TitleTales

Interview: Cassandra Clare

Cassandra Clare is the author of the best-selling Mortal Instruments series, an urban fantasy trilogy about the Shadowhunters, demon-hunting descendants of angels who fight to keep balance between humanity and the supernatural realm in modern-day New York City.

Born to American parents in Teheran, Iran, Cassandra spent much of her childhood traveling the world with her family, including one trek through the Himalayas as a toddler where she spent a month living in her father’s backpack. She lived in France, England and Switzerland before she was 10 years old. Since her family moved around so much she found familiarity in books and went everywhere with a book under her arm.

Cassandra started working on her YA novel, City of Bones, in 2004, inspired by the urban landscape of Manhattan. City of Bones was a New York Times best-seller. Clockwork Prince / Infernal Devices Book 2 will debut in December 2011.

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BWI: The Mortal Instruments series is finishing while you are concurrently writing a companion series set more than 100 years previously, The Infernal Devices. Were you writing books for the series at the same time? What are the difficulties in going from one series to another? Which series do you enjoy writing more? Do you know in advance what you want to happen in the series or has it evolved as you’ve written the books?

CC: What is so much fun for me about writing The Infernal Devices and The Mortal Instruments at the same time is the ability to intertwine the stories. While the series stand on their own, and can be read separately, I always tell my readers the most fun way to read them is in order of publication. A piece of graffiti that can seem meaningless in City of Fallen Angels will suddenly be explained as important in Clockwork Prince. An object like the ruby necklace Isabelle always wears will turn out to have an origin in the time of The Infernal Devices. And of course one of my fans’ favorite characters is Church, the immortal cat who appears in both series!

BWI: When the chapters in a book are from the viewpoint of different characters, as in The Mortal Instruments series, does this change the way you write the book? Do you write all the chapters narrated by Clary first, and then move to the next character? As the plotting and interweaving of your characters between the two series are quite complex, what problems occur when they intersect and interact? In general, what is your writing process like?

CC: I always write chronologically. While each character has their own arc, their own plot line to follow, I try to interweave the narratives so we’re always with the person who’s having the most exciting time at that particular moment. I think of it as a little like a screenplay intercutting between scenes and characters to build toward a larger narrative.

BWI: What do you enjoy most about the world and stories you’ve created? Why have you chosen to delve into the past of that world?

CC: I’ve always loved tales in which the past comes forward to influence the future. What is so much fun for me is burying the seeds of the tale of The Mortal Instruments in The Infernal Devices in such a way that they can be read in any order. I have readers who started with Clockwork Angel, and readers who started with City of Bones. Writing the Clockwork series has also given me the opportunity to delve into one of my favorite time periods, that of Victorian England.

BWI: We’ve seen your books described not only as fantasy, but as urban fantasy or steampunk depending on the book. What is your definition of urban fantasy? Why do you think steampunk has become more visible and popular of late? Are there any works you think promoted this? Why or why not would you consider The Infernal Devices to be steampunk?

CC: One of the things about steampunk is that it’s hard to pin down a single definition for it. Some people just say it’s an aesthetic, others describe it as writing about a future that never was, the future the Victorians thought was coming – one powered by steam and mechanics. They never envisioned the combustion engine! I’ve been told that what I’m doing isn’t really “steampunk” – because steampunk requires both alternate history and steam, and I’ve got neither: I have a secret history, and mechanical devices. The term for what Clockwork Prince is actually seems to be “gaslight romance” – which I like, because I find the time period – the gaslight, the smoke, the weather, the clothes, the inventions – to be deeply romantic in the classical sense.

BWI: According to your website, you’ve lived in several countries and had international adventures. How do you incorporate those experiences in your writing? Do you consider writing specifically about your travels? What do you think when you see your own works in translation? Do you think that fantasy stories cross cultures?

CC: I’m always delighted to see my works in translation because it means they’re reaching a new audience. I do think I incorporate my travels into my work. From the beginning, I knew I wanted the Shadowhunters to be a global organization, spanning the world and different cultures. I never could understand how Buffy managed hanging out only in Sunnydale when vampires were clearly a global problem! But also the flexibility of making them a worldwide secret society allows me to set scenes all over the world. For instance I’ve drawn on my own experiences of London in The Infernal Devices, and in City of Lost Souls, my experiences of Paris, Prague, Venice, and much more as the Shadowhunters travel the world.

BWI: We hear you were a journalist and often wrote for tabloids and entertainment magazines and have belonged to a writer’s group, which included Holly Black, another author BWI has interviewed. What prepared you for writing successful fantasy novels? Do you find yourself writing the kind of books you wanted to read as a teen? Who else writes YA books that you admire? What did you read as a teen?

CC: One of my idols has always been Tamora Pierce, because she created this wonderful world of Tortall and went on to write all sorts of stories in it, and each has a different flavor. Some are traditional epic fantasy; some are mystery, some procedurals, some adventure. It’s wonderful how she bends the same world to her imagination each and every time.

I would say I set out when I started to write the kind of fantasy books I enjoyed as a teen. I loved an epic battle of good and evil and a cast of characters with individual quirks I could relate to. I also really wanted to write an epic fantasy tale with a heroine at its center instead of a hero. Sort of what Star Wars might have been like if it had been all about Leia instead of Luke!

BWI: You’ve said that you listen to music when you write and you made a playlist for Clockwork Angel. Is there one for Clockwork Prince that you can share? What other books/music/movies do you enjoy?

CC: For Clockwork Prince, I made a playlist of songs that were all about London and England, to get me in the mood to write about it. (Not that it takes much, it is one of my favorite places.) Cemeteries of London by Coldplay, Welcome to England by Tori Amos, England by the National, Winter Winds by Mumford and Sons, London Belongs to Me by St Etienne, Waterloo Sunset by the Kinks, London Bridges by Josh Rouse,London Skies by Jamie Cullum, and of course Werewolves of London by Warren Zevon.

BWI: You blog and keep your website up-to-date. How do you find the time to be so supportive of your fans with info about your books, events, writing and appearances? Are you at all surprised at how passionate your fans are? Or by the wide age range of your fans? As you are so active with your website and blog, do you have any suggestions for teen librarians who are trying to engage and draw this age group into libraries?

CC: Get to them young! The library was my dwellingplace when I was a middle school kid, and I think a lot of YA readers you’re getting are middle schoolers transitioning into YA. One of the things I do online is to try to make my readers – of whatever age –feel special by giving them special content: deleted scenes, interviews with the characters, question and answer sessions. A lot of publishers do offer special real content to libraries. I know mine does – you can get discussion guides and posters for The Mortal Instruments and Infernal Devices series by emailing mortalinstrumentspromo@gmail.com. And don’t forget the pizza!

BWI: What can you share with us that you are considering after Mortal Instruments/Infernal Devices? Anything you would especially like us to know?

CC: Well, one of the things I love about the Shadowhunter world is that it’s so flexible. I’ve written about two of my favorite cities, New York and London. I’d love to write about my hometown, Los Angeles. It’s a much younger city and I’d love to bring in a modern, sunlit noir feel to a Shadowhunter tale. But then again, I’m also full of ideas that aren’t about Shadowhunters – I’d love to write for younger kids someday, and I would also love to write a contemporary novel without any magic in it. Right now I’m really excited to finish up the Clockwork series with Clockwork Princess, so we’ll see!

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