Kristin Cashore's Blog, page 17

Writing for Charity Refugee Benefit Auction

Hey everybody. So, authors Shannon Hale and Mette Ivie Harrison have mobilized book people to donate items for an epic online auction to raise money for Lifting Hands International, a humanitarian organization that gets life-saving supplies directly to refugee camps. You will find one of a kind offers, critiques, art, books, personalized visits, and unique events from writers and artists. Author hangouts, sensitivity beta reads, skype visits, in-person visits, a writing retreat with Shannon Hale and Ally Condie -- the auction starts today and bidding ends the night of May 2. Go bid at the Refugee Benefit Auction!

Spring Report from Cambridge

In my house, it's still cold. The heat is on. I'm knitting blanket squares.
Yes, that's a dalek.
(Here's the washcloth version. You can knit one, too. The pattern is by Penwiper and you can find it here.)
Spring tulips shivering on my messy desk.
The trees are starting to flower but I was wearing winter coat,
scarf, hat, and gloves when I took this (blurry) picture.
In my own living room rain forest,
beautiful things are happening... (this pic taken by Kevin and Fancy Camera...) and this orchid, previously believed to be dying,
grew a whole new stalk and has six big fat buds!

Makes me hopeful.
Happy spring, Northern Hemisphere!

Friday event reminder, and "Wait For It"

Reminder that Marie Rutkoski (as of today, a NYT best-selling author! Yay! Congrats Marie!) and I are doing an event at Harvard Book Store, Friday April 8 at 7pm. Join us if you can!

And here's a treat for you: a cover of my favorite song from the musical Hamilton, called "Wait For It." In the musical, this song is performed by Aaron Burr (played by Leslie Odom, Jr. on Broadway). This outstanding cover is performed by the Musicality Vocal Ensemble at Curie High School on Chicago's southwest side. Thanks, Phil :o)

A Conference at Kansas State University

This coming Saturday (April 2), I'm delivering the plenary lecture at the annual conference of the Children's and Adolescent Literature Community at Kansas State University, in Manhattan, Kansas. I'm so excited to go to this conference! The schedule of events is behind that link, and people from the local community are welcome to register, here. If it helps, here's the press announcement, too. The subject of the conference is "Truth, Memory, and Power" and my talk is called "Breaking Characters and Healing Them Again: The Fiction Writer's Perspective on Working with Trauma." Doesn't that sound light and fun? :o) Sigh, my poor sweet Bitterblue. I hope she is eating some chocolate cake right now, perhaps while saying something snarky to one of her cousins.

If you're in the Manhattan, Kansas area, do feel free to join us on Saturday for what promises to be a day of interesting panels and papers!

Two Songs I'm Listening to Lately -- and a Local Event April 8!

Next Friday, April 8, come to the Harvard Book Store at 7PM to see Marie Rutkoski and me, in honor of the release (yesterday) of the third book in her Winner's trilogy, The Winner's Kiss! I expect we'll both be reading, then chatting with each other, then chatting with you. It'll be fun, and Marie's new book is WONDERFUL -- come and see us!


In other news, here are a couple sweet songs I've been enjoying lately. As always, if you can't see the videos, go to my Blog Actual.

Fiona Apple, "Hot Knife"

Regina Spektor, "Eet"

Bernie and the Bird

On the chance you have not yet seen Bernie and the bird. (If you can't see the vid, go to my Blog Actual.)



Sorry again for the lack of blogging. I am trying so hard to get my next book in shape so it can get out into the world!

Checking in with the Pictures of the Week

Sorry for my brief disappearance; after returning from East Africa, I got sick, then got better, then had to deal with an unexpected crisis. But all is well now!

And as a promise of future posts, here's a link to today's Flipboard Pictures of the Week, which struck me as being particularly interesting/ strange/ beautiful/ horrifying this week. Do you notice that the poor kid Donald Trump grabbed from the crowd is bawling his eyes out? Good instincts, kid.

The long road home -- shown in reverse order

These won't be my most beautiful pics, because they were taken from the plane and also because I'm jetlagged and frankly not putting my all into this post :o) -- but here are some scenes from the last 2 days' journey home. In reverse order, because I definitely don't want to end with the cloudy, snowy Boston scene that met us upon arrival!

Arriving in Boston. It was so strange to see this landscape after two weeks near the equator!
It's about an 8-hour flight from Amsterdam to Boston. We had a layover of many hours at AMS,
but lucky for us, Stephanie flies so much that we had access to one of the fancy lounges.
The sun rose while we waited for the plane to Boston.
It's about an 8-hour flight from Nairobi to Amsterdam. We had a day in Nairobi (pictured from the plane) during which
I had the privilege of visiting a Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) clinic in the informal
settlement of Kibera, then, in one of the extreme reversals characteristic of this trip, had dinner at a fancy hotel
overlooking antelopes and giraffes in Nairobi's game park.
Kenya from the plane, approaching Nairobi.
What's this we see out the window while flying over Tanzania on the way to Kenya?
Mount Kilimanjaro! Click to embiggen.
Coast of Tanzania.
Islands around Zanzibar.
Where our long journey home began -- Zanzibar Town, Zanzibar.
Maybe you can understand why I wanted to end this post at the beginning? :o)I have more things to say about this trip. Especially about the many, many things I didn't photograph. I hope to come back and do that in the next few days, once I'm feeling less crummy.

February 14: Pan-Universal Be Who You Are Day -- in Zanzibar!

Happy Pan-Universal Be Who You Are Day, everyone! (For those of you who are new to the blog, a few years back I decided to reclaim Valentine's Day and turn it into something else.) Here's sunrise this morning, in the order in which the various colors happened. Kevin, this is a good day to thank you again for Fancy Camera. :o)

Guess Where I Am (Round Two!)

I'm no longer in Rwanda. Can you guess where I am?

In my new location, it would be offensive to take recognizable pictures of people, which means it's also hard to take pictures of, well, anything, except in more isolated areas. So, before I get to the pictures, I'll start by saying that I might have taken a picture of the guy who cut open a coconut for us to drink. I might have taken a picture of cars driving on the left, through narrow, sunny streets. I might have taken a picture of a small, beautiful mosque, surrounded by cows that each had a distinctive hump behind its neck.

In this location, I cover my shoulders and upper legs when I'm in public, out of respect. The population is mostly Muslim and many men wear a fez. People keep trying to match Dave up with me or Stephanie, assuming one of us must be his wife; it doesn't occur to them that we are simply three traveling friends, maybe even with significant others at home. A cheerful man asked me yesterday, when I was wandering around with Dave, "Where are your babies?" Ha!

In this location, it is HOT HOT HOT, but the spot we've chosen is deliciously windy. Yesterday I went swimming in water as warm as a bath.

Ready for the pictures?

On  the way to this location, we had a layover in Nairobi, where we were handed raincoats
before walking across the tarmac in the pouring rain. Some travelers at our gate, however, had come prepared.
This lovely light fixture was in our hotel the first night.
And these flowers at our location thereafter.


Moored along the beach...

Requisite shoreline picture...

The women in these pictures...
...are harvesting seaweed. (Click any picture to embiggen.)

Good place to store the tools.
The tides here are extreme. Here's this tree at low tide...
...and at high.
Sand crabs scuttle past now and then.


When I mentioned offhandedly, to a person native to this place, that
my legs were sore, she asked, "Did you climb the mountain?"
Does it help to play the license plate game again? It's tricky though, because this time, the letter doesn't stand for a nation!
Sunrise.

Next, let's get a closer look at that boat....
Did you guess that I'm on the Tanzanian island of Zanzibar?
:o) :o) :o)