Kristin Cashore's Blog, page 54

Working Conditions

Flowers in my office.

This One Got Political

I wish every American who thinks we should tighten our immigration laws would watch this TED talk, in which technologist Tan Le tells her own immigration story.




Next, I don't know how many of you are familiar with what's going on right now between the Roman Catholic Church in parts of Missouri and SNAP, the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests. It's kind of confusing, actually. Here's an intro to the situation, ganked from an article in the New York Times: "Turning the tables on an advocacy group that has long supported victims of pedophile priests, lawyers for the Roman Catholic Church and priests accused of sexual abuse in two Missouri cases have gone to court to compel the group to disclose more than two decades of e-mails that could include correspondence with victims, lawyers, whistle-blowers, witnesses, the police, prosecutors and journalists." SNAP, so far, has refused to comply, out of a commitment to the privacy of its members, who come to SNAP assuming their painful stories will be handled with respect. SNAP operates on a shoestring budget, and is currently under massive financial strain because of these legal attacks. It's possible that if they lose this current fight, they'll face fines, or their director, David Clohessy, will go to jail.

The more I read about this issue, the more confusing and upsetting it gets. It's so hard to see into people's brains and understand their motivations, and I try to give both sides of a fight a listen, no matter how angry I am. But one particular thing I don't understand, and haven't understood from the beginning (OF TIME), is why the Church as a whole never steps back and asks itself, Okay, putting aside the specifics of accusations for the moment -- why do so many people always seem so angry with us, hurt, and betrayed? Could it conceivably be because we have angered, hurt, and betrayed them?

It's that simple.

I believe that even in a monarchical hierarchy like the Church, change is possible -- it only requires the people at the top admitting that change is warranted. I believe that righteousness and defensiveness are unattractive and hypocritical in any organization that teaches its members to be humble, examine their flawed natures, and admit their mistakes. And I believe that little people's opinions matter; that when people claim to be hurting, you stop and ask them what's wrong, you listen, and you consider whether you yourself might be responsible. My Catholic parents taught me these values.

Also from the NYT article: "Lawyers for the church and priests say they cannot comment because of a judge's order. But William Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, a church advocacy group in New York, said targeting the network was justified because 'SNAP is a menace to the Catholic Church.'"

I think that's a tacky thing for a representative of the Catholic Church to say about a victim advocates group that is working to bring comfort, healing, and justice to victims of sexual abuse by priests.

If you would like to donate money to SNAP, you can do so here.

Bring Him Home

Les Miserables opened in Boston on Tuesday night, and I was there. Holy cow. I knew I'd like it a lot, because, well, it's Les Mis; but I hadn't done my homework beforehand, and was therefore completely unprepared for this stellar, stunning cast. This production didn't start on Broadway; the tour is its only USA presence. Therefore, we had the likes of J. Mark McVey as Jean Valjean (he was AMAZING). Andrew Varela, Chasten Harmon, Jeremy Hays, Betsy Morgan, Julie Benko, Max Quinlan, Richard Vida, Shawna Hamic, the ensemble singing their hearts out, the beautiful design, the beautiful orchestra -- the performance was better than some of the best I've seen on Broadway. Here are photos of the national tour.

Thank you, you wonderful, dear people, for coming to my backyard.

Do What Makes You Happy

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, Bitterblue's manicure would be full of telltale gargoyle grit or somesuch. Then, later in the day, I suddenly realized: Gargoyle Grit! What a great name and concept for a nail polish! it could be matte, chunky, and various values of gray, maybe with the occasional sparkle! Are all you designers listening out there? GO!

Anyway. It would be fair to say that I love nail polish, and I also love the beautifully-written, sad, intelligent and captivating Hunger Games books. THEREFORE I'm now the owner of seven of the Hunger Games colors. *ahem* Here are my nails. This is a base coat of Smoke and Ashes (that's the darker polish you can see peeking through), with alternating topcoats of Riveting (the more red/orange one) and Harvest Moon (the more gold one) on each nail:

Like the HG nail polish, the Suite Andalucía
piano solo by Ernesto Lecuona is beautiful. Like the HG nail polish, The Returning by Christine
Hinwood is beautiful. You should read it. (Listen, I'm
trying to make these photos interesting for people
(BARBARIANS) who are bored by nail polish.)
By the way – my manicures are often slightly weird – I try wearing a single color but am never satisfied – so someone asked me once if I feel a little strange going out into the world with my nails painted all different colors. My feeling is that the person asking that question is forgetting that we're all going to die someday. Do you really want to spend your life worrying about what other people think of your nail polish choice?

Do what makes you happy.

Happy sigh...

This Week in Women

Sometimes I wonder if Rush Limbaugh is a secret liberal whose strategy is to make the far right look JUST THAT BAD.

If only. But listening to all the conversation and outrage that's followed his most recent vile contribution to the national dialogue, I can't help but feel like he's accidentally done feminism a favor. There's a lot of stuff worth reading out there, but I'll only mention a few: Here's a Slate article by Emily Bazelon about the whole thing, plus some of the positive changes that are happening these days in rape legislation. Here's a Salon article by Maureen Andrade that injects some reality and common sense into the issue of human relationships and pregnancy prevention. Both Slate and Salon have other related articles I've enjoyed reading -- poke around. Here, Tamora Pierce calls for an end to "women slut-bashing other women. Using the words that have ripped women apart for centuries." And finally, if it's all too upsetting and painful and you need a good laugh to help you wipe off the muck, watch what Jon Stewart has to say about Limbaugh.  Really, do.

Speaking of awesome women (because that is ultimately what I'm speaking of), Elizabeth Warren is trailing Scott Brown in campaign donations in the Massachusetts Senate race. Here's Warren's website, if you care to make a donation.

And finally, did you know that it was a woman in her early 20s who uncovered the Jerry Sandusky/Penn State story? Sara Ganim worked on the story for two years, pounding the pavement, knocking on doors, asking people questions, and in fact, published her first story about it (in Harrisburg's The Patriot News) seven months before most of us ever heard about it. For seven months, her reporting was squashed and ignored. Then Sandusky was finally arrested and charged, and the national media jumped on it. In December, Sara Ganim became the youngest recipient ever of the Sidney Award for socially conscious journalism. Congratulations!

Randutiae for a Monday, Plus, a Bitterblue-related photo

First, I recommend the show "Ocean Giants" on PBS's Nature. It's about HOW AMAZING WHALES ARE. (It's also about how adorable whale videographers are, but I think that's accidental.) Did you know that bowhead whales, which are only found in the Arctic, are believed to be capable of living 200 years? They are extremely wary of humans (unlike some other kinds of whales, like right whales). The narrator of the show speculated that this could be because some of them are so old that they remember the great era of whaling! In 2007, a living bowhead whale off the coast of Alaska was found to have a harpoon embedded in its neck blubber that was manufactured in the 1890s. Just think about that.

Next, Saturday was so dark that it didn't seem like the sun was up at all, it was raining, and I woke up really needing to listen to Gustavo Santaolalla's "De Usuahia a la Quiaca" (the link plays the song automatically). It's part of the soundtrack of The Motorcycle Diaries, which is about Argentinian-born Che Guevara, so I can only assume that the title ("From Usuahia to Quiaca") is referring to Argentina's furthest south and north points. Google maps is stumped about how to get from one to the other. Why? Surely not that little bit of water? In these driving directions from Honolulu to Mexico City, step 13 tells me to kayak across the Pacific Ocean. So WHAT'S THE PROBLEM HERE? I wonder if Google has to have some sort of legal permission from a territory in order to be silly about it. Or something.

Anyway. A few weeks ago, I mentioned I was getting a new bookcase made to my specifications at The Door Store. I'm thrilled with the results, so thought I'd share them:


My Bitterblue manuscripts don't actually live on this bookcase, but I piled them on, just to show you.


The left pile is versions one, two, and three. The right pile is versions four and five, plus the copyedit and the typeset first pass on top (both double-sided, which is why they seem so skinny). That's seven versions before we reached the very final one, and by the way, my first serious revision was massive, less of a revision and more of a rewrite. Version 1 was almost 800 manuscript pages long (216,000 words); later versions were about 550 pages long. I could never have gotten to any of the later versions without having written the earlier versions. Every step in the process was necessary.

I wanted to show these so that the next time anyone is tempted to tell a writer to "write faster," they stop themselves, consider how much work goes into a book, and instead, congratulate the writer for managing to do so much in so little time. :)

Coming Up with a Subject Line Requires Brain Juice

I try to avoid turning my blog into a publicity machine, but this has been the kind of week that leaves a gal uninspired, in addition to which, I have two nice pieces of news. So brace yourselves.

The first comes with a thank you -- to Kirkus Reviews, for their review of Bitterblue, which is beautiful (the review, I mean!) not just in content, but in form. At the moment, the full review is only available online to subscribers.  I'm sorry about that, because it's a really lovely review. The most spoiler-conscious among you should probably avoid it (YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED), though all things considered, it manages to be nice and vague about plot. Here's a (spoiler-free) excerpt for those of you who aren't subscribers, but would like a taste: "Gorgeous, textured prose is filled with images of strange beauty and restrained horror. It propels an intricate narrative dense with subplots and rich in characters familiar and new."

The second news is a mention of Graceling in the March 5 issue of People Magazine (the one with Elizabeth Smart on the cover), in a section about what you should read now that you're done with The Hunger Games. Although if you only check out one thing in People this week, make it Martha Stewart's dog on page 18. I cannot believe that's a real dog.

That's my news.

In news not mine, I really liked this Salon article: "The Mainstream Myth About Eating Disorders," by Autumn Whitefield-Madrano. "A new awareness campaign once again directly ties eating disorders to body image. The reality is much more complex." Yes. Good piece.

Finally, for some much-needed perspective, time-lapse footage of Earth, taken from the International Space Station (thanks B!). Look at our beautiful world:

On Blogging

A friend and I had a conversation recently about the concept of blogging -- or tweeting, if that's your thing, or being on Facebook -- about generally having a public internet presence. This is something I think about a lot -- what it means, why I blog, whether I should keep blogging.

These are surprisingly complicated questions, and I don't have the time/desire to touch on every consideration. But on the most basic level -- why do I blog?

A few reasons. My blog is a place for readers to go when they're looking for info about my books (which I'm not always the best at updating, but I try). It's a place for me to share cool stuff I've found on the interwebs -- because that's fun. It's a place to tell amusing stories, talk about writing, or rant about politics (because sometimes I can't help it). Sometimes it's a place for me to express deeper things -- feelings about life, and especially writing -- in the hopes that my words might resonate with other people, even be a comfort.

My blog also serves another purpose for me as an author: it's a line I draw. My blog is a carefully-maintained wall I put up, to remind myself of the difference between my private self and my public profile. It helps me define my privacy and protect my private soul. In a funny way that I'm having trouble articulating, presenting myself to the world through my blog helps me remember that it's really only my loved ones who know me. And I find that extremely comforting.

New (To Me) Music + Some Housekeeping

At the bottom of this post is some information about a way to buy certain foreign editions of Graceling and Fire if you're stateside.

Okay, I'm in a time crunch, but I'm giving myself 20 minutes to try to share some new music with you. First, for those of you who love Irish/Celtic music, I accidentally stumbled across the most beautiful, sad, LOVELY version of "The Curragh of Kildare." It's by The Boys of the Lough, on their album Lonesome Blues and Dancing Shoes. Sadly, it's not easy to find; I can't send you to it on iTunes, or even link to an illegal YouTube video. (You know, one of the ones where the uploader writes "NO COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT INTENDED!!!!!" in the notes section. "But your honor, I didn't intend to break the law. It just kind of happened as a consequence of me illegally uploading the song!") I can tell you where I did find it, though. It was on the Thistle & Shamrock podcast, at the end of the "Dave Richardson" episode (currently the second one under "Radio Archives Still Available for Download"). If you go to that link, there should be instructions for how to download the podcast that includes the (short -- maybe about 10 or 11 minutes) episode (see all the panels on the right of the page). Or, here's a link to subscribe to the podcast. WOW, they make this unnecessarily clunky -- I'm sorry it's so complicated. If you're adept at using podcasts, the podcast you're looking for is Thistlepod, and the Dave Richardson episode will be available for limited time. "The Curragh of Kildare" is at the very end of the episode. It's tragically cut off, because someone inexplicably decided to devote a large portion of the episode to Garrison Keillor singing instead. I have to say, THERE ARE SO MANY THINGS THISTLEPOD IS DOING WRONG. But the song is still worth it.

Next (that took almost my entire 20 minutes!), Argentinian classical composer Astor Piazzolla composed a piece called "Libertango" that a number of artists, including Yo-Yo Ma, have performed various arrangements of, but I just accidentally stumbled across my favorite arrangement. Performed by Sverre Indris Joner on piano, Atle Sponberg on violin, and Steinar Haugerud on double-bass. Kristiansand Symphony Orchestra, directed by Rolf Gupta. Here's Norwegian composer Sverre Indris Joner's arrangement, in which the strings are delightfully percussive:



Next, I also accidentally stumbled across the gorgeous piano compositions of Cuban classical composer Ernesto Lecuona. Here's just one example, the movement "Cordoba" from the Suite Andalucía. (If you don't recognize it, you might recognize the later movement, "Malagueña," which is usually the one that gets picked up when people choose to record only one.) Here's "Cordoba," performed by Anat Navarro:



Next -- housekeeping. I want to apologize to everyone who reads my blog in syndication, because I now realize that I used to have the blog set up such that jump breaks didn't translate in syndication -- which means that all of your blog readers were overwhelmed by 30+ photos of Roman ceilings a few weeks ago. I do try to keep my blog from being an obnoxious and unavoidable presence, so I'm sorry about that. I've changed my settings, so next time I use a jump break, it'll show in syndication. (If you're reading this and have no idea what I'm talking about, don't worry about it.)

Finally, about buying foreign editions -- the Used Book department at the Harvard Book Store currently has quite a few foreign editions of my books for sale. If you're interested in buying Graceling in Catalan, Chinese (complex characters), Danish, Dutch, French, German, Hebrew, Hungarian, Indonesian, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Slovak, Swedish, or Turkish; or Fire in Catalan, Chinese (complex characters), Danish, Dutch, French, German, Polish, Slovak, or Spanish; or an English-language UK edition of Fire (various kinds of editions, with covers identical or similar to the one shown at the top of this post), you can do so at the Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue in Cambridge. The Used Book department is downstairs. If you're not local but would like to buy any of these editions, feel free to e-mail the store at info@harvard.com. They do accept mail orders, and someone there would be able to tell you if the edition you want is available. Supplies are limited!

TV Roundup -- It's All about Writing Character

The Dowager Countess: Wasn't there a masked ball in Paris when cholera broke out? Half the guests were dead before they left the ballroom.

The Earl: Thank you, Mama. That's cheered us up no end.

(From Downton Abbey)

Spoiler warning: Assume that all the following sections contain spoilers for whatever TV show the section is about.

Downton Abbey.
This is not the same show it was last season. Characters I knew then, I don't know anymore… Like Matthew, like Edith, like Branson (would someone please punch him for putting down Sybil's nursing work?); I'm even a little bit lost with Mary. And it's not that characters can't change. It's only that we need to understand what made them change. Otherwise they stop being characters and become tools for advancing/manipulating the plot.

I feel like it's a little bit more soap opera-y this season. Lavinia dies of a case of "Spanish flu with broken heart complications," for example. Seriously? She learns that Matthew still loves Mary, so she decides that the most convenient thing for everyone would be if she herself died, thus (after thoughtfully informing Matthew of her decision), she does? I feel that the writers did Lavinia a disservice here, because for me, it made her into a silly little nothing, and begged the question of why Matthew fell for her in the first place. (Which is another example of something I could have believed, had the writers given me some sort of character-based explanation for why it happened. Sure, I can imagine an explanation. But this season, I feel like the show is asking me to provide too many explanations of my own.) Anyway, Matthew needs someone who's as muleheaded as he is... but now the reason Matthew and Mary can't be together is because, according to Matthew, they're cursed, and everything they touch turns to ash? SRSLY? I hope Matthew doesn't spend too much more time marching around (yes, marching, now that he's pulled a Colin Craven -- which surprised me -- it seemed a little unimaginative for this show) being gloomy and defeatist. I used to think of him as the type to insist on being useful (like his mother). I hope that during his (unexplained) character transformation between seasons one and two, he didn't lose that quality. Where's the Matthew who makes some sense?

Speaking of inexplicable character transformations, can we talk about Edith? Except first, let me just say that actually, the other (more explicit) reason Matthew and Mary can't be together is that Mary is engaged to Richard. Richard interests me. He actually kind of seems right for Mary, because he's smart, hard, and manipulative, like she is. Whereas Matthew is right for Mary (or was, last season) because he's smart, strong, and ultimately good, like Mary – and because he sees Mary's situation, and knows and understands who Mary really is.

(This show has always been about Mary for me – or at least it was last season. I love her smarts; I love how much she's like her grandmother (for example, trying her hardest to get Sybil to drop Branson (and being honest with Branson about her intentions to do so), then making the best of it when she understands that Sybil won't. I feel that both Mary and Granny Violet, for all their snobbishness and manipulation, understand people and understand feelings and know when pushing will cause more damage than good); I appreciated how kind she was to Lavinia; and I have a lot of sympathy for her untenable position. When Mary is cruel, it's because she's trapped. I also think she's fairly honest with herself. I think she sheds a really interesting light on her father, who seems like such a kind, softhearted, noble man, until you consider how many of his decisions put his estate and his somewhat buffoonish notions of honor far ahead of the happiness of his eldest daughter. (Like deciding not to try to break the entail after very little consideration; like prioritizing Matthew's wedding over Mary's, because Matthew, though not his son, is his heir.) Do they like each other at all, Mary and the Earl? It's hard to tell. Again, Mary can be deliberately cruel, and I'm not condoning that, but she can also be extremely insightful, kind, and good. And the Earl can also be kind and good, and usually is, eventually (after the requisite bluster) -- but he can be cruel, too. Because his head is up his ass. (And yes, I felt all these things about him before he ever kissed the maid and told his wife she's stupid.))

Anyway. I suppose the big question now is how they're going to get rid of Richard. Ooo, I know! Why don't they have him randomly decide he wants to learn to fly an airplane, then offer his services dusting crops on a nearby farm, purely because he's decided he wants to be helpful! Then he could haphazardly fall in love with a married farm woman, get jilted, and come out of the experience with a complete personality transplant! Richard will be kind and helpful and utterly without self-interest! Sounds completely bizarre, doesn't it? Except that it's precisely what the show has done with Edith's character (substituting cars for airplanes and farmer man for farmer woman).

Listen, it's not that characters can't change. And it's not that I don't like the new Edith. (How interesting Mary now looks beside Edith. Edith used to make Mary seem kind in comparison! Now Mary's the only hard one in the bunch.) But where the hell did this new softhearted, virtuous, Toad-of-Toad-Hall sister come from?! What happened to sad, trapped, mean, conniving, incapable Edith between seasons one and two?

Moving down to the servants' quarters – I'm reserving my opinion on Branson for now. I loved him last season, but this season I could do without some of the things he's said to Sybil (putting down her work, telling her how she feels). On the other hand, it's a damn romantic story for one of the ladies of the house and the chauffeur to fall in love, I get why he's so pissed off about everything (including politically), and he has been very patient. I love Sybil, and hope Branson's worth it. I hope we'll get to see Sybil talking back.

You know who I love? DAISY. You know whose situation I'm tired of? Mr. Bates'. You know who should be appointed Queen of the World? Maggie Smith.

******
Once Upon a Time.
...I've lost interest. Yes, TV show, I see what you're trying to do with the mysterious, 5 o'clock-shadowed, typewriter-toting stranger who just rode into town on his motorcycle, but it's not working on me. First I didn't give a shit about the sheriff; then, in one episode, you made me love the sheriff by showing me his pain; then, in the same episode, you KILLED THE FREAKING SHERIFF. Which might even have been fine, had there been anyone else on the show I loved, instead of just a nice cast of people I liked. I can watch a show that's got a nice cast of people I like. Until the show gives me someone to COMPLETELY LOVE, and then the whole tenor of the show changes, and my expectations rise, and they never go down again.  My love for a character can gradually, over time, start shedding light on other parts of the show, so that I begin to love them too. But you killed my sheriff too soon, and then you left me with nothing to love. And now I realize that this is an empty relationship and I don't care.

I've even lost interest in Snow White and Prince Charming (Mary Margaret and David in Storyville), now that David is sneaking around behind his wife's back to see Mary Margaret. It's pretty normal behavior for a regular real-life dumbass, and even rather understandable, since we all know there's something fishy about the legitimacy of that marriage, plus, we've all watched enough TV to know that waking up with complete amnesia and excellent muscle tone after years in a coma is extremely disorienting and can affect behavior. BUT. David isn't a regular guy. He's Prince Charming. I expect Prince Charming to be unable to live without his true love, but I also expect him not to be a coward in his behavior toward his wife. PRINCE CHARMING IS NOT SUPPOSED TO BE DISAPPOINTING. THAT IS THE WHOLE POINT.

 ******
Sherlock.
The second series, in my opinion, is even funnier than the first series. The first episode in the second series, "A Scandal in Belgravia," was hilarious, highly entertaining, and also deeply disappointing to me -- such an opportunity missed. Happily, someone else wrote an eloquent post about the problem, which allows me to link instead of trying to articulate it myself. Here's what Holger Syme has to say (thanks for the link, Marie!). The third episode in the second series, "The Reichenbach Fall," was so fabulous that I wrote an ecstatic post about it being fabulous....  this episode took me by surprise by making me care for Sherlock himself, much more than I ever had before. I had cared for Sherlock's satellites and found Watson, in particular, very dear; I'd been extremely amused by Sherlock, and understood why Watson loved him. But I don't think I'd quite loved him myself, until I was allowed to watch him struggle with fear, grief, love, and defeat here. Sherlock, I care now.

Also, I've come to LOVE the theme music and opening credits sequence of this show.  (Here's a youtube vid --  the music is criminally cut off at the end, but it's the best I can do.) (I miss London!) The music in particular, when it comes exploding in, feels just exactly right for the show.

******
Other shows on my queue that I haven't started yet, and have no idea when I'll ever find the time: Six Feet Under; The Wire; Madmen; Doctor Who; Dexter; Better off Ted; Alias; Deadwood; The Good Wife; Mildred Pierce; and the final season of Battlestar Galactica, which I still haven't seen all the way through.