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

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

Simirox wrote: "My question is, you said that in the CA, Tessa would meet a feisty red head who was Clary's ancestor..."

I did? Where did I say that?

A.M Bells wrote: "H1. If you could read out (Inkheart style) a character out of your books who would it be.

aaaand, 1 chara would be just torture, here comes the second:

2. If you could read yourself in one of them, would it be ID or TMI?"

1) Magnus, I guess.
2) Uuurgh, I couldn't handle all the chaos, but ID, I guess, just to see Victorian London.

Melia wrote: "then my question is,
do you wanna be a writer since you were a kid? or it just an acidentally briliant idea that inspires you to start writing fiction novel?
do you have an author that you adore much?

I always wanted to be a writer.

Authors I adore, oh, so many. I fall at the feet of Diana Wynne Jones, Meghan Whalen Turner, Susan Cooper, Jk Rowling, Phillip Pullman, Robin McKinley, Elizabeth Knox, and that's just in kids/YA.

Jamie wrote: "Nophoto-u-25x33 I have not read Clockwork Angel yet. I plan on getting it this weekend. My question for you though is, How many books are going to be in the MI Series? I have seen websites that say there will be at least 6 of them. I understand that the up coming book is going to be mainly about Simon. How is the relationship drama of Clary and Jace going to fold into the story line? I love your work and look forward to reading your newest series.
"

*sigh* Okay, can I ask you something first? Where is it that you go to get your information about books? Because for instance, on two of my websites (and here on Goodreads) it is listed that there are six books in TMI. Also, the upcoming book is not mainly about Simon, information which is also on my website (and my blog. And probably goodreads by this point.) So where is this coming from?

Noelle wrote: "I just wanted to post a comment letting you know that as someone of mixed race, I'm really appreciative of your writing characters diversely rather than all of one race. It's hard to believe, but there is less diversity in YA books these days than in movies. So your books are a breath of fresh air.

Thank you. I really appreciate hearing that.

So, question: What inspired you to make sure diverse characters were featured in your books?

I think because part of what I love about New York is its diversity — it's an incredible melting pot, has been for so long, it's almost the symbol of American diversity. It would have felt weird and off including only white, straight characters. And I have many mixed race or biracial friends who had said things to me about not feeling included in YA books so I made sure there were biracial characters — Magnus, Aline, Jem, Maia, etc. Mostly I just think 'I should have done better and more' so I am glad to hear at least that you felt included.

And if they were made into movies, do you think you'd stand up for the characters being casted correctly? I ask because I know that J.K. Rowling had to tell the producers of Harry Potter that Dean Thomas was black. And too often, characters are white washed when brought to the big screen.

That is absolutely true. And if when the movie was made I got to have input, that's the one thing I'd really go to the wall for. I do fear not having input and that what happened to Ursula le Guin could just as easily happen to me. I mean, JK Rowling is a special case. Most cases are more like this:

http://www.slate.com/id/2111107/

Mel wrote: "I was once told that to be a good writer you had to be a good BS'er. You are obviously not an engineer, yet you are able to describe in unbelievably detailed wording exactly how clocks, gears, people:) ect. move, run or think. There are more examples I could give you from your books of course but there is no need. You wrote the books you know what you did.:) My question is, How exactly do you do it? Not necessarily on the example I gave, rather in general. How do you become convincingly knowledgeable, without years of invested knowledge? A Masters Degree is BS'ing. Where do you go to school for that? lol Also is there an easy way to improve or expand your vocabulary."

Research. You just have to love research. If you love what you're researching you'll soak up the info like a sponge. If I wasn't interested in Victorian technology, I don't think I could have written CA.

As for the vocab thing, I have no idea, I'm really sorry.

Megan wrote: "I cannot thank you enough for making a good book that actually makes me laugh and want to keep reading. When you decided to turn Simon into a vampire, did you ever think about continuing his romantic relationship with Clary. Or had the plan always been "Jace/Clary and brotherly love w/ Simon.""

Simon was always going to become a vampire. That's why there are several hints about it in City of Bones. But he was never going to end up with Clary. It wasn't a consideration. It was always going to be Jace/Clary.

Ronna wrote: "So in your books, Jace and the gang always keep metioning hearing gossip from the downworlders. I dunno if you've watched Hellboy II(awesome movie btw!) but there was a part where Hellboy and his gang were in the troll market, an enormous merchant city hidden under the Brooklyn Bridge. It was basically this underground city were the magical creatures can look like themselves and sell magical things and stuff. I was always curious if there was a place/city where the downworlders meet, gather, socialize, etc. and if this is where the Shadowhunters hear the gossips. Or do they just hear it in places like Taki's and that bar Jace went?"

I think of there as being numerous magical hangouts _ like Taki's, the Hunter's Moon, Hot Wings, whatever — rather than one specific big one.

Kara Lang wrote: "H(1) Perhaps I am just thinking of vampire lore, but I have a question: How did Jace not become a vampire after Simon bit him? Is it that one has to *consume* vampire blood in order to be changed rather than just being bitten? I hope that this is not a stupid question."

City of Ashes, p. 192:

"You might remember that when [Simon] was in the form of a rat, and you came to fetch him from us, he bit me," said Raphael. "In any case, he took some of my blood into his mouth when he did it. You know that is how we pass our powers to each other. Through [VAMPIRE] blood."

Jace didnt becoming a vampire because he didn't ingest vampire blood. Simon became a vampire because he did.

I suppose this question is two-fold. In COB, Jace explains to Clary that Maryse was in one of the first generations of women who could become Shadowhunters en masse. FIRST- Did you write it this way as a nod to the greater feminist movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s? If so, BRAVO! That was a nice touch connecting political happenings in the mundane world to political happenings in the world of the Nephilim!

Thank you.

SECOND- I found this to be slightly inconsistent with CA- where there seemed to be PLENTY of women Shadowhunters.

*is puzzled* Of course there are plenty of women Shadowhunters. You're born a Shadowhunter. Fifty percent of kids born to Shadowhunters are going to be female. You are still a Shadowhunter even if you don't *fight.* You can be a female Shadowhunter and make weapons. You can be a female Shadowhunter and teach. Notice how many fewer women there were in the Enclave meeting than men (two out of a dozen, not counting Charlotte, who had to be there because she runs the Institute — a matter of HUGE contention, because she is a woman.) Notice there are only two women fighting in the vampire battle scene even though the whole Conclave, practically, is there, so we're looking at two women out of eighty or ninety Shadowhunters who are actually fighting.

I think maybe people are taking Jessie's whining about having to be trained too literally? Jessie isn't trained to fight particularly, she won't learn how to patrol, etc., which would absolutely not be allowed if she was a boy. She may be complaining about not wanting to grow up and fight like a man, but that's because she is a whiner, not because she actually would have to. She'd still have to do SOMETHING to contribute to Shadowhunter culture, but it wouldn't necessarily be fighting. After all, as Jace says,

"There have always been women in the Clave—mastering the runes, creating weaponry, teaching the Killing Arts— only a few were warriors, ones with exceptional abilities. They had to fight to be trained. Maryse was a part of the first generation to be trained as a matter of course."

He in fact explicitly states that women have always been warriors, but that they had to insist on being trained rather than being required and expected to do it. There were women Shadowhunters who fought before the present day. They were simply fewer, and had to fight harder to get training and be accorded respect. I really don't think anything that happens in Clockwork Angel contradicts that.

~~*Favorite book?"

Don't have one, if pressed, I will say Pride and Prejudice.

Ilovetwilightsomuch wrote: "I love your series, and the characters, even the evil ones. my question is, when you are writing a book, and you come up with and idea you could use, but you didn´t got to that point in the book yet, how can you not forget that idea? because sometimes it starts with a sentence, but by the time that your inspiration runs out, you had written five pages."

If I'm writing and I have an idea for a scene I haven't gotten to yet, I note it down in my ideas folder. If I feel overwhelmed by the need to write a scene out of order, I'll do it. It doesn't happen all that often and those scenes are no better than the ones I didn't feel overwhelmingly inspired to write. Usually they're worse.

Karina wrote: "Quick! Someone give me Jem's last name so I can finish this paper and go to sleeeeeep! Doesn't matter who it is!"

You know you can just go to the goodreads page for a book and get a list of the names of the characters there.

Rae wrote: "Hi, I've literally just finished clockwork angel and I think it's amazing.I think that your a really talented author and I love the funny lines you give your characters.
I think I might have worked out who the watch belong to, is the person mentioned in the mortal instruments?

I'd be very surprised if you figured out who the watch belonged to, but you're welcome to take a guess!

Also I'm welsh like Will and I was wondering why being welsh is slated in the book :).

Okay, there really is a difference between what a *book* is saying and what a *character* in a book is saying. Because Jessamine is an unpleasant racist (ie what she says about Jem) she's going to parrot the more unpleasant xenophobic attitudes of the time. The Welsh, like the Irish, were considered a different race by a large portion of the English, who hated them and made many a joke at their expense.

*"Around the turn of the 20th century there was considerable anti-Welsh feeling in the English establishment. Prime Minister of the United Kingdom H. H. Asquith said in 1905 "I would sooner go to hell than to Wales."[37] One of Evelyn Waugh's characters in the novel Decline and Fall (1928) was made to say: "From the earliest times the Welsh have been looked upon as an unclean people. It is thus that they have preserved their racial integrity. Their sons and daughters rarely mate with human-kind except their own blood relations..... I often think that we can trace almost all the disasters of English history to the influence of Wales."

Well, you asked.

*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural...

What Jessamine says about Will being Welsh says more about her than Wales (or Will.)


Sorry (another question) but seeing as the next book is called clockwork prince, does it feature the British royal family or is it another royal prince? D"

The prince and princess are more figurative than literal.

Julie wrote: -When you are writing, do you ever get into such a groove that you can't stop?

Sure. Not as often as I'd like.

-Do you have a word/page count that you have to meet within a certain amount of time for your books?

Yes. 2,000 words a day.

-What's been the longest you've gone writing nonstop that you can remember?

It depends what you mean by nonstop. Everyone has to stop and eat, etc. I'd say last October in Mexico on a retreat I wrote 80,000 words that month.

-Because The Infernal Devices is a newer series and you don't know the characters as well as The Mortal Instruments, is it a little more difficult to write in general?

The first book of a series is generally difficult because you don't know the characters that well. I do feel I now know the ID characters as well as the TMI ones so that difficulty is gone.

Do you ever incorporate conversations or things people have said in your life into your books?

All writers do to some extent. To quote Lemony Snicket: "Just about every line of dialog in Adverbs is something I overheard, but of course I shaped it and recontextualized it."

To be completely out of the blue with this last question, are any of the Mortal Instruments or Internal Devices characters nonreligious? "

Well, Jace goes right ahead and says he doesn't know if there's a God or not. They basically worship Raziel but like real people, their faith varies from person to person.

Jonathan wrote: "1) How much authority do the Institute heads have over Shadow Hunters in their respective area? For example Could Charlotte tell two random shadowhunters and tell them to go look into a goblin problem in Wales

Yes, she could. If they didn't want to do it she could call in the Consul to enforce.

2) Will We see any more Institutes in either TMI or the IFD?

You will see the York Institute in CP and other Institutes in the later TMI books.

Carlys. wrote: "Okay. This is a question that will matter extremely on several theories I have about this next book...

Is Church REALLY a cat? Like 100% a cat and not just something disguised as a cat to be in the Institute to destroy it from the inside?
"

If Church is something disguised as a cat to be in the Institute to destroy it from the inside then he is playing a really long game. He has been the Institute's cat for 140 years and hasn't done anything sinister.

Maru wrote: "So, here are some questions about the books. What exactly happened with Dorothea and Abbadon, it was Abbadon the whole time when the shadowhunters went the second time to visit her?

It was the demon the whole time the second time they visited her. It was there waiting for Clary to get the Mortal Cup out of the card. The first time they visited her it was just Dorothea.

And was it true what she predicted about Jace's future, that he'll fall in love with the wrong person? I thought it was Clary, because she was his sister but at the end of the story is not like that, so now I'm not sure about what to think!

If you flick back through the answers you'll see a lot of people also asked me this already. You can theorize about it any which way you want - Dorothea just meant that Clary would be the wrong person temporarily, or there's something else that's going to happen, or Dorothea was never any good at reading tea leaves anyway. It was honestly never meant to be a plot point of even minor importance.

And in the other hand, there was a moment in City of Glass that Clary saw in her mother's wrist a mark similar to a star, it reminds me the one Jace has near his shoulder (the Herondale mark) is this just a coincidence, or was I just hallucinating, or maybe is something you'll going to explain in other books...?

And Clary has the star-shaped mark, too, as we see in City of Bones. It *is* explained in City of Glass (I even rewrote the explanation for the paperback version to make it even clearer.) Reread what Amatis says about the mark. Unless someone else wants to answer. :>

Ash wrote: "Hi Cassandra!

TI'm curious though, do you have a favorite young adult book (something your readers might read)? You mentioned the Hunger Games in one of your earlier answers, so that got me wondering, haha.

I don't have favorite books. I did when I was a teenager, and I was always obsessing about what was my first favorite and my second favorite and my third favorite etc but at some point that stuff goes by the wayside and you admit you just like a bunch of stuff. I do have book recommendations on my website for my readers of contemporary urban fantasy/YA fantasy.

Ddpjclaf wrote: 1. When you begin a new project, do you enjoy the world building or the character building process more? Or do you enjoy both equally?

Both equally.


2. Which part of the writing process do you most look forward to? Research? Outlining? The actual writing? Revisions? Is there any part you really don't look forward to?

Does anyone look forward to revisions? Well, someone must. Probably the most fun is the original, loose outline, just coming up with the story, what's going to happen, tossing ideas around with friends, etc.

3. When you first submitted CoB (to either your agent or publisher, or both!), were you asked to make any big changes to the storyline? Tweak characters or setting? I'm not talking about minor things, but things that changed any dynamics or arcs you had originally planned for your story?

No. Neither my agent nor my editor ever asked me to change any major arcs or remove any significant plot points.

I ask this because I have author friends who have gotten an agent with a story, submitted it to publishers, and then were asked to change some major points which ended up pretty much changing the entire storyline. I would expect change requests, but I'm talking bigger ones. (I hope this makes sense) I just wondered if you've ever experienced that and how you felt about it.

I honestly can't think of much. My editor and I disagreed on how much actual drinking Will was allowed to do in Clockwork. I wanted him drunk all the time :D, she didn't. I decided to work it so that he acts drunk but is really lying about his drinking, which wound up fitting in with his general overall pattern of lying about himself. On the other hand, one of my editors also didn't like Jem's "affliction" as she said no one would have sympathy for a drug addict. I disagreed and the addiction stayed.

4. After you got that initial "idea" for CoB in the tattoo parlor, what did you do with it right then? Did you mull it over in your mind for a while before anything concrete started forming? Or did you start to "see" this whole world/story arc coming to play immediately? Basically, how do you start the process of putting this idea you've had down on paper? Jot down notes? Start outlining? Etc...

I started with the world building, and what I actually did was once I had it pretty complete, I handed over my notes to my best friend's boyfriend (now husband) and asked if he and his friends would run a D and D campain in my world. I wanted to know how the world functioned as a story world, where they might find holes as characters trying to find their way in the story world, where they'd have questions about money, weaponry, etc. They came back with a ton of questions and notes: how long do runes last, how many can you have at a time, who runs the Council, what are the laws regarding what Downworlders can and can't do, etc. That's why Eric, Kirk and Matt are in the book - because they helped me out immeasurably.

Liz wrote: "I have just a couple questions. Sorry if they've been answered already.
1.) We've all seen the runes on the covers of the books, but I've always wondered if that's how you originally saw them? I'm very interested in rune lore, and I'd love to know what alphabet you were inspired by.

I was originally intrigued by the idea when I saw a friend's designs for original runes. I am not a big rune lore expert though obviously I have read up on them since. The runes on the covers are not far off from what I imagined because I sent images of my friend's runes to the artist who did the cover for reference.

2.) Maia! I love her. I may be biased because I'm such a huge werewolf fan. Are we going to be seeing more of her in later books? She's such a strong character.

Yep, she's back, and has a good-sized part.

3.) And lastly, do you like the research aspect of writing? I'm a history buff, and sometimes I get more caught up in the research than the actual writing. I know some people find research to be a pain."

No, I enjoy the research a great deal. The only thing that I sometimes regret is that I can't use it all — out of everything you learn researching you only wind up using about 5%.