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

(These links are by no means exhaustive, but each of them is worth reading, so I wanted to share. Thanks to Becca, Malinda, Sarah, Sarah, Anne, Nancy, and all my friends who keep me in the loop!)

Here's a link to the announcement at Scholastic. An excerpt: "Scholastic is announcing today that we are stopping the distribution of the book entitled A Birthday Cake for George Washington, by Ramin Ganeshram and illustrated by Vanessa Brantley-Newton, and will accept all returns. While we have great respect for the integrity and scholarship of the author, illustrator, and editor, we believe that, without more historical background on the evils of slavery than this book for younger children can provide, the book may give a false impression of the reality of the lives of slaves and therefore should be withdrawn."

Here's a perspective from Ebony Elizabeth Thomas, whose research at the University of Pennsylvania includes representations of slavery in children's literature…

Apologies for the broken link in my dresses post from May 5... the link was working for a while, then it broke, and I can't for the life of me find that page anymore. Agh! Here's a slideshow of dresses from the Met Gala, from another source entirely.From NPR, Here's What People Are Saying About the Waco Shootout and Race. Why such a relaxed-looking police presence in Waco compared to Baltimore and Ferguson?I liked the Google doodle for Inge Lehmann's 127th birthday. Lehmann was a Danish woman who discovered that the earth had both inner and outer cores.Don't forget that while you're catching the bus or feeding your kids or trying to calm your mind so you can fall asleep (or avoiding your book plan), far away on Mars, lonely rovers are crawling around, taking pictures of the sunset. (Thanks, B.)

The (familiar and simple) story the mainstream media is telling us about what's happening in Baltimore doesn't match the on-the-street stories of the regular people who are describing what they're seeing and experiencing.

Why?

Here are a few tweets of people describing their experiences in Baltimore today:

https://twitter.com/tchopstl/status/592868784077156353

https://twitter.com/amaditalks/status/592870570494205953

https://twitter.com/Nettaaaaaaaa/status/592895284688134144

And here's an interesting article from the Baltimore Sun, dated September 28, 2014, about their police department's use of undue force (with upsetting photos): http://data.baltimoresun.com/news/police-settlements/

Thanks, B.

Jacqueline Woodson, divinely wonderful writer and winner of the National Book Award for Young People's Literature for Brown Girl Dreaming, has responded to Daniel Handler's watermelon joke in the New York Times. Here's a link to her piece, called "The Pain of the Watermelon Joke." It's in the printed paper today, too. (Thanks, Sarah, for all these links!)

I'm getting a lot out of the discussion in the comments of Roger Sutton's blog post in response to Daniel Handler's racist watermelon joke at the National Book Award ceremony last week.  I haven't read every comment yet, but there's a lot here, a lot of people making astute observations and criticisms and explaining muddy things with great clarity. For example, I like the way some commenters are eviscerating Roger's criticisms of poet Nikky Finney's response to Handler's comments. (That link is to only one of the comments on this topic -- keep reading.)

Also, this seems like a good segue to reminding people that the We Need Diverse Books campaign is still going strong. Help the organization reach its stretch goals!

I love what Jay Smooth has to say about language, communication, the "N-word," our society's rules about the use of that word, what a double standard is, and what a double standard isn't. Thanks to Jay Smooth for seeing the complications and expressing them well -- as he always does.

Before I get to the questions, I love Justine Larbalestier's recent blog post, written to her friends and extended family: "You don't have to read my books." Now seems like an appropriate time for me to link to it, since I have a new book that's just come out. Friends and family who might be feeling obligated? YOU DON'T HAVE TO READ MY BOOKS! Read Justine's post -- she explains lots of great reasons why.

Now, SPOILER WARNING: These questions/answers don't contain any significant Bitterblue spoilers, but the first two questions definitely contain significant Graceling spoilers.

1. In your acknowledgments for Bitterblue, you included an interesting mention having to do with Po, disability politics, "magical cures," and your own failings as a writer. Would you talk a little bit more about what that was all about?

Here is the section of my Bitterblue acknowledgments to which this question refers:
Thanks to Rebecca Rabinowitz and Deborah Kaplan, wh…

If you've got 12 minutes today, consider watching Jay Smooth's TEDx Talk, called "How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love Discussing Race," presented at Hampshire College (yay Hampshire! My sister, codename: Apocalyptica the Flimflammer, went there). Transcript and related links coming soon to Jay Smooth's website.

How happy am I that Mitali Perkins has blogged about the question of whether authors should describe a character's race? And that Roger Sutton and The Longstockings are joining in? This is an issue I think about a lot, generally coming to no useful conclusions, so it's nice to see what other people think. Check it out -- join in -- ponder.

I've been taking a few days off, more or less. Recovering from Fire revisions and preparing myself to dive back into Book 3 -- waiting for it to call to me. Writing is partly about discipline, sure, but it's also about waiting, not forcing anything. Being patient; letting it come at its own pace.
I said this, or something like it, to my father once. Later that day, he came back to me and handed me this poem.
The Steps By Paul Valéry Translated by Donald Petersen
Your steps, children of my still hours, Solemnly and slowly placed Towards the bed of my wakefulness, Proceed now, cool and chaste.
Person most pure, saintly shade, How calm you…