me of early Peter Gabriel (the self-titled albums), mainly in the way he balances silence and sweetness with crashing noise – this sentence has gotten ridiculous, but here are the lyrics I love: "I have my fears / but they do not have me."I've gotten a few of my friends to start using Siri to dictate on their iPhones. (If you have an iPhone and there is a little microphone symbol on your k…

I came across this guy a couple of hours ago in the Boston Gardens, hanging out in a shrubbery. Sent a photo to my buddy Jim, who says it looks like a young red-tailed hawk.


On the subway ride home, someone with a sing-songy voice was talking about sandwiches, and I figured, since the blog is all randomness lately, that's reason enough to share my favorite Flight of the Conchords song again…

Life has been full and blogging has fallen through the cracks. I've been writing a lot of blog posts in my head – I don't suppose any of you have been getting them? :) I hope to post another "Guess Where I Am" post soon, plus say something about all the audiobooks I've been listening to, plus, commend Amtrak for their wonderful new "writers in residence" program… In lieu of a more thoughtful post, here's an extremely entertaining five-minute break with 2Cellos, performing AC/DC's "Thunderstruck." I've seen these two gentlemen in concert twice, and for the record, they are just as good live as they are in their videos. Though sadly they weren't wearing guyliner or 18th century dress when I saw them live.

Hope to see some of you Tuesday evening at the Harvard Book Store with Marie Rutkoski.

A couple years ago, we had one of those winters that never really got started... hardly any snow, and the temperatures weirdly high. Spring came and I felt like I'd been cheated. That's certainly not happening this year. And here in Cambridge, our frequent temps of 10 and 20°F (-12 and -7°C, approximately) are downright balmy compared to the -20 and -30°F temps (-29 and -34°C) a friend in Minnesota is having on a regular basis. For me, it's something to laugh and occasionally whine about, because I'm damn lucky, but for a lot of people, it's creating a lot of suffering and is downright dangerous… I wish everyone could be okay.

A heartfelt thank you for everyone who clicked on my Seabane Isn't Real post! I just took a look at the hit count and was touched that my readers are taking my request seriously.

Work has been enjoyable lately but also intense and energy-sapping. Hence, no blogging. But I've been keeping a little list of randutiae that bears mention…

I LOVE the music video for Vienna Teng's wonderful song "Level Up." Dance! Here are the lyrics, if you want to read along. Thanks B via D :o)

Yesterday was one of those perfect winter days wherein the snow begins early in the day, but lightly – the five-flakes-per-minute variety – then slowly builds, and your own schedule brings you out into it while it's beautiful but not yet gusty and difficult. I had a magical snow walk, then got home to a cozy evening of watching it get wild out there.

I love this time of year, even though it brings its challenges. Actually, the challenges are partly what I love… the darkness, in particular, brings a kind of raw feeling that I can't access as easily the rest of the year. It can be uncomfortable, but it's also a richly contemplative time for me. And I LOVE the New Year.

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I've been wanting to say a few things about books and TV. I'm only giving myself a few minutes to write this post, so forgive me for the lack of linkage and description; I'm trusting in your ability to google. Warning: it's a bit scattered.

I read a YA mystery called The Killing Woods b…

From the notes of this YouTube video: "On Saturday, 7 December 2013, Woolworths had planned a performance at our Parkview store in Pretoria to support our Operation Smile Christmas campaign. The Soweto Gospel Choir planned a rendition of James Brown's 'I Feel Good.' But, after Madiba's passing the choir decided on a tribute instead. They chose Johnny Clegg's 'Asimbonanga.'"



Thanks, Kristin.

Some randutiae is more random than others, and the more recently I've come home from a big trip, the more random it's likely to be :). My attentions and passions are spinning around in all different directions as I settle back into life at home.
It's recently come to my attention that the default on Apple computers is for the firewall to be off. (Apple, why?) Also, that a lot of Mac users aren't aware of this. Mac users who haven't checked recently: go to System Preferences (the little silver rectangle with gears in your dock), click on Security & Privacy, and make sure your firewall is turned on. *shakes fist at Apple*I fully expected that when I got back from Iceland, leaf season would be over here. How happy I am to be wrong; we are having a very long leaf season this November, and the colors are still stunning. Yay!I've been enjoying the BBC/PBS production of The Paradise, supposedly based on Émile Zola's book Au Bonheur des Dames, which I read in J…