Cassandra’s Comments (group member since Aug 19, 2010)

Cassandra’s comments from the Q&A with Cassandra Clare group.

Candace wrote: "Hi Cassandra,
**Spoiler for Clockwork Angel**
In regards to crazy theories; have you heard anyone ask if Will is gay/bisexual/just plain confused?
Pieces of evidence:
(1) Will and Tessa kiss..."

Yes, I've had a lot of people ask if Will is gay or bi. A lot of them want to know if he had an affair with Magnus (thus I guess sparking off Magnus' passion for all things dark-haired and blue-eyed.)

I tend to avoid spoilers, so I guess I'll just say: the reason that Will shows up at Magnus' at the end looking for his help has nothing to do with his sexuality, nor is his sexuality the problem that is wrecking his life and making him a jerk. We already had a character with that secret — Alec.

A.M Bells wrote: "Ohh! One last question! Now they are coming at me like crazy :)) overflowing.

If Jace and Will would meet face to face how would that go? ^_^

I would have asked, does Sophie have something hidde..."

I do not think Jace and Will would like each other. At all.

The Sophie is Will's sister theory seems a popular one...

(-|-\\) [[Cielo in the Elysian Code]] wrote: "Ok, I had two questions:
#1- At the back of the CoG in paperback, there's a peice of CoFA, and it said that it was going to be released in Spring of 2011, and I was wondering if you knew a more exact date?
#2- All the MI books have a City of... title, and I was wondering if there was a reason as to why they have that in commmon?

1) http://www.amazon.com/City-Fallen-Ang...

2) To let the reader know they're all part of the same series.

A R Asif wrote: "Just wanted to know firstly why your books dont come out in hardback in the UK (Because the U.S hardback for Clockwork Angel was beeeeaaautttiful. Second of all, I'm an aspiring writer, so I wanted to know whether you could give me a rough estimate to what the word count of your novels."

Because the UK hardback market is terrible, epecially for children's books. Hardbacks are expensive to produce and people rarely buy them enough to justify the cost to the publisher. Unless you're Harry Potter, you're going to come out in paperback.

Word counts:

Cob: 110,000
CoA: 105,000
CoG: 130,000

Monica wrote: "Hi Cassandra,
I've just gotta say that I love your books and I can't wait for the next one to come out! They are amazing and I love them!!
I also have a questions, why did you decide to make prequel to TMI?..."

Why not? There's so much backstory in the TMI series and I get asked all the time if I will write a series about the younger days of Valentine and Jocelyn and the Circle. I don't want to, however, because I am not interested in writing a story where everyone already knows how it turns out. But going back a hundred and fifty years, now, there I can write a story where people really don't know how it turns out. Plus I love the Victorian era.

Ban wrote: "1) What made you decide to continue the Mortal Instruments trilogy?

2) I love to write for fun and I'd like to know something about character personality. When you create a character for a book, how do you decide upon the decisions that they make and the actions they take based on their personality. In other words, how do you make a character realistic and true to who they are?

1) I had indeed initially planned not to write more Mortal Instruments books after City of Glass. Two things happened to change that: One, I had written a plot for a graphic novel about what would happen to Simon after the events of Glass. When the graphic novel didn’t work out, I was left with this storyline and nothing to do with it — it wasn’t enough for a whole book on its own. However, while I was writing the first book in The Infernal Devices, Clockwork Angel, which deals with Jace, Clary, and the Lightwoods’ ancestors, the way events played out in it gave me the idea for a new villain and conflict that might beset the cast of characters from The Mortal Instruments, and connect up to the plotline from the planned graphic novel. I’ve always liked stories where the distant past comes forward to affect the future, so, without being spoilery, when I realized I could connect the events of Infernal Devices to the few loose ends left at the end of Glass, I realized I wouldn’t want to pass up writing that story, especially considering how much chaos I knew it would bring to the lives of Jace, Clary, Simon, Alec, Magnus, Isabelle and the rest!

Then, in October of last year, I sat down to start writing the story of City of Fallen Angels. I had a detailed outline based in part on the graphic novel idea I had had, but when it came to expanding the outline and writing the story, it just wasn’t working for me. I was on a writing retreat in Mexico with a number of other writers, and when we sat down to go over the issues I was having, I realized that the story I had thought I was telling was really a much bigger story — that my smaller, Simon-centric story had morphed into something much bigger, much more epic, and deeply involving the whole cast of characters from the first three Mortal Instruments books. I realized that what I had on my hands was not a single book that would wrap up the story begun in The Mortal Instruments, but rather the beginning of a new trilogy about these characters. (The fun part was calling my agent and editor to explain “You know that one book I was going to write? Well, actually, it’s three books!” I like to think I could hear heads hitting desks all through Simon and Schuster. But when I submitted the outlines for the new Fallen Angels, City of Lost Souls, and City of Heavenly Fire, they were thrilled with the idea of the new trilogy — and I hope readers will be as well.

2) Character is determined by the actions that character makes and the choices they make. You have to get to know your character the way you'd get to know a real person or a friend, such that you can predict their behavior in any given circumstance.

Najamzubia wrote: "Hey Cassandra, I loved ur first 3 books in the mortal instruments and i especially liked clockwork angels!!!!!
I can't wait for city of fallen angels and clockwork prince...
hm, could u tell me if clary and jace will be together in city of fallen angels? "

They start out together, having been dating for 2 months.

If Amatis Herondale is Luke's sister, and Luke will be married to Jocelyn, while Clary is Jocelyn's daughter, Jace is her boyfriend, and Amatis is Jace's stepmom, then wouldn't Jace and Clary still be related... Like, cousins or something?

If you want them to be related because that's what you're into, sure. But no, that doesn't make them cousins. Amatis is not Jace's stepmom. If Luke and Jocelyn marry, she will be CLARY'S step-aunt. She is nothing to Jace but his dead father's first wife. I would also note that as there aren't that many Shadowhunters it's not like this sort of thing doesn't happen a lot.

Abby wrote: "OMG!!!! i got Clockwork Angel as soon as it came out in stores and all i want to know a bout all of ur books are how many books will be in the Mortal Instruments series and r there going to be more..."

http://www.cassandraclare.com/cms/faq...

Cassie wrote: "In City of Glass, we found out that Clary and Jace could be together. But the Faerie Queen said that Clary would fall in love twice and get it wrong the first time. My problem is that she has only ever been in love with Jace. Will there be someone else in the next book?

Um...I actually don't recall the Faerie Queen ever saying that. I also just searched my documents for the phrase and didn't find it. Can you identify the scene or page?

Megan (magan bagan) wrote: "Hi Cassie! Thank you so much for doing this.

Are we going to learn more about Henry and Charlotte in the next two Infernal Devices books?"

Yes. Thus all the little dropped hints about their relationship.

jeannette wrote: "Hello, Ms Clare. First of all I'd like to tell you how much I love your books - they're pretty much the best YA novels I've ever read, unlike the pile of repetitive books that have been pouring out..."

Favorite foreign book covers:

German: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/63...

Italian:

http://cassandraclare.livejournal.com...

Marlaina wrote: "Have you ever seen a stranger and thought, "Wow, he's a dead ringer for 'insert ID or MI character here.'"?"

Nope.

Lisarenee wrote: "Is Mortmain truly human? He seems to know so much about Shadowhunters and all the other creatures out there."

He's human.

Wouldn't it be an unhappy ending for Tessa with either Will or Jem (since we know from CoG she has the immortality of a normal warlock)? With Will and Jem being mortal Shadowhunters, they will both continue to age and die while Tessa stays the same. How would the relationship end nicely (unless you add the vampire element)?
"

I get asked this a lot, as it also applies to Alec and Magnus. This is the answer I gave the last time I got asked — it has to do with rejiggering one's idea of a "happy ending."

Now. Let us consider normal human relationships. Consider two people madly in love, they get married, stay happily married for fifty years, etc. Unless they both die in the same fiery airship explosion or expire by random chance at the same time in the nursing home, ONE OF THEM IS GOING TO DIE BEFORE THE OTHER ONE. Does that negate the entire half-century relationship they had? Does it make it not worth ever having entered into?

Now, when it comes to books, "ending up together" means ending up together at the end of the book/series. We don't know what happens to characters after that. It is unlikely that Elizabeth and Darcy died at the exact same time. However, it doesn't matter because they're together at the end of the book with their life as a pair ahead of them.

Also, "If Tessa's immortal and Jem and Will aren't" — you are making a lot of assumptions about everyone's mortality or lack therof. There are two more books to go and much more to happen.

Zoë wrote: ""You've spent 1 book with Will and know almost nothing about him, plus he is a jerk in a way Jace never is."

I found it really interesting you read you say this, Cassandra. A lot of people call Jace a 'bad boy' but for me his respect and love for Clary are so clear that I can't think of him as 'bad' in any true sense. Will, however, really is my definition of a bad boy (even though I'm sure we'll grow to understand why he acts as he does in later books) and yet he's still a very strong romantic interest for Tessa. How did you feel about writing a romantic interest with that edge of true darkness? Did you feel a lot of strain walking the line between 'attractive' and 'jerk'? And was the decision to go for such a complex and at times unlikeable main character difficult, or could the story not have unfolded any other way?"

Will was definitely one of my biggest character challenges to date. I knew it was risky writing a character as unlikeable as he is (and he was even more unlikeable in the first draft but it sent my editor into hysterics so I had to tone him down a bit.) I have a love for the unlikeable/dissipated hero trope (thus all the Sydney Carton references) but, ah, not everyone does. And I often find people saying that so and so character in a book is a bad boy when they are obviously pretty morally sound (Jace, for instance - sarcasm doesn't really make you *bad*.) I wanted to write someone who is sometimes actually actively cruel and awful on an objective level, but who the reader might invest themselves in anyway, and that is a bit of a tightrope act.

Will, obviously can't do anything beyond redemption - he can't go around murdering children - but I do think a lot of readers, especially those who were reading him as "Victorian era Jace" were really shocked and upset by the roof scene in the last chapter. Will's not Jace — Jace does not behave toward his adoptive family or the girl he loves with deliberate cruelty. Does Will have a reason? Sure. But I have to trust my readers will remain invested enough to read Clockwork Prince to find out what it is.

On the other hand, ending City of Bones the way I did was also a risky move and despite the amount of email I have gotten from people who have thrown the book against the wall when they 'found out Jace and Clary were brother and sister' I wouldn't go back and change it. The story wouldn't work another way, and neither would Will.

Sandy wrote: "---Spoilery for City of Glass

In CoG, Simon bit Sebastian. Did Sebastian's blood have any effect on Simon like Jace's, or was it not potent enough?

It's not that it's not potent, it's just that for whatever reason, the demon virus that causes vampirism in the first place isn't changed or altered by demon blood. Remember, Simon bit some full-blood demons during the battle in CoG.

Oh, and has anyone managed to guess what kind of downworlder Tessa is? "

Not really.

Lyric010501 wrote: "Will Alec and Magnus relationship continue to develop off page or will we see some interaction with the two?( I know Clary and Jace and Simon take up a lot of space, but I want to read about Alec a..."

Why are Alec and Magnus fans so worried about being abandoned? Yes, you see Alec and Magnus onscreen. The reason it developed offscreen before in Ashes is because they were trying to keep it hidden. Now they are not. They have other problems instead.

Zainab wrote: "Hellooo Cassandra :D
I don't really have a question...just wanted to say thank you for writing such an awesome book (TMI and The Clockwork Angel was just amazing) even if it kept me from studying ..."

Yes, the second book focuses much more on Jem (which is why Will is on the cover of the 1st and Jem is on the cover of the 2nd.) Jem has his secrets and a dark side, though he truly is an essentially unusually good and patient person.

Marlaina wrote: "Have you ever found yourself speaking as if you were in the Victorian era whilst writing the ID series? :)"

Holly (Holly Black) claims I did for a while but I didn't notice.