Cassandra Clare is the #1 New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author of Chain of Gold as well as the internationally bestselling Dark Artifices trilogy, Mortal Instruments series, and Infernal Devices trilogy. She is the coauthor of the Eldest Curses series with Wesley Chu, including the latest book, The Lost Book of the White; The Bane Chronicles with Sarah Rees Brennan and Maureen Johnson; Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy with Sarah Rees Brennan, Maureen Johnson, and Robin Wasserman; and Ghosts of the Shadow Market with Sarah Rees Brennan, Maureen Johnson, Kelly Link, and Robin Wasserman. Her books have more than 50 million copies in print worldwide and have been translated into more than thirty-five languages and made into a feature film and a TV show. Cassandra lives in western Massachusetts.
Today, Cassandra Clare is on the blog to answer our Ten Terrifying Questions – read on!
Cassandra Clare (Photo by Kelly Campbell).
1. To begin with why don’t you tell us a little bit about yourself – where were you born? Raised? Schooled?
I was born in Tehran, Iran, and spent my early years travelling the world with my parents. This included a trek through the Himalayas as a toddler—I spent a month in my father’s backpack. I lived in France, England, and Switzerland before I was ten years old, and I still love to travel! I’m very happy to not have to ride around in backpacks anymore, though. Throughout my childhood I loved reading and brought books with me wherever I went.
I lived in Los Angeles during high school, and my experiences during that time inspired the Dark Artifices trilogy, though my teenage years involved no actual demons, warlocks bent on revenge, or vampire pizza. I went to college on the East Coast and fell in love with New York City, so I returned there after I graduated. I worked in journalism for a while and then at a bookstore, which was where I worked when I began to write my first novel, City of Bones.
2. What did you want to be when you were twelve, eighteen and thirty? And why?
At twelve, I wished to be a superhero who had the power to fly. That seemed like it would be extremely useful.
At eighteen, I wanted to be a writer. At thirty, I still wanted to be a writer!
3. What strongly held belief did you have when you were younger that you do not have now?
I believed that you had to wait to start writing until inspiration struck. Now I believe that inspiration comes through work—you have to be making the effort already, you can’t just expect it to show up out of the blue.
4. What are three works of art – book or painting or piece of music, etc – that you can now say had a great effect on you and influenced your own development as a writer?
The book The Wandering Unicorn by Manuel Mujica Lainez. An incredible blend of historical fiction and fantasy that changed my view of how stories could be told.
On a visit to Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam I saw a Rembrandt-style painting of a Dutch merchant, his Indonesian wife, and their biracial children. The image really stuck with me—it was unusual to see an interracial family in the artwork of that time, and it made me want to tell stories about people who didn’t always make it into the paintings. I’ve looked for the painting since but haven’t been able to find it—I need to get an art historian on the case.
I think that music is a great tool when it comes to triggering sense memory and evoking a particular feeling or atmosphere, so I make playlists for all my different books, composed of the songs I’ve listened to over and over while I write. If I’ve been away from my work for a while, I can use the music to help me jump back into it. I usually share the playlists with readers on Spotify.
5. Considering the innumerable artistic avenues open to you, why did you choose to write a novel?
While I’ve always loved music and visual art, my greatest engagement from a very young age was with the written word. I read all the time, and that’s just how my mind works. The way I process life is by turning it into stories. A multi-part novel series is in some ways the biggest story you can tell.
6. Please tell us about your latest book!
My latest novel is The Lost Book of the White, book two of the Eldest Curses. It’s a series that focuses on Magnus Bane and Alec Lightwood, two much-loved characters who have been part of the Shadowhunter Chronicles since the beginning. In book one, The Red Scrolls of Magic, we accompanied Alec and Magnus to Europe in the early days of their romance, as they were just getting to know each other. Now, in The Lost Book of the White, they are living together and have adopted a warlock child, Max. But just because they’ve settled down doesn’t mean adventure isn’t still coming for them. When an important spell book is stolen, Magnus and Alec must drop everything and race to Shanghai with their friends before an ancient evil is released. It’s been a lot of fun to revisit these characters, and I hope readers will think so too!
7. What do you hope readers will take away with them after reading your book?
Each of the books and series have their own different themes, but a dominant theme that runs through all my work is the idea of chosen family—that we are connected not only to those who we are related to by blood, but to those people we find kinship with and choose to form community with as we live our lives. As Clary Fairchild says in City of Heavenly Fire, family isn’t blood. It’s the people who love you. The people who have your back.
8. Who do you most admire in the realm of writing and why?
Ursula K. Le Guin. She produced an enormous body of work, wrote for adults, children, and young adults, and never spoke down to her younger readers. When her work was adapted for television and stripped of everything that gave it meaning, she spoke out strongly at a time when doing so was not widely acceptable. She stuck to a disciplined writing schedule every day, which is something I admire. To quote Flaubert: “Be regular and orderly in your life, so that you may be violent and original in your work.”
9. Many artists set themselves very ambitious goals. What are yours?
One of my big goals, having written both for kids and young adults, is to write a book for adults, which I’m doing right now. Sword Catcher will be the first novel in a high fantasy series that is steeped in palace intrigue, forbidden magic, and an exciting criminal underworld.
Still on my list of goals is writing in a different format: a play, a radio show, an episode of a television show, or a movie script.
10. What advice do you have for aspiring writers?
Read lots of books, and not just books you know you’ll like. Try taking risks, and reading out of your comfort zone. You never know when inspiration will come at you from an unexpected source, so keep an open mind.
Thank you for playing!
—The Lost Book of the White by Cassandra Clare & Wesley Chu (Simon & Schuster Australia) is out now.
The Lost Book of the White is in our Kids Month Top 50 collection!
The Lost Book of the White
The Eldest Curses: Book 2
Magnus Bane and Alec Lightwood are settling into domestic life with their son Max when the warlocks Ragnor Fell and Shinyun Jung break into their loft and steal a powerful spell book. Realizing that Ragnor and Shinyun are being controlled by a more sinister force, Magnus and Alec set out to stop them and recover the book before they can cause any more harm.
With the help of Clary Fairchild, Jace Herondale, Isabelle Lightwood, and Simon Lovelace (who is fresh from the Shadowhunter Academy), they track the warlocks to Shanghai. But nothing is as it seems…
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