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

This year, for Halloween, I was a library.

Last year, while searching for appropriate teapot/flower fabric for my Mad Hatter costume, I stumbled across the book fabric shown in the skirt above. That's when I realized I wanted to be a library this year... I've been planning this costume for over a year :o).  
I made most of this costume myself, including the skirt, top, and hat. The "QUIET PLEASE" sign on the top is cut out of felt. I glued it on while wearing the top and looking in the mirror (bugging Kevin every three minutes to ask if any of my letters were backwards), because that was the only way to know how it would look while I was wearing it.

Same with the book spines that make up the torso. I found old, falling apart books no one wanted, removed the spines, and attached them to a bustier, with staples, thread, and fabric glue, while wearing the bustier... because the bustier was stretchy, and this was the only way to know exactly where and how things needed …

I'm doing a panel tomorrow morning, Saturday October 28, at 11am, with Malinda Lo and E. Lockhart, on the topic of "Truth and Consequences"... apropos given our three most recent books! Moderated by Lauren Rizzuto. Please come if you can. More schedule info about this and other great YA panels here.

(Oh and -- I expect my next blog post to be Halloween costume pictures! I put a lot of detailed work into this year's costume. More soon. ^_^)

Leaf season is late this year in eastern Massachusetts. We've been paying attention, waiting for a sunny day to visit Mount Auburn Cemetery :o). Here are some photos, especially for those of you who don't get to enjoy a leaf season.

Now that I'm home from my tour, the mad rush is behind me, which means that now and then, I have little pockets of time for blogging. When I can, I'd like to fill some of those pockets with blog posts about what it was like to write Jane, Unlimited. This is a weird little book and writing it presented some unique challenges.

Before my first installation, though, I'd like to share some really nice news. I'll share it in the form of a humongous THANK YOU to Kathy Dawson and my team at Penguin; my agent Faye Bender; and all of the many readers who came together to put Jane on the New York Times Best Seller List and the Indie Bestseller List (for the second week!). Thank you, thank you, thank you, everyone, for this gift. I think that if Jane found out about this, she would be astonished and overwhelmed. Hm. Although probably the realization that she's a character in a book would trump the realization that the book is a best seller. HA! I wonder what umbrella she woul…

It's really hard to know what to do or how to help in the world right now, with all the things. So I'm going to blog one link for helping and one link for fun.

First, if you have some money and you want to contribute to something somewhere, in a way that will actually get to the people who need it… Well, there are a lot of worthy charitable organizations, but I wanted to point out Portlight. It is a cross-disability disaster relief and recovery organization. At the moment, they are working hard to assist hurricane survivors with disabilities, older adults, their families, and their communities. I've heard them spoken of highly – in terms of their effectiveness and the responsible use of their money – in a number of trustworthy circles and from friends. (As I have blogged before, I like to do research into the effectiveness of nonprofit organizations before giving them a penny, or recommending them to others.)

Next, if you're a Buffy fan, I hope you know about the podcas…