0 Event Reminder, Thursday, 5 PM, MIT, and Here Are Some Directions (ETA: And Parking Info!)

This is your friendly reminder that on Thursday, from 5 to 7 PM, Marah Gubar, Kenneth Kidd and I will be speaking about darkness, dystopia, and trauma in YA literature at MIT. Should be pretty cheery. Please join us. :o)

The MIT campus can be a bit bewildering for outsiders (possibly also for insiders), so here are some directions to the event at 66-110 on the MIT campus:

66-110 stands for room 110 in building 66. Building 66 (also called the Ralph Landau Building) is on Ames St in Cambridge. The street address for the building is 25 Ames Street. If you're coming from Kendall Square, walk away from the Longfellow Bridge (keep the Kendall Hotel on your left and the Marriott on your right) down Main St. until you see Ames St. Take a left on Ames (the Koch Institute is right on the corner) and walk 2 minutes until you see the MIT List Center on your left. Across the street on your right is building 66. The side of the building that you'll enter comes to a sharp point (66 is shaped like a large triangle). Walk into 66 from the edge facing Ames and continue down the hallway (you'll see classrooms on your left and labs on your right) until you reach an open area. Room 110 is in the corner of this open foyer. There will be a large poster board with 'MIT Communications Forum' outside the room, and you'll see posters for the event by the door.

(Thanks, Cora, for the directions!)

ETA: Info about parking!  A list of the parking lots near MIT: http://web.mit.edu/facilities/transportation/parking/visitors/public_parking.html. Apparently the lots at 4, 5 and 7 Cambridge Center are the closest to building 66. Otherwise there is metered parking along Memorial Drive, Ames Street, and Amherst Street, if you're lucky.

Detail: Event Reminder, Thursday, 5 PM, MIT, and Here Are Some Directions (ETA: And Parking Info!)

0 Event Reminder

This is your friendly reminder that tomorrow evening, Tuesday, March 3 at 7 PM, Marie Rutkoski and I will be at the Harvard Book Store for a Q&A and signing. Marie will read briefly from her new book, The Winner's Crime. I think I'm going to read (VERY briefly) from Fire. Then we will brilliantly pepper each other with brilliant questions before turning it over to the brilliant audience. We will all be very smart and incisive. You don't want to miss it. And at the moment, it's not even snowing, nor is it supposed to be snowing Tuesday evening. Hope to see you there!

Looking ahead, my MIT Communications Forum is March 19. I'm happily doing some reading and rereading in preparation for that, as well. At the moment, it's Andrew Smith's Grasshopper Jungle. Next up, Meg Rosoff's How I Live Now.

Detail: Event Reminder

0 Two Upcoming Local Events

It snowed again yesterday, heavy, wet flakes this time. I walked home from a friend's house late last night and the falling snow was sparkling; the mountains of snow lining the streets and consuming people's yards were sparkling. This winter is like being trapped inside a snow globe. It is a little bit claustrophobic, but it's also kind of magical. Many, many cars are still completely encased in mounds of snow. We're expecting a blizzard this weekend. Tonight it will be 0°F (-18°C) and I have bedazzled my fingernails for a party.

On Tuesday, March 3, Marie Rutkoski is coming to town and she and I will be doing an event together at 7 PM at the Harvard Book Store. Yay! Do come! The event is to celebrate the release of Marie's book The Winner's Crime, sequel to The Winner's Curse, both of which are SO WONDERFUL, and I'm so excited to talk about it with her. The event is also to celebrate the release of ABSOLUTELY NOTHING I HAVE WRITTEN, because I am SO SLOW and still have nothing new out. But! Things are in the works, I swear. Please come to our event and ask us lots of questions!

Also, on Thursday, March 19, I will be participating in an MIT Communications Forum entitled Coming of Age in Dystopia: The Darkness of Young Adult Fiction. It's from 5-7 PM and here's the blurb: "Why are brutal dystopias, devastating apocalyptic visions, and tales of personal trauma such a staple of young adult literature? Kristin Cashore, author of the award-winning Graceling Realm trilogy, and the University of Florida’s Kenneth Kidd will explore the history and current preoccupations of one of the most popular forms of fiction today. Marah Gubar, an associate professor in MIT’s Literature department, will moderate." It's an honor to be invited to participate in one of MIT's Communications Forums, and this is going to be an interesting topic to get into deeply. You should all come to that, too! I'll get organized and put both of these events onto my Appearance Schedule soon, but in the meantime, I wanted to get them onto people's radars.

Detail: Two Upcoming Local Events

0 Events, Williamstown, MA and Manchester, VT

Yesterday morning I drove into Arlington, then continued onward with a friend to the Middlesex Fells. The trees are starting to change! So beautiful. And it reminded me that I've neglected to announce my plans for later this week in the Berkshires, where we are going to see such beautiful trees…

I'll be at Williams College, then at Northshire Bookstore in Manchester, VT, with three other Williams grads who write YA, Dayna Lorentz, Caragh O'Brien, and Tui Sutherland. Come join us.

October 2, 2014 (Thursday) at 8:00pm – Goodrich Hall, Williams College, Williamstown, MA
Writing for Young People: a Panel of Alumni Young Adult Authors with Dayna Lorentz, Caragh O’Brien, and Tui T. Sutherland

October 3, 2014 (Friday) at 4:00pm – Northshire Bookstore, Manchester, VT
Panel Conversation and Signing with Dayna Lorentz, Caragh O’Brien, and Tui T. Sutherland

Detail: Events, Williamstown, MA and Manchester, VT

0 March 4 Event, Marie Rutkoski and Me, Harvard Book Store, 7pm

There's a new book coming out on March 4 that I'm wildly excited about, because it is just so wonderfully excellently super-good… It's called The Winner's Curse and Marie Rutkoski wrote it. Those of you who read my blog carefully know that Marie is a dear friend of mine, so I wouldn't blame you if now you're thinking, Oh, sure, she's going to say it's wonderful, because her friend wrote it – or even, Oh, sure, she's going to think it's wonderful, because her friend wrote it. This sort of dilemma arises when one's friend writes an amazing book: How to convince others that the book itself is amazing and I'm not just speaking out of love for my friend? Well, how about I bring in Kirkus Reviews to help me. From their starred review of The Winner's Curse:

"Rich characterization, exquisite worldbuilding and rock-solid storytelling make this a fantasy of unusual intelligence and depth.... Precise details and elegant prose make this world fresh and vivid. The intricate and suspenseful plot, filled with politics, intrigue and even graphic violence, features neither heroes nor villains; every character displays a complex mixture of talents, flaws and motives. Kestrel is an especially compelling protagonist, both determined and hesitant, honest and manipulative, ferociously observant and painfully naïve.... Breathtaking, tragic and true."

In case you're wondering, all those parts in the middle that I didn't quote are also glowingly positive. There isn't a word of criticism in the entire review, which you can read in its entirety here. I LOVE THIS BOOK. If you're eager for more details about what the book is about, I also recommend reading that review – it's nicely detailed but also somewhat spoiler-sensitive. If you want some details but not too many, only read the first four or five lines. By the way, this book is classified as fantasy because it takes place in a made-up world, but it's one of those fantasies which contain no actual magic. I mention this for the fantasy-phobes among you, although I suppose there's a chance not many fantasy-phobes are reading my blog, unless of course they are masochists *cough*. Also, if you'd like to look at some beautiful, spoiler-free, moody images that create a sense of the book, check out The Winner's Curse Pinterest board that Marie has created.

Marie is coming to Cambridge on her release day and she and I are going to have a conversation together at the Harvard Book Store at 1256 Massachusetts Ave in Cambridge (02138). On March 4 at 7pm. We're tentatively calling it "Marie Rutkoski and Kristin Cashore: Secrets, Power, and Love in Imagined Worlds." Yay! Please come!

Detail: March 4 Event, Marie Rutkoski and Me, Harvard Book Store, 7pm

0 Saint-Malo: A Day in the Life at Étonnants Voyageurs

Signing.

Drinks.

Going to sit on a panel, which may or may not be taking place inside a secret garden.
(My lovely interpreter, Hélène Bury, took this photo!)

More signing. In case you're under the misapprehension that signing mostly involves
signing, actually it's mostly talking about cassoulet recipes with Jean-Claude Dunyach,
watching Laurence Suhner draw beautiful pictures, and staring across the aisle at
Marie Pavlenko and Paolo Bacigalupi. Occasionally Gilles Servat does a dance.

In a quiet moment, checking the Appendix of Bitterblue to see how to abuse a cat in French.
(If this picture looks a bit odd on the top, it's because I realized
there's an enormous Graceling spoiler (in French) above the entry for "Lovejoy,"
so I (clumsily) photoshopped it out. Readers, I respect you.)

Finally, after all that hard work... in a bar full of books,

where it is fun to look down on the proceedings,

and where the ceiling is held up by books…

more drinks.

:o)

I'm back in Paris now and leave for Épinal tomorrow, but I'll share my many pictures of the town of Saint-Malo over the next few days whenever I can.

Detail: Saint-Malo: A Day in the Life at Étonnants Voyageurs