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

First, it's come to my attention that Amazon has the prologue and first chapter of Bitterblue online, for anyone who wants a sneak peek.

MORE IMPORTANTLY: As you may or may not know, in conjunction with the soon-to-be-released Hunger Games movie, THERE IS NAIL POLISH. I've always been led to believe that the ultimate goal for an author is the movie deal. Now I understand that the movie deal is merely a MEANS TO A MUCH HIGHER END: NAIL POLISH. And listen, I think my books would make for some great nail polish. There are so many bright and sparkly colors! While I was trying to convince a friend of this the other day, she mentioned that Bitterblue couldn't really pull off nail polish. I must agree. (Um, if you are BONKERS about spoilers, don't read the next sentence, but really it's a joke, not a spoiler, and would be understood by anyone who'd read the first few chapters:) Helda would do Bitterblue's nails and send her off to bed, then in the morning, Bitterb…

As usual, I'm a little behind the curve about blogging things, but this week, to celebrate the release of the Bitterblue paperback, I've been the author on Penguin's Teen Author Spotlight. Check it out if you want to see a short interview. Then scroll down and read about the other featured authors!

Also, I painted my nails. I hope Piet Mondrian and Frank Lloyd Wright would like them. Y'all know I like to subject you to my nail polish, right?




As long as I'm identifying the beer in the picture, I may as well identify my nail polish painting materials, for the nail painters among you: The gold is Orly "Luxe," the silver is Orly "Shine," and the teal is Diamond "Don't Teal My Heart Away." I'll try to remember to do that in future; I don't think I've been consistent about it in the past. The Orly metallics are extremely malleable and orderly and easy to paint with. The Diamond colors I have are plasticky and gloppy and soft…

I've been listening to one of the best Springsteen albums ever, Tunnel of Love. When we were kids, my sister (codename: Cordelia) and I came up with a theory, convincingly backed up by textual evidence, that the song "Brilliant Disguise" was about our cat Sugar, a beautiful and secretive creature one was likely to cross paths with "out on the edge of town." The person "call[ing her] name from underneath our willow" was, of course, Mom (who went outside every night to call her in), and the thing Sugar had "tucked in shame underneath [her] pillow" was, as I recall, a hairball.

It made sense at the time.

This is the album with "Tougher Than the Rest," "Spare Parts," "Cautious Man," "Tunnel of Love," "One Step Up," etc., plus, Bruce Springsteen wearing a bolo tie. If someone said to me, "For a period of one month, your half of every conversation about anything that matters must be conducted…

This was pretty challenging, especially because in order for everything to line up correctly, the more complicated planets had to end up on my dominant hand. Turns out it is really hard to paint a tiny Saturn with a nail polish brush and toothpicks, right-handed!

I tried to represent their relative sizes correctly, more or less. Well anyway, I did my best, given my limitations of tools and skill. :o) And yes, Pluto gets to be part of my solar system!

Click to embiggen.






Thanks, Kevin, for the pictures. Somehow we failed to take a close-up of my right hand, so here's a bad iPhone selfie, just to share details:

An alternative title to this post is "France is Yummy: Miscellany."

These are not all my meals. My companions -- fellow authors, publishing folk and interpreters -- became accustomed to me leaning over their shoulders with my iPhone.

Please forgive me for the fact that in some cases, I can't remember what these dishes were, and also for the fact that I don't have time tonight to identify the ones I do remember!  In some cases, it should be obvious what they are – tea, pizza, salad, souffle, fish and chips, cheese. I discovered one day that my belly has a cheese limit; beyond this limit, cheesebellyachus sets in. This is a nonfatal condition that leaves one with the genuine quandary of whether it is worth it to continue eating cheese. There are things you might never discover about yourself unless you visit France.

Click on them to make them big and beautiful. A few notes: No, the raw stuff was not mine – it was Gail Carriger's — she's a much more adventurous …