Kristin Cashore: Hello. My name is Kristin Cashore. I've always been kind of indifferent to my first name until a few years ago when I happened to read the book, "Kristin Lavransdatter," by Sigrid Undset, which immediately shot to the top of my list of favorite books and ever since I've been very content to be named Kristin because Kristin Lavransdatter is a very cool character to share something in common with. My last name is a little bit more mysterious. We've never been completely certain about Cashore. We believe that it is an Irish name but I've poked around a little online and found that there were also some Scottish Cashore's which I think would be pretty cool because it might be an explanation for why I absolutely adore bagpipes.