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

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

Audrey wrote: "Is the necklace we see Jem wear the same that Isabelle wears in TMI? Does Isabelle inherit her whip usage from Charlotte?

No, since Isabelle's necklace is a big ruby and Jem's is a jade hand. Camille'e necklace, on the other hand . . .

Does Isabelle inherit her whip usage from Charlotte?

In a sense.

Alison wrote: "Hey Cassie!
Since you said Church is an immortal cat, who brought him from London to New York? Magnus perhaps?"

Church's movements are mysterious. He makes it from London to NY in someone's luggage. You'll find out whose.

Lorena wrote: "Hi Cassandra!

1. Did you enjoyed it?
2. What paleces did you visited?
3. Are you planning to come any other time? And if so, that would be because you want to, or because of something related with your books?
4. Is there any part of mexican history you really like? or do you dont like it at all?

Hi Lorena. You're really supposed to stick to the topic at hand - the books - so I'm just going to answer fast: I've been to Chiapas, Oaxaca, and San Miguel de Allende; never been to the D.F; I think Mexico's beautiful; I'll be back in February, but for a writer's retreat, not for work (my Mexican publisher still hasn't really acknowledged I exist!); my Mexican history knowlegde is woefully slight.

Cherrelle wrote: "Zoë wrote: "Cherrelle wrote: "Umm, I'm definitely not trolling and I wasn't trying to be mean at all.

Words like "shallow" and "predictable" are not usually taken as compliments — if you genuinely don't mean to troll and actually want your question answered (which I was certainly not going to do) there are polite ways to be both critical and inquisitive. Think about how you'd feel if someone asked that question of you, and go from there.

Do you feel that Jace and Clary's relationship is a bit of an unhealthy relationship? Seeing is how they both still wanted to be together when they thought they were brother and sister.

...And? They didn't know they were brother and sister when they met. That this then turned out to (well not actually) be the case does not mean some magic balloon descends from the heavens and turns off their feelings. If you do any actual research into cases like this (people who have met and fallen in love without knowing they were related) you will find out quite the opposite occurs. (It's called "Genetic Sexual Attraction"; look it up on Wiki.) You can invent a moral code that says that they should have immediately stopped liking each other, but that doesn't happen with real humans, so it's hard to see why it should with fictional ones.

Anyway, in Clary and Jace's case, once they find out they are related, they do not have a relationship. Despite being desperately in love and the occasional "maybe we should just run away together" — never actually acted on — they do not pursue a romantic relationship. They conclude that this would be morally wrong. That they are still in love does not actually constitute a relationship. You are asking me if a relationship is unhealthy where no relationship exists.

If so how is that going to affect their relationship?

It is not so, so I suppose the answer there would be "not much, except that they're very relieved."

Is their someone in the series that is better suited for Jace other than Clary?

As Isabelle said to Clary, "You were the first person outside our family whose happiness I’d ever seen him take into consideration." As for Clary, thinking about Jace gives her the strength to do things she would never have imagined she could do. They are positive forces in each other's lives. I think, if you actually continue reading the series and experience reading them in an actual relationship, you'll see that at work.

Jamie wrote: "My information came from this posting on one of your websites...
"I've always said that The Mortal Instruments was conceived of as a trilogy; I didn't have any intention of continuing past Glass, initially. 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, so I suggested the idea of a Simon-centric fourth Mortal Instruments book to my publisher, and showed them the outline for the graphic novel."
Which is why I was asking if there are going to be a total of 6 books in the series & how the Clary/Jace relationship drama was going to work with a "Simon-centric" story line.

Yes — as I said above, in message 819, my web designer wrote over the current FAQ on my mi.com site with a FAQ that's a year old and totally inaccurate. There's no book from Simon's point of view, there are six books in the MI series, and the last three are all like the previous three with the same points of view — skipping around from Clary to Jace to Simon, etc.

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

Melannie wrote: "Cassandra wrote: "Emma (Pulvis et umbra sumus) wrote: "Jem is bi?"

I think you may have misread the word "biracial.""


what races? I haven't read the book yet, (finals week)
but I'm curious..."

If you haven't read any of the books this is probably not a great place for you since you'll get really spoiled for the series(es).

Stacey wrote: "will Jem's or Will's death be experienced in the clockwork prince/princess?"

Message 827.

Kcarla wrote: "Cassandra,
since tessa is a "warlock", she mention in City of Glass talking with Magnus Bane, Tessa and Will have feeling for each other, does she experience his death and also Jem's later on her life. will be mention in your books?"

I think you're asking: Since Tessa's immortal and Will and Jem are not, will she experience their death(s) in the books?

Well, that;s one way to resolve a love triangle I guess: they both die. Look, I can't tell you who lives and who dies any more than I can tell you who ends up with each other. I can say Tessa's immortal. I can also say there are various paths to immortality. That's about it.

Malecy_goodness wrote: "Thank you so much for answering questions... I only have one question Don't want to waste your time because I'd never stop.

1.) Are we going to know more about Magnus's past?"

Yes. In ID.

Windowchild wrote: "1) I know you don't like to name a favorite book, but are there any books out there you really hate?

Moby Dick.

2) What's your advice for an aspiring writer who always gets about fifty thousand words into a manuscript and then gets stuck/gets this idea for something new that they simply must start?

Self-discipline. Everyone wants to start doing something else when they hit the middle portion of their book because that's the difficult part. Tough it out. BIC. HOK. Butt in the chair. Hands on the keyboard. Set yourself a word count and stick to it. Most people never finish the books they start. Don't be most people.

3) If you could jump into the pages and give your own character(s) advice, what would it be?

Avoid demon pox. It's nasty.

4) Not a question, but my guess for the villain in Cycle 2 is that it's either Jocelyn or Luke :).

5) No one has guessed the right villain in CoFA or Will's secret yet, right? Do you think it's possible to do so (are there clues?) or would it just have to be a brilliantly random shot to figure it out?
"

I think there are clues. And I think given the infinite monkeys with infinite typewriters theory, eventually people will guess the right answer just by guessing everything. People have come close, just not exactly right.

Taylor wrote: I bought Clockwork prince... I just have to read it.

Impressive, as it is not out yet. :>

1. Why kill sebastian off?

Because he killed Max (among others) and the Lightwoods woudn't get any closure with him still alive. Plus, he's evil.

"Is he really dead?"

Since I'm not answering this question, I'm just going to start counting the amount of times people ask it anyway. :D 12, I think we're up to.

2. Does Jocelyn come face to face with valentine? When? BTW. when she's awake

Valentine's dead.

3. Are there going to be consequenses for Simon and or Maia / Issi for dating a Child of the Moon / night / shadow hunter?

They are really not dating remotely seriously enough in the beginning of book 4 for there to be any consequences from the Clave. Besides, they're busy re-evaluating Shadowhunter/Downworlder relationships.


4. Will the clave find out about Alec and Magnus? They frown upon that so will that become a problem?

Honestly, I think that would be such a boring plotline that no, I really don't want to go there. I've also outlined the larger reasons why not in an earlier post.


1. What program do you use to write drafts? Writing has been a hobby of mine for a while and I have always used Microsoft but is there something I should use / do to microsoft so its like a book?

I only ever use Macs, and my writing program is Scrivener.

2. Any tips? Dont holdback ;)

www.cassandraclare.com/cms/writing

3. If someone were to tell you something about book writing before you started what woiuld you have wanted to know...?

Outline.

4. If I were to try to get published what are some small steps I could take to getting there?

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

5. Am i setting my sights to high?

Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp, or what's a heaven for? (Browning.) Look, what's the point of setting your sights too low?

Jonathan wrote: "T1) Will Jessamine get a new Parasol ?

I imagine Henry will make her a new one whether she wants it or not.

2) When she smashed the Lamp over Nates head and Refused to Leave Tessa alone, Does this mean Jessamine might make a full circle and accpet shes a shadow hunter ?
"

No. It's a step that way, but nothing definite.

Robyn wrote: "Hello cassandra :)
i love all your books and can't wait for the rest to come out. my question is :
In the other clockwork angel books do we learn more about will and does his and tessa's relationship grow? "

Yes.

Dianadee wrote: sorry this is very random and i don't think it spoils anything but it just popped into my head:
will we see any of the shadowhunters celebrate any holidays like thanksgiving or christmas etc. in the future books(TMI or ID)??
"

They actually do have a sort of Christmas celebration in TID.

Magnusbizane wrote: "1) I love Magnus/Alec! So when you put in that comment in Clockwork Angel, when Magnus said 'Black hair and blue eyes are my favorite combination,' that made me so happy! Thanks for putting things like that in.

I thought it was funny.


4) Thanks for making these books so my friends and I will have a super awesome and funny books to quote and be the object of all our conversations!"

You are welcome!

I think they're getting the information from the FAQ page on The Mortal Instruments Website...
http://www.mortalinstruments.com/mortalf...
It says COFA shifts focus to Simon.
I assume it just hasn't been updated. "

*goggles* My God, yes, it looks like my web designer wrote over the current FAQ with a FAQ that's a year old and totally inaccurate. It's fixed now but thanks for letting me know. All the info on my cassandraclare.com site is accurate but I had no idea my FAQ section on the MI site was so wildly and totally out of date. That's horrible. (I will say though that even when I had planned to write a Simon-focused book, Clary and Jace were still going to have big parts in it.) Yikes.

Emma (Pulvis et umbra sumus) wrote: "Jem is bi?"

I think you may have misread the word "biracial."

Emma (Pulvis et umbra sumus) wrote: "Hey Caasandra! I asked a question concerning Sebastian and Clary in CoG, but I dunno if you missed it or just didn't dinf it important?

Anyway, in CoG Jace says that "Lucifer loved god" when he's trying for an explanation to why he loves Clary the way he does, connecting it with having demonblood. So, did Sebastian love Clary? Is that why he kissed her?

Sebastian's a complicated guy. Well, first, this is just Jace's theory — when he thinks he has demon blood, he's theorizing that he's attracted to Clary's goodness the way Lucifer still loved God. But it's just a theory (and a self-dramatizing one to boot. :D) Sebastian's hasn't really spent enough time with Clary to love her. Would he feel a strong inexplicable pull toward her? Scientific evidence says yes, but it's hard to say what he'd make out of that feeling. He certainly wouldn't care that she was his sister if he wanted to sleep with her, but you also get the sense that he's disappointed that she isn't "more like him." I'd say his feelings about her are . . . messy.

Sarah wrote: "Whoaa. Are there more TMI books on top of TIF? Your books are great. Question, though. How did you get the last names, and where do you come up with names for the runes?"

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

Lauren wrote: "Hi Cassandra,

I have a feeling this might have already been posted (did not read all 16 pages) but I was wondering if perhaps you could give a hint about what Will goes to Magnus for? Also, you said on your blog that the TMI main characters (Clary, Jace, Simon, etc.) had no resemblance to the CA main characters (Will, Jem, Tessa, etc.) but I could not help but notice that they do. Did you/Were you thinking of the TMI characters while writing the CA characters?

Also, you said on your blog that the TMI main characters (Clary, Jace, Simon, etc.) had no resemblance to the CA main characters (Will, Jem, Tessa, etc.) but I could not help but notice that they do.

I really don't think I said that, or if I said something that sounded like that I misspoke. I've been pretty clear here, and everywhere else I think that I've discussed the books, that Will was written as a commentary on Jace, so of course they are going to have things in common. I can also give a huge list of things they don't have in common, but I wouldn't deny the similarities; they are intentional.

I do think Simon is very little like Jem (and I also think that it is sort of ridiculous that half the reviewers drawing comparisons say Jem is just like Simon and the other half say he's just like Alec — pick a character, people.) I guess they are both nice. And musical. And . . . yeah, not really coming up with much. People just assume Jem will fill the Simon role because they think Will will fill the Jace role. This is not an assumption that's going to be borne out.

As for Tessa and Clary: they are both strong girl characters. They stand up to boys who try to tell them what to do. They are smart, and brave; they were raised by strong women, they have special talents. That is because I do not think that YA is really crying out with a need for more female protagonists who are weak, frightened, and do whatever the men tell them, or whose job is to follow around some guy with special talents and give him moral support. It doesn't make them the same person.

When I pick up a Tamora Pierce book I know I'm going to get a strong kickass girl heroine who speaks her mind and chooses her own path. That doesn't mean I think the characters are all the same character. There will be *flavorings* of her previous characters in the new characters, because all the books are written by her and therefore informed by her values and style. It is the same case with me - these characters are all written by me and informed by my values and style.

To quote my Kirkus review: "Though details differ, the general flavor of Tessa's new family wil be enjoyably familiar to the earlier trilogy's fans." I guess I would agree with that — there is a similar general flavor, but the characters are not the same people. And if one person's "enjoyably familiar" is someone else's "too similar," well, you can't please everyone.

Did you/Were you thinking of the TMI characters while writing the CA characters?

Not really, except in the case of Jace and Will.