10 Things (Or More) You Didn't Know about Kristen Cashore

Biography: Kristin Cashore is the author of my current read, Graceling, which was her debut novel published in October 2008. Since then, she has written a prequel Fire, published in October 2009, and is currently writing a third companion called Bitterblue. She grew up in the northeastern Pennsylvanian countryside with a passion for reading. She attended Williams College and afterwards “developed a compulsive moving problem” which took her from New York City to Austin to Italy and in between. While living in Boston, she studied at Simmons College and earned an M.A. at the Center for the Study of Children’s Literature. While studying there, she developed her passion for young adult novel. She began her “dream job” of writing full-time with educational children’s books, and now with writing novels. She currently lives in Massachusetts.

Instead of boring you with a long, detailed version of her life story, I decided to keep it short so that I could make a list of 10 facts about Kristin Cashore that I find much more interesting than a boring research blog… so… here is my list of....

10 THINGS YOU DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT KRISTEN CASHORE 

1.     Since she suffers from thoracic outlet syndrome, which causes pain in the neck/arm/fingers, she hand-writes her novels in notebooks instead of typing. She then uses voice recognition software to get them into Word form. See how she uses it here.

2.     She keeps her notebook in a waterproof, fireproof safe, in case her house burns down. Before that, she kept it in the refrigerator. :)

3.     In college, she spent a year studying abroad in Sydney, Australia. (jealous)

4.     She meditates. Not only does she meditate, but she pictures Prince Harry when she meditates. (what good taste!!)

5.     She takes trapezing lessons, as in, the flying trapeze, to take a break from writing.

One way to get over Writer's Block!!

6.     One of her favorite fantasy authors is Tamora Pierce. (this isn’t a particularly interesting fact except that I LOVE Tamora Pierce’s books!!)

7.     When she is first writing a book, the character’s relationships, characteristics, and feelings come most naturally to her, and the plot is the most difficult for her and what she thinks of last. (didn’t you think it would be the other way around?)

8.     She loves Peeta from the Hunger Games (again, good taste) but doesn’t like his name.

(I found this out from one of her particularly funny blog posts.)

9.     She loves Bollywood movies.

10. She gets all of her books from the library, and then buys the ones that she loves. She loved The Book Thief so much that she bought multiple copies to spread the joy.

To find out more about Kristin Cashore, visit her blog at http://kristincashore.blogspot.com/. I only included a little of the funny material that I found there!!