Random photo I love: Logan and Lily on 'Writers' set

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This has been posted on Tumblr about a billion times. Since this is a new site, however, I am getting some old shots on here. In this photo, Lily Collins, who is set to play Clary Fray in the book-to-movie adaptation of "The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones", is with one of the actors that TMI fans crave to see as Simon Lewis, Logan Lerman. 

Since this was taken in early March and there hasn't been much word on additional casting for the film, which is set to be on location in August, for now we will just adore the thought of Simon and Clary together by looking at this photo!

Is Sony Pictures acquiring 'The Mortal Instruments'?

Lily Collins

According to a recent article by Deadline, Sony Pictures is closing a deal to partner with Constantin on the movie adaptation of Cassandra Clare’s The Mortal Instruments, starring Mirror, Mirror star Lily Collins and The Karate Kid  director Harald Zwart.

Jamie Campbell Bower

Sony Pictures is credited with bringing to life the book-to-movie adaptations The Da Vinci Code and The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo franchise.  Constantin announced recently that production on The Mortal Instruments will begin August 15 in Toronto. Although there has been no official word from Constantin as to whether Jamie Campbell Bower is slated to play shadowhunter Jace Wayland, Cassie Clare recently stated that he was still attached to the project.

Jessica Postigo and I. Marlene King wrote the script, with Robert Kulzer producing for Constantin Film and Bob Shaye and Michael Lynne producing for Unique Features.

City of Lost Souls Part 3 Shadowhunter Chapter Reveal

Morning TMI fans! Part 3 of the City of Lost Souls Shadowhunter Chapter Reveal is up at Eve's Fan Garden.
This one is definitely a portion of Chapter 1 that you don't want to miss! It's so intense so definitely check out this latest sneak peek installment by Cassie Clare!

In addition to reading, you have to sign up for your chance to win the Lightwood family ring! It's one of only six rings that will be given away, so make sure to enter for you chance to get one of these covet rings!

For those who haven't caught up on this week's reveal, click the links below to start:

Start reading Part 2 here!
Start reading Part 1 here!

According to the Eve's garden site, City of Lost Souls has been embargoes, which means that no ARCs are being revealed prior to the May 8th book release. This reveal is your only glimpse at the book! 

 The reveal virtual tour will continue next week with stops at the following locations:

Happy reading and good luck!!

City of Lost Souls Exclusive Chapter Hunt: Part 2

Welcome to Day 2 of the City of Lost Souls Shadowhunter Chapter Reveal!

Yesterday we got our first glimpse of the first chapter of CoLS on Cassandra Clare's tumblr and will see a new part of the chapter every day until April 4th. Check the dates and links in the photo above.Make sure when stopping by each site that you sign up for the limited edition Shadowhunter family rings.

Just moments ago, Part 2 was released by our friends at NovelNovice.com.  Today's prize up for grabs is the Wayland family ring!

 Start reading Part 2 here!
Start Reading Part 1 here!

Happy reading and good luck!!!

On set at CoLS book trailer shoot

 Here's an exciting sneak peek behind the scenes of the CoLS book trailer shoot that Cassandra Clare posted on her blog today. This is what Cassie had to say:

"Onset at the City of Lost Souls book trailer filmage. (Is filmage a word?) The director and the back of book-trailer Jace’s head. I don’t know who is playing Jace in the trailer, but he has nice hair. And a stylin’ sweater. Which fits, as City of Lost Souls Jace has fancier clothes than previous Jace."

I can't wait to see this mystery Jace! :)

City of Lost Souls Chapter Reveal up now!

So, if you have been stuck in meetings all morning like I have OR if you are in school somewhere trying to drudge through the day, you are in luck! Cassandra Clare has posted the first part of Chapter 1 of City of Lost Souls! After you read it, let me know what you think!

You can click here to go to the website for Part 1 of 6 of the CoLS chapter 1 reveal. As well as being able to read the first chapter, if you live in the US, at each chapter stop you can enter to win one of six VERY limited edition SHADOW HUNTER FAMILY RINGS. Just click here and enter your information. (Canadians, follow @SimonPulseCA for your chance to win a SHADOWHUNTER ring. It's only open to US residents, but apparently those are the legalities of this kind of giveaway. The chapter however, can be read by anyone.)
  
After you read it, let me know what you think!

Best of luck to everyone!  

An Offering of Moonlight: Jem’s Perspective on “Fierce Midnight” in Clockwork Prince

 Here is an alternate version of Jem and Tessa's first kiss from Jem's perspective from Clockwork Prince that Cassie shared on her site. It's swoon worthy indeed and gives us even more reason to love Mr. Carstairs even more!

Give me your thoughts! Happy reading!!!!

An Offering of Moonlight
I wish to offer you moonlight in a handful — Zhang Jiu Ling
[This takes place in Chapter Nine of Clockwork Prince, entitled "Fierce Midnight. The scene in which Tessa and Jem first kiss from his perspective.]

The first thing Jem did the moment he entered his room was stride to the yin fen box on his nightstand.
He usually took the drug in a solution of water, letting it dissolve and drinking it, but he was too impatient now; he took a pinch between his thumb and forefinger, and sucked it from his fingers. It tasted of burned sugar and left the inside of his mouth feeling numb. He slammed the box shut with a feeling of dark satisfaction.
The second thing he did was to retrieve his violin.
The fog was thick against the windows, as if they had been painted over with lead. If it had not been for the witchlight torches burning low, there would not have been enough illumination for him to see what he was doing as he wrenched open the box that held his Guarneri and took the instrument from it. A snatch of one of Bridget’s songs played in his head: It was mirk, mirk night, there was no starlight, and they waded through blood to the knees.
Mirk, mirk night indeed. The sky had had been black as pitch down in Whitechapel. Jem thought of Will, standing on the pavement, dizzy-eyed and grinning. Until Jem had hit him. He had never hit Will before, no matter how maddening his parabatai had been. No matter how destructive to other people, no matter his casual cruelty, no matter his wit that was like the edge of a knife, Jem had never hit him. Until now.
The bow was already rosined; he flexed his fingers before he took hold of it, and drew in several deep breaths. He could feel the yin fen surging through his veins already, lighting his blood like fire lighting gunpowder. He thought of Will again, asleep on the bed in the opium den. He had been flushed, his face smooth and innocent in sleep, like a child with his cheek pillowed on his hand. Jem remembered when Will had been young like that, though never a time when he had been innocent.
He set the bow to the strings and played. He played softly at first. He played Will lost in dreams, finding solace in a drugged haze that muffled his pain. Jem could only envy him that. The yin fen was no balm: he did not find in it whatever opium addicts found in their pipes, or alcoholics in the dregs of a gin bottle. There was only exhaustion and lassitude without it, and with it, energy and fever. But there was no surcease from pain.
Jem’s knees gave out, and he sank to the trunk at the foot of his bed, still playing. He played Will breathing the name Cecily, and he played himself watching the glint of his own ring on Tessa’s hand on the train from York, knowing it was all a charade, knowing, too, that he wished that it wasn’t. He played the sorrow in Tessa’s eyes when she had come into the music room after Will had told her she would never have children. Unforgivable, that, what a thing to do, and yet Jem had forgiven him. Love was forgiveness, he had always believed that, and the things that Will did, he did out of some bottomless well of pain. Jem did not know the source of that pain, but he knew it existed and was real, knew it as he knew of the inevitability of his own death, knew it as he knew that he had fallen in love with Tessa Gray and that there was nothing he or anyone else could do about it.
He played that, now, played all their broken hearts, and the sound of the violin wrapped him and lifted him and he closed his eyes —
His door opened. He heard the sound through the music, but for a moment did not credit it, for it was Tessa’s voice he heard, saying his name. “Jem?”
Surely she was a dream, conjured up by the music and the drug and his own fevered mind. He played on, played his own rage and anger at Will, for however he had always forgiven Will for his cruelty to others, he could not forgive him for endangering himself.
“Jem!” came Tessa’s voice again, and suddenly there were hands on his, wrenching the bow out of his grasp. He let go in shock, staring up at her. “Jem, stop! Your violin — your lovely violin — you’ll ruin it.”
She stood over him, a dressing-gown thrown over her white nightgown. He remembered that nightgown: she had been wearing it the first time he had seen her, when she had come into his room and he had thought for one mad moment that she was an angel. She was breathing hard now, her face flushed, his violin gripped in one hand and the bow in another.
“What does it matter?” he demanded. “What does any of it matter? I’m dying — I won’t outlast the decade, what does it matter if the violin goes before I do?” She stared at him, her lips parting in astonishment. He stood up and turned away from her. He could no longer bear to look her in the face, to see her disappointment with him, his weakness. “You know it is true.”
“Nothing is decided.” Her voice trembled. “Nothing is inevitable. A cure —”
“There’s no cure. I will die and you know it, Tess. Probably within the next year.I am dying, and I have no family in the world, and the one person I trusted more than any other makes sport of what is killing me.”
“But Jem, I don’t think that’s what Will meant to do at all.” She had set down his violin and bow, and was moving toward him. ”He was just trying to escape — he is running from something, something dark and awful, you know he is, Jem. You saw how he was after — after Cecily.”
“He knows what it means to me,” he said. She was just behind him: he could smell the faint perfume of her skin: violet-water and soap. The urge to turn about and touch her was overwhelming, but he held himself still. “To see him even toy with what has destroyed my life — “
“But he wasn’t thinking of you —”
“I know that.” How could he say it? How could he explain? How could he tell her that Will was what he had devoted his life to: Will’s rehabilitation, Will’s innate goodness. Will was the cracked mirror of his own soul that he had spent years trying to repair. He could forgive Will harming anyone but his own self. “I tell myself he’s better than he makes himself out to be, but Tessa, what if he isn’t? I have always thought, if I had nothing else, I had Will — if I have done nothing else that made my life matter, I have always stood by him — but perhaps I shouldn’t.”
“Oh, Jem.” Her voice was so soft that he turned. Her dark hair was unbound: it tumbled around her face and he had the most absurd urge to bury his hands in it, to draw her close, his hands cupping the back of her neck. She reached out a soft hand for him and for a moment, wild hope rose up in him, unstoppable as the tide — but she only laid her hand against his forehead, careful as a nurse. “You’re burning up. You should be resting —”
He jerked away from her before he could stop himself. Her gray eyes widened. “Jem, what it is it? You don’t want me to touch you?”
“Not like that.” The words burst out before he could stop them. The night, Will, the music, the yin fen, all had unlocked something in him — he barely knew his own self, this stranger who spoke the truth and spoke it harshly.
“Like what?” Her confusion was plain on her face. Her pulse beat at the side of her throat; where her nightgown was open he could see the soft curve of her collarbone. He dug his fingers into the palms of his hands. He could not hold back the words any more. It was swim or drown.
“As if you were a nurse and I were your patient,” he told her. “Do you think I do not know that when you take my hand, it is only so that you can feel my pulse? Do you think I do not know that when you look into my eyes it is only to see how much of the drug I have taken? If I were another man, a normal man, I might have hopes, presumptions even; I might —” I might want you. He broke off before he said it. It could not be said. Words of love were one thing: words of desire were dangerous as a rocky shore where a ship could founder. It was hopeless, he knew it was hopeless, and yet —
She shook her head. “This is the fever speaking, not you.”
Hopeless. The despair cut at him like a dull knife, and he said the next words without thinking: “You can’t even believe I could want you. That I am alive enough, healthy enough —”
“No —” She caught at his arm, and it was like having five brands of fire laid across his skin. Desire lanced through him like pain. “James, that isn’t at all what I meant —”
He laid his hand over hers, where she held his arm. He heard her indrawn breath — sharp, surprised. But not horrified. She did not pull away. She did not remove his hand. She let him hold her, and turn her, so that they stood face to face, close enough to breathe each other in.
“Tessa,” he said. She looked up at him. The fever pounded in him like blood, and he no longer knew what was the desire and what was the drug, or if the one simply enhanced the other, and it did not matter, it did not matter because he wanted her, he had wanted her for so long. Her eyes were huge and gray, her pupils dilated, and her lips were parted on a breath as if she were about to speak, but before she could speak he kissed her.
The kiss exploded in his head like fireworks on Guy Fawkes’ Day. He closed his eyes on a whirl of colors and sensations almost to intense to bear: her lips were soft and hot under his and he found himself running his fingers over her face, the curves at her cheekbones, the hammering pulse in her throat, the tender skin at the back of her neck. It took every ounce of control he had to touch her gently, not to crush her against him, and when she raised her arms and twined them around his neck, sighing into his mouth, he had to stifle a gasp and for a moment hold himself very still or they would have been on the floor.
Her own hands on him were gentle, but there was no mistaking their encouragement. Her lips murmured against his, whispering his name, her body soft and strong in his arms. He followed the arch of her back with his hands, feeling the curve of it under her nightgown, and he could not stop himself then: he pulled her so tightly against him that they both stumbled, and collapsed backward onto the bed.
Tessa sank into the cushions and he propped himself over her. Her hair had come out of its plaits and tumbled dark and unbound over the pillows. A flush of blood spread over her face and down to the neckline of her gown, staining her pale skin. The hot press of body to body was dizzying, like nothing he had imagined, more fierce and delicious than the most delirious music. He kissed her again and again, each time harder, savoring the texture of her lips under his, the taste of her mouth, until the intensity of it threatened to tip over from pleasure into pain.
He should stop, he knew. This had gone beyond honor, beyond any bounds of propriety. He had imagined, sometimes, kissing her, carefully cupping her face between his hands, but had never imagined this: that they would be wrapped so tightly around each other that he could hardly tell where he left off and she began. That she would kiss him and stroke him and run her fingers through his hair. That when he hesitated with his fingers on the tie of her dresssing-gown, the reasonable part of his brain commanding his rebellious and unwilling body to stop, that she would neatly solve the dilemma but undoing the fastening herself and lying back as the material fell away around her and she looked up at him in only her thin nightgown.
Her chin was raised, determination and candor in her eyes, and her lifted arms welcomed him back to her, enfolding him, drawing him in. “Jem, my Jem,” she was whispering, and he whispered back, losing his words against her mouth, whispering what was true but what he hoped she wouldn’t understand. He whispered in Chinese, worried that if he spoke in English, he would say something profoundly stupid. Wo ai ni. Ni hen piao liang, Tessa. Zhe shi jie shang, wo shi zui ai ni de.
But he saw her eyes darken; he knew she recalled what he had said to her in the carriage. “What does it mean?” she whispered.
He stilled against her body.  “It means that you are beautiful. I did not want to tell you before. I did not want you to think I was taking liberties.”
She reached up and touched his cheek. He could feel his heart beating against hers. It felt as if it might beat out of his chest entirely.
“Take them,” she whispered.
He heart soared, and he gathered her up against him, something he had never done before, but she did not seem to mind his clumsiness. Her hands were traveling gently over him, learning his body. Her fingers stroked the bone of his hip, the cup of his collar. They tangled in his shirt and it was up and over his head, and he was leaning into her, shaking silvery hair out of his face. He saw her eyes go wide and felt his insides tighten.
“I know,” he said, looking down at himself — skin like papier-mache, ribs like violin strings. “I am not — I mean, I look —”
“Beautiful,” she said, and the word was a pronouncement. “You are beautiful, James Carstairs.”
Breath eased back into his lungs and they were kissing again, her hands warm and smooth against his bare skin. She touched him with hesitant, curious strokes, mapping a body that seemed to flower under her ministrations into something perfect, healthy: no longer a fragile device of swiftly diminishing flesh lashed to a framework of breakable bones. It was only now, that this was happening, that he realized how sincerely he had believed it never would.
He could feel the soft, nervous puffs of her breath against the sensitive skin of his throat as he drew his hands up and over her body. He touched her as he would touch his violin: it was how he knew to touch something that was precious and loved. He had carried the violin in his arms from Shanghai to London and he had carried Tessa, too, in his heart, for longer than he thought he remembered. When had it happened? His hands touched her through the nightgown, the curve and dip of her waist and hips like the curve of the Guarneri, but the violin did not give gratifying gasps when he touched it, did not seek his mouth out for kisses or have fascinating eyelids that fluttered shut just so when he stroked the sensitive skin at the backs of her knees.
Maybe it had been the day he’d run up the stairs to her and kissed her hand. Mizpah. May the Lord watch between me and thee when we are parted. It was the first time he had thought that there was something more to his regard than the ordinary regard for a pretty girl he could not have; that it had the aspect to it of something holy.
The pearl buttons of her nightdress were smooth under his fingertips. Her body bowed backward, her throat arched, as the material slipped aside, leaving her shoulder bare. Her breath was quick in her throat, the curls of her brown hair stuck to her flushed cheeks and forehead, the material of her dress crushed between them. He was shaking himself as he bent to kiss her bare skin, skin that most likely no one but herself and perhaps Sophie had ever seen, and her hand came up to cup his head, threading through the hair at the back of his neck . . .
There was the sound of a crash. And a choking fog of yin fen filled the room.
It was as if Jem had swallowed fire; he jerked back and away from Tessa with such force that he nearly overbalanced them both. Tessa sat up as well, pulling the front of her night-dress together, her expression suddenly self-conscious. All Jem’s heat was gone; his skin was suddenly freezing — with shame, and with fear for Tessa — he had never dreamed of her being this close to the poisonous stuff that had destroyed his life. But the laquer box was broken: a thick layer of shining powder lay across the floor; and even as Jem drew in a breath to tell her she must go, that she must leave him if she were to be safe, he did not think of the loss of the precious drug, or of the danger to him if it could not be retrieved. He thought only:
No more.
The yin fen has taken so much from me: my family, the years of my life, the strength in my body, the breath in my lungs. It will not take from me this too: the most precious thing we are given by the Angel. The ability to love. I love Tessa Gray.
And I will make sure that she knows it.

One Ring to Rule them All: CoLS Chapter Hunt begins tomorrow

See this ring over to the right? That's the Herondale ring, and THAT, my friends, will be the most coveted prize (I bet someone will say My Precious!) in Cassie Clare's City of Lost Souls Chapter Hunt, which begins tomorrow!

Here's the dets, according to Cassie's blog!


The City of Lost Souls chapter reveal starts tomorrow! Cassie will kick the contest off on Wednesday 3/28 with the first part of Chapter One: The Last Council.

Then…

Thursday 3/29:                  NovelNovice.com

Friday 3/20:                      EvesFanGarden.com

Monday 4/2:                     TheStorySiren.com

Tuesday 4/3:                     MundieMoms.com

Wednesday 4/4:                 MortalInstruments.com

Throughout the week we will reveal Chapter 1 of CITY OF LOST SOULS,

(The prologue has previously been revealed along with the cover back in January on USA TODAY.com)

This will be the ONLY way readers can get a sneek peek of CITY OF LOST SOULS before it goes on sale MAY 8^TH! AT each blog stop we’ll be raffling off -

One of six VERY limited edition SHADOW HUNTER FAMILY RINGS

Cassie follows up with "The Herondale ring, pictured above, which I will be giving away, is the first prize. Then later I will take control of the rings and rule you from a flaming tower in a wasteland — but… FREE RINGS!"

Who all is excited about this!!????

City of Lost Souls Launch Party set for May 8th!

Attention ChicagoLand! The wonderful Cassie Clare just posted the info on the launch party of the City of Lost Souls!According to her blog, the event will be held on Tuesday, May 8th at 7 pm at Pfeiffer Hall at North Central College in the town of Naperville, IL. Click here for a map to the event!

This is your one chance to see Cassie as it's the only book signing appearance she's doing for City of Lost Souls in the US — " possibly my only US signing this year", she says. There will be giveaways, prizes, trivia and other fun things!

 Here's all the event info:

City of Lost Souls launch party!

Tuesday, May 8^th at 7pm

Pfeiffer Hall at North Central College

310 E. Benton Ave.

Naperville IL 60540

For tickets call : Anderson’s Bookshop 630-355-2665  (A ticket is the price of a book: when you turn up, you get the book for signing. You can bring older titles to be signed, but you can only get in with a copy of City of Lost Souls. This is for the bookstore’s sake, so they can afford to have the event! So ticket = book.)

So, how many of you would plan at trip to go to this signing? Let me know! 

'Mirror Mirror' Star Lily Collins Says Snow White Is No Damsel In Distress

 Here's an interview with MTV's Hollywood Crush and "Mirror Mirror" and upcoming "City of Bones" star Lily Collins. Just like we've seen in the recent ABC hit "Once Upon a Time", Lily explains that Snow White is not the damsel in distress that most might think. The complexity of these classic characters go much deeper, in Lily's opinion.

'Mirror Mirror' Star Lily Collins Says Snow White Is No Damsel In Distress

What do you think? Is Snow a kick-ass fighter and is the Evil Queen justified in her quest to destroy Snow?

Shoot me a comment!

City of Lost Souls Chapter Hunt

Just like an Easter egg hunt, TMI fans will get the chance to go hunting for the first chapter of the City of Lost Souls.

According to Cassie, "There’s going to  be a chapter hunt for the whole first chapter of City of Lost Souls, spread out over five blogs and five days, starting toward the end of this week. And with prizes and things! So stay tuned for updates on that!"

We look forward to all Cassie has in store for us! :)

Follow Cassandra Clare at http://cassandraclare.tumblr.com/ for more details and Happy (shadow) hunting! :)

Jamie Campbell Bower Interview - Talks Breaking Dawn Part 2 and TMI

Welcome to the world of The Mortal Institute! If you are on this site, you undoubtedly are a fan of The Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare. If you've never read the books, drop what you're doing and run -- don't walk -- to get a copy of the book (or put it on your eReader).

So why have I made this site? First of all, you should know a little about me. My name is Amber. I'm a mom, a blogger/aspiring entertainment writer and a lover of music, books and TV. In the past, I've helped write for LOSTblog.com because I was a mega-fan of the show LOST. Since the ending of that series, I've grown to be a lover of so many book series that have turned into hit TV shows and movies. I love everything from Twilight to The Vampire Diaries. But with all the fangirling I have done, the world I seem enjoy the most belong to that of the Shadowhunters.

So why did I pick The Institute as my theme for the site? What I like most about the Institutes are that they are located all around the world as well as they belong in the past (The Infernal Devices), the present (The Mortal Instruments) AND the future (The Dark Artifices). On the site, I want fans to discuss all the books, the upcoming film project(s), music and all the other favorite things we all like as fans of urban fantasy/YA books.

That's all for now. This page is a work in progress, so check back often for updates!