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

If you've been around my blog for a while, then you know what I think of the societal assumption that a life isn't full without romance. You also know that while I sympathize with romantic (and every other kind of) cowardice, I really wish that after tea and cake and ices, J. Alfred would force the moment to its crisis. Finally, you know how much I dislike Valentine's Day. LISTEN, I have many opinions and they are all CORRECT.

Sigh. Valentine's Day makes me belligerent.

Pan-Universal Be Who You Are Day, on the other hand, makes me happy and proud. Click on that link if you have no idea what I'm talking about and are curious about why I have renamed Valentine's Day. I'm not being obscure on purpose, I'm being obscure because I am being hit over the head repeatedly by a manuscript right now and linkiness is possible whereas coherent explanations are not. Apologies; this is not going to be my best Pan-Universal Be Who You Are Day post ever. Here's a pic…

Click my Indonesian cover to enbiggen. Hello to my new Indonesian readers! *waves* ------->

So, three years ago, I decided to declare February 14 Interplanetary Be Who You Are Day. If you don't have the energy to click on that link, don't worry, I'll explain. But first, I would like to announce that in the spirit of inclusiveness, I am changing the name to Pan-Universal Be Who You Are Day. Now, not only extraterrestrial and extragalactic people but also alternate versions of ourselves can join our celebration! (Listen. You go ahead and start a holiday and see how hard it is to draw lines.)

So, there are a lot of things I don't like about Valentine's Day. For example, the working conditions of the people who grow our flowers. The muddy, murky issue of conflict diamonds. The child labor crisis in the chocolate industry. (I'm not actually trying to be depressing here! Just honest. The reality is depressing. I'm also not suggesting I'm any more innocent …

If my initial reaction to the theory that our universe is just one in an infinite series of universes in the multiverse, each universe containing a slightly different version of me -- if my initial reaction to this theory is that I'm going to be the BEST one (of all the me's) and all the others me's can kiss my ass -- does that suggest that I have a competitive nature?

(Perhaps more importantly, do all the me's have this competitive nature? Because if so, I think I/we am/are in trouble...)

Speaking of alternate dimensions... against all expectations, I'm utterly charmed by ABC's new drama Once upon a Time. I'm three episodes in. The premise is that back in fairytale land, Snow White's evil queen cast a spell on all the characters, propelling them into a terrible alternate dimension -- our world. Now they all live in a small town in present-day Maine, and none of them can remember the truth of their pasts or their true identities. (Here's more about…