What's the inspiration for the series title?
The inspiration for the title! Okay, this is so dorky. The main family, the Blackthorns, of "The Dark Artifices," have a father who is a classicist. He is obsessed with Greek and Roman mythology and history. So "The Dark Artifices" comes from "The Annals of Imperial Rome" by Tacitus. "It would have been less ignominious to die by the dark artifices of Tiberius or the fury of Caligula." I just liked the phrase. And all the kids in the family have Greek or Roman names—Helen, Julian, Marcus, Olivia and even Tiberius. (Poor Tiberius.) As for the individual books, the working title for the first book is "Lady Midnight."
New York and London are such integral elements—almost characters in and of themselves—in your series. How will moving the action to L.A. affect the goings-on? Should we expect surfing Shadowhunters?
Los Angeles is my hometown! Now, I have nothing against surfers. Surfers are hot, and the beach and the ocean play a huge role in "Dark Artifices." But there is a wonderful darkness to Los Angeles that people often don't see unless they live there. There are the wonderful sea caves up by Leo Carillo, the deserts just outside the city, and there are supposed to be ghosts haunting the Hollywood Hills.There's the whole genre of "sunlit noir" and the tradition of hard-boiled detectives like Phillip Marlowe. Los Angeles is this place that has a glittering, glamorous surface but below it is this machine that grinds up dreams and crushes them. Which is so much fun to work with when you're writing!
There's a lovely description of the Santa Ana winds, the hot winds that blow out of the desert, by Raymond Chandler: "Those hot dry winds that come down through the mountain passes and curl your hair and make your nerves jump and your skin itch. On nights like that every booze party ends in a fight. Meek little wives feel the edge of the carving knife and study their husbands' necks. Anything can happen."
Carstairs, a pattern of castles or crenellations
Lightwood — a pattern of flames around the band
Wayland — a pattern of horseshoes or nails after Wayland Smith
Fairchild: a pattern of faerie wings
Blackthorn: A pattern of thorns.
Starkweather — Pattern of lightning bolts.
Morgenstern: a pattern of stars.
Verlac: A ring in the shape of a serpent.
Branwell: Pattern of waves or water.
Great news! Raymond Chandler is one of my favorite authors and he captured that dark side of Los Angeles so well. I'm looking forward to seeing what Cassie does with a little noir magic and, of course, her Shadowhunters. ;D
ReplyDeleteVery exciting news! I can't wait to read Cassie's interpretation of Los Angeles' dark side and to meet some new shadowhunters.
ReplyDeleteOMG The Dark Artifices news are AWESOME, aren't they?!!!I already put all three books on my Goodreads wishlist, CAN NOT WAIT!
ReplyDeleteI'll meet Cassie next week in Cologne and will definitely do a post of the signing+reading.Have to ask her about the the movie and the new series!