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

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

Hannah wrote: "Jenna wrote: "So, for example, in TMI, Valentine steals the Mortal Instruments and uses them for his evil purposes and stuff, but eventually he's defeated. And this is really important in the Shadowhunter world, right? I assume that they'll remember that it happened in, say, a hundred years into the future. Or if not, the Clave would at least keep some kind of record of it happening, wouldn't they?

So Jenny was wondering, and actually, I'm really curious about it too... in Clockwork Angel, if there's all this business with Mortmain and armies of clockwork creatures, that's pretty important too, I'd guess. So, back in in Clary's time, wouldn't all of the Shadowhunters have known that it happened? And if they don't know, then is it because the Clave is keeping it secret for some reason?

Sure, they know it happened. Lots of extremely important battles have been fought in the past of the Shadowhunters, huge demons defeated, the world saved in the nick of time, etc. That's part of how Shadowhunters came to be, but that's not relevant here — just as the story of Mortmain and the London Institute isn't relevant in TMI. The reason they talk about Valentine and the stealing of the Mortal Cup is that Valentine returns and starts stirring things up (not to mention that it happened a bare fifteen years ago to people the characters all know.) If Mortmain returned with a bunch of clockwork creatures to Manhattan in 2007, you can bet they'd have brought up the story. But he didn't, so they didn't.

(Also it isn't "so big." As I've said before, the story in TMI encompasses the fate of all Shadowhunters. So far in Clockwork nothing has happened that really involves any of the Shadowhunters who aren't in London. The scale is just a lot smaller.)

One four more hours to ask questions .... :)

Miche wrote: "Hi Cassandra!

Magnus Bane is my favorite literary character of all time. I'm even being him for halloween even though I'm a girl. haha. ANYWAY I was wondering if you'd consider writing a book on his life or something like that because it's interesting how in a over a hundred years he goes from the consort of a vampire baroness in London to the high sparkly gay warlock of brooklyn. And his childhood definitely sounds interesting..Again, Magnus is fantabulous. Just so you know."

I like Magnus a lot too. I wouldn't rule out a book or a novella on him. It's just a matter of timing and juggling projects.

Nattie *PROUD* wrote: "Thanks for answering my previous answers by the way! That means ALOT to me! But I just have more coming! Sorry to take up your time, but I have 2 more questions:

1. In any of the books in the TMI or ID series, do the characters not have a certain faith or religion?

2. (relevant to the question above ^) Do shadowhunters have a specific faith/religion that they ALL follow?

Shadowhunters worship the angel Raziel. That's the religion they all follow.

Kirn- TheRealAnnoyingOrange wrote: "so in the infernal devices do we find out how the herondales got that star birthmark on them? does it have anything to do with Will's secrets? and what did Sebastian mean when he said that isabelle was the most like him?"

Mostly I can't answer those questions, but I will answer the Isabelle/Sebastian one: Look, no one thinks of themselves as evil. Sebastian sees that Isabelle's really beautiful, willful, stubborn, up for a party all the time, perhaps a tad selfish, and thinks she is more like him than the rest of her family (who strike him as moralizing bores.) And since he's constantly trying to find someone who is "like him" he may have hoped Izzy was; he probably figured out pretty quickly she wasn't, but she'd still be his favorite.

Foxxtears wrote: "Did anything in particular give you the idea for Church the cat to be apart of the books?"

My friend Holly's cat Fizgig.

Lindseyy93 wrote: "Hey Cassie,
I was just wondering if in CoFA or the next 2 installments if we will get to see Jaces birthday being celebrated :) Love your work <3 <3 xox"

I am intrigued by the fact that everyone seems obsessed with Jace's birthday. The answer unfortunately is no. He's a winter baby and the story takes place in fall.

Vampyrelover1993 wrote: "Hey Cassandra :D I have a Clockwork Angel question, So I was wondering if "The Gray Book" has anything to do with the Gray family or Tessa?"

No.

Ash wrote: "1) When you first began writing City of Bones, did you plan on introducing all the new characters in the later books that you did (Aline, Maia, etc)? Or maybe a better Q would be if you knew they were going to be important (especially Maia) or just sort of made it up as you wrote?

Aline was always going to be there, though I don't think she was named Aline in the outline. Maia was always going to be there but she wasn't going to be as big a character as she became. She was just there to add a human face to Downworlders and be someone interested in Simon, originally.



2) Also, which characters in your books (Including Clockwork Angel) are/were supposed to be flat? Vs round? Or did it end up changing? I know it happens with my books--I intend for certain characters to be flat, but they end up playing a bigger part anyway.

Well, Maia took on more dimension than originally intended. Some villains - Sebastian, the Inquisitor - took on more dimension than originally intended. But mostly I knew who was going to be major or minor from the beginning.

3) Are there any foils, like Gabriel Lightwood to Will?

Gabriel's role is actually a little more complicated than just to be there to contrast to Will.



Random: Does Jace/Will know the craft of Swordfighting/fencing really well? Would it be possible for Tessa to start fighting/training like a shadowhunter? Oh, and I'm really surprised that your books are coming out so fast, practically two a year! That's amazing (: And I'm really glad :D"

I'm glad someone thinks it's really fast! Most people seem to think it's normal or that a book every year is "a long time!"

Tessa will be being trained in book two — by Gabriel Lightwood. And both Jace and Will know swordfighting though Jace is likely better at it.

Sarah wrote: "Thank you for answering my first question, it means a lot! :D Now I have another one. I have yet to finish reading tCA, but finished all of the MI ones. At the moment both Jace and Will seem very similar, with there sarcasm and mysteriousness... How do the two of them differ from each other, and am I only thinking they are similar because I love Jace so much :P and I am only 1/4th done with tCA? Thanks. <3"

Well, if you're only 1/4 done with TCA, this may spoil some things for you, but you did ask.... First, there are deliberate similarities between Jace and Will. After all, they are blood relatives, and I like to think all the Herondales have a similar snarky humor. However, there are also a lot of differences. Jace is close with his adoptive family. He's quite able to love the Lightwoods, accept love from them, and show affection. Will pushes literally everyone away but Jem. He is not able to form family ties and treats everyone with the same coldness. He is in fact cruel, which Jace is not. Will lies constantly about what he's doing and is clearly hiding something huge. Jace "never lies" according to Izzy, and is not hiding anything. Jace yearns for his dead father, Will flatly refuses to see his very much alive parents. When Jace falls in love with Clary he is perfectly willing to pursue it until outside forces intervene. Whatever Will feels for Tessa, he is obviously not willing to even start to pursue it and in fact burns it to the ground. Will's whole life is self-sabotage; Jace's isn't. Will may in fact actually be crazy; I don't recall anyone theorizing that about Jace.

Jace was brought up by a monomaniac who wanted him to be a killer; Will was brought up by perfectly ordinary mundanes who weren't interested in Shadowhunting at all. Jace is in fact specially gifted, super-strong and super-fast, wheras Will is just a good Shadowhunter. Will has built his entire life around the fact that he has a secret. It informs every single thing he does and every relationship he has. Jace's entire life is built around the death of his father, and proving himself to be a super-warrior as his father wanted. When the absolute core defining fact about a character is different, stuff like "both are hot and sarcastic" is to me, stuff that links them, rather than making them "the same." I mean, it's like saying Jem and Jace are the same because they are both blond, witty, and play a musical instrument. ;)

amber wrote: "at the time of ca, how long as magnus been with camille?

About six months.

also, what was the name of the lycanthrope camille loved?"

You'll find out.

amber wrote: "do you know much about sikhism? because you mentioned that hodge's weapon of choice is sikh, so i was just wondering :)"

I wish I knew more. I got the chakhram out of a book of weapons:

http://www.amazon.com/New-Weapons-Wor...

because I thought it looked cool. :D

amber wrote: "does idris have its own currency?"

No, they accept every world currency, and the Clave pays you in whatever the currency is where you're living at the time.

amber wrote: "so what does everyone think clary used the one favor from the angel for?"

We already know that. (I'm assuming most people got what happened...?)

Sarah wrote: "
First I would like to say that I am one of your biggest (if not the biggest) and that I think you are an amazingling talented writer. My first question (out of many more) is [SPOILER] Why did you decided to kill off Max?:( [ENDSPOILER]"

Sebastian killed Max because there is a war in City of Glass, and war = death. There have to be consequences for the characters, even characters you like, of facing danger, or the danger never seems real. That the person who died was a child who was not involved in the battle is because it needed to be clear that war destroys those who are innocent and not involved, as much as it destroys those who fight. And it needed to be absolutely clear that Sebastian is beyond evil — and being willing to kill a child shows that.

amber wrote: 1) when jace and clary still think they are brother and sister, does luke realize that they're in love? if so, what does he think about it?

I believe Luke does. I think he thinks it's a terrible situation but he trusts them to do the right thing.

2) at the end of city of glass, magnus says something to jace about how 'although the angel had healed him physically'. but in the cofa chapter at the end of the paperback city of glass, we learn that clary and jace decided not to tell anyone that jace was brought back to life by the angel. so how did magnus know?

They tell everyone Jace was wounded and the Angel healed him but they don't tell everyone that he died.

3)are the chapter titles you posted for city of fallen angels for the mundiemoms birthday still relevant? or have they been changed? because i don't remember a chapter title on that list called 'hell is satisfied'."

I always reserve the right to rejigger things around and rename them up to the last minute. Still, I think the title list is pretty accurate.

Maru wrote: "Simrox wrote: Cassandra wrote: "Simirox wrote: "AND ONE MORE!!! (they just keep comin')

Is Jace a virgin?

Sorry if this is, like, wrong in any way, but I'm really curious!!! :)"

Many are."
..."

People ask all the time. I've said I won't answer because it comes up later in the books.

Amanda wrote: "Hi Cassie!
Out of all the things you could have had happen to Simon, including making up something never heard of, why did you choose the biblical mark of cain?"

Because it has a lot more impact that making up something you'd never heard of. It carries all the weight of tradition and myth and faith. I could have made up The Mark of Whatever but it would never carry as much meaning as the mark of Cain, with which most of us already have associations.

Simirox wrote: "YES YOU ANSWERED...AGAIN!!! NO ONE ANSWERS!

I'm excited now, so I'm just going to ask more question, 'cause I'm excited :)

1) Will we find out who Tessa's dad is; will we meet him?

2) Does Sophie find her soulmate?

3) In TMI book cycle 2, does Amatis find someone?

4) Do Henry and Charlotte ever, like, have kids; end up relatively happy? (if this is a spoiler, sorry!)

And I had a really good question, but I lost it, urgh!!!

Thanks, and congratulations on your wedding, hope it goes well!!! (I'm a nosy fan!)


Um . . I think everyone one of those questions is a spoiler! I don't think I can answer any of them!

Simirox wrote: "Oh, are you ever going to have any MORE characters of a different race, like Raphael was spanish. Like, main characters, other than Jem? I'd like that, it's be really cool, considering I'm indian!
..."

Well, Maia, of course, is biracial too. So are Aline, Magnus & Jem. But I take your point. More diversity is something I am aiming for.