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

I have another post of Arctic pics lined up, but I wanted to change to the subject for a moment to something closer to home. Here's something we received from some of my dear people at Penguin after we got married.




 Umbrellas, magical worlds, and joint adventures! My editor, Kathy Dawson, found the card, and my artist and mapmaker for Bitterblue and Jane, Unlimited, Ian Schoenherr, revised it :o). Jane, Unlimited readers will hopefully understand why.

My mouth fell open when I saw it, and I promptly burst into tears. Thank you to those involved -- you know who you are :o).

More soon!

I walked home through a lovely, gentle rain, then propped my umbrella up in front of the couch to dry. Seeing a package waiting, I opened it eagerly, suspecting it was the paperback of Jane, Unlimited. Then I noticed something matchy!


Some things, at least, are aligned in this universe.

I am happy and proud to direct you over toEntertainment Weekly, where my new cover is on display, along with an excerpt from the new book :o). Jane, Unlimited comes out September 19. Thank you so much to everyone at Penguin, especially Kathy, Claire, Elyse, and the entire design team, for this lovely cover reveal. My character Jane is an umbrella-maker... see if you can sense the umbrella-ness of the cover :o). Enjoy!

Friends and family have sent me many, many pictures of Saturday's protests -- so far I have 15 cities represented -- and I can't want to share them. I'm just waiting a few more days to give people time to send me stuff. In the meantime, I encourage you to read Malinda Lo's post about the march on Washington.

In Atlanta, it was a day of thunderstorms. So here's a magical umbrella.

Let's start big: The magical unicorn umbrella promises to allow you to "Summon unicorns whilst staying dry." Disclaimer: "Unicorn sightings may vary depending on the strength of your imagination and the drugs you've consumed."


Next up: This clear dome umbrella has an adorable street scene... and this one is a birdcage!


Next up, Bella Umbrella is a gorgeous umbrella store in Seattle. In addition to selling beautiful umbrellas, here are the vintage umbrellas they offer for rental (beautifully arranged by color!)... and here's an example of the umbrella wall they will help you build, should happen to require an umbrella wall, which is a completely normal human need.


Next, check out the umbrellas and parasols at Parasolerie Heurtault in Paris. Functional umbrellas that are also pure art...

And, also in Paris, the Alexandra Sojfer collection. Alexandra's umbrellas are handmade in her in-house workshop, and they are SO ELEGANT. I know because I have one, …

Season 3 of The Great British Baking Show (known as The Great British Bake Off in Britain) was my favorite yet. I cried through the Final (in a good way). Here is the chocolate well created by a contestant in Episode 9...


...with a bucket that drops to the bottom to collect liquid white chocolate for dipping the biscuits in.


The judges told the contestant (whose name I'm not saying because it would be a spoiler) that it needed more decoration, frills, and furbelows.  Dear judges: Wrong.

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At Reuters: France defends burkini ban on tense post-attack beaches. Wow, does this make my blood boil. Dear French officials: Stop telling women to uncover their bodies and calling it feminism. Stop telling women what to wear, period, and calling it feminism. Racism, misogyny, and religious intolerance are especially disgusting when you claim to be doing it on behalf of these women, who will now not be able to go to the beach.

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In better French news, at The Guardian: How a 3-D clitoris will…

It is RAINING NOT SNOWING. Today I wore SNEAKERS NOT BOOTS. It's all of 36°F (2°C), but there was only one possible choice of umbrella.

Cantabrigians, how happy you make me on rainy days with your diverse display of beautiful, colorful umbrellas. I've lived in so many places where people think the only color for an umbrella is black.

It turns out it's hard to take pictures of people's colorful umbrellas (while also holding an umbrella and various other things yourself) without either freaking people out or dropping your phone into a puddle, so instead, I tried to take a picture of my own umbrella this morning... I think there was a mirror inside this establishment (see the square behind the black cabinet, which contains a tiny bright rectangle that is the reflection of me in the window? (THANK YOU JD FOR FIGURING THAT OUT)), so there's some kind of weird double reflection going on. To be honest, I couldn't figure out what was going on with the double reflection at the time. I couldn't see a mirror in there, and my puzzled peering seemed to be confusing the people inside, so finally I gave up. (…

Where does the author go when she finds out that her book hit #2 on the New York Times bestseller list?

The umbrella store, of course. (Bella Umbrella at the corner of 1st and Pine in downtown Seattle.)


How many umbrellas does the author purchase at the umbrella store?

Only the Shadow knows.