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

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 mon

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 ave

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 interest

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 so

(Click to embiggen) Bitterblue will be released on May 1, 2012 in the USA, Canada, UK, Australia, and New Zealand. It will be released on the same day in a few other countries/languages as well; I'll supply that information when I have it. A few reasons I love the (USA/Canada) cover above: It feels like Bitterblue (the character) to me. The colors have special significance. The keys are a highly appropriate icon (like Katsa's dagger on the Graceling cover). And, the keys look like weapons. :o) Here's a link to today's press release in Publisher's Weekly , which includes a little bit of teaser information about the book . Thanks to Sue Corbett for the interview. Here's where you can preorder on bn.com . Here's where you can preorder on Amazon . Ask your local indie bookseller about preordering, too, if preordering is what you want to do. A lot of people have asked me why it took so long for me to finish this book. The answer is simple. It's n