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

Dear Gmail,

I like ya lots. HOWEVER. I switched to your "new look" about a week ago, because, as you intend to force this new look on all your users soon, I wanted to see what I was in for. Want to know how it's been for me? Well, let's see, I can no longer figure out what any of the command buttons mean, because you've turned them into obscure symbols instead of words. When I send an e-mail, the sent mail displays on my screen with its top cut off, which is sloppy, weird, and requires me to scroll with my sore arms if I want to see the whole thing. Worst of all, when I open a conversation, I can't see readily where one e-mail starts and the next begins -- a serious problem, because it means I risk missing e-mails altogether if I'm reading fast.

How can anyone possibly consider this an improvement? Please, PLEASE, don't force your new look on us, or I will be forced to leave, and then you'll no longer be able to show me hilariously irr…

If you've got 12 minutes today, consider watching Jay Smooth's TEDx Talk, called "How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love Discussing Race," presented at Hampshire College (yay Hampshire! My sister, codename: Apocalyptica the Flimflammer, went there). Transcript and related links coming soon to Jay Smooth's website.

(My title = words I like from singer-songwriter Gavin DeGraw. The song is called "I Don't Want to Be" [link opens to the Wikipedia page; it doesn't play the song].)

I never got around to cleaning that closet this weekend. That's all right, I'll get to it sometime this week -- and I did make the time to go to Mount Auburn Cemetery, climb the tower, and take a look at the fall leaves. I love to see the world from high up, because it alters my perspective; it gives me some distance from my own tiny life and makes me feel more connected to all my people who are far away.

It was busy at the top of the tower; a lot of people were leaf-peeping. I probably heard four or five different languages. That's pretty normal for Cambridge, what with the world-renowned universities, but I wondered if some of the people were tourists, coming to see New England's leaves. I sat up there for some time while people came and went. I wouldn't say that I reached a place of p…

I'd like to return to my Monday/Thursday blogging schedule sometime soon, but at the moment, there's so much life going on, and a lot of good work too, and the time keeps eluding me. Truth is, I'm still recovering from Bitterblue. My house is recovering too; I'm in the midst of a deep clean my house hasn't experienced in way too long. One of the things that got lost during the past year and a half or so when Bitterblue was consuming 12 or 14 hours every day is deep cleaning. Not just dusting the books, but moving them and dusting behind them -- that sort of thing. I love a clean house. This weekend, it's Me v. a Very Large Closet. Wish me luck.

In the meantime, I am slowly compiling my post with pictures from out west. They make me very happy. I hope to share them soon.

Fall also makes me very happy.

My friend JL recently linked me to this New York Times article, "To Feed the Hungry, Keep the Can, Open a Wallet." Food banks and food pantries can buy food…

Kristin bumps her head and says Ow.
Codename: Phoenix: Kristin, did you break your crown while you were fetching a pail of water?

Codename: Joe is driving the car, at a reasonable pace. Codenames: Phoenix and Isis are in the back seat.
Phoenix (screaming): GO FAST! GO FAST!
Isis (screaming): SLOW DOWN! SLOW DOWN!

I am reading Death Comes for the Archbishop on my e-book reader. Phoenix, awake from her nap, wanders in. I put the device to sleep immediately and close it inside its case, but not before she sees.
Phoenix: What you doing, Kristin? Are you reading your book?
Me: Yes, Phoenix, I am reading my book.
Phoenix: Can I see it?
Me (holding it so she can see): Yes, you can see it.
Phoenix: Can I just hold it?
Me: You can hold it for a minute, but then you have to give it back to Kristin.
Phoenix (holding the reader in delight): Can I just open it?
Me: The book is sleeping now, Phoenix. We need to let it sleep.
Phoenix: Can I just see it sleeping?
Me (opening the case): We can look at it once, but …

Just popping in to report that after a day of drippy cold rain, it is now snowing.

New England, I ♥ you.

The mailman left me a package slip, and in the space where he was supposed to write down the name of the sender, he wrote "Poland." ...? Poland sent me a package? I'm guessing it's copies of Fire (see snazzy cover ---->) from my Polish publisher, Wydawnictwo Nasza Ksiegarnia. Can't think why he didn't just say so. :P

Philip Pullman is still fighting hard for libraries in England. "Philip Pullman has lambasted Brent council for its comment that closing half of its libraries would help it fulfil 'exciting plans to improve libraries', describing the statement as a 'masterpiece' which 'ought to be quoted in every anthology of political bullshit from here to eternity'." HA HA HA (Thanks, R)

As a freelance writer, I found this article about how to budget for an irregular income helpful... with the exception of the suggestion that one project one's cash flow based on one's minimum monthly income from the last 12 months. T…

I promise I won't use my Bitterblue cover as my post picture for the rest of all time, but for now, I just can't help myself. I've been working on Bitterblue for almost four years, and haven't really been able to express how it's made me feel. Now that I finally have a cover to express things for me, I find I keep reaching for it. :o)

So, there's this piece of music by the Hungarian composer Bartók called Suite from The Miraculous Mandarin. If you're curious, you can listen to part of it here. I theorize that there's a relatively high potential for disaster when an orchestra attempts to perform this piece, seeing as even when it's played well, it sounds kind of shrieky and discordant. Imagine how it would sound played badly!

Yesterday, I listened to the Boston Youth Symphony play it magnificently. The whole concert was beautiful and I was SO IMPRESSED with these fine young musicians. It was kind of a delightful crowd, too, younger than the average sym…

Hi everyone. I still exist. Apparently I am taking a small blog break! I didn't see it coming or I would've announced it. But I've been doing some more travel, I've been having work meetings, I've been recuperating, I've been working on various categories of things, and somehow haven't been feeling bloggy.

I think a lot of people's hearts have been bleeding a little bit on account of the National Book Award/Lauren Myracle kerfuffle. I very much enjoyed/appreciated/admired Myracle's own explanation of what happened, and agree with everyone else that she's a class act. Good on you, Lauren.

Here's a post I read recently and liked: "A 'Cowboy and Indians' party is just as bad as a blackface party," at Adrienne K.'s blog Native Appropriations. I also appreciated her more recent post, "Representing the Native Presence in the 'Occupy Wall Street' Narrative". There's always something interesting goin…

In case you missed it, I made an announcement about Bitterblue on Thursday.

You know, I wanted to come here and try to express some of my thoughts and feelings about what it was like to write this book, tell some stories, and describe how it feels to be done writing it. But I don't think I can yet. It was the hardest work I've ever done, and now that my part of the process is mostly over, I'm grieving. It's a comfort to me that if I have to give her up, at least I can give her to all of you.

Randomly, my subject line is from a Neil Young song I can't stop listening to. (The link is to youtube.) If you've never listened to much Neil Young and are curious, I highly recommend the album Neil Young Unplugged as your introduction.

My recent trip took me to Grand Teton National Park, Yellowstone, Salt Lake City, Zion National Park, and Bryce Canyon. Wisely, I chose an excellent photographer as my traveling companion :o). I'll be posting some pictures here soon. I don…