Cassandra Clare Talks About Parabatais, TLH, CoHF, and MORE!

Cassandra Clare took to her tumblr account to answer a few questions a fan sent her through an email. There are some great questions that fan asked and vital answers from Cassie. You can read the whole thing below:

“hi cassie! i have a couple questions that i figured I’d ask through email because its always really hectic on twitter so:- can parabatai be love interests? i thought they couldn’t but emma/julian are right? that always kinda confused me- so you’re writing the dark artifices, TLH, & are you writing another shadowhunter book aside from those as well?- are we gonna see tessa/will/ jem in cohf?”Yes, twitter has become a bit of a madhouse - I can only get on for a few minutes, and then there are so many questions I can’t follow them (usually about things I know nothing about and can’t influence, like what countries there will be movie premieres in and where the cast goes) and then I run away. I am a a wuss, I guess! But if I don’t answer you on Twitter, it’s not personal!“- can parabatai be love interests? i thought they couldn’t but emma/julian are right? that always kinda confused me”The Clave says no. You’re not supposed to be romantically involved with yourparabatai. In Clockwork Prince, one of the plot points is a past pair of parabatai, one of whom committed suicide because he’d fallen in love with his parabatai and was afraid of the secret being exposed.The Clave has their reasons for this old Law. However, like pretty much every cultural/social law decreeing that people can’t fall in love or can’t marry, plenty of people break it. It’s not like no priest has ever fallen in love with anyone. And Emma and Julian’s relationship isn’t defined yet - not even by me! We know there is probably going to be an issue of romantic interest, but they are not a couple at the beginning of the books. They might never be a couple. We will see.- so you’re writing the dark artifices, TLH, & are you writing another shadowhunter book aside from those as well?My plan at the moment is to do five Shadowhunter series, total. I don’t know if I’ll do any series in the Shadowhunter world beyond that. I don’t know why five exactly — maybe because one of my major literary idols has always been Tamora Pierce and she did five series set in Tortall. :) Maybe I think I have five stories to tell in this world. Maybe I’ll get to the end and want to tell more. Maybe not — I have a stockpile of other worlds and stories in my head; I’m writing one of them by writing Magisterium now, but there are many others.There is a special sort of enjoyment in developing stories in a created world, because you can take the rules you yourself have invented, and bend them or break them. You can create connections and history — the story of Isabelle’s ruby necklace stretches back all the way to Vampires, Scones and Edmund Herondale. Then again, with a brand new world, you get to make everything up again. It’s like: brand-new baby or adorable five-year old? They’re both good.
(The five Shadowhunter series are TiD, TLH, TMI, TDA, and very far down the road, TWP. Don’t even ask about that one! It’s too far in the future! There are other Shadowhunter projects like The Bane Chronicles and the graphic novel project about the Circle, currently in planning stages and known as TST, but I’m not counting them: I’m only counting book series/trilogies written solely by me.)- are we gonna see tessa/will/ jem in cohf?”I cannot say, because those are major spoilers. All I will say is that nobody from TiD is going to be a major character in CoHF because it’s too confusing and too spoilery for the mass majority of TMI readers, who have not read TiD. (There are also plenty of TiD readers who won’t read TMI — historical can be tricky; people either won’t read it at all, or will only read it, a lot of the time.) TMI is still Clary’s story at heart. I think for TiD readers there will be a lot of interesting connections, and the fact that Tessa is still alive is not a huge secret (we saw her in CoG) but nothing in CoHF is going to give away the ending of the Clockwork series to people who haven’t read it, and that includes who Tessa ends up with. Keep that in mind, and hopefully that can help shape expectations.

Wow Cassie is a very busy woman! Five Shadowhunter series in total plus a graphic novel and another series (Magisterium) to come! Well all I can say is I'm thrilled and cannot wait to read the next series to come!

What do you guys think? Leave your comments below!

Two new Shadowhunter Tarots featuring Jem and Emma Carstairs and Brother Zachariah!

After giving us Jace and Alec, Simon and Isabelle and Warlocks cards, Cassandra Clare has shared two more Tarot cards by Cassandra Jean on her Tumblr. She also talks Clockwork Princess and TLH.

WARNING: THE BELOW MATERIAL CONTAINS CLOCKWORK PRINCESS SPOILERS.

Below is what Cassie had to say about Clockwork Princess and new series TLH:

In fact it was really fun for me to come up with a family tree that was massively misleading. Remember, family trees are found objects — they contain only as much information as whoever drew them had. Secret marriages, arranged marriages, people being secretly dead, people being secretly other people: the family tree doesn’t reflect any of that. In fact, some of the most important characters (One of whom is a certain JH’s parabatai) don’t appear on the family tree at all.

In fact, when the Bane Chronicle is released that takes place during/around TLH*, I think everyone is going to be like: “HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE? IT DOES NOT MATCH UP.” But it does, in the end…

*TLH: the series that comes between TID and TMI, that takes place around 1903, that I have stated the acronym for (TLH) but not the full name, that has no deadline or planned publication dates because while I am having lots of fun working on the idea, I don’t want to work to deadline right now so that means it’s a WIP.

Also, Sarah would like you to know that TLH stands for The Largest Hamburger.

More TLH stuff, spoilery, under the cut.

“I just wanted to say how amazing your books are, and how much I love them! All of your writing has made me look at love in a different way, and thank you so much for that. But I just wanted to ask if we would be seeing Will Herondale (as his older self) at any time in your new series of books TLH because it is set in the early 1900’s? — shaliwali”

Yes. Will is James and Lucie’s father and James and Lucie (among others — Christopher and Grace and Cordelia and Alastair and Colin and Matthew and Charles and Jesse) are the main characters in the book. So of course, we see their parents. In fact, in one of the upcoming Bane Chronicles — the one that features James — you’ll get a sense of how much we will see them.

““Hi Miss Clare, I’ve been a big fan of your books for years and could barely wait to pick up The Clockwork Princess, so much so that I tanked the whole thing in around 6 hours (partially also due to university commitments). What I’m wondering however, has to do with the shadowhunter family tree on the book sleeve. Many of the family lines, including that of gideon’s lightwood line, come with the statement “see extended lightwood family tree.” Will we ever get to see the extended family trees? I would personally love to get more insight into shadow hunter families. Thanks for writing — little-mollusk”

Aaaand that is precisely why I didn’t include a lot of family trees: the Blackthorns, the Carstairs, the Fairchilds, the Lightwoods. I think having some information is good but not all of it. :) Maybe after TDA and TLH, I’ll do the whole family trees.

“Hi Cassie! I was just wondering. It seems like we will be getting plenty of Jessa in the upcoming books - Heavenly Fire, especially. Will be able to also have more Wessa? I’d love to know more about the time they were married…Thank you!!! — literary-darling”

Well, TLH will be all Will and Tessa, married, because it takes place in 1903, so — Will and Tess are in their thirties and you get to see plenty of the loving couple that they are. There’s also a whole Bane Chronicle, the one about James Herondale, where you get a sense of what they’re like.

A lot of people have asked about whether Jem will be in CoHF or in TDA — as he clearly remains Brother Zachariah through City of Lost Souls — and unfortunately I can’t say much (there’s no reason to assume Jessa in CoHF. COHF might well be before the epilogue of CP2). Most of the things I could say about where Jem and Tessa will appear again and what they will be doing are spoilery. However I will show you two cards that Cassandra Jean drew that aren’t being used in the final tarot deck. The first is just Brother Zachariah — she drew him before she knew who he was, so now she says she has to redraw him. Here he is though, months January through December of the Hot Silent Brothers calendar :)

 

And this — it doesn’t take place anywhere specific, which is why Jem’s hair color is off, it’s a sort of symbolic image — but it’s a nice idea, isn’t it?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SHADOWHUNTER TAROT CARD series posted via Tumblr

Cassandra Jean, an illustrator known for her work within the young adult book genre, has created a set of Shadowhunter Tarot cards. There will be 22 in the series in all starting with The Dark Artifices.

Cassie Clare, author of the Shadowhunter Chronicle books The Infernal Devices, The Mortal Instruments and The Infernal Devices shared thoughts on each one.

Cassie: (Isn’t Jules adorable?) They don’t have the same titles as the Major Arcana of the real Tarot, but you can see by their numbers what cards they match up to (Julian, #4, matches The Emperor.)

Cassie: Emma, the Warrior, matches the Empress card. That’s right, my baby, you look tough.

Cristina, looking fierce with her butterfly knife, taking the card of the High Priestess.

Cassie: We’re further into the Arcana, with the characters from other series showing up. Here Will takes the place of the Hanged Man, bound in an impossible situation.

Cassie: Here Jace takes the place of the Strength Card, only as an angel.

Cassie also said, "A couple of people have asked me if there’s any plans to sell the Shadowhunter Tarot but it hadn’t crossed my mind, really! They’re meant to be fun — maybe Cassandra and I can figure out a way to make them downloadable/printable.

We will post more from the set as they become available. What's your favorite one so far? Be sure to let us know in the comments below.