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

It's birthday month on the blog! I'm sending birthday wishes all over the place and keeping some for myself. Happy birthday, Leos! Please vote in my important birthday poll, everyone!


What would make the best birthday present?
As always, if you can't see the poll, go to my Blog Actual.

Kangaroo summoning and socks seem to be going head to head as the best birthday presents in my birthday poll. As I recall, that was the case last time, as well. (I actually voted for the least popular item, the foot-fungus-ridden seven league boots. Because being able to travel seven leagues in one step feels worth the itch right now... ^_^)

In other news, I will spend my whole life trying to write a book as beautiful as Chime, by Franny Billingsley. Seriously, folks, this is one of those books where my post-it flags became so numerous that I started to feel like I was flagging the whole book. The delicacy of these characterizations, the depth of feeling captured, the familiarity of some of our most basic and self-destructive feelings -- guilt for hurting the people we love, turning to self-hatred, then deciding to try to heal -- this book is gorgeous. (Also, randomly -- and referring back to a previous post -- it strikes me that it's a book that Terrence Malick could make i…

August is Extreme Birthday Month here on the blog. This month, I turn 35, my father turns a particularly distinguished age, and the babies, if you can believe it, turn TWO -- and that's not even taking into consideration all the friends with birthdays now-ish. I'm sending happy birthday wishes to Switzerland and France this week! :o)

I have to say, I feel bad about how weak my blog posts have been lately. I just... well, remember my blog post with the emoticons? Please refer to that if you're wondering how I am. It's not a permanent state. That's the best that can be said of it.

Because I don't have the juice to create a new birthday poll and because I'm still rather fond of the one I created three years ago, here it is again: What would make the best birthday present? Please vote! If you can't see the poll, check it out on my Blog Actual.


What would make the best birthday present?

Yours in needing some rest,
Kristin

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…

This is a long post. Don't feel pressure to read everything. But at the very least, I encourage you to listen, watch, and vote!

My FAQ post the other day lent itself to some Buffy discussion in the comments -- Spike quote-sharing, favorite and least favorite characters, etc. -- if you've seen Buffy, feel free to contribute. And I've started Season 5 and couldn't be happier. I'm thinking way too much about it, really, and want to talk about this show more here someday. And maybe particularly about Spike, because while I continue to love his humor, his insight, his large yet despicable heart, his twisted approach to relationships, and his reliably terrible decisions... I KNOW there must be some Spike dissenters out there who'd like to express themselves. HOWEVER. Now isn't the time to get into it, because I'm only on Season 5, so I don't have all the data yet. So. Maybe we could talk about Buffy more sometime in the future? :)

(NOTE: please fee…

Everyone, please feel free to vote in today's important poll of importance! (If you're reading this post somewhere other than my Blog Actual and cannot see the poll, please click here.)


With whom would you prefer to be stranded on a desert island?(trends)


Never seen a slow loris being tickled? Well, here you go:



Happy Monday, everyone.

It's my birthday week!

If you were around for my last birthday, you may recognize this poll, so forgive me for the repeat. I have a lot more readers now than I did then, and how could I waste an excellent birthday poll?

Please vote; and if you're someplace other than my site and can't see the poll, just click here.


What would make the best birthday present?(answers)

I bet I'm the only YA writer who gets asked frequently, "What's the story behind your snood fixation?"
Well, dear reader, I'll tell you, and by the time I'm done telling you, you're going to wish you never asked.
It all started last August. I was preparing for a School Library Journal photo shoot in which I was to wear medieval garb and wield a sword. I picked out the perfect snood for the occasion. I was so excited about the snood. It was the B.E.S.T. thing I'd ever purchased. But when I tried everything on for my sister, secret code name: Cordelia, SHE TOLD ME THE SNOOD LOOKED STUPID!
As you can imagine, I was devastated. Naturally, I took the story straight to my publicists, Sarah and Barb, because I knew they would understand and shower me with sympathy -- which they did, and more! They embraced the entire snood moment and came up with a new battle cry: SNOOD, BE DAMNED! (Highly satisfying when bellowed.) Over the weeks, the battle cry evo…

So, my sister (secret code name: Cordelia) and I have a lot of deep and meaningful discussions. Often, we find ourselves on the same side of the argument. For example, we've decided that given the choice of living with a whiner, a wino, or a rhino, we would both choose the rhino. And, the other night, while driving out of the parking lot of the dinner theater, we debated whether it would be worse for us to accidentally run over a patron or a matron. We agreed that while both would be dreadful, the matron would somehow be more dreadful.
Of course, we don't always agree. I asked Cordelia once which she would rather have, a car that doesn't stop or a car that doesn't go. She chose the car that doesn't stop, on the grounds that at least that car has one more good go left in it.
*. . . .*
More recently, we disagreed on who's better, the ballet dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov or the Irish step dancer Michael Flatley. I chose Baryshnikov (even though I adore Irish step…

So, I must confess that there are string quartets out there that bore me to tears. However, as I type this, I'm listening to Beethoven's string quartet No. 16 in F, Opus 135, and it does not bore me to tears. It's too much fun.
And now, stand back, because I'm going to tell you why. :o)
At the top of the score of the last movement of this quartet, Beethoven wrote the words "The Difficult Decision" (except he wrote them in German). Then, he wrote the words, "Muß es sein?" ("Must it be?"). The cello and viola open the movement with three notes that seem to be asking that question: "Must it be?" As the movement continues, you can hear the violins and the cello/viola repeating the question, sometimes passing it back and forth to each other. All the instruments sound very worried about it, very full of angst.
Then, a bit later on, right where the piece jumps back into happy, cheerful F major, Beethoven seems to have made his deci…

Quick news: Graceling has a Korean publisher, Moonhak Soochup. Also, Hörbuch Hamburg will be producing a German audio version, to be released in Fall 2009, which is, I believe, also when the German print version will be released. yAt!
Also: I've been getting some questions about ARCs for Fire. No, the Fire ARCs are not out yet. What's out now are reduced bound manuscripts in a very limited circulation. (I don't even have one.) I believe the ARCs will be distributed in March or April. (To explain what I'm talking about to anyone not familiar with the lingo: ARCs -- advanced reading copies -- are produced in a limited quantity by publishers as part of their marketing plans. They're meant to generate buzz and sales, and they're distributed by the publishers, usually at conferences such as BEA and ALA as well as to review magazines.)
Also, since so many people were raving about the Megan Whalen Turner books in my recent book meme post, I wanted to report ba…

The other night, feeling overwhelmed by life, I crawled into bed early with Anne of Green Gables and a beer. And let me tell you, what I had there was a winning combination.
I own the best edition of Anne ever. It's the 1997 Oxford University Press Annotated Anne of Green Gables and every page has sidebars crammed with definitions (What is a gimlet?); explanations of Anne's references (Who had the first alabaster brow?); photos (What would Matthew's horse and buggy have looked like?); etc., etc. Best of all, none of it is obtrusive. If you don't feel like learning extra stuff and you just want to read the book (which was the case the other night when I curled up with the beer), you can do that. Or, you can take as much time as you want, reading every single annotation. It is a divinely beautiful reading experience.
In fact, it is so divinely beautiful that it has inspired an Anne-related poll. Please vote!
(Btw, if you're reading this post somewhere other than …

It is so effing hot here that there are no words to describe it. The air conditioners are working their little hearts out, but to little avail.

Last week School Library Journal interviewed me, and on Wednesday I went to a costume shop and selected a beautiful medieval dress and a sword for my photo shoot! I even selected a snood. What's a snood? Well, it's not unlike a thneed. And a thneed, as you probably know, is a fine something that all people need.
It was super-fun, which surprised me, because I hate choosing clothes and am not really a girly-girl when it comes to things like trying on dresses, but as it turns out, deciding whether I'm a bar wench, a princess, a peasant, or a lady-in-waiting brought me much contentment. There was a snood emergency at one point, but a kind young lady on the staff helped me through it.

We're taking the pictures today.

And now! My 32nd birthday is coming up in a few days, and I have a birthday announcement! As of today, I will nev…