Kristin Cashore's Blog, page 71

The Cuteness, It Burns

What used to be birthday week around these parts is now birthday month... because as I approach my 34th birthday, guess who -- and who else -- is (are?) about to turn one whole year old?


That's secret codename: Phoenix on the left and secret codename: Isis on the right, in a photo taken way back in March. My nieces! Congratulations, codenames: Cordelia and Joe! You have gone almost an entire year without sleep!!!

And my dad is also about to be a birthday boy!

If life allows, I'll try to come up...

In Which the Author Is Asked a Steamy Question

How do you write scenes that contain physical intimacy? Do you have any advice?

I'm willing to share some thoughts on this, but with the caveat that this is a subjective matter, and another writer with another writing style could give opposite advice that's just as valid and that you'll like better. Okay? There are many ways to, um, get the job done. And the job you do is not going to please everyone. :)

Also, where this post contains spoilers for my books, I will do my best to be as warny as p...

An Extra Post This Week...

...because this xkcd is too funny not to share.

In Which the Author Is Tired

I like this post called Stop Telling People to Love Their Bodies, and some of the comments, too. H/t, R.

Also, I'm totally enjoying the Buffy Fashion Roulette over at The Bitter Buffalo.

On August 5, there'll be an all-day reading of To Kill a Mockingbird at the main branch of the Cambridge Public Library, from 9am to 9pm, to celebrate the book's 50th birthday. I'll be one of the many readers. I'll post more info about this once I know more -- but isn't this cool?!

Feel like going to Vail in Oct...

Frankie, Alpha, Matthew, Names, Power, and Squee

December 14, 2007

To: Headmaster Richmond and the Board of Directors, Alabaster Preparatory Academy

I, Frankie Landau-Banks, hereby confess that I was the sole mastermind behind the mal-doings of the Loyal Order of the Basset Hounds.

So opens one of my favorite books of all time, The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks, by E. Lockhart.

Recently I mentioned Marie Rutkoski's super fun post about good book boyfriends, bad book boyfriends, and what you can tell about a potential book boyfr...

A Writing Lesson about the Trees

But first: News goes behind the News link, but some news is worthy of an announcement. Fire has won the Amelia Elizabeth Walden Award. This award, presented annually by ALAN, honors a book that possesses literary merit, widespread appeal to teens, and a positive approach to life. I'm touched that the ALAN Amelia Elizabeth Walden Award Committee saw the hope in my grim tale. Thank you so much to the committee for this fabulous honor!! :D

On to our writing lesson.

Here's the thing: recently...

A Voice Recognition Software Demonstration

Note to those who are reading this post in an e-mail, or anywhere other than my blog actual: if you don't see the short video immediately below, this post isn't going to make a whole lot of sense to you. You might want to read this one on my actual blog, which is here.

Press play!



Note: When the VRS recognizes a word that I do not say, that word is shown in red font. The correct word, if there is one, follows in brackets, in green font. Similarly, when I say a word that the VRS misses entirely,...

Some Nights Stay Up Till Dawn

Sometimes, my writing does disruptive things to my daily schedule and I end up staying up until 4 or 5am, for days on end. That's been happening a lot in the last few weeks. It can make life kind of messy, but I just try to go with it and be grateful for a job that allows me to live in all parts of the day. I always think of this gorgeous poem, ganked from the blog of my friend and fellow writer, Sarah Miller:

Some nights stay up till dawn,
as the moon sometimes does for the sun.
Be a full...

A Long Blather About Intertextuality, Actors, and the Movie Heat

Warning: this got rambly! Don't stress out: it is not assigned reading and there will not be a quiz.

Okay. About a year ago, I blogged about intertextuality in books and music. I.e., the way we bring every book we've read to every new book we read, and make connections; the way our enjoyment and appreciation of Jane Eyre is liable to affect our reading of any book about a lonely person going to live and work in a remote and mysterious house, for example. Or the way, if you've listened to a lo...

Randutiae, Get Your Randutiae Here

Cover of Fire, U.K. large print edition, published by Clipper Large Print --->

So. Randomness today. Read what interests you, skip what doesn't.
Book Boyfriend Names. I got a kick out of Marie Rutkoski's short post about literary boyfriends and their names. Do you even have to read the L'Engle books to know that Adam Eddington is solid and reliable, while Zachary Gray is a bad boy? I have a lot of fun choosing names for my male leads. Poor Po is the butt of Germany, but I hope I've done...