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

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 went to see Cavalia's Odysseo, which is this beautiful show involving horses, trainers, acrobats, riders, aerialists, and musicians currently taking place under an enormous tent here in Boston (Somerville). One of the acts involves four aerialists doing a silks show up high on a spinning rig that's being spun by four white horses below. It made me so speechless that I confess I barely clapped for the next act, not because it wasn't amazing, but because I couldn't move. In case you're having trouble imagining what a show involving horses, trainers, acrobats, riders, aerialists, and musicians is like, here's a little video. :o) (You can watch the silks show for a few seconds around 1:59.)



My absolute favorite parts of the show, by the way, were those moments when all these unsaddled, unbridled horses would be running en masse across land or water in graceful formation and suddenly one of them would be like, "Meh, I'm not into this. I'm going to go …