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

I know I have a book coming out on September 19 (which you can pre-order at Powell's,  Amazon, B&N, or your local independent bookstore, *cough*), and that's supposed to be the only thing I'm thinking about.

But the truth is that I'm mostly thinking about another book: the one I've written 330 pages of so far and am about to start rewriting (again) from the beginning (again) because I keep learning new, important plot things that change everything that went before.








Godspeed to all writers.

Today we moved me into my new office (yay!) and it feels so good. The coming week has a trip and my house move, so it'll be a few days before I'm in the office regularly, but I can tell I'm going to love it. I'll post pictures once it's in order. Send good thoughts to my enormous corn plant, which definitely experienced some trauma during the move today... I think the plant might hate Kevin now, actually, though he was only doing what had to be done (and what I couldn't do, because I can't lift the damn thing!). It didn't fit in the van and had to be propped weirdly sideways and wrapped up in garbage bags and hauled back and forth; it crashed to the ground more than once; we also repotted it today. But you're home now, plant! Live!

So, that's my new cover above. Here's the link again for anyone who'd like to read an excerpt. Pub date is September 19 :o).

And in the meantime, some really, really lovely news about the Graceling Realm book…

Two important things. First, I am the absolute worst for taking so long to announce this, but I'm doing a panel this coming Thursday, February 23, with my dear friend and the author of the Wings of Fire dragon books, Tui Sutherland!

It's called A Midwinter Night's Fantasy Panel. The Horn Book Magazine's Martha Parravano will be moderating. It's from 5:30–7:00PM at Simmons College, 300 The Fenway, Boston, MA, Management Building M501/502.

This panel is hosted by Children's Books Boston and space is limited, so if you'd like to go, register here.

And sorry for the late notice. The truth is that ever since about, oh, I don't know, the second week of November, I've been dropping a lot of straws.

*****

The other important thing is that I just wanted to let all of you know that I found the perfect office :). It's close to my home, it's in a lovely, historical office building, it has all the space I need, and its existence is making all this moving…

Hi everyone – I'm reaching out with an unusual request.

We're looking to rent some office space for me outside our home. I'm pretty flexible in terms of what would work. A room I could have unlimited access to and also furnish myself would be amazing, but I'm open to all sorts of creative arrangements. Which is why I've decided to reach out. Maybe there are possibilities out there that exist in your brain, but that I would never think of.

These are my only absolute requirements:

I need a room or space to myself where I will have uninterrupted solitude and access to a bathroom, generally during business hours.

I need it to be within a one- or two-mile radius of the Whitney Hill Park/Cushing Square area of Watertown/Belmont, OR, be within easy walking distance of the 73 bus line which runs from Belmont Street to Mount Auburn Street to Harvard Square. (Click the links for more geographical info.)
That's pretty much it. Other perks would be great, but this is all …

Kishi Bashi at SXSW in 2014.



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

Today my friend B linked me to these beautiful pictures of semi-frozen waves in Nantucket, taken by photographer Jonathan Nimerfroh. And now I'm linking you.

In other news... it's been a while since I geeked out about Beethoven on the blog. In recent days, the symphonies have been my background music. A few days back, I listened to the seventh intentionally, because I needed to calm down and I knew the peaceful repetition would help (as opposed to the strident repetition of the fifth, which I knew would not help!). Then, when the seventh came to an end, the ninth began playing automatically. I have this problem wherein once the ninth starts playing, I need to listen through to the end. It doesn't matter what other thing I was supposed to be doing; now I'm listening to Beethoven's ninth. When it ends, I certainly do not feel that I've wasted my time. My chosen recordings are Christoph von Dohnányi and the Cleveland Orchestra and Chorus.

Have an hour and thirte…