Mundie Moms

Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Twitter Tuesday - Cassie and Comic-Con


So, no news on cast tours and premieres BUT Cassie just tweeted a few minutes ago that she and the cast are going to be at Comic-Con.

Who's going, Mundie Moms??

The Bane Chronicles: The Runaway Queen Gets a Narrartor

It's an exciting in the TMI fandom. First we get the debut of the international TMI Movie trailer (some of us are most likely watching it from the 100th time or 101th if you're still counting), AND Cassie has shared this exciting news!!! George Blagden will be narrating the Bane Chronicles #2: The Runaway Queen. Here's what Cassie posted:


“The latest installment in “The Bane Chronicles” was co-written by Cassandra Clare and Maureen Johnson, as a companion series of stories to the bestselling “Infernal Devices.” And with “The Runaway Queen” debuting May 21, it shouldn’t be long before we can hear it as its creators almost certainly intended: in the delicious baritone voice of a sexy, sexy man.”
Hollywood Crush, you understand us so well.
When Sarah and were at Wondercon (Sarah accompanying me for moral support) the green room had tables of food (why, who knows, no one in entertainment eats) marked FOR SONY ONLY DO NOT TOUCH and FOR VIKINGS ONLY DO NOT TOUCH. Yes, for Vikings. We were confused.
Me: Sarah, do not touch the sandwiches on that table, Vikings will kill you.
Official-looking lady: That means the History Channel show Vikings.
Me: No, I’m pretty sure it’s real Vikings.
Up pops a cute-looking lad in a striped shirt. “I am a Viking! Of sorts.”
Sarah: I really enjoyed your work in Les Mis!
Me: I have no idea what is happening, but when do I ever.
Stripey lad turned out to be George Blagden, who was very nice, and off I went and watched Les Mis, and indeed, he was very fine in it, and when it came time to cast Runaway Queen and I began to think about dramatic times in France, I thought of him. Partly because he seems very talented and partly because he was stuck in a service elevator with me and Sarah and no one should have to go through that.
I know this has little chance of peeling everyone away from the international trailer but — George! is! awesome! and I am very pleased at the lineup of hot dudes who so far are voicing the tale of Magnus. Yay, Runaway Queen!

I can't wait!

The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones International Movie Trailer DEBUTS

Yesterday I posted a teaser for the TMI International movie trailer and today the international movie trailer debuts! This trailer is awesome! You can watch the US trailer premiere here.




AWESOME isn't?!? The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones movie will be out in theaters on August 23rd, 2013. What do you think of the this trailer? I can't stop watching it.

Simon's line, "I'm the one who's always been there for you." Is so heart breaking and gah, he's going to rip my heart out in this movie.


Monday, April 29, 2013

MTV Interviews Robert Sheehan AKA SIMON on the TMI Movie Set

This really needs no introduction, but MTV has treated fans to their fabulous on set interview with our favorite nerdy vampire, SIMON LEWIS!!!! Okay, I know it's not really Simon, it's Robert Sheehan, but Robbie will forever be Simon to me. LOL

Check it out! *collective sigh*

Mundane Monday #182: City of Heavenly Fire Spoiler ART

HAPPY MUNDANE MONDAY! How about we start today off with a SIZZYling little teaser Cassie recently shared from City of Heavenly Fire. The artwork itself is SPOILERY, so don't look any further if you don't want to be spoiled.

Y
O
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H
A
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B
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W
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;) 


City of Heavenly Fire spoilery art
Some CoHF spoilery art for you! With Clockwork Princess now out for a month, I’ve decided it’s time to start mixing up answers about Clockwork Princess and cut scenes with a few teasers for the last book in that other series. This teaser isn’t words, it’s art by Cassanda Jean. I won’t make any promises about what it means but I think, like the previous piece, and the other previous piece, you’ll like it. ;) It IS A SPOILER for an actual scene, so it’s under a cut.


Isabelle tugged her tank top back down and glared at her brother. “You don’t knock now?”
“It’s my bedroom!” Alec spluttered. 
Before anyone starts thinking City of Heavenly Fire is an uninterrupted series of makeout scenes, the next spoiler art has no kissing. :)
ETA: Amused by confusion over who is making out with Izzy. Who doesn’t have runes on their body? Plus, *points down* I tagged the pic. :P

The Mortal Instruments Movie Monday #18: TMI Movie International *Teaser* Trailer Clip


Welcome to this week's The Mortal Instruments Movie Monday! Check out this exciting new TMI International movie clip, which is featured on Shaw Theaters youtube account. It's a clip we're seen parts of before, but this short clip has thrown in a few extras we've not yet seen. Sit back and enjoy this 10 seconds of Shadowhunter awesomeness!

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What do you guys think?

LOOK for the TMI International Movie Trailer to be out on TUESDAY!!!

Marvelous Middle Grade Monday: UNPLUG & READ Week with Random House Kids

Hello! Happy Monday. It's been way too long since I've featured a Marvelous Middle Grade Monday post on Mundie Moms. Yes, Mundie Kids is still live and kicking. Today I wanted to help spread the word about something I was apart of last week for Random House Kids: UNPLUG & READ. Today kicks off their SCREEN FREE WEEK, which promotes a week of less TV, less video games etc and more reading!!

Here's what I posted for my UNPLUG & READ post on Mundie Kids: (please note that it's not 3 days till the challenge kicks off since the challenge kicks off today)



UNPLUG & READ is set to kick off on Monday! This incredibly awesome challenge is one readers of all ages can take part in. If you're part of the "young at heart" group, like I am, you'll probably laugh that now a days we have to have an UNPLUG & READ challenge. When I was growing up there was nothing to be plugged into except the outdoors and reading.

When I was growing up, playing outside was fun, using your imagination was even better, and reading was the best! That meant card board boxes and sofa cushions became castles and forts, we became super heroes and everything and anything was possible. We learned about the world around us from playing in it. Each day was an adventure that brought new discoveries. Reading fueled the endless possiblities that our imaginations could conjour up. Through reading we discovered new places, were introduced us to new friends, and realizee that sometimes we're not "the only one."

To me reading always has been, and always will be empowering.

 Reading teaches us, drives us, expands our horizons, motivates us, and allows our imaginations to soar. Sometimes while reading we're taking on grand adventures, introduced to new friends, and a connect with a story on a level we never thought possible. Some stories make us laugh, cry, sigh, enlighten us, motivate us to do more, make us realize we're not alone, and for some, reading is a refuge from life. It's a security, a safe haven to escape to for a bit, and other times reading helps it's reader find their voice they thought they'd lost long ago.

Reading takes us out of the crazy rush that life always throws at us. In reading, even for just a few minutes a day, we can step back, relax, and open our minds to the vast possibilities, and endless opportunities that await us in between the pages of a good book. 

I am so thrilled to be apart of this week's UNPLUG & READ blog tour hosted by Random House. Let me tell you a little bit more about SCREEN FREE WEEK, which kicks off on Monday April 29th & ends on May 5th:

What Is Screen Free Week?

Imagine going about your day without the trappings of screen media: no phones, computers, tablets, televisions. Preschoolers today spend as much as 4.1 to 4.6 hours per day on one screen or another. Including multi-tasking, children 8 to 18 spend 7.5 hours per day with screens. This Spring, Random House Children’s Books is issuing a challenge: UNPLUG & READ during Screen Free Week April 29 – May 5.

Inspired by Dan Yaccarino’s Doug Unplugged (On sale February 12, 2013) about a robot who discovers that the real world trumps the virtual, we are launching Random House Unplugs: A Screen Free Week promotion.  We are committed to supporting teachers, librarians, booksellers and parents in their efforts to encourage children to UNPLUG & READ during Screen Free Week from April 29 – May 5.

Screen Free Week is the annual celebration from the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood (CCFC) that encourages turning off screens and turning on life.  CCFC’s Screen Free Week is a creative response to growing public health concerns about the unprecedented time children spend with entertainment screen media—television, computers, video games, and smart phones. Studies show that Preschoolers spend as much as 4.1 to 4.6 hours per day using screen media. Including multi-tasking, children 8 to 18 spend 7.5 hours per day with screens. Unplugging for one week provides an opportunity to reset media habits, establishing a healthy, sustainable tradition of media consumption in households and schools.



Will you join the challenge?

Sunday, April 28, 2013

Shadowhunter Tarot Card #12: Charlotte

Cassie posted another fabulous Shadowhunter Tarot card today. This one features our favorite fearless Shadowhunter leader, Charlotte.


Today’s Cassandra Jean tarot card! Charlotte gets the card of Justice, here The Leader. Interestingly: “Justice mediates the various claims of right, of morality, of duty. In a world of scarcity, not every claim can be met. Justice, in theory, sets forth a system to judge between the claims. The tarot card is therefore typically closer to the notion of Jurisprudence than to the abstract concept of Justice.” - Wiki
This works well for Charlotte because she, being the leader of the Institute, works within the laws of the Clave to bring about moral change. She also has a lot of personal charisma and smarts, all leadership qualities — recognized, I think, in Clockwork Princess!

Cut Scene from Clockwork Princess


Yesterday Cassie shared a cut scene from Clockwork Princess. You can read her post here! I've also included what she wrote below.

*SPOILERS*

People often ask about cut scenes from books, and they can be hard to come by, because a lot of the time we don’t have scenes that we’ve cut out, the way one might in a movie, but rather ones we’ve rewritten.
I decided to post a rewritten scene from  CP2 under the spoiler tag. It is the scene that begins around page 468, with Will in Henry’s room. If you put the scenes side by side you can see the differences — the timing of when Charlotte learns a certain piece of information, where Will is when a certain thing happens, the players who are present, and Jem and Will’s attitude toward each other.
Under a cut for spoilerz.
“Tessa is awake!” Charlotte announced happily, darting through the door of her and Henry’s bedroom like an excited hummingbird.
Will, who had been sitting in the chair by Henry’s bedside, leaped immediately to his feet, the book he had been reading sliding from his lap. “Tess — Tessa’s awake?” he stammered. “And is she —”
“Yes, talking, and Brother Enoch has pronounced her quite well, if exhausted.”  
“I want to see her,” Will said, and began to move toward the door, but Charlotte held up a hand.
“Give her a moment, Will; Sophie is in with her, helping her dress.”
Will knew what “helping her dress” meant: if he burst in on them now, Tessa would be in the bath. A wave of desire, mixed wit the heaviness of guilt, hit him like a train. He sat down hastily, fumbling for the book on the floor.
 Charlotte looked at him, her smile curling at the corner. Clearly he was providing her some small amusement. “Have you been reading to Henry?” she asked.
“Yes, some dreadful thing, all full of poetry,” Henry said peevishly. He was fully dressed, propped on the pillows of the bed with a pen in one hand and papers scattered all over the comforter around him. Will did not blame him for his peevishness. Tessa had been asleep, and Henry abed, for three days, when the Brothers gathered the members of the Institute around Henry’s bedside to tell them that though Henry would live, he would not walk again. Even with all the magic the Brothers had at their disposal, there was no more that they could do. 
Henry had met the news with his usual fortitude, and a decision to build himself a chair, like a sort of invalid’s chair but better, with self-propelling wheels and all manner of other accoutrements: he was determined that it be able to go up and down stairs, so that he could still get to his inventions in the crypt. He had been scribbling designs for the chair the whole hour that Will had been reading to him from Idylls of the King, but then poetry had never been Henry’s area of interest.
“Well, you are released from your duties, Will, and Henry, you are released from further poetry,” said Charlotte. “If you like, darling, I can help you gather your notes —”
There was a knock at the door, and Charlotte, frowning, went to see who it was. A moment later she had returned, a somber look on her face. She darted a glance at Will, and a moment later he saw why: two Silent Brothers were trailing in her wake, and one of them was Jem.
Will’s chest tightened. Since the battle at Cader Idris, he and Jem had not spoken.
Will had been sure that they were all going to die, together, there under the mountain, until Tessa had blazed up in all the glory of the Angel and struck down Mortmain like lightning striking down a tree. It had been one of the most wondrous things he had ever seen, but his wonder had been consumed quickly by terror when Tessa had collapsed after the Change, bleeding and insensible, however hard they tried to wake her. Magnus, near exhaustion, had barely been able to open a Portal back to the Institute with Henry’s help, and Will remembered only a blur after that, a blur of exhaustion and blood and fear, more Silent Brothers summoned to tend the wounded, and the news coming from the Council of all who had been killed that day before the automatons who had attacked them had collapsed upon Mortmain’s death. And Tessa — Tessa not speaking, not waking, barely breathing. Tessa being carried off to her room by the Silent Brothers and he had not been able to go with her. Being neither brother nor husband he could only stand and stare after her, closing and unclosing his blood-stained hands. Never had he felt more helpless.
And when he had turned to find Jem, to share his fear with the only other person in the world who loved Tessa as much as he did — Jem had been gone, back to the Silent City on the orders of the Brothers. Gone without even a word of goodbye.
Though Cecily had tried to soothe him, Will had been angry — angry with Jem, and even, over the ensuing days, with Charlotte, for allowing Jem to become a Silent Brother, though he knew that was unfair: that it had been Jem’s choice and the only way to keep him alive. His anger had not been helped by his panicked worry over Tessa: though her physical injuries were minor, the shock to her system of what she had done had been great, and so was her pain. He had sat with her, on and off for days, taking her hand, begging her to wake up and see him, until Charlotte had had to rouse him from where he had fallen asleep half-sprawled across her bed. 
Will stared at Jem now, hard enough to bore a hole through his head, but though Jem’s hood was down, exposing his face, he was looking away from Will determinedly. His hair had begun to return to its original dark color: the dark was mixed with the silver, strand beside strand, and his eyelashes were black again, too, and brushed against the runes on his cheeks when he lowered his eyes.
They were runes only the Silent Brothers bore: they looked to Will like injuries, like gashes across Jem’s face. He felt sick inside.
Charlotte, said Brother Enoch, and held out his hand: there was a letter, sealed with the seal of the Council. I have brought a message for you.
Charlotte looked at him in bewilderment. “The Silent Brothers do not deliver letters.”
This letter is of grave importance. It is imperative that you read it now.
Slowly, Charlotte reached out and took it. She pulled at the flap, then frowned and crossed the room to take a letter-opener from her bureau. Will took the opportunity to stare harder at Jem. It did no good. Jem did not return Will’s gaze; his face was blank; there wasnothing thereto hold on to. Will felt almost seasick — it was like having been a ship at anchor for years and being cut free to float on the tides, with no idea which direction to steer in. And there was Jem, his anchor, not looking at him or meeting his gaze. 
The sound of tearing paper came, and they all watched as Charlotte opened the letter and read it, the color draining from her face. She lifted her eyes and stared at Brother Enoch. “Is this some sort of jest?”
There is no jest, I assure you. Do you have an answer?
“Lottie,” said Henry, looking up at his wife, even his tufts of gingery hair radiating anxiety and love. “Lottie, what is it, what’s wrong?”
She looked at him, and then back at Brother Enoch. “No,” she said. “I don’t have an answer. Not yet.”
The Council does not wish to wait.
“Well,” Charlotte said, and her voice was firm. “They will have to. Tell them I shall send an answer by day’s end.”
After a moment, Brother Enoch nodded, and turned to leave the room. Jem turned to follow.
And Will broke. He darted forward, and caught at Jem’s sleeve. The thick material of the parchment robes was slippery under his fingers. “That’s all?” he said, in a low, urgent voice. “You come back here, and you do not speak to me — or visit Tessa? Have you even formally broken your engagement, James Carstairs?”
Jem froze stock-still. Brother Enoch turned. He looked displeased, as much as any of the Brothers ever had expressions. A Silent Brother cannot marry or enter into engagements, he said, and Will could tell from the faces of those around them that he and Jem could hear the words, but no one else could. He has neither fiancée nor parabatai now.
Will’s hand was still on Jem’s sleeve. “You want me to tell her, then?” Will asked. Charlotte was looking at him, shaking her head, Will, no. He knew his anger was unfair, unwarranted — Jem and Tessa’s engagement was over, shouldn’t he be glad? — but he was not glad. Grief and rage spilled like water through the cracks in his broken heart. Jem, who never hurt anyone, hurting him, hurting Tessa — and what if everything that had happened between her and Will had happened only because she thought Jem was dead, only out of the desperation of grief and the passionate human need for comfort? What if she loved Jem and longed for him forever, knowing he lived but was gone from her, with never a word from him that might provide any sort of closing of that chapter of her life? How could she bear it — how could Will bear it? What kind of future could they have? And yet there was no future for him without Tessa. “James Carstairs, do you want me to tell Tessa you are done with her, if you will not do it yourself?”
“Done with her?” Jem wrenched his sleeve from Will’s grasp, and his eyes were wide and dark and hurt, the eyes of Jem-the-child, the dark eyes Will had known growing up. “I came here because Enoch told me she had awakened,” he said, and there was an anger in his voice Will had rarely heard before. “I asked leave to speak with her one last time. You know what I feel. I will not ever be done. Not in a hundred years. Not in a thousand.” He looked from Will to Brother Enoch, and then back again. “And yet I must be. I have no choice. It’s not like you, William, not to have compassion for that.”
Will swallowed. Everything in the room seemed to have dwindled down to this, there was only him and Jem. “I thought, perhaps — being a Silent Brother — might have taken from you your capacity to feel,” he said, and then burst out, “I could not bear it, a James Carstairs who does not feel. Not just for Tessa, but for myself. If she loves only you, if she wishes to spend her life mourning your departure, I can survive that, but not the death of your heart, or of hers.”
Jem looked at him, and in the depths of his dark eyes Will saw , for a flash, the Jem he knew. “Wo men shi jie bai xiong di,” Jem said. “You would know if my heart had died, and I would know the same of you. My departure, you say, though I shall still be in the world, and yet it is as if I take sail for some unknown island, some wild place where you cannot follow. But know,” he added, in a voice that only Will could hear, “I shall do what I can to make some provision that I might see you again, and Tessa again. For you are half my heart, and she is the other. As long as I have one of you to be my north star, my heart shall not die, and I shall remain your James Carstairs.”
“Will,” Charlotte said. She sounded worried.  ”Will and J — Brother Zachariah, this is most irregular. Brother Enoch, I apologize —”
  “I asked leave to speak to Will, too, before I came,” Jem said. “I was told I could have it as long as I did not speak to him or answer him while Brother Enoch was attending here to the matter of the Council.”
Will stared at him, and then at Brother Enoch, realizing with a sick drop in his stomach that he might have lost his only chance of speaking in private to Jem again — ever. Enoch’s face was blank, his expression giving nothing away.
”That is not fair!” Will said. “I addressed you first —”
Peace, little Shadowhunter, said Brother Enoch. The bonds of parabatai are understood by the Brotherhood. After all, we bound you with them ourselves. You have our leave to speak to him, one last time, before he goes.

Shadowhunter Tarot Cards Set: Card # 11

Happy Sunday! Check out today's Shadowhunter Tarot Card! This is number 11 in the Shadowhunter Tarot Card set feature that Cassie is posting. Love this one of Jocelyn and Luke.


Cassie says:
So Cassandra Jean has finished the complete Shadowhunter Tarot, so for the next … seventy-something days I’ll be posting a card a day in order, from the first card to the last. Some will be under spoiler cuts; some you’ll have seen before — I’ll explain why each character has the card they have. 
Luke and Jocelyn take the Wheel of Fortune card, here renamed the Destined, as it represents stability amid chaos and change. Luke and Jocelyn’s relationship survived chaos, a war, a rebellion, her terrible marriage, his turning into a Downworlder, and much more. Theirs is a great if quiet love. :)

Saturday, April 27, 2013

ALA's Reading Poster: Manga TESSA!!

I about fell out of my chair when I saw this post from Cassie.  ALA has featured manga TESSA on one of their reading posters!!!!


Beautiful isn't it!?! I love this poster. They also have a book mark that features this image too. Here's what Cassie said about it,

Too pretty! The ALA has made a lovely READ poster of manga! Tessa reading. Books arebewitching, thank you very much. :)

Love This!

Sorry for all the posts this evening. I'm just getting back into town from TLA up in Fort Worth and Moderating the SPRING INTO THE FUTURE event with Veronica Rossi, Tahereh Mafi, Cynthia Hand, and Anna Carey, and I hopped on the computer to see what Cassie posted, which is why I'm posting all her stuff now. THIS is something she posted earlier today that I seriously LOVE!!!


I loved the books I grew up with reading. I had a limited amount of books to choice from and YA and MG sections didn't exist when I was growing up. Seeing the vast number of books kids have to choose from now, and the characters they get to grow up reading is AMAZING! Maybe that's one of the reasons I love reading YA and MG so much. These are the characters that had they been around when I was growing up, I would have loved spending all my free time reading about them. Now reading about these characters gives me another thing to help me stay connected to my kids and the kids I work with. Well, that and I've always been a life long reader, and I don't see that changing, ever.

TLH Fanart: Spoilers



Cassie shared some more great TLH fanart from Cassandra Jean. While the pictures aren't so much spoilery, since you don't know who's in them per say, do NOT read on if you've not read Clockwork Princess.... SPOILERS


More TLh art by the inimitable Cassandra Jean. If you haven’t read Clockwork Princess, don’t read on! Spoilery! I have also tagged this with cp2spoilers so it shouldn’t show up in your dash.
Two pairs of parabatai — Matthew and James above, and Cordelia and Lucie below. If you want to know about James’ glasses, he only wears them to read. :)

Cassandra Clare: On Writers Getting Paid to Write


Cassie posted a great post earlier today talking about ebook prices, writers getting paid, and the Bane Chronicles, in response to a question from a fan who thought these books were going to be free. I'm posting Cassie's entire post, because I feel like she mentions a lot of important things when it comes to authors, and their making a living. I, like some of you, in the begin wondered why a book that's less than 100 pages wasn't free, but I didn't take into consideration that those 100 pages or so didn't just write themselves. That an author spent a lot of time writing those pages. Writing is their livelihood and it doesn't matter if it's five or five hundred pages, time went into writing the book, and they, like the rest of us, have to make a living.

Hey Cassie, I love your books so much and I was looking forward to the Bane Chronicles. I was under the impression when you first posted about them that they would be a series of free e-books, however when I looked at them on Amazon today they were $2.99. I can’t afford that. Especially if there are going to be more and they are only little tiny novelles or small collections of short stories. I love you and your work especially Magnus’s character but I am really disappointed that it is so short and so expensive when it sounded like they would be free e-stories.
Heya. Well, I certainly sympathize with not having the money to purchase the books you want to buy. That sucks, no doubt about it. I’ve been there.
I went back through all the Bane Chronicles entries on my tumblr to try to figure out where the confusion over the Bane Chronicles being free might have come up, but I couldn’t find anything. Here’s an entry two months old that gives the release dates, titles and the price. When the installments appeared on Amazon, they had the prices attached.Here’s the first ever article about the Bane Chronicles. It says they’re ebooks, but — it doesn’t say they’re free. Most ebooks are not free.
I guess — just because something is published online before it’s published in print, doesn’t mean it’s free. I do write a lot of stuff for my readers for free. Everything here was written for free. Sarah’s written extras for free, and so has Maureen. 
But the thing is, the Bane Chronicles are not short. Each of them is about 12,000 words, which is longer than a short chapter book like one of The Spiderwick Chronicleswhich retails on Amazon for twice what one of the Bane Chronicles costs. And there are ten Bane Chronicles. That adds up to between 130,000 and 150,000 words, which is the length of Clockwork Prince. So what you’re essentially suggesting is that we put the amount of work and time into something that I put into Clockwork Prince — a year and a half of my life — for free.
Writers don’t generally write whole books for free. John Scalzi has a very strongly worded post on this topic. :) Maureen, Sarah and I have all done promotional writing for free — outtakes from our existing stories, etc — to make our readers happy, to give people a glimpse of our work who aren’t sure about it, sometimes just for our own enjoyment. At various points in time City of Bones has been given away on the internet for free for promotion. But “work being given away for free” is not the same as “writer is not paid” which is what you’re talking about. Work being given away for free is generally utilized at least for promotion — but The Bane Chronicles is a co-written project. It was dreamed up by me and Maureen and Sarah and it belongs to them as well as me. While, if I had the time (which I don’t; the only reason TBC can exist is because I’m sharing the workload) I might not mind doing a free ebook serial to promote my books, I have no idea what would motivate Sarah and Maureen to give up months of their lives, unpaid, to promote my books. We are very good friends, but that is asking far too much of your friends. 
We all live on the money we make writing. We all pay our health insurance and feed our families and house ourselves with the money we make writing. We take care of sick family members with the money we make writing. We don’t have weekends or days off. I’m not complaining — I love my job! — but you don’t ask your friends to do months of work for free, months they could otherwise fill with work that would feed their families and keep a roof over their heads.
The Bane Chronicles is not a self-published operation. It is published by Simon and Schuster. Making books, even ebooks, is not free. The stories must be edited, covers designed, digital files managed, marketing done … there are dozens of people who work in the background of any book project, and if these were being published for free, those people would also be working for free. And in fact, there would be no motivation for S and S to publish them at all, because publishers don’t have their authors, editors, tech people, designers, and artists work on projects for which none of them will ever be recompensed. If they were free, Simon and Schuster simply wouldn’t publish them. (I’ve been working on producing a charity book through them for almost a year now and it’s been unbelievably complicated and taken a huge amount of time even to produce one small e-book that won’t be for profit, because the system isn’t set up to do that. And they’re doing that for me as a favor, and the book isn’t free — the money just goes to charity.) I’d be left to publish them myself, which can certainly be done, but when you self-publish (as many people I know do) you’re working not just as a writer but as a publisher, with all the investment of time and money that that means. It’s so time-consuming and so initially expensive that I just couldn’t do it: I couldn’t handle the loss of time most specifically, but those I know who self-publish don’t give their work away for free. They charge for it, and recoup their investment of money that way. Giving it away for free when you’re self-publishing is basically just spending a huge amount of your own cash on – well, I don’t know what exactly. But I do know that if the Bane Chronicles didn’t cost money, there’d be no Bane Chronicles.
If you’re broke and you can’t afford them, I get that. Fortunately lots of libraries have ebook lending programs and have the Bane Chronicles. Alternately you can wait until it comes out as a print book next year, and pay for it what you would pay for any print book, or take it out of the library for nothing. (When I had no money, I lived at the Brooklyn Public Library — that’s why it’s in City of Fallen Angels.)
The Bane Chronicles are priced as low as they can be priced and still allow the publisher to afford to publish them, pay the salaries of the employees who worked on them, and pay royalties to the authors. We writers don’t charge because we are greedy, but because we live on that income, and we work very hard to make something of value that we hope you enjoy. (And that is the case for any artist — those tarot cards of Cassandra Jean’s I’ve been posting? I paid her to draw those. Of course I did. She’s a working artist. It’s a huge project and her work, her time, has value. Sometimes she draws fanart for kicks, just like sometimes I post excerpts or scenes from other POVs for kicks, and that’s free, but that’s all her choice and her ideas and her use of her time!)
I hope I don’t sound grumpy: I’m not, but I do think artists should be paid for the work they do. The intersection of art and commerce is complicated, and there are many crashes at that intersection, but in the end, I believe that if you don’t pay artists, they’ll stop making art, because they can’t afford to, except for the privileged few who can do without the money or are supported by someone else — in which case you are greatly restricting artistic expression to the voices of only the very privileged and no one wants that.
Maureen and Sarah and I have put lots of research and time and work into the Bane Chronicles. It’s my hope that the stories are a fun reading experience, and I hope if you do read them, you enjoy doing so, and consider it a 2.99 well spent. If you think it’s too much money, then you don’t have to buy them. That’s your right as a consumer, not to buy stuff you don’t think is worth it. :)

Friday, April 26, 2013

Shadowhunter Tarot Card Set: Card #10

YAY for more Shadowhunter Tarot Cards. These posts do not get old. Cassie feature Tiberius in today's card post here:



So Cassandra Jean has finished the complete Shadowhunter Tarot, so for the next … seventy-something days I’ll be posting a card a day in order, from the first card to the last. Some will be under spoiler cuts; some you’ll have seen before — I’ll explain why each character has the card they have. 
Today is Tiberius, who is dear to my heart despite being a studious, lonely, prickly young man who really only gets along with his twin, Livvy. He and Julian have a fraught, complex relationship that’s been a lot of fun to develop. Ty takes the Hermit card, here the Genius, because while brilliant, he is solitary and somewhat divorced from the ordinary world.
You’ll see some of Ty in City of Heavenly Fire.
I spy the Codex in his pile of books there. :)

Clockwork Princess Artwork from Cassandra Jean: SPOILERS

I LOVE, love, love this! I am going to warn you, skip this post if you have not read Clockwork Princess... SPOILER ALRET!!!

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 I say this the other day on Cassandra Jean's tumblr, and then Cassie reposted it here, yesterday.


wubbins!
tagging these as spoilers though so they shouldn’t be showing up in your dashboard if you have the cp2spoilers tag blocked.
Family picture time! Mother and Daughter, Father and Son!
Fanart of Clockwork Princess written by @CassieClare

Thursday, April 25, 2013

Shadowhunter Tarot Card Set: Card #9





So Cassandra Jean has finished the complete Shadowhunter Tarot, so for the next … seventy-something days I’ll be posting a card a day in order, from the first card to the last. Some will be under spoiler cuts; some you’ll have seen before — I’ll explain why each character has the card they have. 
Today I’m actually posting two because I’m trying to catch up, and also because you’ve seen these before! Mark Blackthorn of the Dark Artifices takes the Chariot card, here called the Changeling. Mark has fey blood like his sister Aline, both of whom you’ll see in City of Heavenly Fire. He’s carrying a kind of bow and arrow known in mythology as an elf-arrow or elf-bolt. 
Jace takes the strength card, here represented as the Angel because of the angel blood in his veins. And because that Angel blood gives him unusual strength. As for why he’s shirtless…
Me: Why did you draw him shirtless?
CJ: I like him that way.
Me: Good enough.

Teen.com's Sneak Peek #TMIMovie Sweepstakes




OH WOW. So much to win over on Teen.com. Seriously, take a look at Lily Collins telling you all that can be yours!


Win an exclusive sneak-peek #TMImovie party at your house for you and your closest Shadowhunter friends! You’ll get to watch never-before-seen footage from the movie on your new big screen TV with a brand new Sony Home Entertainment System! You’ll also win a Sony reader (for you and your friends) and a Sony Reader Store gift card to purchase the entire Mortal Instruments series! Like we said, amazing!
A TMI Movie Party and TEN Sony readers??? Go, go, go over here and enter!

Another Gorgeous Piece of CoHF Spoilery Fanart

Okay, I LOVE this fanart piece by Cassandra Jean. Here's what Cassie had to say about it (from her tumblr) and about City of Heavenly Fire snippets:
love this! What I love about it is that this is the classic James Bond pose, where he usually has a girl holding on to his leg, but this time it’s the girl who’s the hero and the boy grabbing her leg. “Kill those demons for me, Clary, and in return, I will wear scanty, scanty clothes!”

Seems like a fair exchange.

Also, I think this means it’s time for some COHF snippets to start…
For those who do NOT want to be spoiled, don't click on the cut...and in the mean time, let's all get excited about those upcoming snippets!


 (spoiler)

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Martin Moszkowicz Shares a Behind the Scenes TMI Movie Still

Martin Moszkowicz treats fan to another behind the scenes TMI Movie shot. Check out this picture, which Martin shared on his Facebook page"TMI – First look behind the scenes — with Harald Zwart and Lily Collins."


He also tweeted about here. Be sure to stop by and wish Martin a HAPPY BIRTHDAY today!

The Bane Chronicles: What Really Happened in Peru Debuts at #4 on the NY Times Best Sellers List!


Cassie, Sarah and Maureen all announced yesterday on Twitter, and Cassie on Tumblr, that The Bane Chronicles: What Really Happened in Peru debuted at #4 on The NY Times Best Sellers List!!!

Here's what Cassie said on Twitter:
WHAT REALLY HAPPENED IN PERU is #4 on the New York Times bestseller list! Thank you readers and coauthor @sarahreesbrenna !!!!

WHAT REALLY HAPPENED IN PERU is #4 on the New York Times bestseller list! Thank you readers and coauthor @sarahreesbrenna !!!!

I am very happy to see Magnus on the bestseller list, him not exactly being your usual YA protag. :D

Here's what Sarah said on Twitter:
So again I use profanity, but: SACRED BLUE TIGERS. Thank you @cassieclare & her lovely readers who took a chance on me & all my readers too!

SACRED BLUE TIGERS, IT IS. RT @maureenjohnson Holy Cats! "What Happened in Peru" is number four on the bestseller list!

Here's what Maureen said:
Holy Cats! "What Happened in Peru" is number four on the bestseller list!

 That is seriously so incredibly exciting, and so well deserved! I would have excepted nothing less from this trio of powerhouse writings. Make sure you stop by and tell them Congratulations! That is so well deserved!

CONGRATULATIONS Cassie, Sarah & Maureen!

Cassie's Recent Posts: CP2 Spoilers: Questions and answers


If you have not read Clockwork Princess, please be warned this post is a SPOILER filled one!
CP2 Spoilers: Questions and answers.
On love and love triangles. Again. This time with art by Cassandra Jean. And just a reminder: these are old messages, from my drafts folder; I’m not currently taking asks or reading fanmail. You can always email me if you need to!
Hey, Cassie. I finished Clockwork Princess yesterday and haven’t stopped thinking about it. I think I’m in some kind of a shock. I absolutely loved the book. It was so emotional and funny for me that I was crying the whole time, good and bad tears. But after reading the end, I’m left a little conflicted…
You see, I was “team” Will, but I loved Jem…just as a friend. And I actually wanted there to be two Tessas at one point…But what I’, trying to say is: didn’t Tessa just kind of choose Will because there was no Jem? And I know they had a happy life, and she was faithful and still was and she missed him, but when Tessa said she always loved Jem, it kind of disincluded Will. They didn’t even say his name. Now I know that this was the future and they didn’t need to keep bringing up the past…and I know that you did this to make sure Tessa had one lifetime with each of them…and that they all three loved each other so much, but I’m still conflicted. It just seemed to me that Will was left out at the end.
Cassie, I finished Clockwork Princess and though I did love it and I was glad Jem and Tessa got their happy ending in the end I was crushed that Tessa and Will got married first. I know that Jem couldn’t marry Tessa but it seemed to me since Clockwork Angel even that he was the one who really loved her, and he was the one that gave her understanding and love in a way that no one else could. I always thought that what she felt for Will was physical passion and infatuation but they didn’t have the deep understanding that Tessa and Jem did. From the moment that he said Mizpah to her on the stairs I knew they were meant to be together and so I don’t know how to feel about the time she spent with Will. I guess I will just have to tell myself she was thinking about Jem the whole time she was married to Will, and that she ended up with Jem in the end. Except that Jem will die someday, and so she won’t really end up with anyone and I don’t know how to feel about that. I feel like Jem got the short end of the stick.
I finished Clockwork Princess last night and soaked the pages through with tears. I loved the friendship of Will and Jem and also both the relationships of Jem and Tessa and the relationships of Will and Tessa and even I even started to like Gabriel though I also kind of wish someone would beat him up. I guess what I want to say is that even though I understand why you did what you did with the ending to make it fair, don’t you think there’s only one true love for someone really? That there will always be someone they love most? And I know you’ve said Will would be happy looking down on Jem and Tessa at the end of the book but I can’t help feeling he would be upset. Wouldn’t Jace be upset if he died and then Clary got together with Simon?
Whooszle. (I am not even sure that was a human noise.) I’ve put all these next to each other as a sort of example of how different readers have diametrically opposite reactions to reading exactly the same book. It’s kind of interesting.
I’ve talked some about structure and some about foreshadowing and some just about the nature of love and love triangles in books, and now I’m going to make a post that’s just purely personal.
Do I believe there’s only one true love for everyone? No. I think it’s fine if you believe that, because the world would be a very boring place if we all believed the same thing. But I believe that’s a myth, and not just a myth but a potentially destructive one. (Wait till you read Vampires, Scones, and Edmund Herondale…) 
So, two stories that are personal. One about my own mother. Sorry, mom. My parents are divorced. They were together twenty-five years. My mom remarried a guy she’d known before. My stepfather. I love my stepfather. I based Luke in part on him. He’s a great guy and my mom’s been happy with him. She was happy with my dad, too.
So, you tell me. Which one of them does my mom love less? Which one of them got the short end of the stick? Which one got the love that doesn’t measure up? Is my mom now with a guy she loves less than she loved my dad, some kind of secondary lesser love, even though he’s probably going to be the guy who’s with her till the end of her life? Or is it the other one who she didn’t really love? The guy she was with for twenty-five years, had kids with, a whole life with, she didn’t really love him? My father?
Obviously I’d rather believe what I do believe: that she loved them both equally, and they were right for her at different parts of her life. But more on that in a bit.
Story two: This one’s about a woman my mom’s age. She also got divorced and then met a wonderful guy who she fell in love with, let’s call him D. And then he died. And, much in the manner of Jem, begged her on his deathbed not to let his death mean that she wouldn’t try to find someone else to fall in love with. And she promised she wouldn’t do that — but she did. She didn’t get out of bed for a year, and then she never saw or dated another person again. It’s been thirty years now. I know her children and I know that they’ve been bitterly unhappy most of their lives because their mother is so lonely. I know they hate it. I know the man she loved would hate it. I know it makes her friends sad. And I know that she’s sad. Other than her kids, she doesn’t see a point to her life besides hoping she’ll die someday so she can be with D.
As writers, we all write our personal values. We write what we believe, what’s important to us, and what we know. I love a tale of people who find each other, and nobody else will do, as much as the next person. I love the idea of soulmates. I think of ID as being a story about soulmates — that Will, Jem and Tessa are each other’s soulmates.
But it also matters to me to write that people can heal, that the heart regenerates, that you can love again, and that while each love is different, that does not make different also less. It’s one of the things that’s been fun about the Bane Chronicles — that Magnus falls in love, and loses, and goes on, always with optimism and an open heart. It’s one of the things that makes him wonderful. And I don’t think it cheapens any of his loves, because Magnus, like Tessa, is immortal, and as he says, there is no happily ever after for those who live forever.
I think we need love. I think we need it like water and food and air. And that is why I don’t think Will would be upset about Tessa and Jem finding each other again in the epilogue of Clockwork Princess. I don’t think he’d be upset any more than he would be upset that Tessa was allowed to have water and food and air even though he, being dead, couldn’t have those things.
Would Jace be upset if he died and Clary got together with Simon? Well, this is all theoretical, because he’d be dead. But assuming he was aware, I think it would depend a bit. Jace is a teenaged boy. He does not have a deep love for Simon who he regards as the precious other half of his soul. He likes him fine. :) Nor does he really have the long view of life that Will, who lived an entire lifetime, would have. So Jace, yes, would be jealous, and perhaps bitter that he had lost a chance at a whole life. Will had a whole life. Though I would like to think that Jace, not being a terrible person, would still want what happiness for Clary she could find, even if it did make part of him sad  (and probably confused since hey, what happened to Izzy?!)
Also, Clary is not immortal. Not that I don’t think it would be fine for her to try to find love again if Jace died, but Will is not an idiot. He knew in marrying Tessa that he was marrying someone who was going to outlive him by possibly thousands of years. He did not expect her to spend those thousands of years without romantic love. So do I think Will got the short end of the stick? No, I don’t. He had a great life. Eighty years after he died his wife got together with his best friend because he was dead, Do I think he was with someone who couldn’t love him fully or properly? No, I don’t. Tessa loved him with the kind of epic overwhelming love you hardly ever find. Do I think Jem got the short end of the stick? No, I don’t, knowing what I know about his future. Do I think he is with someone who can’t love him fully or properly? No, I don’t. Tessa loves him with the kind of epic overwhelming love you hardly ever find. I think part of what Will loves about Tessa is the fact she loves Jem, and part of what Jem loves about Tessa is that she loves Will. 
If anyone got the short end of the stick, it is Tessa. One day Jem may rejoin Will on the other side, where Will is waiting by the river and they will be reunited. But when Tessa loses them both, they are gone from her forever.
 when Tessa said she always loved Jem, it kind of disincluded Will. They didn’t even say his name.
? CP2: “You asked me if I have loved anyone but Will,” [Tessa] said. “And the answer is yes. I have loved you. I always have, and I always will.”
Will’s name is in the same sentence in which Tessa tells Jem she loves him. Will is very much present as a memory (in the same way Jem is present as violin music when Will proposes to Tessa) — and perhaps that’s the sticking point, that he is a memory and not a living presence. He’s been ashes for eighty years. If you love Will, that hurts. It hurts Jem and Tessa. More on that in another post, but I’ve always said the epilogue is bittersweet and the fact that Will is dead, and dead forever, is the bitter. Jem and Tessa do, in fact, keep bringing up the past but that doesn’t change the fact that Will’s gone and that this is the beginning of their life together. Will and Tessa had their life together. Now it is Jem and Tessa’s turn, and though they both love Will, it is okay that when they are kissing each other, they are thinking about each other. If they were both thinking about Will, it would be a story about how they were both always only ever in love with Will, which might be an interesting story, but is not this story. :)
I do not think Tessa is bringing Will a lessened, imperfect love because, as she says in the book when thinking about how she loves Jem “there would always be a small corner of her heart that belonged to [the other boy].” There is a part of Will that will always belong to Jem. There is a part of Jem’s heart that will always belong to Will. They share things with each other Tessa can’t. Will knows there is a small part of Tessa’s heart that belongs to Jem and he loves her the better and the more for it, and feels loved the better and the more for it. She loves Jem and so does he, and that commonality binds them. The Will in my head, who exists for me when I write, would never be upset that eighty years after he was bones and ashes, the person he loved the most in the world found happiness with the other person he loved most in the world. Will spend a whole lot of time pushing people away and denying himself the feeling of being loved. He knows how soul-withering that is. He would not begrudge it Tessa, and he would not be jealous or bitter. (In a world where Will was even around to have an opinion: he’s not a ghost, he’s moved on, so we’re talking very theoretical theoreticals here.) Jem’s love for Will allowed Will to keep his humanity through the formative years of his life. If he was bitter and jealous and upset looking down on Jem and Tessa  (knowing, as he does, the years and years that Jem spent in the shadows, while Will and Tessa were together) it would feel to me (to me: it’s personal, not a directive!) that he had lost that so preciously kept humanity in a way that would make me very sad.
If your read on Will is different, that’s okay. You don’t have to agree with me. I’m just giving you my read on Will, the Will in my head when I write. The Will I’m writing now with Sarah in The Midnight Heir. :)
In the same way, my Jem, the one in my head, who exists for me when I write, did not grudge Tessa and Will their life together and was happy for them, that they could be happy — he became a Silent Brother to save them, and relinquished his claim on Tessa, which she would have honored, so that they could have a life together. And if Will could have made any sacrifice to give Jem and Tessa their life together, he would have, just as Jem did. Because I do not think he is a worse person than Jem — I think they are both exceptional people. 
The Clockwork Series is most definitely is not your usual romance-novel structure. And I accept that there are readers who love the HEA, and the idea of only one love and total faithfulness forever, and that is okay. And if you think you can only have one love in your life that is the BEST love, okay. We all bring our values and beliefs to what we read. We also bring our values and beliefs to what we write. I wrote TID in part for all the children of divorced parents, who love their stepparents too, who need to believe the One True Love narrative is not the only narrative. That part of the beauty of the human heart is that it regenerates. That if you really love someone, what you want above other things is their happiness, because to me, that’s not just the best part of love, it’s the best part of people.
And on the note of the best part of people, the scene where Tessa and Jem introduce Jem to his namesake, their baby, drawn by Cassandra Jean, of course, master of feels.
And Jem played the birth of their first son, and the protection ceremony that had been carried out on the child in the Silent City. Will would have no other Silent Brother but Jem perform it. And Jem played the way he had covered his scarred face with his hands and turned away when he’d found out the child’s name was James.

I’ve got one last one last post in me about love triangles, which is basically about structure and foreshadowing, and then that’s it! The healing will go on without me! Whooszle!

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