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

My editor has a particular Grace that I'm often aware of, but can never quite quantify. Here's an example of how it manifests: I send her an email about how I cannot possibly write the book, the book is too much of a mess for me to wrap my head around, the book is eating my brains, I cannot even bear to look at the book, the book is haunting me, the book is threatening me, I am a disgrace, my life as a writer is over, I'm going to take a boat to Antarctica and prostrate myself on a glacier and wait to die like that guy in "To Build a Fire," except not really like him, because at least he was trying to build a fire.

My editor will wait a few beats. Then, she'll send me a very calm email in which she will (1) not point out that I am being melodramatic and maudlin, (2) not tell me to get over myself, (3) not tell me to please stop sending her ridiculous emails because she is an extremely busy person and doesn't have time for this, and (4) gently suggest tha…

So, this post answers FAQs about writing and getting published. If those topics don't interest you, I promise that this will be the most boring post ever. Well, okay, even if those topics DO interest you, chances are you'll get bored, because I wrote SO MUCH! I apologize up front for length.

1. When and how did you start writing?
I'm going to give you a sleep-inducing answer, but I have a reason for doing so.

I did critical writing for years, but didn't get serious about creative writing until 2003, when I was nearing the end of my master's degree at Simmons College's Center for the Study of Children's Literature. I took an intro to writing class, then finished my degree with a creative writing independent study, with the marvelous writer and teacher Liza Ketchum as my mentor. With Liza, I began a middle grade contemporary realistic novel. I started working on it in September of 2003 and wrote maybe a third of it during the semester. After graduating, …