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

I would like a poster of today's xkcd to hang on my wall: Diagram of the Up Goer Five.

Also, I like this (surreal!) video about Finnish ice fisherpeople.

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Okay. Here's my public events schedule for NCTE-ALAN in Vegas next weekend. Location of all events: The MGM Grand Hotel & Casino | 3799 Las Vegas Boulevard South | Las Vegas, NV 89109. Which is just WEIRD.

Sunday, November 18th

11:00 AM – 12:00 PM: Signing in the Penguin Booth, #101-105.

12:00 PM – 12:30 PM: Signing at Anderson’s Bookshop, Booth #147.

Monday, November 19th

8:40 AM – 9:15 AM: ALAN Workshop -- Fantasy Panel. With Rae Carson, Shannon Hale, and Maggie Stiefvater. MGM Grand | Level Three | Premier Ballroom | Rooms 309-311.

9:15 AM – 10:15 AM: (silent) ALAN Book Signing.

I... cannot explain why that last book signing is silent. But I will try to find out.

ETA: Ha! Okay, regarding the silent signing: ALAN takes place in one big ballroom, and the next panel will be going on during the signing. So we will ha…

...because this xkcd is too funny not to share.

(This morning I tried to psych myself up for writing by telling myself that that's what I was doing.)

I've been thinking about some of the things that make revision tricky. A few days ago, I found myself unsure about how to attack the next plotty piece in my novel.... so, to work that out and get my momentum going again, I did what I always do, which is that I went back a few chapters to read and revise. This usually works for me. By the time I get to the end of what I've got, I know what comes next and have a few ideas about how to do it.

So, Bitterblue is very, um, LONG would be an accurate word, so whenever I'm revising, I'm looking for things to cut out. But one thing that always makes it tricky for me to cut things out is that in every scene, I'm always trying to accomplish several things at once. For example, the point of the scene might be for Characters A and B to discover a Surprising Plot Thing -- something startling and relevant to the larger plot.…