After becoming OBSESSED with the Mortal Instruments we talked to Cassandra Clare about how she got her ideas for such a great story and other random things!
RTR: If your life was turned into a movie, who would play you?
Cassandra: I’m sure it would be one of those things where they can only make the movie if they cast someone really famous and I’d wind up being played by Tom Hanks or something.
RTR: What are your favorite songs on your iPod?
Cassandra: It depends on my mood. Right now it’s a song called “This is My City” from the Skins soundtrack.
RTR: If you could have lunch with anyone, dead or alive, who would you choose?
Cassandra: Oh, goodness. Oscar Wilde?
RTR: What is your guilty pleasure?
Cassandra: Gossip blogs like D-Listed and TMZ.
RTR: Do you have any weird talents or hobbies?
Cassandra: I really can’t think of anything. I don’t even collect weird stuff. I like crazy shoes — I spend a lot of time on http://www.irregularchoice.com/
RTR: How did you come up with the whole angels/demons concept?
Cassandra: Well, I didn’t invent angels and demons! But I think I know what you mean; I’d read a lot of urban fantasy at the time that drew on folklore — stories of goblins and elves and vampires. I wanted to write similarly styled urban fantasy but drawing on mythology – tales of gods, angels and demons. Every culture has its angels and demons, its good and evil divinities.
RTR: What compelled you to write a prequel to the Mortal Instruments series?
Cassandra: I’d always wanted to write historical fiction — I kept telling myself it was a crazy idea, like always wanting to climb Mount Kilimanjaro, because historicals are an insane amount of work. But I was in London crossing Blackfriars Bridge and I had this sudden strong image in my head of a girl and a boy, in the period costume of the mid-Victorian era, standing on the bridge at night — and from one end of the bridge, unseen by them, was an army of clockwork creatures approaching. It was very eerie, and at first I tossed it around as the idea for a short story, but the characters and the tale grew, and as they did so I knew I wanted it to be part of my Mortal Instruments universe and for these characters to connect up with the ones from TMI.
RTR: It seemed like the series was pretty well summed up in the last book. Why write a fourth book to the series?
Cassandra: I’ve seen differing opinions as to how well summed up it was! I was content with it as an ending, but it did leave plenty of hanging threads — would Clary go back to school? Jace ended the series without really having nailed down a sense of his own identity. And what on earth would happen to Simon, who hadn’t chosen a girlfriend, hadn’t told his mother he was a vampire, and now carried the Mark of Cain? I’m going to paraphrase Chekhov, who said that if you see a gun in the first act of a play, it has to go off by the third act or the audience will feel cheated. If you put the Mark of Cain on a character, you owe it to your readers to at some point show them what happens when it gets invoked. Now, all of those things can be left to readerly imagination, but I did think I owed more of Simon’s story. When I sat down to write it out, however, I realized that in fact there was a much bigger story I wanted to tell about these characters and what happened to them after Valentine was gone. That was how City of Fallen Angels, City of Lost Souls, and City of Heavenly Fire came into being as they are now.
RTR: Who do you like more: Jace or Alec?
Cassandra: I don’t know how it is for other people, but I don’t really have a relationship of liking and not liking with my own characters. With other people’s characters, sure, but they don’t live in my head.It’s not even a question of “Who would you kill off?” because that’s just about serving the purpose of the story. I love them equally; they serve different narrative functions, but they’re both fun to write.
RTR: What advice would you give to aspiring authors?
Cassandra: Read. Try to read 60-70 books a year. Read outside the genres you like. Experiment with other genres, other types of books. I get emails all the time from people who say they don’t like to read, but they want to learn how to write. But we learn by example. You have to do the first to learn the second.
Thank you Cassandra! We can’t wait until Clockwork Angels and City of Fallen Angels!
RTR: If your life was turned into a movie, who would play you?
Cassandra: I’m sure it would be one of those things where they can only make the movie if they cast someone really famous and I’d wind up being played by Tom Hanks or something.
RTR: What are your favorite songs on your iPod?
Cassandra: It depends on my mood. Right now it’s a song called “This is My City” from the Skins soundtrack.
RTR: If you could have lunch with anyone, dead or alive, who would you choose?
Cassandra: Oh, goodness. Oscar Wilde?
RTR: What is your guilty pleasure?
Cassandra: Gossip blogs like D-Listed and TMZ.
RTR: Do you have any weird talents or hobbies?
Cassandra: I really can’t think of anything. I don’t even collect weird stuff. I like crazy shoes — I spend a lot of time on http://www.irregularchoice.com/
RTR: How did you come up with the whole angels/demons concept?
Cassandra: Well, I didn’t invent angels and demons! But I think I know what you mean; I’d read a lot of urban fantasy at the time that drew on folklore — stories of goblins and elves and vampires. I wanted to write similarly styled urban fantasy but drawing on mythology – tales of gods, angels and demons. Every culture has its angels and demons, its good and evil divinities.
RTR: What compelled you to write a prequel to the Mortal Instruments series?
Cassandra: I’d always wanted to write historical fiction — I kept telling myself it was a crazy idea, like always wanting to climb Mount Kilimanjaro, because historicals are an insane amount of work. But I was in London crossing Blackfriars Bridge and I had this sudden strong image in my head of a girl and a boy, in the period costume of the mid-Victorian era, standing on the bridge at night — and from one end of the bridge, unseen by them, was an army of clockwork creatures approaching. It was very eerie, and at first I tossed it around as the idea for a short story, but the characters and the tale grew, and as they did so I knew I wanted it to be part of my Mortal Instruments universe and for these characters to connect up with the ones from TMI.
RTR: It seemed like the series was pretty well summed up in the last book. Why write a fourth book to the series?
Cassandra: I’ve seen differing opinions as to how well summed up it was! I was content with it as an ending, but it did leave plenty of hanging threads — would Clary go back to school? Jace ended the series without really having nailed down a sense of his own identity. And what on earth would happen to Simon, who hadn’t chosen a girlfriend, hadn’t told his mother he was a vampire, and now carried the Mark of Cain? I’m going to paraphrase Chekhov, who said that if you see a gun in the first act of a play, it has to go off by the third act or the audience will feel cheated. If you put the Mark of Cain on a character, you owe it to your readers to at some point show them what happens when it gets invoked. Now, all of those things can be left to readerly imagination, but I did think I owed more of Simon’s story. When I sat down to write it out, however, I realized that in fact there was a much bigger story I wanted to tell about these characters and what happened to them after Valentine was gone. That was how City of Fallen Angels, City of Lost Souls, and City of Heavenly Fire came into being as they are now.RTR: Who do you like more: Jace or Alec?
Cassandra: I don’t know how it is for other people, but I don’t really have a relationship of liking and not liking with my own characters. With other people’s characters, sure, but they don’t live in my head.It’s not even a question of “Who would you kill off?” because that’s just about serving the purpose of the story. I love them equally; they serve different narrative functions, but they’re both fun to write.
RTR: What advice would you give to aspiring authors?
Cassandra: Read. Try to read 60-70 books a year. Read outside the genres you like. Experiment with other genres, other types of books. I get emails all the time from people who say they don’t like to read, but they want to learn how to write. But we learn by example. You have to do the first to learn the second.
Thank you Cassandra! We can’t wait until Clockwork Angels and City of Fallen Angels!
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